First build, everything ok?

Keith_10

FRACTAL DESIGN Core 1000 black
Intel Core i3-3210 Box, LGA1155
MSI H61M-P31 (G3), Intel H61, mATX
4GB Corsair Vengeance DDR3 1600 MHz CL9
PowerColor Radeon HD 7770 GHz Edition PCS+, 1GB GDDR5, DVI, HDMI, 2xMini DisplayPort
Seagate Spinpoint HD502HJ 500GB SATA II
Super-Flower ATLAS Design 450W
Samsung SH-118AB
MS Windows 7 Home Premium 64bit SB-Version English
Pre-built
All this for €490.76


This is my first build and my first time using HWVS. I'm hoping for it be a decent gaming rig. Any ideas you may have for improving it are appreciated, but my budget can't really go any higher. I will hopefully be upgrading in the future though.

Monotype

Well... the new Intel CPUs are coming out in a week. CPUs and motherboards will likely be a small be dearer though, so if you want to keep inside the budget, it might not be worth your while.

Have you considered an AMD system?

The FX-6300 is great value at the moment and games are showing a shift towards using more cores (Crysis 3, new console architectures) - the 6300 beats the i3 if it can utilise all the cores, but the i3 wins in terms of power per core and the bulk of present games.

I also wouldn't go with that PSU...
Maybe the Superflower 450W instead?
Or the CX500/CX500M from corsair (version 3!) aren't too bad either.

That's a slightly older hard drive too - check out Seagate's newer line or WD Blue drives.
It's worth noting that Seagate only offers 1 year warranty on all it's mainstream desktop drives that are less than 1TB. 1TB and above gets two years. So long as it's current generation. Some of the older ones are just a year. They're very sparse with the details.

Keith_10

I hadn't considered an AMD system, but the FX-6300 looks good. Would I need to change the motherboard now? Any suggestions?

Also, you said the FX-6300 will be good in the future but not so much with current games, would you have any idea how well this PC would run current games? (Arma3, Far Cry 3, Skyrim, Bioshock, GTA IV, maybe GTA V)

Monotype

It should run all of them pretty well. The graphics card is the most important component when it comes to games, so that'll be more likely to have a bigger impact. The other good thing about the FX6300 is that you can overclock it whereas you wouldn't be able to with the i3.

ARMA 3 looks to be very tough on the GPU with even high end graphics cards struggling at 1920x1080 resolution. You'll likely have to turn down the resolution with a 7770. The good news is that an FX6300 seems to hold off quite well against the i3s and i5s. It is at an alpha stage yet, so it could improve in terms of framerates.
http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?t=2306250

Again, a 7770 struggles a bit with Far Cry 3 at 1920x1080 resolution, but turn it down and it'll be fine.
http://www.guru3d.com/articles_pages/far_cry_3_graphics_performance_review_benchmark,6.html

Bioshock should run fine (First one or infinite?) - both should actually run well at 'full HD'.
Skyrim should work grand, although high texture mods can usually be found to put extra strain on the system!

GTA IV is a bit of dog to run on systems. I think it was poorly coded and at least a quad core was needed, so the AMD CPU could have an advantage here since the i3 is just a dual core. Should run okay, since it's getting old at this point, but the requirements at the time were fairly shocking. Hopefully, they'll do a better job at 5. Maybe 6 might run better since they'll be coding it for the new consoles which are much closer to PC architecture!

Summary - all in all everything will run smoothly enough, but you'll have to scale down the resolution in the newer ones if you have a 1920x1080 monitor as it would be a bit laggy in ARMA III or FC3.

For the motherboard:
I quite like the look of this one - http://www.hardwareversand.de/articledetail.jsp?aid=72465
You get a new chipset, SATA 6Gbps - useful if you plan to add in an SSD, USB 3 and a USB3 header. 4 RAM slots too, which is a good idea if you're getting 4GB as you might like to get 8GB later by just adding in another 4GB instead of replacing the ones you have.

If you can't afford that, maybe get this one instead:
http://www.hardwareversand.de/DDR3/73366/MSI+760GA-P43+(FX)%2C+Sockel+AM3%2B%2C+ATX%2C+PCIe.article
You still get the bulk of the features - older chipset so you don't get all 6Gbps ports, but you still have two, as well as USB 3 ports+header and 4 RAM slots. Pretty decent motherboard for the money actually. You'd be hard pushed to get the same features in an Intel board for the same money.

Edit: I just re-read my last post and realised that I didn't actually specify which Superflower PSU. Their Atlas and gamer series aren't great. Stick with amazon.

Edit 2: The 430 CX ver3 is okay if you're on a tight budget. Capable of around 384W, if I recall correctly, and your power consumption will only be about 250W.
http://www.hardwareversand.de/400+-+500+Watts/69045/Corsair+Builder+Serie+CX430+V3+Non-Modular+80%2B+Bronze%2C+430+Watt.article

Edit 3: Just watch out if you get an ATX board, the Fractal Design 1000 is just for mATX motherboards. You'll need a bigger case like the Bitfenix Merc Beta to fit in an ATX motherboard.

