Guide - the Budget Gaming PC

aN.Droid

Trevor451 wrote: »

Just a quick question I know that the phenom x6 1090T is not as powerfull as the i5 2500k but will it still be able to handle BF3 at max settings coupled with a 6950? (1080p res btw) Bad company 2 is silky smooth so hopefully

If you are looking for a processor for gaming then don't bother with the 1090t, the x4 965 does just as well and in some cases does better. It has a higher clock speed per core then the 1090t does which is what games right now need. You save yourself about 50 quid too.

//edit Sorry, just realised you already have a 1090t. I would imagine your setup will still do well but if you do get hiccups you can always overclock.

timnew

hey everyone im looking to building a budget gaming pc . Somthing that will play the newist mmo and games like The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim. The budget is E650 also is there anywhere that will assemble the pc for me? any help or adivce is much appreciated thanks in advance.

IrishMetalhead

Where are you located? if you live anywhere close to me i wouldn't mind building it for ya.
BTW heres what I'd suggest:

Total build cost: €617.98 + €30 shipping
AMD Phenom II X4 965 Black Edition Box, Sockel AM3 €101.39
Gigabyte GA-970-UD3, AMD 970, AM3+, ATX €75.75
Arctic Freezer xtreme Rev 2.0, alle Sockel €25.99
8GB-Kit Corsair XMS3 PC3-12800U CL9 €39.58
ASUS EAH6870 DC/2DI2S/1GD5, AMD Radeon HD 6870, 1GB, PCI- Express €141.35
WD Caviar Blue 500GB SATA 3 6Gb/s €33.98
Samsung SH-222AB bare schwarz SATA €16.64
Antec One Hundred, ATX, ohne Netzteil €47.93
Super-Flower Amazon 80Plus 550W €52.05
MS Windows 7 Home Premium 64bit SB-Version Englisch €83.32

timnew

Hey IrishMetalhead thanks very much for your help. im located in waterford and dont have car but thanks for the offer to assemble it. I heard www3.hardwareversand.de assembles for E20 do you if thats correct?If not ill find a person in waterford to assemble it for me. thanks very much for your help its much appreciated.

IrishMetalhead

yea hardwareversand does assemble it for €20 but they won't install the cpu or the graphics card so you may want to learn how to do that yourself but there really easy to do but i'm sure theres someone close to home who'll put it together for you

Burgo

timnew wrote: »

Hey IrishMetalhead thanks very much for your help. im located in waterford and dont have car but thanks for the offer to assemble it. I heard www3.hardwareversand.de assembles for E20 do you if thats correct?If not ill find a person in waterford to assemble it for me. thanks very much for your help its much appreciated.

Total build cost: €586.73 + €30 shipping
AMD Phenom II X4 965 Black Edition Box, Sockel AM3 €101.39
Gigabyte GA-970-UD3, AMD 970, AM3+, ATX €75.75
8GB-Kit G.Skill RipJaws PC3-10667U CL9 €36.71
Samsung SpinPoint F3 1000GB, SATA II (HD103SJ) €46.19
Xigmatek Asgard, ATX, ohne Netzteil, schwarz €31.61
Samsung SH-222AB bare schwarz SATA €16.64
XFX RADEON HD 6870 900M 1GB DDR5 DUAL DP HDMI DUAL DVI €142.99
Super-Flower Amazon 80Plus 450W €40.94
Rechner - Zusammenbau €20.00
Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium 64-Bit (SB-Version) €74.51

yeah under services theres an option "Rechner - Zusammenbau" which they build it for you, although im not sure if they install the graphics card too.

Do you need a copy of windows too?

IrishMetalhead

wouldn't use a 450w with a 6870 you'd be leaving barely any headroom left also you'd want to have case with a bottom mounted psu if you can as a gpu adds alot of heat to the case, just my openion

timnew

Ah ok thanks IrishMetalhead . Hey burgo thanks for your help aswell its really appreciated, ye i do

Velvety

IrishMetalhead wrote: »

yea hardwareversand does assemble it for €20 but they won't install the cpu or the graphics card so you may want to learn how to do that yourself but there really easy to do but i'm sure theres someone close to home who'll put it together for you

They did for me. It was all ready to go when it arrived. Just had to plug it in.

