first time buyer questions ?

broxy bear

broxy bear

broxy bear

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29 Sep 2011
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23
hey people .

:-) i shall apologize now if any questions i ask are amateurish or obviously simple but i am someone with limited knowledge selecting pc components.

so , i am on a tight budget of £950 inc delivery and would like to get a gaming pc to play the latest games ( tomb raider , far cry 3 , battlefield 3) and similar games of the future. i only need the base unit as already own keyboard , mouse , 1080p monitor and speakers .

i am not confident enough to buy all the components separate

so far i have came up with this build and would grateful appreciate if anyone could suggest any changes to maximizes my gaming experience but staying within my budget


"AMD X8 Defender" AMD FX-8 8350 3.5GHz (4.0GHz Turbo) Eight Core Gaming PC

8gb 1600 mhz ddr3
windows 8 64 bit
sapphire hd 7950 boost 3072mb
toshiiba 60 gb ssd
barracuda 1tb hdd



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should be fixed now . also i would like the option of adding a 2nd gfx card at a later date and not sure if this motherboard supports crossfire
 
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to be honest i am tempted as want to get the best gaming pc for my money . my only issue is that i have never done it before and with a lot of money on the line i dont want to buy parts which aren't compatible
 
Just post in general hardware your max budget and what you need, more or less what you said in your first post.
 
While potty does his, this is a good spec quite lower in cost:

YOUR BASKET
1 x MSI HD 7950 Twin Frozr III Boost Edition 3072MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card **NEW REVISION** with FREE GAMES £189.95
1 x AMD Piledriver FX-8 Eight Core 8320 Black Edition 3.50GHz (Socket AM3+) Processor - Retail £119.99
1 x Asus M5A97 EVO R2.0 AMD 970 (Socket AM3+) DDR3 Motherboard £89.99
1 x Samsung 120GB SSD 840 EVO SATA 6Gb/s Basic - (MZ-7TE120BW) £86.99
1 x Microsoft Windows 8 64-Bit DVD - OEM (WN7-00403) £79.99
1 x Patriot Intel Extreme Masters 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-14900C9 1866MHz Dual Channel Kit (PVI38G186C9K) £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 £49.99
1 x Corsair Carbide 200R Compact ATX Case - Black £47.95
1 x Alpenföhn Matterhorn Pure Edition CPU Cooler £29.99
1 x OcUK 20x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £16.99
Total : £852.80 (includes shipping : £12.50).

 
Intel i5k, SLI ready, decent size SSD:

YOUR BASKET
1 x Asus GeForce GTX 670 DirectCU II OC Gamer 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card **FREE SHIPPING** £197.99
1 x Intel Core i5-4670K 3.40GHz (Haswell) Socket LGA1150 Processor - OEM £191.99
1 x Asus Z87-A Intel Z87 (Socket 1150) DDR3 ATX Motherboard £119.99
1 x Samsung 120GB SSD 840 EVO SATA 6Gb/s Basic - (MZ-7TE120BW) £86.99
1 x Microsoft Windows 8 64-Bit DVD - OEM (WN7-00403) £79.99
1 x XFX Pro 850W Core Edition '80 Plus Bronze' Power Supply £74.99
1 x Corsair Carbide 300R Mid Tower Case - Black £61.99
1 x Patriot Viper "Black Mamba" Generation 3 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (PV38G160C9K) £53.99
1 x Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 500GB SATA 6Gb/s 16MB Cache - OEM (ST500DM002) HDD £39.95
1 x Thermalright True Spirit 120 REV A (BW) Performance CPU Cooler £24.98
1 x LG GH24NSB0 24x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £16.99
Total : £949.84 (includes shipping : FREE).



HDD is 500GB to keep in budget, could get 1TB if needed for £10 more.
 
thanks you potty27 and teppic for your help. with those two builds will i be good to play the latests games with high settings . No doubt you will hear more from me when i make my final decisions as will most likely need more assistance when my gear arrives
 
AMD build, decent side SSD, 1TB HDD, 7970, Crossfire ready.

YOUR BASKET
1 x MSI HD 7970 GHz Twin FrozR OC BE 3072MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card with FREE GAMES £259.99
1 x AMD Piledriver FX-8 Eight Core 8320 Black Edition 3.50GHz (Socket AM3+) Processor - Retail £119.99
1 x MSI 990FXA-GD65 AMD 990 FX (AMD AM3/AM3+) DDR3 Motherboard £94.99
1 x Samsung 120GB SSD 840 EVO SATA 6Gb/s Basic - (MZ-7TE120BW) £86.99
1 x Microsoft Windows 8 64-Bit DVD - OEM (WN7-00403) £79.99
1 x XFX Pro 850W Core Edition '80 Plus Bronze' Power Supply £74.99
1 x Corsair Carbide 300R Mid Tower Case - Black £61.99
1 x Patriot Viper "Black Mamba" Generation 3 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (PV38G160C9K) £53.99
1 x Seagate Barracuda 7200RPM 1TB SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache - OEM (ST1000DM003) HDD £49.99
1 x Cooler Master Hyper 212 Evo CPU Cooler £26.99
1 x LG GH24NSB0 24x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £16.99
Total : £941.89 (includes shipping : £12.50).

 
Yes, these would give you high frame rates in the latest games. The 7970 card would give you the best performance. The i5 build is generally better for older games, with newer ones like the ones you mention there's nothing between them.

Here's a useful benchmark as it shows the 8320/8350 and the 7970 GHz in Far Cry 3 at very high settings:

http://cdn.overclock.net/7/7c/7c230369_CPU_01.png
 
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as much as i thank you all for your suggestions i think i shall be going with the AMD as most of my friends that i have spoke to today prefer them over Intel for performance for price.

i noticed that the 2 amd build suggestions have the AMD Piledriver FX-8 Eight Core 8320 Black Edition 3.50GHz (Socket AM3+) Processor
while having a quick look around the latest deal i saw AMD Piledriver FX-8 Eight Core 8350 Black Edition 4.00GHz (Socket AM3+) was also on special offer. Would this cpu be worse the extra £30 and at the same time, keeping the rest of the components that you guys have suggested the same
 
The 8320 should overclock nearly as well as the 8350, depends on luck how far it will overclock safely, but the 8320 is sure to overclock fairly well.

The mobo and aftermarket Cooler should be fine for a fairly decent OC :)

Up to you really though :D

Intel are good, but AMD offer the best value for this budget. Also more and more new games will be making use of the extra cores.
 
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