Gaming PC opinions please

[S3_Graham]

I want to run arma 3,

Which of these looks best?

Option 1, £319

AMD A8 6600K Quad Core Processor / CPU running at 3.9GHz (With 4.2GHz Turbo Mode!)
16GB DDR3 1600Mhz RAM
LATEST AMD RADEON HD8570D Graphics!
1TB SEAGATE Barracuda 7200RPM SATA Hard Drive With 64MB Cache
SAMSUNG 24X DVD / CD - RW Dual Layer Optical Disc Drive
MSI FM2-A55M-E35 uATX Motherboard (Full specifications of this board can be found here)
500W Quiet Power Supply Featuring Large 120mm Cooling Fan
High Quality Vantage BLUE Desktop PC Gaming Case with 3 x 120mm BLUE LED Cooling Fans.
SD Memory Card Reader Built Into Top of Case
Gigabit Ethernet 10/100/1000 Mbps LAN
6 X High Speed USB 2.0 Ports on Back Plus Further 2 On Top
8 Channel HD Audio
6 X SATA II 3GB/s Ports
1 X PCI Express X16 Slot
1 X PCI Express X1 Slot
1 X PCI Slot
2 X PS/2 Port (For Keyboard / Mouse)
1 X VGA Port
1 X DVI Port
1 X HDMI Port (With Audio)
TRIPLE Monitor Support
UK Mains Power Cable Included
All Relevant Driver Discs Included
PLEASE NOTE: An Operating System is not included with this PC.

Option 2, £269

AMD A8 6600K Quad Core Processor / CPU running at 3.9GHz (With 4.2GHz Turbo Mode!)
8GB DDR3 1600Mhz RAM
LATEST AMD RADEON HD8570D Graphics!
1TB SEAGATE Barracuda 7200RPM SATA Hard Drive With 64MB Cache
SAMSUNG 24X DVD / CD - RW Dual Layer Optical Disc Drive
MSI FM2-A55M-E35 uATX Motherboard (Full specifications of this board can be found here)
500W Quiet Power Supply Featuring Large 120mm Cooling Fan
High Quality Vantage RED Desktop PC Gaming Case with 3 x 120mm RED LED Cooling Fans.
SD Memory Card Reader Built Into Top of Case
Gigabit Ethernet 10/100/1000 Mbps LAN
6 X High Speed USB 2.0 Ports on Back Plus Further 2 On Top
8 Channel HD Audio
6 X SATA II 3GB/s Ports
1 X PCI Express X16 Slot
1 X PCI Express X1 Slot
1 X PCI Slot
2 X PS/2 Port (For Keyboard / Mouse)
1 X VGA Port
1 X DVI Port
1 X HDMI Port (With Audio)
TRIPLE Monitor Support
UK Mains Power Cable Included
All Relevant Driver Discs Included
PLEASE NOTE: An Operating System is not included with this PC.

Option 3, £319

AMD RICHLAND A8 -6600K Quad Core Processor / CPU running at 3.8GHz (With 4.2GHz Turbo Mode!)
16GB DDR3 1600MHZ RAM
ATI RADEON HD 8570D GRAPHICS
1000GB 7200RPM SATA Hard Drive
CD / DVD-RW Dual Layer Optical Disc Drive
FM2 + MICRO ATX Motherboard
500W Quiet Power Supply Featuring Large 120mm Cooling Fan
High Quality Desktop PC Gaming Case.
Gigabit Ethernet 10/100/1000 Mbps LAN
6 X High Speed USB 2.0 Ports
6 Channel HD Audio
4 X SATA II 3GB/s Ports
1 X PCI Express X16 Slot
1 X PCI- Slot
2 X PS/2 Port (For Keyboard / Mouse)
1 X VGA Port
1 X Hdmi Port
1 X Dvi Port
TRIPLE Monitor Support
UK Mains Cable Included
All Relevant Driver Discs Included

[snuffy]

I wouldn't call any of those PCs a "Gaming PC". The GPU is a very low spec to start with. To give you an idea, I've just bought a new GPU so I could play Wolfenstien properly and it was almost as much as the PCs you are looking at !

Edited by snuffy on Saturday 21st June 09:14

[jacobpalmer05]

S3_Graham said:

I want to run arma 3,

Option 2, £269

AMD A8 6600K Quad Core Processor / CPU running at 3.9GHz (With 4.2GHz Turbo Mode!)
8GB DDR3 1600Mhz RAM
LATEST AMD RADEON HD8570D Graphics!
1TB SEAGATE Barracuda 7200RPM SATA Hard Drive With 64MB Cache
SAMSUNG 24X DVD / CD - RW Dual Layer Optical Disc Drive
MSI FM2-A55M-E35 uATX Motherboard (Full specifications of this board can be found here)
500W Quiet Power Supply Featuring Large 120mm Cooling Fan
High Quality Vantage RED Desktop PC Gaming Case with 3 x 120mm RED LED Cooling Fans.
SD Memory Card Reader Built Into Top of Case
Gigabit Ethernet 10/100/1000 Mbps LAN
6 X High Speed USB 2.0 Ports on Back Plus Further 2 On Top
8 Channel HD Audio
6 X SATA II 3GB/s Ports
1 X PCI Express X16 Slot
1 X PCI Express X1 Slot
1 X PCI Slot
2 X PS/2 Port (For Keyboard / Mouse)
1 X VGA Port
1 X DVI Port
1 X HDMI Port (With Audio)
TRIPLE Monitor Support
UK Mains Power Cable Included
All Relevant Driver Discs Included
PLEASE NOTE: An Operating System is not included with this PC.