Solitaire

What graphics card and CPU cooler did you have Velvety?

IrishMetalhead

Velvety wrote: »

They did for me. It was all ready to go when it arrived. Just had to plug it in.

depedns on the size of the cooler and gpu, both the 6870 and the freezer xtreme are too risky to ship with them installed as there ver large and heavy

DannyD

Wondering if someone can clarify a part for me please. I want a board with hardware raid.I saw this board which states Speichersteckplätze 2 x SATA-600 (RAID), 4 x SATA-300
Storage Interfaces Serial ATA-600 - connector(s): 2 x 7pin Serial ATA - 2 Device(s) - RAID 0 / RAID 1 ¦ Serial ATA-300 - connector(s): 4 x 7pin Serial ATA - 4 Device(s)

http://www4.hardwareversand.de/articledetail.jsp?agid=1601&aid=48256&lid=2

Speichersteckplätze translates to hd spaces. Does does the board do raid and can i use slower sata drives as opposed to sata-600?

Am I correct that shipping from hardwareversand.de is 30 Euro to Ireland? If so can someone recommend a vendor with cheaper shipping as I'm only looking for 1 part.
Thanks.

Monotype

Here's the board at the manufacturer site.
http://www.gigabyte.com/products/product-page.aspx?pid=3795#sp

You can use older drives as long at they are SATA.
It doesn't list RAIDs apart from 0 and 1 on the 6Gbps ports and I think the H61 doesn't have the RAID options such as 0, 1, 5 (and maybe 10) which are usually possible on the higher quality boards.
It's an expensive enough board for a H61 - there are good H67s and P67 which are about €10 more.

Shipping is €30 on hardwareversand. Fixed. Try scan.co.uk. Boards aren't usually as cheap but visit their today only page and you can get a few pounds knocked off now and again. Delivery is £12.34.
Komplett have free delivery and amazon.co.uk also don't charge if you order above £25 + order from amazon themselves (not sellers through amazon).

Do you need integrated graphics and what processor is this to be paired with?

DannyD

Monotype wrote: »

Here's the board at the manufacturer site.
http://www.gigabyte.com/products/product-page.aspx?pid=3795#sp

You can use older drives as long at they are SATA.
It doesn't list RAIDs apart from 0 and 1 on the 6Gbps ports and I think the H61 doesn't have the RAID options such as 0, 1, 5 (and maybe 10) which are usually possible on the higher quality boards.
It's an expensive enough board for a H61 - there are good H67s and P67 which are about €10 more.

Shipping is €30 on hardwareversand. Fixed. Try scan.co.uk. Boards aren't usually as cheap but visit their today only page and you can get a few pounds knocked off now and again. Delivery is £12.34.
Komplett have free delivery and amazon.co.uk also don't charge if you order above £25 + order from amazon themselves (not sellers through amazon).

Do you need integrated graphics and what processor is this to be paired with?

Thanks for the reply.
In the end I went with this board
http://www.elara.ie/productdetail.aspx?manufacturer=ASUSTEK&mancode=M4A88T-V+EVO%2fUSB3&productcode=ECE2060295

http://www.asus.com/Motherboards/AMD_AM3/M4A88TDV_EVOUSB3/#specifications

The specs say it supports raid or is that just the esata port?
AMD SB850 controller :
5 x SATA 6Gb/s port(s), blue
1 x eSATA 6Gb/s port(s), red
Support Raid 0, 1, 5, 10, JBOD

It has an Integrated ATI Radeon™ HD 4250 GPU. I take it this is of no use for gaming, correct? If so what are my options for basic gfx cards between 100 and 200 Euro, preferably towards 100 Euro? It has the following ports:
1 x PCIe 2.0 x16 (blue)
1 x PCIe 2.0 x16 (x4 mode, gray)
1 x PCIe 2.0 x1
3 x PCI

I take it these ASUS features they promote are just gimmicks?
Turbo Key II
Turbo Unlokcer

As this project will evolve once funds allow the purchase of more components any suggestions on a case and psu and processor are welcome.

Monotype

A good featured board and not bad for the price... but weren't you looking at an Intel board? You'll need an AMD processor for that.

You can do RAID on all the internal ports (and possibly including the eSATA port - e.g., if you had RAID one with an internal drive and had an external one as backup) as opposed to the current intel boards which have usually 2 or 3 different controllers.

