17 replies to this topic

[Fokks]

Hey there, I decided to build my own PC as I feel my current one is holding me back. Having a mere 80gb HDD, Palit GeForce 210 and AMD Athlon x2 2.3Ghz, i've played GW2 since release and it has served me well for a measly £100. And when I say well, I mean just barely (playing a slideshow isn't great).

So I've been looking into buying parts seperately after much advice from friends and family and i've searched many a website for parts and tips (i've even lurked on here for the past couple of weeks) and it's pretty daunting.

Anyway, I have a budget of £500 and would like to be able to play GW2 on max/near max settings. Reflections and shadows being disabled wont bother me much. The main sites I use are http://www.aria.co.uk/, http://www.scan.co.uk and eBay. Mainly Aria as the prices on there are pretty cheap.

I've come up with a rough plan for the build i'd like:

CPU: intel i5 3570k - I'd rather not pay retail so i've been looking on eBay and £150 seems like a nice number i'd like to stick to

GPU: There a few cards i've been looking at, namely the Radeon 7850 (<-preferred), Radeon 7770 and the GTX 650 Ti.

Radeon 7850: http://www.aria.co.u...productId=51846 - Is that a trustworthy card with it being ARIAnet?

MoBo: Now this confuses me a bit. I mean, can a motherboard bottleneck the CPU and GPU? I've had the target in mind of a £50 MoBo which could support a 7850 and intel i5 3570k, if that's possible.

RAM: 8gb for £30 ~ £40 but i'd settle for 4gb.

HDD: 500gb for £30 ~ £40

Case: I haven't a clue. Anything that can fit a 7850 in .

PSU: This confuses me also :S. I'd feel comfortable spending £30 ~ £40 on one that will last me over a year.

OS: I can get Windows 7 Home Premium 64 bit for £50

Optical Drive: Couldn't care less as long as it does the job.

Any and all advice is really appreciated, if i'm being unrealistic, please say so .

Thanks!

[typographie]

CPU: Great choice, but you do have the option to get a cheaper i5-3350P, -3450, -3470, etc. if you don't plan to overclock. While I think its worth spending a little extra for the unlocked multiplier of the -3570K, this is one place you could save some money if you wanted.

Video card: What resolution is the monitor you will be using? What other games will you be playing? The HD 7850 is great for 1080p, but if you're going to be playing at lower resolution a 7770 or 7750 may be all you really need.

Motherboard: PCIe has been the standard for over a decade now, so nothing you pick out should have any compatibility issues with any single video card. You must have an LGA-1155 motherboard, and if you use the i5-3570K you should use one with the Z77 chipset. If you get one of the cheaper, locked i5's, you could go with H77 or—preferably not—B75 to save some money. Other than that, just make sure its got the features you need (enough SATA ports, USB ports, that sort of thing) and that its from a reputable manufacturer.

Case: Unless you want a "compact" gaming system, you probably want an ATX Midtower or ATX Full tower form factor. Its likely any of those would fit everything you needed. Beyond that, its mostly personal taste. Price usually corresponds to construction quality and convenience for the builder.

PSU: With an HD 7850 you don't need any more than a 500-550 W unit, and you could get away with even less with a 7770/7750. Its more important to make sure its a quality one from a good brand, to ensure it will be reliable, actually put out the wattage it says it does, and be covered by a warranty. I really like Antec's Earthwatts series, and Corsair's GS/CX units are also a decent choice. XFX, Seasonic and Enermax are also great, but usually more expensive. You shouldn't have to pay a ton.. usually even low-end units from good manufacturers can be trusted.

[Elder III]

That GPU appears to be a stock AMD heatsink and PCB - as long as the warranty is good it should be ok.

If your budget is tight and you don't plan to either Overclock or go Crossfire in the future, you can save money with a Micro-ATX, H61 chipset motherboard.  One like this is pretty cheap and effective for a tight budget.

http://www.aria.co.u...productId=51971

Add an i5 3470 Processor and you're all set.  That should leave enough so you can get the HD 7850 and not have to skimp too much on the PSU or the Case.

