I just cant decide!

adey · 12 Jun 2013 at 14:48

My son wants a desktop pc for mincraft, a few other steam games and his school work.

He's going to need everything apart from OS and mouse.

He's had a couple of hundred quid for his birthday so i'll be putting the rest, i have been watching threads here and it seems that £600 would buy what i'm after ( i3 with 7850, not looked into amd ).

That got me to think maybe i could upgrade my pc while building his.

my specs are

AMD 1090T @3.8ghz
Asus M4A89GTD PRO/USB3
GTX580 @ stock
Kingston HyperX Genesis Grey 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit

My calculations are that building him a whole new setup would cost £600.

But if i lost the i3 and 7850 i could add a i5 4670k and a 7950 to put into my case and put my CPU mobo and GPU into his new case it would probably cost about £850 ish.

I know that a i5-4670 and 7950 would be a upgrade for me, the question is will he be better off with the 1090T and gtx 580 or the i3 and 7850?

honosuseri · 12 Jun 2013 at 14:56

You can use THIS website to get a rough comparison on GPUs.

I can also point out that a 7870XT is a fair bit cheaper than a 7950. It's not really a 7870 as it shares the Tahiti core of the 7950, overclock it and it will match a stock 7950.

YOUR BASKET
1 x Intel Core i5-4670K 3.40GHz (Haswell) Socket LGA1150 Processor - OEM with FREE Grid 2 PC Game £187.99
1 x VTX3D HD 7870 Black Boost Edition 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £173.99
1 x Gigabyte Z87-D3HP Intel Z87 (Socket 1150) DDR3 ATX Motherboard + FREE Be Quiet! Shadow Rock Pro SR1 CPU Cooler! £109.99
1 x Avexir Core Blue Series 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-19200C10 2400MHz Dual Channel Memory Kit (AVD3U24001004G-2CI) - Blue Light £67.99
Total : £539.96 (includes shipping : FREE).

snitcher · 12 Jun 2013 at 15:16

you could try amd it will definitely be cheaper.

Doomedspeed · 12 Jun 2013 at 15:35

snitcher said:
you could try amd it will definitely be cheaper.

You get what you pay for...

Honos spec looks ace. Id get that and give you kid your old rig. A 580 is still a great card.

Redmint · 12 Jun 2013 at 16:23

To be fair unless any of his 'steam games' are newer release FPS games with intensive graphics, for a mincraft and school work machine he'd be quite fine with a lower spec machine than your 'hand-me-down' computer. That is unless you're desperate for an upgrade and using it as an excuse for getting some shiny new kit.

Your current machine is quite capable still and you could build/buy something for him 2nd hand for £200 or new for £350-400 odd.

adey · 12 Jun 2013 at 16:31

Redmint said:
That is unless you're desperate for an upgrade and using it as an excuse for getting some shiny new kit.

Not desperate but did see it as a opportunity

adey · 12 Jun 2013 at 21:55

Ok strange, I get home and my PC has no display.

I guess it heard me talking about getting rid of it

PC seems to be running but monitor is not receiving a signal, I did have the latest drivers installed 320.18. I have tried the GPU in the other pcie slot and reset the CMOS and still no signal.I have noticed the display go a couple of times when plugging in a USB lead and the only way of getting it back was a reboot. And come to think of it I couldn't get a 7850 to work in this mobo, I thought that was a dodgy card.

Should I be looking at GPU, mobo or PSU do you think? My brother has a spare gtx460 I guess I start there?