4250 will do for basic games and those with older engines such as Valve's source engine. Fine for HD videos as well, but don't expect the latest games or high resolutions to work well.

Turbo unlocker - some processors have disabled cores - mostly the X3 processors which are quad cores. You can be lucky and unlock the extra core but the forth core is often faulty and hence disabled and sold as an X3.

Turbo key - a quick way to overclock your computer for extra performance. I have found these to be poor in the past and only give you instability. Better to take your time and manually overclock yourself in the BIOS setup, testing carefully each step of the way.

It's a good idea to buy all the components at once. Even if you can't afford everything now, it's better to save up because
1) You can't use the components individually
2) The parts depreciate very fast
3) Better components might be available when you have your money saved
4) Shipping costs of individual pieces add up!

You could buy all the parts excluding the graphics card and then buy one a month or two later as it is not strictly needed.

What kind of budget do you have in mind and what will be the uses of the system?
Edit: I should read where I'm posting - I assume it's for gaming. Any titles in particular or other uses?

DannyD

Monotype wrote: »

A good featured board and not bad for the price... but weren't you looking at an Intel board? You'll need an AMD processor for that.

You can do RAID on all the internal ports (and possibly including the eSATA port - e.g., if you had RAID one with an internal drive and had an external one as backup) as opposed to the current intel boards which have usually 2 or 3 different controllers.

4250 will do for basic games and those with older engines such as Valve's source engine. Fine for HD videos as well, but don't expect the latest games or high resolutions to work well.

Turbo unlocker - some processors have disabled cores - mostly the X3 processors which are quad cores. You can be lucky and unlock the extra core but the forth core is often faulty and hence disabled and sold as an X3.

Turbo key - a quick way to overclock your computer for extra performance. I have found these to be poor in the past and only give you instability. Better to take your time and manually overclock yourself in the BIOS setup, testing carefully each step of the way.

It's a good idea to buy all the components at once. Even if you can't afford everything now, it's better to save up because
1) You can't use the components individually
2) The parts depreciate very fast
3) Better components might be available when you have your money saved
4) Shipping costs of individual pieces add up!

You could buy all the parts excluding the graphics card and then buy one a month or two later as it is not strictly needed.

What kind of budget do you have in mind and what will be the uses of the system?
Edit: I should read where I'm posting - I assume it's for gaming. Any titles in particular or other uses?

I'm going to AMD route as I believe they are generally cheaper and at least as powerful as Intel chips (correct me if I'm wrong).

This will primarily be a workstation used for running virtual machines, photoshop, dreamweaver and gaming on occasion. I would like a gfx card that can handle the current crop of games but again I don't want to spend too much, perhaps 100Euro.

I have 2x1TB drives from a dead nas that I'll reformat and uses as a backup volume running raid 1.I'll probably get a solid storage drive for the os and another sata drive for applications/games.

So I have mem (8GB), a mobo, drives, monitor, what I need is a case and psu and a half decent gfx card in the future.


Thanks again.

Monotype

No, intel win this round for performance. The AMDs are generally good value but are really priced appropriately for their relative performance.

So you already have 8GB of DDR3 RAM?

How much do you want to spend on processor + case + solid state drive + PSU?

r011ingthunder

Hi all,
Might soon be in the market for a new gaming pc, and I want to take the guesswork out of building my own online. My initial questions have been answered elsewhere on boards (who to buy from and more importantly who not to buy from). I'm a current (dissatisfied) customer of one of the BIG companies who do custom pcs in Ireland - and allow people to build unstable machines.

I'll give you an idea of what I'm looking for, how much I have to spend and also of the problems I want to avoid.

Requirements:
1. Mainly play WoW, but also want to be able to play new FPS and FlightSims.
2. Want nice smooth but sharp graphics, with the ability to play both full screen and windowed mode - and the ability to switch between the two.
3. Want the ability to play music at the same time as playing games.
4. Play through my speakers, but have the ability to switch to headset by just plugging them in.
5. Windows
6. CD / DVD burning software (currently use Nero, could conceivably download and install that myself afterwards)
7. Would like a quiet machine
8. Plenty of RAM & HD space.
9. 10 or so USB ports, most on the rear.

