Howdy, Stranger!
It looks like you're new here. If you want to get involved, click one of these buttons!
Quick Links
Looking to build PC. Need help!
HellsMajesty
Member UncommonPosts: 204
Hi guys
As the title says i am looking to build a new PC as my 5 year old prebuilt is getting out of date and runs SWTOR pretty badly. I live in the UK and am aiming to keep the budget around £700, the main games i play are EVE and SWTOR which are not too intensive but i would like to be able to run them both on high and as smoothly as possible.
I would like advice on what would be a good setup as i really dont have much idea on which brands and models to go for besides the obvious nvidia/ati graphics cards. The only thing i would like to know is if my processor is good enough to keep to swap into a new build, it is a intel core 2 duo quad core Q6600 2.4GHz. Also if i could get some advice on what cooling might be necessary for the type of setup i will be running it would help!
Thanks in advance
Comments
I have built many top end gaming systems. I would not try to salvage your processor. Based upon your buget, stay 1 tier down from the top end components. The best place to see what's available, reviews and prices is newegg.com or tigerdirect.com. First decide on a motherboard/cpu combination. I stay with Intel on both in case I have trouble and want to avoid finger pointing, but there are a lot of good motherboards. Next be sure you pick the correct memory for the motherboard/cpu. This can be tricky. If it is an Intel board, the Intel site has a list of tested memory for their motherboards.
Pick a graphics card you can afford. Today, most graphics cards will drive your games just fine. Stay away from leading edge cards as they are expensive and more prone to failure.
Choose a power supply based upon the components above plus some extra. 500W+ should do.
Bluray DVD readers are inexpensive. Get a hard drive. 500G is sufficient. Don't need to spend much money on this.
Buy the OEM Windows 7 64-bit O/S for best price.
For the case, I use full size tower, like Cooler Master, for the extra space and cooling.
Mouse, keyboard and screen if you don't have these.
I probably left something out.
Have fun.
No, it's just I am not a vendor. I've had my share of failures, even so I continue to use top end products because I can afford them and can afford to replace them. Heat is this number 1 enemy of components. Processor and graphics card manufactures know this well. That is the primary reason Intel changed its architecture 10 years ago. I am not opposed to leading edge stuff. However, 1 tier down is the safest and most affordable for someone on a budget as described above.
You mean to tell me that Intel unleased the notoriously hot-running NetBurst architecture on the world because they were trying to avoid excessive heat? And that it had nothing to do with trying to impress gullible customers with large GHz numbers?
-----
Anyway, for the original poster, can you assemble parts yourself, or do you need to hire some company to do that for you? You can get better value for the money if you can build your own. If you don't know what parts to get, I could find some for you.
Also, if you're quoting prices in pounds, is it safe to assume that you're in Britain?
Hi guys sorry for the late reply had a lot going on last night! Quizzical yes i am fairly competent with electronics as i previously worked fixing broadcast equipment so i should be ok to build it myself, and i have replaced computer parts in the past, and yes i am English
The main reason i ask for help is just because i do not know what models etc to go for especially in the way of motherboards and processors. As stated i dont know whether my current processor is worth salvaging or i should just invest in a new one again. I do have a 500GB hard drive in my current PC aswell which i would most likely use and possibly purchase another 500GB drive to couple it with as i store a lot of media.
Also ideally i would like to ensure the build is going to last a couple of years without needing to upgrade parts again, i hope you think that is achievable with the budget i have stated but i would consider stretching that in order to ensure that i get the best i can afford.
Thanks
Agree with what most people have said - prob not worth trying to keep the cpu because that in turn will mean keeping an older motherboard and prob i would think DDR2 memory (based on the model etc)
However you have a healthy budget so building a nice rig easily capable of playing the games you want on high wont be an issue.
Some websites that you may wish to consider when building:
www.dabs.com
www.ebuyer.co.uk
www.scan.co.uk
Other will have there preferences but these are the ones i use and have had no issues with over about 10 years.
