New PC help. - Modern Warfare 2 Forum: Free Call of Duty MW2 Community

Bawbag · 12-08-2010, 07:48 PM

How's it going. I recently wanted to get back into playing COD4 for pc and most likely convert to PC gaming all together. The problem is I don't really know what I'm looking for atm. Eh I pretty much want a decent PC that can reasonably run recent games (at least something that could run COD4 max for example) I wouldn't really like to spend over 600 pounds if that's reasonable? So some help choosing good/cheap components would be nice, and where to buy?

Thanks

**abc** · 12-09-2010, 11:27 AM

case - £50 (Antec 300 etc)
PSU - £40 (OCZ stealthxstream II)
MOBO - £70 (Some AM3 mobo, prefferably a 770 or 870 (?) )
HDD - £35 (Samsung F3 500GB)
ODD - £20 (any DVD+-RW)
RAM - £80 (4GB DDR3 of some speed)
HD6850 - £130
Phenom II - £100
Win 7 - £100

total - £605

Those are approximate prices for components I'd choose for a mid-range build. Those components offer great performance, medium reliability and medium/high futureproofing. Savings could easily be made but not without sacrificing either of the three previous mentioned attributes.

nice monitor - £150
surround sound - £50
gaming mouse - £30
gaming mouse mat - £10

I sure hope that you don't require those as well ^^^ or you're budget is an issue. If the target is running COD4 maxed then you could get away with far FAR slower components than what is mentioned above and save some money.

Bawbag · 12-09-2010, 12:04 PM

That sounds grand abc, and yes i have a montior, gaming mouse etc. Also I can shave 100 quid off as I already have a copy of windows 7.

Thanks again.

Err btw, Do you know of any sites were I could order all/most of these parts? Just to save a bit of hassle.

oneinchwunda · 12-09-2010, 05:19 PM

Novatech have some great prices ATM, and free delivery on orders over £50.

Bawbag · 12-09-2010, 06:10 PM

Aye cheers, how dose this sound -

Coolermaster Storm Scout Gaming Case - Black (No PSU) £55.31
Novatech ATI Radeon 6850 1024MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card - £110.62
AMD Phenom II X6 1075T Six Core 3.0GHz Socket AM3 - £133.62
Asus M4A87TD EVO AMD 870 (Socket AM3) ATX DDR3 Motherboard - £67.59
OCZ StealthXStream2 500w Silent ATX2 Power Supply 80PLUS - £38.29
Samsung Spin Point F4EG EcoGreen SATAII 2TB 32MB Cache Hard Drive - £56.16
Corsair XMS3 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit -£46.80

Total - £597.36 inc vat

oneinchwunda · 12-09-2010, 06:26 PM

The "ecogreen" HDDs are very slow in comparison to the the F3. The 1Tb F3 is a much better choice.

I would go with the Xigmatek Midgard over the CM. Cheaper, but just as good, IMO.

Without looking at the site, I can't tell if that motherboard is crossfire compatible. If it isn't, it would be worth looking for one in consideration for further upgrades.

And on that subject, that PSU is perfect if you were on a budget, but if you were to consider spending a little more, go with something with a little more power to make sure you can easily add another HD6850 in the future. I would suggest a Corsair TX650, brilliant unit.

Bawbag · 12-09-2010, 06:28 PM

Ok thanks mate. I will go back and revise lol.

EDIT:

Coolermaster Storm Scout Gaming Case - Black (No PSU) £55.31 (The Xigmatek Midgard was only 3 quid cheaper and I look the look of this one better personally)
Novatech ATI Radeon 6850 1024MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card - £110.62
AMD Phenom II X6 1075T Six Core 3.0GHz Socket AM3 - £133.62
Asus M4A87TD EVO AMD 870 (Socket AM3) ATX DDR3 Motherboard - £67.59 (Crossfire ready)
Corsair TX 650W ATX2.2 SLI Compliant Power Supply - £59.56
Samsung Spin Point F3 SATAII 1TB 32MB Cache Hard Drive <8.9ms 7200rpm - OEM - £36.58
Corsair XMS3 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit -£46.80

Total - £599.34 inc vat

...

**abc** · 12-10-2010, 09:35 AM

I see the price attracts you to a six core, but if you don't edit video then a 3.2GHz ?(955) or 3.4GHz (965) quad would be faster in gaming. TBH though at those prices I'd be tempted by the... future proofing (mmm?!?!) of a six core.

Perhaps now you see why I specifically said the F3. £20 cheaper and much faster than an F4. Also cheaper and faster than virtually every performance hard drive.

The 870 looks good. 140w CPU support meaning it's good to go for any CPU no matter how high end it is. Crossfire is at x16 and x4 which isn't ideal (x8 x8 is ideal - and no, it doesn't work out the same as x16 x4) BUT with a £600 budget and the performance the system offers it's kinda unlikely you'll ever get around to crossfire.

I've just noticed that you've forgotten an ODD (optical disc drive i.e. DVD drive i.e. "DVD+-RW" )

Also, something you need to do really badly is to click on "my preferrences" under the links to "desktops, laptops, components" etc and under pricing put a dot in the "show prices inc. VAT" button!

