Gaming Build (have some parts) advice needed.

cuffylad

cuffylad

cuffylad

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hi guys

I want to build myself a cheap gaming rig to play BF3 on reasonable settings with decent FPS. My budget is around £350/£400, I already have a OS, Keyboard, mouse and monitor.

I also have the following parts that I can rob from other machines but im not sure if they are any good or if I should just replace with new?

I would also like to be able to use dual screens, not for gaming but just when im web browsing etc.

HDD1

or

HDD2

2GB Ram

Mobo

Are any of the above any good or are they destined for the bin? :o
 
YOUR BASKET
1 x Intel Core i3-2100 3.10GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor - Retail £89.99
1 x Asus ATI Radeon HD 6850 DirectCU V2 1024MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card **PRE-ORDER ONLY PRICE** £89.99
1 x Gigabyte Z68AP-D3 Intel Z68 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £84.98
1 x OCZ ZS Series 650W '80 Plus Bronze' Power Supply £64.99
1 x Corsair XMS3 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (CMX8GX3M2A1600C9) £35.99
1 x BitFenix Merc Alpha Gaming Case - Black £32.99
1 x Sony Optiarc AD-7280S 24x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £16.98
Total : £430.91 (includes shipping : £12.50).




the hdd are fine but the motherboard is quite a few generation old (flog it on the well know auction site) and 2gb ram wont cut it for bf3.

what a linked above has a z68 mother board which means easy upgrade to an i5/i7 in the future. and a single 6850 should run bf3 on med/high also what res is the monitor?
you could go cheaper and get a 500w psu but the one i linked will be more than ample for future upgrade (ie crossfire new cpu etc)
if you dont plan on going cf

YOUR BASKET
1 x Asus ATI Radeon HD 6850 DirectCU V2 1024MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card **PRE-ORDER ONLY PRICE** £89.99
1 x Intel Core i3-2100 3.10GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor - Retail £89.99
1 x Gigabyte Z68AP-D3 Intel Z68 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £84.98
1 x Cooler Master Elite Power 500W Power Supply £40.99
1 x Corsair XMS3 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (CMX8GX3M2A1600C9) £35.99
1 x BitFenix Merc Alpha Gaming Case - Black £32.99
1 x Sony Optiarc AD-7280S 24x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £16.98
Total : £406.91 (includes shipping : £12.50).

 
Last edited:
thanks for the reply,

my screen res is 1920 x 1080. I also forgot to mention that I already have a optical drive.

When you say crossfire do you mean adding a extra graphics card? (sorry im a noob), also looking at the spec and the ability to crossfire does that mean it should last me a few years?

thanks again
 
Nvidia option

Your basket

Product Name

Qty

Price

Line Total

OcUK GeForce GTX 460 1024MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card

£95.99
(£79.99)

£95.99
(£79.99)

Intel Core i3-2100 3.10GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor - Retail

£89.99
(£74.99)

£89.99
(£74.99)

Gigabyte Z68AP-D3 Intel Z68 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard

£84.98
(£70.82)

£84.98
(£70.82)


XFX Pro 550W Core Edition '80 Plus Bronze' Power Supply

£59.99
(£49.99)

£59.99
(£49.99)

Corsair XMS3 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (CMX8GX3M2A1600C9)

£35.99
(£29.99)

£35.99
(£29.99)

BitFenix Merc Beta Gaming Case - Black

£29.99
(£24.99)

£29.99
(£24.99)

Sub Total :

£330.77

Shipping cost assumes delivery to UK Mainland with:
DPD Next Day Parcel
(This can be changed during checkout)

Shipping :

£12.50


VAT is being charged at 20.00%

VAT :

£68.65





Total :

£411.92
 
Well on average most people get new comps ecery 1.5-3 years a comp like that I suppose around 2 years imo
 
 
cuffylad said:
yeah sorry
Click to expand...

Well it doesn't really matter much, my friend tells me Nvidia is better but its not like the ATI one is crap or wont work, it really depends on the card so overall you shouldn't care much if its ATI or nvidia as they will both do their promised job.
 
ok so far we have this which looks great.


