First gaming PC

[iknownothing800]

Hi, looking to get a new desktop, thought I'd go for a desktop that could handle some gaming as fancy playing some PC games, mainly Cities: Skylines, no idea if this would be hard to run but would want my desktop to run it well. Been looking around and have a budget of about £500, these two caught my eye so far:

1) CYBERPOWER Empire Elite Gaming PC
AMD FX-4300 processor
Windows 8
Hard drive: 1 TB
Memory: 8 GB

or

2) HP Pavilion 500-515na Desktop PC, AMD A10, 8GB RAM, 2TB, Black

I am hoping a quick google will allow you to find more specs of these, but I will try to post any specs required if they are asked for and I know what the hell they are...

Either of these particular better? Perks of either? Or any alternatives you would recommend?


I basically know nothing about PCs or building them myself, so just looking for an entry level one that would handle most current games pretty well. Any help and advice appreciated, cheers.

 

[lehtv]

Cities: Skylines seems to use only two CPU cores effectively, so I would prefer an Intel Pentium over any AMD processor. AMD CPUs give you many cores for little cost but those cores are quite slow compared to Intel cores. For many other games, however, a quad core Intel is preferable for smooth gameplay, but that's probably going to be outside your budget.

I have no idea whether Skylines prefers AMD or NVIDIA graphics cards, so I'd just go with whichever is the best bang for buck.

Can you clarify if you need just the PC tower or also peripherals (monitor, mouse, keyboard)? What about Windows, do you need to buy that too?

 

[Yuriman]

The most important component for games will be the video card, and your first PC doesn't have a video card listed. The second PC has an integrated GPU, which will be very slow in modern games.

For ~£500 you can probably build a PC with approximately these specs:

Core i3 4160
H81, B85 or H97-based motherboard
4-8GB DDR3
Radeon R9 270 or nVidia GTX 660/760
400w power supply from a reputable brand
Case of your choice (preferably under $50)
240GB solid state hard drive

4GB of RAM will suffice, though 8 will show improvements in AAA titles like Battlefield. You can always add more later.

An i3 is a very solid entry-level chip. A 4-core AMD chip or 2-core Intel chip (without HT) will both have compromises, without cutting all that much from your total system cost.

AMD cards are generally a better value, especially in the $1-200 range, but if you're comfortable buying a used chip, nVidia 6xx and 7xx cards can be found and offer a great value.

EDIT: A solid state hard drive does a lot for making a PC "feel" fast, though you might consider a 1TB spinning platter drive if you're struggling to stay within budget, and feel 240GB won't be enough.

 

[mfenn]

Can you clarify if you need just the PC tower or also peripherals (monitor, mouse, keyboard)? What about Windows, do you need to buy that too?

:thumbsup: This is important info because a 500 quid budget for just the PC is a much different class of machine than a build with the same budget that needs all peripherals and OS.

 

[iknownothing800]

Sorry I meant around 500 for the PC it self, I have been recommended this sort of set up. Would people agree with this? Would it be able to run most modern games reasonably well??

Processor (CPU)
AMD FX-6300 Six Core CPU (3.50GHz/8MB CACHE/AM3+)
Case
PCS DOMINATOR 6806B BLACK CASE
Motherboard
Gigabyte 970A-DS3P AM3+ (ATX, DDR3, USB 3.0, 6Gb/s)
Memory (RAM)
8GB KINGSTON DUAL-DDR3 1600MHz (1 x 8GB)
Graphics Card
2GB AMD RADEON™ R9 270X - DVI, HDMI, DP - DX® 11, Eyefinity 4 Capable
1st Hard Disk
1TB 3.5" SATA-III 6GB/s HDD 7200RPM 32MB CACHE
1st DVD/BLU-RAY Drive
24x DUAL LAYER DVD WRITER ±R/±RW/RAM
Power Supply
CORSAIR 450W VS SERIES™ VS-450 POWER SUPPLY
Processor Cooling
STANDARD AMD CPU COOLER
Thermal Paste
STANDARD THERMAL PASTE FOR SUFFICIENT COOLING
Sound Card
ONBOARD 8 CHANNEL (7.1) HIGH DEF AUDIO (AS STANDARD)
Wireless/Wired Networking
10/100/1000 GIGABIT LAN PORT (Wi-Fi NOT INCLUDED)
USB Options
MIN. 2 x USB 3.0 & 4 x USB 2.0 PORTS @ BACK PANEL + MIN. 2 FRONT PORTS
Power Cable
1 x 1 Metre UK Power Cable (Kettle Lead)
Operating System
Genuine Windows 8.1 64 Bit - inc DVD & Licence (£79)
Office Software
FREE 30 Day Trial of Microsoft® Office® 365
Anti-Virus
BULLGUARD INTERNET SECURITY - FREE 90 DAY TRIAL
Warranty
3 Year Silver Warranty (1 Year Collect & Return, 1 Year Parts, 3 Year Labour) (£5)
Delivery
STANDARD INSURED DELIVERY TO UK MAINLAND (MON-FRI)
Build Time
Standard Build - Approximately 4 to 6 working days
Quantity
1

Price: £543.00 including VAT and delivery.

