Under £500, discrete or apu?

[pjnolen1]

Can someone post me a spec that they are certain will accomplish my goal?
This machine will only be doing 1 thing, playing swtor online.

I want:
-Max graphic settings at 1200x800(max res of display) or 720p
-Overclockable cpu and/or gpu and/or ram

I need:
120gb SSD(just because)
Mini or micro case(have confined space to place it)

I have:
Win 7 pro
Display
Mouse
Keyboard
wireless network

Can a sub £500 machine accomplish this? If it can, I'll end up buying 2


Thank you for the help!

PJ

 

[mantadog]

You wont get a sub £500 system that does all that.

Why do you need an overclockable CPU? I mean why specifically an overclcokable one and not just a faster one right out of the box?

You can't reasonably get a decent GPU for sub £500 even without an OS. The SSD isn't such a problem because they're not that expensive these days, unless you also need a HDD to go with it for mass storage...

Your best hope is an APU at that budget, but as far as I know they're not the best overclcokers

 

[Karnor00]

Actually most of the goals seem fairly achievable - SWTOR isn't a brand new game and the required resolution of 1200x800 is comparatively low. A GTX 750 should be able to max things fairly easily at that resolution - after all it can manage 40fps on Battlefield 4 at high settings on 1920x1080 resolution.

What isn't achievable is having an overclocked CPU/GPU in a mini/micro case. Overclocking requires better cooling, and that's just not available in the smaller cases.

I'd suggest something like the following. It's slightly over budget but you could drop the CPU down a notch if you wanted to save a little.

Case
COOLERMASTER 120 ADVANCED CASE + 450W PSU
Processor (CPU)
Intel® Core™i5 Quad Core Processor i5-4670T (2.3GHz) 6MB Cache
Motherboard
ASUS® H81I-PLUS: Mini-ITX, LG1150, USB 3.0, SATA 6GBs
Memory (RAM)
4GB KINGSTON DUAL-DDR3 1600MHz (1 x 4GB)
Graphics Card
1GB NVIDIA GEFORCE GTX 750 - DVI, mHDMI, VGA - 3D Vision Ready
1st Hard Disk
120GB KINGSTON V300 SSD, SATA 6 Gb (450MB/R, 450MB/W)
Sound Card
ONBOARD 8 CHANNEL (7.1) HIGH DEF AUDIO (AS STANDARD)
Wireless/Wired Networking
10/100/1000 GIGABIT LAN PORT - AS STANDARD ON ALL PCs
USB Options
2 x USB 3.0 PORTS + 4 x USB 2.0 PORTS AS STANDARD
Power Cable
1 x 1 Metre UK Power Cable (Kettle Lead)
Operating System
NO OPERATING SYSTEM REQUIRED
Office Software
NO OFFICE SOFTWARE
Anti-Virus
NO ANTI-VIRUS SOFTWARE
Warranty
3 Year Silver Warranty (1 Year Collect & Return, 1 Year Parts, 3 Year Labour) (£5)
Delivery
STANDARD INSURED DELIVERY TO UK MAINLAND (MON-FRI)
Build Time
Standard Build - Approximately 11 to 13 working days
Quantity
1

Price: £516.00 including VAT and delivery.

Unique URL to re-configure: http://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/quotes/intel-top-spec-mini-pc/hRbNsKLqu6/

 

[pjnolen1]

Why do you need an overclockable CPU? I mean why specifically an overclcokable one and not just a faster one right out of the box?

Your best hope is an APU at that budget, but as far as I know they're not the best overclcokers

I was expecting a stock system, or at least a stock APU may not be able to get 100% there, maybe 80-90% and being able to overclock it might edge it to there. I'll edit in that I want 30fps at those settings and res. I don't need 100fps or 60, but I'd hoped that a low res, and just keeping it around 30fps would be doable.

I did find this and hoped it would work, but I don't know for sure which is why I asked on the boards.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HA2iC-ZfxJc
Check out the 3 minute mark.

Thanks!

 

[keynes]

I would consider Karnoor's spec but dropping the SSD and getting the gtx 750 ti

 

[pjnolen1]

£393
After doing a bit more research I'm under the impression that this system would do it.
Going with 8gig 2400mhz ram should bump the gpu to the handling it quite well.