* Novatech has some "never-seen-any-as-good-before" offers on GFX cards & the best customer service in the industry (seriously though, their customer service is on a different level)
* overclock.co.uk may have slightly lower prices across the board. I returned something once and found them quite quick and easy to deal with.
* overclockers.co.uk will have slightly lower prices across the board, but watch out the delivery charges and also pray to god you never have to return anything to them.
* dabs.com etc is average pricing and high delivery. Same with scan.co.uk

oneinchwunda · 12-10-2010, 11:43 AM

I have to say that, at a brilliant price of less than £115, that PII 955 seems a brilliant value CPU. Good performance in multi-threaded games and applications, can be overclocked easily, and competes with the i5-7xx processors with performance (the i5 just about wins, however).

Bawbag · 12-10-2010, 02:15 PM

So do you think that build is looking good? As long as I'm able to upgrade in the future I will me happy.

Also I have a ODD lying around the house abc.

**abc** · 12-10-2010, 06:41 PM

Sure it looks good, but good isn't neccessarily the same as optimal.

If future upgrading is key then AMD is definitely the best route along with the 140w AM3 motherboard (i.e. what you've chosen) The longer you keep a PC the more likely it is that an upgrade will also require a new PSU or new memory or a mobo or a CPU or any combination of those. On top of that, the longer you leave upgrading then the higher the probability of needing more than one upgrade. Future proofing is an educated guess.

I'd say that what you've got there is about as close to optimal as you're going to get if the PC lasting as long as it can with minimal upgrades is your goal whilst being quick enough now.

Olaf Vikingsson · 12-11-2010, 08:37 AM

If you're going with Novatech, don't be tempted into buying a bundle. They use refurbished components, especially RAM, in some cases. At the very least, this was the case a couple of years ago so you might want to do some snooping around.

**abc** · 12-11-2010, 11:50 AM

Out of curiosity, how do you know the RAM was "refurbished?"

I appreciate that you had a bad experience with bundles but I know there are a lot of people who are very happy with them. Also, and I know that you know this, you did overclock yours therefore were using it at a speed which it is not garunteed to work at.

To the OP, if you're happy with assembling your own PC then I wouldn't recommend a bundle anyway. They often do use the cheapest components (which is fine for normal use) to keep the headline price down but obviously in this case use cheap parts with little features is what you want to avoid.

Olaf Vikingsson · 12-13-2010, 05:51 AM

Friend of mine who works at Novatech. I can't see any reason for him to lie to me so I'm going to assume that he's correct.

oneinchwunda · 12-13-2010, 12:02 PM

I have personally never heard ANY stories of unhappy customers with refurbished components, or even anything vaguely similar within the year or so that I have bought with them/visited their forums.

Olaf Vikingsson · 12-13-2010, 03:33 PM

Take statement as you would take any statement with similar ramifications.

Bawbag · 01-09-2011, 12:28 AM

Hi guys, my pc arrived and I assembled it etc. installed windows, everythings working fine. expect one problem I'm having, The pc wont recognize my ethernet cable.. I plug it in and the light on the case lights to recognize the cable has been plugged in, but nothing on screen? any suggestions?

**abc** · 01-09-2011, 07:47 AM

Errrm, it might just be the way you've described it or maybe you've just never had to setup an internet connection before?

Firstly, this "light" on the case, is it on the front or the back (and strictly speaking actually on the motherboard, not the case) Because I've never heard of it being on the front before and therefore suspect you may be looking at the HDD activity or power light?

Also there is a CD in the box that the motherboard came in, make sure you have installed all the drivers which are on that disk. It's always an easy-to-follow proccess. Failing that I'm sure you can go on Asus's website (on a different computer obviously) and find the "ethernet adapter" drivers for your motherboard. Alternatively you may be able to find drivers on AMD's website but it's hit & miss whether your motherboard will be on there. Ethernet adapter will not work without this driver, it's not like the graphics card or wireless internet where windows has a built in driver that it can use until you get the proper drivers.

Lastly it kinda sounds as though you're expecting it to be like a USB stick, plug it in and a big window appears asking what to do. Oh no, that would be far too easy. Go to device manager (go start > type "device manager" in search box) and then click the + sign next to "network adapters" - hopefully there will be a network adapter... Go to network & sharing center (again use the search bar) and click on "join a network" on the left hand side. Follow the wizard. Network & sharing center is actually quite easy to use, so it's worth going through all the "searching for a problem" wizards.

Bawbag · 01-09-2011, 10:57 AM

The light I as the talking about is right at the ethernet port, I only mentioned it to rule out the cable being broke.

Anyway I installed the driver and everything is well. thanks again.

**abc** · 01-09-2011, 12:05 PM

Moral of the story: If something comes with some drivers on a CD then it means it needs drivers xD

Olaf Vikingsson · 01-09-2011, 12:38 PM

Wow.

**abc** · 01-09-2011, 01:38 PM

Played any games or done any benchmarks yet?

Bawbag · 01-09-2011, 02:23 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by abc

Moral of the story: If something comes with some drivers on a CD then it means it needs drivers xD

Lol Yeah I put the disc in and it installed something, I just assumed it was the drivers, apparently not.

And i was playing some Cod4 today, not bought any more games yet. Having some problems with my actual internet connection, will need to sort that first.

**abc** · 01-09-2011, 04:01 PM

if it's performance related problems, then pingtest.net is good for highlighting the reason for poor performance.

Bawbag · 01-09-2011, 04:51 PM

I use network plugs as my router is downstairs. The plugs don't seem to work up stairs for some reason (It says no network access, with a small yellow triangle infront of the connection) at first it was only at certain points of the day but now its all the time. They work fine down stairs? I had my xbox in a garage room(downstairs) And they worked great 24/7 but now I have the pc and would like the wired connection in my room I'm stuck..

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