Decent £400-£500 (Maybe go £600) gaming/graphics PC?

[Shinobi]

I really, really want to swap to PC gaming, or 'Join the Master Race' as you'll call it;)
I was wondering what to get in terms of CPU/GPU/MOBO.

Here is the setup I have conjured up so far: http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/p/2942G

I just need to fill the gaps. I want to use it for: Gaming, Photoshop, Cinema 4D, Premiere and After effects mainly, and then of course regular usage. I am aware my budget is not perfect, but i've heard it's do-able. I could decide on a GPU right now (Radeon 7870), but wanted some help from you guys. Also, i'm torn between the i5-3570k, and AMD FX-8350 (Or FX-****). I know currently the i5 is better for gaming, but now the game developers are utilizing more cores, I wasn't sure. Any help? BTW, I want to get this instead of a PS4, so about the same performance (EG. CoD High+ settings, 40+fps?).

Cheers guys!

/Shinobi

[CES_williamson]

GPU: Nvidia, please go nvidia, the 600 series or 700 OR buy 3 average/low end GPU's and SLI or crossfire them depends on your motherboard

CPU: Go for an intel i5, i7 are good but i5 does the job and if you are on a budget it is fine

and for the storage you should get a few terabytes trust me memory goes quickly when you start buying games XD

motherboard: would love to give recomendations but i have only ever had 1 in my PC (asus saber-tooth z77)

if you need any help/info and i forget to check the thread just pm me, would be happy to help!

[Elmusie]

Based on your budget you will struggle but as you have already been advised it is kinda doable... kinda.

 

Ignore all the bullshit about developers making use of "more cores than ever before", its marketing crap to get you to purchase better hardware Ive yet to see a game make maximum use of a quad-core, if its definitly within budget go with the 3570k (do you intend on overclocking?).

 

The 7870 will handle most current games on mid to high-ish (id ignore ultra settings if you intend on having 30+ frames in games such as BF/COD as this will be just skimming 30 frames on most setups) setting depending on the rest of your setup.

 

As charlie has mentioned getting something like a GTX 670 (good value card and kicks out some decent power) will enable you to crank shit up to the max but that all depends on budget.

 

When im less intoxicated and able to think more ill try and spec something up for you tomorrow and let you have it .

 

Adam.

[Shinobi]

GPU: Nvidia, please go nvidia, the 600 series or 700 OR buy 3 average/low end GPU's and SLI or crossfire them depends on your motherboard

CPU: Go for an intel i5, i7 are good but i5 does the job and if you are on a budget it is fine

and for the storage you should get a few terabytes trust me memory goes quickly when you start buying games XD

motherboard: would love to give recomendations but i have only ever had 1 in my PC (asus saber-tooth z77)

if you need any help/info and i forget to check the thread just pm me, would be happy to help!

Thanks man! Is there much difference in Nvidia and Radeon's? And err, why should I go i5 over AMD? I know I should, but no-ones explained why?

[Unrustle_Thine_Jimmies]

AMD's new R9 GPU family is more cost efficient and just as powerful as Nvidias,in all cases outperforming them at a price-performance perspective and matching them at sheer performance.

 

Note,PS4 uses the equivalent of a 7870.

 

R9 270X is roughly 180£,essentially a more powerful 7870,mainly competing with the 660 and the 670 to an extent. Sapphire seem the best option for this one.

 

R9 280X is 220£,it's a bit more powerful 7970 but 70£ cheaper. Now,the 7970 is 50£ cheaper than the GTX770 and outperformed it on a number of occasions. R9 280X outperforms the 7970 and it's much much cheaper. Gigabyte version is the go to.

 

For GPU I'd go for the R9 280X, but if budget is tight R9 270X is the way to go.

 

All of these cards easily overpower the PS4's btw,expect over 60FPS or over in most modern games.

 

For CPU I guess Intel i5 is the best bang for buck wise,the 4670K is great. 190£ for this one.

 

For RAM DDR4 should be available by the end of the month,no point in going DDR3. 8gb should do,any manufacturer from Corsair to G.Skill will be fine. DDR4 uses 20% less volts,2x the speed and 2x the density of DDR3.

 

PSU...Round 400W or something. Avoid Chinese made PSUs.

 

For Mobo,Gigabyte H87 is a good budget option. Does it's job but not really for heavy Over clocking.

 

DO NOT cheap out on cooling,get something like a Phanteks PH-TC14PE and don't splurge out a fancy looking case. Get a simple Midi-tower for 30£ or something.

 

MAKE SURE That the CPU socket is 1150,so you can pick out the right cooling and shizzle.

 

Anyone else feel free to add and tear apart,I'm tired and don't want to into research.

[Shinobi]

Based on your budget you will struggle but as you have already been advised it is kinda doable... kinda.

 

Ignore all the bullshit about developers making use of "more cores than ever before", its marketing crap to get you to purchase better hardware Ive yet to see a game make maximum use of a quad-core, if its definitly within budget go with the 3570k (do you intend on overclocking?).

