Spec a Friend - £300-£400

JoeF1 · 4 Jan 2013 at 14:21

Hey guys, looking for some advice.

Friend at works wanting a PC to play arma 2 with a decent GFX card.

He wants to go down the AMD path and will need a Graphics card spec'ing too but he has a low budget.

Work your magic - he will only need:

GPU
CPU
MoBo
RAM.
Case.

Thanks.

zakblood · 4 Jan 2013 at 14:28

1 x Gigabyte ATI Radeon HD 7850 OC Windforce 2X 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card w/ FARCRY3, Sleeping Dogs & Dirt Showdown PC Games £155.99
1 x AMD A10-5800K Black Edition 3.80GHz (Socket FM2) APU Trinity Quad Core Processor (AD580KWOHJBOX) £95.99
1 x ASRock FM2A75M-DGS AMD A75 Chipset (Socket FM2) DDR3 Micro ATX Motherboard £52.99
1 x Samsung Green (MV-3V4G3D/US) 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C11 1600MHz 30nm Dual Channel Kit £49.99
1 x BitFenix Merc Beta Gaming Case - Black £29.99
Total : £398.45 (includes shipping : £11.25).

LukieBoy007 · 4 Jan 2013 at 14:29

YOUR BASKET
1 x HIS HD 7850 IceQ X 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card (H785QN2G2M) w/ FARCRY3 & Sleeping Dogs PC Games £155.99
1 x Intel Core i3-3220 3.30GHz (Ivybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor (77W) - Retail £89.99
1 x MSI Z77A-G43 Intel Z77 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard - FREE Alpenföhn Civetta Cooler!! £72.98
1 x TeamGroup Elite 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C11 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (TED38GM1600HC11DC01) £35.99
1 x BitFenix Merc Alpha Gaming Case - Black £29.99
Total : £398.44 (includes shipping : £11.25).

In terms of raw power, the i3 beats the A10. The A10 has a better IGP, but if pairing up with a graphics card such as the 7850, I'd highly suggest getting an i3 as the performance is better.

JCX50 · 4 Jan 2013 at 14:33

(I know he only wanted only a few parts but hay ho, there you go, i'm bored

)
Just in case you want you want to go down the Intel Route:

YOUR BASKET
1 x MSI HD 7750 2048MB GDDR3 PCI-Express Graphics Card £71.99
1 x Intel Pentium G860 3.00GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor - Retail £59.99
1 x Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 500GB SATA 6Gb/s 16MB Cache - OEM (ST500DM002) £44.99
1 x Asus P8H61-MX USB 3.0 Intel H61 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard - OEM ** £39.98
1 x Xigmatek Tauro 400W '80 Plus Bronze' Power Supply £38.98
1 x Xigmatek Helios XTK231 Mini Tower Case - Black £24.98
1 x TeamGroup Elite 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C11 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (TED34096M1600HC11DC) £22.99
1 x OcUK 24x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £18.98
Total : £335.48 (includes shipping : £10.50).

Or a GTX 650: http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-188-MS&groupid=701&catid=1914&subcat=2392

snips86x · 4 Jan 2013 at 14:40

Intel:

YOUR BASKET
1 x HIS HD 7850 IceQ X 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card (H785QN2G2M) w/ FARCRY3 & Sleeping Dogs PC Games £155.99
1 x Intel Core i3-3220 3.30GHz (Ivybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor (77W) - Retail £89.99
1 x MSI Z77A-G43 Intel Z77 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard - FREE Alpenföhn Civetta Cooler!! £72.98
1 x Kingston HyperX Genesis Grey 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (KHX1600C9D3X2K2/8GX) £35.99
1 x BitFenix Merc Beta Gaming Case - Black £29.99
Total : £398.44 (includes shipping : £11.25).

AMD:

YOUR BASKET
1 x HIS HD 7850 IceQ X 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card (H785QN2G2M) w/ FARCRY3 & Sleeping Dogs PC Games £155.99
1 x AMD Piledriver FX-4 Quad Core 4300 3.80GHz (Socket AM3+) Processor - Retail £89.99
1 x MSI 990XA-GD55 AMD 990X Chipset (Socket AM3+) DDR3 Motherboard £82.99
1 x Kingston HyperX Genesis Grey 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (KHX1600C9D3X2K2/8GX) £35.99
1 x BitFenix Merc Beta Gaming Case - Black £29.99
Total : £408.44 (includes shipping : £11.25).

Not much in it, but the options are there!

Doomedspeed · 4 Jan 2013 at 14:44

Id go with lukie's spec, its spot on.

JCX50, that is so wrong. The 7750 & 7770 are poor value compared to the 7850.

The G840 isn't as good as the A10, in raw power.

Getting an OEM motherboard isn't a great idea.

That PSU doesn't look great and only 4gb of RAM? Its not 2007.

The gtx 650, while being impressively small is poor value too

shadow_boxer · 4 Jan 2013 at 15:04

LukieBoy007 said:
YOUR BASKET
1 x HIS HD 7850 IceQ X 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card (H785QN2G2M) w/ FARCRY3 & Sleeping Dogs PC Games £155.99
1 x Intel Core i3-3220 3.30GHz (Ivybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor (77W) - Retail £89.99
1 x MSI Z77A-G43 Intel Z77 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard - FREE Alpenföhn Civetta Cooler!! £72.98
1 x TeamGroup Elite 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C11 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (TED38GM1600HC11DC01) £35.99
1 x BitFenix Merc Alpha Gaming Case - Black £29.99
Total : £398.44 (includes shipping : £11.25).

In terms of raw power, the i3 beats the A10. The A10 has a better IGP, but if pairing up with a graphics card such as the 7850, I'd highly suggest getting an i3 as the performance is better.

+1. Looks good.

What power supply does your mate have?

neocon · 4 Jan 2013 at 15:10

shadow_boxer said:
+1. Looks good.

What power supply does your mate have?

would an i3 bottle neck a more powerful gpu?

Doomedspeed · 4 Jan 2013 at 15:13

neocon said:
would an i3 bottle neck a more powerful gpu?

Possible. I don't don't many pairing an i3 with a 7950, I can only assume that's the reason.

Traffic_Warden · 4 Jan 2013 at 16:27

I would go with the Beta case rather then the Aplha, unless you plan on adding fans at the top of the case too. (Just in-case any spec'd the alpha and missed that)