need help choosing a pre built system/custom build!

HazzaBean

HazzaBean

HazzaBean

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29 Aug 2013
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to start with i don't have a set budget, but the most intense game this will have to run is gw2 ( on whatever setting runs best) and i was wondering if the



"AMD X4 Raid" AMD FX-4 4100 3.6GHz DDR3 Quad Core Gaming System"AMD X4 Raid" AMD FX-4 4100 3.6GHz DDR3 Quad Core Gaming System


would be able to run it on medium to high? or even run it at all. if not what would be my next best option in terms of low budget but enough power to run most games i throw at it, with the exception of crisis 3 battlefield 3/4 and all the other high end games.
 
I'm too tired to offer any meaningful advice right now, but definitely don't get that system. The Bulldozer FX4100 is a turd of a CPU. :p

I'll probably be back when i'm more awake. In the mean time, you'll get a bunch more replies. :)
 
Sit down and think of your max budget it will help us to advice you best.

Have yoh considered self build its easy and often you can get more bang for your bucks
 
the budget is around £550. that's just the PC, i all-ready have a monitor, keyboard, mouse.

i still think self build is a very good option, i'm just a bit scared of screwing something up so might need to watch a few video's on it, i've been told its not so hard though.
 
so that one is off the list. any other low end cost machines on OC uk that are worth the look? if not could someone help me choose the parts for a custom build please?
 
I know you are scared of screwing up but check step by step youtube videos to see if your confidence changes. Not only is it free, but it might save you money and much like what happened to many people on this forum, will give you a wonderfully fun new and useful hobby and an online community to join.

For £550 you can get a much better PC, one that can play pretty much any current game at 1080p on a single screen on high with a playable frame rate. What resolution do you game in?

If you have anything worse than 1080p and all you play is GW2, it might be worth splitting your budget to give you a new screen and a trinity set up similar to what someone will no doubt post as an alternative to Haswell +7850 or similar build.

Edit: since no one has posted a build yet and my suggestion of going trinity has got me thinking about alternative ways to spend cash rather than throwing it at CPU and GPU alone, i have thrown together a trinity build with an SSD for a boosted speed. If you want a new screen, chuck the SSD out and you have enough left over for a 1080p resolution LED 24" screen. If you are happy with your screen and want to give your onboard GPU some more grunt, you can throw in a ATI 7750 or a 6670 (i think they are the two you can xfire with the igpu but not sure) a bit later for a small cost.

YOUR BASKET
1 x AMD A10-6800K Black Edition 4.10GHz (Socket FM2) APU Richland Quad Core Processor (AD680KWOHLBOX) £124.99
1 x Gigabyte F2A85XN-WIFI AMD A85X Chipset (Socket FM2) DDR3 Mini ITX Motherboard £86.99
1 x TeamGroup Xtreem LV 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-21300C11 2666MHz Dual Channel Kit (TXD38G2666HC11CDC01) £65.99
1 x Corsair Force LS Series 60GB 2.5" SATA 6Gb/s Solid State Hard Drive (CSSD-F60GBLS) £53.99
1 x Corsair Builder Series CX 430w Modular '80 Plus Bronze' Power Supply (CP-9020058-UK) £43.99
1 x Toshiba (7K1000.D) 500GB SATA 6GB/s 32MB Cache - OEM (DT01ACA050) HDD £41.99
1 x Thermalright AXP-100 ITX & HTPC CPU Cooler £39.95
1 x Lian Li PC-Q07B Mini-ITX Case - Black £38.75
1 x OcUK 24x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £19.99
Total : £530.12 (includes shipping : £11.25).




The website says the board only supports up to 1866 speed RAM but the specs on Gigabytes site say up to 2400. I added a cooler in the likely event that if you build it yourself and get hooked, you would probably want to try overclocking and the cooler will give you more wiggle room. I chose a small motherboard because that is all you need, the board comes with wireless adapter and you dont need a graphics card, though there is one slot there if you want to put one to Xfire with the on board in the future.
 
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trying not to be so uninformed here, but what is a trinity setup? and with regards to the SSD, i could just save money on that now and get a new monitor? then add the SSD in later when i have the money? all it does is speed up loading times?

and still me not know enough about computers here..... but i'm guessing that i can also add another graphics card to this whenever i like? or would that not be necessary, and if it is possible would it require a bigger case?
 
HazzaBean said:
what is a trinity setup?
Click to expand...

Nickname for a set up which is built around an AMD range which is aimed at low budget PCs. It is cheap because they feature incredibly good onboard graphics which scales well with high speed RAM. The graphics card is often the most expensive part in a gaming build but since trinity builds have adequate graphics, you dont need a graphics card, saving you a good amount of cash since RAM is cheap whether it is fast or not (personally, this reason makes me think that trinity is ideal for your budget).

HazzaBean said:
with regards to the SSD, i could just save money on that now and get a new monitor? then add the SSD in later when i have the money? all it does is speed up loading times?
Click to expand...

Yes to both, i would suggest doing that with the SSD anyway if you dont have a nice monitor anyway or just fancy a second one.

HazzaBean said:
i'm guessing that i can also add another graphics card to this whenever i like? or would that not be necessary, and if it is possible would it require a bigger case?
Click to expand...

