€600-€700 Gaming PC

Robinnibor

Hi folks, I used this lovely forum near a year ago now for a similar question. Unfortunately, I needed the money for something else in the end but I have a bit saved up, I need a new PC soon and it's my birthday in a couple of weeks so I thought why not go for it.

1. What is your budget? €600-€700. I can stretch to €800 but I'd rather not unless it represented better value for money etc

2. What will be the main purpose of the computer? General college stuff, internet, excel etc but primarily for gaming. I would like to actually play DayZ instead of watching others play it. I'd also like to be able to play any new releases or near future releases. I don't need to play these on ultra settings (not that I'd complain about being able to), as long as I can play them. Basically I just want to be able to play pretty much any game with no hassle. At the moment, I play a lot of Football Manager, League of Legends and Civ and would be looking to continue to play them.

3. Do you need a copy of Windows? I have Windows 7, though have no idea where code/key or CD is so maybe I need to buy it again/upgrade to 8?

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

5. Do you need a monitor? No, 22' 1920x1080 and I am happy to keep it for a while.

6. Do you need any of these peripherals? No I should be ok. Have wired net so no need for wireless right now

7. Are you willing to try overclocking? No

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

9. When are you purchasing? As soon as possible I guess. Within next month.

10. If you need help building it, where are you based? Based near Cork City, but I've heard they aren't too much hassle to build so I should be ok.

I know you guys must get 20 of these a day but I really appreciate any help or advice. Will be my first time self-funding and building a PC so I'll take all the help I can get.

Cheers!

Robinnibor

Hi folks, had a look around today on the net and think I got an idea of a system

Item|Price
ASUS R9270X-DC2T-2GD5, AMD Radeon R9 270X, 2GB DDR5|€173.79
AMD FX-8320 Prozessor, Boxed, Sockel AM3+|€122.58
Seagate Barracuda 7200 1000GB, SATA 6Gb/s|€45.58
Corsair Carbide Series 200R, ATX, ohne Netzteil|€51.04
8GB-Kit Crucial Ballistix Sport Series DDR3-1600, CL9|€56.59
bbe quiet! SYSTEM POWER 7 500W - bulk -|€52.59
MSI 970A-G43, AMD Sockel AM3+, ATX, DDR3|€54.81
Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO - Intel/AMD|€27.67
LG DH18NS schwarz bare SATA II|€11.32
Shipping|€18.99
Total|€614.96

I used geizhals for everything. I think that price is right. It looks good to me. A little worried if the PSU is sufficient, maybe someone could weigh in on that. I didn't include a copy of Windows. I might try and find a cheaper copy somewhere than the one they have listed. So I guess overall it'd come to maybe €700? Any parts I picked that are not worth the price/can be bettered by a similar product? Or just any general tips etc. I know I could go cheaper on a CPU, maybe the 6350 but I like to play a lot of Football Manager and the better the CPU, the quicker the game so decided to maybe go a little more than necessary on that.

I appreciate any help or advice guys!

Cheers.

Robinnibor

Swapped out the PSU for the Corsair CX Series Modular CX600M, 600W.

Does anyone have any thoughts on how it looks at the moment? I am torn a bit between the FX-8320 and going i5. Obviously a decent discrepancy in price between the two - is it worth paying the extra €50? Like I'd only consider going for it if there was a clear advantage it had over the 8320 in relation to what I wanted to do with it, if it's negligible I'll just stick with it as it is. I will be ordering it Tuesday all going well.

I appreciate any help or advice guys!

Cheers.

SterlingArcher

Sheet you been in here taking to yourself Rob. Can anyone join in?

Get the antec one 49.70 better cooling and noise. Better case just not in stock enough. Is as of now.

Don't bother with the 270x get the 270 so little between them its pointless for the extra 20 odd euro.

SterlingArcher

Ok this is just food for thought.

Intel Xeon E3-1230v3 Bx, LGA1150 202.58(I7 CPU)

Antec One, ATX, ohne Netzteil 49.70

8GB-Kit Crucial Ballistix Sport Series
DDR3-1600, CL9 56.59


WD Blue 1TB 6Gb's 45.64


ASUS GTX760-DC2OC-2GD5, GeForce GTX

760, 2GB GDDR5 207.52

Corsair CX Series Modular CX600M, 600W 59.80


ASRock H87 Pro4, Sockel 1150, mATX 63.52

LG bare 11.32

Total is approx 698,84 delivered

Now when you consider your build with the 600w was coming in at 625 yes?

For an extra 70 odd euro you get not an I5 but an I7 processor ,a gtx 760 (more powerful card) and better motherboard.

Or knock 50 off by getting the original r9270 bringing total to around 650.

