PC for my Dad - Spec check

Lee · 26 Nov 2014 at 23:48

Hi, building a new PC for my dad at Xmas. He's a relatively light user, but wants it to be able to play the latest Football Manager for my nephew. I get a bit "price blind" when speccing these up as I'm a heavy gamer and tend to go for high end builds for myself. He also wants it to last for quite some time. He has 2 HDD's from his old PC which I will reuse. Any views on the spec below (it's a little over budget at £485 incl VAT) ?:

Asus Z97-k with I5-4690k bundle - £255.58
Samsung 120GB SSD 840 - £60.98
TeamGroup Extreme Frost Edition 2x4GB 2400Mhz (overkill I know, but price is good) - £59.99
Corsair Builder Series CX500W modular PSU - £49.99
Corsair Carbide 200R Compact ATC case - £44.99
Asus DVD-RW - £13.99

Total - £485.52 (with free shipping)

TheGentry · 27 Nov 2014 at 00:06

I don't think he would need a SSD if you want to keep in budget

McGraw · 27 Nov 2014 at 00:15

Got to keep the SSD, they are what a light user will get the most benefit from day to day and FM will be much nicer. You can get more than double the capacity for that money over the next day or so though.

CPU is a good choice and can be overclocked later on as it becomes older.

Quicker ram is nice to have with haswell so that's good but enabling the XMP will hit the temps as I'm sure you'll know.

I'd be happy to build that for my dad. I've not checked prices though.

tamzzy · 27 Nov 2014 at 00:16

YOUR BASKET
1 x Asus H81M-K Intel Core i5 DIY Micro ATX Motherboard, CPU & RAM Bundle £218.98
1 x Crucial MX100 256GB SATA 2.5” 7mm SSD + 9.5mm Adapter (CT256MX100SSD1) £79.99
1 x **B Grade** **B Grade** Gigabyte ATI Radeon HD 7850 OC Windforce 2X 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card w/ Nexuiz, Sleeping Dogs & Dirt Showd (BG-307-GI) £59.99
1 x PC Power & Cooling Silencer Mk III Series 500W '80 Plus Bronze' Modular Power Supply - White £40.79
1 x Zalman T2 Plus Mini-Tower USB 3.0 - Black £19.99
1 x LG GH24NSB0 24x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £13.99
1 x Arctic F12 Pro Case Fan - 120mm £3.98
Total : £447.31 (includes shipping : £8.00).

non-oc i5 build + 7850
256gb ssd!
and cheaper too!

i ran fm14 without a gpu before using the integrated i5 gpu. it was a horrible experience...slow and stuttery during matches. and from what i'm hearing, fm15 is more demanding than fm 14 during matchdays.
idk what sigames use for their match engine, but it is definitely a better experience with a gpu.

ps: even if you don't like the build, buy the psu quickly! it's a steal for 40 quid. only one left in stock too...

McGraw · 27 Nov 2014 at 00:19

Don't need a gpu for fm though.

tamzzy · 27 Nov 2014 at 00:21

McGraw said:
Don't need a gpu for fm though.

tamzzy said:
i ran fm14 without a gpu before using the integrated i5 gpu. it was a horrible experience...slow and stuttery during matches. and from what i'm hearing, fm15 is more demanding than fm 14 during matchdays.
idk what sigames use for their match engine, but it is definitely a better experience with a gpu.

jakesnake · 27 Nov 2014 at 00:56

tricky one!

Football manager is one of the few games that can utilize hyper threading I think. the 4690k is overkill and I don't think we have the budget. FM runs sexy on an SSD so I think one should be worked in. Iv never tried to run it on integrated graphics so tamzzys input should be considered.

I went for an i3 (4 threads) so an ssd and gpu could be bought. Im not sure of budget gpus so if anyone knows any better please tell the op.

Your dad will have solid psu and all the memory he will probably need. Z97 board so could easily pick up a cheap 4690k in the future for a turbo boost.

Add: maybe even try the integrated graphics on the i3 first, if it runs bad then add gpu.

http://community.sigames.com/showthread.php/370225-Football-Manager-14-Benchmark-Thread
I think the i3 would hit around the 4min 25sec mark

Doomedspeed · 27 Nov 2014 at 06:32

tamzzy said:
YOUR BASKET
1 x Asus H81M-K Intel Core i5 DIY Micro ATX Motherboard, CPU & RAM Bundle £218.98
1 x Crucial MX100 256GB SATA 2.5” 7mm SSD + 9.5mm Adapter (CT256MX100SSD1) £79.99
1 x **B Grade** **B Grade** Gigabyte ATI Radeon HD 7850 OC Windforce 2X 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card w/ Nexuiz, Sleeping Dogs & Dirt Showd (BG-307-GI) £59.99
1 x PC Power & Cooling Silencer Mk III Series 500W '80 Plus Bronze' Modular Power Supply - White £40.79
1 x Zalman T2 Plus Mini-Tower USB 3.0 - Black £19.99
1 x LG GH24NSB0 24x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £13.99
1 x Arctic F12 Pro Case Fan - 120mm £3.98
Total : £447.31 (includes shipping : £8.00).

non-oc i5 build + 7850
256gb ssd!
and cheaper too!

i ran fm14 without a gpu before using the integrated i5 gpu. it was a horrible experience...slow and stuttery during matches. and from what i'm hearing, fm15 is more demanding than fm 14 during matchdays.
idk what sigames use for their match engine, but it is definitely a better experience with a gpu.

ps: even if you don't like the build, buy the psu quickly! it's a steal for 40 quid. only one left in stock too...

That is fantastic, exactly what was thinking, non OC i5 and cheap but powerful GPU. The price is superb.

Lee · 27 Nov 2014 at 07:57

Thanks for the advice so far guys. Will look in more detail later, got to go to work.....