My Intro plus a Question

AshD93

AshD93

AshD93

Associate
Joined
21 Oct 2009
Posts
1,613
Hi guys, new here so bear with me...

First, a quick intro...

My names Ash, i'm 16... and I really want to get into building computers/gaming... I'v got a PS3 and a HP dv9000 laptop (its a start)... but I am planning to get into computer gaming...

So now the questions....

1. What brands are good in high end computer parts? I'v been reading around but there has been some mixed opinions...

2. I have only built on PC in my life and tbh, it was low end... now I need some advice on what I should be buying for my high end comp...

I'v already got a monitor (Sony Bravia v3000 full HD)... and was thinking about going down the Intel i7 route when building my desktop... I have a budget of around £800... is this not enough?

... Idealy, I want it to be future proof for a while so any help would be much appriciated...

3. Is using my televison a good option? I would have though full HD would be enough resolution but I may be wrong...

4. Does anyone use a controller instead of a mouse and keyboard... being used to the PS3, the controller is second nature... I have used mouse and keyboard... is it really better then using a controller...


I'm sure I will come up with more questions later... but thanks in advance for all answers.

Ash.
 
welcome Ash

1. Brands...mmm each component has a different manufacturer so there is not really a brand that stands out, i suppose corsair make decent PSU, RAM and there new case is great (but a bit out of your budget at £200)

2. £800 will get you a decent system, "high end" components cost a lot for example a high end mobo will cost you £200+, a PSU £150+, case £200+ and GFX card £250+ and that is not top spec just decent components...and you haven't yet bought your CPU, cooling, RAM or Drives.
you are best going for a system that can be upgraded as you get some more funds, i started off with a pre built system for about £600..if i had known what i was doing at the time i would have made sure my first purchase had a good PSU and case because you can use them again and again for different builds.

3. using a TV is an option but you can buy an OK 24" monitor for £250

4. i use a Xbox controller for a lot of games the only games i don't is FPS and RTS because they suit mouse and keyboard control.
 
Firstly hello Ash. Now some fast answers to your questions:

1) It depends on what components you are looking at. I would say 99.99% of the parts on OCUk are excellent.

2) People here will be willing to help you. There is also a good guide here on specs etc. This will give you an idea what you can get for £800

3) Not sure about this one to be honest. Full HD is a bit of a funny resolution. And standard gaming resolutions are 1680 x 1050, or 1920 x 1200

4) It all depends on what type of game you are playing. Some games let you use a proper XBOX 360 controller. All FPS games are a LOT better with a keyboard and mouse. WASD and mouse cannot be beaten for online FPS. Controller is probably better for driving games maybe (I use keyboard personally) and perhaps third person fighting games.

Hope that answers a few main things for now.
 
Hi and welcome, you might find reading this useful to start with.
Re brands: most sold on OcUK are decent, they tend to only stock quality stuff, motherboards probably have biggest impact due to different BIOSes, some people prefer one type over another but its very much personal choice what you find easiest to work with.
Is your main/only use going to be gaming? If so for your budget i5 is probably better as its slightly cheaper, performs as well and will allow you to spend that bit extra on a gfx card which has most effect on gaming performance
Your TV resoution should be fine, and certainly for gaming/watching movies it will look good, general desktop use might not look quite as smooth (PC monitors use same sort of resolution but are only 24" which is almost a quarter the screen size of a standard 42" TV)
Im sure a few use controllers but personally I much prefer mouse/kb, mouse is much more precise and kb has many more inputs, it might seem strange at first if youre not used to it but youll soon adapt
 
Hi Ash, Welcome to the forums :)

I'll try an answer your questions as best as I can:

1) Well there are loads of brands, and it will take ages to characterise all of them - but I will try and pick out some of my favourites (this is definitely not an all inclusive list):
Processors: Intel, AMD (intel own the high end, but AMD make some awesome bang-for-buch chips)
Motherboards: Gigabyte, Asus - pretty hard to go wrong with these
RAM: Corsair, OCZ, Kingston, Patriot
Hard Disks: Western Digital, Samsung, Seagate
Cases: Coolermaster, Antec , Lian Li, whatever you like the look of
Graphics cards: Pretty much all use either nvidia or ATI chips. My favourite manufacturers are BFG, EVGA, XFX, Sapphire, ASUS
CPU coolers: Thermalright, Corsair, Prolimatech, Noctua
DVD Drive: Sony, LG
Monitor: Dell, NEC, HP
Power Supplies: Corsair, Seasonic, Be Quiet

2) Here is my spec, it is a bit over budget but I think its worth it to get an intel i5 + a 5850 graphics card, a very good gaming combination:

846i5.png


However, I would be happy to re-spec it for you if you want to stick closer to £800.

