1st 'good' PC - pre-built vs building my own etc

Soldato
Joined
11 Sep 2011
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Location
Reykjavik, Iceland
Hi all, I know there are probably a lot of these threads and the stickied thread about this was really helpful but just after some advice as per the title. I'm really not up to speed with PC specs.

Been looking at some pre-built Desktops here and have picked a few options out. I realise the first couple are probably no goes but as I say i'm not sure how much of a performance increase there is between the first one at £245 and the last at £560. I've just kept the graphics the same to compare - although i will need a better one than that no doubt.

My usage - light to medium. I would like to play games on high settings (such as Starcraft 2, Minecraft and the like). I also want good multitasking without any slowdown, running 1 or 2 programs in the background while working on a document. Nothing heavy.
So i need a good graphics card, good CPU and of course a good, efficient and reliable PSU. Storage is irrelevant - I have multiple TB external HDDs as I prefer to have everything backed up 2-3 times and rarely keep anything on the PC itself.

Primo 6100a AMD Athlon II X2 Dual Core 250 3.00GHz DDR3 System
£244 (GT 430)

Primo 6100i" Intel Core i3 550 3.20GHz DDR3 System
£356 (GT 430)

Titan Krypt" AMD Phenom II X4 850 "95W Edition" 3.30GHz Quad Core DDR3 System
£454 (GT 430)

Titan Xenomorph" Intel Core i3 550 3.20GHz DDR3 System - V3.0
£442 (GT 430)

Titan Predator X AMD Phenom II X4 840 3.20GHz @ 3.80GHz DDR3 System + 3 FREE GAMES - £560 (HD 6450) (Free games = £30 as i'd sell them)


If i can build a PC up myself along the lines of the Predator spec, but at the price of the Krypt then brilliant, i'll give it a go. As long as I can't mess anything up, but i've been inside PCs before to change PSUs (hence why i want a good one here, as previously i've had 3 blow up on me) and everything looks very straightforward (famous last words).

Any advice, help and info appretiated. Thanks
 
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Thing about the base Predator spec is it has a 6540 graphics card... which is fairly weedy for gaming, after some savings below replaced it with a GTX 550Ti.

The motherboard doesn't have to be £130 to run at stock or even overclocked, replaced with £66 MSI board.

The cooler, well you'd have to be a forum person to know but OCUK sells the same CPU cooler as the H60 at much lower price without branding and without a fan. Swapped that in along with a fan.

4gb 1600mhz cl9 can be found cheaper, so it was.

CPU is 95W, GPU is 116W, that's the main culprits at 211W, even if you overclock a 500W PSU is still plenty to handle it. So it replaced the 650W psu.

So, same core specs as a Titan Predator but a proper graphics card and at the cost of a Titan Krypt (£454.37 before delivery costs):
tmpq.jpg


Oh and you'll need to then do the overclock yourself if you wanted it.
 
Thing about the base Predator spec is it has a 6540 graphics card... which is fairly weedy for gaming, after some savings below replaced it with a GTX 550Ti.

The motherboard doesn't have to be £130 to run at stock or even overclocked, replaced with £66 MSI board.

The cooler, well you'd have to be a forum person to know but OCUK sells the same CPU cooler as the H60 at much lower price without branding and without a fan. Swapped that in along with a fan.

4gb 1600mhz cl9 can be found cheaper, so it was.

CPU is 95W, GPU is 116W, that's the main culprits at 211W, even if you overclock a 500W PSU is still plenty to handle it. So it replaced the 650W psu.

So, same core specs as a Titan Predator but a proper graphics card and at the cost of a Titan Krypt (£454.37 before delivery costs):
tmpq.jpg


Oh and you'll need to then do the overclock yourself if you wanted it.

Wow thanks, that's more of a saving than i'd hoped - and with the better graphics card already in too.
I will have a look at lunch time for those items you mentioned and make a start.
I still need a casing and monitor too but that's simple enough.

I do know what most of the specs mean but only by use of common sense as i've never looked into PC specs properly. No idea what is good value for money.

Looking to order by the end of play today though so thanks for the info.
 
