Someone please help with my computer build. :(

[WhyHelloThere]

Heya,

I need to find a gaming PC and a monitor for £670, is this possible? Will I be able to get a PC which can play BF3 and FSX smoothly on decent graphics? (high or more maybe?).

I was thinking of getting this for my monitor:-

http://www.ebuyer.com/169099-benq-g2...r-9h-l3alb-qbe

I feel like an idiot because I have to reduce my PC budget to get a monitor too. I would also really like to have a decent Nvidia GPU.

Can anyone help me please?

[ed^chigliak]

Yes it is possible and will look something like this...

monitor £134
hdd £30 Spinpoint F3 500GB
cpu £150 sandybridge 2500
psu £45 xfx 450
mb £70 Gigabyte GA-Z68A-D3
graphics card £170 Nvidia 560ti
case £30 cm elite 370
ram £40 8gb 1600mhz

You can also get basically the same screen at 21.5" and have £35 for keyboard, mouse and DVD drive

If you need your OS to be in that budget then cut the CPU budget in half and look at AMD X4 on a low cost motherboard also drop to 4gb ram. Keep the GPU budget as high as possible and don't buy a cheapo PSU.

[Phage]

Sure - Have a look at this
http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/buy...de-july-2011/2
That should leave enough for your peripherals. There is also this thread here.
http://forums.hexus.net/hexus-hardwa...ers-guide.html
Both will give you some good ideas. Remember you can save even more by going second hand and scouring the Today Only and Outlet pages.

[MSIC]

If you are happy / want to do a self-build, then I'm happy to give some recommendations to tailor for your needs, or indeed the links above are also all good.

If you want to buy a base unit PC that is ready made, there are also a good number of options.
I'd consider beginning with looking at Scan's Value Range.
You can get a Scan V15 unit, add a Geforce 460, and for £501 you have a solid system including Windows etc. Your monitor, keyboard, mouse and speakers are then additional, and quite easy to get in to your budget as needed.

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

Sure - Have a look at this
http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/buy...de-july-2011/2

No! No! No! No!

Their "affordable all rounder" is a terrible build. Bit-tech are rubbish. They are part of Dennis publishing too.

Lets see the problems their useless build:

1.)A mATX motherboard which cost £80 and has TWO RAM SLOTS

2.)They use an aftermarket cooler with a motherboard which cannot be used for overclocking. The Core i3 2100 stock cooler is fine as I use one in a mini-ITX build in a case with poor ventilation.

3.)They suggest buying a GTX460 FOR £130. You can get much faster HD6870 1GB cards for the same price.

4.)They use the Corsair CX430W PSU which is chock full of cheap components.

5.)Most sites show stock clocked GTX460 1GB cards to be slightly slower than an HD6850 1GB. Bit-tech show the opposite.

[Phage]

Fair enough - what's the alternative, O sage ?

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

Heya,

I need to find a gaming PC and a monitor for £670, is this possible? Will I be able to get a PC which can play BF3 and FSX smoothly on decent graphics? (high or more maybe?).

I was thinking of getting this for my monitor:-

http://www.ebuyer.com/169099-benq-g2...r-9h-l3alb-qbe

I feel like an idiot because I have to reduce my PC budget to get a monitor too. I would also really like to have a decent Nvidia GPU.

Can anyone help me please?

Firstly do you need an OS??

Secondly,why an NVIDIA GPU?? BF3 is AMD sponsored. With an HD5850 1GB you can play Flight Simulator X at 5760X1200 on higher details:

http://www.hardocp.com/article/2010/...mance_review/6

An HD6870 1GB is faster and costs between £130 to £140. Also,unlike with the Nvidia cards you can run multiple displays in a panoramic configuration during gaming on one card.

Beware of listening to any of the old wives tales about AMD graphics cards.

Fair enough - what's the alternative, O sage ?

Don't worry, I shall give out words of Moose inspired wisdom!

Oh,wise Moose of the East.....CRASH!!

[bibio]

Hi, FSX heavily relies on CPU (& to some extent multi core), lots are using a i5 2500k, i7 2600k gains you very little, by the looks. At least for best performance.

http://forum.avsim.net/forum/326-mob...ther-hardware/

Theres a who as the best PC/ CPU for FSX somewhere, with results for various CPU's, GFX cards etc.