With; http://www.amazon.co.uk/Sapphire-Dual-X-Radeon-GDD...

Only thing you need to ensure you have is an operating system as this doesn't come with one.

ETA:

Would probably get away with this card if money is tight: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Sapphire-Express-260X-Grap...

But I would personally get the 270x if you can afford it.

Edited by jacobpalmer05 on Saturday 21st June 10:53

[3sixty]

jacobpalmer05 said:

With; http://www.amazon.co.uk/Sapphire-Dual-X-Radeon-GDD...

Only thing you need to ensure you have is an operating system as this doesn't come with one.

ETA:

Would probably get away with this card if money is tight: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Sapphire-Express-260X-Grap...

But I would personally get the 270x if you can afford it.

Edited by jacobpalmer05 on Saturday 21st June 10:53

And a better power supply... I'd live in fear of that going pop as soon as you but in the 6pin to the 270x!

[jacobpalmer05]

3sixty said:

And a better power supply... I'd live in fear of that going pop as soon as you but in the 6pin to the 270x!

I'm not exactly an expert when it comes to pc building, but I can't believe an unbranded 500w PSU is going to struggle with that GPU, in a benchmark it uses 124W vs 207W of the 280x.

I have been using an unbranded 600W psu for the last 3 years without issue and my card in benchmarks draws 284W.

I have never quite understood the hype over branded psu's, I have never bought one and I have never had an issue, that said you may well be right and it may go pop, I have never spent much time looking into them.

[vonuber]

Arma 3 will break those machines.
You need to be speccing at least a 600 series nvidia card or better for a start.

[MattyB_]

jacobpalmer05 said:

I'm not exactly an expert when it comes to pc building, but I can't believe an unbranded 500w PSU is going to struggle with that GPU, in a benchmark it uses 124W vs 207W of the 280x.

I have been using an unbranded 600W psu for the last 3 years without issue and my card in benchmarks draws 284W.

I have never quite understood the hype over branded psu's, I have never bought one and I have never had an issue, that said you may well be right and it may go pop, I have never spent much time looking into them.

It's not only in terms of how well it can cope, it can have an impact on the life of the components, and not to mention the safety aspect:
http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/low-cost-psu-pc-powe...

[3sixty]

As said above, the safety and risk of it taking other things with it means I'd rather spend more. Unbranded 500W is like £15-£20. You can get a 80+ XFX 550W for £40. Why scrimp?

[Mister V]

vonuber said:

Arma 3 will break those machines.
You need to be speccing at least a 600 series nvidia card or better for a start.

Indeed. The graphics card i have in my machine alone costs double what some of those PC's do and even it brakes into a sweat playing Arma 3.

[S3_Graham]

Mister V said:

vonuber said:

Arma 3 will break those machines.
You need to be speccing at least a 600 series nvidia card or better for a start.

Indeed. The graphics card i have in my machine alone costs double what some of those PC's do and even it brakes into a sweat playing Arma 3.

This was my worry tbh. Can't really afford to splash a grand right now on a machine. Guess I'll have to wait or continue with Xbox. Sigh.

My dad is a super geek and may have some parts laying about so will head over there later! Thanks for saving me £300 chaps!

[JoeMk1]

It depends whether you want to max out all the settings at 60 fps, or just have a playable experience. You certainly don't need to spend a grand to make it playable.

This setup at under £550: http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/p/vsKLwP should let you play it quite well, and play most new games at 1920x1080 with medium settings and high framerates. It isn't hard to build,everything literally plugs together, then just install the OS, download the graphics card drivers and you're away.

[Jimmy No Hands]

Crikey, wish I had the money for a decent gaming rig. The sky is seemingly the limit for price. I've got a lowly Athlon X4 running at 3.1Ghz, 6Gb of no-name RAM and a slightly tweaked GTX460.

Can anyone recommend any budget upgrades? Bit limited by the mobo as its FM1. I was going to pick up a second hand A8 and a 660Ti or something. Might be best to start from scratch as I don't think I can go much further CPU wise on this motherboard.