What i always point out to people is generally you will get what you pay for and what you need the pc to do.
Now without going into too many details i would be looking at:
£150-175 on CPU
£150-175 on gfx
£75-100 on mb
£70 on 16gb of ram (advise buying as ram is stupid cheap atm)
£60-80 on a PSU
£50 for a half decent case
£100 on a decent quick HDD or a small SSD
£20 on a cooler
OK this was done roughly without look at specific pieces and is around £750 if you looking at all the top end parts and is generally for what people suggest is the best bang for buck rig which is an i5 2500 or 2500k with a choice of nvidia 560ti or equivilent ati card.
This would also be the price of a system with the new half decent amd CPUs (not the crappy low end ones)
Now you could probally cut about 100-150 quid off that by going for one of the black edition AMD hex core cpus.
For most gamers the lowest i would suggest going on nvidia is a #60 series card - so atm would be a 560 or there will be a similar ATI card, sure quiz will give you more of the lowdown or you can read in many of the other build post in these forums.
The other pieces like the mobo will be dependent if you want all the bells and whistles (USB3 etc)
So I take it that you don't need the old computer to remain functional? If you want to salvage parts from it, then you should list exactly what parts you have. If it's a typical cheap prebuilt, then the optical drive is probably the only thing salvageable, as the hard drive is old enough that it should probably be replaced anyway. If it's nicer than you're letting on, then the case could also be worth keeping.
Do you just need the case and everything that goes inside, or do you need new peripherals, too?
Lol, I remeber a certain AMD series way back that were even more famous for bursting into flames.
Heat is not really a problem if you have good cooling anyways.
OP: 700 quids is plenty if you build it yourself, np there.
Do you want Intel or AMD? Nvidia or ATI?
It is a fairly cheap 5 year old pre built anyway I believe it is a hp pavilion I don't know if that helps identify the case? And as far as peripherals go I have everything I need it's just the actual case and components I need.
Thanks
I will say there is something that most people call "Bang for the Buck" - and typically, you pay a heavy premium for "top tier" items. The bang for the buck usually sits a few tiers down from the top.
As in today, sure, you can spend $1000 on a new Socket 2011 Extreme Edition Core i7 3690 6 core, or $220 on a Core i5 2500. The performance difference in most video games will be ... in the single digit percent range, even though the price is about 500% more. That's at least two tiers from Intels top by my reckoning, putting the Core i7 2600/2700 inbetween the two.
The same goes with video cards, where the 580GTX for the longest time was the performance king, it was about 15% faster than a 570GTX, but cost about 40% more. (I'd use an example with the 7970, because it's not an nVidia think, but we don't really have anything same generation to compare it to yet).
There is a point where the price goes up dramatically for every little bit of extra performance, and that point just before the price starts to skyrocket up is usually the Bang for the Buck - some people can afford (or really want) that little bit of extra performance, most people won't even miss it.
But it doesn't have anything really to do with reliability.
Morning Mr OP
The reason i suggested the SSD was you had said that you have an old 500gb drive available at this point. Also current HDDs are seriously overpriced and the prices wont be back down i still think for another month or so, they are slow creeping back down. In this fact an SSD may benefit you (quicker loading times on the OS and less loading within games) and adding another drive in the future purely for storage is very easy.
Also if it is as believed that you had a cheap pre built 5 year old HP it might also be worth retiring this drive (not saying there is anything wrong with it but i would think it is 6-7 years old) and say sticking in a 1tb drive for storeage in say 2 months time for the same price of a 500gb drive today.
Also unfortunately last night the intermittent fault I have been having with the computer appears to of become permanent so I would like to get on with ordering parts as I am on holiday this weekend and would like to arrive home to some parts!
If anybody could come up with a rough suitable spec I would be extremely grateful or at least recommend some good sites that ship to the UK. Also if I could get a second opinion on Using an SSD with a HDD for storage it would be greatly appreciated!
I just built a new PC myself.
