Gaming PC build, £600 ish.

[Adam Randell]

Hi, just thought I'd check about this build before I went ahead and ordered it. I'd like to use it for gaming - I'm not looking to run games in Ultra-high or anything but I would like to be able to run new games at normal graphics settings for a reasonable time without having to upgrade parts too soon.

Case
COOLERMASTER ELITE 310 BLUE CASE
Processor (CPU)
AMD BULLDOZER QUAD CORE FX-4100 (3.60GHz/4MB CACHE/AM3+)
Motherboard
ASUS® M5A78L-M/USB3: M-ATX, USB 3.0, SATA 3.0Gb/s
Memory (RAM)
8GB SAMSUNG DUAL-DDR3 1333MHz (2 X 4GB)
Graphics Card
1GB NVIDIA GEFORCE GTX 560 - DVI,HDMI,VGA (Special Offer)
Memory - 1st Hard Disk
1TB 3.5" SATA-III 6GB/s HDD 7200RPM 32MB CACHE
1st DVD/BLU-RAY Drive
24x DUAL LAYER DVD WRITER ±R/±RW/RAM
Memory Card Reader
INTERNAL 52 IN 1 CARD READER (XD, MS, CF, SD, etc) + 1 x USB 2.0 PORT
Power Supply
450W Quiet 80 PLUS Dual Rail PSU + 120mm Case Fan (£29)
Processor Cooling
STANDARD AMD CPU COOLER
Sound Card
ONBOARD 8 CHANNEL (7.1) HIGH DEF AUDIO (AS STANDARD)
Network Facilities
GIGABIT LAN & WIRELESS 802.11N 300Mbps PCI-E CARD (£16)
USB Options
6 x USB 2.0 PORTS @ BACK PANEL (MIN 2 FRONT PORTS) AS STANDARD
Operating System
Genuine Windows 7 Home Premium 64 Bit w/SP1 - inc DVD & Licence
Office Software
FREE Microsoft® Office Starter 2010 (Limited functionality Word & Excel)
Anti-Virus
BULLGUARD INTERNET SECURITY - FREE 90 DAY TRIAL
Warranty
3 Year Standard Warranty (1 Month Collect & Return, 1 Year Parts, 3 Year Labour)
Delivery
STANDARD INSURED DELIVERY TO UK MAINLAND (MON-FRI)
Build Time
Standard Build - Approximately 10 to 12 working days
Quantity
1

Price: £617.00 including VAT and delivery.

One big question I have is whether you think it's worth me spending an extra £50 or so to get one or both of the the 560 Ti card and the FX-4170 processor, or whether I may as well wait and get a substantial upgrade a couple years down the line?

Thanks a lot!

[noreik]

I would probably upgrade that ram to 1600mhz as the price difference isn't too much maybe even 16gb. And possibly upgrade to an 8-core.

[vanthus]

I think upgrading the GPU would be well worth it far as gaming goes.
The CPU is adequate in my opinion,dont forget silver warranty for£5.

[Fear]

The 1600MHz ram will be a waste of time for your build as you will see no performance difference and with the case you have you will not even see the ram so it is not even needed for the better looks and 8GB is more than enough for gaming and even editing so 16GB is only needed if you would be doing extremely intensive HD video editing and also an 8 core CPU will not benefit your gaming experience.

As vanthus has pointed out the GPU is worth the extra money as this will give you a boost and you might get a slight boost on some games with the higher clock speed CPU but not really needed and that £5 warranty is a must and lastly if you can manage the extra for a caviar black that will give you a better boost than upgrading the CPU.

[Adam Randell]

Thanks for the help so far. I'll definitely upgrade to the Ti card and leave the processor. How worth it would you say the WD caviar is? If it was just the drive I'd get it for sure, but it's recommending that I get a 600W power supply, which pushes up the price again by another £30.

[vanthus]

I think you'll find its the GPU upgrade that pushes the PSU recommendation up.
Keep in mind though if you do upgrade in future the PSU will need to be upgraded anyway, which can be a bit of a hassle,unless your experienced in that kind of thing of course.

[Fear]

Wow i just had a look at this on the config page and just changing the HDD to the CB adds 12 Watts so yes it is putting you over the 450W tbh though it's never really a good idea to have a PSU running near it's max anyway as it will be producing more heat and reduces it's lifespan so if you could maybe get a higher wattage PSU i would normally recommend getting a branded PSU like the 650W corsair but it's not really possible with the budget.

[Adam Randell]

Yeah, I'd be reeaally stretching it with the 600W that's on the site. Still, I suppose it does seem like a good idea to future-proof the power source so it's probably worth me at getting that one at the least.

So basically, keep the 4100 but get the Ti card, the Caviar drive and the 600W source?

[Fear]

Yeah that would be a good choice plus with that larger 600W PSU you will not be as restricted if you need to change your GPU or add extra HDD's during the life of the system.

[lewi34444]

hey man not a bad little build there, the 8g's of ram in my opinion is more than any game uses at the moment anyway so i think the 8gigs is fine.The 4 core cpu is good to, again no games use more than 4. the only thing i would do is upgrade the psu slightly for possible upgrade ability in the future for another 560 etc.