£1000 too much? Could it be cheaper?

[rigby93]

So a week or so ago a posted a thread to spec me a new pc for about £1000 and this is what was suggested
YOUR BASKET
1 x Intel Core i5-4670K 3.40GHz (Haswell) Socket LGA1150 Processor - OEM £191.99
1 x VTX3D HD 7870 Black Boost Edition 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £164.99
2 x Samsung S23B300BS 23" Widescreen LED Monitor - Glossy Black £109.99 (£219.98)
1 x Gigabyte Z87-HD3 Intel Z87 (Socket 1150) DDR3 ATX Motherboard £99.95
1 x Samsung 120GB SSD 840 EVO SATA 6Gb/s Basic - (MZ-7TE120BW) £86.99
1 x Patriot Viper "Black Mamba" Generation 3 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-17000C11 2133MHz Dual CHannel Kit (PV38G213C1K) £65.99
1 x Corsair Builder Series CX 500w Modular '80 Plus Bronze' Power Supply (CP-9020059-UK) £54.98
1 x Seagate Barracuda 7200RPM 1TB SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache - OEM (ST1000DM003) HDD £53.99
1 x Xigmatek Asgard Pro Gaming Case - Black £32.99
1 x Cooler Master Hyper 212 Evo CPU Cooler £26.99
1 x LG GH24NSB0 24x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £19.99
1 x TP-Link 300Mbps Wireless N PCI Express Adapter (TL-WN881ND) £16.99
Total : £1,035.82 (includes shipping : FREE).



Since then I've been thinking is it really worth it to build a £1000 rig if I'm not going to be using all of its potential. So heres my question, for my needs would it be worth spending less money (i.e not wasting money) on a spec that will just do the same job for me?
I'll be playing games like simcity, sto maybe football manager on high settings so those aren't very heavy games. I'll also be using visual studio, sql server for my job.

Just so you know I need 2 22" hd monitors (I'll also be hooking up my tv but will use 1 monitor for gaming), 1tb hdd, an ssd, and a wireless network card as well as the usuals. i also quite like this case because of the buttons being on top so if you want to include it or one similar in any specs that would be helpful. And i don't need an OS.

Thanks

 

[stulid]

I think a AMD APU will do the job you are after, such as a 5800K (comes with Sim City too) and a A85 chipset board, but combine with fast RAM such as 2133Mhz+ as the built-in gpu core relies on it.


Or there has been a good price drop on AMD Piledriver CPU - http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?t=18536531

So you can now get a FX8320 for £113.99

 

[stulid]

YOUR BASKET
1 x MSI HD 7850 OC 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Cards with FREE GAMES £119.99
1 x AMD Piledriver FX-8 Eight Core 8320 Black Edition 3.50GHz (Socket AM3+) Processor - Retail £113.99
1 x Samsung S23B300BS 23" Widescreen LED Monitor - Glossy Black £109.99
1 x Samsung 120GB SSD 840 EVO SATA 6Gb/s Basic - (MZ-7TE120BW) £86.99
1 x Gigabyte 970A-UD3 AMD 970A (Socket AM3+) DDR3 Motherboard £86.99
1 x Patriot Viper "Black Mamba" Generation 3 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-17000C11 2133MHz Dual CHannel Kit (PV38G213C1K) £65.99
1 x Antec High Current Gamer 520W '80 Plus Bronze' Power Supply £59.99
1 x Seagate Barracuda 7200RPM 1TB SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache - OEM (ST1000DM003) HDD £53.99
1 x Xigmatek Asgard Pro Gaming Case - Black £32.99
1 x TP-Link 300Mbps Wireless N PCI Express Adapter (TL-WN881ND) £16.99
1 x OcUK 24x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £15.95
Total : £763.84 (includes shipping : FREE).




Should do what you want and then some.

 

[rigby93]

Cheers for the quick response. How future proof is the amd apu? I want this pc to last at least about 5 years. Also how much scope for upgrading is there with it?

 

[stulid]

Cheers for the quick response. How future proof is the amd apu? I want this pc to last at least about 5 years. Also how much scope for upgrading is there with it?

