The PC Building Thread

Scutch

Scutch

Futsal Master
31 October 2006
Cumbria, UK
Tottenham Hotspur
Thanks to bsmaff for these recommendations:

Here are some recommended PC builds for various amount of money.
These have been created by the Evo-Web community and will be updated monthly with the latest specs and prices.

Please feel free to discuss the builds with any further suggestions and changes you recommend to make.

Builds update November 2013:[/b][/center][/size][/color]

Again Same Rules these are just ideas of what sort of system you can get for your money.
Components can be change and replaced with *USER* preference components.

When the builds have been verified by other Evo-Webbers then Scutch will update the main front page.

£800:

jpm7.jpg


£700:

wfg3.jpg



£600:

gwcj.jpg


PS4 Beater and who said you couldn't build a PC of same spec for the same price?:

 
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Re: Decent PC's...

Do you need the monitor? An unnecessary expense if you're connecting your PC to your tv. Seems a nice system but pretty sure you could do better for that price, especially if you buy the parts separately and build yourself.

And for what you're after, 8GB is too much. 4GB will be fine.

Main thing is the graphics card these days. Jonney will come along and give a good opinion but the 560 is pretty good. Not too sure on price points for CPUs and boards tho but spend as much as you can on the gfx card.
 
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Re: Decent PC's...

Interesting time for a thread, I'm pretty interested in one also, need it for work to learn a few things but obviously would want it to run games like PES 12/Arkham City and new games pretty well so will take a look around. Nothing to expensive, don't need a monitor (for now) so just the tower for 400 would be ideal.
 
Re: Decent PC's...

Yeah Dags I'll need a monitor. The games consoles are in the living room so everything goes through the Panasonic 42" G10, including the Sky etc. So when I'm not gaming, either myself or the missus will be watching TV or movies.

The capability is certainly there to link it up, but a separate monitor will be on the cards regardless.

Interesting you said about 8GB being overkill, as I was originally contemplating 16GB! I always thought the more memory, the better?
 
Re: Decent PC's...

That used to be the case but memory won't affect you if you're not running tons of apps. You want more memory on your gfx card as it's that which will be doing all of the work nowadays. I've got a 1GB GTX 460 and I'm getting 60fps with high detail on nearly all of my games. The likes of PES, FIFA and Driver especially are easily on max detail and the card is barely being used I reckon.

BF3 will need the best card you can afford but again, my 460 handled it pretty well so a 560 should be fine. My CPU is a quad core, far from the newest CPU but enough that it does it's job well enough and the gfx card does the work. As long as your CPU is decent, the strain goes on the gfx card and you need to focus on that more than anything really.
 
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Re: Decent PC's...

Well I bought a family suited PC some time back and like Scutch, I used to know the in's and out's of what would be needed for the computer to do certain shite, but I bought a laptop and used that for a good couple of years and relied on consoles for gaming.

Now I am curious in what I would need to get Battlefield 3 playing nicely, not saying I am definitely going to do it, but just curious due to money.

Recommended system requirements for Battlefield 3;

OS: Windows 7 64-bit
Processor: Quad-core Intel or AMD CPU
RAM: 4GB
Graphics card: DirectX 11 Nvidia or AMD ATI card, Nvidia GeForce GTX 560 or ATI Radeon 6950.
Graphics card memory: 1 GB
Sound card: DirectX compatible sound card

Now I know my computer has these specs;

OS: Windows 7 64-bit
Processor: AMD Athlon II X4 635 2.90GHz
RAM: 4GB (DDR3)
Graphics card: ATI Radeon HD 5450
Graphics card memory: 1GB (I believe)
Sound card: Not Sure
Hard drive: 1TB

I was not sure what my sound card was, but that probably isn't important haha, but I think the problem I would be facing is the graphics card, as I think the 5450 is a low entry model and is GDDR3, not sure what DirectX it is, 10 probs, not sure if it would support 11.

But seeing as you lot know more, and probably know more about the prices, anyone have any good ideas? Cheers in advance.
 
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Re: Decent PC's...

As far as graphics cards go I would recommend just getting a cheap 2nd hand one on ebay.

Either the ATI 5870 or the Nvidia 560.

There isn't much point buying a top top graphics card at the moment, as because consoles are well behind the times in terms of graphics technology you don't need an amazing graphics card to play games maxed out anymore like you used too.
 