 

The 7870 will handle most current games on mid to high-ish (id ignore ultra settings if you intend on having 30+ frames in games such as BF/COD as this will be just skimming 30 frames on most setups) setting depending on the rest of your setup.

 

As charlie has mentioned getting something like a GTX 670 (good value card and kicks out some decent power) will enable you to crank sh*t up to the max but that all depends on budget.

 

When im less intoxicated and able to think more ill try and spec something up for you tomorrow and let you have it .

 

Adam.

Thanks alot Man! How much would I need to spend to be getting 40+fps High+ next gen?

[Shinobi]

AMD's new R9 GPU family is more cost efficient and just as powerful as Nvidias,in all cases outperforming them at a price-performance perspective and matching them at sheer performance.

 

Note,PS4 uses the equivalent of a 7870.

 

R9 270X is roughly 130£,essentially a more powerful 7870,mainly competing with the 660 and the 670 to an extent. Sapphire seem the best option for this one.

 

R9 280X is 180£,it's a bit more powerful 7970 but 100£ cheaper. Now,the 7970 is 50£ cheaper than the GTX770 and outperformed it on a number of occasions. R9 280X outperforms the 7970 and it's much much cheaper. Gigabyte version is the go to.

 

For GPU I'd go for the R9 280X, but if budget is tight R9 270X is the way to go.

 

All of these cards easily overpower the PS4's btw,expect over 60FPS or over in most modern games.

 

For CPU I guess Intel i5 is the best bang for buck wise,the 4670K is great. 190£ for this one.

 

For RAM DDR4 should be available by the end of the month,no point in going DDR3. 8gb should do,any manufacturer from Corsair to G.Skill will be fine. DDR4 uses 20% less volts,2x the speed and 2x the density of DDR3.

 

PSU...Round 400W or something. Avoid Chinese made PSUs.

 

For Mobo,Gigabyte H87 is a good budget option. Does it's job but not really for heavy Over clocking.

 

DO NOT cheap out on cooling,get something like a Phanteks PH-TC14PE and don't splurge out a fancy looking case. Get a simple Midi-tower for 30£ or something.

 

MAKE SURE That the CPU socket is 1150,so you can pick out the right cooling and shizzle.

 

Anyone else feel free to add and tear apart,I'm tired and don't want to into research.

I've got to go now, but i'll have a proper read tomoz. Thanks!

[jcheeseright]

http://www.novatech.co.uk/pc/range/novatechblacknta12.html

 

one of those, with one of these in it:

 

http://www.novatech.co.uk/products/components/amdradeongraphicscards/amdr9270xseries/r9270x-dc2t-2gd5.html

 

that should destroy most current games.

[Shinobi]

http://www.novatech.co.uk/pc/range/novatechblacknta12.html

 

one of those, with one of these in it:

 

http://www.novatech.co.uk/products/components/amdradeongraphicscards/amdr9270xseries/r9270x-dc2t-2gd5.html

 

that should destroy most current games.

 

Think I'll build one, but thanks anyway. 7870, GTX 660, or 270X is the question now;)

[Shinobi]

http://www.novatech.co.uk/pc/range/novatechblacknta12.html

 

one of those, with one of these in it:

 

http://www.novatech.co.uk/products/components/amdradeongraphicscards/amdr9270xseries/r9270x-dc2t-2gd5.html

 

that should destroy most current games.

 

Think I'll build one, but thanks anyway. 7870, GTX 660, or 270X is the question now;)

[Shinobi]

Just a quick question, I know Intel i5-3570k IS better than say an AMD FX-8350, but why? Faster clock speed and more cores! I know its not all about this, its about Architecture, Bandwith etc, but why!?

[Lozart]

Hoooooookay.

 

The why's and wherefores of multicore PCs for gaming are largely irrelevant as very few games actually use multiple cores effectively. i7s are a waste of time because the only major difference between an i5 and an i7 is the fine threading ability and that is NOT used by games (yet).

 

I'm running an i5-3570K with a GTX590 and 8GB of DDR3 and it will smash most games on a 24" monitor (1920x1080).

 

Unless you're planning on overclocking you won't really need an "enthusiast" level motherboard so spend the money elsewhere. Personally I'd go for Intel as in my experience at least what you save on the processor for AMD you end up spending on the motherboard anyway.

 

Chasing around looking at the minutiae of specs WILL send you round the twist and constantly thinking "ah but next month this comes out" is a surefire way to never actually buy ANYTHING.

 

That said, for comaprisons and real world bench tests http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/charts/ is hard to beat. If you buy an SSD only use it to load your OS and get a decent high capacity traditional HDD to store your data (music, movies, games etc). While yes it is possible to get a decent SSD for a reasonable cost it's still not the most reliable of technologies for long term storage.

 

Get a good power supply. I cannot stress this enough. Use a calculator to get the right size (don't just guess) http://www.extreme.outervision.com/psucalculatorlite.jsp (I use a Corsair HX1050 but I have a shed load of HDDs and a mahoosive GPU).