[Quaker]

CPU - pretty much any Ivy Bridge (3rd gen) i5 will do, such as 3350P, 3470, 3570.
GPU - HD7850 is good, HD7870 would be even better.
7850 - ARIAnet is a "house brand", which means it could be made by anyone. It should be good enough card if Aria cares about its rep at all.
Mobo - overall I'd recommend a motherboard based upon the H77 or Z77 chipset, but you could get a Z75 based board if budget is real tight and you don't plan to overclock the CPU. Make sure the mobo fits in the case (if the case is small)
RAM - 8Gigs (2 x 4Gig) of DDR3-1600 (1.5v) would be ideal.
HDD - whatever (SATA) floats yer boat.
CASE - also whatever floats yer boat. If you choose a mini-tower that only accepts micro-ATX (mATX) motherboards, make sure you get an mATX motherboard.   Really cheap cases tend to be rather flimsy, but they will do the job.
PSU - get a good quality PSU such as a Corsair Builder Series - 500watts or better.
Optical Drive: "Couldn't care less as long as it does the job".

Edited by Quaker, 11 March 2013 - 04:35 PM.

[Fokks]

Thanks for the feedback guys, much appreciated.

So which would perform better, the i5 3470 with a 7850 or an i5 3570k with a 7770? Oh and what frames would I expect to see?

[Fokks]

Ohhh and I play at 1600x1080 (i think that's right).

[Quaker]

You'd find that the 3470 and 3570K would perform about the same at stock frequencies. In WvW, the 3570 might give you 35 fps and the 3470 might be 34 fps. The 3570K can be overclocked much easier and more precisely, if you think you might overclock the CPU.

The 7850 would be a larger change over the 7770. So, of the two choices, I'd go for the 3470 and HD7850.

P.s. You probably play at either 1600x900 (16:9) or 1920x1080 (16:9) or 1680x1050 (16:10), but not 1600x1080.

Edited by Quaker, 14 February 2013 - 04:54 PM.

[Fokks]

Ah yes, I play at 1680x1050.

Right, I think I'm finally settled on a setup :

intel i5 3470 @ £136

ARIAnet Radeon 7850 @ £120

8gb RAM 1333 @ £34 : www.aria.co.uk/Products/Components/RAM/DDR3/Single+Modules/8GB+Exceleram+Value+Series+LP+E30200A+(1x8GB)+1333+(PC3-10666)+240-Pin+DDR3+SDRAM+CAS+9-9-9-24+1.5V+?productId=48305

500gb SATA HDD @ £36 :  www.aria.co.uk/Products/Storage/Hard+Drives/2.5+Inch+SATA+Drives/80GB+-+1TB+SATA/500GB+Hitachi+Travelstar+Z5K500+HTS545050A7E380+SATA+II+2.5%22+Hard+Drive+-+HDD+?productId=54232

Intel B75 MoBo @ £45 : www.aria.co.uk/Products/Components/Motherboards/Intel+Socket/Socket+1155+-+Intel+B75/MSI+B75MA-E33+Intel+B75+(Socket+1155)+Micro-ATX+Motherboard+?productId=53354

Corsair CX 500w @ £40 (when it's on offer) : www.aria.co.uk/Products/Components/Power+Supplies/Non-Modular+650W+or+less/500W+Corsair+Builder+Series+500CX+80PLUS+Bronze+Power+Supply+?productId=52661

Windows 7 @ £50

Case: www.ebuyer.com/160914-casecom-shiny-black-mid-tower-case-with-front-120mm-red-led-fan-kj-3392-black

Optical Drive: www.ebuyer.com/410561-liteon-ihas120-20x-dvd-rw-dual-r-ram-sata-drive-ihas120-04


Does that seem okay/compatible?

EDIT: Sorry I couldn't link it properly, I'm on my phone and had some issues.

Edited by Fokks, 19 February 2013 - 01:13 PM.

[Quaker]

It would be better to get two RAM sticks instead of one. The motherboard you chose only has 2 RAM slots, so it could be argued that you could add another RAM later, but you're not likely to ever need 16Gigs of RAM during the life of that configuration. So, I would suggest you get 2 4Gig RAMs rather than 1 8Gig (and 1600, rather than 1333), but the difference would not be that great.
Other than that, it looks fine.

