is this set up any good for £650?

daisyhead1 · Feb 20, 2014

im looking for a gaming PC for no more than £700 , is this set up any good? for £650. i have very little computer knowledge.

Neptune Midi Tower Gaming Case 12CM Red Fan
Gigabyte SKT-AM3+ 78LMT-USB3 Motherboard
AMD FX4300 X4 4.0GHZ AM3+ CPU
8GB DDR3 1600 Mhz Memory
1 TB Sata Hard Drive
24X Dual Layer Sata DVD-RW
3GB Radeon HD 7950 GDDR5 Graphic Card
800 Watt Gaming PSU

HiTechObsessed · Feb 20, 2014

This would be much better at that price for you:

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: AMD FX-8350 4.0GHz 8-Core Processor (£136.79 @ Aria PC)
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-990XA-UD3 ATX AM3+ Motherboard (£74.90 @ Ebuyer)
Memory: Avexir Core Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory (£53.90 @ Overclockers.co.uk)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive (£43.76 @ Scan.co.uk)
Video Card: Sapphire Radeon R9 280X 3GB Video Card (£239.14 @ Scan.co.uk)
Case: NZXT Source 210 Elite (Black) ATX Mid Tower Case (£38.65 @ Scan.co.uk)
Power Supply: XFX 550W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply (£44.98 @ Amazon UK)
Optical Drive: Lite-On iHDS118-04 DVD/CD Drive (£10.78 @ Scan.co.uk)
Total: £642.90
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-02-20 20:44 GMT+0000)

bfitzpatrick · Feb 20, 2014

That is a good setup. I would recommend a smaller PSU; 650 watts is all you need. You could get 750 watts, and then get a better CPU, is it is a little short.

daisyhead1 · Feb 20, 2014

thank you for a reply.

HiTechObsessed could you help me and tell me why that set up is better?as i havent much idea at the moment and want to learn about pc's and building them.

bfitzpatrick would it handle the newest games? at a good quality?

thank you

HiTechObsessed · Feb 20, 2014

The motherboard is much better, and much higher quality with the 990 chipset, and the 8350 is a lot better CPU (8 threads instead of 4). The 280x is better than the 7970, which is better than the 7950, so better gaming performance. I have no idea what kind of power supply the 800w gaming one is, but the 550w XFX is a great PSU for the money.

With the setup I listed, you'll be able to max out pretty much everything at 1080p

daisyhead1 · Feb 20, 2014

brilliant that set up sounds pretty much bang on what i want, would it be easy to build for a newby? and whats its upgradability?

thank you for your help

daisyhead1 · Feb 20, 2014

what about cpu cooling? would i need any more ?

bfitzpatrick · Feb 20, 2014

daisyhead1 :

If you get a better CPU like HiTechObsessed said, than yes, it would play games at high settings at about 30-50 FPS in 1080p. (Note: For most games.) After that, you got yourself a good system.

daisyhead1 · Feb 20, 2014

thank you, think i might dive in the deep end and have a go at building it using that setup, is there anything else for a small cost i could improve to make a difference in the performance

thank you

HiTechObsessed · Feb 20, 2014

daisyhead1 :

The 280x + 8350 combo will do much better than 30 fps, don't know where he got that number from lol

The included cooler is sufficient, unless you plan on overclocking. If you want to try overclocking but are a beginner, the Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO is a great choice for moderate overclocking, and it's really cheap as well.

As to upgradability and ease to build, it can be upgraded pretty easily in the future

And building a computer is easy if you take your time and pay attention. Watch LinusTechTips and CareyHolzman on YouTube do step-by-step build guides, they are very informative.

bfitzpatrick · Feb 20, 2014

You could get an SSD if you want faster speeds. Also, a CPU cooler, like the Hyper 212 Evo. I got that number from my calculations, and FPS received by users with the same CPU and GPU.

Also, this tutorial might help.

daisyhead1 · Feb 20, 2014

thank you so much looking forward to having a go at this, changing the subject a bit. how easy are pc's to build and load the os on? i probably sound like a complete idiot asking these questions, but the most ive done with pcs are just press the on button
thank you

HiTechObsessed · Feb 20, 2014

http://www.anandtech.com/show/7400/the-radeon-r9-280x-review-feat-asus-xfx/12

And in Metro LL (one of the most visually demanding games) it gets over 50 average, and manages about 60 fps in Crysis 3.

And daisy, like I said in my above post, watch the How-To videos from LinusTechTips and CareyHolzman on YouTube. They do amazing step-by-step guides showing everything involved in building a computer. It's a long process, but a generally easy one.

daisyhead1 · Feb 20, 2014

thank you guys very much, been a massive help. ill be sure to come back and ask if i encounter any problems

bfitzpatrick · Feb 20, 2014

daisyhead1 :

Okay! Happy building!

HiTechObsessed · Feb 20, 2014

Glad to help, enjoy the process!

sora · Feb 21, 2014

800W is actually good but considering its called a "gaming PSU" I'd be skeptical.

is this set up any good for £650?

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