help on picking a pc for my son

anarchybmc · 9 Jun 2013 at 16:10

Hi everyone,

So my son really wants a gaming pc for xmas he wanted one last year but money didn't allow, feeling awful about that I really want to do my best for him this year and that's where I need your help! I know NOTHING about gaming pc's at all I saw this one on offer AMD A10 Lightning V2" AMD Richland A10-6800K 4.1GHz DDR3 Quad Core Gaming PC and I wondered if it would play these games that I know he wants:-
half life 2
counterstrike source
amnesia dark descent
minecraft
team fortress 2
planetside 2
penumbra collection
gmod
skyrim
gta 4
day z
arma III
My budget is around the £430 mark which I know when it comes to a gaming pc is pretty low but I want to get him the best I can for that and maybe upgrade the parts in the future?
Any help would be very much appreciated!!!!
ps do you have to run windows for games? and would I need an anti virus?

Tackle_Berry · 9 Jun 2013 at 17:15

Does he already have a monitor, keyboard and mouse? The only real graphics demanding game in that list is Arma 3. You will need Windows 7 or 8 but get the 64bit version and you could just use Avast free anti-virus. Hard to recommend something until we know if that price is just for the system or has to include monitor etc. Does your son know how to put systems together?

anarchybmc · 9 Jun 2013 at 17:48

Thanks for your reply :-)

I was going to buy him a mouse and keyboard seperate and plug it directly into his tv

I think if I knew what parts go together my hubby could poss build one, but its a mine field when you haven't got a clue lol

Really want something that connects to the Internet stupid question but do these come with all the necessary LAN ports etc?

As I said havent a clue :-)

Tackle_Berry · 9 Jun 2013 at 20:17

Yes the motherboard would have a ethernet connection for the internet. I could not come up with a Intel spec for that money so AMD would probably be the way to go as you can get away without buying a dedicated graphics card, but I am not that clued up on amd builds you may be better off posting a "Spec me" thread under general hardware.

You may find this useful someone was after a similar spec for around the £400 mark
http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?t=18518419

If you were after a pre built system I am sure if you call ocuk they could help you choose a system.

mattacuk · 9 Jun 2013 at 20:25

Im not an expert on the hardware like these guys, but Im sure he would be delighted with that system.

To answer your question yes, most modern motherboards have on board LAN ports, and built in sound as well. As Ash said, the only graphically demanding game in that list is Army III, but this system will run the game fine, just not on the highest settings of course

All you need to do is installed a copy of windows 7 or 8, free anti virus, and connect it to your router with a LAN cable and your good to go

anarchybmc · 9 Jun 2013 at 20:42

Thanks so much you have definitely put my mind at ease! I think for a first gaming pc he should be chuffed ;-)

I'm sure it says that it comes with windows loaded?

Now just need to get hubby's debit card lol

mattacuk · 9 Jun 2013 at 21:34

It's a no OS system, so you need to buy that but it's very easy to install. When you phone up ask them about it

I think it's a lot of pc for the money, it's got everything a junior of enthusiast could want

anarchybmc · 10 Jun 2013 at 14:22

ello,

just phoned and it does come with windows 8 pre loaded BONUS :-)

as long as you guys reckon this will play the games ok on this graphics card then im going to order!!
thanks again :-)

Tackle_Berry · 10 Jun 2013 at 15:07

It should be fine to play most of the games you listed at medium/high setting at 1080 resolution, however it may struggle more with Arma III also Skyrim I would expect to run at med/low settings, you could always add a cheap graphics card to the system if it needs it, but it should be ok aslong as he doesn't expect to run every game with high settings.

snitcher · 10 Jun 2013 at 16:35

it is good enough to play games specially resource intensive games like gta 4

honosuseri · 10 Jun 2013 at 16:48

I would suggest you let your hubby build it with your boy. You can tailor the parts better (with our help) and it might be nice for them to spend time doing it as a team

That prebuilt system is using onboard graphics. The APU is pretty good for light gaming but ideally you want faster RAM to get better performance. The A10 6800K has a better IGP but in games it's not really showing to be much better than the A10 5800K (Review HERE).

YOUR BASKET
1 x AMD A10-5800K Black Edition 3.80GHz (Socket FM2) APU Trinity Quad Core Processor **FREE SIMCITY PC GAME** (AD580KWOHJBOX) £99.95
1 x Gigabyte F2A85X-D3H AMD A85X Chipset (Socket FM2) DDR3 ATX Motherboard £68.99
1 x TeamGroup Xtreem LV 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-19200C10 2400MHz Dual Channel Memory Kit (TXD38G2400HC10QDC01) £59.99
1 x Seagate Barracuda 7200RPM 1TB SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache - OEM (ST1000DM003) HDD £52.99
1 x Corsair Builder Series CX 430W V2 '80 Plus Bronze' Power Supply (CP-9020046-UK) £35.99
1 x Xigmatek Asgard Pro Gaming Case - Black £32.99
1 x OcUK 20x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £14.99
1 x TP-Link 150Mbps Wireless PCI Express Adapter (TL-WN781ND) £10.98
Total : £390.96 (includes shipping : £11.75).

