£500 at disposal for a Desktop PC

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Hey chaps, I have £500 at disposal for a brand new Desktop PC, I'm a casual gamer which plays around 3 hours a day at FPS games, my PC at the moment is very much old and out-of-date, it ain't no fun playing games which give frame drops everytime you hear a gunshot, and having to go through waiting for Internet Explorer to launch after booting up the PC or just simply starting it up again, gives me the feeling of "**** take...".

What I am looking for is something very much in the capability of playing new decent games, at least at medium settings. I ain't talking about any Alienware material, just something decent which will play the likes of; Call of Duty: MW2, Battlefield: BC2 and co. I want to enjoy these games with no frame drops and to be satisfied by fragging some newbs.

Monitor, keyboard and co. are not needed, just the full Desktop PC stuff please.

Thanks for helping and looking forward for your creations!
 
Caporegime
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17 Jan 2010
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weston-super-mare
Your basketProduct Name Qty Price Line Total
AMD Phenom II X4 Quad Core 955 Black Edition 3.20GHz (Socket AM3) - Retail £135.99
(£115.74) £135.99
(£115.74)
Club 3D ATI Radeon HD 5770 512MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £112.99
(£96.16) £112.99
(£96.16)
Patriot G Series 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 PC3-10666C9 1333MHz Dual Channel (PGS34G1333ELK) £88.99
(£75.74) £88.99
(£75.74)
Asus M4A785TD-V Evo AMD 785G (Socket AM3) DDR3 Motherboard £74.99
(£63.82) £74.99
(£63.82)
Samsung SpinPoint F3 500GB SATA-II 16MB Cache - OEM (HD502HJ) £39.99
(£34.03) £39.99
(£34.03)
Corsair CX 400W ATX Power Supply (CMPSU-400CXUK) £38.99
(£33.18) £38.99
(£33.18)
Xigmatek Asgard Midi Tower Case - Black £26.99
(£22.97) £26.99
(£22.97)
Samsung SH-S223C/BEBE 22x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £13.99
(£11.91) £13.99
(£11.91)
Sub Total : £453.55
Shipping cost assumes delivery to UK Mainland with:
DPD Next Day Parcel
(This can be changed during checkout) Shipping : £11.75
VAT is being charged at 17.50% VAT : £81.43
Total : £546.73


well worth going a bit over for this, it got the second fastest AMD quad core
 
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Soldato
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28 Jan 2010
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Guildford
I would take a look at this:

500spec.png


And think about upgrading to windows 7 64 bit as soon as you've got some extra cash to make full use of the 4GB RAM. :)

(If you happen to be a student you might be able to get it free/cheaply)
 
Soldato
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In that case I'd also think about treating yourself to a new monitor when you've also got some more cash! that graphics card will handle anything up to 1680x1050 very nicely.
 
Associate
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19 Dec 2009
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115
i3 530 is faster than Athlon X4 at games and draws less power. The 5770 is a bit overkill for 1280x1024 but I guess it'll allow him room to upgrade his monitor.
 
Caporegime
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17 Jan 2010
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Location
weston-super-mare
And much more expensive considering platform costs.

not entirely true.

Your basketProduct Name Qty Price Line Total
Club 3D ATI Radeon HD 5770 512MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £112.99
(£96.16) £112.99
(£96.16)
Intel Core i3 530 2.93GHz (Clarkdale) (Socket LGA1156) - Retail £103.99
(£88.50) £103.99
(£88.50)
Patriot G Series 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 PC3-10666C9 1333MHz Dual Channel (PGS34G1333ELK) £88.99
(£75.74) £88.99
(£75.74)
Asus P7H55-M Intel H55 (Socket 1156) DDR3 microATX Motherboard £65.99
(£56.16) £65.99
(£56.16)
Samsung SpinPoint F3 500GB SATA-II 16MB Cache - OEM (HD502HJ) £39.99
(£34.03) £39.99
(£34.03)
Corsair CX 400W ATX Power Supply (CMPSU-400CXUK) £38.99
(£33.18) £38.99
(£33.18)
Xigmatek Asgard Midi Tower Case - Black £26.99
(£22.97) £26.99
(£22.97)
Samsung SH-S223C/BEBE 22x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £13.99
(£11.91) £13.99
(£11.91)
Sub Total : £418.65
Shipping cost assumes delivery to UK Mainland with:
DPD Next Day Parcel
(This can be changed during checkout) Shipping : £11.75
VAT is being charged at 17.50% VAT : £75.32
Total : £505.72


all i did was change the cpu and motherboard against the other one i posted, £40 less, which could get a better motherboard?
 
