Help Please! No idea how to pick a PC

Gooner111 · 30-01-2013 2:13pm #1

Been reading the other builds and playing round with my own but keep going way over budget when going for the nice sounding chips, cases and thats before adding in all the extra's, dvd, blu ray, network cards, wireless connections, tv card, sound cards, cooling things, card readers, monitor etc. Basically no idea what I should have in or not so thinks its time for advice.

My current computer is a laptop: Acer something or other, dual core, 2mb ram, 750 gb hard drive and over 7 years old (think it has lasted well). I only use it for playing online games (age of champions and fallensword), watching movies and listening to music.

But it is dying, over heating, starting up problems and generally about to blow up. I have been using an xbox for any gaming needs. I am now thinking of dropping it and moving to PC games so I figure a good desktop will be worth investing in. Looking round it appears going for quad core (intel seems to get best reviews compared to AMD) and decent graphics card, 2mb one, maybe is the way to go.

Also SSD seem to be getting great reviews but they are much smaller for storage and more expensive than the cheap big hard drives. I don't actually store much on my laptop so probably be the same on the PC thus am leaning towards SSD.

Oh the computer would be working off wireless signal (like the laptop does) for next while. Probably next two-three months before I can have direct cable connection to broadband.

Any other needed info be glad to provide.

1. What is your budget? Prefer €1000 or less of course but willing to push to €1200.

2. What will be the main purpose of the computer? Gaming/Internet

3. Do you need a copy of Windows? Yes - want to try windows 8

4. Can you use any parts from an old computer? Nope

5. Do you need a monitor? Yes

5a. If yes, what size do you need. 21 or 23 inch seems like be decent size

5b. If no, what resolution is your current monitor and do you plan to upgrade in the near future? N/A

6. Do you need any of these peripherals? [Keyboard/Mouse/Wireless Card/Card Reader/Speakers/etc.] This is part of what I am lost on! Yes to all I suppose.

7. Are you willing to try overclocking? The few threads make it sound simple so Yes I am willing to try

8. How can you pay? Credit Card

9. When are you purchasing? 2-4 weeks time (depends on end cost)

10. If you need help building it, where are you based? Dublin 22

marco_polo · 30-01-2013 3:24pm

This would be probably be up there with the best builds possible for the upper range of the budget. Games actually do take up lots of space so you will definately want a HDD, and an SSD is a very nice to have if you are willing to stretch the budget.

Item|Price
MS Windows 8 64bit (SB-Version) Englisch|€85.31
Samsung SyncMaster S22A200B|€117.00
BitFenix Shinobi Midi-Tower USB 3.0 black, ohne Netzteil|€53.03
Super-Flower Amazon 80Plus 450W|€44.15
Intel Core i5-3570K Box, LGA1155|€204.96
ASRock Z77 Pro3, Sockel 1155, ATX|€83.99
8GB-Kit Corsair XMS3 PC3-12800U CL9|€44.35
Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO - Intel/AMD|€29.36
Club 3D Radeon HD 7950 royalKing, 3GB GDDR5, AMD Radeon HD 7950, PCI- Express|€285.73
Crucial M4 128GB SSD|€89.99
WD Caviar Blue 1TB 6Gb's|€61.27
Samsung SH-118AB schwarz|€14.65
LogiLink Wireless LAN 300 Mbps PCI Karte 802.11n 2T2R|€14.64
Shipping|€18.99
Total|€1.138.43

A more budget-y AMD version, with a few other changes to the GPU ,SSD and case would get it well €1000 and you'd still left with an excellent 1080p gaming rig.

If the €1200 max budget has to cover other peripherals like speakers, mouse, keyboard headset etcs it definately leaves some cash free for those things.

Chopping out the SSD altogether is another option for cutting back. You can of course take some parts from above and below as you see fit (once the CPU + motherboards combos stay together of course

Serephucus · 30-01-2013 5:54pm

Before I spec something out, what are you going to be mostly doing with it? You mentioned pretty much everything, and I'm just trying to figure out what to focus on.

You could look at a good quality monitor (more on this if you're interested, makes a huge[i/i] difference) and/or a good sound card and speakers (again, big difference, though this one is a little more subjective) if you're going to be watching a lot of movies/TV and listening to music, though you'll have to sacrifice the gaming performance a little. Having said that, the games you listed are by no means high-end, so you wouldn't necessarily need the horsepower of a 7950 either.

So!

Do you want a quiet / small / generally snappy PC?
Do you want your components to run cool / have lots of overclocking headroom?
Do you want high quality sound? (Think deep, thumping bass, crisp highs, rich mids)
Do you want a good monitor? (High contrast; deep blacks, bright whites, wide viewing angles)

Gooner111 · 31-01-2013 8:50am

marco_polo / Serephucus thank you for the very quick replies

Serephucus wrote: »

Before I spec something out, what are you going to be mostly doing with it? You mentioned pretty much everything, and I'm just trying to figure out what to focus on.

I play the two online games I listed regularly and I want to get into some PC gaming and drop the xbox. Would be into RPR / First Person Shooter games but not a big gamer. The two online games I listed are what I mainly play so I don't need top end quality but would like good quality and speed.