SterlingArcher

hope any of this helps. Let us know your thoughts.

john the one

As far as I know you won't need the after market cooler for your processor if you have no intentions of over clocking.

An i5 should be more than capable of running all you need, I have an amd processor which works perfectly and is about 50 euro cheaper than the i5.

Robinnibor

SterlingArcher wrote: »

Ok this is just food for thought.

Intel Xeon E3-1230v3 Bx, LGA1150 202.58(I7 CPU)

Antec One, ATX, ohne Netzteil 49.70

8GB-Kit Crucial Ballistix Sport Series
DDR3-1600, CL9 56.59


WD Blue 1TB 6Gb's 45.64


ASUS GTX760-DC2OC-2GD5, GeForce GTX

760, 2GB GDDR5 207.52

Corsair CX Series Modular CX600M, 600W 59.80


ASRock H87 Pro4, Sockel 1150, mATX 63.52

LG bare 11.32

Total is approx 698,84 delivered

Now when you consider your build with the 600w was coming in at 625 yes?

For an extra 70 odd euro you get not an I5 but an I7 processor ,a gtx 760 (more powerful card) and better motherboard.

Or knock 50 off by getting the original r9270 bringing total to around 650.

Ha yeah please join in. Thought I was on a black list or something...

That build does look nice and an i7 is quite tempting. That mobo ain't in stock anymore though so I am unsure of what to replace that with. I assume that with this build, I'd get longer out of it than with my one? As in I wouldn't need to upgrade etc for a little longer than if I went with the 8320 etc? Because that is a factor in my decision.

Thanks for the help, I do appreciate it.

john the one wrote: »

As far as I know you won't need the after market cooler for your processor if you have no intentions of over clocking.

An i5 should be more than capable of running all you need, I have an amd processor which works perfectly and is about 50 euro cheaper than the i5.

Ah I see. My current PC has had many issues with overheating etc so I am a little paranoid when it comes to cooling etc. Though this PC is also a prebuilt monstrosity from PC World so that may explain a lot too.

Yeah I have read a lot of good things about the 8320 and its price is really tempting me. SterlingArcher's build is quite nice though, plus I am getting a better GPU etc. Though if I went for the original build, I'd be able to buy myself a decent SSD and some games in a couple of months with the extra cash I have left over from my budget so that is in my mind too.

Thanks for the help gentlemen. Certainly given me food for thought.

john the one

i would seriously consider getting an SSD into your budget somehow, it makes a heck of a difference with boot times and running your os. I didn't think it would be anything noticeable when i put my build together but it does!

SterlingArcher

Fur ruls. Once you go ssd you won't go back.

Robinnibor

Yeah I have read a lot of people mentioning how awesome SSD's are. Well I would want to keep it at a strict €700 maximum so I'd either go for the i7 and Archer's build or just go with the original build (swapping out the case and going for a 270) and throw in an SSD. They'd both come to same price.

Unless anyone has any last words of advice etc, I'll think on it over night and then order whichever I choose tomorrow. And then hopefully in the not too distant future, I'll have a fine machine!

Just want to say thanks again guys for the input. Really appreciate it.

Luck100

That Xeon build looks sweet. I'd go with that, the SSD is very easy to add later as an upgrade. Plus SSDs seem to be getting cheaper by the day.

Robinnibor

Hi folks, I ordered it this afternoon. Decided to go for this build in the end.

Item
ASUS R9270X-DC2T-2GD5, AMD Radeon R9 270X, 2GB DDR5
AMD FX-8320 Prozessor, Boxed, Sockel AM3+
WD Blue 1TB 6Gb's
Antec One, ATX, ohne Netzteil
8GB-Kit Crucial Ballistix Sport Series DDR3-1600, CL9
Corsair CX Series Modular CX600M, 600W
MSI 970A-G43, AMD Sockel AM3+, ATX, DDR3
LG DH18NS schwarz bare SATA II
Samsung SSD 840 EVO Basic 120GB SATA 6Gb/s


Came to like €650ish including shipping so I was happy with that. I was considering the Xeon etc but the parts went out of stock with no mention of when they'd come back in and I do need this PC asap so I decided to just go with the other slant and throw in an SSD too. Just want to thank everyone for their help and advice. I feel satisfied that I got a machine that I will enjoy. Hopefully the build wont give me any issues!

Cheers again lads.