When I was picking out a graphics card for my new PC I had to choose between an AMD 6990 and an AMD 6980. The AMD 6980 was $100 cheaper and the difference between them them is under 1% in performance.
Then I found out that the difference between an AMD 6930 and these two is closer to 2-3%... but the price point drops to under $100. So I went with this cheap one
I ended up getting cheap everything.
Power supply is the starting point of your system. If you don't know anything about the system make sure you plan it out. You will need to count up the wattage use of all the components. The video card will take up most of it I assure you. Also check out the Amps use on components make sure that you are not under amps. If you are planning to upgrade your system investing in a high powered PSU (power supply unit) will be wise. PSUs do not go up or down in price over the years, they've always remained the exact same price point.
Everyone who is telling you to buy components that are going to be weaker than the best are correct. If you can afford all the high powered stuff, that's great. However since you now have a custom built PC you will be able to update parts over the years. Why spend an extra $300 on a part that own't be needed for another 6 years when in six years time you can buy something better at 75% the price.
Website: http://www.thegameguru.me / YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/users/thetroublmaker
Thanks agai
Edit
OP..
You might want to get a head start with some of the great bubdle offers from these people.
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/productlist.php?groupid=43&catid=2053
Also check this thread. http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?t=18360126
That's the thing you'll have to decide for yourself. GeFORCE usually are more compatible with more games but AMDs are cheaper and are usually just as powerful
The AMD 6900 series is going to keep you safe for gaming for about 6-7 years. The higher the number the slightly longer it'll last. Anything in the 6900 series can run any game out right now. As far as I know the most graphically powerful game available is Crysis followed by Crysis 2. They both run under AMD 6900 series smoothly.
Website: http://www.thegameguru.me / YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/users/thetroublmaker
I think bang for buck should win out in the end.
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/productlist.php?groupid=701&catid=56&subid=1752
I will attempt to come up with a rough build to post in here tonight and see if you guys can poke some holes in it... Providing the missus let's me on her laptop lol
Ok im in a good mood so this is basically some things that I would look to buy building an entire PC, however this is either my opinion or that of people i know. Most components i either have myself or have again been used by friends.
All prices here are quoted from dabs - please search around if you will, but usually there is only a few pounds in it:
Now this stuff wont really need to change and really will be the same across the board:
Case, PSU,Memory and cooler:
Case - Antec 300 or 100 (I have a 100 friend has 300, both very good cases) - £45
PSU - Corsair Memory TX650 v2 650w ATX Enthusiast Seriers - £67
Memory - 8gb DDR3 Corsair Vegeance 1600mhz - £35
CPU Cooler - Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro Rev2 - £15
Total - £162
Optical Drive: So your 1st choice (or you may wish to use your old one). IMO i would just stick with the standard DVDRW unless you really need to play Bluerays on your PC.
LiteOn 24x DVDRW - £15
or
Samsung 12x BD / DVDRW - £44
or
LG BDRW - £60
CPU + Mobo: This is always the toughest choice and will limit the rest of the system that you buy. Few things to consider, some things that are benchmarked on the i5 you may not need for gaming, so although the bench marks may look impressive unless you are doing lots of compiling or photoshop you may not need all the power the i5 gives you. So again this is just my opinion but i would prob be more inclined to grab the 1055t to make sure that i had enough money for the 6950 ati card. But this is down to you and other people may give you different advice. If i was given the choice between the 8 core FX8120 or 4 core i5 i would prob go with the i5 just because 1st generation stuff scares me, added to this most games only really use 2 cores with a few starting to use 4, will games ever use 8...................dunno.
Intel i5 2500 - £160
Gigabyte Z68AP-D3 - £80
or
Amd Phenom II X6 1055T - £120 or AMD FX8120 AM3+ - £162
Gigabyte GA-970A-D3 - £81
GFX: Now to stay within your budget the 6950 or the 570 would only really be possible if you are looking at the 1055T amd CPU. Now to be honest with the game you want to play if i could fit it in i would get the 6950, but again this could be a stretch.