Case has two fans fitted and a USB3 port. Like for like CPU really but the motherboard is much better and has a 3 year UK based warranty. Much faster RAM to help the integrated graphics out. Better HDD too with more cache.

Ok you don't have the OS but you can download the Windows 8 Enterprise (evaluation) Edition and use that for free on a 3 month trial. WIndows 8.1 will be released soon, that is a service pack of sorts which adds back the start menu. It too should also get a preview to try out. So you can buy an OS much later having made an informed decision.

Hope this helps

anarchybmc · 10 Jun 2013 at 17:21

honosuseri said:
I would suggest you let your hubby build it with your boy. You can tailor the parts better (with our help) and it might be nice for them to spend time doing it as a team

That prebuilt system is using onboard graphics. The APU is pretty good for light gaming but ideally you want faster RAM to get better performance. The A10 6800K has a better IGP but in games it's not really showing to be much better than the A10 5800K (Review HERE).

YOUR BASKET
1 x AMD A10-5800K Black Edition 3.80GHz (Socket FM2) APU Trinity Quad Core Processor **FREE SIMCITY PC GAME** (AD580KWOHJBOX) £99.95
1 x Gigabyte F2A85X-D3H AMD A85X Chipset (Socket FM2) DDR3 ATX Motherboard £68.99
1 x TeamGroup Xtreem LV 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-19200C10 2400MHz Dual Channel Memory Kit (TXD38G2400HC10QDC01) £59.99
1 x Seagate Barracuda 7200RPM 1TB SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache - OEM (ST1000DM003) HDD £52.99
1 x Corsair Builder Series CX 430W V2 '80 Plus Bronze' Power Supply (CP-9020046-UK) £35.99
1 x Xigmatek Asgard Pro Gaming Case - Black £32.99
1 x OcUK 20x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £14.99
1 x TP-Link 150Mbps Wireless PCI Express Adapter (TL-WN781ND) £10.98
Total : £390.96 (includes shipping : £11.75).

Case has two fans fitted and a USB3 port. Like for like CPU really but the motherboard is much better and has a 3 year UK based warranty. Much faster RAM to help the integrated graphics out. Better HDD too with more cache.

Ok you don't have the OS but you can download the Windows 8 Enterprise (evaluation) Edition and use that for free on a 3 month trial. WIndows 8.1 will be released soon, that is a service pack of sorts which adds back the start menu. It too should also get a preview to try out. So you can buy an OS much later having made an informed decision.

Hope this helps

WOW

I wish I could say that all makes sense, I know that for the money I can't really get a hum dinger of a pc but I think the quality of game play is important and kinda future proofing. Can you add any graphics card at a later date?ive heard that Nvidia are the best?

I do really like your idea of them building it together, like I said in an earlier post if we knew what parts go with what and if they are better than the pre build one I've been looking at then I'm willing to give it a shot! (Be prepared for LOTS of questions :-)

honosuseri · 10 Jun 2013 at 18:45

anarchybmc said:
WOW
I wish I could say that all makes sense, I know that for the money I can't really get a hum dinger of a pc but I think the quality of game play is important and kinda future proofing. Can you add any graphics card at a later date?ive heard that Nvidia are the best?

I do really like your idea of them building it together, like I said in an earlier post if we knew what parts go with what and if they are better than the pre build one I've been looking at then I'm willing to give it a shot! (Be prepared for LOTS of questions

The AMD Trinity and Richland APUs are made exactly for your needs to be honest. A decent home PC with light gaming capabilities on a budget

I tend to loiter in the General Hardware section where we spec systems for peeps. Funnily enough post #4 from Ash, links to a thread where I've already done a very similar build to what I suggested for you.

As I said the Prebuilt doesnt have a graphics card it's using the integrated graphics (IGP) of the CPU (AMD call it an APU if we want to be fussy). Yes you can add a dedicated graphics card (GPU) later on. Although on a tight budget I would look at adding a 2nd hand GPU later on (1GB Nvidia 460 could be £50ish, I still own one they are great bang for buck), an average budget gaming GPU new will be around £100 give or take. There is the hybrid Xfire option of using a low end GPU and it being "turbo boosted" by the APU but in all honesty a 2nd hand GPU bargain would outperform that option. Infact the 460 I mentioned still beats a lot of the new mid-low range GPUs still.

Feel free to start a thread in general hardware and see what others suggest. Building isn't difficult, I'll show a video of how to build and a demo of the AMDs APU at work.....

Looks easy enough right?

That's the A6 which is a dual core and has a lower spec'd IGP. It only has 4GB of 1600mhz RAM so wouldn't perform as well as my spec but it just shows you that they can indeed play games. Again I hope this helps and isn't too much techo waffle lol