3) Usually I would say no. Televisions are great for displaying TV and movies in a big picture, very brightly to a whole room. However, a PC monitor usually need to display fine detail to a single person usually sitting 50cm away from it. If you try to do this with a normal HDTV, I'd bet you will burn out your retinas :)
You could use the 40 incher a decent distance away, certainly worth a try - as it won't cost any more money.

4) I believe you can use a controller instead of a mouse, but I wouldn't recommended it. I'm certain that when you get your hands on a high resolution mouse, your doubts will evaporate. The finesse you get with a mouse unfortunately cannot be replicated by a controller (unless you find a controller with a trackball).
 
Wooww... this forum has some great people!!!

I'v read through everything said...

Some points:

a) madindehead - I have checked out that link posted before hand... it came in very useful...

b) To all the users who showed me their builds... I reckon I could push to £900 to £1000... for everything (but still using my television)....

Am I right in saying that Direct X 11 is coming out soon and is worth waiting for GFX to support it?

c) IIRC, there is a mod to get PS3 controllers to work and work wirelessly however if mouse is better, I am happy to give it a shot :P

d) Is a computer really hard to build? Like I said before, I have built one... but never to this scale... IIRC, its just plugging some wires in and installing a operating system to be simply put...

e)... whats the difference between Ati and Nvidia... Why do some people like Nvidia more???

f) i5 vs i7 and 4GB ram vs 6gb... I would rather have i7 and 6gb... but could you persuade me otherwise?


Thanks again for all replies in advance...

Ash
 
b) If your plan for the PC to just be for gaming, you won't need to spend much more than the £850 I laid out. But there are a few area of improvement you could have a look at:

- Put it in a larger Tower Case, something like this will give you more future upgrade possibilities, will be easier to build into and look more striking.

- if you don't have one already, make sure you have a good keyboard and mouse. I recommend this and this. Also, will you be needing speakers/headphones/microphone?

-An even better cooler is not exactly required, but something like this will allow for amazing overclocks, if that interests you.

c) Sounds good, definately get the mouse, but give the controller a shot and see which you prefer.

d) It really isn't that hard to build. If you have already built a low-end one, then you have basically done it before- except the bits will be worth more and likely slot together easier :D If you want a refresher, there are loads of videos on Youtube that guide you through the process - nice and simple.

e) Both ATI and Nvidia make great graphics card. At the minute ATI are on top as they have released a bunch of new DirectX 11 cards (the HD 5xxx series) and Nvidia has not been able to launch competing cards yet. Nvidia's response is expected soon, but how soon is a matter of much speculation. At the minute, the best card for price/performance/features is the 5850 (the one I specified)- it is fully DirectX 11 compatible and is very fast card in games. However, you could choose to wait for the Nvidia cards, but there is no telling how long they will be.

f) Put it this way, i7 is a chip designed with heavy number crunching in mind (video encoding, image editing etc). However, this does not translate as well to gaming. In most games a stock i5 is as fast or a bit faster than a stock i7 920 (both have the same stock clock speed), this is due to the better turbo boost on the i5. When overclocking these chips the i7 pulls ahead due to the superior X58 chipset, but the i5 is still a good chip to overclock and runs extremely well when Overclocked.

As for 6GB of RAM, for games 4GB is more than enough - so the massive premium for a X58/i7/6GB is certainly not worth it on this front.

All-in-all, with your budget I would stick with the i5. It provides great performance at a good price, this means you can spend your money on what matters most in a gaming system - the graphics card :).
 
^^ he has gave you some good advice, and the pc he listed will be brill for gaming, you could if you got the money get antec 1200 or coolmaster haf case (had both and both are very good) and (or) a 5870 or 5850x2 if you picked a motherboard with 2 pci-e slots.
 