Do you want a quiet / small / generally snappy PC? - Quiet, if possible. Hadn't even thought of that to be honest, aren't all pc's fairly quiet? Don't mind it being small or big. Snappy as in quick loading/reaction speed - then yes.
Do you want your components to run cool / have lots of overclocking headroom? From what I understand if it runs cool it lives longer (could be way wrong) so yes. Yet to figure out the over clocking really but the other posts make it sound simple to achieve boost without causing damage so am open to it definitely.
Do you want high quality sound? (Think deep, thumping bass, crisp highs, rich mids) - I watch good few movies online and listen to music. So good sound would be great. lol I don't need wall shaking or neighbours few doors away able to hear it though

Do you want a good monitor? (High contrast; deep blacks, bright whites, wide viewing angles) If I can fit in a good monitor in my budget then great but if not then cheap would do until I could afford to replace it

Serephucus · 31-01-2013 10:47am

So... you want everything. The idea was to prioritise! :P

Alright, well, how's this look:

Item|Price
Intel Core i5-3570K Box, LGA1155|€202.82
MS Windows 8 64bit (SB-Version) Englisch|€84.95
Super-Flower Amazon 80Plus 450W|€45.99
ASRock Z77 Pro3, Sockel 1155, ATX|€82.94
8GB G.Skill PC3-10667U CL9|€37.61
Crucial M4 128GB SSD 6,4cm (2,5")|€100.79
WD Caviar Blue 1TB 6Gb's|€60.70
TP-Link TL-WN722N|€9.27
Club 3D Radeon HD 7870 royalKing, 2GB GDDR5|€218.67
Dell UltraSharp U2312HM|€199.00
FRACTAL DESIGN Define R4 Titanium Grey|€97.00
Shipping|€18.99
Total|€1158.73

Mine pushes right up against the wall of your budget, and leaves a couple of things out, but I think it's worth it.

It's very similar to Marco's, I've just dropped the DVD drive (if you have a USB stick you can install Windows that way) picked slightly cheaper memory, and dropped the 7950 for a 7870. It will still perform very well, but it means you'll be able to fit a 1080p IPS monitor into the budget.

I've also left the stock cooler there, as a third-party cooler is one of the easiest things to pick up later on, ditto with the speakers. I threw in a much nicer case as well. Aluminium front, and sound-dampening material inside.

It's not perfect, but it's a different starting point you might want to consider.

Genghiz Cohen · 31-01-2013 3:42pm

Monster PCs there lads.

For me Serephucus is winning because of the amazing case and monitor.

Gumbi · 31-01-2013 4:57pm

Seems like Mindfactory beats HWVS on most every price: (How do I order them as you have guys - the formatting I mean?)

Here's the SSD http://www.mindfactory.de/product_info.php/info/p736264_128GB-Crucial-m4-SSD-CT128M4SSD2-2-5Zoll--6-4cm--SATA-6Gb-s-MLC-synchron.html

i5 (tray) http://www.mindfactory.de/product_info.php/info/p798138_Intel-Core-i5-3570K-4x-3-40GHz-So-1155-TRAY.html

Same price HDD http://www.mindfactory.de/product_info.php/info/p806194_1000GB-WD-Blue-WD10EZEX-64MB-3-5Zoll--8-9cm--SATA-6Gb-s.html

Small saving on the PSU http://www.mindfactory.de/product_info.php/info/p632231_450-Watt-Super-Flower-Amazon-Non-Modular-80--Bronze.html

15 euro on the monito here http://www.mindfactory.de/product_info.php/info/p768321_23Zoll--58-42cm--Dell-UltraSharp-U2312HM-schwarz-1920x1080-1xVGA-1xDVI-1xDP.html

Almost 10 euro on the mobo! http://www.mindfactory.de/product_info.php/info/p794739_ASRock-Z77Pro3-Intel-Z77-So-1155-Dual-Channel-DDR3-ATX-Retail.html

SAmr price for RAM http://www.mindfactory.de/product_info.php/info/p818861_8GB-G-Skill-DDR3-1600-DIMM-CL11-Dual-Kit.html

That's just a few examples. The site uses DHL, 30 euro shipping. You could save up to 50 euro, I'd say, shopping here. Not much, but something!

Gooner111 · 02-02-2013 1:06pm

Serephucus, been giving it more thought and chatted to my bank balance after my laptop died last night...don't actually have the 1200 budget anymore as had planned on waiting few weeks before ordering. Budget is 1k and want to order in next few days

So my rethink and slight change in circumstances has brought me to the decision that I am not going to be a pc gamer at this point in time. I only play couple of games on my xbox (buy like 2-3 games a year) and while I like the idea of switching to pc gaming I don't think I will get full value from it. Was being greedy wanting everything!

If I stick with the browser games I mentioned, watching movies and listening to music would the above builds still be good and fast for that purpose - should be able to drop down to a lower end graphics card and drop the ssd card to bring it under the 1k mark then? marco_polo gave very nice AMD build for under 1k but all the reviews seem to favour intel so am not sure at all on that (sorry marco).

Again thanks for the help everyone.

Serephucus · 02-02-2013 1:16pm

If you're only going to be playing broswer games, you can drop the graphics card entirely (the CPU has integrated graphics that is more than enough for non-game needs) and you'll actually have money to spend. You'll have about €60 to spend on speakers.

Cheap 5.1: http://lb.hardwareversand.de/5.1/4246/Logitech+X-530+5.1+System.article
(I've used a similar 5.1 set for a long time, and they're very good for what you pay)

Decent 2.1: http://lb.hardwareversand.de/2.1/27805/Logitech+Speaker+System+Z523++dark.article
(Haven't used myself, but gets good reviews, etc.)

marco_polo · 02-02-2013 1:35pm

If you take Serephucus build, drop the GPU altogether, the CPU to an i3 and put it into the Shinobi case you're already down to about 900. Job done

Help Please! No idea how to pick a PC

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