Will this set-up work and play games on high res?

When i said coolers at the end I meant fans/coolers, my bad  

That MIGHT run BF3 on med settings. What do you consider "high res"??

Poor choice of cpu and graphics card in my opinion.

If you want build suggestions, fill out the new build form in the new build section.

It's impossible to get a computer to play BF3 on max settings for 420 pound.

Where I said near max settings  
Any advice on what cpu and graphics to get?

You need to increase your budget or adjust your expectations. You aren't maxing out BF3 with such a cheap rig.


430W isn't going to leave you much room to upgrade in the future. I always like to get at least 500, preferably 550, though I tend to keep cramming drives into my computers until there aren't any ports left.


Bad choice for gaming. It's not really a quad core chip (it's complicated), and in fact Intel's dual core chips consistently beat it. For maxing out shooters, though, you're going to want a nice CPU, not a bottom of the line chip. If at all possible, I'd look at Intel's quad core chips.


You definitely want something better than that if you're looking to max out BF3.


Not even close. 8GB of DDR3 1600 is about as standard as it gets. More would help render times. 1TB is also pretty small by today's standards, though not everyone will use that much space. For comparison, I've got about 4 TB used right now, planning to buy another 10TB of drives later this year.



Recording gameplay footage is going to put an additional strain on your computer, and you're going to need to account for that if you want the videos to be smooth. Also, 1TB isn't that much space if you want to keep a large video collection around, especially raw video. Recording to the same drive that Windows and the game are running from may cause slowdowns as well.

I'd recommend getting two disks, even if they're both mechanical. Put Windows and your installed programs on a small drive (320GB is more than enough, and should be quite cheap). Games, video, etc. goes on the other drive. That way recording doesn't hammer the disk your operating system is trying to use.


Cases come with enough coolers to ventilate the case. Shitty cases do a bad job at this, but eh, what did you expect? Similarly, all the components in your system that need to be actively cooled come with fans of their own. You only need additional fans if the airflow in your case sucks, or if you want to overclock (which produces more heat than stock coolers can cope with).

It's good for £420 but obviously that isn't enough for max settings high resolution gaming.

This should help:

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/gaming-pc-overclock...

The build Tom's just did is really good for the budget and you can see for yourself what the FPS would be in BF3.

However, if you are doing a lot a video work, I actually like your choice to go with the AMD FX-4170. The 4 cores will really help compared to an i3 at a similar price. Also the 7770 is not bad, consider the GeForce GTX 560 SE and go with what is cheaper in your region. I would try to snag a HD 6850 if you can as they are close in price and the 6850 is a bit better:

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/radeon-hd-7770-7750...

Just depends on the day/sales/promos...

Okay that's a good answer, thank you very much  

I got the 430W off the site, apparently it was good. I'll change that to a 550 one.

I'm looking at AMD chips because I've read lots about them being cheaper than Intels. (I know the performance is quite a bit less) So could you recommend a decent AMD chip?

Don't worry about the graphics card, i'm going to upgrade that on my birthday to something a lot better.

And the hard drive, I'll delete rubbish videos every so often so that won't be a problem. 2 hard disks sounds good though.

Thanks for the advice

That looks good yeah.. Thanks!
Will the motherboard be able to cope with future upgrades though?

Also, on the benchmark link, does AA mean anti aliasing? (nooooooooob  )

If you realy want to go AMD I feel that the Phenom II x4 965 BE would be a bit better. However, you probably should go with Intel.

Also, I would upgrade the power supply to maybe around 600W (preferably a Corsair or Antec brand, they are pretty reliable).

But most importantly, get a good GPU. That can make all the difference. 6850 or 6870 should be good.

But like everyone was saying it would be very difficult to run BF3 on max settings on a build that cheap. (Although as mentioned earlier Tom's just did a $500 gaming build. You might want to look into that)

I'm only going with AMD because it's cheaper haha.
I'm having a look now at the 500 set up.

