Another "Is this PC ok?" thread

[capcom_suicide]

Hi,

I am really struggling with the desire to play a game called ARMA2, and also playing with Eyefinity.

I can get this for 600 quid:

• 461645 - Cooler Master HAF 922 Midi Tower Black Fans: 1x 200mm Front, 1x 200mm Top, 1x Rear 120mm fan, Red LEDs On/Off
• 482851 - Cooler Master Real Power M620, 620W PSU ATX 12V V2.3, 80 Plus, Modular, 1x 6+2pin+1x 6pin PCIe, 8x SATA, 120mm Fan
• 488303 - AMD Phenom II X4 945 3,0Ghz, AM3, 8MB, 95W, Boxed
• 487825 - ASUS M4A785TD-V EVO, Socket-AM3 AMD 785G+SB710, DDR3, Firewire, GbLAN, ATX, HDMI, DVI, 2xPCI-Ex(2.0)x16
• 363359 - Crucial DDR3 1333MHz 4GB KIT, CL9, Kit w/two matched DDR3 2GB, 240pin
• 585755 - XFX Radeon HD 5770 1GB GDDR5 PCI-Express 2.0, 2xDVI-I, HDMI, DisplayPort, 850MHz, "Aliens vs Predator"
• 575186 - Western Digital Caviar? GreenPower? 1TB, Sata 3 Gb/s, 64MB Cache
• 303162 - Antistatic Armchain 180cm
• Black DVD?RW burner

Or this for 750 Quid:

• 461645 - Cooler Master HAF Mini 922 Black 1x 200mm front fan, 1x top 200mm fan, 1x rear 120mm fan, Red LEDs on/off, (Without PSU)
• 386813 - Chieftec Super Series 850W PSU, ATX 12V, V2,3, 80 Plus, Modular, 2x 6pin+2x 6+2pin PCIe, 9x SATA, 140mm fan
• 488303 - AMD Phenom II X4 945, 3,0Ghz, AM3, 8MB, 95W, Boxed
• 487806 - Kingston DDR3 HyperX 1333MHz 4GB Kit w/2X HyperX 2GB DDR3, CL7-7-7-20, 240pin
• 585755 - 2st XFX Radeon HD 5770 1GB GDDR5 PCI-Express 2.0, 2xDVI-I, HDMI, DisplayPort, 850MHz, "Aliens vs Predator"
• 513311 - Gigabyte GA-790XTA-UD4, Socket-AM3 AMD 790X+SB750, ATX, DDR3 , USB3.0, SATA 6Gb/s, GbLAN, 2xPCI-Ex(2.0)x16
• 579127 - Hitachi Deskstar P7K1000 500GB, 7200RPM, 16MB Cache, SATA
• 303162 - Antistatic Armchain 180cm
• Black DVD?RW burner

How "Future proof" are these for 1080p gaming? Are these good enough for the new games of 2010?

I am struggling to find the time to jump & buy, as I want to buy at max ?800, but still get a far better visual fidelity than 360/PS3.

I don't want to find out that I can't play DX11 games in 12 months...

Anyone know if these seem reasonable?

[Matt]

Firstly, Arma2 MURDERS my Intel C2D @ 2.83ghz, 8gig RAM, and 512mb 8800GTS. As in I'm running 1280x720, with most things set to their lowest and it's ugly as ****. Horrible. And my frame rate isn't even solid. Looks to be a great game but after a few nights of that, I've shelfed it until an upgrade.

I think it needs a good CPU. If you can afford it, look at the Intel i5 or i7 series.

Secondly, I avoid dual GPU setups because of micro-stuttering. It's overlooked by most benchmark sites - basically, the stats show a jump of say 60fps to 100fps by going dual GPU, but the distribution of those frames across the second it's stable so in that one second, 100frames can look jerkier than 60frames. Some people can't see it, some can. I'd suggest you read up on it, it may well have improved a lot since I last looked in to it. But I'd always go for the best single graphics card I could afford over two lesser cards Crossfired/SLI'd.

I can't comment on your system specs as I've not looked around in a while. Last time I did, Intel were FAR better than AMD but a bit more expensive.

Don't forget to add Windows 7 to the price, and 6gig is minimum these days in my opinion.

[abigsmurf]

Here's what I'd call a better build for £30 less than your second build (the PSU in that build in particular is overkill). From Ebuyer, you may save 5% or so if you shop around for the expensive bits.



As for my thoughts on the first build. It's a decent build but there is a big performance gap between a 57xx series and 58xx series. Sadly there's also a big price difference. The 58xx series has had the price kept high due to high demand and poor competition from nVidia.

The build is better future proofed and *should* run games at 1080p with a good frame rate.

If you want to do more tinkering with builds I'll offer the following advice: GPU is more important than CPU for gaming but too slow and the CPU will bottleneck the system. You should match the level of CPU with the GPU you plan to get.

[capcom_suicide]

Here's what I'd call a better build for ?30 less than your second build (the PSU in that build in particular is overkill). From Ebuyer, you may save 5% or so if you shop around for the expensive bits.



As for my thoughts on the first build. It's a decent build but there is a big performance gap between a 57xx series and 58xx series. Sadly there's also a big price difference. The 58xx series has had the price kept high due to high demand and poor competition from nVidia.

The build is better future proofed and *should* run games at 1080p with a good frame rate.

If you want to do more tinkering with builds I'll offer the following advice: GPU is more important than CPU for gaming but too slow and the CPU will bottleneck the system. You should match the level of CPU with the GPU you plan to get.

Thanks for the advice guys. Still can't decide what to do! I'll wait another few months...

[abigsmurf]

Remember, you can always get something a bit better if you just wait a bit longer or spend a bit more...

One of the eternal frustrations of building PCs.

Nvidia releasing their fermi cards will probably be a good time to buy as ATI will likely reduce their prices to undercut them.

[rickt]

I got this on an email from scan on the 9th of march

LN32138
HOTSELLER Intel i7 930 Bloomfield 2.8Ghz ProcessorLN32364
HOTSELLER Gigabyte GA-X58A-UD3R, Intel X58 Express MotherboardLN25348
HOTSELLER 6GB (3x2GB) Corsair XMS3 Memory?408.99 Ex VAT?480.56 Inc VAT

unfortunately i had already bought from them a couple weeks before a version of this with the i7 920 processor but i paid for them to mount it on the motherboard with the ram and then overclock it (they got it running very stable and cool at 4 GHZ) it also came with a monster of a heatsink(Megahalems pc cooler) and fan.

[Hohum]

Nvidia releasing their fermi cards will probably be a good time to buy as ATI will likely reduce their prices to undercut them.

We'll have to see about that. Some leaked data regarding the new cards suggest they don't perform much better than what ATI has been offering for months. Besides that they are massive power hogs, drivers won't be as mature, cost Nvidia an arm and a leg to manufacture, etc. Don't think ATI will have anything to worry about in the short term.

[sj33]

It's already on it's third revision internally, due to chronic yield problems. They'll have another GeForce FX on their hands if they aren't careful.

[Hohum]

The capabilities they're going for with Fermi are pretty impressive I must admit, but this first release is going to be seriously problematic by the looks of it (not to mention massively expensive). Will pay off in the long run I'd imagine, but for people in the market purely for a fast graphics card... they would be better off spending their money on something else.