The PC Building Thread

So basically got a budget of around £500-600, I want a game for pc, games that could run likes of pes/fifa/gta on high without trouble, not over the top as it gets pretty expensive, trying to read through previous posts and i was just getting lost from time

just a pc for gaming really, wouldn't need a monitor so can use bit more money on the pc

I did think this was ok:- http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=FS-210-OK&tool=3

so hopefully someone can help/advise what and where best to get for my money
 
Just going to connect it to my tv

cheapishbuild.png


The above is a decent build. some top of the line components in that. The case u can throw whatever case u want for £40ish as pc cases are a personal preference. i just randomly through that in to give u an idea.

that system will play many games at high settings and later down the line, you can easily swap GPU's for a more powerful one as the CPU is quad core and will last u a long time before it comes too slow for gaming especially when overclclocked.

the PSU will last u a life time too and will power the top of the range hungry powered gpu's no problem. i got the same psu and have loads of hdd's in my system and have a 480gtx overclocked and that is a portable heater in itself! Also sporting a i7 920 which is more power hungry then the cpu i suggested to u!

So the build above uses LESS power then my setup and performs just as good as mine(can max out many pc games).

have fun, any questions just shoot
 
Sounds pretty good i must say, huge thanks for the help. Just last thing, which site is that?
 
I'm no expert but the PSU looks like overkill at 850W. I'm looking at a 650W one for around half the price for when I eventually get round to doing my build.
 
The OP may wanna crossfire his 6870 at a later date or buy a more power hungry GPU, its for future proofing. It will cost him less if he buys a 850w or even 1200w PSU rather then buying a 650w now later sayings oopps, i need to now buy a 850w or 1200w.

With a 850w psu he can dump another 6870 or buy a power hungry top end GPU later and that will be that.

if he goes down the 650w, he will need to buy a new psu as well as the new card.
 
i am after a laptop for work, at least windows 7 pro to connect to a domain and also a wireless card that supports 3.4ghz and 5ghz networks. not easy to find

anyone recommend any decent laptops? budget £500 ish

cheers
 
I have recently just bought myself an NVIDIA 680GTX.
So if any wants a Radeon 5870 I have one for sale now for about £120-£130 if anyone is interested, comes with a custom cooler so dosn't sound like a Jet engine.
Performance wise it is above the 6870 and on par with the 560TI.

Also in regards to power I would agree with Jonney yes 650 prob isnt enough in this day and age but getting a £100+ one is abit overkill you can easily get one for £60 which will do the same job.
 
I have recently just bought myself an NVIDIA 680GTX.
So if any wants a Radeon 5870 I have one for sale now for about £120-£130 if anyone is interested, comes with a custom cooler so dosn't sound like a Jet engine.
Performance wise it is above the 6870 and on par with the 560TI.

Also in regards to power I would agree with Jonney yes 650 prob isnt enough in this day and age but getting a £100+ one is abit overkill you can easily get one for £60 which will do the same job.

i wouldnt power my expensive system on a £60 PSU.

that £60 PSU will only last you a year or two and can fuck up the rest of your components.

Rule number 1.

NEVER AND I MEAN NEVER SKIMP OUT ON A PSU. NEVER
 
Amen to that lad. My Machine keeps switching itself off when things get hectic in a game because the power supply sucks.
 
What about these specs?

AMD Bulldozer FX-4100 3.6GHz Quad Core CPU
8GB 1333Mhz DDR3 RAM
1TB Hard Drive Storage Space
Nvidia Geforce GT 520 1GB Graphics Card
High Quality Gigabyte Motherboard
FREE Stalker 2 & Dirt 3 Game Download Codes
Stylish Vantage Gaming Case & 450W PSU
Windows 7 Home Premium 64-Bit Included
FREE 1 Year Warranty (Upgrades Available)

just as its £200 less than what you suggest jonney and i think it would be able to handle a fair few games on max/high settings

i can update graphics card or what is needed if necessary
 
I see, any recommendation pc £500 or less?

seems to be hard to find a good one for about the price, i just want one for casual gaming that can support high settings on alot of games

think i'd possibly need to stretch the budget
 
I think some £600 builds are mentioned a page or two back but I'm not convinced that pc will do much. The gtx card is pretty basic, not even sure it'll manage high detail for anything. It's priced at £35, compare that to a decent card like a 6850, 6950 or GTX 460 and 560 for £150-£200 and even those might struggle to do high detail on some games.
 
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I don't really know why people insist on using Scan. I had a debate with somebody the other day about it too. Aria is cheaper by a few pounds on pretty much everything.

Anyway here's a build i made using the one above by jonnymendoza as a template.

build1.jpg


If it was me then i'd substitute the 6870 for a GTX 560 for like an extra £12-£20 (https://www.aria.co.uk/Products/Com...R5+PCI-Express+Graphics+Card+?productId=44564 or https://www.aria.co.uk/Products/Com...R5+PCI-Express+Graphics+Card+?productId=47269). You could get a 560ti for like an extra £5-£10 on top of that. Depends on your budget.

There you go, that's a decent build.

I'm going to be selling my 6950 gtx card next week as ive just bought a GTX 580, in case anyone is after a new card for their system.
 
i wouldnt power my expensive system on a £60 PSU.

that £60 PSU will only last you a year or two and can fuck up the rest of your components.

Rule number 1.

NEVER AND I MEAN NEVER SKIMP OUT ON A PSU. NEVER

Most PSU's are very similar as long as you get a PSU with the 12AMPS on a single rail for better performance you should be fine, IMO I would just always spend the extra £20 on making sure the PSU is modular as too many cables are a right pain in the arse.

But you should just use the thermaltake online PSU calculator you will be quite suprised how little power you actually need.
My system only requires a 511w power supply and that's the maximum they recommend I need.

