Mid range gaming PC build

unklerosco

Looking to build a new PC with the idea of being able to game on it, haven't gamed on a PC in a while and have been out of the loop for a good few years... back when I was overclocking PC's was back when they where all single core! Them where the days....

Anyways, I lashed together this spec.. basically picked the best sellers from the site to make it. I have a few bits I can use already, detailed below.

Item|Price
8GB-Kit Corsair Vengeance DDR3 1600 MHz CL9|€40.92
BitFenix Shinobi Midi-Tower USB 3.0 black, ohne Netzteil|€53.03
ASUS P8Z77-V LX, Sockel 1155, ATX, DDR3|€94.35
be quiet! Pure Power L7 530 Watt|€57.57
Intel Core i3-3220 Box, LGA1155|€104.97
Gigabyte GeForce GTX 660 Windforce 2X, 2GB GDDR5, 2x DVI, HDMI, DisplayPort|€196.26
Shipping|€18.99
Total|€566.09

1. What is your budget? around €500

2. What will be the main purpose of the computer? Gaming/ Home Video editing/Internet/Office Work/Streaming media so PC will be on 24hrs so would like an efficient PSU (Gaming wise I'd like to try the new Far Cry along with finish the Half life games I have on Steam. Would like to be able to play most games out there if possible.)

3. Do you need a copy of Windows? No

4. Can you use any parts from an old computer? I have a 120gb OCZ Vertex 3 SSD Drive, 2 x 2tb hard drives

5. Do you need a monitor? No

5b. If no, what resolution is your current monitor and do you plan to upgrade in the near future? I have a 27" Catleap, 2560x1440

6. Do you need any of these peripherals? no

7. Are you willing to try overclocking? Yes

8. How can you pay? Bank Transfer/Credit Card/Laser

9. When are you purchasing? Anytime

10. If you need help building it, where are you based? Nope

Gumbi

I'm no expert, but from what I've gathered, a 7850/7870 would be much better bang for buck at that price point. A super flower Amazon 450 watt should do fine (for less money too).

An i5 with a nice heatsink would be very nice, but possibly out of budget.

marco_polo

You really need to get a HD 7950 in their to power that Catleap properly. or at least a very overclockable HD7870 , one option would be something like this and upgrade the X4 12-18 months to whatever AMD replace the FX8320/50 with next year .

Item|Price
8GB-Kit Corsair Vengeance DDR3 1600 MHz CL9|€40.92
be quiet! Pure Power L7 530 Watt|€57.57
AMD Phenom II X4 965 Black Edition Box, Sockel AM3|€86.16
ASRock 970 Extreme3, AM3+, ATX|€71.39
BitFenix Merc Beta|€32.18
Club 3D Radeon HD 7950 royalKing, 3GB GDDR5, AMD Radeon HD 7950, PCI- Express|€284.54
Shipping|€18.99
Total|€591.75

Gumbi

Ah, I didn't realise he had a Catleap.

unklerosco

marco_polo wrote: »

You really need to get a HD 7950 in their to power that Catleap properly. or at least a very overclockable HD7870 , one option would be something like this and upgrade the X4 12-18 months to whatever AMD replace the FX8320/50 with next year .

How does the AMD stand up to the Intel CPU's... Obviously it's a heck of a whack cheaper but is there a big difference in performance? I've a i5-2400 in my current PC (I can't upgrade this PC, it's a SFF Lenovo desktop)

TerrorFirmer

unklerosco wrote: »

How does the AMD stand up to the Intel CPU's... Obviously it's a heck of a whack cheaper but is there a big difference in performance? I've a i5-2400 in my current PC (I can't upgrade this PC, it's a SFF Lenovo desktop)

Why are you buying an i3 then? Can't you just take out that i5, and if you wanted to keep the Lenovo intact, just throw it a dirt cheap Celeron 1155...

unklerosco

TerrorFirmer wrote: »

Why are you buying an i3 then? Can't you just take out that i5, and if you wanted to keep the Lenovo intact, just throw it a dirt cheap Celeron 1155...

I'll be selling the Lenovo to fund this and it's still under warranty so don't wanna touch it..

TerrorFirmer

That's a shame. You'd get a preowned G620/G860 type CPU for about 20-30 euro preowned, and they're excellent processors in their own right for general use/media/light gaming, and save close to 200 on your CPU cost for the new build. This is assuming your i5 Lenovo is a socket 1155 though and not 1156.

marco_polo

unklerosco wrote: »

How does the AMD stand up to the Intel CPU's... Obviously it's a heck of a whack cheaper but is there a big difference in performance? I've a i5-2400 in my current PC (I can't upgrade this PC, it's a SFF Lenovo desktop)

Not especially well tbh, it would trail a fair bit behind the i5-2400 TBH. All in all it is a close enough match to the i3-3220 you picked originally, but I think the fairly low combined cost of the 965 and a decent AM3+ board that has decent future upgrade potential makes it an attractive option.

If the primary purpose of the PC is gaming , and you are not doing anything else especially CPU intensive it is a reasonable spot to make a minor performance compromise for now.

If I had a CatLeap and was offered choice of a gaming PC with either a i3-3220/965BE +HD 7950 or i5-3450 + HD7850 I'd take the former for sure.

unklerosco

TerrorFirmer wrote: »

That's a shame. You'd get a preowned G620/G860 type CPU for about 20-30 euro preowned, and they're excellent processors in their own right for general use/media/light gaming, and save close to 200 on your CPU cost for the new build. This is assuming your i5 Lenovo is a socket 1155 though and not 1156.

Didn't realise the price difference, whats the easiest way to find out what socket the cpu is?

