Help... Confused

cactwma

cactwma

cactwma

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Joined
18 Jun 2011
Posts
202
Hey, this is my first post here.

Well, I have been thinking about getting a new PC, but I don't need it to play the latest games. I mainly want something that will comfortably play games on the highest settings from say up to 2006. Most games since then have been released on consoles. Although, I wouldn't mind playing a few newer games like CivRevs that are PC exclusive, even on the lowest setting it won't bother me too much.

I will need a new keyboard, mouse and a nice new monitor as I will be watching HD content on there, and Win7 home premium OS.

So basically, should I buy a pre-made one off here or choose my own parts for it to be built?

Any reccomendations?

Thanks.

Andy.
 
Reaper 392 said:
building your own PC is the way to get the most bang for your buck.

from your post i am guessing you want a low end gaming PC that is nice and cheap and will also be good as a video player. will you be doing anything else that is processor intensive? (eg video encoding, 3D design, large photoshop work, etc)

this is what ive come up with:

YOUR BASKET
1 x AMD Phenom II X4 Quad Core 955 Black Edition "125W Edition" 3.20GHz (Socket AM3) - Retail £89.99
1 x XFX ATI Radeon HD 5830 1024MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £79.99
1 x Microsoft Windows 7 Bundle - Home Premium 64 Bit £68.40
1 x Western Digital Caviar Blue 500GB SATA 6Gb/s 16MB Cache - OEM (WD5000AAKX) £29.99
1 x Cooler Master Elite 430 Windowed Case - Black (with 500w Elite Power PSU) £64.99
1 x Kingston HyperX Genesis Grey 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (KHX1600C9D3X2K2/4GX) £34.99
1 x ASRock N68C-S UCC GeForce 7025 (Socket AM3/AM2+) DDR2/DDR3 microATX Motherboard £34.99
1 x Arctic Cooling Freezer 13 Pro Extreme Performance CPU Cooler (Socket LGA775/1155/1156/1366/AM3/AM2+/AM2) £24.98
1 x OcUK 22x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £14.99
Total : £456.82 (includes shipping : £11.25).

the CPU cooler isnt needed, but i found the standard cooler on the Phenom II X4 far too noisy for video and gaming without putting headphones in, so i have added a custom one

will you be likely to use lots of (more than two) add on cards, like a TV card, etc?
Click to expand...

Thanks a lot for taking the time to find a system for me.

And basically, yes a low - mid PC is what I need. For EVERYTHING my budget is around £600, which I would have thought adequate as I am not even planning on running games from 07 at the highest settings. I won't be doing anything too processor intensive, no photoshop, 3d designing, nothing except gaming and the regular stuff. And no, I don't think I will be using many cards at all.

Thanks guys.
 
'Stulid' if I buy that setup are there any recent games that would run half decent on it, or is that a no go?

Also, if I would be saving that much money on electric bills and getting that good performance with the Sandybridge than that definitely seems the best place to go.

Also, any recommendations for a monitor in my price range?
 
stulid said:
It will play anything, the CPU is simply better for gaming etc, the 5830 is the same card as in that AMD build too.

Heres a nice 22" screen, not to sure on your price range? - http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MO-058-IY&groupid=17&catid=949&subcat=
Click to expand...

I was hoping for something around £80 - anything around there that would be any good or do I need to go a bit higher for a quality monitor? People on reviews said it was great value and very durable.
 
I will phone them in a few days to see what they can do for me.

They offer system configuration although I don't know if all of the parts you have reccomended for me are all on there or not.
 
I know this is a DP but this would still be at the bottom if I just edited it +it's a new problem.

I was checking the card stulid recommended and it was £79.99 yet it was like $250 when it first came out. Do cards usually drop this much when new cards are released?

Also, now I know how much a lot of the different parts are worth, my budget has increased to £700 so I can make it a bit more future proof. I mean, the computer I am using now was something like £450 and it pales in comparison to what stulid reccomended, makes you realise how much of a rip off buying stuff from mainstream retailers is.

+I think I am going to build it myself, it will give me more expertise to add and remove parts in the future.

Also, could you guys just give me a quick explanation on 'overclocking'?

Thanks guys.
 