Budget: €1k approx, prefer less if possible

Current problems I'm trying to avoid with any new pc:
1. Constant HD access slowing this old pc down - and yes it's clean as a whistle.
2. Poor graphic performance in "intense" fight scenes
3. Sound drop outs since I swapped from 3.5 jack headphones to usb headset.
4. Blue screen errors (yes I realise this coupled with 1 above is a bad sign - hence the need for a new pc)

What I don't want to do (what I've done before):
1. Buy a top of the range Graphics card only to realise it's not quite compatible with some of the games out there.
2. Buy a Multicore config / RAM config that is incompatible with the Windows version I am using (this was a Vista problem I think, hopefully Windows 7 will not have a similar issue)
3. Buy a pc weighed down with trial software I don't want or need.
4. Buy a Graphics Card that had serious issues with the installed version of windows.

KamSaw

r011ingthunder wrote: »

Hi all,
Might soon be in the market for a new gaming pc, and I want to take the guesswork out of building my own online. My initial questions have been answered elsewhere on boards (who to buy from and more importantly who not to buy from). I'm a current (dissatisfied) customer of one of the BIG companies who do custom pcs in Ireland - and allow people to build unstable machines.

I'll give you an idea of what I'm looking for, how much I have to spend and also of the problems I want to avoid.

You seem to know what you want so you might as well make a new thread for it. That's definitely doable for less than 1000, do you need a monitor?

r011ingthunder

KamSaw wrote: »

You seem to know what you want so you might as well make a new thread for it. That's definitely doable for less than 1000, do you need a monitor?

Yeah, I know what I want, but not sure how to achieve it (what parts to use to get the desired result), didn't want to make a new thread for it as I had seen several people put in their requests into this thread already. If you think I should make a new thread then I will though.
No, don't need a monitor, keyboard, mouse, speakers or any other additional hardware.

Unregistered.

You're looking at one of the most common builds around here. i5-2500(k) + AMD 68**/69** / Nvidia equivalent + SSD. Prob come in and around 800. Should be able to find similar builds on the first page of the forum, if not then look up deconduo's latest posts.

Monotype

r011ingthunder wrote: »

Requirements:
1. Mainly play WoW, but also want to be able to play new FPS and FlightSims.
2. Want nice smooth but sharp graphics, with the ability to play both full screen and windowed mode - and the ability to switch between the two.
3. Want the ability to play music at the same time as playing games.
4. Play through my speakers, but have the ability to switch to headset by just plugging them in.
5. Windows
6. CD / DVD burning software (currently use Nero, could conceivably download and install that myself afterwards)
7. Would like a quiet machine
8. Plenty of RAM & HD space.
9. 10 or so USB ports, most on the rear.

Budget: €1k approx, prefer less if possible

€1K is a bit above a "budget" PC.

2. Two games at the same time? That's an unusual demand. Lots of RAM would be the main thing and luckily 8GB is cheap these days. I'm not sure of the impact of graphics RAM here.

3. That's usually easily done by modern computers. If it's high quality music with a lot of hard drive read, you may need to consider a separate hard drive.

4. Most motherboards have pretty good sound and support this, but get a dedicated card if you want all the extra features.

6. You could reuse your old nero (I've found the new neros to be a step down!), use freeware such as CDburnerXP, use the burner built into windows 7, buy a retail DVD drive which comes with software or buy software. If it's just straightforward ISOs, data, music or videos then CDBurnerXP + Windows 7 will do but if you're thinking of designing your own DVD menus, you'll need something more advanced.

9. You can get expansion cards for more USB ports.

Current problems I'm trying to avoid with any new pc:
1. Constant HD access slowing this old pc down - and yes it's clean as a whistle.
2. Poor graphic performance in "intense" fight scenes
3. Sound drop outs since I swapped from 3.5 jack headphones to usb headset.
4. Blue screen errors (yes I realise this coupled with 1 above is a bad sign - hence the need for a new pc)

1. A good idea, especially with a budget like that is to get an SSD + HDD. The OS and your main programs can stay on the SSD.