Well ive just posted a spec above, but if you want a version of that that is ready for Crossfire (2 gfx cards) then a change of board and a beefier PSU is in order,

YOUR BASKET
1 x MSI HD 7850 OC 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Cards with FREE GAMES £119.99
1 x AMD Piledriver FX-8 Eight Core 8320 Black Edition 3.50GHz (Socket AM3+) Processor - Retail £113.99
1 x Samsung S23B300BS 23" Widescreen LED Monitor - Glossy Black £109.99
1 x Samsung 120GB SSD 840 EVO SATA 6Gb/s Basic - (MZ-7TE120BW) £86.99
1 x MSI 990XA-GD55 AMD 990X Chipset (Socket AM3+) DDR3 Motherboard £79.99
1 x Antec High Current Gamer 620W '80 Plus Bronze' Power Supply £69.95
1 x Patriot Viper "Black Mamba" Generation 3 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-17000C11 2133MHz Dual CHannel Kit (PV38G213C1K) £65.99
1 x Seagate Barracuda 7200RPM 1TB SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache - OEM (ST1000DM003) HDD £53.99
1 x Xigmatek Asgard Pro Gaming Case - Black £32.99
1 x TP-Link 300Mbps Wireless N PCI Express Adapter (TL-WN881ND) £16.99
1 x OcUK 24x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £15.95
Total : £766.80 (includes shipping : FREE).




AMD have a newer A88 chipset for APU's coming soon so that they are ready for the next generation after Trinity/Richland which is called Kaveri.

 

[rigby93]

2 good specs there cheers.
Side note but what are the free games with the 7850?

 

[stulid]

2 good specs there cheers.
Side note but what are the free games with the 7850?

Found it,

http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?t=18536531

IMPORTANT - FREE GAMES

Also at OcUK you get one other big bonus by purchasing from us, not only are our prices the lowest on these cards. But you will get more games than our competitors supply. As when buying from OcUK you still get the original Never Settle campaign games and you will also get the new Gold, Silver or Bronze ticket as well.

 

[stulid]

Your going to ask what games exactly next aren't you?


Well,

http://sites.amd.com/uk/promo/Documents/never-settle-multi-bundle-offer-landing.html

Far Cry 3, Hitman Absolution, and Sleeping Dogs FREE

http://sites.amd.com/us/promo/never-settle/Pages/nsreloadedforever.aspx

With a 7850 you can pick any two from the silver range.

 

[rigby93]

So after looking it up I assume it's far cry 3, hitman and sleeping dogs. The only one I haven't played is hitman but free stuff is free stuff
Do you think getting the seperate cpu and gpu would be a better option then going down the apu route?

 

[rigby93]

and now i just seen your post about the game

 

[stulid]

Do you think getting the seperate cpu and gpu would be a better option then going down the apu route?

Well for Sim City and a bit of football manager I really cant see why APU wouldn't cut it.

But the FX8320+7850 (with five free games) seems like a killer deal, especially if you sell the ones you don't need onwards and claw a bit of money back.

 

[teppic]

Yup, a 7850 OC alone is about 5 times the speed of the graphics processor you get in an APU. You're going from entry level graphics to solidly midrange. And the CPU part isn't as powerful as an FX-4350, let alone an 8320 - so if you upgraded the APU later with a graphics card you'd not get the same performance.

 

[rigby93]

yeah I've seen the apu in action and it looks pretty good. I think i saw it run BF3 and it was coping fine. But with those 5 free games I don't think money wise would be too much different

 

[stulid]

yeah I've seen the apu in action and it looks pretty good. I think i saw it run BF3 and it was coping fine. But with those 5 free games I don't think money wise would be too much different

APU's (Ive used 5800K, 6700 and 6800K) do cope fine, just don't expect too much from them.

As an example I used a 5800K to play Skyrim on medium settings at 1280x720, was ok overall.