 

[mfenn]

OK, so it looks like you need the system and an OS in the budget. Are you opposed to building one yourself or do you need a prebuilt?

 

[iknownothing800]

I would just have no idea how to build one myself. I really mean it when I know nothing about building PCs or much about the parts.... Budget isnt too key, it can be stretched. I just thought from looking about that 500-600 quid would get me a decent PC that could run most games well, and I'd obviously have to buy monitors and stuff along the way, have old ones I can use for now

 

[mfenn]

Hmm, OK. Hopefully one of our UK members can recommend a reputable builder. In the meantime, can you provide a link to the builder you used for the machine above?

 

[iknownothing800]

Unique URL to re-configure: http://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/quotes...pc/LYWqqSs5ja/

thats a link to that machine, can tweek parts from there

 

[iknownothing800]

http://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/quotes/amd-bulldozer-top-spec-pc/LYWqqSs5ja/

 

[escrow4]

You don't want FX for gaming and you need to define reasonably well. A 270X will not run 2014 and 2015 AAA games @ High settings with 60FPS. For that you'll want a box closer to $1K. That PCSpecialist link, they use horrible cheapo cases and average base PSUs to start.

 

[SteveGrabowski]

Steer clear of AMD CPUs. There isn't a single AMD CPU that makes much sense for gaming right now. On that pcspecialist link I was able to put together a system for 605 pounds after VAT tax with

CPU: i3-4160
MOTHERBOARD: Asus H81M-PLUS
RAM: 8GB Kingston DDR3 1600
GPU: GTX 960
SSD: 256 GB Samsung 850 EVO
OS: Windows 8.1

Tell them you want none of the free software. That stuff is just crap companies pay system builders to bundle into new computers to try to get you to pay for full versions when your trial runs out. I didn't include a hard drive, which you'll probably also want for installing large games on, your porn collection, and so on. A 256 GB SSD will fill up fast, and you want to keep at least 25-50 GB free at all times or performance will go to hell. I didn't put a DVD drive in either. They seem about as useful as floppy drives unless you have old PC games you want to install from the pre-Steam days. I don't know much about any of the cases to choose from. For power supply anything reasonable (e.g., a power supply from Corsair, Antec, Super Flower, EVGA, XFX, Seasonic) over 400 watts is fine for an i3 + GTX 960 system, and they offer Corsair PSUs with their i3 + H81 board systems.

An i3 and a GTX 960 is a pretty potent gaming system for running games on medium to high at 1080p, and for Cities: Skylines it should max it out great. If you want ultra gaming at 1080p for demanding games you'll need to upgrade the CPU to an i5 or better and the graphics card should be an R9 290, R9 290x, GTX 970, or GTX 980, but we're talking much more expensive systems. But much higher quality systems too. You'll also want a better power supply, and probably a better motherboard too. Though I use a crappy H81 board with a pretty nice GPU (GTX 970) and nice CPU (Xeon E3-1231v3) and get great gaming results playing at 1080p ultra.

i5 is pretty much the sweet spot CPU for 1080p gaming, with an H97 board, but it'll cost more of course. Whatever you do, don't downgrade from an i3 to a Pentium or an AMD chip though.

 

[iknownothing800]

Thanks for the advice!! I had read parts of what you said elsewhere which made me doubt the build this guy made for me... wasn't sure if maybe he is trying to flog me a PC that can be built easily on their site but possibly isn't best for what I need. Thanks again!

 

[mfenn]

Steve's post is a good build if you want to stick close to £600. :thumbsup:

 

[iknownothing800]

Can you post a link to this build please??

 

[mfenn]

Can you post a link to this build please??

Take the basic Intel system, and make the selections mentioned in the post, and then you'll have it.

 

[iknownothing800]

I have tried to do this and think I have got all selected but that motherboard doesn't show for me? If anyone has the time and could put this together for me I would appreciate it. Like I said at the start (and in my name-sake) I really do know nothing about PCs or building them. Just a gamer thats got a bit sick of console rubbish and after a new PC anyway

 

[mfenn]

I have tried to do this and think I have got all selected but that motherboard doesn't show for me? If anyone has the time and could put this together for me I would appreciate it. Like I said at the start (and in my name-sake) I really do know nothing about PCs or building them. Just a gamer thats got a bit sick of console rubbish and after a new PC anyway

The motherboard is the default motherboard when you select the basic Intel build.