YOUR BASKET
1 x Intel Core i3-2100 3.10GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor - Retail £89.99
1 x Gigabyte Z68AP-D3 Intel Z68 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £84.98
1 x OCZ ZS Series 650W '80 Plus Bronze' Power Supply £64.99
1 x Corsair XMS3 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (CMX8GX3M2A1600C9) £35.99
1 x BitFenix Merc Alpha Gaming Case - Black £32.99
Total : £323.94 (includes shipping : £12.50).

Now im torn between two graphics cards....


YOUR BASKET
1 x Asus ATI Radeon HD 6850 DirectCU V2 1024MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card **PRE-ORDER ONLY PRICE** £89.99

and


YOUR BASKET
1 x XFX ATI Radeon HD 6870 1024MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £125.99


Is it worth spending the extra £35 on the 6870 or will I not see that much of a difference? Or are there any better options?
 
Personally I'd go for the 6850, there isn't a huge performance difference between the two, maybe 5-10% on average IIRC.

If you want to squeeze every last FPS out of the system then get the 6870. If you want value for money then go for the 6850.
 
 
cuffylad said:
ok here is my final build, thanks very much to everyone for all there input and help.


YOUR BASKET
1 x Asus ATI Radeon HD 6850 DirectCU V2 1024MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card **PRE-ORDER ONLY PRICE** £89.99
1 x Intel Core i3-2100 3.10GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor - Retail £89.99
1 x Gigabyte Z68AP-D3 Intel Z68 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £84.98
1 x OCZ ZS Series 650W '80 Plus Bronze' Power Supply £64.99
1 x Corsair XMS3 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (CMX8GX3M2A1600C9) £35.99
1 x BitFenix Merc Alpha Gaming Case - Black £32.99
Total : £413.93 (includes shipping : £12.50).
Click to expand...

It's rumoured the 7870 may well be released next month. Might be worth waiting or build now and just run the IGP initially and see what the 7870 performs like and if it changes prices of other kit.

That mobo doesn't dual card properly so it's important you get the best single GPU you can. You need to spend £100 on the mobo to enable the dual card option.

I think I'd wait a bit myself. Although there is nothing really "wrong" with what you have chosen for the price :)
 
honosuseri said:
It's rumoured the 7870 may well be released next month. Might be worth waiting or build now and just run the IGP initially and see what the 7870 performs like and if it changes prices of other kit.

That mobo doesn't dual card properly so it's important you get the best single GPU you can. You need to spend £100 on the mobo to enable the dual card option.

I think I'd wait a bit myself. Although there is nothing really "wrong" with what you have chosen for the price :)
Click to expand...

ah I didnt know that, do you think it would be worth spending a little extra cash on a better mobo to enable dual card in the future?

Also would I see a massive improvement if i did dual card in the future on this build?
 
It's a bad time for upgrading a GPU right now. The existing cards out there also seem to be a bit price inflated.

So if you have patience, it may be better wait and see what the next range of cards bring to the table.

Running a single card always works the best, running multiple cards can cause issues in some games, but does offer improved performance when it works correctly.

It's also usually cheaper in future to add another card to your existing one to get more performance, rather than buying a more powerful single card at the time.

The added performance from a second card varies from game to game, but in the worst cases it still usually results in at least a 20-30% performance boost, some games can see almost double the performance, again it depends on the game.
 
reddev85 said:
It's a bad time for upgrading a GPU right now. The existing cards out there also seem to be a bit price inflated.

So if you have patience, it may be better wait and see what the next range of cards bring to the table.

Running a single card always works the best, running multiple cards can cause issues in some games, but does offer improved performance when it works correctly.

It's also usually cheaper in future to add another card to your existing one to get more performance, rather than buying a more powerful single card at the time.

The added performance from a second card varies from game to game, but in the worst cases it still usually results in at least a 20-30% performance boost, some games can see almost double the performance, again it depends on the game.
Click to expand...

ok thanks, when do you expect the next range of cards to be released?
 
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