Spec my mate a gaming pc

stulid · 30 Apr 2011 at 22:35

Reaper 392 said:
think its best i left this one alone

Go put the kettle on.

Compound · 30 Apr 2011 at 23:13

Lol I wasn't expecting such a long thread. Good job I didn't go ahead and spec it myself I think I would have messed it up

By the way how good is the i3 sandybridge for gaming? Would a lower spec i5 2300 be better for my mate?

stulid · 30 Apr 2011 at 23:18

get the quad i5 2300 i speced

the 13 is a dual core with hyperthreading.

gaming with a i5 2300 - http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/cpu/display/core-i5-2500-2400-2300_7.html#sect0

with a i3 2100/2120 - http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/cpu/display/core-i3-2120-2100_5.html#sect0

sk82jack · 30 Apr 2011 at 23:52

stulid said:
get the quad i5 2300 i speced the 13 is a dual core with hyperthreading.

gaming with a i5 2300 - http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/cpu/display/core-i5-2500-2400-2300_7.html#sect0

with a i3 2100/2120 - http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/cpu/display/core-i3-2120-2100_5.html#sect0

I'm a bit confused now because I thought the gaming performance was based around how decent your graphics card is?
D'you know any links that sort of explains how it all works, if you know what I mean? (I don't think even I know what I mean! lol)

stulid · 1 May 2011 at 00:02

sk82jack said:
I'm a bit confused now because I thought the gaming performance was based around how decent your graphics card is?
D'you know any links that sort of explains how it all works, if you know what I mean? (I don't think even I know what I mean! lol)

Its called bottlenecking.

it goes both ways.

Fast GPU with slow CPU = sucks.
Fast CPU with slow GPU = sucks.
Get it right = win.

sk82jack · 1 May 2011 at 00:24

stulid said:
Its called bottlenecking.

it goes both ways.

Fast GPU with slow CPU = sucks.
Fast CPU with slow GPU = sucks.
Get it right = win.

Well I've heard of bottlenecking (as I did ask if it was in post in post #9 but recieved no answer

)

Thought there was a more technical explanation. I'll google it

James J · 1 May 2011 at 00:37

stulid said:
Its called bottlenecking.

it goes both ways.

Fast GPU with slow CPU = sucks.
Fast CPU with slow GPU = sucks.
Get it right = win.

Sadly thats the case. My dads got a dell machine which came with an i7 860, 6gb ram and a massively powerful nvidia GT220 graphics card.... lol.

Its crap for games due to the graphics card but even a midrange card would turn his PC into abit of a beast for pretty much any modern game.

I'd go with the i5/5870 build personally as that would fly in games.

chrisarm · 1 May 2011 at 10:24

DuncanK said:
Hi there, my mate wants to refresh his machine which is used purely for gaming.

He has a case, monitor and OS but needs most other things including PSU.

Now I think he wants it to last a while and wants it to perfrom well with recent games releases and potentially BF3.

Is it possible to come up with two specs, one of around £400 and one of around £500.

Cheers

What type of case has he got, It's just that if it's an old case and he wants a bigger GPU it might not fit. also some ov the older cases are not atx compatible

Compound · 1 May 2011 at 10:41

Can you check this spec for me please?

Intel Core i5-2400 3.10GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor - Retail £149.99
(£124.99) £149.99
(£124.99)
Sapphire ATI Radeon HD 5850 Extreme 1024MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card **OcUK Exclusive** £107.99
(£89.99) £107.99
(£89.99)
Asus P8H61-M Intel H61 Chipset (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard **B3 REVISION** £61.99
(£51.66) £61.99
(£51.66)
BeQuiet Pure Power L7 530W Power Supply £42.98
(£35.82) £42.98
(£35.82)
G.Skill RipJawsX 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (F3-12800CL9D-4GBXL) £35.99
(£29.99) £35.99
(£29.99)
Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 500GB SATA 6Gb/s 16MB Cache - OEM (ST3500413AS) £27.98
(£23.32) £27.98
(£23.32)
Sony Optiarc AD-7260S 24x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £15.59
(£12.99) £15.59
(£12.99)
Sub Total : £368.76
Shipping cost assumes delivery to UK Mainland with:
DPD Next Day Parcel
(This can be changed during checkout) Shipping : £10.00
VAT is being charged at 20.00% VAT : £75.75
Total : £454.51

Using the advice I have been given here, I have come up with this. I went for the i5-2400 and the 5850 seeing as he will be gaming at 1280 x 1024.

Hopefully it should last him a while.

Compound · 1 May 2011 at 10:43

chrisarm said:
What type of case has he got, It's just that if it's an old case and he wants a bigger GPU it might not fit. also some ov the older cases are not atx compatible

Its actually an old Mesh case but it is ATX compatible as I already upgraded it for him once

sk82jack · 1 May 2011 at 13:07

DuncanK said:
Can you check this spec for me please?

Intel Core i5-2400 3.10GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor - Retail £149.99
(£124.99) £149.99
(£124.99)
Sapphire ATI Radeon HD 5850 Extreme 1024MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card **OcUK Exclusive** £107.99
(£89.99) £107.99
(£89.99)
Asus P8H61-M Intel H61 Chipset (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard **B3 REVISION** £61.99
(£51.66) £61.99
(£51.66)
BeQuiet Pure Power L7 530W Power Supply £42.98
(£35.82) £42.98
(£35.82)
G.Skill RipJawsX 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (F3-12800CL9D-4GBXL) £35.99
(£29.99) £35.99
(£29.99)
Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 500GB SATA 6Gb/s 16MB Cache - OEM (ST3500413AS) £27.98
(£23.32) £27.98
(£23.32)
Sony Optiarc AD-7260S 24x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £15.59
(£12.99) £15.59
(£12.99)
Sub Total : £368.76
Shipping cost assumes delivery to UK Mainland with:
DPD Next Day Parcel
(This can be changed during checkout) Shipping : £10.00
VAT is being charged at 20.00% VAT : £75.75
Total : £454.51

Using the advice I have been given here, I have come up with this. I went for the i5-2400 and the 5850 seeing as he will be gaming at 1280 x 1024.

Hopefully it should last him a while.

Yep! Looks good