Yo Ash. Just a word of advice- don't do what I did at 16 and get yourself into debt just to build a PC! (£500~ was a lot to me back then and unfortunatly resulted in my Paypal account going overdrawn... it's still locked!)

But, building a PC is exciting, and leads on to many great times. I've met so many people from online PC gaming that it's not even funny. Being connected to the world behind a kickass PC really affects your life.

Add me to MSN if you want: [email protected]

I'll give you lots of tips I've learned when picking parts for my new PC that I'll be getting within a week if all goes well. Or I'll write a big long post here later, when I have time!
 
cmndr... you've turned me :P

I'm accepting that i5 and 4GB is enough for me... Its also a lot cheaper so thats also good :P... I would also happily follow the specs of a rig that you or other will build me...


... regarding headphones/speakers/microphones, I have all three (I have a AV amp with a set of wireless headphones also connected up)... but my microphone is just a simple mobile phone headset... it works with my PS3, can I get it to work with my computer (with a bluetooth dongle/card (if they even make the cards)?

Regarding the cash... I am not going to get any loans/start borrowing from people and what not... I only buy items if I actually have the cash if you get what I am saying... I should by x-mas have all the cash I need...

I assume that the parts listed below will not be superceeded by anything major in the next 2 months?

And last two questions before I shut up and stop annoying people :P...

a) Is it worth getting two GFX cards and using the crossfire technology. I have read about SLI and it looks pretty easy tbh...

b) Is it worth me buying Windows 7 and should I buy it now or not? I heard that there will be a price hike... plus is it better than Vista... the aesthetics don't look all that but that could be changed with a theme...
 
a) Unless you're gaming at very high resolutions (1920 x 1200) you won't notice much of a performance increase when gaming... For a resolution like 1600 x 1200 a powerful single graphics card will do fine.

Also, with P55 motherboards your PCI-E slots go down to 8x and 8x speed, whereas on an X58 they are 16x and 16x- which means they run faster. How much faster? Not sure. Some day the difference isn't all that much... But unless you're gaming at 1920 x 1200 don't worry about crossfire.

A single ATI HD 5850 or 5870 will be fine. I just bought a 5850 and Ill be gaming at 1440 x 900.

b) Get Windows 7. Home Premium has all you need, don't worry about Proffesional or Ultimate. Windows 7 is faster than Vista and just better.

http://www.techradar.com/news/softw...dows-compared-windows-7-vs-vista-vs-xp-615167
 
a) Long term, yes. Immediate term, no. I will Explain:

Even at the resolution you plan to play at (1920x1080) the 5850 graphics card plays pretty much all current games on full settings at high framerates (most reviews only have 1920x1200 - but these results will be very similar to what you will get).

The good thing about having a crossfire capable motherboard, you can add a second 5850 in the future when games are more demanding and prices for 5850s are much less.

You could also get two less powerful cards now and crossfire them- this should actually give you higher average framerates for the same money, but I wouldn't recommend doing this for several reasons:
- Minimum framerates will be lower in many situations compared to a 5850. I find minimum framerates to be far more important indication of whether a game is playing well than average framerates.
- Not all games are optimised for multi-GPU setups - so you may not get the speed you were expecting.
- They use more power and put out more heat, in total.
- You can't upgrade as cleanly. If you get a single 5850, you always have the option of slotting in another card for some more performance. If you already have a crossfire system, then your only upgrade option is to replace the existing cards.

b) If you haven't already got an operating system, then now is the time to buy Windows 7. I hear microsoft will be bringing the price up at the end of the year, so may as well get it now while the full retail version is still only £67.

Yes, it is better than vista, but if you already have vista and are happy using it- then you don't need to upgrade. Admittedly there is no DX11 on Vista, but as there aren't any decent games that make any use of it/or plan to - it's not the best reason to drop £67 imho.


As for connecting your bluetooth mic, will this work with it?
 
So one 5850 is fine with another when I can afford it... thats cool with me.

I assume a bluetooth adapter will do the job so thats on the cards as well...

And finally, I guess I will have to go out and get it... I am a student but tbh, I don't want to upgrade the lappy I am on as its barely used for anything apart from work and the occasional game... so I will just get the copy for my build when I get the chance...

Just wanna say a quick thanks to everyone who commented/posted and that its really helped me out :P

Ash
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom