A search for new charged massive gauge bosons, called W', is performed with the ATLAS detector at the LHC, in proton-proton collisions at a centre-of-mass energy of root s = 8 TeV, using a dataset corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 20.3 fb(-1). This analysis searches for W' bosons in the W' -> t (b) over tilde decay channel in final states with electrons or muons, using a multivariate method based on boosted decision trees. The search covers masses between 0.5 and 3.0 TeV, for right-handed or left-handed W' bosons. No significant deviation from the Standard Model expectation is observed and limits are set on the W' -> t (b) over bar cross-section times branching ratio and on the W'-boson effective couplings as a function of the W'-boson mass using the CLs procedure. For a left-handed (right-handed) W' boson, masses below 1.70 (1.92) TeV are excluded at 95\% confidence level. Published by Elsevier B.V.