Gigabyte Geforce GTX 560Ti 900mhz - £175
or
Sapphire ATI Radeon 6870 HD 2gb - £160
or
MSI ATI Radeon 6950 Twin Frozr 2gb - £210
or
Asus Geforce GTX 570 1280mb - £250
Hard Disk:
OCZ Tech 120gb Vertex 2 - £130
or
Ok Dabs only seemed to have very new drives but something like:
Samsung SpinPoint F3 1tb - £87 from overclockers £88
Well there we go - i hope that helps and like i said this is my opinion - seems i generally play similar sort of games to yourself and this would also allow for high settings on games like Skyrim and BF3 if you so choose.
Simon thank you for going to such effort and what you have suggested generally matches up with what I have read elsewhere! I will be going to my girlfriends with the next few hours and I will get on her laptop and do a quick bit of research on what you have said and I will come back with what I think is a good spec.
Just a quick note my budget is rough I can probably scrape together another £100 to get the build I want of need be (I don't like doing things by halves :P) also I don't have much preference as far as ATI and nvidia because I have heard good things about both although ATI seems to be the better option by popular opinion, but as far as processors go I want to stay intel.
For what it's worth, the point of going with an AMD processor is to save money, and you don't save the money that you're supposed to if you get a six or eight core processor.
"That's the thing you'll have to decide for yourself. GeFORCE usually are more compatible with more games but AMDs are cheaper and are usually just as powerful"
That is completely nonsense unless you're talking about non-Windows operating systems, in which case, it's probably still wrong.
Actually, hang on and I'll come up with some parts.
Here you go:
http://www.ebuyer.com/287683-amd-fx-4-4100-black-edition-4-core-3-6ghz-socket-am3-8mb-l3-fd4100wmgusbx
http://www.ebuyer.com/270697-asus-m5a97-amd-socket-am3-8-channel-hd-audio-atx-motherboard-m5a97
http://www.ebuyer.com/245565-psu-high-current-gamer-hcg-520-uk-0761345-06205-3
http://www.ebuyer.com/143854-antec-300-three-hundred-case-0761345-08300-3
http://www.ebuyer.com/275166-crucial-ballistix-sport-8gb-2x4gb-ddr3-1600mhz-memory-kit-cl10-1-5v-bl2kit51264ba160a
http://www.ebuyer.com/252858-seagate-1tb-3-5-barracuda-sata-iii-6gb-s-hard-drive-7200rpm-32mb-cache-st31000524as
http://www.ebuyer.com/259863-microsoft-windows-7-home-premium-w-sp1-licence-and-media-1-gfc-02050
http://www.ebuyer.com/268621-samsung-sh-222ab-22x-dvd-rw-dl-ram-sata-optical-drive-oem-sh-222ab-bebe
http://www.ebuyer.com/271108-exdisplay-asus-gtx-560ti-directcu-ii-1gb-gddr5-dual-dvi-mini-hdm-ebr1-engtx560-ti-dcii-2di-1gd5
That comes to £634.38, which is under budget. If you're willing to strech the budget a bit, you could get a faster processor and corresponding motherboard:
http://www.ebuyer.com/251597-core-i5-2500-3-3ghz-socket-1155-6mb-cache-retail-boxed-processor-bx80623i52500
http://www.ebuyer.com/281740-ex-display-gigabyte-ga-p67a-d3-b3-p67-socket-1155-7-1-channel-hd-audio-atx-ebr1-ga-p67a-d3-b3
Or you could add an SSD:
http://www.ebuyer.com/268693-corsair-120gb-force-3-ssd-cssd-f120gb3-bk-cssd-f120gb3-bk
Lol Mr Quiz maybe you better go tell AMD that.
I am giving the OP a choice, not necessarilly saving money. Reason i picked the 1055t is that it benchmarks pretty closely with the i5 but £50 cheaper, and the bulldozer for being similarly priced. The i5 was there as a bench mark based on as i have said before it is generally known for being the best bang for buck cpu.
Also i really wouldnt go with exdisplay for the sake of £5.