What components should I get?

[Wooderson]

Hey.

It is my birthday next week and I'll be getting a new desktop. I have a budget of around £600-£700. I can only purchase components that are shown on this website http://www.aria.co.uk/

*Note that I want be getting delivery cost*

My desired specifications;

Be able to smoothly play the game RuneScape on HD graphics full screen (doesn't require that great of a build to accomplish this)

Be able to listen to music as well as play RuneScape on HD graphics full screen (I know that the FPS will drop)

*Sorry as I know a lot of you may not know much if anything about the game RuneScape.*

Be able to play Amnesia and Penumbra on fairly high graphics smoothly.

Be able to record gameplay on Amnesia, Penumbra and RuneScape to a respectable amount of FPS.

Have enough memory to store data of the clips I record and music (I normally don't store up a lot of the hard drive anyways)

Have a quiet processor.



So yeah... Thats all I want to be able to do.

Any suggestions are massively appreciated. Questions will be answered ASAP.

[Your Computer]

Motherboard
CPU
RAM
GPU
CPU H&F
HDD: 500GB Western Digital Caviar Blue WD5000AAKX
Case
PSU: 650W Corsair TX650 V2 ATX2.3

[Wooderson]

All those put together is £619.26. Which is good... I have a few peripherals to buy still and also a couple of questions...

Peripherals include:

£9 Logitech Keyboard/ £5 Logitech Mouse

http://www.aria.co.uk/Products/Monitors/...ctId=47155 (Please let me know if I should get a better one)

£26 Headset

With all those added in it's looking more like £753.46 :L

I would like to spend as little money as possible so I was wondering, from what you've recommended, could there be a component which could be replaced with a slightly cheaper part with a minimum sacrifice of performance?

Also, would the Phenom II X4 Quadcore Processor be a better choice? It is cheaper and I don't think i'd need 8 cores o.O That would drop the price to £725.67. Is it really worth that additional £28?

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By the way, I will be getting the computer TOMORROW 09/12/2011.

So I hope you can reply in time guys

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Another thing!

The case you recommended looks very impressive and all but comes with a slightly high price in my eyes. I've heard that the chassis is still a very important component though, so I wanted to know if that in particular was essential to have.

[Your Computer]

Alternative Motherboard
Alternative PSU
Alternative CPU H&F
Alternative Case

FYI, the CPU i recommended in my previous post is not an 8-core and it is cheaper than the only Phenom II X4 i see listed on the site. The Bulldozer CPU also has a better memory controller, so you're bound to pull off higher speeds at lower latencies for the RAM. Note that if you choose to go with the alternative case, you should also go with the alternative CPU H&F.

[BlueFury]

bro... runescape can be played on any GPU, it just depends on your browser
i'd strongly suggest Google Chrome, its the best one out there for flash/java games
you should get a PC in the 500-800 price range , so you wont regret it when you cant run COD or BF

EDIT: to run Amnesia or Penumbra smoothly, you wont need a high end PC
I have a notebook too, it has a Core 2 duo 2.0ghz and a GeForce GT 540M
that one can also run amnesia smooth, it was only 300 bux

*Sorry as I know a lot of you may not know much if anything about the game RuneScape.*

LOL, we all played it once

[Wooderson]

Sorry, I mean't 6 cores :S

Also, to me the Phenom X4 II was cheaper than the Bulldozer one you recommended... Unless i've made a stupid error in my calculation (i'm crap at maths so that might be the case)

I know that RuneScape doesn't take much of a computer to run very smoothly, but my laptops graphics card (Intergrated Intel Mobile 4 series) is pretty useless when it comes to FPS.

I use the downloadable client from Jagex to run the game, which i would think is better than using a browser.

I don't plan on playing any other games other than RS, Amnesia and Penumbra so yeah.... No worries.

As I mentioned before, I want to be able to record the games without having massive lag which I have on this laptop at the moment.

Thanks for all the replies

[Yuhaney]

Personally, I will never again buy AMD processor after I get rid of my current one.

There might be some good ones that are pretty powerful, but for my own bad experience with these relating to the news and video / picture comparison to Intel, I've decided to move over to their products in the future.

@ Lucke
Games are mostly runned through your GPU and CPU is most likely the component to bottleneck your graphics card. But in this case, I'd say that the GPU ain't so powerful that it would be bottlenecked alot by CPU you happen to choose.

However, if you're really sure that you won't be playing anything else than the games you mentioned, I'd suggest that you go with the Phenom II X4. Should be more than enough. Just make sure to check that the socket is correct in the motherboard! Otherwise you're going to waste some money for nothing.
Also lot of reviewers seem to have some sort of problems with their Bulldozer which makes me turn to Phenom X4 II...

Plus as BlueFury said, make sure that you use Google Chrome. It is currently the fastest browser out there (based on tests I saw few months back).

[Gyldenglad]

I've been checking some of these components that are put here, and I don't like what I see.. Some of them seem too random and appears to be put together according to price rather than what is good for you.

Even though you say that you wan't a computer that can just "run xx low games" + "recording" then that's not going to be a "cheap" thing. When a computer records (I assume you want good quality) then it writes about 5 GB of video to your HD every 2 minutes of recording, that is a LOT of processing made and you wont pull that off very nicely on a low system.

