PC doesn't even meet minimum spec :(

Abyss

Abyss

Abyss

Soldato
Joined
18 Oct 2002
Posts
4,548
Location
Nottingham
Once upon a time I always had an up to date PC and upgraded every year. It would appear though that 6 years have flown past and I can't even play Sim City as my graphics card doesn't have enough memory.

Current spec:
Power Supply:
Corsair HX 620W ATX Modular SLI Compliant Power Supply (CMPSU-620HXUK)

Processor:
Intel Core 2 Duo E6400 "LGA775 Allendale" 2.13GHz (1066FSB) - Retail

Heatsink:
Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro CPU Cooler (Socket LGA775)

Motherboard:
Asus P5N-E SLi nForce 650 (Socket 775) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard

RAM:
OCZ Platinum Revision 2 XTC 2GB (2x1GB) PC2-6400C4 800MHz Dual Channel Kit (OCZ2P800R22GK)

Graphics Card:
OcUK GeForce 8800 GTS 320MB GDDR3 HDTV/Dual DVI (PCI-Express)

Main HDD:
Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 250GB ST3250620AS SATA-II 16MB Cache

Case:
Coolermaster 200 v2 case

Monitor:
Samsung 226BW 22" monitor

The PC is used mainly for web browing, Office etc, but once in a while I will get an itch to game again, so don't want to spend silly money on something that is used infrequently for gaming. Suggest a budget of £400 maximum?
 
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AMD,

YOUR BASKET
1 x AMD A10-5800K Black Edition 3.80GHz (Socket FM2) APU Trinity Quad Core Processor (AD580KWOHJBOX) £99.95
1 x Gigabyte F2A85X-D3H AMD A85X Chipset (Socket FM2) DDR3 ATX Motherboard £59.99
1 x Adata XPG Xtreme v1.0 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-17100C10 2133MHz Dual Channel Memory Kit (AX3U2133XC4G10-2X) £44.99
1 x Cooler Master Hyper 612S CPU Cooler (Socket 775 / 1155 / 1156 / 1366 / 2011 / AM2 / AM2+ / AM3 / FM1 / FM2) £32.99
Total : £249.31 (includes shipping : £9.50).



Intel,

YOUR BASKET
1 x Intel Core i3-3225 3.30GHz (Ivybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor (55W) - Retail **High Performance IGP** £109.99
1 x Gigabyte Z77-D3H Intel Z77 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £89.99
1 x Corsair Vengeance Low Profile 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (CML8GX3M2A1600C9) £41.99
1 x Cooler Master Hyper 612S CPU Cooler (Socket 775 / 1155 / 1156 / 1366 / 2011 / AM2 / AM2+ / AM3 / FM1 / FM2) £32.99
Total : £286.36 (includes shipping : £9.50).

 
Incrauze said:
AMD,

YOUR BASKET
1 x AMD A10-5800K Black Edition 3.80GHz (Socket FM2) APU Trinity Quad Core Processor (AD580KWOHJBOX) £99.95
1 x Gigabyte F2A85X-D3H AMD A85X Chipset (Socket FM2) DDR3 ATX Motherboard £59.99
1 x Adata XPG Xtreme v1.0 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-17100C10 2133MHz Dual Channel Memory Kit (AX3U2133XC4G10-2X) £44.99
1 x Cooler Master Hyper 612S CPU Cooler (Socket 775 / 1155 / 1156 / 1366 / 2011 / AM2 / AM2+ / AM3 / FM1 / FM2) £32.99
Total : £249.31 (includes shipping : £9.50).



Intel,

YOUR BASKET
1 x Intel Core i3-3225 3.30GHz (Ivybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor (55W) - Retail **High Performance IGP** £109.99
1 x Gigabyte Z77-D3H Intel Z77 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £89.99
1 x Corsair Vengeance Low Profile 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (CML8GX3M2A1600C9) £41.99
1 x Cooler Master Hyper 612S CPU Cooler (Socket 775 / 1155 / 1156 / 1366 / 2011 / AM2 / AM2+ / AM3 / FM1 / FM2) £32.99
Total : £286.36 (includes shipping : £9.50).

Click to expand...


Thanks. A few questions:

- What about graphics card
- Will my current PSU and case be suitable
- Is it worth me spending a bit more to get an i5?

A bit more than I wanted to spend but I have come up with the below so far:

Intel Core i5-3470 3.20GHz (Ivybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor (77W) - Retail Intel Core i5-3470 3.20GHz (Ivybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor (77W) - Retail £155.99
(£129.99) £155.99
(£129.99)
MSI GeForce GTX 650 Black Knight OC 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card MSI GeForce GTX 650 Black Knight OC 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £91.99
(£76.66) £91.99
(£76.66)
Gigabyte Z77M-D3H Intel Z77 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Micro ATX Motherboard Gigabyte Z77M-D3H Intel Z77 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Micro ATX Motherboard £86.99
(£72.49) £86.99
(£72.49)
Adata Premier Pro SP900 64GB 2.5" SATA 6Gb/s Solid State Hard Drive (ASP900S3-64GM-C) Adata Premier Pro SP900 64GB 2.5" SATA 6Gb/s Solid State Hard Drive (ASP900S3-64GM-C) £59.99
(£49.99) £59.99
(£49.99)
Corsair Vengeance Low Profile 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (CML8GX3M2A1600C9) Corsair Vengeance Low Profile 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (CML8GX3M2A1600C9) £41.99
(£34.99) £41.99
(£34.99)
Cooler Master Hyper 612S CPU Cooler (Socket 775 / 1155 / 1156 / 1366 / 2011 / AM2 / AM2+ / AM3 / FM1 / FM2) Cooler Master Hyper 612S CPU Cooler (Socket 775 / 1155 / 1156 / 1366 / 2011 / AM2 / AM2+ / AM3 / FM1 / FM2) £32.99
(£27.49) £32.99
(£27.49)
Sub Total : £391.61
Shipping cost assumes delivery to UK Mainland with:
DPD Next Day Parcel
(This can be changed during checkout) Shipping : £10.00
VAT is being charged at 20.00% VAT : £80.32
Total : £481.93
 
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You probably aren't going to need a GTX-650 to run Sim City - although, maybe you run more high spec games?