It wont be necessary for most games but i suppose that is up to you, there are some people who feel 24FPS is playable is fine and some who feel they need to have 60FPS. In a game like guild wars 2, i doubt very much if you think the PC doesnt have enough grunt. If you plan on adding a graphics card, you have the option of adding either of the ones i mentioned (which i think are priced at around £60) and using it WITH the onboard graphics. If you want better graphics than even that, you might as well go for a non trinity set up, since any other graphic cards wont work with the onboard. (with the GPUs i mentioned, it is like running two low powered cards, where one is the onboard graphics)

As to if it will require a bigger case, i am pretty sure the cards i recommended are about the same width as the motherboard or maybe a tiny bit bigger, so they should fit in the case fine with maybe an inch to spare given the pictures. Though i cant guarantee it since i don't own the case, the length of any graphic card is only a google away and the maximum the case can take is 18cm.

Googled the card sizes and both the 7750 and the 6670 will fit depending on who manufactures them but the vast majority of them fit with room to spare
 
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HazzaBean said:
could you recommend a monitor? and do you think this would be able to use 2 monitors with no problems?
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Yeah it will be fine with two monitors since the PC will be mostly idle outside of games and with two monitors, the game will still be in 1080p since it would be would be just on the monitor of choice when you play.

As for a recomendation, at that resolution, i would say it is down to personal preference. I like the brightness and high contrast you get with LED backlight monitors. My monitors are all LG and i picked them because they were LED, had an aluminium brush finish which matched my Obsidian 800D case and had a very discrete frame.

Quite similar tot his but with an aluminium brush finish:
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MO-080-BQ&groupid=17&catid=510

I like gloss black but smudgy fingerprints when i tilt the monitor drive me crazy. What the hell was I thinking when i decided against a glossy framed monitor due to fingerprints but decided to go for a Razor mirror finish keyboard.

As far as plugs will go, the motherboard supports DVI-D and two HDMI. This means that if your current monitor is VGA or DVI-I, you will need to convert the signal to digital rather than analogue. This would have been a problem a decade ago, where converters cost a modest fortune but i think they are dirt cheap now and can be had for much less.
 
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Not to suddenly send you in a different direction but it's completely possible to get I5-3570K, on the cheapest 1155 board, 8GB ram and 7950 GPU (this week only deal £175), 2GB barracuda in any case you like up to about £40 for a grand total of around £610. Never sure how to do the quick link thing from the basket or I'd show the build.

If you shop around a bit you should be able to grab bits from different sites to get a build that came in closer to budget. An i5 ivybridge + 7950 is going to blow a trinity setup clean out of the water. You need to cut a corner or 2 on the mainboard (hence the cheapest compatible option) but the other parts added will more than make up for it.

At some point get a better mainboard and you have what many would call a "high end" system for the price.


Edit: found the chrome plugin :D
edit2: but at work :(

Dig all this out on the site:

Your basket

Intel Core i5-3570K 3.40GHz (Ivybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor (77W)
HIS HD 7950 3072MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card (H795F3G2M)
Seagate Barracuda 2TB 7200RPM SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache - OEM (ST2000DM001)
Kingston HyperX Genesis 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (KHX1600C9D3K2/8GX)
NZXT Source 210 Elite Midi Tower Case - Black NZXT Source 210 Elite Midi Tower Case - Black
Corsair Builder Series CX 430W V2 '80 Plus Bronze' Power Supply (CP-9020046-UK)
ASRock H61M-GS Intel H61 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Micro Motherboard

Case, power supply, motherboard and memory are "cheap" (but not crap) for the chip and graphics it lets you shoehorn in there...

Double checked it with a erm... site we can't mention for picking PC parts. £540 on the nose.
 
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hey mate i cant give any advice on specs for you as im probably more of a noob then anyone on here lol but i have to say the help and advice from here is top knotch, i would have NEVER thought of building a pc or even had the confidence to think of building one mate, but your in the best place for help and advice thats for sure :) and your confidence will really grow after you watch a few videos on building as mine has done :)

this is my thread where people have helped me learn the ins and outs
http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?t=18535144

i still wont be able to afford my build for about a month but i can see in my brain what i all ready have to do and i all ready feel i know my pc and ive not even seen any parts yet, your be fine mate
 
If you're even remotely technically competent you should build it yourself in order to obtain best bang for buck. Building PCs many years ago was a ballache but it's much, much easier now. Just take your time and think before you act.
 
Thanks for the advice guys, definitely going to build my own system, is the i5 machine really that much better than the trinity?and wouldn't i need a DVD RW drive also? plus i might have enough money for an SSD if that would fit into the build? will have to play with the figures see which fits the best. hoping to order custom parts by tomorrow with you guys helping me. tempted to go for the benq monitors too, nothing quite as good as them for that price range, especially with the offer saving a bit of cash this week.

also what mainboard would turn this into a high end PC?


P.S i cant thank you guys enough for helping me with this, wouldn't have got anywhere without you all <3
 
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Definitely the ivy option is better than trinity. I did post the trinity build with the intention of having it as a cheap alternative to any haswell or ivy set ups others were going to post (in case you wanted to spend money on other things such as monitors or SSDs. The ivy set up with a 7950 will go a long way though. I perhaps would wait a month before the build if you can, you might be able to grab a second hand decent card quite cheap if the October GPU release hype is to be believed.
 
yeah i see where your coming from, after adding everything up its come to a bit more than i expected to pay, haven't added in the OS yet, any suggestions on what one to get?
 
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