What sort of spec for my brother

robfosters

robfosters

robfosters

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He's an avid COD player on gamebattles and all that palava.

He wants to record in HD from his Hauppage HD PVR. His current laptop struggles badly. Just not powerful enough.

What can he get for about £400? Just a base unit. I can give him my 8800GTS if that's OK as I think this sort of thing is more CPU dependant than GFX card dependant.

No gaming needed as he's a PS3 nut.

Thanks
 
What is his PSN and team name :D

He'll need a quad core, or a very powerful dual core. i3/i5 would do the job. More of an i3 for that price range though.

Rest is not really necessary tbh, 4GB RAM would do just fine.

Rest is not needed too much tbh. Just a standard PSU, the 8800GT and a standard mobo will be fine :P

Sorry I can't give you names/link, but I jut know whats needed, as I know people who record from HD PVRs, but I don't know their exact model.
 
I should think you could get a decent dual core intel or quad core AMD processor, with 4GB of RAM for that...

However i am not very good at this stuff, so listen to the pros :P
 
i wonder how long the "no gaming needed" will last. i predict up until 2 weeks before battlefield 3 at the latest :p

however, until then here's a spec that will be great for video recording:

worse spec now, more easily upgraded
1 x Asrock Z68 PRO3 Intel Z68 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £99.98
1 x Intel Core i3-2100 3.10GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor - Retail £94.99
1 x Kingston HyperX Genesis Grey 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (KHX1600C9D3X2K2/8GX) £47.99
1 x BeQuiet Pure Power L7 530W '80 Plus' Power Supply £45.98
1 x Samsung SpinPoint F3 1TB SATA-II 32MB Cache - OEM (HD103SJ) £39.98
1 x Cooler Master Elite 430 Windowed Case - Black £37.99
1 x LiteOn IHAS124-19 24x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £16.99
Total : £398.02 (includes shipping : £11.75).


its also ready for the inevitable "zomg i wanna play battlefield on the PC" with a PSU that can cope with most single graphics cards and a motherboard that will allow overclocking when he decides he needs an i5 2500k. current processor cant be overclocked though

however, if you remove some of the upgrade paths then you can get a bit more for your money now:


better spec now, more expensive to upgrade
1 x Intel Core i5-2400 3.10GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor - Retail £146.99
1 x Cooler Master Elite 430 Windowed Case - Black (with 500w Elite Power PSU) £64.99
1 x MSI H67MA-E35 Intel H67 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Micro-ATX Motherboard - (Sandybridge) **B3 REVISION** £64.99
1 x Kingston HyperX Genesis Grey 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (KHX1600C9D3X2K2/8GX) £47.99
1 x Samsung SpinPoint F3 1TB SATA-II 32MB Cache - OEM (HD103SJ) £39.98
1 x LiteOn IHAS124-19 24x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £16.99
Total : £395.44 (includes shipping : £11.25).

the motherboard (and processor) do not allow overclocking and the PSU will cope with a GTX 460 or 560 at best (not the Ti version though)
however, the processor is a quad core, unlike the dual core in the first build
 
That second spec looks very good.

If he did fancy getting into a bit of gaming would the PSU cope with a 6870 and would this make the rig suitable for modern gaming?
 
robfosters said:
That second spec looks very good.

If he did fancy getting into a bit of gaming would the PSU cope with a 6870 and would this make the rig suitable for modern gaming?
Click to expand...
yep, it would be fine with a 6870. they actually use less power than a 460. heres the kind of FPS your likely to get with a 6870:
http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/290
*edit*
you'll need to make sure that whatever graphics card you get comes with a molex to PCIe adapter, because that PSU only has one PCIe power cable, but most graphics cards need two. most graphics cards do come with a molex to PCIe power adapter, but occasionally you'll get one that doesnt have one (the Nvidia OEM cards dont come with that cable for instance)
 
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Thanks.

Probably wont be needed though as he has an aversion to gaming with a mouse and keyboard. I've tried telling him that its the best way to play FPS's, but it's like talking to a brick wall.
 
robfosters said:
Thanks.

Probably wont be needed though as he has an aversion to gaming with a mouse and keyboard. I've tried telling him that its the best way to play FPS's, but it's like talking to a brick wall.
Click to expand...

does he know you can plug a wired xbox controller into the PC and play with that?

not so sure about PS3 controllers, but it certainly works with any wired xbox controller. the crappy xbox microphone works in the controller too :)

stulid, if you look at anandtech's benchmark you will see that an entire system with a 6870 in it will need 306W maximum (using furmark). the elite 500W can happily produce 400W* on its 12V rail, so you could power the entire system off of its 12V rails if you needed to
http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/290

*i think its 400W, im just about to check
 
Reaper 392 said:
stulid, if you look at anandtech's benchmark you will see that an entire system with a 6870 in it will need 306W maximum (using furmark). the elite 500W can happily produce 400W* on its 12V rail, so you could power the entire system off of its 12V rails if you needed to
http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/290

*i think its 400W, im just about to check
Click to expand...

You can check but the only reviews you will find are of the other sucky Elite PSU range;)

For example - http://www.hardwaresecrets.com/article/Cooler-Master-Elite-Power-460-W-Power-Supply-Review/1005/9

This unit can’t deliver its labeled power – like Elite Power 400 W, it can only deliver up to 420 W. To make things worse, this unit is sold for USD 10 more than Elite Power 400 W – an extra 33% profit for Cooler Master for counterfeiting their own power supplies.
Click to expand...
 
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stulid said:
You can check but the only reviews you will find are of the other sucky Elite PSU range;)
Click to expand...

i know its not great, but as a basic PSU to power a light gaming rig it'll do.

i'd much rather recommend a bequiet 530W but because of that case + PSU bundle you save a huge amount of money
 
Reaper 392 said:
does he know you can plug a wired xbox controller into the PC and play with that?

not so sure about PS3 controllers, but it certainly works with any wired xbox controller. the crappy xbox microphone works in the controller too :)
Click to expand...

Yeah I know about the xbox pad, but as I say he prefers PS3. There is a way of making a PS3 pad work on PC using this driver http://dl.qj.net/playstation-3/tools-and-utilities/sixaxis-driver-for-pc.html

However, the mapping is an absolute dog whereas the xbox pad is pretty much plug and play.
 
 
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Think I will.

Your basketProduct Name Qty Price Line Total
Intel Core i5-2400 3.10GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor - Retail £146.99
(£122.49) £146.99
(£122.49)
MSI H67MA-E35 Intel H67 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Micro-ATX Motherboard - (Sandybridge) **B3 REVISION** £64.99
(£54.16) £64.99
(£54.16)
Lepa W-Series 500W '80 Plus' Power Supply £46.99
(£39.16) £46.99
(£39.16)
Crucial Ballistix Sport 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C10 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (BL2KIT51264BA160A) £43.19
(£35.99) £43.19
(£35.99)
Samsung SpinPoint F3 1TB SATA-II 32MB Cache - OEM (HD103SJ) £39.98
(£33.32) £39.98
(£33.32)
Cooler Master Elite 430 Windowed Case - Black £37.99
(£31.66) £37.99
(£31.66)
LG GH22NS70 22x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £16.99
(£14.16) £16.99
(£14.16)
Sub Total : £330.94
Shipping cost assumes delivery to UK Mainland with:
DPD Next Day Parcel
(This can be changed during checkout) Shipping : £11.75
VAT is being charged at 20.00% VAT : £68.54
Total : £411.23

£397.13 with free delivery.
 
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the OP has free delivery..... why did i not see this before. would have stopped all the PSU troubles.

ah well, go with stulids spec since you have free delivery
 
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