£350 i3 Build for Battlefield 3 - Advice??

[jaywalker999]

Approximate Purchase Date: Soon As Possible

Budget Range: £350

System Usage from Most to Least Important: Gaming

Parts Not Required: Hard drive, Case, RAM (4Gb DDR3), Mods, keyboard, mouse, monitor, speakers, OS

Preferred Website(s) for Parts: eBuyer.co.uk

Country of Origin: UK

Parts Preferences: None

Overclocking: Maybe

SLI or Crossfire: No

Monitor Resolution: 1280x1024

Additional Comments: I'm looking for a good combination of Motherboard, Graphics Card, Processor and Power Supply - To Play Battlefield 3

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Here's my choice so far;

HIS HD 6850 Fan 1GB GDDR5 Dual DVI HDMI DisplayPort PCI-E Graphics Card - £120.51
http://www.ebuyer.com/264823-his-hd-6850-fan-1gb-gddr5-dual-dvi-hdmi-displayport-pci-e-graphics-h685f1gd

Intel Core i3 2100 3.10GHz Socket 1155 3MB L3 Cache Retail Boxed Processor - £95.09
http://www.ebuyer.com/254976-intel-core-i3-2100-3-10ghz-socket-1155-3mb-l3-cache-retail-boxed-bx80623i32100

Coolermaster GX 650W PSU - £61.77
http://www.ebuyer.com/200491-coolermaster-gx-650w-psu-rs650-acaae3-uk

Asus P8H61-M PRO Intel H61 Socket 1155 8 Channel HD Audio mATX Motherboard - £65.46
http://www.ebuyer.com/261404-asus-p8h61-m-pro-intel-h61-socket-1155-8-channel-hd-audio-matx-p8h61-m-pro-r3-0

Total - £342.83


Thanks in advance

 

[aebome]

I would try these parts, which I think are a little better and give you enough budget room to get a 6870.

OCZ ZS Series 550W 80+ Bronze: 49.96
--a better and more efficient PSU, and you don't need 650W for a 6850 or even a 6870, so this will be plenty
http://www.ebuyer.com/264509-ocz-zs-series-550w-80-bronze-psu-with-135mm-fan-single-ocz-zs550w-uk

Asus P8H61 B3 Revision: 61.30
--not the PRO version, but full ATX and cheaper, no significant difference. If you need mATX, stick with what you have
http://www.ebuyer.com/261403-asus-p8h61-b3-revision-h61socket-1155-8-channel-audio-atx-motherboard-p8h61-r3-0

PowerColor HD 6870 1GB: 142.55
--- a 6870 with great reviews, which is better than a 6850. Not available until Nov 1 (so pre-order), but that’s not far off anyway…
http://www.ebuyer.com/248745-powercolor-hd-6870-1gb-gddr5-dual-dvi-hdmi-dual-mini-displayport-pci-e-ax6870-1gbd5-2dh

Keep the same processor, great for budget gaming!

Total: 348.9, which is under your budget cap.

p.s. if you need the GPU "right now" you can order the XFX HD 6870 for an extra 6 pounds.
http://www.ebuyer.com/279585-xfx-hd-6870-900mhz-1gb-gddr5-dual-dvi-dual-mini-displayport-hdmi-hd-687a-zhfc

 

[yummerzzz]

Get the parts from Aria, they are cheaper, and you can get better parts for the money, i.e GPU and PSU.

Intel Core i3 2100 £88 Though tbh, for a game like BF3 which will benefit from 4 cores, i'd recommend the Phenom physical cores over the Core i3's HT one's, also, the Phenom II 955 is only £82 atm or aria.

MSI PH61A-P35 w/USB 3.o and Sata 6gb/s £59

XFX HD 6870 1GB GDDR5 £131

600W BeQuiet! Straight Power BQT E8 80Plus SILVER PSU £60

Total of £338.

Swap that out of a Phenom II 955 and a Gigabyte GA-870A-USB3L and it's around £335.

 

[jaywalker999]

Cheers! This setup means I can get a better graphics card! Much appreciated. I'll go for that, unless anyone else has any better ideas?

Thanks again!!

 

[aebome]

Yummerzz may be right about Aria, especially about the CPU and GPU and mobo. I would still get the OCZ ZS Series 550W from ebuyer because its a better psu and the cost difference is in the OCZ's favor. the OCZ ZS line of PSU's are great inexpensive options that perform very well. be quiet! can be hit or miss. They probably won't fry your system, but the OCZ ZS is better performing and more stable.

see this great review
http://www.jonnyguru.com/modules.php?name=NDReviews&op=Story&reid=248

 

[jaywalker999]

Get the parts from Aria, they are cheaper, and you can get better parts for the money, i.e GPU and PSU.

