First time gaming build, help needed

jimbob2405

jimbob2405

jimbob2405

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Joined
11 Sep 2010
Posts
37
Location
Cardiff, S. Wales
Hi Guys, im new to the forum but ive been poaching around the forum for a while as a guest. Ive recently decided to get a gaming PC as my mac is perfect for everything else, but its useless for gaming.

This is the preposed build:

Mobo/processor/ram bundle - Argon Extreme Intel Core i3 530 2.93GHZ @ 4.40GHZ Overclocked Bundle - £298
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=BU-039-OB&groupid=43&catid=339&subcat=

- GFX card - Sapphire ATI Radeon HD 5830 1024MB - £165
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-227-SP

Hard Drive - Seagate Barracuda 500GB 7200RPM 16MB Cache - £35
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=HD-206-SE&tool=3

DVD Drive - Sony Optiarc AD-7260S - £15.99
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CD-046-OT&tool=3

PSU - OcUK Crusade 450W Dual-Rail High Efficiency Power Supply - £35
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CA-042-OK&tool=3

- Case - Aztec Zen Case, Black - £39.99
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CA-020-AK&groupid=701&catid=7&subcat=

- Possibly an SSD to use as master drive. The Crucial 64gb one

Total Price = £589 (without ssd)

How would the build above cope with gaming? Ideally Id like a gaming build that would be up to date for atleast a year and play new games on nearly max graphics.

Would it be better to get an AMD chip instead of the i3 for gaming?

Feel free to recommend anything!

Cheers, Jim
 
Last edited:
Hi, welcome to the forum

Id recomend you change the gfx card to a 460 as theyre quite a bit faster, theres a comparison to show you how much faster here
The i3 bundle will be very nice for gaming, however Id also maybe look at swapping the PSU for a decent branded one such as Corsair, as you really dont want to skimp on this area
 
Are these overclocked bundles a good buy?

Ive never built a pc before but im pretty sure i can manage as ive been upgrading certain bits and pieces for years. Would it make more sense to buy it all seperately?

I like that the bundles come overclocked. Because i have no clue how i would go about overclocking them myself. I can only just manage overclocking my phone.
 
Yeah if youre not sure about OCing its definitely a good deal, to buy the components separate youre looking at £270 and thats with most of them being on This Week Only deals too, so youre paying £30 (or 10%) for the OCing to be done for you professionally and you get a warranty covering it too, though if you want to learn you could get them separate and do it yourself, its not too difficult just requires time and patience really
 
4 cores is fine but add a SSD, the crucial one.
The bundle will get you started, you can also turn it down to stock to show you the difference it makes to your speeds
 
So you think i should just stick with the i3 then? I thought the i3 was a dual core? Shows home much i know!

Are there any better cases available for that price? Or is it worth spending a little more on a much better case? Throw me some knowledge!


Jim
 
jimbob2405 said:
So would replacing the ATI radeon with this be wise?:

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-128-GW&groupid=701&catid=56&subcat=1830
Click to expand...

If i was you, I would get Gigabyte GeForce GTX 460 OC 1024MB GDDR5 Will run a lot more cooler and quieter.

jimbob2405 said:
I thought the i3 was a dual core? Shows home much i know!
Click to expand...

Yes your correct, Intel i3 is dual-core

jimbob2405 said:
Are there any better cases available for that price? Or is it worth spending a little more on a much better case? Throw me some knowledge!
Click to expand...

Maybe you should have a look at the Antec 300 case
 
The core i3 is a duel core with hyperthreading so duel core with 4 threads. A true 4 core is still better than hyperthreading in multi threaded apps. Most games only use a max of 2 cores bit hopefully over the next year things will change to use the 4 and 6 core monsters most people buy. The Radon AMD Phenom II X4 955 3.20GHz @ 3.60GHz is slightly more but still good value
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=BU-011-OP&groupid=43&catid=339&subcat=
For the £20 more th 6 core is good value if your going to do something that will actually stress the cores :)

Cases are a very personal thing especially with the looks of them. You could also look at the antec 200 and 300 series or the akasa freedom
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CA-039-AK&tool=3
 
jimbob2405 said:
Are these overclocked bundles a good buy?

Ive never built a pc before but im pretty sure i can manage as ive been upgrading certain bits and pieces for years. Would it make more sense to buy it all seperately?

I like that the bundles come overclocked. Because i have no clue how i would go about overclocking them myself. I can only just manage overclocking my phone.
Click to expand...

Hi mate, I just built my first pc last week. see sig. I have managed to OC the cpu to 3.2ghz very easily. If you take the time to check out other peoples posts in the forum with similar specs as yours then I'm confident that most people could OC at least a little very easily. Although if it is the warranty you want then go for it.

Hope it helps, good luck with the build :)
 
Cheers for all the advice guys. I think im gonna go with the phenon II x4 955 bundle that dfour linked me to above. The bundles is now on offer so thats good timing! same price as the i3 bundle now.

Now, do I have to change to an ATI card because of the AMD chip or can i still run an nvidea 460 card? Whats recommended?
 
If you run the Nvidia Card you can't run two cards in SLI on AMD. you can only do this on Intel. However if you choose an ATI card you can put two together into crossfire to increase performance. There are other things to consider like will the motherboard utilise the cards in SLI (Intel only) or CF (AMD or Intel) correctly. But looking at your usage I would say 460 would be fine but it depends on the resolution you are playing at.


A single Nvidia or ATI card is fine in either board.

Hope it helps :)
 
the motherboard on the bundle dfour suggested cnt run CF properly
iirc only the fx and gx(i think im missing another one) motherboards can run CF properly.
so if you want to CF in the future i would choose a different motherboard
 
Skeng said:
Some changes a GTX 460 and a better processor I'd go for a i5. 750 series.
Click to expand...

+1

I went for the i5 760 and gtx 460 and I don't regret it one bit and graphically I play games on a 1080 monitor at high-v. high settings and I don't need to upgrade my system for a while. (Not to say I won't though, I got the bug now ;))
 
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