Edited by Quaker, 19 February 2013 - 03:28 PM.

[Zerk2012]

http://www.aria.co.u...productId=54061

http://www.aria.co.u...productId=46054

Edited by Zerk2012, 19 February 2013 - 11:12 PM.

[Fokks]

Ah ok, thanks. I've found 2 4gb sticks 1600Mhz at a comfy £38 on ebuyer.

Oh and another thing, is there a
difference between 2.5" and 3.5" SATA HDD?

[Quaker]

Yes - one inch.

But basically, a 2.5" drive is intended for use, primarily, in laptops and other portable devices, while a 3.5" is intended primarily for desktop use. Generally speaking, a 3.5" drive will be cheaper than the equivalent 2.5" (taking storage size (Gigabytes) and RPM into account). Most 2.5" drives are only 5400 rpm for lower power consumption.

There would be no problem with using a 2.5" drive in a desktop, other than cost. In some instances, such as a small ITX build, a 2.5" would have benefits of being smaller and allowing more airflow. Note too that many newer cases have mounting facilities for 2.5" drives because most SSDs are 2.5"

The 2.5" drive you linked is only 5400 rpm (8 MB cache), which means it would be slower than the 3.5" drive (16 MB cache) that Zerk linked.

EDIT - btw, there are 2.5" to 3.5" adapters available cheaply.

Edited by Quaker, 22 February 2013 - 05:07 PM.

[Elder III]

Depending on the case, particularly OEM or budget cases, you may not have a 2.5" bay to mount the HDD in.  Sometimes you can jury rig it if the screw holes line up right or you could drill your own holes if you're comfortable with it.  Just some things to take into consideration and I would personally say to go for the standard 3.5" desktop sized HDD to ensure that you don't have any problems mounting it.

[Zerk2012]

Fokks, on 21 February 2013 - 02:37 PM, said:

Ah ok, thanks. I've found 2 4gb sticks 1600Mhz at a comfy £38 on ebuyer.

Oh and another thing, is there a
difference between 2.5" and 3.5" SATA HDD?

Cheaper memory with very good 8/8/8/24 timmings and is 1.5V
http://www.ebuyer.co...3d1608dt1tx0ceu
Also with that case you picked I would add a extra fan in the back since it has only a front fan this one is cheap but a little on the loud side. http://www.ebuyer.co...ction-pfs09bk4p
The case does not have a 2.5" bay.
http://www.ebuyer.co...n-kj-3392-black

Edited by Zerk2012, 21 February 2013 - 11:43 PM.

[typographie]

Fitting a 2.5" drive into a 3.5" drive bay is a minor issue: http://www.newegg.co...N82E16817812011

The bigger concern is that if you're using a mechanical main system drive, you definitely want it to be a full-power 7200 RPM drive rather than some slim laptop disk. The spinning disk is already a major limit on performance, its speed will matter sometimes.

[Fokks]

My HDD came today and yeah it's 7200 rpm. Maybe I'll upgrade to a SSD in the future.

Now, I've ordered all of the parts except the GPU as I don't yet have the money. So I was wondering if using the integrated intel i5 2500 GPU is an option for the time being.

Also I switched from a corsair 500w 80plus to an Antec basiq VP550w 80plus, just to be on the safe side.

[Elder III]

Fokks, on 06 March 2013 - 07:24 PM, said:

My HDD came today and yeah it's 7200 rpm. Maybe I'll upgrade to a SSD in the future.

Now, I've ordered all of the parts except the GPU as I don't yet have the money. So I was wondering if using the integrated intel i5 2500 GPU is an option for the time being.

Also I switched from a corsair 500w 80plus to an Antec basiq VP550w 80plus, just to be on the safe side.

It's below the official minimum system specifications, so while you can probably start the game, it won't be playable with the integrated graphics.

[Fokks]

well the parts came and it's all set up (excluding the gpu). It runs fine with intel HD 2500 at lowest graphics 1680 x 1050, better than my old PC. I average out at 30 FPS easy and wvw zergs arent that bad; I used to get 5 FPS on my old PC, I now get 15 ~ 20.

Thanks for all the help guys.