PC £500-600

BB90

BB90

BB90

Associate
Joined
18 Jan 2013
Posts
6
Hi all,

I need a new desktop, my laptop is about to give up on me and I know I'll get better value for money with a desktop.

I know I may open a can of worms, but how do AMD and Intel prebuilt systems compare? I understand that while AMD may perform less well than Intel at the higher end, at my lower end budget is it true that I may do better with an AMD CPU?

I've had a look at putting one together myself and it doesn't seem too difficult as long as I take necessary static precautions, and I assume I will get better value for money than buying a prebuilt system? If so could someone please suggest some components?

I do little more than word processing and watch films on my laptop, so my main concern for performance is games. I am not concerned about ultra graphics and such, but decent frame rates at medium-high settings on some recent titles would be great.

I hand myself over to your collective wisdom.

BB90
 
 
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Yes sorry, just the tower. I assume that building my own is the best bang for my buck option then?

Thanks

BB90
 
I would broadly follow the build in post 2 but I would get the following motherboard:

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=BG-252-GI&groupid=595&catid=689&subcat=

AFAIK,the warranty is 3 months(but remember there might be ways to extend this using the law AFAIK),but at least from experience that should give you enough time to cover any problems. OcUK has sold loads of them and at least from what I gather they seem to be fine.

You should be able to get this low end Core i5:

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CP-432-IN&groupid=701&catid=6&subcat=567

I would get the Merc Alpha:

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CA-010-BX

Unlike the Beta it has an additional fan mount at the top.

Regarding the Core i3 3220,if you are playing games like BF3 MP or intend to play Mechwarrior Online for example,even the FX6300 is significantly faster.

Edit!!

You will need a copy of an OS too.
 
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try this

YOUR BASKET
1 x Gigabyte ATi Radeon HD 7950 Windforce 3X 3072MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £239.99
1 x AMD Piledriver FX-6 Six Core 6300 3.50GHz (Socket AM3+) Processor - Retail £99.95
1 x ASRock 970 Extreme4 AMD 970 (Socket AM3+) DDR3 ATX Motherboard £74.99
1 x Corsair Builder Series CX 500w Modular '80 Plus Bronze' Power Supply (CP-9020059-UK) £49.99
1 x Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 500GB SATA 6Gb/s 16MB Cache - OEM (ST500DM002) HDD £41.99
1 x Patriot Viper "Black Mamba" Generation 3 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (PV38G160C9K) £35.99
1 x BitFenix Merc Beta Gaming Case - Black £29.99
1 x Cooler Master Hyper 212 Evo CPU Cooler (Socket 775 / 1155 / 1156 / 1366 / AM2 / AM2+ / AM3 / FM1 / FM2) £26.99
1 x LG GH24NS95 24x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £17.99
Total : £617.86 (includes shipping : FREE).

 
Martini1991 said:
Far better to go i5 with a 7870 XT LE than an FX63 and a 7950.
Click to expand...

other option

YOUR BASKET
1 x Intel Core i5-3570K 3.40GHz (Ivybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor (77W) - Retail £179.99
1 x Gigabyte ATI Radeon HD 7850 OC Windforce 2X 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £149.99
1 x Gigabyte Z77-D3H Intel Z77 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £79.99
1 x Corsair Builder Series CX 500w Modular '80 Plus Bronze' Power Supply (CP-9020059-UK) £49.99
1 x Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 500GB SATA 6Gb/s 16MB Cache - OEM (ST500DM002) HDD £41.99
1 x Patriot Viper "Black Mamba" Generation 3 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (PV38G160C9K) £35.99
1 x BitFenix Merc Beta Gaming Case - Black £29.99
1 x Cooler Master Hyper 212 Evo CPU Cooler (Socket 775 / 1155 / 1156 / 1366 / AM2 / AM2+ / AM3 / FM1 / FM2) £26.99
1 x LG GH24NS95 24x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £17.99
Total : £612.90 (includes shipping : FREE).



or

YOUR BASKET
1 x MSI HD 7870 Black Knight OC 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card (R7870-2GD5T/OC) £179.99
1 x Intel Core i5-3470 3.20GHz (Ivybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor (77W) - Retail £149.99
1 x Gigabyte Z77-D3H Intel Z77 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £79.99
1 x Corsair Builder Series CX 500w Modular '80 Plus Bronze' Power Supply (CP-9020059-UK) £49.99
1 x Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 500GB SATA 6Gb/s 16MB Cache - OEM (ST500DM002) HDD £41.99
1 x Patriot Viper "Black Mamba" Generation 3 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (PV38G160C9K) £35.99
1 x BitFenix Merc Beta Gaming Case - Black £29.99
1 x Cooler Master Hyper 212 Evo CPU Cooler (Socket 775 / 1155 / 1156 / 1366 / AM2 / AM2+ / AM3 / FM1 / FM2) £26.99
1 x LG GH24NS95 24x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £17.99
Total : £612.90 (includes shipping : FREE).

 
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Those are what turns the mains wiring into a network, correct?

For online gaming what sort of speed would I need?

Thanks
 
BB90 said:
Those are what turns the mains wiring into a network, correct?

For online gaming what sort of speed would I need?

Thanks
Click to expand...

Running a 200MB wired powerline network here atm and online gaming a breeze :)

TP-Link AV200 200Mbps

I have three of these running my mATX PC, a NAS and the Blueray player :) works a treat.
 
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I run 500mbps powerline as you need that if your running over 50mb broadband.

The 200mbps powerlines max out at around 40 / 50 mbps depending on house wiring and other electrical devices on.

the 500mbps powerline max at around 90 / 100mbps.

I did a lot of testing its on 1 of my forum posts somewhere.
 
Also - another quick question.

I am leaning towards the first build in post 7, with the i5 3570k and the Radeon 7850. I am assuming that this has sufficient scope for future upgrades and is relatively future proof?

Apologies, I am quite inexperienced with computer components - I assume that the CPU is the most likely limiting factor.

Cheers
 
BB90 said:
Also - another quick question.

I am leaning towards the first build in post 7, with the i5 3570k and the Radeon 7850. I am assuming that this has sufficient scope for future upgrades and is relatively future proof?

Apologies, I am quite inexperienced with computer components - I assume that the CPU is the most likely limiting factor.

Cheers
Click to expand...

Yeh you can always upgrade the gpu but if your CPU starts to bottleneck the GPU then you will need to upgrade that as well.

so its better really to go for the better CPU so it won't bottleneck future upgrades
 
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