Just in case anyones in the same boat as me, and wanted too build a modest gaming machine to compliment their console rather than replace it... I've just built a:
i3 3240 (got this rather than the 3220 that is only 100mhz less because it was out of stock, cost me an extra tenner so not really worth it, but I had the itch to build then and there, make sure you chose the 3220, you wont notice a difference- £105)
Gigabyte B75 mobo (£50)
4gb Corsair XMS (£15)
Nvidia 650ti (was going to get the AMD 7770, as its better price/performance ratio than the 650ti but was swayed by a Free Assassins Creed 3 and GPU PhysX. Its only £35-40 more for an older gen Radeon that would pull its pants down, but like I said, budget, and also, low power consumption. (£115)
Slapped it all in a Fractal Design Core 1000 case, brilliant little thing (£25)
Novatech Modular Silent 500w PSU (these are excellent, I know for a fact they are the same PSU Corsair use for their range of supplies. How do I know this? I used to work for Novatech and know the guy who called up the factory in China and said "I like these, we want them with our name on them" (£35)
WiFi PCI-x card (£10)
DVD-RW (£10)
...and stuck my old 250gb WD HDD that was living in the garage in a box. I had a copy of Windows 'laying around'... It boots in about 30 seconds, takes a minute or two to be snappy and responsive, but thats a mechanical HDD for you, games playing I don't even notice.
Anyway £365ish and it plays DayZ buttery smooth on all medium details, AA is on (but low), it looks fabulous, and 2500 draw distance. It occasionally drops down to about 30fps in the middle of Cherno/Elektro for a minute or two when you first go into town, but then steadies itself. Im confident I can whack the details up a notch or two without any noticable impact on performance, I just prefer to keep it all super smooth. The only caveat I need to put in here is that I'm running on a 1280x1024 monitor, but as I said, Ive got overhead on performance at the settings I run for when my new LG IPS 1080p screen comes in the post.
To summarise, I am extremely pleased, and urge anyone considering building a PC to question the merit of dropping a grand on a i7, and a couple of 690's, especially considering a large portion of games these days are console ports. By the time a quad core CPU and that kind of stonking card are needed, your 'future proof' upgrade will be obsolete.
Im off to play some DayZ, laters.
Edited by bodhi85uk at 18:26:31 06-11-2012
Edited by bodhi85uk at 18:27:51 06-11-2012
i3 3240 (got this rather than the 3220 that is only 100mhz less because it was out of stock, cost me an extra tenner so not really worth it, but I had the itch to build then and there, make sure you chose the 3220, you wont notice a difference- £105)
Gigabyte B75 mobo (£50)
4gb Corsair XMS (£15)
Nvidia 650ti (was going to get the AMD 7770, as its better price/performance ratio than the 650ti but was swayed by a Free Assassins Creed 3 and GPU PhysX. Its only £35-40 more for an older gen Radeon that would pull its pants down, but like I said, budget, and also, low power consumption. (£115)
Slapped it all in a Fractal Design Core 1000 case, brilliant little thing (£25)
Novatech Modular Silent 500w PSU (these are excellent, I know for a fact they are the same PSU Corsair use for their range of supplies. How do I know this? I used to work for Novatech and know the guy who called up the factory in China and said "I like these, we want them with our name on them" (£35)
WiFi PCI-x card (£10)
DVD-RW (£10)
...and stuck my old 250gb WD HDD that was living in the garage in a box. I had a copy of Windows 'laying around'... It boots in about 30 seconds, takes a minute or two to be snappy and responsive, but thats a mechanical HDD for you, games playing I don't even notice.
Anyway £365ish and it plays DayZ buttery smooth on all medium details, AA is on (but low), it looks fabulous, and 2500 draw distance. It occasionally drops down to about 30fps in the middle of Cherno/Elektro for a minute or two when you first go into town, but then steadies itself. Im confident I can whack the details up a notch or two without any noticable impact on performance, I just prefer to keep it all super smooth. The only caveat I need to put in here is that I'm running on a 1280x1024 monitor, but as I said, Ive got overhead on performance at the settings I run for when my new LG IPS 1080p screen comes in the post.
To summarise, I am extremely pleased, and urge anyone considering building a PC to question the merit of dropping a grand on a i7, and a couple of 690's, especially considering a large portion of games these days are console ports. By the time a quad core CPU and that kind of stonking card are needed, your 'future proof' upgrade will be obsolete.
Im off to play some DayZ, laters.
Edited by bodhi85uk at 18:26:31 06-11-2012
Edited by bodhi85uk at 18:27:51 06-11-2012
.gif)
