Marest's Sample Builds

[BicycleMafioso]

Having the option and not using it is in my book superior to the chance of wanting it further down the road but not having it.
The price difference - last time I looked at least - wasn't that great, and in some places the K-sku was less.

[tielknight]

Having the option and not using it is in my book superior to the chance of wanting it further down the road but not having it.
The price difference - last time I looked at least - wasn't that great, and in some places the K-sku was less.

The i5-3570 goes for $205 about while the i5-3570k goes for about $218. Although I did notice that the i5-4570 goes for about $190 and the i5-4670k goes for around $230 so you could use either of those if you are going the haswell route. That 4670k being $12 more is pretty enticing.

[varren]

A bit new to all this. How much of a power difference is there between Gaming 960 and Gaming 1220 build? Can 960 play current games at at least medium-high settings? Is a SSD necessary?

[Butler to Baby Sloths]

A bit new to all this. How much of a power difference is there between Gaming 960 and Gaming 1220 build? Can 960 play current games at at least medium-high settings? Is a SSD necessary?

At which frame-rate and at which resolution?

(make your own thread for better and more personalized advice )

[varren]

At which frame-rate and at which resolution?

(make your own thread for better and more personalized advice )

Anything above 30 FPS is acceptable. Resolution probably 1280x1080, really not sure on that one lol.

[Xuvial]

edit: make your own thread please

Not going to answer stuff like that here because it will only get more people using this thread for random questions.

[Dravok]

Which setup would you recommend to play skyrim at max setting that's the cheapest?

[Butler to Baby Sloths]

Which setup would you recommend to play skyrim at max setting that's the cheapest?

With which plugins? At which resolution?

You'd be better off making your own thread (as Varren - the guy that posted a question about a computer build 3 posts above yours - was asked to).

[mercutiouk]

As I didn't realise we have a bit of a "ban" on suggested builds etc and thus received a locked thread I figure a link to that thread here will give similar use of time/effort spent.

It's basically a direction to go in for those wanting a GOOD gaming PC with a small budget. Corners cut in the area of motherboard/ram/etc to allow a wider variety of options for CPU/GFX which will almost certainly make a much bigger difference on the final FPS once in game.

The "shoestring titan".

[vesseblah]

As I didn't realise we have a bit of a "ban" on suggested builds etc and thus received a locked thread I figure a link to that thread here will give similar use of time/effort spent.

The "shoestring titan".

Rather poorly formatted (as in hard to skim), no concrete suggestions (unlike this thread) and obvious errors (mentioning a GTX770 in a budget build thread claiming it's in £200 price bracket when the reality is closer to £310-350).

[tielknight]

As I didn't realise we have a bit of a "ban" on suggested builds etc and thus received a locked thread I figure a link to that thread here will give similar use of time/effort spent.

It's basically a direction to go in for those wanting a GOOD gaming PC with a small budget. Corners cut in the area of motherboard/ram/etc to allow a wider variety of options for CPU/GFX which will almost certainly make a much bigger difference on the final FPS once in game.

The "shoestring titan".

There are alot of GOOD builds already posted on the main page. Your thread would have been alot better if you posted sample builds of parts showing the prices. But this thread has already done that, and in a much neater manner.

[mercutiouk]

There are alot of GOOD builds already posted on the main page. Your thread would have been alot better if you posted sample builds of parts showing the prices. But this thread has already done that, and in a much neater manner.

It... isn't the neatest post, no. I wasn't trying to suggest a rigid particular build either (so listing parts from a site would be pointless) The main thrust of it was that most other parts can be skimped on, it's CPU and GPU that tend to make a computer work well at gaming or not. As such, use a tool like pcpartpicker to find a bunch of reliable sites in your area then hunt the sites for cheap parts.

That in mind if folks on a restrictive budget were pointed at a build that cut corners everywhere except the CPU and GPU, there'd likely be fair chunk more folks happy with the performance of their machine. If people are being directed to something a little more balanced/etc it's probably going to result in a PC that works perfectly well but doesn't quite have the gaming chops.

To play ball though:

MSI H61m motherboard £34.48
Hitachi 1TB 7200rpm Hdd "clean pull £37.99
8GB memory (2x4) £37.97
Cheap ass antec rip-off case with plenty of fan mounts £19.30
Cheap 120mm fans for above 2x £2.79
Corsair CX 430w PSU £33.60


HIS HD7950 OC 3GB £173.99
3570k £170

Now all told that's a "full fat" gaming PC with a lot of very bare/base level parts supporting it. I've deliberately used a variety of sources to prove my point - don't shop in one place and look around for b-grade/clearance/reliable 2nd hand stuff. I'd do better if I was looking for myself and spending some time and effort on the search. B-grade stock is rather varied, as is 2nd hand.

