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The Budget Gaming PC thread • Page 85

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  • mikew1985 18 Oct 2012 13:39:05 9,705 posts
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    Worse than a 460.

    460 while a wee bit old at this stage is still a decent card, should be able to handle 1080p with decent framerates.
  • dawguk 18 Oct 2012 13:51:26 4 posts
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    I thought that was the case, which leaves me with the CPU / motherboard / RAM needing a spring clean.

    Considering that I won't in this case benefit from the embedded graphics due to the 460 being capable, should I get myself an i3 with a view to an upgrade path later in the year?
  • mikew1985 18 Oct 2012 14:23:16 9,705 posts
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    You'll certainly see an increase in the performance with an i3 based system. If its within your budget it wouldn't be a bad upgrade at all.
  • dawguk 18 Oct 2012 15:19:44 4 posts
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    It's definitely in my budget, if I can get the i3 3220T for about £90.

    Pretend that I know nothing about motherboards. Which motherboard for around £90-100 (€120) should I be looking at? Is there such a thing as a stand-out motherboard these days?
  • mikew1985 18 Oct 2012 16:14:57 9,705 posts
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    I generally just refer to various tech sites recommendations when I'm looking to upgrade as I'm not bothered to keep up with motherboard tech unless I'm in the market for it (shocking I know, they're so interesting!).

    I'm fairly certain you could go for a board cheaper than £90 - £100 with everything you would need. mATX boards are sometimes a good bit cheaper than their ATX brothers and offer all the same features and overclocking bells and whistle that your average gaming PC would require.

    Edited by mikew1985 at 16:17:02 18-10-2012
  • dawguk 18 Oct 2012 16:30:04 4 posts
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    Thanks indeed mikew1985 (rolls off the tongue!), very helpful advice there.
  • Maturin 18 Oct 2012 18:45:55 1,688 posts
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    Yes I've been reading Tom's hardware's CPU guides recently and it's made me realise there's no point me buying an i7 over an i5 for my new build given the software I'll be using on it. So the money saved means I'll get a GTX670 instead of the lower card I was considering.

    Pre-childish ragequit username - Harry

  • quadfather 19 Oct 2012 18:40:21 4,738 posts
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    Well, built the new pc (i3 2120, 8gb, 660 to, ssd). It's absolutely unbelievable! Fast isn't the word. The samsung 830 boots from after bios to windows in 9 seconds. Windows says that its 7.1 overall. 7.1 was the CPU, memory is 7.5 and the rest of the gaming scores all on 7.9. Didn't think the i3 would be that fast but there you go. Haven't tried games yet as they're all downloading but so far so good.

    Only issue was on first bootup it was making a noise, but realised it was the CPU heatsink lead slightly catching the fan.

    So anyone pondering i3 or i5 with a tight budget, I think its better to spend a bit more on gpu and mobo to start with then maybe upgrade CPU later.

    Anyone want to buy my old rigk specs on previous page I think

    psn = quaddy456

  • superdelphinus 19 Oct 2012 20:37:44 6,177 posts
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    why????!

    i have the same chip and a lower graphics card and it's 8.0 on mine!

    that samsung SSD is the best thing I put in mine I think, it's fantastic
  • superdelphinus 19 Oct 2012 20:47:51 6,177 posts
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    just don't buy two full priced games one time and buy one of those instead - transforms the machine
  • superdelphinus 19 Oct 2012 21:06:12 6,177 posts
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    i use it for everything I use regularly - at the moment I have the OS, a few media type things (lightroom, photoshop and premier) various other smaller programmes and about 6 or 7 games. I try not to have less than 25 gigs or so free, and make sure things like lightroom and premier are using the HDD as scratch disks. At the moment my hdd spends most of its life powered down (it must be on some sort of energy saving setting in windows) and only really comes on if I'm looking at stored photos or listening to music etc)
  • quadfather 19 Oct 2012 21:17:44 4,738 posts
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    One thing that I read was to move the swap file off the ssd. Theyve got a limited lifespan so while it'll be slightly slower, it will extend the life of the ssd. Will have to monitor the progress

    psn = quaddy456

  • whatthefu 19 Oct 2012 21:52:57 758 posts
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    Limited life is probably what put me off buying ssd.

    Quadfather, I think I'll pass on your system.
    I've had bad experiences with used goods online and since you overclocked your system, I don't fancy the chances lol.
  • quadfather 19 Oct 2012 21:56:11 4,738 posts
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    @Ilovechips - I think its just to help the life of the ssd as it'll be writing constantly to the ssd if.itthatpartitiMust admit though, very impressed with the i3 as long as you get everything else upgraded to the same degree

    psn = quaddy456

  • quadfather 19 Oct 2012 22:00:40 4,738 posts
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    @whatthefu - no problem. Though for the record its nit overclocked at the moment. No matter

    psn = quaddy456

  • superdelphinus 19 Oct 2012 22:07:35 6,177 posts
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    what is a swapfile
    how do i move it
  • quadfather 19 Oct 2012 22:16:06 4,738 posts
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    @superdelphinus - its what windows uses to cache stuff. It's basically a reserved area on the hd that it uses. But because its used a lot and an ssd has a limited life span, its an idea to move it. Go into sysm properties and move it from your ssd to another drive

    psn = quaddy456

  • quadfather 19 Oct 2012 22:17:02 4,738 posts
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    Sorry for all the typos, I'm drunk and the phone isn't helping :)

    psn = quaddy456

  • MMMarmite 19 Oct 2012 22:41:25 617 posts
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    Search your c:\ drive for pagefile.sys that's the swapfile ;)

    Windows moves stuff from memory to the swapfile when you run out of active memory, then reads it back in when it needs it again. It's basically more RAM just slower to access.

    Also with Windows 7 and newer SSDs longevity shouldn't be a problem, the wear-levelling algorithms used by newer controllers are able to spread the writes so that the average user will get over 5 years of usage before the disk starts "playing up".
  • Dirtbox 20 Oct 2012 01:02:09 73,731 posts
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    Don't move it.

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  • superdelphinus 20 Oct 2012 09:41:46 6,177 posts
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    Yeah the lifespan thing does seem a little bit like a self perpetuated myth
  • quadfather 20 Oct 2012 10:35:41 4,738 posts
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    Is it best not to move it then? I'm about to start a formatting frenzy on drives, so I'd rather get it all setup right in the first place

    psn = quaddy456

  • MMMarmite 20 Oct 2012 12:46:13 617 posts
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    Moving it to a HDD would make paging slower which kinda goes against the reason for getting an SSD in the first place ;)

    Also with plenty of memory, paging shouldn't be happening too often unless you're using a lot of memory intensive applications.
  • Dirtbox 20 Oct 2012 12:52:23 73,731 posts
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    quadfather wrote:
    Is it best not to move it then? I'm about to start a formatting frenzy on drives, so I'd rather get it all setup right in the first place
    Yeah, don't bother. I moved mine and lost most of the performance ramp the SSD gave me, even with 32gb of ram.

    Edited by Dirtbox at 12:52:40 20-10-2012

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