Spec me a gaming pc!

FatFishMonster · 16 Jan 2015 at 16:28

Hi chaps

Building a gaming pc, minecraft, steam games at a decent level etc..
Looking to spend around 700

Need a monitor
Needs windows 7
Don't need keyboard and mouse

Prefer to use the bitfenix phenom ITX case

Lets see what you got! I already specked a machine myself but just wanting to see what you guys can offer!

stulid · 16 Jan 2015 at 16:36

Its hard without making it suck.

YOUR BASKET
1 x **B Grade** Sapphire Radeon R9 280X Vapor-X OC 3072MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Card £139.99
1 x AOC E2460SH 24" Widescreen 1ms Gaming LED Monitor - Black £113.99
1 x MSI Z97I AC Intel Z97 (Socket 1150) DDR3 Mini ITX Motherboard £94.99
1 x Microsoft Windows 8.1 64-Bit DVD - OEM (WN7-00614) £77.99
1 x BitFenix Phenom Mini-ITX Cube Case - Midnight Black £69.95
1 x TeamGroup Vulcan RED 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-19200C11 2400MHz Dual Channel Kit (TLRED38G2400HC11CDC01) £65.99
1 x Intel Pentium K Anniversary G3258 Socket LGA1150 Processor - Retail £57.59
1 x Antec TruePower Classic 550w '80 Plus Gold' Power Supply £55.99
1 x Seagate Barracuda 1TB 7200RPM SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache - OEM (ST1000DM003) HDD £44.99
1 x Raijintek Aidos Direct Contact CPU Cooler - Black £14.99
Total : £765.79 (includes shipping : £24.45).

FatFishMonster · 16 Jan 2015 at 16:44

stulid said:
Its hard without making it suck.

YOUR BASKET
1 x **B Grade** Sapphire Radeon R9 280X Vapor-X OC 3072MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Card £139.99
1 x AOC E2460SH 24" Widescreen 1ms Gaming LED Monitor - Black £113.99
1 x MSI Z97I AC Intel Z97 (Socket 1150) DDR3 Mini ITX Motherboard £94.99
1 x Microsoft Windows 8.1 64-Bit DVD - OEM (WN7-00614) £77.99
1 x BitFenix Phenom Mini-ITX Cube Case - Midnight Black £69.95
1 x TeamGroup Vulcan RED 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-19200C11 2400MHz Dual Channel Kit (TLRED38G2400HC11CDC01) £65.99
1 x Intel Pentium K Anniversary G3258 Socket LGA1150 Processor - Retail £57.59
1 x Antec TruePower Classic 550w '80 Plus Gold' Power Supply £55.99
1 x Seagate Barracuda 1TB 7200RPM SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache - OEM (ST1000DM003) HDD £44.99
1 x Raijintek Aidos Direct Contact CPU Cooler - Black £14.99
Total : £765.79 (includes shipping : £24.45).

Its more for light gaming really, nothing too extreme (its not for me)
The white bit fenix is only £48 at the mo so that reduces

I have a budget of £700, no higher really.

What about going down an AMD route and not using a dedicated GPU?
Would also prefer an SSD, the person doesn't need a lot of space so they may add in a 2tb drive later on

stulid · 16 Jan 2015 at 16:47

YOUR BASKET
1 x AOC E2460SH 24" Widescreen 1ms Gaming LED Monitor - Black £113.99
1 x AMD Kaveri 7700K 10 Compute Core APU w/ Radeon R7 Graphics (4 CPU + 6 GPU Compute Cores) - Retail £109.99
1 x SK Hynix 256GB SSD SH910A SATA 6Gb/s Solid State Drive (HFS256G32MNB-2201A) £84.98
1 x Gigabyte F2A88XN-WIFI AMD A88X (Socket FM2+) DDR3 Mini ITX Motherboard £77.99
1 x Microsoft Windows 8.1 64-Bit DVD - OEM (WN7-00614) £77.99
1 x TeamGroup Vulcan RED 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-19200C11 2400MHz Dual Channel Kit (TLRED38G2400HC11CDC01) £65.99
1 x BitFenix Phenom Mini-ITX Cube Case - Arctic White £48.95
1 x Seagate Barracuda 1TB 7200RPM SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache - OEM (ST1000DM003) HDD £44.99
1 x SuperFlower Golden Green HX 350W "80 Plus Gold" Power Supply - Black £41.99
Total : £689.77 (includes shipping : £19.10).