Re: Decent PC's...

The new bulldozer AMD CPU's are out really really soon. I'd wait for those and then see if that drives down the price of the Intel chips and then you might be able to get a better CPU. The Phenom II x4 would be fine though. Like everybody else is saying 4gb of memory is fine for games but generally get 2x 2gb rather than just one stick that is 4gb.

Also don't shop at overclockers because it's expensive. I'd use Aria.co.uk or novatech.co.uk.
 
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Re: Decent PC's...

As Northzzz said really, Aria or Novatech would be a better option than Overclockers. Intel SandyBridge would be a better choice than AMD at the moment but that could change with the release of Bulldozer soon. Have a look at some of the custom overclocked systems on Aria mate, they do some really good deals.
 
Re: Decent PC's...

Northzzz said:
The new bulldozer AMD CPU's are out really really soon. I'd wait for those and then see if that drives down the price of the Intel chips and then you might be able to get a better CPU. The Phenom II x4 would be fine though. Like everybody else is saying 4gb of memory is fine for games but generally get 2x 2gb rather than just one stick that is 4gb.

Also don't shop at overclockers because it's expensive. I'd use Aria.co.uk or novatech.co.uk.
Click to expand...

Wouldn't it slow the system down having to work with memory across two sticks rather than just the one?
 
Re: Decent PC's...

Cheers guys will check those out. I thought that Overclockers ready built system was pretty cheap.

Oh, and forgive the in the dark stare, but 'Bulldozer'?
 
Re: Decent PC's...

Scutch said:
Cheers guys will check those out. I thought that Overclockers ready built system was pretty cheap.

Oh, and forgive the in the dark stare, but 'Bulldozer'?
Click to expand...


Bulldozer is the name of AMD's new series of processors coming out in the next few weeks. I've just found a few benchmarks and it looks like even the older 1100t and Intel Sandybridge is beating it so it doesn't look like the best option really.
 
Re: Decent PC's...

DagsJT said:
Wouldn't it slow the system down having to work with memory across two sticks rather than just the one?
Click to expand...

No, it's the opposite in fact. Having 2x2gb of ram instead of 1x4gb will give slightly better performance. I'm not exactly sure of the technical reasons why but running dual channel ram will give you slightly better performance than running single channel. Something about bandwidth performance.


Also OP my first system cost 560 this year. It's pretty good but if you want a gaming rig then you'd probably want a better GPU and you can downsize on the CPU. My GPU, HD 6850 (OC'd), is decent and will run any game well but it's not outstanding. Maybe if you need ideas you can look at my pc. Perhaps others can list their specs here. I know it helped me a lot when i had to decide.

1 x MSI P67A-GD53 Intel P67 (REV B3) Socket 1155 DDR3 PCI-Express Motherboard
1 x Asus ATI Radeon HD 6850 DirectCU 1024MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card with FREE Shogun 2 Game
1 x 1TB Samsung HD103SJ SpinPoint F3 SATA-II 3.5" Hard Drive
1 x 4GB Corsair XMS3 (2x2GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit - CMX4GX3M2A1600C9
1 x LG DVD Writer, GH22NS50, SATA, Black, OEM
1 x Gelid Silent 12 Quiet Case Fan 120mm
1 x 550W XFX Core Edition 80PLUS Bronze Power Supply
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Order Total (inc.VAT inc. Shipping): 368.94GBP

1 x IL-I52500K Intel Core i5 2500K 3.30GHz (Sandy Bridge) Socket LGA1155 - Retail.
1 x CM-E430 CoolerMaster Elite 430 Midi Case - Black
============================================================
TOTAL AMOUNT OF YOUR ORDER (GBP) 192.96
 
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Re: Decent PC's...

Cheers mate, seems like a decent enough spec.

Aren't the nVidia graphics cards better than the ATI's? Seem to score better in tests, although I guess it does depend on the model.
 
Re: Decent PC's...

The machine recommended by Northzz is a very good spec machine it is def the processor I would go with.

I wouldn't recommend the 6850 though poor performance at higher resolutions and you could pick up a 2nd hand 5870 or 460 for less money and better performance.
XFX also make the best power supplies which he recommended.