But the machine recommended by Northzzz is pretty good where you couldn't really skimp on anything I just wouldn't buy a 6870, get a 5870 instead or cut a deal with Dags and get his 6950.
 
What does everyone think about the upcoming Nvidia Kepler cards? Is it worth me hanging on for one of these or spending the money on an older, possibly higher spec card?
 
6950 is on eBay now, if anyone is interested.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/230770799...LX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1555.l2649#ht_500wt_1413

Jamezinho: If you've got the money then great, go for it. But the vast majority of games wont see much of a difference with the power given from the latest Nvidia cards. The GTX 5** cards and the ATI 6*** cards are still good for playing high detail on most games though.

The PSU calculator gives interesting results. Apparently my system is only drawing 369w for the most part. But when I change my GPU to a GTX 580, it jumps to 449w :SHOCK:
 
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6950 is on eBay now, if anyone is interested.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/230770799...LX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1555.l2649#ht_500wt_1413

Jamezinho: If you've got the money then great, go for it. But the vast majority of games wont see much of a difference with the power given from the latest Nvidia cards. The GTX 5** cards and the ATI 6*** cards are still good for playing high detail on most games though.

The PSU calculator gives interesting results. Apparently my system is only drawing 369w for the most part. But when I change my GPU to a GTX 580, it jumps to 449w :SHOCK:

I haven't got the money! Thanks Dags. So it's probably worth looking at an older but higher spec card. Is it likely they will drop in price and what would you recommend in the £150-200 price bracket (cheaper the better)? What's the best bang for my buck but still reasonably future proof.

Oh, and on the PSU I think I'll still go for a 650W unit. Anything higher seems a waste as I'm not likely to need it.
 
My 6950 is good value ;) Really though, it is a great card. It plays BF3 great on high detail, nearly all other games I play hit 60fps when I whack them up to max detail as well. And if you wanted that bit more juice, some 6950's have a BIOS switch to convert it to a 6970 so you're squeezing that bit more out of it too. But it runs great at stock anyway.

Edit: 6950 sold now.

I use a 650w Corsair PSU and it's doing fine for me.
 
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http://www.maplin.co.uk/880w-g7-atx-psu-393047

This is the PSU I have in my machine like.

ASUS P8Z68 Motherboard
Core i7 2600K Overclocked to 4.6GHZ.
16GB of DDR3 1600MHZ RAM
NVIDIA GTX 580
Corsair Series 3 SSD Sata6G
500GB Toshiba Sata Hard Drive Normal Sata 2.
250GB Western Digital Sata Hard Drive Sata6G

Does that power supply really suck? Why does my machine switch itself off when things get hectic during Saints Row The Third with everything on Ultra DX 11 Settings?
 
http://www.maplin.co.uk/880w-g7-atx-psu-393047

This is the PSU I have in my machine like.

ASUS P8Z68 Motherboard
Core i7 2600K Overclocked to 4.6GHZ.
16GB of DDR3 1600MHZ RAM
NVIDIA GTX 580
Corsair Series 3 SSD Sata6G
500GB Toshiba Sata Hard Drive Normal Sata 2.
250GB Western Digital Sata Hard Drive Sata6G

Does that power supply really suck? Why does my machine switch itself off when things get hectic during Saints Row The Third with everything on Ultra DX 11 Settings?

have you checked temperatures on the cpu & gpu? sounds to me like it's overheating as that psu should be ok

download either speedfan or core temp and enable logging (speedfan's log needs to be opened in excel and can be difficult to understand) then check the logs after the pc has switched off to see what temps you were getting, you can also log the voltages in speedfan to see if there's a problem with the 12v rail on the psu

or if you can play the game in windowed mode and have speedfan open you can keep an eye on the temps/voltages while playing
 
http://www.maplin.co.uk/880w-g7-atx-psu-393047

This is the PSU I have in my machine like.

ASUS P8Z68 Motherboard
Core i7 2600K Overclocked to 4.6GHZ.
16GB of DDR3 1600MHZ RAM
NVIDIA GTX 580
Corsair Series 3 SSD Sata6G
500GB Toshiba Sata Hard Drive Normal Sata 2.
250GB Western Digital Sata Hard Drive Sata6G

Does that power supply really suck? Why does my machine switch itself off when things get hectic during Saints Row The Third with everything on Ultra DX 11 Settings?

Are you overclocking your CPU with the generic fan what comes with the CPU?
If you are then as fishcake said your CPU is passing the thresshold and turning your computer off.
If you have been overcloking with the stock cooler I would be pretty worried that you have damaged your CPU, as your processor would be pretty cooked by now.
 
http://www.maplin.co.uk/880w-g7-atx-psu-393047

This is the PSU I have in my machine like.

ASUS P8Z68 Motherboard
Core i7 2600K Overclocked to 4.6GHZ.
16GB of DDR3 1600MHZ RAM
NVIDIA GTX 580
Corsair Series 3 SSD Sata6G
500GB Toshiba Sata Hard Drive Normal Sata 2.
250GB Western Digital Sata Hard Drive Sata6G

Does that power supply really suck? Why does my machine switch itself off when things get hectic during Saints Row The Third with everything on Ultra DX 11 Settings?
simple. that psu is generic at best mate. thats why i always tell people to spend good money on a well reputable brand like corsair, seasonic, enermax or even OCZ/coolermaster.
 
Nope im not using a stock cooler like. I should have mentioned this.

Im using a Dark Rock Pro Cooler which Scan provided as part of the 3XS Overclock bundle.

Jonney: Cheers mate, ill have to look into spending a bit more then man. Fed up with it turning itself off. Only seems to happen with Saints Row The Third tho.....
 
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