Spec me - low cost computer with room for upgrades

[Noni]

Hi guys,

Been ages since I've posted here, but life has got in the way of computing! I remember having the best GPU at one point - 7800GTX - now it seems that my computer struggles to open chrome :/.

Anyway, I need a tower (no monitor or other bits needed) for the following purposes:

- Windows/Office: need to get work done!
- Football Manager: yep, I'm one person that's addicted!
- Battlefield 4: I would LOVE to play this game within budget - but I know that may not happen. Even if I have room to upgrade in future to play this game that would be great!
- Pre-built: Not a necessity (and probably sacrilege here) - but I don't really have the time to get one built, I would prefer a prebuilt system unless the monetary change is huge

Anyway - that's all I need, my budget is £400 and of course - I would love to spend less!

I look forward to your replies .

Thanks,

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

Do you have a copy of Windows??

Also doing your own build makes more sense unless you get a special deal on a prebuilt.

Edit!!

What are the specs of your current computer??

[Noni]

Hi Cat!

Unfortunately not - and apologies I should of mentioned that, I would require a copy of windows and office.

My current computer is a Dell !

Intel Core 2 Duo 4300 - 2GB Ram - 7900GT

Thanks ,

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

Office and windows alone would take up half the budget.

If you ditch Office - you can get a Core i3 or FX6300 based system with an R7 265 for around £440 to £450 as a self built one. That would actually run BF4 MP at reasonable settings.

You could get closer to £400 with a Pentium dual core but unless you can overclock it a reasonable amount,the Core i3 or FX6300 would have better frametimes for BF4 MP IMHO.

Edit!!

Let me see what I can come up with.

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

Do you have a SATA HDD and optical drive??

You could use the Windows 10 Technical Preview for a few months:

http://www.neowin.net/news/windows-1...-april-15-2015

That means you have a few months to save up for a retail copy of Windows,but only thing is I cannot say whether it will have compatability issues or not!

This is what I could come up with:

http://www.cclonline.com/product/158...ort/VGA2356-R/
http://www.cclonline.com/product/106...k-Fan/CAS0794/
http://www.cclonline.com/product/662...Drive/HDD1190/
http://www.cclonline.com/product/554...tion-/PSU0202/
http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B...A3P5ROKL5A1OLE
http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B...A3P5ROKL5A1OLE
http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B...A2GKYP7E6D4GIV
http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B...A13A3R27DL3OF0
http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B...A3P5ROKL5A1OLE

RAM is generic though and you could save a lot of money going for a free alternative to office like LibreOffice.

The total comes to around £430.

[Noni]

Hi Cat,

Thank you for your help!

So lets remove office for the time-being, and to be honest, I would be happy with Windows 7.

The total would be £350/60 ish?

Thanks,

[Noni]

Hi guys - will that run BF4 well?

[mynameissi]

It would run it fairly well I would guess
Based off the system requirements
http://bf4central.com/battlefield-4-...-requirements/

[Goobley]

It will run. There are some problematic component choices though.

BIG ONE: That CPU is not compatible with that motherboard you need an 1150 motherboard like the one CAT posted or it just won't work.

Slightly less major: For 8GB of RAM you NEED to get 64 bit Windows or you're just wasting the money over 4GB.

That PSU does not fill me confidence, if you can manage, go for the XFX that CAT posted, it has a negligible chance of blowing up and destroying your components with it.

BF4 really does benefit from at least having HT or the AMD hex core, but if it doesn't fit in the budget, then that CPU is no slouch either, but against a 270 it's going to be the weak link in multiplayer.

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

Pretty much what Goobley said.

[Noni]

Hi Goobley - thank you! Would of been a big mistake haha!

Thank you so much for the clarifications! Just researched the Coolermaster PSU's and as you said, they seem to suck! I thought they were good (guess I got Corsair and Coolermaster mixed up).

I feel really out of touch haha!

I've revised it a little - do CPU's come with thermal compound or do I need to purchase that?



Pretty much ready to click buy, and thank you to Cat and everyone else for the help!

Thanks,

[Noni]

Oops - the memory is incorrect on that spec - this is the one I was going to buy: http://www.cclonline.com/product/127...emory/RAM1635/

[Bonebreaker777]

The bundled coolers do come with thermal grease already applied. Good luck with the build

[MrJim]

I know this is a low-budget build, but personally speaking, I wouldn't want to run BF4 off of anything other than an SSD. In fact, it's the first game I've played that's convinced me that an SSD is pretty much required to play it, rather than just being a 'nice to have' option. Having initially tried running BF4 from a conventional hard disk, the load map load times are just awful. To start with, I thought my computer had hung it took so long to load! I would just save up for a little while longer & buy a 128Gb MX100 for about £50. Believe me, it'll be worth it!

[Noni]

I know this is a low-budget build, but personally speaking, I wouldn't want to run BF4 off of anything other than an SSD. In fact, it's the first game I've played that's convinced me that an SSD is pretty much required to play it, rather than just being a 'nice to have' option. Having initially tried running BF4 from a conventional hard disk, the load map load times are just awful. To start with, I thought my computer had hung it took so long to load! I would just save up for a little while longer & buy a 128Gb MX100 for about £50. Believe me, it'll be worth it!

Hi guys!

Thanks for the help and responses - the below has been ordered! I'm excited!

• AvP Imp-M88
• 250GB Seagate Barracuda
• AMD FX-6300 Black Edition 3.5GHz Socket AM3+
• G.Skill RipJawsX 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (F3-12800CL9D-8GBXL)
• Powercolor AMD Radeon R9 270 2GB Graphics Card
• ASRock 960GC-GS FX Motherboard Phenom II/Athlon II/Sempron AM3+ 760G/SB710 Micro ATX RAID Gigabit LAN (AMD Radeon 3000 Graphics)
• Antec VP450P Continuous Power PSU - 450w
• Windows 8

In regards to the SSD - that is something I can add later - Is it just like adding another HD and installing windows again?

Thanks,

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

Sorry I did get back to you earlier. Any chance you can cancel the order for the motherboard?? That 760G motherboard is not only an older chipset but more importantly only has a poor lookin VRM(3 phase) and has only two DDR3 slots(as it appears to have two DDR2 slots too).

I would try and at least get this motherboard:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Gigabyte-GA-.../dp/B009FC3YJ8

Its not much more,but has a 4+1 phase VRM with cooling.

Ideally you would want a 970 based motherboard,but that Gigabyte appears to be reasonably solid for normal usage.