Confused about building a new system?

[MrZand5]

Hello,

I am thinking of building a new gaming computer for my son, which i have never attempted before, so I would like some help with the parts, I have read the reviews but they are like mandarin for me just words with no meaning so I would love some help from the people who know more than me about the parts.

Trying to keep it under £600 (GBP)

My Son would like it to be able to play battlefield 4 and high end games pretty well and able to record for YouTube. He does not need a sound card as he just uses onboard sound to an amp to speakers. And no need for a Operating system as he has Windows 7 already

Thanks

Zach

[DaveLembke]

600 GBP is about $978 USD as of writing this.

Here is info on cards tested with this game in beta, and this is a good reference for the released game to whow which were better or worse etc. http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/battlefield-4-graphics-card-performance,3634-3.html

Also minimum system requirements found on google for this game are: Quadcore CPU, 4GB RAM, DirectX 11, and video card with 512MB Video RAM andAMD Radeon HD 3870 or nVidia GeForce 8800GT or better. *System below is beyond minimum requirements to play game.

Building a computer for the first time can be tricky and risky. As a suggestion, I'd suggest buying one off the shelf and adding a powerful video card and more powerful power supply to it, as for this way if you run into troubles you can simply return the computer and get another after removing video card and putting other power supply (PSU) back into it to send it back as original defective under usually a 1 year warranty.

Building a system from the ground up if you have any problems you will have to deal with many different companies and varying RMA support processes to send parts back when there are problems etc, as well as buying an off the shelf name brand you know that the hardware other than video card and power supply are an engineered match and not a pieced together gaming rig in which sometimes you can run into problems.

Here is a suggestion below if you want a gaming rig that will play this game with no problems out of the box and save you some money as well. However I would swap out the PSU unit at the get go for a better power supply because I dont really like 500 watt power supplies for a gaming build. I'd suggest replacing it right off with a 650 watt PSU. This system also allows room to expand later if you want a more powerful CPU, more RAM, or better video card down the road. It also has that gaming rig look to it vs just a regular computer tower. Its specs are beyond the minimum system requirements for Battlefield 4 and it comes with a 1 year warranty. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16883229285  My brother bought a similar gaming system and he has had good luck with it not having to make any modifications to play Crysis 3 etc. His time of ownership is about 18 months and he uses it every day for many hours of use.

Here is the PSU I'd go with for this system: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139020

This system + 650 watt PSU can be purchased for around 390.77 (GBP) or $636.96 (USD) ... you also would be essentially building it partially since it will be built custom with a better stronger power supply than the cheap PSU that comes with it. This is a bargain Gaming Build and they probably should have gone with a better PSU than try to shave off an extra $20 off the sticker price etc. ** Also with this build you do not need to buy a powerful video card for the build because it already comes with one that is powerful enough to play the game well as part of the system purchase.

Below are system specs and the most important are the fact that this motherboard is the AM3+ with FX CPU support for the FX-4xxx ( 4-core ) and so it should support the FX-6xxx series ( 6 core ) and FX-8xxx series ( 8-core ) CPU upgrade of the future as well as the motherboard can take 16GB RAM, and with PCIe 16x you can throw just about any video card into this build and get many years of gaming out of it and are not buying into a build that has limited upgrade options.



Brand                                   CyberpowerPC
Model                                   Gamer Ultra 2098 (GU2098)
Type                                     Gaming & Entertainment
Processor                             AMD FX-4300 3.8GHz
Processor Main Features      64 bit Quad-Core Processor
Cache Per Processor            4MB L2 Cache
Memory                                8GB DDR3 1333
Hard Drive                            500GB SATA II 3.0Gb/s 7200RPM
Optical Drive                        24x DVD+/-R, +/-RW Dual Layer Drive
Graphics                              AMD Radeon R7 240 2GB
AudioSound card -               Integrated
Ethernet                              Gigabit Ethernet
Power Supply                      500W
Keyboard                             USB Gaming Keyboard
Mouse                                 USB Gaming Mouse
Operating System               Windows 7 Home Premium 64-Bit
Special Features                  AZZA Orion Gaming CaseCPU
CPU Type                             AMD FX-Series
CPU Speed                           FX-4300(3.80GHz)
L2 Cache Per CPU               4MB
L3 Cache Per CPU               4MB
CPU Socket Type                 AM3+
CPU Main Features              64 bit Quad-Core ProcessorGraphics
GPU/VGA Type                     AMD Radeon R7 240 2GB Memory
Memory Capacity                8GB DDR3
Memory Speed                    DDR3 1333
Memory Spec                      4GB x 2
Memory Slot (Total)             2
Maximum Memory Supported 16GB
Hard Drive HDD Capacity    500GB
HDD Interface                     SATA II
HDD RPM                            7200rpm
Optical Drive Type              DVD±RW
Optical Drive Spec              24x DVD+/-R, +/-RW Dual Layer Drive
Audio Chipset                    Integrated
Audio Channels                 7.1 Ch AudioCommunications
LAN Chipset                       Integrated
LAN Speed                        10/100/1000Mbps
Front Panel Ports
Front USB2
Back Panel Ports
PS/2
Video Ports                       1 VGA, 1 DVI, 1 HDMI
Rear USB                           6 ports
RJ45                                  1 port
Rear Audio Ports               Yes
PCI Slots (Available/Total) 1x PCI-e 16x
                                          1x PCI-e 1x
                                          1x PCI
Mouse Type                       USB MouseKeyboard
Keyboard Type                  USB KeyboardPhysical Spec
Dimensions                       20.00" x 17.00" x 7.5"
Weight                              30.6 lbs.

Warranty:
Limited Warranty period (parts): 1 year
Limited Warranty period (labor): 1 year

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[camerongray]

I'd disagree with the idea of buying something premade and then upgrading it, you will basically end up wasting perfectly good parts and spending extra money that you don't need.  It also sort of defeats the whole point of building a PC and you still run the risk of getting low quality parts in the premade system.


For a build in your price range I'd recommend something along the lines of the following, it should come in at just over £600 if you shop around:

• CPU: AMD FX-6300
• Motherboard: Something from Gigabyte or ASUS with an AM3+ Socket (Such as a Gigabyte GA-970A-DS3P)
• RAM: 8gb DDR3 (2x4gb sticks) - Cheapest you can find really that is at least 1600MHz
• GPU: NVIDIA GeForce 760 or a AMD Radeon R9 270x
• HDD: Whatever size you need (I'd recommend a 1tb 7200rpm Seagate Drive)
• Power Supply: Anything above 500w is fine but get a good quality unit (I'd suggest the XFX Core Edition 550w) - Despite what was said above, 550w is absolutely tonnes for this build and this is a very good quality power supply so should last a long time.
• DVD Drive (If desired): Just get the cheapest one, you probably won't use it much nowadays
• OS: Windows 8.1 (You can save money and get an "OEM" licence, just bear in mind that this cannot be moved to a new motherboard if you replace it in the future)
• Case: Just get something that your son likes the look of and in an ATX size.  Just remember that cheap, unbranded cases can be pretty poorly made so it's a good idea to spend a decent bit on a nice case.

That machine above would be a great value gaming machine for the price and has plenty of potential for future upgrades if needed.