TerrorFirmer

CPU-Z

TerrorFirmer

Sorry I didn't realise you named your i5 as a 2400. That's 1155.

unklerosco

So say I keep the CPU and pick up a used cpu what would be a good motherboard to get?

marco_polo

TerrorFirmer wrote: »

That's a shame. You'd get a preowned G620/G860 type CPU for about 20-30 euro preowned, and they're excellent processors in their own right for general use/media/light gaming, and save close to 200 on your CPU cost for the new build. This is assuming your i5 Lenovo is a socket 1155 though and not 1156.

Its a sandybridge i5-2400 so it has to be 1155

unklerosco wrote: »

So say I keep the CPU and pick up a used cpu what would be a good motherboard to get?

It is a non overclockable CPU so you could get a H77 board, or else if you would like to leave the possibility of a future upgrade to a i5-3570K and overclocking then a z77 board would be a silghtly dearer option. (Both out of stock but should be in a few days again)

unklerosco

Cheers for the tips.. Picked up a CPU for the Lenovo for €40 so gonna swap out the i5.

What sort of performance should I expect from the 7950 on the catleap, would I be able to play games at the default res at decent settings?

marco_polo

unklerosco wrote: »

Cheers for the tips.. Picked up a CPU for the Lenovo for €40 so gonna swap out the i5.

What sort of performance should I expect from the 7950 on the catleap, would I be able to play games at the default res at decent settings?

Might have to dial down MSAA a few notches in a handful of games like FC3 and BF3, but it should be able to play pretty well anything maxed out or as close to it as makes no difference.

Gumbi

Not to mention it's hefty overclocking headroom.

unklerosco

Does the motherboard effect the ability to overclock the GPU?

Gumbi

unklerosco wrote: »

Does the motherboard effect the ability to overclock the GPU?

I wouldn't think so. The voltage changes would only affect the GPU itself. Wait for more on that, though.

marco_polo

unklerosco wrote: »

Does the motherboard effect the ability to overclock the GPU?

Nope, GPU overclocking is usually done with software utilities like MSI Afterburner so its completely independent of motherboard selection.

unklerosco

Item|Price
8GB-Kit Corsair Vengeance DDR3 1600 MHz CL9|€40.92
Super-Flower Amazon 80Plus 450W|€42.35
Club 3D Radeon HD 7950 royalKing, 3GB GDDR5, AMD Radeon HD 7950, PCI- Express|€284.54
ASRock Z77 Pro3, Sockel 1155, ATX|€85.04
BitFenix Merc Beta|€32.18
Shipping|€18.99
Total|€504.02

That's what I've come up with so far going by the recommendations. Is there a reason to go for the Club 3D card over say the XFX card that's €20 cheaper? Also, I'm gonna need a CPU cooler and some fans, any recommendations? Is the ram I've chosen up to the job? Is 8gb the sweetspot or would it be worth going to 16gb? Also is that PSU good enough for the card, cpu and 2 x hard drives and one ssd?

Deano12345

I dont like XFX ever since they cheaped out on their cards a few years back, among other stuff. Plus that Royal King is a beast of an overclocker, well worth the extra few quid. The power supply will be fine too, even with a GPU overclock.

unklerosco

I'm gonna place the order for this tomorrow. Before I do just wanna see if anyone can recommend a CPU cooler and is the ram ok or is there better ram available for a similar price?

tuxy

unklerosco wrote: »

I'm gonna place the order for this tomorrow. Before I do just wanna see if anyone can recommend a CPU cooler and is the ram ok or is there better ram available for a similar price?

The ram is good. On phone so it's a pain to link but look for the true spirit 120 its a good cpu cooler at a great price.

tuxy

Also might be a good idea to get a 550 amazon psu if you want to try overclocking both cpu and gpu at some stage

Serephucus

I've used the True Spirit in my server, and aside from being a bear to install (maybe I'm just used to waterblocks) it's not really that quiet. If you can get another fan for it, then it should be fine, but the supplied one is quite buzzy/clicky. Maybe it won't bother you, but I notice it, and find it pretty obnoxious.

unklerosco

Just wanna thank everyone for their help, just placed and paid for my order

Item|Price
Super-Flower Amazon 80Plus 450W|€45.92
2 x Enermax T.B.Silence 12x12cm|€13.00
BitFenix Merc Alpha|€32.61
16GB-Kit Corsair Vengeance DDR3 1600 MHz CL9|€79.79
Club 3D Radeon HD 7950 royalKing, 3GB GDDR5, AMD Radeon HD 7950, PCI- Express|€284.54
ASRock Z77 Pro3, Sockel 1155, ATX|€85.04
Shipping|€18.99
Total|€559.89

Decided to stick with the stock Intel cooler as I wont be overclocking the CPU , was gonna go for a higher end case but picked up some extra ram instead..

unklerosco

Got all my bits yesterday and built the PC today.. I kept my installation of windows 7 and use sysprep to reset the drivers etc. Ran into a load of problems, my windows experience was 5.4, 3D mark wouldn't run (constant errors) and the PC just ran quite slow...
Did a clean install, windows experience is up to 7.4 now (get 7.9 on everything bar cpu n ram). My first run of 3D mark gave me a score of just over 5681. Downloaded MSI Afterburner to give overclocking a try, also gave the overclocking the cpu a go too. 3D mark gives me a score of 8100 with a stable overclock. Tis a heck of a difference! Overall very happy with the system, the Bitfenix case is a steal for €32. Should have got a CPU cooler, the one I have is for the lower powered intel CPUS (it's a low profile aluminium block) and is fairly noisy, gonna pick up a cooler next week. Now to get me some games!