Cheers BOB

[Vimeous]

LN38033 Asus P8P67 LE Rev3 - £74.00
LN36724 Intel Core i3 2100 - £88.96
LN38758 4GB (2x2GB) Corsair Vengeance DDR3 PC3-12800 (1600) CAS 9 - £28.08 (only £1 more than XMS)
LN39380 1GB Asus GTX 560, 2 x DVI-I, mHDMI - £139.87 (LN39768 XFX 6870 Black Ed - £140.02)
LN28751 500GB Samsung HD502HJ Spinpoint F3 - £29.88
LN36787 Pioneer DVR-S19LBK Retail Labelflash - £17.92
LN34936 Coolermaster Elite 430 - £35.39
LN33445 650W PSU, Antec Truepower Modular - £62.38 (Not sure if the is the "New" version)
LN36525 22" Viewsonic VX2239WM, FullHD, HDMI - £114.62
LN29161 Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium 64 Bit SP OEM - £72.08

Total - £663.18

Just an idea.
Enough CPU, RAM and HDD for now.
USB3, SATA6, 650W, decent mboard for future upgrades and overclocking.
Nvidia if you want to Fold - ATi for multiple monitors - little to choose

I cut corners on the CPU, case, RAM quantity (4GB is hardly stingy) and monitor size.

[WhyHelloThere]

Firstly do you need an OS??

Secondly,why an NVIDIA GPU?? BF3 is AMD sponsored. With an HD5850 1GB you can play Flight Simulator X at 5760X1200 on higher details:

http://www.hardocp.com/article/2010/...mance_review/6

An HD6870 1GB is faster and costs between £130 to £140. Also,unlike with the Nvidia cards you can run multiple displays in a panoramic configuration during gaming on one card.

Beware of listening to any of the old wives tales about AMD graphics cards.

Don't worry, I shall give out words of Moose inspired wisdom!

Oh,wise Moose of the East.....CRASH!!

Hey,

I do have an OS yes. Any GPU (Nvidia/ATI) will do for now then.

[Iron Sights]

unless I'm grossly mistaken. If you can, it might be and idea to hold out and wait a bit longer till AMD can push out their new line of bulldozer cpu. Either upon its release it will hopefully drive intels prices down.

[WhyHelloThere]

Hey guys,

I've put a build together, I would like you to tell me what you think:-

http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/17/unled102n.jpg/ £455.84 with free delivery.

http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/4/unled101.jpg/ £68.27 with free delivery.

http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/163/unled100.jpg/ £138.96 with free delivery.

A total of approx £663.07. (My total £670). What do you guys think? I reckon it's a decent build with a monitor but I'm pretty useless with specs. I will be buying this in the next week or so.

I have an OS, keyboard, mouse, and HDMI cable. Just to make sure I won't need anything else in this build now? (with the exception of a screwdriver. )... and is everything compatable with each other and can fit into the case? Also will I be able to plug in my headset into the monitor, I don't understand half of the details in the description. Please give me some feedback!

Finally, I do have a HDTV lcd tv (non full HD), worth using it as a second display? I doubt it will sell for much.
Thank you very much!

[Sputnik]

At a quick look I can tell you the hard drive is ~£3 cheaper from scan and it is on today only until Monday so ~£5 cheaper.

And you could save another £5 by buying some Corsair memory from scan on Today only too.

[WhyHelloThere]

At a quick look I can tell you the hard drive is ~£3 cheaper from scan and it is on today only until Monday so ~£5 cheaper.

And you could save another £5 by buying some Corsair memory from scan on Today only too.

Heya,

Ok, thanks. What do you think of the build as a whole, considering i'm also getting a monitor? I don't really know how good the monitor or the build overall is.

- Will I be able to plug in my headset etc?
- What do you think of the parts?
- Can I run most games on high/max? Civ5/FSX/BF2+3/MW2+3 etc etc.

Will be buying in a week, so I need to make my mind up. I just need some reassurance. ;L I can't get anything until next week unfortunately.
Thanks.

[WhyHelloThere]

At a quick look I can tell you the hard drive is ~£3 cheaper from scan and it is on today only until Monday so ~£5 cheaper.

And you could save another £5 by buying some Corsair memory from scan on Today only too.

Should I think about getting an AMD CPU?? Cheaper for the amount of performance? Plus if I have researched this well, the core i3 2100 can't be overclocked?

[dbh]

Can't be overclocked but if you're looking to game the savings you're having on the chip can be put towards a better GPU. Google for some reviews you'll see for current gen games you're not CPU limited. However if it's for BF3 you might be better off with a quad. The game comes down to how many threads it can process though. I've been on the alpha of the game and my Q6600 managed it fine. The i3 2100 is comparable in speed when it comes to gaming from what I've seen.