Help I am new to all this

BobMcDee · 18 May 2016 at 15:34

I am looking for a new PC my5 year old one is 32bit and now very slow and keeps freezing and crashing
I have a good monitor but need a keyboard and mouse.
The games I play are Total war series(Attilla very slow) FIFA, the Golf club,Elite dangerous
and Skyrim
I do like the eye candy.
I was hoping to spend around £500.00 and would like the system to come built up but could get built if it saves some money.
I also have an AMD Radeon R7 series graphics card, could this be utilised
Any help would be appreciated

andicole0 · 18 May 2016 at 15:45

You could start here https://www.overclockers.co.uk/pc-systems/gaming-pc/up-to-500-pounds.
Which R7 have you got. I'd check out some benchmarks for various games that you play and see what comes up best. Look here for Skyrim spec and a tool to check your PC.
Andi.

BobMcDee · 18 May 2016 at 15:58

Thanks Andi
I will check that out. It just seems to be so confusing as to whats best.
I do live near on overclockers store in Stoke so it may be worth making a visit

Danny75 · 18 May 2016 at 16:29

BobMcDee said:
It just seems to be so confusing as to whats best.

Just for an idea of what to aim for:

My basket at Overclockers UK:

1 x Aerocool V3X Advance Evil Black Edition Midi-Tower - Black/Orange= £23.99
1 x EVGA 500W 80 Plus Bronze Power Supply (100-B1-0500-KR)= £44.99
1 x Kingston Fury Black 8GB (2x4GB) DDR4 PC4-21300C15 2666MHz Dual Channel Kit - Black (HX426C15FBK2/8)= £32.99
1 x Intel Core i5-6400 2.70GHz (Skylake) Socket LGA1151 Processor - Retail= £155.99
1 x MSI Z170-A Pro Intel Z170 (Socket 1151) DDR4 ATX Motherboard= £82.99
1 x Corsair Force LE 240GB 2.5" SATA 6Gbps Solid State Drive (CSSD-F240GBLEB)= £49.99
1 x **B Grade** Asus Radeon R9 280X DirectCUII TOP 3072MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card= £119.99

Total: £523.23
(includes shipping: £12.30)

With a Z170 mobo, it's upgradable (i5-K/i7-K), and add more storage and/or memory as needed later on.

B-Grade video card is what would give you most bang for buck, or spend more for new.

BobMcDee said:
I do live near on overclockers store in Stoke so it may be worth making a visit

Good idea.

mistersprinkles · 19 May 2016 at 01:09

Danny, a forum user who thinks they need a new computer vs a simple windows reinstall because their system is freezing and crashing is not the kind of person who would benefit from:

More than 3 SATA ports
More than 2 RAM slots
More than 1 PCIE 16X slot
A K-sku CPU
A Z series board

When you spec for other people, spec for THEM, not for yourself. Not being rude, just being direct.
By the way, I know of almost nobody, save for maybe my mother, who would not need more than 240GB of storage, be it high speed storage or not. Tack a 1TB HDD onto that build, kill the Z board.
There are better 240GB SSDs than the Force LE at that price btw.

Danny75 · 19 May 2016 at 04:39

mistersprinkles said:
Danny, a forum user who thinks they need a new computer vs a simple windows reinstall because their system is freezing and crashing is not the kind of person who would benefit from:

More than 3 SATA ports
More than 2 RAM slots
More than 1 PCIE 16X slot
A K-sku CPU
A Z series board

When you spec for other people, spec for THEM, not for yourself. Not being rude, just being direct.
By the way, I know of almost nobody, save for maybe my mother, who would not need more than 240GB of storage, be it high speed storage or not. Tack a 1TB HDD onto that build, kill the Z board.
There are better 240GB SSDs than the Force LE at that price btw.

So at the end of your free lessons designed to puff up your already inflated opinion of yourself by putting someone down, all your sage counsel boils down to: cheaper motherboard and add a 1TB HDD rightaway. Maybe next time you could actually be direct, instead of being so melodramatic and egotistic.

And the better SSD's which you helpfully do not mention. Cool. You are really smart and stuff.

But I understand your reluctance to actually recommend alternative full specs. Given that what appears to be your first fairly-full spec on these forums, just a few hours ago, contains a recommendation for a non-SLI motherboard for "SLI options later". Yeah, it's safer to just criticize other posters. And you don't really do a good job of that, either.

So here's some free advice back at you: get off your high horse. Because the fall will hurt you. You will make mistakes, as you have done with the motherboard you recommended, just like every one of us. And also, not every thing you wouldn't personally do is a "mistake" or "dumb", etc. Most of the time, this will just be down to your narcissism, unless you can find an actual error and point it out for the benefit of everyone.