[vonuber]

Back in November I bought this:

Samsung 500GB SSD 840 SATA 6Gb/s Basic - (MZ-7TD500BW): £226.66
Asus Z87 DELUXE Intel Z87 (Socket 1150) DDR3 ATX Motherboard: £187.49
Asus GeForce GTX 760 DirectCUII OC 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card: £174.99
Intel Core i5-4670K 3.40GHz (Haswell) Socket LGA1150 Processor - Retail: £144.16
Corsair Vengeance Pro Blue 16GB (2x8GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Memory Kit (CMY16GX3M2A1600C9B): 124.99
Samsung 128GB SSD 840 PRO SATA 6Gb/s Basic - (MZ-7PD128BW): £87.49
Corsair Hydro H75 Performance Liquid CPU Cooler: £56.66

I already had screen / case / power supply (corsair 750W).

It pretty much copes with most things at the moment, including ARMA3 on 12km view distance and high detail. You could probably source equivalents or better by now for less.

[Mr Whippy]

anonymous said:

[redacted]

And I've always bought the very best PSU and they've failed more than the cheapo ones I used to fit in beige boxes.

Not to say a good PSU isn't a good idea, but cost and quality and not proportional in the current world of PC components imo. There is a whole new market of branded/marketed goods that are probably no better than much cheaper stuff.

Dave

[Mr Whippy]

anonymous said:

[redacted]

I have a GTX760 here and I think it's pretty ok for most games.

I think £200 for a GPU seems a good sweet spot for bang for buck and hitting the target machine specs of most developers.

Remember game designers will target a certain spec machine, and I'd imagine they aim to have things looking nice and running smoothly on a fairly moderate spec.

Paying more for fancy machines doesn't usually make games look better, or make them more fun, or a better experience at all.

Cripes, look back how crap HL1 looks today vs contemporary games. But recall the memories of playing that game and it's something you'll remember till the day you die!


Too much obsession with specs and benchmarks and being able to set sliders to full these days, rather than just enjoying the games at a decent 50fps or so.


Another quick example, I played through Crysis 2 (new york alient invasion one) on my old GTX275 and 2500k, and then played it again on my new 4770k and GTX760. I ran higher settings but the same resolution. In the end I didn't really feel I could tell I was missing out before, or had something extra afterwards. It just felt the same.

Again, the game devs will aim for a fairly moderate spec and they'll aim to have that spec machine/player getting maybe 80% of the quality, and essential quality, at that spec.

Cripes, you can even check these things yourself by cranking everything up and getting say 10fps... ok it's maybe jerky, but usually I can't really say the quality is making the game better at all. Maybe it looks a bit better if you stop and analyse it... but then if you do that you'll never be happy, even with a CGI pre-rendered film
The issue is simply that the game devs don't make games for these hardware specs. They have them in mind, but half the settings you can use when you have all that GPU make scant difference on-screen when actually playing the games.



Sorry for babbling, I'm just sad to see people not get into gaming with a PC because they feel they need to have fancy PC's to enjoy games.

I'll agree the budget set by the OP is very low for a full PC, but then you can always buy used too, or get one GPU, perhaps a used one, and then a second GPU in SLI later etc... so many options!

Dave

[firemunki]

I'd suggest looking at Intel, I've always found AMD to be a bit meh. I built an i5 system for less than £600 a few years back with 8Gb RAM, HD6870 and a i5 2500k which is still powerful enough at lower res with the gfx holding things back, not the CPU.

Will you be building it or buying prebuilt? I might suggest heading over to the overclockers forum, lots of gamers there and if you're waiting a month or so post a few times and you get free shipping from the Overclockers shop.

[Mr Whippy]

i5 2500k are still expensive though, for obvious reasons.

I've never been a fan of AMD/ATI, preferring Intel/Nvidia. I've had lots of both combos mixed up over the years but the latter combo always seems best in the longer term, from reliability to resale value later on too.

Given current graphics API are all bottlenecked on draw calls via the CPU, except Mantle, perhaps, then all you really need is a decent Mhz low core count machine, which is exactly why the i5 2500k is great, more so when over-clocked.

I'm not really up on my GPU's at the moment but I think you can get some good used stuff, or last gen stuff in sales. Ie, GTX 760 seems fine here for me in almost all the games I play, or a last gen used 660 or something is also pretty quick. Also scope for going SLI later. Perhaps a GTX660 high end factory clocked card for now would be fine, and then SLI later when you have cash to spare.


At least we have plenty of choice any way hehe

Dave

[Jimmy No Hands]

If anybodies got any spare DDR3, preferably 8Gb + then I would probably purchase it if they want rid!

[snuffy]

Mr Whippy said:

i5 2500k are still expensive though, for obvious reasons.

I bought mine in December 2011 for £170 and they are now around £230-£250 !

[MattyB_]

snuffy said:

I bought mine in December 2011 for £170 and they are now around £230-£250 !

Indeed - my PC is now 3 years old and I was looking at upgrading, but seems the 2500k is still holding up well, so I'll probably jsut upgrade the gfx.