People have been telling you as well not to get 8GB, I would recommend the opposite especially if your planning to run 64Bit Windows.
You will notice a performance increase in everything you do with more RAM and Ram is the cheapest it is been in a very long time so your best to get it now whilst it is cheap before another factory blows up or there is another earthquake.

Also with regards to the Bulldozer processor by the time they come out Intel would be about 2 months away from releasing Ivybridge.
 
Re: Decent PC's...

Cheers for the advice lads,

Im not really that interested in Battlefield and FPS's in general but would be happy with something which ran the likes of Arkham City, FIFA, PES, F1 etc smooth.

had a look and again not looking to spend over £400, do any of these seem any good for me?

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/INTEL-PEN...t=UK_Computing_DesktopPCs&hash=item2a0fce699f

http://www.aria.co.uk/Systems/Gamin.../+FREE+Steam+Voucher+DiRT+3!+?productId=46325

http://www.aria.co.uk/Systems/Gamin...pingBasketAdd&productId=46328&context=systems
 
Re: Decent PC's...

The bottom one for £400 is the best one out the lot and will allow you to play most games you want to play.

But gaming PC's are always difficult unless you know someone who knows how to build one for you.

That way you save abit of money but most importantly you don't end up with really cheap components in your machine.
Crap Motherboard, rubbish quality RAM etc....
 
Re: Decent PC's...

YoungGun_UK said:
Cool, So what would you say sucks in the bottom model?
Click to expand...

Really poor graphics card would play most games but would look no better than a console.
IMO PC's are there to show up consoles, when you use your PC instead of console to play a game it is meant to make you go f**k me I really wish my XBOX looked like this.
 
Re: Decent PC's...

YoungGun_UK said:
Cool, So what would you say sucks in the bottom model?
Click to expand...

Check out some of the Q&A's at the bottom. Some saying that Sims 3 might not be able to use full detail and run at full speed. It's obviously a problem with the graphics card combined with the processor?

I thought that graphics card was supposed to be decent, too.

Meh.

Infact, I tried building an i5 system and the total price came to nearly £900, almost £200 more than the system I listed in the original post with the AMD Phenom AND a monitor.

Bad times.
 
Re: Decent PC's...

It's not really important in terms of gaming but has that bottom one got a wireless network card?
 
Re: Decent PC's...

Are AMD really that bad compared to Intel? Surely can't be as awful as some make out?

This is a superb thread, IMO :

http://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3371605

Now, Q4

4. Q: AMD or Intel?

A: Intel once again has the "best performance/value" slot with the i5 2500K, while AMD's Athlon/Phenom IIs offers great performance for those on a budget. We have zero brand loyalty here, we buy best bang for the buck.
 
Re: Decent PC's...

11. Q: How much RAM do I need? What speed? What timings?

A: 4 Gigs is fine for gaming/typical desktop use, but with RAM so cheap 8 Gigs is the current sweet spot. DDR1333 is fine for most people, and you won't notice any difference with faster speeds/timings. DDR31600 can give a small speed boost (~2%) for people doing video encoding work.
 
Re: Decent PC's...

Great thread indeed Scutch, Will look into that. I will probably look into getting to see if someone can build me one but will have to see how much they charge

So reaching a bit here, but If any of you have any spare time to bother to see what parts you recommend with a £400 budget, would be massively appreciated ;))


Abou, no it doesn't but in the QA at the bottom they recommended one. comes to £420 with it.
 
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Re: Decent PC's...

The one for £700 is a good spec machine, it's also been overclocked which is handy.
But the terms sound well dodgy if you reset the bios and stuff it will void your warrenty.

I should maybe go into PC building on the side with the amount they charge for doing it.

In terms of processor though AMD do provide pretty good bang per buck but they also on the other hand have very poor gaming and video benchmarks.
If you can it is always nowadays better to build an Intel machine.
 
Re: Decent PC's...

bsmaff said:
The one for £700 is a good spec machine, it's also been overclocked which is handy.
But the terms sound well dodgy if you reset the bios and stuff it will void your warrenty.

I should maybe go into PC building on the side with the amount they charge for doing it.

In terms of processor though AMD do provide pretty good bang per buck but they also on the other hand have very poor gaming and video benchmarks.
If you can it is always nowadays better to build an Intel machine.
Click to expand...

In the original post at the beginning the machine linked on the overclockers site seems to score well in almost every benchmark test. That's from reading the reviews of that exact system on the link.
 
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