Hello. Im looking to waste some ill gotten gains on a new pc since 3 months with my old laptop has all but killed me. I have a few options. My budget is £500 - £650 (top end at a push) I was thinking that i could either: a.) Get a pre build machine from Scan. Perks are its new, and it comes with a warranty. Problem is that there isnt much scope to upgrade over time. http://3xs.scan.co.uk/ShowSystem.asp?SystemID=1658 Maybe that with a SSD, and a 670 GPU. b.) Build it myself using parts. Ive built two before, so its possible, im just not sure what to get or how to get value out of the parts, as i suffer from SHINY KIT SYNDROME and before i know it ive added £3k to my basket.. c.) Flea bay. A risk i know, but ive spied things like this http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/KILLER-GA...t=UK_Computing_DesktopPCs&hash=item2ec6d6c794 http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Intel-I5-...t=UK_Computing_DesktopPCs&hash=item5652aca0e7 Dont need monitor or keyboard. Games and everyday use. Games being BF3, COH2, Rome Total war 2. Not expecting ultra quality graphics. SO THOUGHTS PLEASE?
Instead of picking a budget CPU and then being stuck with it why not price up some AMD stuff? Example - 6300 CPU costs £85 and has six cores, all of which will be used in every game released soon. Right now there is still a lot of stuff that supports it (Crysis 3, Sleeping Dogs, Tomb Raider, Far Cry 3 etc). The best part is that even though it's a budget CPU it's fully overclockable. It will easily reach speeds of 4.5ghz+ at which point it will blow away any budget offering from Intel. You'll need a decent cooler (H80+) but it should still come in on budget.
I will give one bit of advice, avoid Ebay "gaming" PCs like the plague. Costs will have been cut everywhere, cheap cases with poor cooling and poor build quality, cheap PSUs e.t.c. Take the Intel one you linked to. It claims a GT 610 will play the latest games at medium to high detail settings. No, it wont... If you don't fancy building your own, go with a Scan pre-built one as it'll be built with decent parts.
I have been looking into AMD machine, but TBH im a bit lost, as ive always been an intel fan boy. Im open to either if im honest, it just needs to fit in the quality. Ok, so fleabay is out. Is there much difference between their value intel and value amd machines? http://3xs.scan.co.uk/ShowSystem.asp?SystemID=1657 http://3xs.scan.co.uk/ShowSystem.asp?SystemID=1658 I was planning on uping the gpu anyway if im honest. Ive tried resorting to BF3 on the xbox. ITS NOT GIVING ME MY FIX OF PRETTY
Avoid the Athlon CPUs. Ideally you want to use a FX 6300 and board. I would imagine due to the premium Scan charge that it would rule out a pre built system and you'd have to do it yourself
Well i went for a 3xs system for the first time in my life. Heres what i got. Coolermaster K-350 Intel Core i3 4130 Gigabyte GA-H81M-D2V 16GB Total (2x8GB) Corsair Vengeance 1600MHz 2GB EVGA GTX 760 120Gb Samsung 840 Series 1TB Seagate Barracuda LiteOn DH-403S DVD blu ray drive All for just under £650. It arrives friday
Cheers. I chose it over the AMD system mainly because i had no idea what any of it meant, and it was actually £2 more expensive, which gave me my excuse to stick to what i know! The mobo is the only thing that lets it down really, that can easily be changed. Corsair 500w psu too. So yeah. Change the mobo, throw in an i7, up the ram a bit and BAM. A top system! It'll do me for now oh, and i saved 75 quid by not taking windows 8! i'd PAY 75 quid not to have windows 8! threw the excess into the GPU
