Gaming PC advice

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bigdude

New Member
Hello there,

I am looking into buying a semi good gaming pc and am after some advice please as am very new to this sort of thing.

It wont be being used for fast paced First person shooters or sports games which i presume need high end graphics cards to run smoothly? i will be using it to play RTS games, city builders, Age of empires, settlers, that sort of game. I like the games settings to be high though.

i have come across this on ebay. http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Galaxy-3-...t=UK_Computing_DesktopPCs&hash=item231877db29

Would anyone be able to tell me if this would suit my needs? Or am i going to have to up the budget which i cant really afford to do. Or can anyone point me in the direction of some which may suit me best? Are refurbs a good route?

Thanks for any help
 
Would not call that a gaming machine. It has a $40 video card, which would not be enough to run at high resolutions. What screen are you planning on using?
 
Hey,Another fellow brit. :)

bigdude,Whats your maximum budget for the system?

From the looks of that system you linked,It does not come with an Operating system...do you already have a copy of windows?
 
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That's not a gaming machine - the graphics card is way too weak and I bet the PSU these guys have used is crap. :/ There are a lot of these so-called "gaming PCs" on eBay right now and they are all really unbalanced systems with CPUs that are overkill (but the FX-6100 isn't a great CPU) and terrible graphics cards. I'd advise building your own system and choosing more balanced components.

Can I ask what is your budget and would you be happy to build your own? For around £400-500 you're probably looking at building yourself a decent gaming rig that should play the games you want to play OK.
 
Thanks for the quick response, much appreciated!

I was planning on using my Samsung HDTV?

My original budget was about £350, but looking at the response I am going to have to have a rethink about this:(

Would building my own rig be cheaper than buying a used machine?
 
bigdude said:
I was planning on using my Samsung HDTV?
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Yeah in that case then the graphics card in that PC is a no no.

bigdude said:
My original budget was about £350, but looking at the response I am going to have to have a rethink about this
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£350 probably isn't to going to get you a lot I'm afraid as far as gaming PCs go, so you may need to up your budget. I'd say £500 should probably the be the highest you'll have to go.

bigdude said:
Would building my own rig be cheaper than buying a used machine?
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Depends entirely on the spec of the PC you want to build or buy. I had a look on eBay for second hand gaming PCs and if you can try and win this for a decent price then this is a very well specc'ed machine for gaming http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Custom-Bu...DesktopPCs&hash=item3a72e9bc82#ht_2140wt_1396 or if that's too expensive this is also good http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Gaming-PC..._DesktopPCs&hash=item3cc4a75cf6#ht_518wt_1396 (graphics card's a bit old but still adequate for what you want to play).

What you could always do is buy this pre-assembled PC, but also buy a decent graphics card (something like a Radeon HD 6870) as well, and then replace the graphics card that comes in that system and replace it with the 6870, but I would not recommend that hex-core system for gaming.
 
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My pc was £500 and you can see my specs in my Signature below i find it does my every need. But i will be building my pc next time i get a new one xD as i am 16 my dad bought me it, and i have learned alot since then. :D i use my Graphics card on my HD 32" and it runs No problem! :D good luck in finding a good build but £500 is deffo good enough as i have one. And this is 2 years old!
 
I have already got a desktop pc that i just use for iTunes Internet etc, I will get the specs (they will be basic as it cost me £200 2 years ago) and post them here. I know it has 4gb of ram!

So from what you say I should be able to just buy a decent graphics card upgrade power supply and that be it? Would I have to buy a certain card to work on a HDTV?

Sorry about all these different questions but as u can tell I'm a complete newbie:)

Thanks again
 
Pell said:
My pc was £500 and you can see my specs in my Signature below i find it does my every need.
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Pell's system is pretty good but that GPU is again not a card you want to be gaming on, so I wouldn't recommend that card for a gaming system.

bigdude said:
So from what you say I should be able to just buy a decent graphics card upgrade power supply and that be it?
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Not entirely. You need a good CPU too, I'd say a Core i3 is probably the minimum you want for a gaming rig.

Here is a rig I've specced out for you that would work pretty nicely - all prices include VAT.

CPU: Intel Core i3 2120 - £89.99
http://www.novatech.co.uk/products/...elcorei3,i5andi71155socket/bx80623i32120.html

Motherboard: ASRock H77M mATX - £69.98
http://www.novatech.co.uk/products/components/motherboards/intel1155h77chipsetmotherboards/h77m.html

RAM: G.Skill RipJawsX 1600MHz 4GB (2x2GB) - £24.98
http://www.novatech.co.uk/products/...dr3-pc3-12800/1600mhz/f3-12800cl9d-4gbxl.html

GPU: XFX Radeon HD 6870 1GB GDDR5 - £129.98
http://www.novatech.co.uk/products/...aphicscards/atihd6800series/hd-687a-zhfc.html

PSU: Corsair CX 500W - £47.99
http://www.novatech.co.uk/products/components/powersupplies/cmpsu-500cxv2uk.html

Hard Drive: 500GB Seagate Barracuda - £57.98
http://www.novatech.co.uk/products/components/harddrives-internal/sata500gbto1tb/st500dm002.html

Case: Antec Three Hundred - £47.99
http://www.novatech.co.uk/products/components/cases/cases/0761345-08300-3.html

You need an OS too

Total £493.88

If you can afford it, this is a good build. To save money you could use a Radeon 6850 rather than a 6870, both will work fine but the 6850 will be a bit slower, and you could use a cheaper case too and you could use this board instead http://www.novatech.co.uk/products/...61chipsetmotherboards/90-mibf60-g0eay00z.html and save a bit.

----EDIT:
Forgot to add a DVD drive, you can pick these up cheap, £15 for a DVD-RW is about the normal cost.

Here's a 6850 you could use instead of a 6870 http://www.novatech.co.uk/products/...rds/atihd6800series/r6850cyclone1gd5peoc.html or you could buy one of these http://www.novatech.co.uk/products/...aphicscards/atihd6800series/11180-00-20r.html either would be sufficient.
 
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No problem. If you decide to build it yourself, you'll enjoy it, and you'll learn stuff. :)

Feel free to ask here if you have any problems or difficulties building your rig and myself and others will always be happy to help you out. :)
 
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