£400 low end gaming PC with monitor!

Slinkie

Slinkie

Slinkie

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Hi all,

I am looking to buy a pc to play games like Starcraft 2, marvel heroes and diablo 3. Nothing overly taxing.


I have put this spec together, do you think it will cope ok? Can it be bettered for the price?

AvP Defender 100 Mini Tower PC Case Black Mesh Front
Biostar A55ML2 Socket FM2 VGA 6 Channel Audio mATX Motherboard
AMD A8 5600K Black Edition 3.6GHz Socket FM2 4MB L2 Cache Retail Boxed Processor + SimCity Game Coupon
OCZ 500W CoreXStream PSU
Crucial 4GB kit (2x2GB) DDR3 1333 Ballistix Memory Kit CL7 (7-7-7-24) 1.5V 310932
BenQ G2320HDBL 23" LED LCD DVI Monitor
Cherry Black Business Keyboard 104 Key UK Layout
Liteon Ihas124 24x Dvd±rw (dual ±r)/ram Sata Drive
Gigabyte HD 7750 2GB GDDR3 1600MHz DVI HDMI D-Sub PCI-E Graphics Cards

I have a 128GB SSD in that I am going to use as a HDD for the time being, a gaming mouse already and windows.
 
knock the 7750 on the head and go for the 5800k and use the IGP instead then use the money you saved on your your GPU for 2133mhz 8gb Ram thus giving your inboard graphics a boost.
 
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Slinkie said:
Hi all,

I am looking to buy a pc to play games like Starcraft 2, marvel heroes and diablo 3. Nothing overly taxing.


I have put this spec together, do you think it will cope ok? Can it be bettered for the price?

AvP Defender 100 Mini Tower PC Case Black Mesh Front
Biostar A55ML2 Socket FM2 VGA 6 Channel Audio mATX Motherboard
AMD A8 5600K Black Edition 3.6GHz Socket FM2 4MB L2 Cache Retail Boxed Processor + SimCity Game Coupon
OCZ 500W CoreXStream PSU
Crucial 4GB kit (2x2GB) DDR3 1333 Ballistix Memory Kit CL7 (7-7-7-24) 1.5V 310932
BenQ G2320HDBL 23" LED LCD DVI Monitor
Cherry Black Business Keyboard 104 Key UK Layout
Liteon Ihas124 24x Dvd±rw (dual ±r)/ram Sata Drive
Gigabyte HD 7750 2GB GDDR3 1600MHz DVI HDMI D-Sub PCI-E Graphics Cards

I have a 128GB SSD in that I am going to use as a HDD for the time being, a gaming mouse already and windows.
Click to expand...

You do not need a GPU, the APU has one built in.

2 secs, making up a build.
 
 
honosuseri said:
YOUR BASKET
1 x BenQ GL2250 21.5" Widescreen LED Monitor - Black £107.99
1 x AMD A10-5800K Black Edition 3.80GHz (Socket FM2) APU Trinity Quad Core Processor **FREE SIMCITY PC GAME** (AD580KWOHJBOX) £99.95
1 x Gigabyte F2A85X-D3H AMD A85X Chipset (Socket FM2) DDR3 ATX Motherboard £64.99
1 x Corsair XMS3 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-16000C9 2000MHz Dual Channel Kit (CMX8GX3M2A2000C9) £53.99
1 x Corsair Builder Series CX 430w Modular '80 Plus Bronze' Power Supply (CP-9020058-UK) £39.98
1 x Xigmatek Asgard Pro Gaming Case - Black £32.99
1 x OcUK 24x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £17.99
1 x OcUK Black Gaming Keyboard - With Free Gaming Mouse Pad (5105GU) £10.99
Total : £428.87 (includes shipping : FREE).

Click to expand...

Pretty much this, was trying to make a build but website was running weird.
 
Easily..

The A10's on boards are great. There's numorous video on YouTube of it playing bf3 and crysis 3 with sone great framerates...
 
Slinkie said:
How would those specs deal with the games mentioned in OP?
Click to expand...

The A10K has the better IGP than the A8K, I used faster RAM which helps the IGPs performance.


That's the lowly A6 with 4GB of 1600mhz RAM. It's just to show you gaming performance on a less than ideal setup.

If I was trying to make a gaming build on the cheap with a dedicated GPU.....