Also, the max. RAM you'll need is 8GB; 16GB is for ultra high gaming and for rendering, encoding etc.
 
PhysicsMan94 said:
You probably aren't going to need a GTX-650 to run Sim City - although, maybe you run more high spec games?

Also, the max. RAM you'll need is 8GB; 16GB is for ultra high gaming and for rendering, encoding etc.
Click to expand...

Cheers. I want to future proof as much as possible. Is there a halfway house?
 
Abyss said:
Thanks. A few questions:

- What about graphics card
- Will my current PSU and case be suitable
- Is it worth me spending a bit more to get an i5?
Click to expand...

You dont need a graphics card with this build. The AMD has an integrated graphics which will have no issues at all running Sims. You can run BF3 & the likes on high.

You PSU should be fine, Trinity is not overly power hungry. You could get away with a 430/450w PSU.

If you are really gaming and the games you are playing require a CPU which will breeze it, yes, get the i5. For what you want, Trinity will be perfect, something like this if you have a case.

YOUR BASKET
1 x AMD A10-5700 3.40GHz (Socket FM2) APU Trinity Quad Core Processor (AD5700OKHJBOX) £95.99
1 x Seagate Barracuda 2TB 7200RPM SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache - OEM (ST2000DM001) HDD £69.98
1 x Adata XPG Gaming v2.0 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-15000C9 1866MHz Dual Channel Memory Kit (AX3U1866GC4G9B-DG2) £44.99
1 x MSI A55M-E33 AMD A55 Chipset (Socket FM2) DDR3 Micro ATX Motherboard £40.99
1 x XFX Pro 450W Core Edition '80 Plus Bronze' Power Supply £39.95
Total : £303.90 (includes shipping : £10.00).

 
If I were you, I'd expanded rig (PCs are for this, aren't they ?):
* Q9400 (used) - 70 quids,
* GTX 460 (used) - 50 quids, (or any other new, like GT X650, or Radeon 7770 for 70-80)
* additional 2x1 GB - 20 quids

You've got 140 pounds budget minus some costs of selling old stuff.

I don't know what games you play, but for SimCity it's a recommended configuration. It will allow play other games too, in better quality than internal (built-in) graphic cards. Such upgrade has another surplus - you don't have to do format c:, install Windows and other software + configure them all :)
 
The Intel i3 3225 build I suggested has HD 4000 onboard graphics which will handle Sim City, if you can stretch your budget abit, you can go for the Intel i5 3570K
 
This is the favourite spec so far. More than I planned! Any final thoughts? I have taken on board the thoughts around using integrated graphics but would prefer to future proof for other games, and I might dust off flight simulator X if I have a new pc!

Product Name Qty Price Line Total
Intel Core i5-3570K 3.40GHz (Ivybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor (77W) - OEM Intel Core i5-3570K 3.40GHz (Ivybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor (77W) - OEM £187.99
(£156.66) £187.99
(£156.66)
Gigabyte Z77X-D3H Intel Z77 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard Gigabyte Z77X-D3H Intel Z77 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £112.99
(£94.16) £112.99
(£94.16)
MSI GeForce GTX 650 Black Knight OC 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card MSI GeForce GTX 650 Black Knight OC 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £91.99
(£76.66) £91.99
(£76.66)
Seagate Barracuda 2TB 7200RPM SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache - OEM (ST2000DM001) HDD Seagate Barracuda 2TB 7200RPM SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache - OEM (ST2000DM001) HDD £69.98
(£58.32) £69.98
(£58.32)
Windows 8 Pro Upgrade Edition - from XP SP3 / Vista / Windows 7 Windows 8 Pro Upgrade Edition - from XP SP3 / Vista / Windows 7 £44.99
(£37.49) £44.99
(£37.49)
Corsair Vengeance Low Profile 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (CML8GX3M2A1600C9) Corsair Vengeance Low Profile 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (CML8GX3M2A1600C9) £41.99
(£34.99) £41.99
(£34.99)
Cooler Master Hyper TX3 Evo CPU Cooler (Socket 775 / 1155 / 1156 / 1366 / AM2 / AM2+ / AM3 / FM1 / FM2) Cooler Master Hyper TX3 Evo CPU Cooler (Socket 775 / 1155 / 1156 / 1366 / AM2 / AM2+ / AM3 / FM1 / FM2) £19.99
(£16.66) £19.99
(£16.66)
OcUK 24x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM OcUK 24x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £16.99
(£14.16) £16.99
(£14.16)
Arctic Silver 5 Thermal Compound (3.5g) Arctic Silver 5 Thermal Compound (3.5g) £8.99
(£7.49) £8.99
(£7.49)
Sub Total : £496.59
Shipping cost assumes delivery to UK Mainland with:
DPD Next Day Parcel
(This can be changed during checkout) Shipping : £10.00
VAT is being charged at 20.00% VAT : £101.32
Total : £607.91
 
 
hit the MM and get some serious bang for buck.

it would allow you to get a decent GPU in there
 
Also one for the MM suggestion mate, grab a GFX card/SSD in there for Bang per buck, can use them right away with your current build. Them buy the others bits as/when tbh certainly could be a lot easier than upgrading everythign at once (cost wise)
 
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