FatFishMonster · 16 Jan 2015 at 16:48

stulid said:
YOUR BASKET
1 x AOC E2460SH 24" Widescreen 1ms Gaming LED Monitor - Black £113.99
1 x AMD Kaveri 7700K 10 Compute Core APU w/ Radeon R7 Graphics (4 CPU + 6 GPU Compute Cores) - Retail £109.99
1 x SK Hynix 256GB SSD SH910A SATA 6Gb/s Solid State Drive (HFS256G32MNB-2201A) £84.98
1 x Gigabyte F2A88XN-WIFI AMD A88X (Socket FM2+) DDR3 Mini ITX Motherboard £77.99
1 x Microsoft Windows 8.1 64-Bit DVD - OEM (WN7-00614) £77.99
1 x TeamGroup Vulcan RED 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-19200C11 2400MHz Dual Channel Kit (TLRED38G2400HC11CDC01) £65.99
1 x BitFenix Phenom Mini-ITX Cube Case - Arctic White £48.95
1 x Seagate Barracuda 1TB 7200RPM SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache - OEM (ST1000DM003) HDD £44.99
1 x SuperFlower Golden Green HX 350W "80 Plus Gold" Power Supply - Black £41.99
Total : £689.77 (includes shipping : £19.10).

Would that hold up well in gaming?
They can always add in a dedicated GPU later on if they need it

Danny75 · 16 Jan 2015 at 16:52

YOUR BASKET
1 x Asus VX239H 23" Widescreen Super-Slim Bezel LED Monitor - White £139.99
1 x Powercolor Radeon R9 270 TurboDUO 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £113.99
1 x Intel Core i3-4150 3.50GHz (Haswell) Socket LGA1150 Processor - Retail £92.99
1 x Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 64-Bit - OEM (GFC-02733) £79.99
1 x Avexir Core Blue Series 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C11 1600MHz Dual Channel Memory Kit (AVD3U16001104G-2CW) - Blue Light £59.99
1 x Asus H81I-Plus Intel H81 (Socket 1150) DDR3 Mini ITX Motherboard £58.99
1 x BitFenix Phenom Mini-ITX Cube Case - Arctic White £48.95
1 x Seagate Barracuda 1TB 7200RPM SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache - OEM (ST1000DM003) HDD £44.99
1 x EVGA 500W 80 Plus Bronze Power Supply (100-B1-0500-KR) £43.99
1 x BitFenix Spectre PRO 230mm blue LED fan - white £16.99
1 x BitFenix Alchemy Molex to 3pin x3 Fan adaptor 12V 20cm - White £4.99
Total : £727.27 (includes shipping : £17.85).

stulid · 16 Jan 2015 at 16:54

FatFishMonster said:
Would that hold up well in gaming?
They can always add in a dedicated GPU later on if they need it

What games exactly?

Minecraft sure, but if you say BF4 or other triple A titles then yeah, maybe at a lower 720P resolution and medium/low settings.

FatFishMonster · 16 Jan 2015 at 17:00

stulid said:
What games exactly?

Minecraft sure, but if you say BF4 or other triple A titles then yeah, maybe at a lower 720P resolution and medium/low settings.

This is the issue when I tried to spec one myself
Cause they don't game on PC, they don't know, this is their first toe in the water. But they think they want to play minecraft, steam games, stuff like that.
So my thinking was to go with the AMD as its cheaper, and later on if they discover its something they want to stick to and want more performance they can add in a dedicated GPU and still have a half decent CPU too.

stulid · 16 Jan 2015 at 17:02

You can do that, maybe spec a 450+ PSU instead.

Or Add a R7 250 and "crossfire" it with the APU.

FatFishMonster · 16 Jan 2015 at 17:03

stulid said:
You can do that, maybe spec a 450+ PSU instead.

Or Add a R7 250 and "crossfire" it with the APU.

Yeah that's what I like about the APU's you can crossfire with the CPU

Cheers Stupid, Still a boss when it comes to Specing

Danny75 · 16 Jan 2015 at 18:16

http://www.extremetech.com/gaming/1...d-intel-clobbers-amds-apus-in-budget-gaming/2

When an APU (7850K) + R7 250 in CrossFire is compared to an i3 + 260X.

If purely sticking with APU (no extra GPU) and not bothered about upgrading performance, then the APU can't be beaten for the price (for gaming), so there is still a place for it. But as soon as you stick in a 250 for CrossFire, or a more powerful card that cannot run in CrossFire, that's when you could have gotten better for the money to begin with.