YOUR BASKET
1 x Gainward GeForce GTX 650Ti Boost Golden Sample 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £137.99
1 x BenQ GL2250 21.5" Widescreen LED Monitor - Black £107.99
1 x Intel Pentium G860 3.00GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor - Retail £59.99
1 x Corsair Builder Series CX 430w Modular '80 Plus Bronze' Power Supply (CP-9020058-UK) £39.98
1 x **B Grade** Gigabyte Z68AP-D3 Intel Z68 (Socket 1155) DDR3 (MB-364-GI) £35.00
1 x Xigmatek Asgard Pro Gaming Case - Black £32.99
1 x OcUK 24x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £17.99
1 x OcUK Black Gaming Keyboard - With Free Gaming Mouse Pad (5105GU) £10.99
Total : £442.92 (includes shipping : FREE).



Mobo is B grade so you might need a pair of sata cables. However the mobo is dead cheap and overs USB3,Sata3 and overclocking options for K series CPUs if you upgraded down the line.
 
Doomedspeed said:
Easily..

The A10's on boards are great. There's numorous video on YouTube of it playing bf3 and crysis 3 with sone great framerates...
Click to expand...
Em...no. The 7660D on the 5800K is only around on par with the 6670, and making it only good enough demanding games at 1680 res with some settings turned down at best. It certainly won't handle BF3 or Crysis 3 on High for 1920 res.

There are far too many gameplay videos on youtube that claims Ultra, Max settings, but conveniently skip mentioning the resolution part...

As for the games that OP mentioned, Marvel Heros should run fine on the 5800K so long as some settings are turned down, and Diablo 3 ain't that demanding from what I recall. As for Starcraft II though, even with the graphic settings turned down so that the 7660D won't not be too much of a bottleneck, the 5800K as a CPU is too slow for this particular game, that it would be fine during non-battle scene, but battle scenes with the screen swarmed with lots of units, the game would become close to turning into a slideshow.
 
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Marine-RX179 said:
Em...no. The 7660D on the 5800K is only around on par with the 6670, and making it only good enough demanding games at 1680 res with some settings turned down at best. It certainly won't handle BF3 or Crysis 3 on High for 1920 res.

There are far too many gameplay videos on youtube that claims Ultra, Max settings, but conveniently skip mentioning the resolution part...
Click to expand...

The Video I posted states the Res (1080P) and the graphic settings with the expected FPS. As I said it's not the same as the spec I did so he could expect better performance.

He isn't asking to play BF3 or Crysis 3 either to be fair.
 
Marine-RX179 said:
Em...no. The 7660D on the 5800K is only around on par with the 6670, and making it only good enough demanding games at 1680 res with some settings turned down at best. It certainly won't handle BF3 or Crysis 3 on High for 1920 res.

There are far too many gameplay videos on youtube that claims Ultra, Max settings, but conveniently skip mentioning the resolution part...

As for the games that OP mentioned, Marvel Heros should run fine on the 5800K so long as some settings are turned down, and Diablo 3 ain't that demanding from what I recall. As for Starcraft II though, even with the graphic settings turned down so that the 7660D won't not be too much of a bottleneck, the 5800K as a CPU is too slow for this particular game, that it would be fine during non-battle scene, but battle scenes with the screen swarmed with lots of units, the game would become close to turning into a slideshow.
Click to expand...

So basically you are saying you need a £200 i5 to play Starcraft II?

I am sure the 5800k would be fine on low settings, it serioulsy sounds like you are going over the top...just a little.
 
Gibbo3771 said:
So basically you are saying you need a £200 i5 to play Starcraft II?

I am sure the 5800k would be fine on low settings, it serioulsy sounds like you are going over the top...just a little.
Click to expand...

No you do need to strike a balance though. Some games can be more CPU dependant.

If I was to compare the CPUs from my AMD and intel specs (click me). You see the intel CPU is capable of pushing for higher FPS. Trinity is great for low budget home PCs and can play games if you are realistic. I realise my intel spec is more cash but the 650Ti Boost is a much better GPU than the 7750.
 
Gibbo3771 said:
So basically you are saying you need a £200 i5 to play Starcraft II?

I am sure the 5800k would be fine on low settings, it serioulsy sounds like you are going over the top...just a little.
Click to expand...
Ideally? Yes (despite your £200 for i5 CPU is exaggeration). But even something like a i3 or the Pentium would be a better CPU for SC II than 5800K, due to how the game's not using extra cores effectively beyond 2 cores, and kill lots of frame rate if the CPU doesn't have L3 cache.

I use to play SC II on my Q6600 overclocked 3.6GHz with my 5850, and during the intensive battles, the frame rate would drop to around 15fps with the GPU usage falls to hell down to around 50%. The 5800K as a CPU is only around on par with the Q6600 at best (comparing both overclocked), and without L3 cache, it actually perform worse than even the Bulldozer FX4 CPU in this game, despite it is based on the Piledriver architecture (SC II's performance is quite affected by the amount of L3 cache).