Thanks

any more opinions? (sorry)

You want an AMD build for high res gaming this is my best effort

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: AMD Phenom II X4 965 Black 3.4GHz Quad-Core Processor (£77.41 @ Amazon UK)
CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO 82.9 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler (£25.79 @ Overclockers.co.uk)
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-970A-DS3 ATX AM3+ Motherboard (£52.96 @ CCL Computers)
Memory: Kingston HyperX T1 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory (£29.99 @ Scan.co.uk)
Storage: Seagate Barracuda 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive (£59.88 @ Scan.co.uk)
Video Card: HIS Radeon HD 7850 2GB Video Card (£164.99 @ Overclockers.co.uk)
Case: Xigmatek Asgard II Black ATX Mid Tower Case (£29.99 @ Overclockers.co.uk)
Power Supply: Corsair 430W ATX12V Power Supply (£34.96 @ Ebuyer)
Optical Drive: Sony DDU1681S-0B DVD/CD Drive (£11.96 @ CCL Computers)
Total: £487.93
(Prices include shipping and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2012-08-21 17:03 BST+0100)

I like FinneousPJ's build. I'm guessing that 7850 is going to be held back by the P2 CPU, but if you are comfortable overclocking that could help. In games that use the CPU heavily, there could be a bottleneck (your CPU keeps your GPU from reaching its full potential):

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/best-gaming-cpu-cor...

The trade off is the AMD CPU will do well using software that is mutlithreaded, and most video editing software is. You could also get "brave" and overclock to help mitigate the disadvantage of this CPU in gaming vs intel.

If you are going to mostly do gaming on this machine, go with Intel Sandy Bridge (Core i3),but if you do fair amount of video editing, go with the AMD quad core (and learn to overclock it!) Either way, you probably will be satisfied with your build and notice very little difference in everyday use  

Ooooooo thanks Finneous, that looks pretty nice... I've just realised I have a few things I can sell, (ipod touch 4th gen, ive got an iphone 4 so there's no point   and other things) so I could upgrade the CPU on his set-up so that it wouldnt bottleneck?

With regards to the overclocking, I'm sure I could learn off the internet?

That CPU is TBH the one you should buy from AMD.

If you want to upgrade go with Intel i5-3450.

AMD just announced a $50 price cut on some of their cards to compete with the 660t1, should change prices soon, 7850 and up
http://www.fudzilla.com/home/item/28433-amd-cuts-hd-700...

Basic overclocking is not difficult, although there are many complexities to overclocking that advanced users take advantage of to squeeze every last drop of performance.. There are always risks to overclocking, but modest overclocking rarely causes any problems. You could bump that P2 a couple hundred hz easily without changing any voltages etc. The literature on overclocking the P2 is extensive and widely available, especially since it is a "mature" cpu... Once you get more comfortable, you will learn ways to tweak settings and push your PC further.

Going the cheaper (amd) route will only cost you in the long run because you won't have any upgrade path.

A FX-4170 is a quad core chip, don't listen to people who don't know what they are talking about. Just because it's a different architecture than Intel, does not mean it's not a quad core cpu.

Keep in mind a cheapo 500w psu may be LESS powerful than the Corsair 430 you originally were going with. It's about quality, not quantity. I run a 380w psu.

Finneus build looks very good for the money.

May I ask where you learnt to OC?  

Thanks for clearing that up!
I did think that about the 430, I'll stick with that!

Another thing, is the 2gb vid card really necessary? Or is 1gb not enough? (maybe not enough for future games)

Have you heard of Google?

https://www.google.co.uk/search?hl=en&site=webhp&q=yes+...

Was just asking where I could learn from a reliable source, no need to be grumpy!!

You need to specify your target resolution. "high res" isn't specific. The posts here are likely assuming you mean 1920x1080.

If your monitor is 1280x1024, then a 7770 will run every game at max or near max settings at that monitor's highest resolution.

If your monitor's resolution is higher than that, you will likely need a stronger card.

You need to specify your resolution in numbers.

Sorry about that, silly mistake!
Current monitor is, weirdly, what you said, 1280x1024.
However I might upgrade it?

Even at 1920x1080, 1GB is enough. But most modern cards (midrange or better) are at least 2GB now.

So you'd stick with the 2gb?

Modern games are using more than 1 GB though, like BF3 Ultra.

You don't need more than 1gb unless you're gaming above 1920x1080.

The 7770 you originally chose is enough to max (or damn near max) every game in existence at 1280x1024 with good framerates.

If you'd like full-on, no compromises max settings for absolutely every game @ 1280x1024, a 6870 will cover you.

This is true, however 1280x1024 is so 1990s...  

Shh... I'm being tight with my money  

But he's going to upgrade his monitor, so telling him a 7770 will max everything at 1280x1024 is kind of redundant.

No. Depends on what card.

If the card doesn't come in 1GB, then yes. Like I said, any midrange or better will have 2GB now. I consider 7850 midrange.