Gaming PC / €500 / Arma 3

hare05

1. What is your budget?

~ €500

2. What will be the main purpose of the computer?

Gaming would be the big one. Aiming for Arma 3 at 1080p. Also will be running VMs

3. Do you need a copy of Windows?

Not in the above budget.

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

Maybe my MSI GTX460 Cyclone, though I may upgrade this too if required.

5. Do you need a monitor?

Above budget is just for the box and internals.

5a. If yes, what size do you need. -

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

1920x1080 and no.

6. Do you need any of these peripherals?

Not in this budget.

7. Are you willing to try overclocking?

Yes.

8. How can you pay?

Card

9. When are you purchasing?

Some time in the next 2 months or so.

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

Nope.

Haven't built a PC in almost 7 years, but it's about time for an upgrade.

My old desktop was as follows:

• Intel Core2Duo E6600 @ standard clock
• MSI GTX 460 1GB @ standard
• 4GB RAM
• 1TB HDD
• Other ancient crap

The old girl took almost everything I threw at her, but it's about time to upgrade the CPU and Mobo, and with that I might as well upgrade the lot.

I'm fairly out of touch with what's good out there at the moment, so I'm just going to leave this open to any suggestions. The main intent is future proofing the backbone parts, I can always add an SSD or graphics card upgrade later.

The budget is +/- €100, it's just a loose target.

Necessary

• CPU
• Mobo
• 8 to 16GB RAM (Been wanting to try out a RAMdisk)
• HDD (1TB or above, just in here to soak up a realistic amount of the budget)
• Case (I'll probably just go for an Antec 300 again, but open to recommendations)
• PSU (the last one I had caught fire and started a little fireworks display in my room. That was 4 years ago, it still works :eek:)

If in budget

• GPU if worth the upgrade
• SSD if good value

I would like

• Display recommendations around €150 or so

Thanks!

BeerFear

How many Virtual machines will you be running at the same time?

hare05

BeerFear wrote: »

How many Virtual machines will you be running at the same time?

Just playing around with it mostly but I'd like to be able to assign a reasonable chunk of RAM when needed. Also think the idea of a RAM disk is interesting and I'd like to try that out with 4 - 8 GB

BeerFear

.

hare05

I notice a certain lack of motherboard in that build.

BeerFear

Yea sorry, See Below

Item|Price
8GB-Kit G.Skill PC3-10667U CL9|€62.88
BitFenix Merc Alpha|€32.93
Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO - Intel/AMD|€28.67
WD Blue 1TB 6Gb's|€52.43
be quiet! SYSTEM POWER 7 500W - bulk -|€53.59
MSI 760GA-P43 (FX), Sockel AM3+, ATX, PCIe|€50.25
AMD FX-6300 Prozessor, Boxed, Sockel AM3+|€97.53
Shipping|€18.99
Total|€397.27

Amazon: 7950

Could leave out the cooler and get a cheaper graphics card to bring down the price.
I'd think a 256GB SSD would be nice for virtual machines as well.

This is a good card currently on offer

hare05

Would I need the mounting kit with that SSD or can modern desktop cases also handle 2.5" ?

hare05

I think I'll go Intel instead of AMD. i5 4570 looks pretty nice and my GTX460 can hold me over for the moment.

How does this look?


Intel Core i5-4570 Box, LGA1150

Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO - Intel/AMD

MSI H87M-G43, mATX, Sockel 1150

8GB Kingston HyperX blu. PC3-12800U CL10 (Single stick now, a second in a few months and space for two more in a few years)

Sharkoon REX8 Economy Edition (Used Sharkoon before and they're pretty good, though I might bump up to a better case)

Corsair CX Series Modular CX500M, 500W

WD Blue 1TB 6Gb's

€488.11 on Hardwareversand.

Just within my budget, plenty of good reviews on the 4570, H87M-G43 is mATX and I'm still not sure if I want to go tower or small form factor. Corsair PSU because I like Corsair and same HDD as you mentioned. Add in my GTX460 and we've got a decent gaming rig for a year or so at which point I can toss a new graphics card in there with a second stick of RAM.

Hadn't considered an SSD at my budget but that might be worth the look. Thanks for the link!

Any big changes expected in the components market any time soon?

SterlingArcher

Yeah broadwell CPU, which will be 30 % faster than haswell, 40% faster than ivy.

Good news for you is if you go with the I5 you are choosing. The new broadwell will have the same socket. So an upgrade just means swapping out the CPU.

As you probably already know arma3 is very CPU intensive. An Intel chip be better at running it. Mate of mine runs it on an older I5 duel core and a gt630. You will well be.ok with.this newer I5 and your 460.

Jaafa

An 8320/50 would be a very good option since you intend to do some heavy multitasking.

See some benchmarks here for Arma 3:http://www.techspot.com/review/712-arma-3-benchmarks/page5.html

They'll be even better now considering those were done several months ago.

BeerFear

You won't need the additional cooer as its non overclocking version of the cpu