RJC said:
Come up with the spec below:

Your basket
Product Name Qty Price Line Total
MSI GeForce GTX 560Ti Twin FrozR II 1024MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £178.99
(£149.16) £178.99
(£149.16)
Intel Core i5-2500K 3.30GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor - OEM £156.98
(£130.82) £156.98
(£130.82)
MSI P67A-G45 Intel P67 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard (Sandybridge) ** B3 REVISION ** £99.98
(£83.32) £99.98
(£83.32)
Microsoft Windows 7 Bundle - Home Premium 64 Bit £68.40
(£57.00) £68.40
(£57.00)
Options applied to the above product:
Western Digital Caviar Blue 500GB SATA 6Gb/s 16MB Cache - OEM (WD5000AAKX) £29.99
(£24.99) £29.99
(£24.99)
OCZ StealthXStream 2 700W Power Supply £52.98
(£44.15) £52.98
(£44.15)
Antec 100 One Hundred Ultimate Gaming Case - Black £41.99
(£34.99) £41.99
(£34.99)
Kingston HyperX Genesis Grey 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (KHX1600C9D3X2K2/4GX) £34.99
(£29.16) £34.99
(£29.16)
Gelid Tranquillo CPU Cooler (Socket 754/939/940/AM2/AM2+/AM3/LGA775/LGA1155/LGA1156/LGA1366) £25.99
(£21.66) £25.99
(£21.66)
Sub Total : £575.25
Shipping cost assumes delivery to UK Mainland with:
DPD Next Day Parcel
(This can be changed during checkout) Shipping : £13.75
VAT is being charged at 20.00% VAT : £117.80
Total : £706.80
Click to expand...

Sorry, I would need a monitor included in the £700 budget. The monitor I was looking at was around £110 so I would have to cut that off the budget for the actual system. The keyboard and mouse won't be included in the £700 budget, I will get them another time.
 
1 x Intel Core i5-2500K 3.30GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor - OEM £156.98
1 x Gigabyte Z68A-D3 Intel Z68 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £79.99
1 x Sapphire ATI Radeon HD 5850 Extreme 1024MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card - £124.99
1 x Microsoft Windows 7 Bundle - Home Premium 64 Bit £68.40
1 x Western Digital Caviar Blue 500GB SATA 6Gb/s 16MB Cache - OEM (WD5000AAKX) £29.99
1 x Cooler Master Elite 430 Windowed Case - Black (with 500w Elite Power PSU) £64.99
1 x Kingston HyperX Genesis Grey 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (KHX1600C9D3X2K2/4GX) £34.99
1 x Arctic Cooling Freezer 13 Pro Extreme Performance CPU Cooler (Socket LGA775/1155/1156/1366/AM3/AM2+/AM2) £24.98
1 x OcUK 22x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £14.99
1 x Iiyama ProLite E2208HDD 22" Widescreen LCD Monitor - Black - £124.99
Total : £736.54 (includes shipping : £11.25).

That look good? Pretty sure that will last me a long time. I have to get a quality system for when I go to uni anyway.

I won't be ordering for a while so I will keep looking for offers or new parts coming out that will be good value.

Thanks guys, you have been fantastic.
 
Last edited:
Yeah, just listed them as two different items.

Looks a very good system for me IMO, does the case and coolers/fans look pretty good for gaming at a pretty high spec?
 
Done, 2.99 is nothing for added durability.

You said the system would be okay for improvements in the future + overclocking seems a good option too, so I should be set with that.
 
Just thinking, is there any network cards that I need to put in? I will be running the system off wireless as running cable to the opposite side of the house up the stairs really isn't an option.
 
Update:

Was on another forum and some guys recommended a samsung spinpoint as I want to upgrade to 1TB, is that any better or worse than the caviar blue 500GB HDD?

They also recommended I get a 6870 instead of a 5850. Thoughts?

One guy even recommended I even get a 850w PSU if I wanted to do future improvements :S Don't think that is necessary however.

Thanks.
 
Of course, forgot about the Win7 bundle.

The guys on there said the 6870 was the same price as the 5850 :S

My absolute maximum is £850 with mouse and keyboard, so I still have a little left to spend, any recommendations on anything else I could get/improve?

Also, how much more is it for a 850w PSU than a 500w?

Thanks guys :)
 
A guy just posted this spec for me after I specified some things I wanted.

Intel Core i5-2500K 3.30GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor - OEM £156.98


Gigabyte Z68A-D3 Intel Z68 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £79.99


Sapphire ATI Radeon HD 5850 Extreme 1024MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card - £124.99
Or
XFX HD 6870 Medal Of Honor 1GB GDDR5 £135
http://www.******.com/product/248885
****** usually have the option of free delivery and even when you choose that option it doesn't usually take very long.


Microsoft Windows 7 Bundle - Home Premium 64 Bit £68.40


Samsung Spinpoint F3 1TB £44
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/show [...] ubcat=1279


Cooler Master Elite 430 Windowed Case - Black £33
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/show [...] =7&subcat=


Antec High Current Gamer HCG-620 80Plus Bronze £55
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/show [...] 23&subcat=


Kingston HyperX Genesis Grey 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (KHX1600C9D3X2K2/4GX) £34.99


Arctic Cooling Freezer 13 Pro Extreme Performance CPU Cooler (Socket LGA775/1155/1156/1366/AM3/AM2+/AM2) £24.98


OcUK 22x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £14.99


Antec Tri-Cool 3-Speed 120mm Fan - Black £2.99
Total : £640/650

Thoughts?

This is without monitor, mouse & keyboard, just the build.
 
Last edited:
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