Intel Core i5-2500K 3.30GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor - Retail with FREE TrackMania 2 Canyon PC Game £167.99
OcUK ATI Radeon HD 6870 1024MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card with FREE Deus Ex PC Game £124.98
Gigabyte Z68XP-UD3 Intel Z68 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard ** LOWEST UK PRICE ** £99.98
Antec TruePower New Modular 550W '80 Plus Bronze' Power Supply £53.99
Zalman Z9 Plus Tower Case with Fan Controller - Black £42.98
Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 500GB SATA 6Gb/s 16MB Cache - OEM (ST3500413AS) £30.98
Kingston HyperX Blu 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (KHX1600C9AD3B1K2/4G) £24.98
LG GH22NS70 22x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £16.99
(This can be changed during checkout) Shipping : £12.50
Total : £577.88

TBH, I would even take a i5-2400 and H61 before a AMD. Or even a i3. With the AMD overclocked to hell, the i5-2400 will still be faster.
 
Make sure you order before 16:30 so it's dispatched today! :) http://www.overclockers.co.uk/delivery.php

Well I should be ready to go by then hopefully. Then it's yet another delivery where i'm not in the house...!
Shame my work doesn't let people get things delivered here. At least if i select to use Royal Mail then it's only 5 minutes to pick it up from depot!

All the couriers depots are 45 mins drive minimum from me!



Also, I think i'm being a complete Tool but I had a quick search for 'Hotwires' suggestions and the price came up well short - must have missed something important!!
Once I have a proper look in half an hour i'll list everything and go from there. Want to make sure i order everything I need to get me running as I don't want to have to delay things by placing a 2nd order.
 
Intel Core i5-2500K 3.30GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor - Retail with FREE TrackMania 2 Canyon PC Game £167.99
OcUK ATI Radeon HD 6870 1024MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card with FREE Deus Ex PC Game £124.98
Gigabyte Z68XP-UD3 Intel Z68 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard ** LOWEST UK PRICE ** £99.98
Antec TruePower New Modular 550W '80 Plus Bronze' Power Supply £53.99
Zalman Z9 Plus Tower Case with Fan Controller - Black £42.98
Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 500GB SATA 6Gb/s 16MB Cache - OEM (ST3500413AS) £30.98
Kingston HyperX Blu 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (KHX1600C9AD3B1K2/4G) £24.98
LG GH22NS70 22x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £16.99
(This can be changed during checkout) Shipping : £12.50
Total : £577.88

TBH, I would even take a i5-2400 and H61 before a AMD. Or even a i3. With the AMD overclocked to hell, the i5-2400 will still be faster.

Thanks for that. I'll have a look at these too. Always like to have a few things to compare with.
 
i would definitly recommend building yourself over a prebuild because as long as you read the manuals and dont do anything stupid you almost cant go wrong because eveything can only fit in one place usually.

you said you wanted something that would perform like the predator, but costs the same as the krypt. well, this costs less than the krypt (the price below includes delivery) and blows the standard xenomorph into the middle of next week:

YOUR BASKET
1 x OcUK ATI Radeon HD 6870 1024MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card with FREE Deus Ex PC Game £124.98
1 x Intel Core i3-2100 3.10GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor - Retail £89.99
1 x MSI H67MA-E35 Intel H67 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Micro-ATX Motherboard - (Sandybridge) **B3 REVISION** £64.99
1 x Lepa W-Series 500W '80 Plus' Power Supply £46.99
1 x Zalman Z9 Plus Tower Case with Fan Controller - Black £42.98
1 x Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 500GB SATA 6Gb/s 16MB Cache - OEM (ST3500413AS) £30.98
1 x Corsair Value 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 PC3-10666C9 1333MHz Low Voltage Dual-Channel Kit £19.18
1 x Samsung SH-S222AL/BEBE 22x DVD±RW SATA Lightscribe ReWriter (Black) - OEM £16.99
Total : £452.09 (includes shipping : £12.50).


closest processor comparison i can do: http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/85?vs=289
the difference in the graphics cards is so huge i cant find anywhere to compare them.
 
Thanks a lot for the help folks.

There seems like some good options to go for here and for what i'll be doing on it i'm going to have a well spec'd PC. Probably overkill for me but I want it to last without having to upgrade everything.

Regarding the processor, I may take the plunge on the Quad Core. Thanks to everyones input, i've saved over £100, and ended up with a better graphics card so it could be worth putting that money towards the Quad processor in case i purchase any new games for it.

Plus, it does come with a game which i'll sell to recoup some of the extra cost too.

Got a couple of hours to decide anyway.
 
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