[Esoterick]

One thing I would suggest is you look at motherboard bundles as they often work out cheaper than buying the motherboard, CPU and RAM separately. I don't have time to work out the cost of the individual components but for instance: http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=BU-234-OK&groupid=43&catid=2512&subcat=2693

 

In my current build I am using one from Novatech that I bought a few years back, saved me about 40 quid.

 

As far as motherboard manufacturers go: Asus, Gigabyte and MSI are all good. Asrock are also fairly decent and make some good budget boards. I personally like Asus but if you dig deep enough you will see people saying they have problems with any given piece of hardware you can imagine.

[Russe11]

The 2 main things that matter in a gaming PC are Graphics card and Power supply, get the best you can afford of both. Budget about £50 for motherboard and then add a semi decent AMD processor (£80-100). Then add as much RAM as you can. AMD processors will give more power for less money than intel. Nvidea graphics cards are better, but AMD/ATI will be cheaper for the same power. I have always used ATI cards but can see arguments for both. My view is that ATI cards are cheaper so I can afford to upgrade more frequently.

 

People often skimp on power supplies and after a while there are all sorts of weird issues with the PC. You can spend a fortune trying to resolve these issues because it never occurs to you that its a power supply issue

 

I have a cheap case thats very old and entirely constructed of steel mesh. This is one part of my PC I never plan to upgrade as it allows extra fans to be put anywhere!

 

Oh and check out Dabs.com

[Esoterick]

People often skimp on power supplies and after a while there are all sorts of weird issues with the PC. You can spend a fortune trying to resolve these issues because it never occurs to you that its a power supply issue

 

 

 

Definitely agree with this. People think oooh £20 power supply. The reason it is that much is because it is shite, as a rule of thumb I wouldn't spend less than around £50 on one. Corsair and Antec both make decent Power Supplies(aka PSUs) - A bad power supply can do anything from cause your PC to randomly hang and not boot to damaging components, so it just isn't worth trying to save money on them.

[Lozart]

 

Definitely agree with this. People think oooh £20 power supply. The reason it is that much is because it is shite, as a rule of thumb I wouldn't spend less than around £50 on one. Corsair and Antec both make decent Power Supplies(aka PSUs) - A bad power supply can do anything from cause your PC to randomly hang and not boot to damaging components, so it just isn't worth trying to save money on them.

Also - Enermax and Seasonic. I would suggest spending much nearer to £100 on a PSU to be honest (mine was £160 but IS overkill for most - my graphics card is a bit of a beast).

[Esoterick]

Also - Enermax and Seasonic. I would suggest spending much nearer to £100 on a PSU to be honest (mine was £160 but IS overkill for most - my graphics card is a bit of a beast).

 

Yeah I have a £90 one I bought about 5 years ago. It has outlasted everything in my setup bar my desk

 

Ideally you want a bronze or above rated PSU from a reputable brand but I don't think £100 is justifiable on a budget build

[Lozart]

 

Yeah I have a £90 one I bought about 5 years ago. It has outlasted everything in my setup bar my desk

 

Ideally you want a bronze or above rated PSU from a reputable brand but I don't think £100 is justifiable on a budget build

 

Granted, mine was far from a budget build to be fair but I would still maintain that you should get the best you can afford. Having a PSU blow up gets very costly as it's likely to wreck your HDD, motherboard, CPU and possibly GPU in the process. With modern GPUs you need to check that the 12v rails can supply enough current as well as the overall wattage too.

[Mack]

Keep an eye out on ebay some bargains to be had if your on a budget, I picked up a Corsair GS800 brand new for 50 quid

[Shinobi]

Firstly I'd like to say a huge thanks to you all! Ok, so i5 for gaming, but how would it shape up in comparison to a AMD-FX8350 for graphic design, Photoshop etc? Also, is Corsair a reputable enough brand for my PSU? I think I might give abit more time at looking into GPU's, but for now i'm liking the look of the AMD R7 270x. BTW, I probably wont be getting the build for another few months, so that could be good as prices migh've dropped.

[jcheeseright]

For running photoshop etc, unless you're looking at designing billboards at print quality you'll be fine with pretty much anything.

 

For example, my housemate Dom ( http://www.dommoore.co.uk ) does all his post processing and editing on a Macbook Pro and he does it for a living.

[Lozart]

I use an i5 for Photoshop and it's fine. Granted PS IS optimised for hyperthreading but as long as you have PLENTY of RAM you'll not struggle anyway.

 

Corsair is a highly reputable brand (I also have their M60 mouse and K90 mechanical keyboard and they're lovely bits of kit) so you'll be fine with their PSUs.

[Shinobi]

So, i'd be fine with an i5! BUT, would an AMD perform better in programs like PS, C4D, AE, Premiere? And i'll be going with 8GB's I think, and a Corsair PSU.

[Esoterick]

So, i'd be fine with an i5! BUT, would an AMD perform better in programs like PS, C4D, AE, Premiere? And i'll be going with 8GB's I think, and a Corsair PSU.

 

No get an i5. AMDs are cheaper but not as good.

[Shinobi]

No get an i5. AMDs are cheaper but not as good.

May I just ask why? I know they are, and have better Architecture and stuff, but Im amazed how 4 cores outperform 8!?