Intel Core i3 2100 £88 Though tbh, for a game like BF3 which will benefit from 4 cores, i'd recommend the Phenom physical cores over the Core i3's HT one's, also, the Phenom II 955 is only £82 atm or aria.

MSI PH61A-P35 w/USB 3.o and Sata 6gb/s £59

XFX HD 6870 1GB GDDR5 £131

600W BeQuiet! Straight Power BQT E8 80Plus SILVER PSU £60

Total of £338.

Swap that out of a Phenom II 955 and a Gigabyte GA-870A-USB3L and it's around £335.

Just seen this! This website is a lot cheaper! Looks like I'll probably use this site. I'll stick with the OCZ PSU.

Final questions... is it worth getting USB 3. And will Quad Core make a huge difference even if it run slower then the i3??

 

[aebome]

USB3 is only worth it if you have something USB3 to plug into it, like an external hard drive. If you use an external hard drive (that is USB3 capable) all the time for large transfers, or a video camera, then perhaps it would be worth it for you. If not, its whether you think you will get a USB3 peripheral anytime soon. Mice and keyboards could care less about USB2/3.

As for quad core vs. dual core, read this quick summary and the article it links (if you want) for more information. http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/gaming-sandy-bridge-cpu,3030-3.html

More or less its a wash, and depends whether you will do more gaming, or use more applications that are multi-threaded. Since you know what will suit your needs best, this decision should be yours.

 

[yummerzzz]

Yummerzz may be right about Aria, especially about the CPU and GPU and mobo. I would still get the OCZ ZS Series 550W from ebuyer because its a better psu and the cost difference is in the OCZ's favor. the OCZ ZS line of PSU's are great inexpensive options that perform very well. be quiet! can be hit or miss. They probably won't fry your system, but the OCZ ZS is better performing and more stable.

see this great review
http://www.jonnyguru.com/modules.php?name=NDReviews&op=Story&reid=248

The OCZ may be cheaper but it is not better in ANY way.
The BeQuiet series are extremely reliable after the L6 series, the E8 series offer extreme inefficiency (Silver) and more connectors and power of the +12V Rail (540W vs the OCZ's 456W).

 

[aebome]

I did a little more research about the be quiet! E8 specifically and Yummerzzz is right in that it is a good PSU. If you go with it, you'll be fine, but I still like the OCZ ZS better. Not only is it less expensive (which at your budget is important) but it still has been reviewed better than the E8

As linked above, Jonnyguru gave the OCZ a 9 rating.

JonnyGuru gave the E8 series an 8.5 rating
http://www.jonnyguru.com/modules.php?name=NDReviews&op=Story4&reid=247

If you compare the scoring pages, you will see why I like the OCZ ZS better (several better components, voltage regulation, and better internal build quality).

Yummerzzz: I should have done my research more carefully, but I stand by the OCZ.

 

[jaywalker999]

Thanks for all your help guys! I think in the end I'll go for the OCZ because its a bit cheaper and also it has a very good rating.

It looks I'll be getting;
HD 6870 1Gb
i3 - because its a newer technology, so I think battlefield should be fine
MTI - cause I'd like the USB 3.0
OCZ

Thanks, you guys have helped a lot!

 

[FinneousPJ]

Based on benchmarks released on the BETA I recommend the Phenom II X4 over Intel i3.

 

[yummerzzz]

^ What?

A review for the 400W E8 series, which is not even 80Plus Bronze, does not mean the 600W will be the same.

And if you really want a PSU that is cheaper, i recommend the Corsair CX600 V2, offers more power, and all round is a better PSU, and is £2 more expensive.

http://www.aria.co.uk/Products/Components/Power+Supplies/650W+or+less/600W+Corsair+Builder+Series+600CX+V2+Power+Supply+?productId=44572

+1 FinneousPJ.

 

[jaywalker999]

I had a look at this website, I'm getting more persuaded to get a quad core;
http://benchmark3d.com/battlefield-3-beta-performance-preview

There seems to be a huge difference between x2 and x4

I think in the long run the x4 will be better

 

[aebome]

You may be right, but I wanted to let you know that the same site has a "final" benchmark test, and the number of cores has really been optimized.
http://benchmark3d.com/battlefield-3-benchmark

Also remember that these 2-4 core comparison in this review are all with a single Intel Processor where they disable cores to compare. No AMD processors were used in these benchmarks. Maybe some of the others know of sites that have done such comparisons.

However, if you want to go with the AMD quad core, there is no problem with that at all, it is a great processor, just wanted to make sure you had all of the information!

 

[FinneousPJ]

I agree. For added value the AMD part is unlocked so you can overclock for even better performance