That being said, with a 600-700 pounds budget you can easily make a good machine, but there are a few things which you should consider:

1) Get the motherboard you need, don't use excessive resources on something not necessary.
2) CPU + GPU is the simple most IMPORTANT thing you can get when it comes to gaming, and they are not even that expensive.

Here is what I would recommend, and which you will be fully satisfied with:

CPU: [url]http://www.aria.co.uk/Products/Component...ctId=43217[/url]
Why i5-2500? Well simply because it's one of the BEST gaming CPU you can get at this point, and you get most for the money. i5-2500 capable of processing all games right now at high settings (ofc depends on other systems aswell). The reason I pick i5-2500 and not i5-2500K is because the "K"-edition only means you can overclock it, but I don't suppose you will do that.
~ £160

GPU: [url]http://www.aria.co.uk/SuperSpecials/Othe...ctId=43660[/url]
When it comes to "best for price" the GTX 560Ti beats *everything*. I use this myself and it is an outstanding card for the price. This can beast of OC power can run everything currently out on "ultra" (highest settings). As I said earlier, you don't have to OC unless you wan't to, I can play Skyrim on ultra settings and still record in 1080p, I can give you a video of the recording quality if you want.
~ £175


RAM: [url]http://www.aria.co.uk/Products/Component...ctId=45499[/url]
When it comes to memory, you also want the best at price. For this I can solely recommend Corsair VENGENACE memory, as they make the best ones (especially for gaming). Also when you pick memory, aim for the KITS, having memory spread out is better than stacking it on one piece.
I only put 4 GB, because you *don't* need more, and whoever says that have either:
1) Too many applications running and have no idea what they are doing
2) Like to waste money
- Well it's not "entirely" true, but the thing is that almost no applications today requires more than 4 GB RAM. Running BF3 for instance for me, at highest details takes about 3 GB ram, and being idle in windows takes about 1 GB ram.
If you so desire that you wan't more than 4 GB ram anyway, which you may find useful when recording large games such as BF3, you can always buy another kit of ram, as they only cost
~ £23

Motherboard: [url]http://www.aria.co.uk/Products/Component...ctId=47188[/url]
To tell you the truth, I don't like what they have in stock so far. What you want for that budget which you have available, is something that is good, stable and yet fits your price tag. I have chosen for you the GD65. I would originally have chosen the GD55 since it's about 30-40 bucks cheaper and still performs about the same with only minor differences from 55 to 65 being a few more USB plugs (meh) but I guess this will do. I didn't pick GIGABYTE which some people likes because there are waaaay to many people who report problems with this and compatible PSU's and get strange results and have to RMA them (we don't wan't that).
~ £230 (expensive)

PSU: [url]http://www.aria.co.uk/Products/Component...ctId=44572[/url]
I don't have much to say about this, you'll need at least 600W (doesn't have to be more) to power the specs that I listed so far. I would pick something else, but corsair isn't bad.
~ £54

Case: [url]http://www.aria.co.uk/Products/Component...ctId=40240[/url]
Cooler master HAF is probably one of the best cooling cases you can get for this money.
~ £80

CPU cooler: If you must, pick the cheapest. Don't laugh now.. seriously.. You already have a cooler case + 2 fans in your GPU + your CPU is not OC'd so I doubt you will be seeing any hot stuff going on in there. I paid around $10 for mine and my CPU never went up above 40 C even when playing for hours and hours and hours.

Total price:
~ £722

Things I haven't included:

• CD-player (these are very cheap and reusable if you have older equipment)
• HDD (I reuse all my own so.. And they are really cheap, I bet you have some around you can use)

I know we went a little over price here, but with this thing, you wont have to look for a computer in a pretty long time. If the price really is a problem then look for a GD55 motherboard somewhere else, as I said, in my country it only cost about £110 so it's a massive saving.

Good luck in your purchase.

[Wooderson]

It turns out that I'll have to wait till Tuesday to get the computer from the warehouse, but will be ordering the components tonight.

It's hard when you get a few people saying you should get one thing and then a few others saying you should get the others... So it is a tough decision for me. I am aware that Intel is a lot better than AMD but you're right, I'm trying to save the most money I possibly can. I didn't intend to spend over £600 at first but now it's looking like £900 from what you guys have been recommending (especially down the Intel route)

As I mentioned before, I only plan on doing what I posted at first. I don't want to be able to play BF3 or Skyrim on ultra settings or anything like that. Just record RS, Amnesia and Penumbra at a reasonable rate.

I have done a couple of listings of the components so far, but they've been AMD based. I will do the same but with Intel and with what you've recommended. Bare in mind, I'd be able to strech to around £850 as my Dad cares more about how long the PC will last as is willing to pay for that. £850 would be including the Monitor, and other peripherals.

I hope you can reply back in time if you have any other things to change.

[Gyldenglad]

The PC I recommended will last 3 years at least. That is unless something epic happens which we can't foresee.
You can't really build a PC to last more than 3 years, because if you do so it will cost like £ 3000. Imo £ 800 for a PC that last 3 years is a good purchase, if you are serious about PC then you should be aware that 3 years is probably what you get.

Uhm.. That is 3 years if games continue to increase in performance required as they tend to do. If you just keep it cool and clean the components and do proper maintenance and not OC it then I don't see why it wouldn't hold for 5 years