What I don't want to do (what I've done before):
1. Buy a top of the range Graphics card only to realise it's not quite compatible with some of the games out there.
2. Buy a Multicore config / RAM config that is incompatible with the Windows version I am using (this was a Vista problem I think, hopefully Windows 7 will not have a similar issue)
3. Buy a pc weighed down with trial software I don't want or need.
4. Buy a Graphics Card that had serious issues with the installed version of windows.

3. Not a problem when you build it yourself.

Do you need screen and speakers?

Edit: Ah, you don't, I have to go now but I'll pick out some items later if someone doesn't get there first.

r011ingthunder

Monotype wrote: »

€1K is a bit above a "budget" PC.

2. Two games at the same time? That's an unusual demand. Lots of RAM would be the main thing and luckily 8GB is cheap these days. I'm not sure of the impact of graphics RAM here.

Fair point, €1k is a bit above a budget PC, point taken, but for what I would like, I would have to spend twice that with some of the main retailers. I suppose what I want is the very best I can get for the money, whilst hitting all of the requirements above.

Just to clarify, I don't want to play two games at the same time, I just want to be able to play one game in full screen OR windowed mode, with the ability to switch from one mode to the other seamlessly. Currently doing this can cause this pc to either crash or hang.

deconduo

Cheapest option that fills all your requirements:

Item|Price
Total build cost: €687.01 + €30 shipping
Club 3D Radeon 6870 1024MB, AMD Radeon HD 6870, PCI-Express|€149.37
8GB-Kit G.Skill PC3-10667U CL9|€33.60
Samsung SpinPoint F3 1000GB, SATA II (HD103SJ)|€48.29
FRACTAL DESIGN Gehäuse DEFINE R3 Silver Arrow|€91.79
Super-Flower Amazon 80Plus 550W|€52.02
Samsung SH-222AB bare schwarz SATA|€16.79
MS Windows 7 Home Premium 64bit SB-Version Englisch|€85.84
Intel Core i5-2400 Box, LGA1155|€159.34
ASRock H61M-HVS (B3), Sockel 1155, mATX|€49.97


You could also knock another €10 off that by getting the German version of windows and burning your own English disk. Its just the license that you need.

If you plan on playing games more demanding than WoW, or you want something a little more future proof then this would be better:

Item|Price
Total build cost: €977.13 + €30 shipping
8GB-Kit G.Skill PC3-10667U CL9|€33.60
Samsung SpinPoint F3 1000GB, SATA II (HD103SJ)|€48.29
FRACTAL DESIGN Gehäuse DEFINE R3 Silver Arrow|€91.79
Samsung SH-222AB bare schwarz SATA|€16.79
MS Windows 7 Home Premium 64bit SB-Version Englisch|€85.84
Intel Core i5-2500K Box, LGA1155|€184.21
ASRock P67 Extreme4 (B3), Sockel 1155, ATX|€133.61
Club 3D Radeon 6950 2048MB, AMD Radeon HD 6950, PCI-Express|€223.62
XFX PRO650W Core Edition Full Wired Power Supply|€69.93
Crucial M4 64GB SSD 6,4cm (2,5")|€89.45

Monotype

I've been beaten to it (refreshed the page for once!) but I'll still throw up my build to give you some ideas.
Total build cost: €986.75 + €30 shipping


Super-Flower Amazon 80Plus 550W|€52.02
8GB-Kit GEIL Value PC3-10667 DDR3-1333 CL9|€38.53
LiteOn iHAS122-18 schwarz SATA|€16.94
Intel Core i5-2500K Box, LGA1155|€184.21
Samsung SpinPoint F3 1000GB, SATA II (HD103SJ)|€48.29
Scythe Mugen 3, für alle Sockel geeignet|€33.88
Corsair Force3 120GB SSD 6,4cm (2,5") SATA|€142.79
FRACTAL DESIGN Gehäuse DEFINE R3 Silver Arrow|€91.79
ASRock Z68 Pro3 (B3), Sockel 1155, ATX|€92.81
Wintech USK-30 USB 3.0 2-Port PCI Express|€10.37
Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium 64-Bit (SB-Version)|€76.58
Gigabyte GeForce GTX 560 Ti Overclock, 1024MB GDDR5, PCI-Express|€198.54

Crashing of games from switching programs is often more due to the programming of the game rather than hardware. Still, it might be a good idea to research whether nVidia or ATI suit your game better. A 560ti is way over the top for WoW, but simulators could demand anything depending on what you're thinking of.

r011ingthunder

Can I ask what the main difference (except price) is between the following 3 Graphics Cards? Given my lack of intimate knowledge I would have automatically been drawn to the one with the highest amount of on board RAM.