£512.91

Marest's equivalent power build comes in at £616.955 ($963). Converting $ to £, it's normally more like replace $ sign with £ sign. The 3570k for example linked on the first page/post is £141 if I do a $>£ conversion.

Yes postage etc would be more. I'm trying to prove why I posted a suggestion for how to look for parts and roughly what to look for rather than a sample build. I'm not trying to suggest the efforts in this thread are wrong, more that I had a rather different aim to what I was suggesting.

Just pulling cheap parts off newegg I come in around $600 for an I5/HD7950 build with similar supporting parts to the above - that's 2/3 the price of the similar build suggested on the front page. No SSD, no gaming grade memory, no nice motherboard but for a "I need a kick ass gaming PC at the tinyest possible price" end of budgets it's MUCH cheaper.

[tielknight]

snip

Sorry but I would never, ever recommend someone coming to buy used parts when they are asking for help with a build, ESPECIALLY hard drives.
Nor would I recommend a single-fan GPU, especially a Radeon, which are very good overclockers and need a good multi-fan cooler(even if they don't overclock, single-fan coolers generally suck).

The price of Marest's build is actually around the $850 mark as prices have dropped on a few items, which is about £545. I would gladly pay a extra 30 for quality parts.
Cheaping out is not a option unless you don't give a damn when something breaks/fries because you wanted to save a few dollars.

[Deleted]

<SNIP>

Your thread was locked for a reason but you decided to repost it somewhere else thinking that would change anything?

I'm not going to bother with all the details in the post I'm quoting but your suggestions are terrible and I honestly can't tell what you're trying to achieve here.

The builds in this thread are example builds with quality parts that are available to as many as possible, there are no special deals and undercut prices because you can't rely on having some special deal available to everyone all the time. They are a guideline and when people need builds for a specific need with a set budget they can open a new thread on this forum asking for advice and we can help them tailor their build to their needs, with special deals etc.

At least with the example builds people know roughly what they're looking for and can then start nitpicking and cherry pick for their build. Coming in here with the attitude of "I can do it better" and "yours is not a real gaming PC" in a topic made by a reputable and knowledgeable forum member is not a good way to start if you want people to listen to you.

[Butler to Baby Sloths]

Now all told that's a "full fat" gaming PC with a lot of very bare/base level parts supporting it. I've deliberately used a variety of sources to prove my point - don't shop in one place and look around for b-grade/clearance/reliable 2nd hand stuff. I'd do better if I was looking for myself and spending some time and effort on the search. B-grade stock is rather varied, as is 2nd hand.

£512.91

H61 chipset is incompatible with the Ivy Bridge processors without a BIOS update (which requires a Sandy Bridge CPU).
The 7950 requires two 6pin PCI-E cables, the CX430 only has a single 6+2 pin PCI-E cable.
The RAM is not on the QVL of the motherboard, and therefore not guaranteed to be compatible.

[DeltrusDisc]

MSI H61m motherboard £34.48
Hitachi 1TB 7200rpm Hdd "clean pull £37.99
8GB memory (2x4) £37.97
Cheap ass antec rip-off case with plenty of fan mounts £19.30
Cheap 120mm fans for above 2x £2.79
Corsair CX 430w PSU £33.60


HIS HD7950 OC 3GB £173.99
3570k £170

Really? The way you want to name a case is "cheap-ass Antec rip-off case"?

Are you kidding? That is single-handedly one of the worst suggestions I've ever seen, please don't post further if you will do it with that attitude, it makes you look quite negative and not like someone anyone will want to listen to, anyways.

[Deleted]

I just saw the monitor suggestions.

It might be time to replace the Ultrasharp 2711 with either the 2713HM or 2713H (depending on what you want to do with the screens of course).

[vesseblah]

I just saw the monitor suggestions.

It might be time to replace the Ultrasharp 2711 with either the 2713HM or 2713H (depending on what you want to do with the screens of course).

I posted about that exactly two months ago (#839). Thought it was fixed already.

[Deleted]

Sorry about that, haven't focused much on the peripherals lately. I'm planning an overhaul soon and will most likely look over the peripheral section as well.

I do appreciate the feedback!

[Damax]

I guess I'm a noob, didn't think you could use a 450w power supply with those graphic cards and stuff (budget gaming builds)