Friday morning spec me from Noob

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Joined
2 Jul 2011
Posts
46
Gents,

I’d appreciate help with a spec.

Background

I’ve got an old PC which has been upgraded piecemeal with the help of a mate. He loves all this kind of stuff; I’m not such a dab hand with the screwdriver.

I’ve just got a copy of BF3 and the whole experience is a bit underwhelming on the current setup. When moving around the screen is seems blurry and it’s very hard to spot the bad guys until they have shot you dead and the screen has stopped moving. So I think it’s time to retire the old PC and get a completely new one. I’d actually like to have a decent 2nd PC as I find that useful. So the current PC will still be used. (I currently have two but the second one is so old it takes hours to boot into XP so that one is going in the bin!).

The basics of the current setup are as follows:
  • AMD PHENOM2 X4 965 AM3 BLK
  • 4GB
  • ATI Radeon HD 4800
  • GByte MA790XT
  • Coolmaster Elite case
  • Viewsonic Vx912 monitor
  • 470GB Samsung HE5021J ATA HD
  • 380GB Samsung HD401LJ ATA HD
  • I can’t remember what the PSU is buy my mate said it’s pretty punchy
  • Samsung SW252S CD
  • TECG DV-W58E DVD

I also have a HP Media Server with 3TB so storage is not a problem. (That is seems so slow is though! :mad:)

Requirements

I’m not a serious gamer, but I’d still like to be able to run games with decent settings. Otherwise I do a bit of development work and the usual surfing. So the software I’ll be running is nothing special:

  1. BF3
  2. Micro$oft VC2010
  3. Eclipse
  4. Chrome
  5. TF2

I’m not that interested in 3D gaming, but I’ve seen a lot of people say the 120Hz smoothness is worth the investment.

Budget was around 1.7K excluding keyboard/mouse etc.

So my mate has come up with the following spec which he thinks cannot be bettered.

  • Intel Core i5 2500K CPU 3.3 Ghz (to be overclocked to 4.something)
  • Corsair A70 CPU Cooler
  • Asus P8Z68-V Motherboard (sound onboard)
  • 16GB PC3-10666 1333MHz DDR3 Memory (4 x 4GB)
  • NVIDIA GeForce GTX 570 1280MB Graphics Card
  • 120GB Corsair Force 3 SSD
  • Samsung 1000GB 7200RPM Hard Disk
  • Samsung BR/DVD Combi Drive
  • Corsair TX 850W PSU
  • Fractal R3 Low Noise Case - ( White so it matches the desk :D )
  • Samsung S27A750D
  • Win 7 64 Home Prem

Coats about £1.8K inc vat

My only concerns are:

Firstly does this have enough upgrade capacity? I’d like capacity to add a second GPU at some point.

Will I see a significant improvement in BF3 experience for the money? Would I just be better buying a new GPU & monitor for my current PC.

Finally, can the proposed be beaten for around the budget? :confused:
 
I'd begin with a better GPU for starters. For BF3, all you need is a 560ti and above to play 1080p on ultra (minus anti-aliasing).

Cheap upgrade, especially if your PSU is good enough. You can also add a SSD to keep things smooth with visual studio builds, programs and OS.

A two monitor setup is really good with development as well. Keep the old one for monitoring stuff, and a new shiny 24'' / 27'' display for your main work / gaming.

So in the end :
6950 2GB / 560ti / 570.
SSD 120GB.
a 24'' monitor (IPS 1200p?). That's what we use at work for dev work.
8GB RAM?
Maybe a PSU if yours can't take the new GPU. Make it strong for SLI / Crossfire later.

For a white case, my pick would be a 600T white.

If you feel you need a better CPU, a 2500K with a good motherboard. But basically, you can upgrade as you go along, the CPU is good enough for BF3 and general gaming. Hold on until IvyBridge, maybe.
 
Last edited:
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