Keith_10

When building this PC, I can no longer choose the Fractal Design Core 1000. Is it just a glitch with the PC configurator or is it not compatible?

Here is the new build regardless:

AMD FX-6300 Prozessor, Boxed, Sockel AM3+
MSI 760GA-P43 (FX), Sockel AM3+, ATX, PCIe
4GB Corsair Vengeance DDR3 1600 MHz CL9
PowerColor Radeon HD 7770 GHz Edition PCS+, 1GB GDDR5, DVI, HDMI
Corsair Builder Serie CX430 V3 Non-Modular 80+ Bronze, 430 Watt
Seagate Barracuda 7200 500GB SATA 6GB's
Samsung SH-118AB DVD Drive
Assembly
All for €481

Not including the case which for some reason no longer works.

Edit: Nevermind the case question, just read your edited post.

Monotype

Assembling it yourself is not that difficult, although it does take a bit of patience. It's good fun, actually.

You can get around bugs in the assembly configurator thing by just adding all the individual items and adding this into your basket.
http://www.hardwareversand.de/Service/746/Rechner+-+Zusammenbau.article

Obviously, there's some things that you can't do like put a bigger motherboard into a smaller case etc.

I actually didn't look at the mATX boards for AMD because I forgot that they were in a different place.
Keeping around the cheap end, I suppose this one is okay.
http://www.hardwareversand.de/DDR3/59301/ASRock+960GM+U3S3+FX%2C+Sockel+AM3%2B%2C+mATX.article

Only two RAM slots is the biggest cut there. Apparently not so good for overclocking either - despite having good options in BIOS, it doesn't seem to be up to much.

Keith_10

I never really thought about overclocking, is there many risks with it? And would it improve the results you described earlier by much?

Gumbi

Keith_10 wrote: »

I never really thought about overclocking, is there many risks with it? And would it improve the results you described earlier by much?

No risks of note. If you tread carefully and ask for help you should be absolutely fine.

Monotype

Indeed.

I think you should go for the WD drive instead of the Seagate. As far as I can see, the Seagate belongs to a previous generation, so the WD should be a little better.
http://www.hardwareversand.de/7200+RPM/39670/WD+Caviar+Blue+500GB+SATA+3+6Gb+s.article

Keith_10

Monotype wrote: »

Indeed.

I think you should go for the WD drive instead of the Seagate. As far as I can see, the Seagate belongs to a previous generation, so the WD should be a little better.
http://www.hardwareversand.de/7200+RPM/39670/WD+Caviar+Blue+500GB+SATA+3+6Gb+s.article

I just changed it to the PSU you recommended. And about the OCing, would it increase my performance by much?

Monotype

It runs at 3.5GHz.


Looking around most people can overclock to around the mid 4Ghz. 4.2-4.4GHz seems to be easy enough for most people. 5GHz for people that are pushing them, but you probably need to have some decent cooling for that - i.e., a better heatsink and a few extra fans.

So about 25% extra CPU power should be possible.

Keith_10

Thanks for all the help. It is much appreciated.

BloodBath

How about something like this? A bit over your budget but has a good 7790 with a good cooler that should give you a decent overclock and give you that extra power. The board is the cheapest matx am3 with sata 600 ports if you want to add an ssd at some stage.

Went with a 1tb drive as well. You are only saving €10 for a 500gb. Half the capacity and slower speeds. It's not worth the saving.

Item|Price
AMD FX-6300 Prozessor, Boxed, Sockel AM3+|€105.05
ASRock 960GM/U3S3 FX, Sockel AM3+, mATX|€48.87
4GB Corsair Valueselect DDR3-1333 CL9|€27.24
Seagate Barracuda 7200 1000GB, SATA 6Gb/s|€57.74
Zalman T2 Mini Tower - schwarz, ohne Netzteil|€18.98
Corsair VS Serie VS350, Non-Modular, 80+|€29.56
ARCTIC COOLING ARCTIC F12|€3.29
ASUS HD7790-DC2OC-1GD5, Radeon HD 7790, 1GB GDDR5, 2x DVI, HDMI, DisplayPort|€132.39
Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium 64-Bit (SB-Version)|€80.84
Samsung SH-118AB schwarz|€12.63
Shipping|€18.99
Total|€535.58

Keith_10

A friend of mine just told me he would be able to get some PC parts for me, but how would that work? When ordering off HWVS, can you get them to assemble just the parts you order? So I can put the parts I get off my friend in myself.

Monotype

Yeah, you can add the link in post #6 and they'll assemble whatever is in your basket.

However, it wouldn't make any sense to a build without a motherboard or a case. It would have to be something like a graphics card or a hard drive that you'd leave out. Why is your friend getting parts? Brought from another country or employee/affiliation discounts?