First Proper Gaming PC

[Varithgar]

Howdy!

I've gone ahead and bought my first decent gaming PC and I thought the spec I went with seemed pretty alright for the price as I was on a little bit of a limited budget.

Someone recommended I got a smaller/less powerful CPU in substitution for a better GPU, I was originally planning on getting my hands on an AMD Phenom II X4 945 3.0GHz and a Radeon HD 5770 but I took the advice as an improvement and went with the spec below.


Case
COOLERMASTER ELITE 310 BLUE CASE

Processor (CPU)
AMD PHENOM II X2 555 (3.20GHz/6MB CACHE/AM3) - BLACK EDITION

Motherboard
ASUS® M4A87TD/USB3: DUAL DDR3,SATA 6.0GB/s, USB 3.0

Memory (RAM)
4GB KINGSTON HYPER-X GENESIS DUAL-DDR3 1600MHz (2 x 2GB KIT)

Graphics Card
768MB NVIDIA GEFORCE GTX460 GDDR5 PCI EXPRESS - DirectX® 11

Memory - 1st Hard Disk
500GB SERIAL ATA 3-Gb/s HARD DRIVE WITH 8MB CACHE (7,200rpm)

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 & Case Cooling
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
ONBOARD 10/100/1000 GIGABIT LAN PORT

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 - inc DVD & Licence (£79)


As for the Cooler and Screen I was going to buy a Cooler from a different website because I've seena few for less than £19 that are on par performance with the one on the site if not better, As for the screen I was planning on buying (I think the name is) a 24" BenQ 2420HDBL for £166 on a different website?

Anyone want to go ahead and tell me if i've made any complete cock-ups or mistakes?

And, I only discovered that the PCS Forums existed AFTER I bought it, so I kinda missed out on the "Check this spec" Feedback before I bought it, but let me know what you think please?

 

[Wash]

Well as long as your PC is still in pre-production I believe you can still make amendments to the spec.

A few small criticisms:

1600MHz memory is great if you're planning on overclocking your CPU, otherwise it's a bit of overkill

The hard drive has 8MB CACHE which ain't so great for gaming if you're looking for above average performance, I would've gone for the 64Mb cache drives personally, slightly more expensive but maybe the reduction in price for the memory would cover it

The PSU (450W) will power that PC (otherwise the spec checker would've thrown up a warning) but will probably be a limiting factor should you decide to upgrade to a second graphics card/other high-end components down the road.

Otherwise, looks good!

 

[Varithgar]

Thanks I was wondering whether to get a HDD with a bigger cache because I thought 8MB was fairly low for gaming,
I'm not sure about the extra for a 64MB HDD, but would a 32MB be alright aswell or am I better off getting a 64MB HDD, I mean I'm all up for getting a WD6402AAEX but is the £22 really worth the difference between 8MB and 64MB?

 

[Wash]

Sleinous swears by it

I'd say go for the 32MB cache HDD if the 64MB is over your budget, but I don't think there's much in it price-wise between the two.

The Western Digital Caviar Green drives would probably be your best bet, avoid the Velociraptors as they are top spec drives which have a premium on price. And yes, I'd say there's a noticeable difference between 8MB and 64MB cache. 32MB would be a good compromise

 

[Varithgar]

I just sent PCS an e-mail requesting my HDD be changed to a "640GB 6GB/s HDD 64MB Cache" kinda draining my cash reserves going from £577 with the 500GB to £599 with the 640GB, but I'd rather get a Hard Drive that's good and lasts me rather than buying an average one and upgrading later kinda thing.

 

[Wash]

Strange, I've just confirmed your spec with the PC Specialist configurator and it comes in at £573.00 inc VAT, I can't for the life of me figure out how yours is £599. Here's the spec from the website:

Case
COOLERMASTER ELITE 310 BLUE CASE

Processor (CPU)
AMD PHENOM II X2 555 (3.20GHz/6MB CACHE/AM3) - BLACK EDITION

Motherboard
ASUS® M4A87TD/USB3: DUAL DDR3,SATA 6.0GB/s, USB 3.0

Memory (RAM)
4GB SAMSUNG DDR3 DUAL-DDR3 1333MHz (2 X 2GB)

Graphics Card
768MB NVIDIA GEFORCE GTX460 GDDR5 PCI EXPRESS - DirectX® 11

Memory - 1st Hard Disk
640GB WD CAVIAR GREEN WD6400AARS, SATA 3 Gb/s, 64MB 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 & Case Cooling
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
ONBOARD 10/100/1000 GIGABIT LAN PORT

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 - inc DVD & Licence (£79)

system summary
£487.66 ex VAT
£573.00 inc VAT
-- or on finance --

£20.94 p/m

Free Standard UK Delivery on all Orders!