To be honest, I think on a budget for SC II, the best CPU option would probably be to go 2nd hand for a cheap i3 530/540 and motherboard combo, and then clock the nuts off that CPU.
 
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Marine-RX179 said:
Ideally? Yes. But even something like a i3 or the Pentium would be a better CPU for SC II than 5800K, due to how the game's not using extra cores effectively beyond 2 cores, and kill lots of frame rate if the CPU doesn't have L3 cache.

I use to play SC II on my Q6600 overclocked 3.6GHz with my 5850, and during the intensive battles, the frame rate would drop to around 15fps with the GPU usage falls to hell down to around 50%. The 5800K as a CPU is only around on par with the Q6600 at best (comparing both overclocked), and without L3 cache, it actually perform worse than even the Bulldozer FX4 CPU in this game, despite it is based on the Piledriver architecture (SC II's performance is quite affected by the amount of L3 cache).

To be honest, I think on a budget for SC II, the best CPU option would probably be to go 2nd hand for a cheap i3 530/540 and motherboard combo, and then clock the nuts off that CPU.
Click to expand...

Fair enough, thanks for clarifyin' :D
 
How does an overclockerd i3 dual core with dedicated gfx card (£100 card) compare? I can stretch to the following.

AvP Defender 100 Mini Tower PC Case Black Mesh Front
OCZ 500W CoreXStream PSU
Crucial 4GB kit (2x2GB) DDR3 1333 Ballistix Memory Kit CL7 (7-7-7-24) 1.5V
BenQ G2320HDBL 23" LED LCD DVI Monito
Cherry Black Business Keyboard 104 Key UK Layout
Liteon Ihas124 24x Dvd±rw (dual ±r)/ram Sata Drive
Asus P8H61-MX USB3 Socket 1155 VGA DVI 8 Channel Audio mATX Motherboard
XFX HD 7770 DD Edition 1GB GDDR5 Dual DVI HDMI DisplayPort PCI-E Graphics Card
Intel Core i3 3225 3.30GHz Socket 1155 3MB Cache Retail Boxed Processor

Obviously a quad core is always going to outperform a dual core but only if the game takes advantage of it. Does the 4 threads of the i3 help?

That spec comes to 455.
 
Slinkie said:
How does an overclockerd i3 dual core with dedicated gfx card (£100 card) compare? I can stretch to the following.

AvP Defender 100 Mini Tower PC Case Black Mesh Front
OCZ 500W CoreXStream PSU
Crucial 4GB kit (2x2GB) DDR3 1333 Ballistix Memory Kit CL7 (7-7-7-24) 1.5V
BenQ G2320HDBL 23" LED LCD DVI Monito
Cherry Black Business Keyboard 104 Key UK Layout
Liteon Ihas124 24x Dvd±rw (dual ±r)/ram Sata Drive
Asus P8H61-MX USB3 Socket 1155 VGA DVI 8 Channel Audio mATX Motherboard
XFX HD 7770 DD Edition 1GB GDDR5 Dual DVI HDMI DisplayPort PCI-E Graphics Card
Intel Core i3 3225 3.30GHz Socket 1155 3MB Cache Retail Boxed Processor

Obviously a quad core is always going to outperform a dual core but only if the game takes advantage of it. Does the 4 threads of the i3 help?

That spec comes to 455.
Click to expand...

yeah thats a good spec, quad core isnt always faster than dual core, the a8s and a10s mentioned have very slow ipc so the i3 is about on par if not faster i reckon. even the spec you did initially is better than what people have been saying about using the igp of an a10, as someone pointed out its at 6670 level, a 7770 or 7750 is quite a bit faster.

ps. the i3s are now locked, you cant overclock them
 
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Slinkie said:
thanks, if I wanted to play more demanding games I think it'd have to be a quad but D3, SC2 and MH it should be ok?
Click to expand...

yeah best spec in this thread, it will play much more demanding games even with the i3, my mate plays all the latest games on near max on a pentium dual core and a 6950, a good gpu is always more important. youll probably need a better graphics card b4 a quad core processor!
 
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jamiehavok said:
yeah best spec in this thread, it will play much more demanding games even with the i3, my mate plays all the latest games on near max on a pentium dual core and a 6950, a good gpu is always more important.
Click to expand...

Is it really

The PSU isn't great to be honest, isn't even bronze rated. The H61 mobo most likely doesn't have sataIII (there are only a few exceptions that do) to make the most of SSDs. Infact some H61s don't support Ivybridge CPUs without a BIOS update either.

The 7750/7770 isn't great value. I used the 650Ti boost for a reason. If he is on a tight budget he should try and hunt down a 1GB 460 on the MM (should be around £50ish) which overclocks well and will soundly spank the 7750/7770
 
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