Case
STYLISH PIANO BLACK ENIGMA MICRO-ATX CASE + 2 FRONT USB
Processor (CPU)
AMD A10-5800K Quad Core APU (3.8GHz) & Radeon™ HD 7660D Graphics
Motherboard
ASUS® A88XM-PLUS: (M-ATX, DDR3, USB 3.0, 6Gb/s)
Memory (RAM)
8GB KINGSTON HYPER-X BEAST DUAL-DDR3 2400MHz X.M.P (2 x 4GB KIT)
Graphics Card
Integrated AMD Radeon HD 7000/8000 Series Graphics
1st Hard Disk
120GB Samsung 840 EVO SSD, SATA 6Gb/s (upto 540MB/sR | 410MB/sW)
1st DVD/BLU-RAY Drive
24x DUAL LAYER DVD WRITER ±R/±RW/RAM
Power Supply
CORSAIR 350W VS SERIES™ VS-350 POWER SUPPLY
Processor Cooling
STANDARD AMD CPU COOLER
Sound Card
ONBOARD 8 CHANNEL (7.1) HIGH DEF AUDIO (AS STANDARD)
Wireless/Wired Networking
WIRELESS 802.11N 300Mbps PCI CARD
USB Options
6 x USB 2.0 PORTS @ BACK PANEL (MIN 2 FRONT PORTS) AS STANDARD
Power Cable
1 x 1 Metre UK Power Cable (Kettle Lead)
Operating System
NO OPERATING SYSTEM REQUIRED
DVD Recovery Media
NO DVD RECOVERY MEDIA REQUIRED
Office Software
NO OFFICE SOFTWARE
Anti-Virus
NO ANTI-VIRUS SOFTWARE
Mouse
LOGITECH® OPTICAL USB MOUSE



Originally I did this at 1600mhz ram, lesser mb and slower SSD with a price of £360, but you can't finance that. The minimum is £389. So knowing the a10 loves fast memory for the gpu I upped the ram speed and the better mb should move along smoothly at 2400mhz. The slightly faster SSD put me at £388 lol, as I don't already have a mouse for this system, I popped on a £5 logitech mouse and blamo there it is. All the benchmarking charts and vids I've seen showed significant improvement with faster ram and I don't have the cash to get it outright so there it is.

The only problem with this build, is it is now £33 over what it should be. I've checked what I would consider a budget 'pro' build to compare it to, meaning the fastest cpu + discrete I can get for the smallest amount of money over the APU build I just mentioned.

£447

Case
STYLISH PIANO BLACK ENIGMA MICRO-ATX CASE + 2 FRONT USB
Processor (CPU)
Intel® Core™i5 Quad Core Processor i5-4440 (3.1GHz) 6MB Cache
Motherboard
ASUS® H81M-PLUS: Micro-ATX, LG1150, USB 3.0, SATA 6GBs
Memory (RAM)
4GB KINGSTON DUAL-DDR3 1600MHz (1 x 4GB)
Graphics Card
1GB NVIDIA GEFORCE GTX 750 - DVI, mHDMI, VGA - 3D Vision Ready
1st Hard Disk
120GB KINGSTON V300 SSD, SATA 6 Gb (450MB/R, 450MB/W)
1st DVD/BLU-RAY Drive
24x DUAL LAYER DVD WRITER ±R/±RW/RAM
Power Supply
CORSAIR 350W VS SERIES™ VS-350 POWER SUPPLY
Processor Cooling
INTEL STANDARD CPU COOLER
Sound Card
ONBOARD 6 CHANNEL (5.1) HIGH DEF AUDIO (AS STANDARD)
Wireless/Wired Networking
10/100/1000 GIGABIT LAN PORT - AS STANDARD ON ALL PCs
USB Options
MIN. 2 x USB 3.0 & 4 x USB 2.0 PORTS @ BACK PANEL + MIN. 2 FRONT PORTS
Power Cable
1 x 1 Metre UK Power Cable (Kettle Lead)
Operating System
NO OPERATING SYSTEM REQUIRED



In many of benchmarking shown online intel chips(even i3) with discretes have a clear lead in performance over amd(even FX) with the same vid card. I'm certain that an i5 with a gtx 750 is the better bargain. I'm almost afraid to see the fps difference between the two with only £54 between them.

Even if I outright bought the £360 amd system, the £447 intel will still only be £87 more, 24% more money for how many more fps?

How I wish I could see them perform before buying lol

 

[pjnolen1]

I would consider Karnoor's spec but dropping the SSD and getting the gtx 750 ti

I would but you sit at a loading screen every time you blink in swtor. Any option I can take to lower that loading screen burning into my retinas i'll take.