 

[rigby93]

yeah so this is what we've got
YOUR BASKET
1 x MSI HD 7850 OC 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Cards with FREE GAMES £119.99
1 x AMD Piledriver FX-8 Eight Core 8320 Black Edition 3.50GHz (Socket AM3+) Processor - Retail £113.99
2 x Samsung S23B300BS 23" Widescreen LED Monitor - Glossy Black £109.99 (£219.98)
1 x Samsung 120GB SSD 840 EVO SATA 6Gb/s Basic - (MZ-7TE120BW) £86.99
1 x MSI 990XA-GD55 AMD 990X Chipset (Socket AM3+) DDR3 Motherboard £79.99
1 x Antec High Current Gamer 620W '80 Plus Bronze' Power Supply £69.95
1 x Patriot Viper "Black Mamba" Generation 3 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-17000C11 2133MHz Dual CHannel Kit (PV38G213C1K) £65.99
1 x Seagate Barracuda 7200RPM 1TB SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache - OEM (ST1000DM003) HDD £53.99
1 x Xigmatek Asgard Pro Gaming Case - Black £32.99
1 x LG GH24NSB0 24x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £19.99
1 x TP-Link 300Mbps Wireless N PCI Express Adapter (TL-WN881ND) £16.99
Total : £880.84 (includes shipping : FREE).



what about an extra fan on there? I'm not sure if it's needed or not but I do want it to be as quite as possible.

 

[teppic]

Is a good spec - I'd change:

YOUR BASKET
1 x Asus M5A97 EVO R2.0 AMD 970 (Socket AM3+) DDR3 Motherboard £89.99
1 x Patriot Viper "Black Mamba" Generation 3 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (PV38G160C9K) £53.99
1 x Thermalright True Spirit 120 REV A [BW] Performance CPU Cooler £24.98
Total : £168.96 (includes shipping : FREE).




The board is better for overclocking and supporting the 8 cores generally (though Crossfire support is weak on this one). The cooler will allow an overclock and keep things quiet too. There's no real point in going over 1600MHz, so save the money on the RAM.

 

[stulid]

yeah so this is what we've got
YOUR BASKET
1 x MSI HD 7850 OC 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Cards with FREE GAMES £119.99
1 x AMD Piledriver FX-8 Eight Core 8320 Black Edition 3.50GHz (Socket AM3+) Processor - Retail £113.99
2 x Samsung S23B300BS 23" Widescreen LED Monitor - Glossy Black £109.99 (£219.98)
1 x Samsung 120GB SSD 840 EVO SATA 6Gb/s Basic - (MZ-7TE120BW) £86.99
1 x MSI 990XA-GD55 AMD 990X Chipset (Socket AM3+) DDR3 Motherboard £79.99
1 x Antec High Current Gamer 620W '80 Plus Bronze' Power Supply £69.95
1 x Patriot Viper "Black Mamba" Generation 3 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-17000C11 2133MHz Dual CHannel Kit (PV38G213C1K) £65.99
1 x Seagate Barracuda 7200RPM 1TB SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache - OEM (ST1000DM003) HDD £53.99
1 x Xigmatek Asgard Pro Gaming Case - Black £32.99
1 x LG GH24NSB0 24x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £19.99
1 x TP-Link 300Mbps Wireless N PCI Express Adapter (TL-WN881ND) £16.99
Total : £880.84 (includes shipping : FREE).



what about an extra fan on there? I'm not sure if it's needed or not but I do want it to be as quite as possible.

Yeah that's fine, there a plenty of good coolers to pick from,

YOUR BASKET
1 x Thermalright True Spirit 120 REV A (BW) Performance CPU Cooler £24.98
Total : £24.98 (includes shipping : FREE).




The heatpipes on this one are sloped back away from the ram slots giving it a touch more clearance with tall RAM than others.

 

[rigby93]

yeah I'm most probably more likely to oc in the future rather than xfire so I think that mobo's good teppic. What am i losing with the RAM (if anything) by dropping the speed down to 1600MHz?

 

[teppic]

yeah I'm most probably more likely to oc in the future rather than xfire so I think that mobo's good teppic. What am i losing with the RAM (if anything) by dropping the speed down to 1600MHz?

Nothing really. The 1600MHz has much better timings than the 2133MHz (which boosts performance), and there's no guarantee the system would even boot at 2133MHz anyway.

 

[stulid]

Theres nothing wrong with the MSI for overclocking, its unlikely you are trying to set any speed records alight with some serious clocking.

There are cheaper boards and PSU if you are not interested in Crossfire then?