The PC Buying Advice Thread mk II

Of course theres a difference, especially in general performance. FM can easily be played by the integrated graphics............but process is important especially if you plan on it lasting 3 years, you'll notice a drop in performance during the latter years.

can I get what I want for£300 ( would that price mean a PC)

Posted from TSR Mobile

Just the desktop to be honest, if you want a screen,etc as well its going to be hard

thanks, my budget is probably 300-400 any other suggestions laptops/PC's
I guess Id like it to be able to watch films without lag, just generally quick performance web browsing a doing uni work. I can ditch Footy manager!

Posted from TSR Mobile

Well I have been looking around, there is one i5 basic but the tower only, no screen, keyboard, mice, speaker or OS...for £340ish http://www.ebuyer.com/519888-zoostorm-desktop-pc-7873-1093

or try for something with less power like these http://www.dinopc.com/shop/pc/home-office-cheap-pcs-computers.asp

Thanks man! How does it work with no os? I can install one!
I wont be getting anything for a month or so, thanks for giving me an idea of what I can get. Will Rep when I can

Posted from TSR Mobile

Wanting alaptop/PC to take to uni, my budget is around £600.
I'm considering switching to PC this gaming generation, (PS4 appeals, but I don't think I can justify buying a new console at uni, at least if I self build a PC I can use it for gaming without my mum being all ASDFGHJKL at me spending so much on a console)
The only thing that worries me is getting a PC and then having trouble taking it to and from uni at the start/end of term, which made me think a laptop would be good, but then a laptop wouldn't be as good for gaming.

If I am going to build a PC, I'd like it to be able to play BF4 on release with reasonable settings and frame rate etc, however I don't really know what kind of components I need to be looking at for this.

You are right, a laptop will have a lot of limitations towards gaming, also your budget isn't suitable as they are expensive as well.

Does the self build include monitor, speakers, keyboard, windows, etc?
Do you need help in terms of self building it?

Excluding monitor, including windows. Depends on the price of KB and speakers, I have a mouse that will do for now. (tbh, I have speakers as well, but they're ancient (Like 8 years old))
I have the general gist of it, plenty of tutorials on youtube. A couple of my friends built gaming rigs last year, so I can ask them if I need help.

Excluding monitor, including windows. Depends on the price of KB and speakers, I have a mouse that will do for now. (tbh, I have speakers as well, but they're ancient (Like 8 years old))
I have the general gist of it, plenty of tutorials on youtube. A couple of my friends built gaming rigs last year, so I can ask them if I need help.

cpu: i5-4570 3.2ghz http://www.ebuyer.com/467680-cpu-core-i5-4570-3-20ghz-lga1150-box-bx80646i54570 £156.99...........this can't be overclocked so be aware of that, went with the newer haswell chip its a good deal at the moment
mobo:
ram: Corsair 8GB DDR3 1600MHz http://www.ebuyer.com/394410-corsair-8gb-ddr3-1600mhz-xms3-memory-cmx8gx3m2a1600c11 £52.98
gpu:
hdd: 1tb http://www.ebuyer.com/319639-seagate-1tb-barracuda-internal-hard-drive-oem-st1000dm003 £45.16
case:
psu:Corsair 600W CX http://www.ebuyer.com/269259-corsair-600w-cx-series-v2-psu-6x-sata-2x-pci-e-cmpsu-600cxv2uk £54.39
optical drive: Basic dvd drive http://www.ebuyer.com/410561-liteon-ihas120-20x-dvd-rw-dual-r-ram-sata-drive-ihas120-04 £13.01

Windows 7 OS: OEM so for one mobo only.........also of you are doing a comp sci kinda subject when you join uni you should be given access to dreamspark so free OS's http://www.ebuyer.com/259863-microsoft-windows-7-home-premium-w-sp1-licence-and-media-1-gfc-02050 £69.99



Very important: Please read all the details included please................also be aware that I didn't add a mobo or case or gpu in for a reason...........after all that, you have about £207.28.