Soldato
Joined
11 Sep 2003
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14,716
Location
London
  • I have £500 [to £563] at disposal for a brand new Desktop PC
  • I'm a casual gamer which plays around 3 hours a day at FPS games
  • my PC at the moment is very much old and out-of-date
  • I am looking for is something very much in the capability of playing new decent games
  • play the likes of; Call of Duty: MW2, Battlefield: BC2 and co.
  • I want to enjoy these games with no frame drops

Hello simon22,

firstly sorry for possibly blowing the budget but I wanted to go in with all guns blazing! :p . . . there is scope to cut the AMD® build cost down to £528 pending a few questions . . . .

simon22.jpg


Both the systems above will be great for gaming although the AMD® build offers full PCI-E 2.0 x8/X8 Crossfire should you decide in 6 months or 12 months you need a bit more graphic power, a single HD 5770 is gonna rock-your-world @ 1280x1024 but should you upgrade your monitor in the future to a FullHD model then it's nice you have the option of popping in a second HD 5770 to help out! :)

The OCZ modular PSU has 2 x PCI-E power connectors which gives you the option in the future of either using two HD 5770's or perhaps a single McPhat GPU which requires 2x PCI-E power connectors itself . . .

The Antec 300 is a great Thermally-Advantaged chassis and for the money its very hard to beat! . . . . I like the look of that Silverstone chassis is Redmint's spec but it has only a single 120mm intake vs two 120mm intakes on the Antec 300, your choice really . . .

The AMD® build cost can be dropped closer to budget if you decide that you will never ever consider a Crossfire set-up? in which case we can substitute this board and save you £15 . . . also if you decide that a QuadCore is overkill for your needs then we can spec you an AMD TripleCore and save you another £20 . . . there is very little difference between an X3 and an X4 in gaming!

You also have the option of going with an AMD® Phenom™ II X2 Black-Edition at approx £80 . . . It's debatable if a DualCore is right for you or not? there is also the possibility of *unlocking* either the Athlon™ II X3 (to x4) or the Phenon™ II X2 (to X3, X4) this is very much a gamble and has worked for some people and not others, that's why I tend to favour the AMD® Athlon™ II X3 as you 100% get a nice TripleCore but you maybe can unlock the fourth core . . .

As nice as the Intel option maybe, it's hard to deny that the AMD spec at the same price offers real longevity for a gamer due to the CrossFire option . . . It's also nice that any of the current AMD® AM3 chips will plug right into that motherboard! :cool:
 
Soldato
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Location
London
i3 530 is faster than Athlon X4 at games
Hey stulid, probably a mistake but you linked to a Intel® Core™ i3 540 bench?

As Lleot, stated above the Intel® Core™ i3 530 has a slight edge in some games, I suspect that is due to either the 4MB of Level 3 cache on the i3 or perhaps some tweaking of the chip? . . . either way for gaming on a single GPU the *tiny* advantage of an Intel® Core™ i3 530 over an AMD® Athlon™ II X4 635 is not something to shout about! . . . . I doubt it will be noticable in actual use and outside of benchmarks . . . the Anandtech database details the following:

i3530vsaiix4635gaming.jpg


In this random selection of game bench data the results show the i3 530 delivers on average a humble 6.1% advantage . . . . priced at £103.99 the Intel® Core™ i3 530 is 28% more expensive than the AMD® Athlon™ II X4 635 (£80.99) . . . it nearly justifies this premium in World of Warcraft where it offers a decent 23.8% advantage but apart from that the FPS difference become less and less . . . can't help but feel the Intel® Core™ i3 530 is overpriced?

Gaming aside it seems that Clock-for-Clock a Hyper-Threaded DualCore can't compete with a full QuadCore in applications that are propely MultiThreaded . . . any small advantage the Core™ i3 held in gaming is lost once you enter the realms of MultiThreaded applications that can tap out the full processing power! . . . . are we entering the age of improving multi-threaded software or? . . . do we think that more and more games will take advantage of additional cores?

Can we interpret these Fritz benchtest results below as a sign that maybe the AMD® Athlon™ II X4 will be a better long-term choice for simon22's MultiThreaded needs of the future? :cool:

i3630fritz.jpg
 
Soldato
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6 Feb 2010
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14,591
As Lleot, stated above the Intel® Core™ i3 530 has a slight edge in some games, I suspect that is due to either the 4MB of Level 3 cache on the i3 or perhaps some tweaking of the chip? . . . either way for gaming on a single GPU the *tiny* advantage of an Intel® Core™ i3 530 over an AMD® Athlon™ II X4 635 is not something to shout about! . . . . I doubt it will be noticable in actual use and outside of benchmarks . . . the Anandtech database details the following:

i3530vsaiix4635gaming.jpg
One thing that your result doesn't include...the minimum frame rate. Because the 1156 dual-core CPU has better architecture, it's minimum and average frame rate would be higher than Athlon II X4 or Q6600 in most situation. Also not to forget it can overclock to 4.0GHz+ comparing to Athlon II X4 or Q6600 overclocking to 3.6GHz~ average. People got high end card such as 5870 running games that are optimised for Quad then Quad cores might have an edge, but if it's just a 5770 and going to be used for a long time not going to upgrade anytime soon, a faster dual-core would be a better performer for majority of the games (less a few that are optimised for Quad).

