Gaming pc spec help?

Marine-RX179 · 3 May 2010 at 17:07

ajm said:
I have managed to find..

Core i3 530....................... £94
Mobo............................... £80
2gb Ram........................... £48
Case & PSU Coolermaster..... £60
Vid card 4850.................... £80

Total £362 which i think he may goto.

The saving is mainly from cutting corner at going just 2GB instead of 4GB memory (which is fine as long as he's gonna be using Windows XP/7 32-bits, not Vista). And then the Case & PSU Coolermaster for £60...have you got the specs for both the case and the PSU? Cause at that price the quality may be questionable...and my main concern is whether or not the PSU is 80+ effciency certified.

ajm · 3 May 2010 at 17:17

Yes he will be rnning Xp for now and when he moves to other os he will have the extra cash for another 2gb ram ( hopefully).

The Psu is this one Only looks like 70%

With this case

CAT-THE-FIFTH · 3 May 2010 at 17:20

I would consider the Casecom 6788 case and the CWT made OCZ StealthXStream 400W or the FSP made OCZ StealthXStream 500W for a similar price. Also the Phenom II X4 955BE and a MSI 770-C45 or 770-G45 would be a better choice IMHO.

barney magru · 3 May 2010 at 21:36

Yeah, you'd be mad not to go for a quad core 3.2 unlocked processor over a dual core any day if you can afford it.

And the 1gig 4850 is a great card that will last you a long time

Marine-RX179 · 3 May 2010 at 22:23

barney magru said:
Yeah, you'd be mad not to go for a quad core 3.2 unlocked processor over a dual core any day if you can afford it.

No point going that high for CPU if the graphic is not up there with it. A Phenom II X4 955 ain't gonna give more frame rate than a i3 530 on a 4850 1GB anyway, as the GPU bound would hit first before the CPU bottleneck.

Redmint · 3 May 2010 at 22:55

Depends a bit on the game, also it'd be 'future proofing' as he could then just switch the graphics card out and keep the same processor, but as he's pretty fixed on Intel I'm guessing he'll stick with the i3.

CAT-THE-FIFTH · 3 May 2010 at 22:59

The Phenom II X4 955BE and MSI motherboard will cost around the same as the Core i3 setup.

Here is a review of the motherboard from Bit-tech:

http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/motherboards/2009/09/17/msi-770-c45-motherboard-review/1

The latest version has ACC enabled too. There are quite a few people running Phenom II X3 and Phenom II X4 processors with this motherboard.

ajm · 4 May 2010 at 12:42

I really don't know amd so am trying to steer clear as it is easier to stick with what you know, even though it maybe a better option.

I would consider the Casecom 6788 case and the CWT made OCZ StealthXStream 400W or the FSP made OCZ StealthXStream 500W for a similar price

Is there anything wrong with coolermaster psu's? Just that the extra few pounds is a no no for my son's budget. He has already gone over what he initially wanted to pay.

CAT-THE-FIFTH · 4 May 2010 at 13:10

The Coolermaster 460W PSU you are getting is not really the best one TBH. Anyway the OCZ 400W PSU and the Elite 330 case will cost slightly less than the OCZ bundle. The OCZ 500W was actually around the same price yesterday as the 400W version!

Hardware Secrets tested both CPUs and found that the Coolermaster 460W unit could only actually output 430W and that the OCZ 400W could output 450W.

I looked at the manufacturers websites and the 12V lines on the OCZ PSU can supply upto 372W whereas the Coolermaster PSU can only supply 312W.