Casual Gaming Build

DanHamman · 10 Mar 2013 at 08:07

I'm a very casual gamer looking for a new machine - as my current one is slow, noisy, much too old to upgrade.
Sim City 5 and FM13 are my only gaming vices, additionally the PC would be used for very little else other than itunes and the odd app here and there.

What is the bare minimum I should be looking for? (CPU, Graphics, Motherboard, RAM).
I'm probably wanting to configure the Vortex 500 from PC Specialist - just wondering how high I need to take it.
I'd like a motherboard that I can get a good few years out of.
Budget is not set. But 500-700 spots would be about right.

Please advise!

snips86x · 10 Mar 2013 at 08:25

Do you need an OS? HDD? Case? Monitor?

Edit: Could you build it youself?

Something like this may be overkill:

YOUR BASKET
1 x **B Grade** Gigabyte ATI Radeon HD 7850 OC Windforce 2X 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card w/ Nexuiz, Sleeping Dogs & Dirt Showd (GX-100-GI) £129.95
1 x Plextor M5 Pro 128GB Extreme Series Solid State Drive - (PX-128M5P) £99.95
1 x Intel Core i3-3220 3.30GHz (Ivybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor (77W) - Retail £92.99
1 x Gigabyte Z77-D3H Intel Z77 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £89.99
1 x Microsoft Windows 8 64-Bit DVD - OEM (WN7-00403) £79.99
1 x Seagate Barracuda 2TB 7200RPM SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache - OEM (ST2000DM001) HDD £69.98
1 x XFX Pro 550W Core Edition '80 Plus Bronze' Power Supply £54.98
1 x NZXT Source 210 Elite Midi Tower Case - Black £39.98
1 x OcUK 24x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £16.99
Total : £689.81 (includes shipping : £12.50).

You could always look at Trinity and save some of your cash for something else.

DanHamman · 10 Mar 2013 at 09:10

Yes I will require all the other gubbins that goes with it, but if I can get advice on the core elements - the rest will follow easily I'm sure.

I have built my own system before, but that was a good few years ago.

What is 'Trinity'? Excuse my amateur status

snips86x · 10 Mar 2013 at 10:39

DanHamman said:
Yes I will require all the other gubbins that goes with it, but if I can get advice on the core elements - the rest will follow easily I'm sure.

I have built my own system before, but that was a good few years ago.

What is 'Trinity'? Excuse my amateur status

No worries!

Trinity is AMD's integrated graphics range (APU). Depending on how much you are gaming & how much money you want to invest, for light/occasional gaming, Trinity would be a good choice. You can run most games on high if the correct components (A85X motherboard & 2133/2400mhz RAM) are selected along side the processor.

PlatinumLiam · 10 Mar 2013 at 17:04

snips86x said:
No worries!

Trinity is AMD's integrated graphics range (APU). Depending on how much you are gaming & how much money you want to invest, for light/occasional gaming, Trinity would be a good choice. You can run most games on high if the correct components (A85X motherboard & 2133/2400mhz RAM) are selected along side the processor.

+1

Incrauze · 10 Mar 2013 at 18:01

I prefer Windows 7 but that's up to you,

YOUR BASKET
1 x AMD A10-5800K Black Edition 3.80GHz (Socket FM2) APU Trinity Quad Core Processor (AD580KWOHJBOX) £99.95
1 x Plextor M5 Pro 128GB Extreme Series Solid State Drive - (PX-128M5P) £99.95
1 x MSI A85XA-G65 AMD A85X Chipset (Socket FM2) DDR3 ATX Motherboard £85.99
1 x Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 64-Bit - OEM (GFC-02050) £79.99
1 x Seagate Barracuda 2TB 7200RPM SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache - OEM (ST2000DM001) HDD £69.98
1 x Adata XPG Xtreme v1.0 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-17100C10 2133MHz Dual Channel Memory Kit (AX3U2133XC4G10-2X) £44.99
1 x Corsair Builder Series CX 430w Modular '80 Plus Bronze' Power Supply (CP-9020058-UK) £39.98
1 x NZXT Source 210 Elite Midi Tower Case - Black £39.98
1 x Alpenföhn Matterhorn Pure Edition CPU Cooler (Socket 775 / 1155 / 1156 / 1366 / AM2 / AM2+ / AM3 / FM1 / FM2) £29.99
1 x OcUK 24x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £16.99
Total : £621.90 (includes shipping : £11.75).

DanHamman · 10 Mar 2013 at 19:06

Thanks 'Incrauze' - your specs sound quite appealing. Time to weigh up my options and take the plunge.

DanHamman · 11 Mar 2013 at 11:22

ALTERNATIVELY to my initial question:-

Can anyone suggest whether my current PC can be upgraded in anyway? See specs below:

Incrauze · 11 Mar 2013 at 17:37

Use CPU-Z to check your system specs

PlatinumLiam · 11 Mar 2013 at 21:35

DanHamman said:
ALTERNATIVELY to my initial question:-

Can anyone suggest whether my current PC can be upgraded in anyway? See specs below:

you could upgrade ram