Which spec?

V

vanmca

Member
Can anybody please give me some advice. I am not in any way a techie and I am looking to buy a PC for my 12 year old son. It will be used for homework but also some gaming - mainly minecraft at the moment but I am sure that is only just the start. I want something that will last a while without needing to be upgraded too soon. So do I go for intel i3 dual core processor i3-4130 or amd a10 6700 quad core API? I am on a budget so can't really go for intel i5 or i7. I was thinking of the 1gb nvidia ge force gtx 650 as the graphics card - is that one powerful enough for what he will be doing?

Hopefully this makes sense.

Thanks
 
vanthus

vanthus

Member Resting in Peace
Do you have a max budget,and does it include peripherals,(monitor.mouse or keyboard for example).
 
keynes

keynes

Multiverse Poster
Case
InWIN MANA-136 BLACK GAMING CASE
Processor (CPU)
AMD FX-6300 Six Core CPU (3.50GHz/8MB CACHE/AM3+)
Motherboard
ASUS® M5A97 LE R2.0 (DDR3, USB3.0, 6Gb/s)
Memory (RAM)
4GB KINGSTON DUAL-DDR3 1600MHz (1 x 4GB)
Graphics Card
2GB AMD RADEON™ R9 270X - DVI, HDMI, DP - DX® 11, Eyefinity 4 Capable
Memory - 1st Hard Disk
500GB 3.5" SATA-III 6GB/s HDD 7200RPM 16MB CACHE
1st DVD/BLU-RAY Drive
24x DUAL LAYER DVD WRITER ±R/±RW/RAM
Power Supply
CORSAIR 450W VS SERIES™ VS-450 POWER SUPPLY
Processor Cooling
STANDARD AMD CPU COOLER
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
MIN. 2 x USB 3.0 & 4 x USB 2.0 PORTS @ BACK PANEL + MIN. 2 FRONT PORTS
Power Cable
1 x 2 Metre UK Power Cable (Kettle Lead)
Operating System
Genuine Windows 8.1 64 Bit - inc DVD & Licence (£79)
Office Software
FREE 30 Day Trial of Microsoft® Office® 365
Anti-Virus
BULLGUARD INTERNET SECURITY - FREE 90 DAY TRIAL
Monitor
AOC 21.5" WIDESCREEN LED TFT - 1920 x 1080, 5MS, D-Sub, DVI-D (£85)
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 9 to 11 working days
Quantity
1

Price: £690.00 including VAT and delivery.

Unique URL to re-configure: http://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/quotes/amd-bulldozer-top-spec-pc/TWG05kdyEg/
 
V

vanmca

Member
Advice please

Hi, can you please advise me if this spec is ok for mid level gaming, I have tried various specs and looked at the forums and come up with this. It's for my son and is a bit more than I wanted to spend at £756, but what do you think?

Case
PCS ALPHA TRION 7622B BLACK CASE
Processor (CPU)
AMD FX-6300 Six Core CPU (3.50GHz/8MB CACHE/AM3+)
Motherboard
ASUS® M5A97 LE R2.0 (DDR3, USB3.0, 6Gb/s)
Memory (RAM)
8GB KINGSTON DUAL-DDR3 1600MHz (1 x 8GB)
Graphics Card
2GB AMD RADEON™ R9 270 - DVI, HDMI, DP - DX® 11, Eyefinity 4 Capable
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
Power Supply
CORSAIR 450W VS SERIES™ VS-450 POWER SUPPLY
Processor Cooling
STANDARD AMD CPU COOLER
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
MIN. 2 x USB 3.0 & 4 x USB 2.0 PORTS @ BACK PANEL + MIN. 2 FRONT PORTS
Power Cable
1 x 2 Metre UK Power Cable (Kettle Lead)
Operating System
Genuine Windows 8.1 64 Bit - inc DVD & Licence
DVD Recovery Media
Windows 8.1 (64-bit) DVD with paper sleeve
Office Software
NO OFFICE SOFTWARE
Anti-Virus
NO ANTI-VIRUS SOFTWARE
Monitor
AOC 21.5" WIDESCREEN LED TFT - 1920 x 1080, 5MS, D-Sub, DVI-D
Keyboard & Mouse
LOGITECH® MK270 WIRELESS KEYBOARD & MOUSE COMBO
Webcam
Creative Live! Cam Sync HD
Headsets
LOGITECH® PC HEADSET 860 - STEREO WITH IN-LINE VOLUME CONTROL
Warranty
3 Year Silver Warranty (1 Year Collect & Return, 1 Year Parts, 3 Year Labour)

Thank you
 
V

vanmca

Member
Can I ask why 4gb ram as a lot of the other threads say that isn't enough. I've got 6gb on my laptop and that's pretty full with photos and games and stuff? Will the r9 270x improve performance that much? Thanks for the help
 
keynes

keynes

Multiverse Poster
Can I ask why 4gb ram as a lot of the other threads say that isn't enough.
Click to expand...
Because of your budget. The ram has nothing to do with the storage of photos, I don't think other threads mention not to choose 4gb but to put more emphasis on the gpu if you are on a budget. The r9-270x is significantly better than the 270x.
 
TheKeir

TheKeir

Bright Spark
vanmca said:
Can I ask why 4gb ram as a lot of the other threads say that isn't enough. I've got 6gb on my laptop and that's pretty full with photos and games and stuff? Will the r9 270x improve performance that much? Thanks for the help
Click to expand...
"full with photos and games and stuff" - storage is your hard drive, not RAM.

RAM is a form of memory which loses all data each time the system is powered down - it is used for offloading the computer's current needs. i.e. when you are running a program on your PC, it will take up RAM space, but only when you are actually using it. So unless you are doing heavy gaming or video editing or something, 4GB is usually enough. If you press Ctrl+Alt+Del on your computer right now, and go to Processes, you can see how much you tend to use. I can see right now that my antivirus software is using "50,000K" memory, which is 50MB, or 0.05GB, of the 4GB that I have. 4GB will give you space for plenty of programs and background processes running. You can see a percentage of your memory that is being used by looking at the "Physical memory" at the bottom of the window.

Hope that explains what RAM is :)
 
V

vanmca

Member
Thank you for taking the time to explain. I had looked at another thread that had said 4gb wasn't enough for gaming. My laptop seems to have very little disk space left so I was probably getting confused there. I'm happy to take the advice but can I upgrade later and add more if necessary, is it likely to be necessary? Thanks for the help
 
keynes

keynes

Multiverse Poster
vanmca said:
Thank you for taking the time to explain. I had looked at another thread that had said 4gb wasn't enough for gaming. My laptop seems to have very little disk space left so I was probably getting confused there. I'm happy to take the advice but can I upgrade later and add more if necessary, is it likely to be necessary? Thanks for the help
Click to expand...

Yes, you can more RAM.
 
TheKeir

TheKeir

Bright Spark
vanmca said:
Thank you for taking the time to explain. I had looked at another thread that had said 4gb wasn't enough for gaming. My laptop seems to have very little disk space left so I was probably getting confused there. I'm happy to take the advice but can I upgrade later and add more if necessary, is it likely to be necessary? Thanks for the help
Click to expand...
It may be needed in the future, but it might not, so you should go for only what you need at the moment.

Also - RAM is really easy to install - it is literally a stick that you slot into a socket in the motherboard. Super easy; you don't have to worry about having any technical knowledge for upgrading.
 
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