Bradley1928 · 19 May 2016 at 08:11

I don't see an issue with Danny's build. It allows for future proofing and upgrading without a huge cost down the line.

BobMcDee · 19 May 2016 at 08:21

Thanks for your comments.
I didn' want to cause any rifts with anyone.
My main reason for change is I need 64 bit to run a couple of games I want, Cities Skylines and LOTR.
This is probably the last one I will buy as I retire in the summer so probably wont be able to afford another one.
I am going up to overclockers in the next few weeks, I have been told that there are new graphics cards out soon which may lead to one or two bargains on the current ones.
All the tech language is a bit alien to me so I think face to face is the best idea.
Thanks

Surfer · 19 May 2016 at 10:45

Bradley1928 said:
I don't see an issue with Danny's build. It allows for future proofing and upgrading without a huge cost down the line.

^^ this. I'll be building another pc for my nephew and found Danny's suggestion very helpful.

andicole0 · 19 May 2016 at 10:50

Bradley1928 said:
I don't see an issue with Danny's build. It allows for future proofing and upgrading without a huge cost down the line.

Agreed. What was the point in criticising it?
Andi.

Borealis · 19 May 2016 at 11:11

Bradley1928 said:
I don't see an issue with Danny's build. It allows for future proofing and upgrading without a huge cost down the line.

Agreed. With Danny's build it gives you some upgrade room for the future and it's current tech. It's a solid budget build.

Danny75 · 19 May 2016 at 14:45

BobMcDee said:
Thanks for your comments.
I didn' want to cause any rifts with anyone.

Not your fault in the least, mate.

The guy has a history of doing this (in his brief history of posting on the forum) and making personal attacks in other posts.

BobMcDee said:
All the tech language is a bit alien to me so I think face to face is the best idea.
Thanks

Agreed. All the best with your build.

Borealis · 19 May 2016 at 15:01

Danny75 said:
Not your fault in the least, mate.

The guy has a history of doing this (in his brief history of posting on the forum) and making personal attacks in other posts.

I wasn't going to mention anything earlier, but yes his posting history is interesting.

Good luck with your new build. As long as it works and you're happy with what you get, then don't worry about what anyone else thinks!

BobMcDee · 25 May 2016 at 08:03

Thanks for the replies all
Just a couple of questions
I have been advised that I may be better off with a 1 or 2 TB hard drive as I don't play games online orplay FPS I usually go for the strategy type of game so I don't need to be so quick
Also what is meant by a B grade graphics cars?
I have been advised to get a 2 or 4GB graphics card, does this one fit the bill (**B Grade** Asus Radeon R9 280X DirectCUII TOP 3072MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card= £119.99 )
Any help will be appreciated

Borealis · 25 May 2016 at 08:47

B-grade items only come with a 90 day warranty. The official OCUK description is:

B Grade items may have been used, have damaged packaging, missing accessories or a combination of these.

Some items may have scuff marks or slight scratches but should otherwise be an operable product.

If you're willing to take a chance though, you can get some really good deals. You said you've got an R7 series card already, which one?

A 2GB graphics card may leave you short of VRAM in the future, so 4GB would be better. Problem is, without going B-grade you won't get one in budget. I have an R9 280X at home and it will be perfectly fine for what you want. It's effectively the old Radeon HD7970, which I still consider a decent card.

In a modern PC I would always put an SSD in as the main boot drive. A regular hard drive is fine for bulk storage and games, but with an SSD you can literally boot from cold in seconds and it makes the whole PC more responsive - no need to wait for the disk to spin up/read etc. A 2TB HDD would most likely be overkill for your system unless you have a lot of games or masses of photos. 1TB would be fine.

Danny75 · 25 May 2016 at 10:17

Borealis said:
In a modern PC I would always put an SSD in as the main boot drive. A regular hard drive is fine for bulk storage and games, but with an SSD you can literally boot from cold in seconds and it makes the whole PC more responsive - no need to wait for the disk to spin up/read etc.

This. If you don't need your games on SSD, then even a 120GB SSD boot drive + 1TB HDD. Both together only about £10 more than a single 2TB HDD, and will make your system so much snappier in general.

BobMcDee · 26 May 2016 at 12:31

Can anyone tell me how much O C charge for building a system?

Borealis · 26 May 2016 at 12:40

I'm not sure. The best thing to do would be to contact them and see what they say.

BobMcDee · 2 Jun 2016 at 07:52

Thanks OC
Got sorted with a 4GB card - I5 processor - 64bit system Win 10
Tried all the games that wouldn't work very well before, now they are superb.
Happy days

Thanks for all your comments

Borealis · 2 Jun 2016 at 08:57

Good to hear everything works as intended!