Hi all. I've currently been looking into building a PC to play games upon (I'm content with 1080 and using my 32" TV) but it has been such a long time since I've played on PC and not kept up with technical side i currently feel out of depth at the moment with components from which company to be looking at. I was browsing the ebay and came across refurbished towers which i could build upon over time or would it be better to start from scratch?
Any help and advice would be appreciated. I can go up to around £500/ 600. I just want good frame rate and im not a complete GFX ho.
thats a good build but why the el cheapo motherboard with no O/C and a CPU that can O/C? Imo TC should either spend an extra 40pounds and get an entry level z97 mobo such as MSI z97m g43 or Gigabyte Ds3H let alone z97 will be compatible with upcoming broadwell cpu's
IF he wants to save money imo just dont buy an aftermarket cooler for now and when he has money then buy one ( besides to my surprise the stock cooler does a decent job keeping the temps in check as long as you dont overclock )
thats a good build but why the el cheapo motherboard with no O/C and a CPU that can O/C? Imo TC should either spend an extra 40pounds and get an entry level z97 mobo such as MSI z97m g43 or Gigabyte Ds3H let alone z97 will be compatible with upcoming broadwell cpu's
IF he wants to save money imo just dont buy an aftermarket cooler for now and when he has money then buy one ( besides to my surprise the stock cooler does a decent job keeping the temps in check as long as you dont overclock )
Because the budget is already 612 pounds, 12 pounds over the limit, but IMO is worth it.
K and none K version CPU worth the exact same money, while MOBO is even higher in price: http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/p/ymhw8d now it's 630 pounds
I'd want to keep the R9 290 >
The best option is to reduce the CPU: http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/p/dd2w8d
You can pickup a 280X for 150 , then why pick up 1333mhz when you can pick up 1866mhz for a few more, That will help with the budget , allowing a better motherboard as well.
You can pickup a 280X for 150 , then why pick up 1333mhz when you can pick up 1866mhz for a few more, That will help with the budget , allowing a better motherboard as well.
Because it makes no difference in gaming, unless you go quad channel.
I've chosen R9 290 which is better, I wouldn't go with VTX or whatever that brand is, if anything I'd go with MSI TWIN FROZR GTX760 for the same 150 pounds, you can even pick up HAWK edition for 154 pounds.
You can pickup a 280X for 150 , then why pick up 1333mhz when you can pick up 1866mhz for a few more, That will help with the budget , allowing a better motherboard as well.
Because it makes no difference in gaming, unless you go quad channel.
I've chosen R9 290 which is better, I wouldn't go with VTX or whatever that brand is, if anything I'd go with MSI TWIN FROZR GTX760 for the same 150 pounds, you can even pick up HAWK edition for 154 pounds.
wrong. the difference between 1333 mhz to even 1600 mhz with high end gpu or multiple gpu's can be as much as 5 fps.The frequency of the memory allows more bandwidth, quad channel is useful in multiple high ended gpu setups. Not so much with single cards.
VTX is a well known European based company.... Why would you pick a zalman 550w psu with a mediocre motherboard and a 290 your choices are a frankenstein mix match to bring the price down
You can pickup a 280X for 150 , then why pick up 1333mhz when you can pick up 1866mhz for a few more, That will help with the budget , allowing a better motherboard as well.
Because it makes no difference in gaming, unless you go quad channel.
I've chosen R9 290 which is better, I wouldn't go with VTX or whatever that brand is, if anything I'd go with MSI TWIN FROZR GTX760 for the same 150 pounds, you can even pick up HAWK edition for 154 pounds.
wrong. the difference between 1333 mhz to even 1600 mhz with high end gpu or multiple gpu's can be as much as 5 fps.The frequency of the memory allows more bandwidth, quad channel is useful in multiple high ended gpu setups. Not so much with single cards.
VTX is a well known European based company.... Why would you pick a zalman 550w psu with a mediocre motherboard and a 290 your choices are a frankenstein mix match to bring the price down
Zalman is gold rated, so called "medicore" MOBO is doing a great job so far on my personal build (not everyone got to have RAMPAGE, MAXIMUS, KILLER or SNIPER branded on their MOBO module to make themselves feel good), R9 290 because of the good price/performance ratio.
Never heard of VTX so I'd be safer in the hands of Asus, EVGA, MSI, Gigabyte or Sapphire.
About the RAM speeds, I really doubt it, unless you've got a proof...
BTW: quad channel setup is useful at the right games, no matter the GPU setup.
You can pickup a 280X for 150 , then why pick up 1333mhz when you can pick up 1866mhz for a few more, That will help with the budget , allowing a better motherboard as well.
Because it makes no difference in gaming, unless you go quad channel.
I've chosen R9 290 which is better, I wouldn't go with VTX or whatever that brand is, if anything I'd go with MSI TWIN FROZR GTX760 for the same 150 pounds, you can even pick up HAWK edition for 154 pounds.
wrong. the difference between 1333 mhz to even 1600 mhz with high end gpu or multiple gpu's can be as much as 5 fps.The frequency of the memory allows more bandwidth, quad channel is useful in multiple high ended gpu setups. Not so much with single cards.