YOUR BASKET
1 x Intel Core i3-4150 3.50GHz (Haswell) Socket LGA1150 Processor - Retail £92.99
1 x Sapphire Radeon R7 260X OC 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card (11222-06-20G) £89.99
Total : £192.58 (includes shipping : £8.00).

YOUR BASKET
1 x AMD Kaveri 7850K 12 Compute Core APU w/ Radeon R7 Graphics (4 CPU + 8 GPU Compute Cores) - Retail £139.99
1 x MSI Radeon R7 250 OC 2048MB GDDR3 PCI-Express Graphics Card £65.99
Total : £215.58 (includes shipping : £8.00).

YOUR BASKET
1 x AMD Kaveri 7700K 10 Compute Core APU w/ Radeon R7 Graphics (4 CPU + 6 GPU Compute Cores) - Retail £109.99
1 x MSI Radeon R7 250 OC 2048MB GDDR3 PCI-Express Graphics Card £65.99
Total : £185.58 (includes shipping : £8.00).

And check this out:

YOUR BASKET
1 x AMD Kaveri 7700K 10 Compute Core APU w/ Radeon R7 Graphics (4 CPU + 6 GPU Compute Cores) - Retail £109.99
1 x Gigabyte F2A88XN-WIFI AMD A88X (Socket FM2+) DDR3 Mini ITX Motherboard £77.99
1 x MSI Radeon R7 250 OC 2048MB GDDR3 PCI-Express Graphics Card £65.99
Total : £263.57 (includes shipping : £8.00).

YOUR BASKET
1 x Intel Core i3-4150 3.50GHz (Haswell) Socket LGA1150 Processor - Retail £92.99
1 x Sapphire Radeon R7 260X OC 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card (11222-06-20G) £89.99
1 x Asus H81I-Plus Intel H81 (Socket 1150) DDR3 Mini ITX Motherboard £58.99
Total : £254.87 (includes shipping : £10.75).

So you end up paying more for considerably less performance.

If you can fit a Pentium-K or i3 + 260X or better, into budget, then that's what I'd buy when it comes to mini-ITX.

YOUR BASKET
1 x AOC E2460SH 24" Widescreen 1ms Gaming LED Monitor - Black £113.99
1 x Intel Core i3-4150 3.50GHz (Haswell) Socket LGA1150 Processor - Retail £92.99
1 x Sapphire Radeon R7 260X OC 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card (11222-06-20G) £89.99
1 x SK Hynix 256GB SSD SH910A SATA 6Gb/s Solid State Drive (HFS256G32MNB-2201A) £84.98
1 x Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 64-Bit - OEM (GFC-02733) £79.99
1 x Avexir Core Blue Series 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C11 1600MHz Dual Channel Memory Kit (AVD3U16001104G-2CW) - Blue Light £59.99
1 x Asus H81I-Plus Intel H81 (Socket 1150) DDR3 Mini ITX Motherboard £58.99
1 x BitFenix Phenom Mini-ITX Cube Case - Arctic White £48.95
1 x EVGA 500W 80 Plus Bronze Power Supply (100-B1-0500-KR) £43.99
Total : £701.70 (includes shipping : £23.20).

So it's missing a 1TB HDD, which can be added on when needed for less cost than buying an R7 250, which would not equal the gaming performance of the existing i3 + 260X anyway.

The i3 will also run more powerful cards slightly better than the Kaveris, and the i3 itself can be upgraded to i5/i7, unlike the Kaveris.

stulid · 16 Jan 2015 at 18:19

That graph is dated march last year.

When the Omega driver was released before Xmas it improved APU+250 performance.

Yes that is with a 7850K, but the increase I think will still be there compared to the launch drivers.

McGraw · 16 Jan 2015 at 18:20

Not sure whether you can still trial windows but maybe think about that then you can buy your OS later.

Danny75 · 16 Jan 2015 at 18:44

stulid said:
That graph is dated march last year.

When the Omega driver was released before Xmas it improved APU+250 performance.

Yes that is with a 7850K, but the increase I think will still be there compared to the launch drivers.

Cheers, Stu.

Yes, I accept the difference between 7850K and 7700K won't be much, so fair point.

Thing is we also know Mantle has seen some improvements since that article, so it would be interesting to see benchmarks comparing both setups with Omega and latest Mantle, respectively.

I retract my i3+260X-surely-has-to-better claim till we know for sure. Might be about even now, give or take a little.

Legend · 16 Jan 2015 at 18:48

Does it have to be new? May be worth having a look on the MM, you'd def get a higher spec for your money that way.