If it was i3 530 vs Phenom II X4 965BE, the Phenom II 955BE would probably be a better choice as both deliver similar frame rate at 4.0GHz in dual-threaded games, but Phenom II X4 965BE's two extra cores will has an edge is situation such as with crossfire 5850/5870 in games like BFBC2. I just don't see any reason for people to pick a Athlon II X4 over a i3 530 for using with a 5770, unless they do both video encoding as well as gaming.
 
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Soldato
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Location
London
Hello Marine-RX179,

sorry to chop your quote up into smaller pieces but it just helps address all the different things you said . . . .

One thing that your result doesn't include...the minimum frame rate
I'd like to point out that they are not my results but rather a compilation of bench results understaken by Anandtech, I'm not sure how accurate they are but quite a few folk use this data base for quick reference so all I've done is collect the relevant data and publish it as an easy to read large image (which you quoted?)

Please feel free to share your data on minimum frame rates if you feel there is a performance difference worth discussing further?

Because the 1156 dual-core CPU has better architecture, it's minimum and average frame rate would be higher than Athlon II X4 or Q6600 in most situation
The Anandtech test results show that Fallout 3 and Dragon Age Origins run at almost identical frame-rate? and that Batman: Arkham Asylum is actually a few frames faster? . . . . so much for the "better architecture"

Also not to forget it can overclock to 4.0GHz+ comparing to Athlon II X4 or Q6600 overclocking to 3.6GHz~ average.
Indeed, I did actually publish a Intel® Core™ i3 530 @ 4GHz screenie above? as you can see even clocked at 3.5GHz the AMD® Athlon™ II X4 has no problem outperforming the HyperThreaded DualCore in Fritz?, which is a pretty good benchmark tool for showing MultiThreaded Performance . . .

if it's just a 5770 and going to be used for a long time not going to upgrade anytime soon, a faster dual-core would be a better performer for majority of the games (less a few that are optimised for Quad)
I kinda understand what you are saying but the advantage of a faster clocked DualCore is starting to vanish as more and more games get support for MultiThreading, even today we can see the AMD® Athlon™ II X4 matches the performance of the i3 530 and is faster in some titles? . . . .

I feel that simon22 will get a better deal and a better overall system in the long-run by going with an full AMD® QuadCore today . . . the Intel® Core™ i3 530 is a nice chip (and OverPriced!) but I think it's better suited to a Hybrid HTPC/Gaming machine that will be running 24/7 ;)

If it was i3 530 vs Phenom II X4 965BE, the Phenom II 955BE would probably be a better choice as both deliver similar frame rate at 4.0GHz in dual-threaded games
The Phenom™ II X4 is an option but it's a tough call in a budget that is meant to be set at £500 . . . to shoehorn a Phenom™ II X4 into this budget would mean sacrifices in other components? . . . I believe the Athlon™ II X4 is an ideal processor for simon22's project, from what he has been using I'm sure it will blow him away and along with nice ASUS AM3 motherboard that allows him the option of running a CrossFire rig in the future or allowing him a multitude of Drop-In Processor replacements? . . . . FastForward 12-18 months and that AMD spec above could be upgraded easily to CrossFire and HexCore should the need arise? . . . . For someone who builds a computer to last 3-5 years I'm convinced the AMD® AM3 machine will adapt to the needs of the future a lot better than the Core™ i3 530 machine could?

I just don't see any reason for people to pick a Athlon II X4 over a i3 530 for using with a 5770, unless they do both video encoding as well as gaming.
Ok I'll try and explain my viewpoint on this . . . . I think the Intel® Core™ i3 530 is a specialist Beta Chip which is best suited to a lounge Style HTPC, on average in the Anantech benchmarks above the Intel® chip is only 6.1% faster . . . some games its slightly faster and some games its slower . . . there isn't a lot in it . . . however as we advance into the Multi-Threaded era I fully expect to see the four actual cores of the AMD® Athlon™ II X4 perform better in games than the two HyperThreaded Core of the Intel® Core™ i3

The real selling point of the AMD® system and the main point that I feel it's a better investment for the same money is the machine itself is more "versatile" and offers in general more processing power for the future . . . In 12-18months time should simon22 requirements change and he needs more even more processing power it would be so easy to upgrade to a Phenom™ II X6 . . . or if he became really hooked on gaming and wanted to dabble with CrossFire then he can just pop in a second card? . . . He may not be interested in this today but should we spec him a system that at least gives him the option? for no extra cost?

I personally cannot understand why someone who has an Approx budget of £500-£560 and wants to build a gaming system that will last for 3-5 years would consider anything other than the AM3 platform?

i3530vsaiix4635gamingbo.jpg

Which motherboard would you prefere in a £560 Gaming PC built to last many years and allow unrivalled expansion?
 
Associate
Joined
24 Apr 2009
Posts
154
I agree with big.wayne

But realistically Cpu is the least of your worries when building a gaming pc.

Its the graphics card thats going to make the most difference and the cpu just has to have neough power to support it for that reaosn i would sugest amd quad. an a well priced ATI graphics card maybe a 5770 or a 5850
 
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