VTX is a well known European based company.... Why would you pick a zalman 550w psu with a mediocre motherboard and a 290 your choices are a frankenstein mix match to bring the price down
Zalman is gold rated, so called "medicore" MOBO is doing a great job so far on my personal build (not everyone got to have RAMPAGE, MAXIMUS, KILLER or SNIPER branded on their MOBO module to make themselves feel good), R9 290 because of the good price/performance ratio.
Never heard of VTX so I'd be safer in the hands of Asus, EVGA, MSI, Gigabyte or Sapphire.
About the RAM speeds, I really doubt it, unless you've got a proof...
BTW: quad channel setup is useful at the right games, no matter the GPU setup.
Being gold rated does not mean crap brand track records play a role as well, Zalman psu's tend to mediocre to bad in quality. The fact that you can fine a 550w gold rated psu for only 47 pounds should have rose some red flags.... Point being about the motherboard is that you sacrifice some options also may need a bios update to work with that H81 series.
VTX brand is just fine its no different any other major US brand.
Quad channel does nothing significant over dual channel with any single based gpu unless your running low frequency memory.
Being gold rated does not mean crap brand track records play a role as well, Zalman psu's tend to mediocre to bad in quality. The fact that you can fine a 550w gold rated psu for only 47 pounds should have rose some red flags.... Point being about the motherboard is that you sacrifice some options also may need a bios update to work with that H81 series.
VTX brand is just fine its no different any other major US brand.
Quad channel does nothing significant over dual channel with any single based gpu unless your running low frequency memory.
Here are a few examples with haswell cpus
1080 max settings:
Well if you can get faster RAM speed at no larger sacrifice then go for it, you brought one of the good engines that does use quad channel and RAM speed
My example was to mention F1 games but as you know Codemasters all of their games are build on the very same engine.
There's about 5-10 fps difference between dual and quad channel, speed is also taken advantage here, it's more effective on 1080p and lower resolutions as you may see.
I disagree about lower price = crappy product, some are just branding more than bringing any changes in quality as for SeaSonic, Corsair and Antec - hands down best brands for PSUs, if you have the money to buy a gold and above rated PSUs from those companies that'll be good.
VTX is not a known company here in Israel, I do not know of their customer support, I can vouch for Asus with their great customer service.
Any none H81 MOBO will jump the price by at least 20 pounds, something that I think it easy taken care of with simple BIOS update which is not always a MUST to do.
Your example is being tested with two 7970's in crossfire of course quad channel is going to help cpu bound games...... extra bandwidth allows more data to be passed onto cpu and gpus.
Again VTX are fine,They use reference board designs straight from nvidia or AMD. So no, there won't be any difference between them and and ASUS one using the reference PCB. Their quality is no different from say like Sapphire products.
Also really? again you get what you pay for.... any other 550w gold rated psu are 60+ pounds aka $90+, what that zalman are asking is a whopping 47 pounds or a whole $75. One brand's gold rate is not the same as someone else's..... gold rated psu only have to meet efficiency rating of 86%+ at all loads.
Your example is being tested with two 7970's in crossfire of course quad channel is going to help cpu bound games...... extra bandwidth allows more data to be passed onto cpu and gpus.
Again VTX are fine,They use reference board designs straight from nvidia or AMD. So no, there won't be any difference between them and and ASUS one using the reference PCB. Their quality is no different from say like Sapphire products.
Also really? again you get what you pay for.... any other 550w gold rated psu are 60+ pounds aka $90+, what that zalman are asking is a whopping 47 pounds or a whole $75. One brand's gold rate is not the same as someone else's..... gold rated psu only have to meet efficiency rating of 86%+ at all loads.
But do agree with me it's better than getting a Corsair CX500 bronze?
But do agree with me it's better than getting a Corsair CX500 bronze?
Actually its hard to say, CX500 is a solid budget psu that has proven itself. The Zalman Goldrock series is a mid tier based power supply that cuts some quality inside to get the price lower, it does use some higher quality parts like japanese capacitors. But not enough info or reviews on the psu really exist, and the only site that reviewed the 750w model didnt test how clean the power was only the voltages. We know that this PSU does have protection for surges and other things so you could give it a shot , if you had no other option, but zalman's track record on psu's is meh.
Ram speeds for the high(HIGH) majority of desktop programs is made redundant by the simple fact that the higher the frequency the worse the latency... Essentially it cancels it self out. That being said if the difference in price is low then go for the faster ram. RAM amount is more important than frequency.
Also I would recommend the following if you need a OS:
You can pickup a 280X for 150 , then why pick up 1333mhz when you can pick up 1866mhz for a few more, That will help with the budget , allowing a better motherboard as well.
That is not a R9 280X... Its a the R9 280 "X" edition, Its Amazon calling it the 280X. Its not that.
Scroll down to the specifications its the R9 280.
Here's a link to the card from overclockers... LINK.
Log in to comment