Gaming pc 500-600

richymcdermott

1. What is your budget? 500-600

2. What will be the main purpose of the computer? gaming really . would like to be able to run games no problem , especially upcoming phantasy star online 2 and the witcher 1 and 2.

3. Do you need a copy of Windows? yes

4. Can you use any parts from an old computer? no

5. Do you need a monitor? i plan on using my sony bravia tv if thats possible.

6. Do you need any of these peripherals? sound card perhaps.

7. Are you willing to try overclocking? nope , get awful nervous messing with a expensive bit of equipment , even following simple instructions i wouldn't take the chance.

8. How can you pay? cash but it be awhile before i could get the money together , would like to know is a 500-600 decent pc to purchase good before i go ahead and start saving.

9. When are you purchasing? it could be by summer

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

i am new to pc gaming . running games at 60fps isnt my priority , as long games are running well i am good . thank you

spix

What res is the tv?

smellsfunny

Item|Price
Sapphire Radeon HD 7850, 1GB GDDR5|€157.49
BitFenix Merc Alpha|€33.36
Super-Flower Amazon 80Plus 450W|€44.15
WD Caviar Black 500GB SATA 6Gb/s|€79.00
Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium 64-Bit (SB-Version)|€82.35
8GB G.Skill DDR3-SO-DIMM PC10667 CL9|€37.85
ASRock H61M-DGS, Sockel 1155, mATX|€38.84
Intel Core i3-3225 Box, LGA1155|€118.39
Shipping|€18.99
Total|€610.42

Or

Item|Price
Sapphire Radeon HD 7850, 1GB GDDR5|€157.49
BitFenix Merc Alpha|€33.36
Super-Flower Amazon 80Plus 450W|€44.15
WD Caviar Black 500GB SATA 6Gb/s|€79.00
Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium 64-Bit (SB-Version)|€82.35
8GB G.Skill DDR3-SO-DIMM PC10667 CL9|€37.85
AMD Phenom II X4 965 Black Edition Box, Sockel AM3|€85.06
Gigabyte GA-78LMT-S2, AMD 760G, mATX|€38.29
Shipping|€18.99
Total|€576.54

You shouldn't be afraid of overclocking. The x4 965 is easily overclockable to 4.0 Ghz even without an added cooler. Makes a heck of a difference and AMDS are very easy to overclock.

richymcdermott

spix wrote: »

What res is the tv?

i think its 40inch

Eboggles

richymcdermott wrote: »

i think its 40inch

Resolution, not size.

It's probably 720p or 1080p. Could you give us a model number?

marco_polo

Nice builds you could make the i3 one 20 cheaper with the i3 -3220 as the only difference is the slightly worse integrated graphics on the chip which isn't needed with a gpu anyway.

richymcdermott

Eboggles wrote: »

Resolution, not size.

It's probably 720p or 1080p. Could you give us a model number?

woops sorry , im a noob :P

its 1080p

richymcdermott

cant seem to find the model number

smellsfunny

If you could manage an extra 60 you could get an i5

BloodBath

If you're playing at 1080p your going to want a 2gb version of that 7850.

U_Fig

If you are not building until the summer those builds above could very well be outdated as things move fast and prices fluctuate a goid bit..you'd be better taking heed of them researching and coming back about a week or 2 before you intend to purchase..

JackWynne

I'm selling a PC I built for someone but they don't want so It's collecting dust.
it's 480 and has all the specs you say you'd like Pm me

spix

BloodBath wrote: »

If you're playing at 1080p your going to want a 2gb version of that 7850.

1gb is just the right amount of vram for 1920x1080 according to this review

http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Club_3D/HD_7850_RoyalQueen/

The importance of vram is overrated imo. The amount used depends on the card. I saw 1.7gb usage on a 3gb card, same settings same game on a 1gb card I saw 850mb according to msi afterburner.

BloodBath

Meaning the game automatically adjusted and used lower res textures to accomodate the lower vram.

AA settings are also vram reliant.

On the + side that little card is a monster. Almost stock 7950 levels when overclocked. The 7950 will of course overclock 30-40% above that though, but for price/performance that looks amazing.

spix

BloodBath wrote: »

Meaning the game automatically adjusted and used lower res textures to accomodate the lower vram.

AA settings are also vram reliant.

On the + side that little card is a monster. Almost stock 7950 levels when overclocked. The 7950 will of course overclock 30-40% above that though, but for price/performance that looks amazing.

The game looked exactly the same graphically wise so I don't think it used lower res textures.

On all of the games tested in that review, there is no difference between the 1gb and 2gb 7850 with 4AA enabled at 1920x1080 (actually the 1gb card is ahead by a small amount).

On a few games performance drops at 2560x1600 with 4AA. At these settings though the framerate is a bit low so you would need to disable AA or lower other settings which would cancel out the disadvantage of lower vram.

I'd say op would be fine with the 1gb card,since its cheaper I'd go for it instead of the 2gb.

BloodBath

Well you might be right. Most pc games are console ports though. Next gen consoles are around the corner and will be native 1080p meaning we should have higher res textures in all games as standard.

If a card starts running into memory problems you will be looking at a drastic drop in frame rates. A test using skyrim with a high res texture pack here shows a 60-90% difference in performance in identical cards from 1gb to 2gb versions.

http://www.anandtech.com/show/6359/the-nvidia-geforce-gtx-650-ti-review/6

There are games that will compensate depending on the graphics memory. Cryengine 3 has this feature. If you are using the high res texture pack on crysis 2 and it goes over your vram limits it will reduce some of the textures down to compensate.

For the sake of €20 I'd get the 2gb model unless you want to upgrade it again in a year.