Can you see any differences? I can't (assuming you've gone for the 1333MHz memory which is £10 cheaper, even if you hadn't that still wouldn't account for the difference in price).

 

[Varithgar]

Ahah! It's because I've had the 640GB 6GB/s 64MB version not the 64MB 3GB/s 64MB Green Drive, I thought I might aswell get a fast drive for better performance rather than a low power Green drive which may be lacking a bit 'o performance.

 

[Wash]

Ahah! It's because I've had the 640GB 6GB/s 64MB version not the 64MB Green Drive .

Phew, you had me worried there for a bit!

So it looks like you might make a saving after all

Consider putting it towards the Silver Warranty, £5 will get you 11 extra months collect and return

 

[Varithgar]

Haha, it took me a good 5 minutes to double check over everything! xD

And thanks aswell, I saw that a while back when I was looking through what I could get. Is it me or is it a bit strange how 1 year collect and return is £5,
but 2 years is £69, now I don't get me wrong I like my warranty when stuff goes wrong, but £64 is a bloody jump in price for an extra year!

 

[Craig]

costs £35 a time otherwise, 2 trips and that is how much it would cost you.

It's not a bad setup being honest for how cheap it is.

 

[PringlesInside]

hmmmm .. x2 processor? should stuck with at least x4 . also, if you wanted to save alot of money, get rid of windows7 lisence ... and use the os from your old pc OR i can give you windows7 home/pro/ultimate for free beacuse of my school.

 

[Matt00011]

hmmmm .. x2 processor? should stuck with at least x4

Yep, I was about to say the same thing.

 

[PringlesInside]

Yep, I was about to say the same thing.

i googled, and found that call of duty blackops , minium requirement is a x3 . x4 will help you in future aswelll. i would strongly recommend going for x4, no doubts.

 

[Len]

Pringles I wouldn't mind a ultimate key win 7 key then I'll save moneys on my order!

 

[Sleinous]

Thanks I was wondering whether to get a HDD with a bigger cache because I thought 8MB was fairly low for gaming,
I'm not sure about the extra for a 64MB HDD, but would a 32MB be alright aswell or am I better off getting a 64MB HDD, I mean I'm all up for getting a WD6402AAEX but is the £22 really worth the difference between 8MB and 64MB?

Yep, it is, youll find when you install all your start-up programs, antivirus etc, all that stuff that loads at the same time as Windows, that youll get a more responsive experienece, otherwise youll find that youll be waiting 5mins for the pc to be usable. However much RAM and good a CPU you have. The HDD is the limiting factor in today's machines. The more cache the better, RPM of disk is more important still, and finally, SSD owns all.

 

[Varithgar]

Righty, I might e-mail PCS then requesting a change from Phenom II x2 555 3.2GHz to Athlon II x4 640 3.0GHz, It's a few quid more I think and this'll help in the long run?

 

[Rakk]

also, if you wanted to save alot of money, get rid of windows7 lisence ... and use the os from your old pc OR i can give you windows7 home/pro/ultimate for free beacuse of my school.

PringlesInside, please do not suggest such things, it is not legal to use those keys in such a way ............
Don't make me get out my newly acquired mod stick.

 

[Phoenix]

Just out of curiosity who recommended the build you posted originally?

 

[Varithgar]

I cooked it up myself, I'm no expert in computers but I know a thing or two about computers. Also do you think Phenom II 945 + Radeon HD 5770 would have been better choice?

 

[Phoenix]

Yes, without at least a 3 core processor you will be creating a bottleneck on most modern games. There are exceptions however like games such as world of warcraft which will only use 2 cores though. (<---compared to the original build, an athlon quad core will be fine though)