Robinnibor

Hey guys, not sure if this is right place but hopefully I can at least be pointed in the right direction. PC arrived all fine last week. Really enjoying it, SSD is fantastic - so quick. However there is an issue. I have tried playing four games on the PC. League of Legends and Football Manager both run fine - no issue. However when I tried to play either Civ V or Burnout **** goes bad. The screen will start either flickering and then go total black with no button pressing being able to fix it bar having to reset the machine. Or else the screen will start getting big lines running across it - like a carpet of green lines etc. I am using all the parts listed above. Any one have any things I can try? I've looked it up online but I have seen so many different diagnosis/solutions so not sure which are applicable etc.

jackoire

Robinnibor wrote: »

Hey guys, not sure if this is right place but hopefully I can at least be pointed in the right direction. PC arrived all fine last week. Really enjoying it, SSD is fantastic - so quick. However there is an issue. I have tried playing four games on the PC. League of Legends and Football Manager both run fine - no issue. However when I tried to play either Civ V or Burnout **** goes bad. The screen will start either flickering and then go total black with no button pressing being able to fix it bar having to reset the machine. Or else the screen will start getting big lines running across it - like a carpet of green lines etc. I am using all the parts listed above. Any one have any things I can try? I've looked it up online but I have seen so many different diagnosis/solutions so not sure which are applicable etc.

Sounds like a bad graphics card or the card is over heating. Looks like it needs to be RMA'd.

You can use AMD Catalyst Control Center to see the GPU temp.

the_monkey

Robinnibor wrote: »

Hi folks, had a look around today on the net and think I got an idea of a system

Item|Price
ASUS R9270X-DC2T-2GD5, AMD Radeon R9 270X, 2GB DDR5|€173.79
AMD FX-8320 Prozessor, Boxed, Sockel AM3+|€122.58
Seagate Barracuda 7200 1000GB, SATA 6Gb/s|€45.58
Corsair Carbide Series 200R, ATX, ohne Netzteil|€51.04
8GB-Kit Crucial Ballistix Sport Series DDR3-1600, CL9|€56.59
bbe quiet! SYSTEM POWER 7 500W - bulk -|€52.59
MSI 970A-G43, AMD Sockel AM3+, ATX, DDR3|€54.81
Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO - Intel/AMD|€27.67
LG DH18NS schwarz bare SATA II|€11.32
Shipping|€18.99
Total|€614.96
I used geizhals for everything. I think that price is right. It looks good to me. A little worried if the PSU is sufficient, maybe someone could weigh in on that. I didn't include a copy of Windows. I might try and find a cheaper copy somewhere than the one they have listed. So I guess overall it'd come to maybe €700? Any parts I picked that are not worth the price/can be bettered by a similar product? Or just any general tips etc. I know I could go cheaper on a CPU, maybe the 6350 but I like to play a lot of Football Manager and the better the CPU, the quicker the game so decided to maybe go a little more than necessary on that.

I appreciate any help or advice guys!

Cheers.

edit -- oops I thought that 2GB was the RAM, I guess the 8GB is ...

What is the 2GB in bold ? cache mem ?

Robinnibor

the_monkey wrote: »

edit -- oops I thought that 2GB was the RAM, I guess the 8GB is ...

What is the 2GB in bold ? cache mem ?

On the ASUS site it says it is on-board memory. Not the most knowledgeable about parts etc so sorry if you were asking a totally different question!

jackoire wrote: »

Sounds like a bad graphics card or the card is over heating. Looks like it needs to be RMA'd.

You can use AMD Catalyst Control Center to see the GPU temp.

That was my worry. I used (maybe I shouldn't have) MSI kombuster thing. I had it run one of the GPU stress tests - lasted 90 seconds before carpet/flickering. Said temp was at 50C if I recall correctly. At idle its at 31C. Just played Civ with Catalyst open - temp got to be about 50C when it did its thing. Sorry if this isn't what you guys are looking for, just ask again if I got wrong info

the_monkey

Robinnibor wrote: »

On the ASUS site it says it is on-board memory. Not the most knowledgeable about parts etc so sorry if you were asking a totally different question!

Not at all , I'm not up to scratch on hardware either

I'm just lurking on this forum cos I'm looking for an upgrade soon myself.

jackoire

Robinnibor wrote: »

On the ASUS site it says it is on-board memory. Not the most knowledgeable about parts etc so sorry if you were asking a totally different question!



That was my worry. I used (maybe I shouldn't have) MSI kombuster thing. I had it run one of the GPU stress tests - lasted 90 seconds before carpet/flickering. Said temp was at 50C if I recall correctly. At idle its at 31C. Just played Civ with Catalyst open - temp got to be about 50C when it did its thing. Sorry if this isn't what you guys are looking for, just ask again if I got wrong info

Iv'e had green artifacts before and the card eventually died, I think it was an issue with vram on the GPU. Maybe test it in another PC if it does the same just RMA it.

Robinnibor

Don't have another system unfortunately. So nothing I can do to fix it my end I take it? How do I go about RMA?