The reason why I havem't chosen the mobo or case is because you said you were taking it to uni, and you may have trouble......because you do have an option, standard gaming cases at mid-towers which are quite big, so its up to you to decide whether you wanna go for a smaller case, there are 2 types, mini-itx like this http://www.ebuyer.com/510175-cooler-master-elite-120-advanced-white-edition-usb-3-0-mini-itx-case-rc-120a-wwn1
Or a microatx like this http://www.ebuyer.com/search?subcat=1418&cat=23

Or you may choose to go for the standard verison a mid tower like these: http://www.ebuyer.com/search?subcat=418&cat=23

Which will also determine that type of motherboard you'll need, as mobo's come in different size, x-large atx, standard atx, MicroATX and in ITX form.

After that can we decide to pick a decent graphics card........if you friend has a spare license for Windows it could really help, as theres a GTX760 on sale at the moment.

Wouldn't really want to overclock anyway, not on my first build.
RAM is a lot more expensive than I remember it being when I looked last year.

Windows 7 is ridiculously expensive, doing maths but I don't think that would let me qualify for dreamspark. (Thought you could only get server OSs for free on there anyway?)


How are the smaller cases for airflow?
First mid tower looks nice. Why not one of the coolermaster towers with included Elite PSU? (Don't really know power requirements of stuff, guessing you chose 600W for a reason.)

My friend got his Windows 7 from a certain bay on the internet.

£200 isn't much for a GPU, mobo and case. :/ Would it not help to go for a cheaper cpu?

Ram has well become very expensive....
You can, but if your from a certain department like elec eng/ comp sci they pay for extra service and gives you access to the proper OS's.

They can be ok, but again depends on the case........I was just suggesting the case sizes if you wanted better portability.

There are some good CM case+psu packs, I got the CM 690II +650 gx one........elite power one isn't very good.......you need to pick a decent amount of wattage from a reliable make.

There is a cheaper cpu, but you'd have to go for the last gen i5, theres one going for £130 or so......

Well if you can get win7 cheaper, you could get a decent low end case, you dont need a high end mobo, and you can just about pick up a 7850.

Oh right, well either way, I can't get it.

I think I'll just go with a mid tower, might give me more options for upgrading stuff in the future.

How much should I be spending on the case? This one seems to have quite good reviews.

so it'd only save like £25 going with an older CPU.


Thought I'd manage fairly comfortably with £600, there are various builds shown on youtube running BF3 on low at 50-60 fps (blops2 on high at 60fps) for about £300.

The case is fine.........often used in budget pre-built systems.

Pretty much on a decent cpu, gamers tend to go for an i5 as its currently the best for gaming.......however if you want to save more money, you could go for a more budget build like the AMD fx range, which are very cheap to be honest, and decent gaming.

Last year there were a lot of good builds around £500ish range, its because of recent price raises in ram and everyone moving onto the 2gb dedicated graphics card which is needed for certain games out there.

If you do wanna go with AMD, you can save easily another £40 there and mobo's are cheaper as well. So you could pick up a 7850/7870 gpu.

If I'm honest, I could spend more (especially if results go well), but I really don't want to go much over £600, just because its so much to spend all at once.

What price would we be looking at with the case I linked, the previous stuff you posted (haswell i5 etc), 7850 and mobo?

207 left from before................minus a 2gb 7850 or 2gb gtx 660, around £140-£145 both 2gb and the £30 case.........you'll have about £30-£35 left for a mobo, you need at least another £30, have a look at the list, check the exact details like extra slots, usb 3.0, etc if you like it tell me and i see if its cheaper elsewhere http://www.ebuyer.com/search?sort=price+ascending&subcat=4109&cat=14&store=2&page=1

You got 2 choices here, both of which are pretty good, gtx660 being the better performer at the moment, check youtube for gameplay, prices fluctuate like crazy, I recall seeing a 7870 for the same price at one point
2gb xfx 7850: http://www.ebuyer.com/434548-xfx-hd-7850-core-edition-2gb-gddr5-dual-dvi-hdmi-dual-displayport-fx-785a-cnjc

2gb MSi gtx660:http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B009PV2D6E/?tag=pcp0f-21

edit: p+p is kinda pricey on this site but check these also:

http://www.pixmania.co.uk/uk/uk/12821060/art/pny/geforce-gtx-660-xlr8-edit.html

http://www.pixmania.co.uk/uk/uk/11975273/art/his/radeon-hd-7870-iceq-x-2-g.html