Club 3D Radeon 6870 1024MB, AMD Radeon HD 6870, PCI-Express
Club 3D Radeon 6950 2048MB, AMD Radeon HD 6950, PCI-Express
Gigabyte GeForce GTX 560 Ti Overclock, 1024MB GDDR5, PCI-Express

Btw, are these PCs already built when they arrive or is it a DIY job?
Also, is there any significance to the fact that neither of you have put a sound card into the build? Sorry for all the questions, and thank you for your help so far, it's very much appreciated.

Monotype

Integrated sound is good enough for most people. Modern motherboards are capable of all the things that you request. Also, all of those graphics cards have sound cards too, if you use HDMI.
Sound cards are really for professional users or fussy people.

The 6950 is the next step up from the 6870. Here's a comparison.
http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/290?vs=293

Overall, the 6950 is a tiny bit better than the 560ti but it varies with the games. Given that this 560ti is overclocked, they're probably evenly matched. AMD's cards have been going up lately so I think that the 560ti is better value.
General highlighted features is that AMD can have 3 monitors with one card and nVidia's can do 3D (with appropriate screen + glasses).

Don't base judgement on graphics cards RAM sizes. Maybe that's why you had issues in the past!

r011ingthunder

Monotype wrote: »

Integrated sound is good enough for most people. Modern motherboards are capable of all the things that you request. Also, all of those graphics cards have sound cards too, if you use HDMI.
Sound cards are really for professional users or fussy people.

That's interesting, it'll certainly save a few bob.

Monotype wrote: »

The 6950 is the next step up from the 6870. Here's a comparison.
http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/290?vs=293

Overall, the 6950 is a tiny bit better than the 560ti but it varies with the games. Given that this 560ti is overclocked, they're probably evenly matched. AMD's cards have been going up lately so I think that the 560ti is better value.
General highlighted features is that AMD can have 3 monitors with one card and nVidia's can do 3D (with appropriate screen + glasses).

Not going anywhere near 3d or multiple monitors for the moment, I'm after clean, clear, fast and seamless graphics.

Monotype wrote: »

Don't base judgement on graphics cards RAM sizes. Maybe that's why you had issues in the past!

This may well be true.

So the only question remaining then is do they come pre-built or is it a DIY job?

deconduo

Monotype wrote: »

Integrated sound is good enough for most people. Modern motherboards are capable of all the things that you request. Also, all of those graphics cards have sound cards too, if you use HDMI.
Sound cards are really for professional users or fussy people.

The 6950 is the next step up from the 6870. Here's a comparison.
http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/290?vs=293

Overall, the 6950 is a tiny bit better than the 560ti but it varies with the games. Given that this 560ti is overclocked, they're probably evenly matched. AMD's cards have been going up lately so I think that the 560ti is better value.
General highlighted features is that AMD can have 3 monitors with one card and nVidia's can do 3D (with appropriate screen + glasses).

Don't base judgement on graphics cards RAM sizes. Maybe that's why you had issues in the past!

The 6950 2GB would be about 10-12% better on average than the 560 Ti at stock levels, but it does overclock better. At current prices they're pretty much the same value really. The biggest deciding factor would be the type of games you want to play, with AMD cards generally being better at the newer fps games, and NVidia is more suited to games like Starcraft2, Civilisation 5, and racing/flight sims.

r011ingthunder

deconduo wrote: »

The 6950 2GB would be about 10-12% better on average than the 560 Ti at stock levels, but it does overclock better. At current prices they're pretty much the same value really. The biggest deciding factor would be the type of games you want to play, with AMD cards generally being better at the newer fps games, and NVidia is more suited to games like Starcraft2, Civilisation 5, and racing/flight sims.

Hmm, well aside from WoW, which is the game I play most - and uses the least graphics - the newer FPS I'd be playing would be something like the newer Crysis games, and the Flight Sims I'd be playing would be the Microsoft ones. I don't play any racing games. So from that I'd be assuming AMD is the way to go?