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- 1 Mar 2014
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- 61
Hi, I'm considering building my first desktop PC and this forum seems to have a lot of very knowledgeable people. I'm a novice at this, so please bear with me!
I have a budget of around £600, although I could stretch to £700 if really necessary. I don't play games like BF4, just a bit of poker and chess, and my children are still young and only play Minecraft.
I've been reading lots of internet posts about the best processor for gaming versus home/office, and most suggest that Intel chips give faster CPU performance whereas AMD give better framrates for gaming (at least in budget builds versus (say) a Core i3 4330). Therefore since I'm not really gaming, it seems reasonable that I should go for an Intel CPU. My main requirements are for the PC to be as fast and snappy as possible, but it also needs to handle Minecraft to keep my kids happy. Will the HD 4600 integrated graphics on the i3 4330 be sufficient?
I'm not sure whether to save money and go for a Core i3 4330, or to go for an i5 (4670K?) which will probably improve performance. The i3 processors have hyperthreading, which I know isn't the same as having extra cores, but I'm wondering whether there's a big enough difference between the performance of the two processors to warrant paying the extra? Also can I do away with having to buy a discrete graphics card?
I don't do any video rendeering or 3D modelling or anything like that, but I often have 20 tabs or more open in my browser with other things going on in the background. Does that count as 'multi-tasking', and would therefore benefit from the hyperthreading in the i3? The i7's also have hyperthreading but they seems like overkill for my purposes, and is probably too expensive anyway.
I'll probably get a 250GB SSD (the Samsung 840 EVO is about £100) to increase speed, and I'm not sure about the RAM (probably 2x4gb Corsair Vengeance or similar?)
Oh I already have a power supply btw, and I think I can use the Windows 7 disc on one more computer, so I don't think I need to buy the OS, which will cut down a little on the overall cost.
Really appreciate any advice, this PC building business is a bit of a maze!
I have a budget of around £600, although I could stretch to £700 if really necessary. I don't play games like BF4, just a bit of poker and chess, and my children are still young and only play Minecraft.
I've been reading lots of internet posts about the best processor for gaming versus home/office, and most suggest that Intel chips give faster CPU performance whereas AMD give better framrates for gaming (at least in budget builds versus (say) a Core i3 4330). Therefore since I'm not really gaming, it seems reasonable that I should go for an Intel CPU. My main requirements are for the PC to be as fast and snappy as possible, but it also needs to handle Minecraft to keep my kids happy. Will the HD 4600 integrated graphics on the i3 4330 be sufficient?
I'm not sure whether to save money and go for a Core i3 4330, or to go for an i5 (4670K?) which will probably improve performance. The i3 processors have hyperthreading, which I know isn't the same as having extra cores, but I'm wondering whether there's a big enough difference between the performance of the two processors to warrant paying the extra? Also can I do away with having to buy a discrete graphics card?
I don't do any video rendeering or 3D modelling or anything like that, but I often have 20 tabs or more open in my browser with other things going on in the background. Does that count as 'multi-tasking', and would therefore benefit from the hyperthreading in the i3? The i7's also have hyperthreading but they seems like overkill for my purposes, and is probably too expensive anyway.
I'll probably get a 250GB SSD (the Samsung 840 EVO is about £100) to increase speed, and I'm not sure about the RAM (probably 2x4gb Corsair Vengeance or similar?)
Oh I already have a power supply btw, and I think I can use the Windows 7 disc on one more computer, so I don't think I need to buy the OS, which will cut down a little on the overall cost.
Really appreciate any advice, this PC building business is a bit of a maze!
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