Hardware

CraiG^

Legend
Legendary
Jun 22, 2003
3,123
32
295
Scotland
So it's been a while since I've been keeping up to date with who is winning the hardware battles for performance/price and quality.

What's your opinion these days on the INTEL vs AMD?

The #1 major GCARD manufacturer?
 

Warlock

LOMCN Veteran
Veteran
Loyal Member
Jul 13, 2003
479
4
115
Scotland, UK.
I would say

CPU - Intel(obviously) they have had the crown since C2D

GPU - Personally it always seems ATI have the price for performance crown.
 

CraiG^

Legend
Legendary
Jun 22, 2003
3,123
32
295
Scotland
Thank for the replies guys, I'll be building a new system for myself soon so just snooping for a bit of info.

Any advice what not to go near these days?
 

d1craig

LOMCN Veteran
Veteran
Aug 12, 2010
1,937
7
124
tbh as far as cpu goes its been intel for a while now, the only reason anyone would pick amd is price.

gpu - whoever released their cards latest has the best gpu. atleast that is the way it has been since ive been watching. atm it is nvidia 900 series of cards.

also the new gtx 970 performs as good if not better than all but the most expensive cards and it is min £250
 

Warlock

LOMCN Veteran
Veteran
Loyal Member
Jul 13, 2003
479
4
115
Scotland, UK.
Well post how much your looking to spend and what you need and we can price the best for your money.
 

CraiG^

Legend
Legendary
Jun 22, 2003
3,123
32
295
Scotland
The system will be used for gaming, performance will be a key element although not a major one early on. It may also be used for bits of video editing here and there, studying etc.

My idea is to build a system which will be easily up gradable in the future.

My budget for the chassis (with all necessary parts in it of course ha) is around £500, more will be spent over time of course as it won't be a completed project.
 

d1craig

LOMCN Veteran
Veteran
Aug 12, 2010
1,937
7
124
You won't be getting anything to destroy any of the more modern games with that budget.

As you are willing to spend more in future the best bit of advice I can give ( assuming it's going to be used mostly for mir ) is get an Intel core cpu preferably something 4000 or better and it will have a on board GPU that can more than cope with mir. I suggest this as the biggest expense for gaming would be a gpu. I could not recommend something anyone gpu wise other than a gtx 970 as it beats all but the very top end gpus and is not much more than £250. You could buy this later of course.
 

CraiG^

Legend
Legendary
Jun 22, 2003
3,123
32
295
Scotland
You won't be getting anything to destroy any of the more modern games with that budget.

As you are willing to spend more in future the best bit of advice I can give ( assuming it's going to be used mostly for mir ) is get an Intel core cpu preferably something 4000 or better and it will have a on board GPU that can more than cope with mir. I suggest this as the biggest expense for gaming would be a gpu. I could not recommend something anyone gpu wise other than a gtx 970 as it beats all but the very top end gpus and is not much more than £250. You could buy this later of course.

It's posts like this that I'm after, I'm pretty much clueless to the hardware market at the moment, and if the GTX 970 is what's performing best for decent bucks at the moment then it will be a sure investment, fair enough it's a £250ish card, but if it's worth the money then I'm happy to spend more for vast improvements.

The budget can be very flexible, I'm mainly looking for ideas at the moment or even example setups which you would recommend. (even if it is over budget)

I'll try keep this post updated with my on goings, as plan on ordering some or all parts in the next 2 weeks.
 

d1craig

LOMCN Veteran
Veteran
Aug 12, 2010
1,937
7
124
I'm not great with a setup for you. I'm fairly new to that myself. But I would defo get the gtx 970, and i5 4600 (I think) and 8gb ram ( I have 8 and would go for 16 but if you have never had as much as 8 before t will feel pretty good ), a PSU that is 800w and atleast gold rated.

Case de is not the most important but needs to be half decent for cooling. I'm going top end with my next one - enthoo primo. Ocuk is a good website for looking at stuff and tbh they would spec you something on the forums if you asked.
 

JealY

LOMCN VIP
VIP
Nov 28, 2004
5,354
52
305
England
If you're on a budget go AMD, their A10 APU can run BF4 at 1080 smoothly. I recently did a build for a bloke at work as he wanted to get his son a gaming PC for Christmas and it came to about £400. With £100 or so more you can have a nice machine.

But if you might be upgrading soon go for a CPU. Will cost more though obviously.
 
Last edited:

d1craig

LOMCN Veteran
Veteran
Aug 12, 2010
1,937
7
124
I will have a go when I'm at my computer. On the phone atm ( iphone) always adding stupid arse letters after words for some reason.

do you need it built for you?

---------- Post Merged at 09:15 PM ---------- Previous Post was at 06:34 PM ----------

Asus Z97-K
i5 4690K
GALAX GeForce GTX 970 OC 4096MB GDDR5
Kingston HyperX SSD 120GB
Kingston HyperX Fury RAM 8GB
Corsair CS750M 750W Semi-Modular 80+ GOLD Certified Power Supply


that spec comes to £730 on OCUK, you would have to assemble it yourself and would maybe want a bigger HD id go for a HDD for the mass storage you can get 500GB for £50.

you can always go for a cheaper GPU aswell, i picked one that didnt look (aesthetics wise not performance) awful lol. added maybe £20 on to your cost.
you can get rid of the ssd and just use a HDD which would likely knock about £20-£50 quid off aswell.
you might also want to have a optical drive. (im guna try without for my next pc).
YOU WILL WANT A CASE I FORGOT TO SAY THAT BUT CASES ARE MOSTLY PERSONAL PREFERENCE. MOST CASE ON OCUK ARE DECENT CASES
 
Last edited:
  • Like
Reactions: CraiG^

Martyn

Smir.co.uk
Staff member
Administrator
Mar 24, 2003
3,792
2
838
400
Kent - UK
will recommend intel and nvidia evga cards have better support/warrantys
 

CraiG^

Legend
Legendary
Jun 22, 2003
3,123
32
295
Scotland
I will have a go when I'm at my computer. On the phone atm ( iphone) always adding stupid arse letters after words for some reason.

do you need it built for you?

---------- Post Merged at 09:15 PM ---------- Previous Post was at 06:34 PM ----------

Asus Z97-K
i5 4690K
GALAX GeForce GTX 970 OC 4096MB GDDR5
Kingston HyperX SSD 120GB
Kingston HyperX Fury RAM 8GB
Corsair CS750M 750W Semi-Modular 80+ GOLD Certified Power Supply


that spec comes to £730 on OCUK, you would have to assemble it yourself and would maybe want a bigger HD id go for a HDD for the mass storage you can get 500GB for £50.

you can always go for a cheaper GPU aswell, i picked one that didnt look (aesthetics wise not performance) awful lol. added maybe £20 on to your cost.
you can get rid of the ssd and just use a HDD which would likely knock about £20-£50 quid off aswell.
you might also want to have a optical drive. (im guna try without for my next pc).
YOU WILL WANT A CASE I FORGOT TO SAY THAT BUT CASES ARE MOSTLY PERSONAL PREFERENCE. MOST CASE ON OCUK ARE DECENT CASES

Thanks for the post mate, very useful. I'll be able to build it myself, been a while but it shouldn't be a problem.

I would say a SSD is a must these days for any modern machine, so that will be a sure thing. An extra HDD for storage like you say would be perfect 500gb-1tb. Another certainty for the system.

With regards to cases, I was unsure what case to get, I'd assume size matters for upgrading in the future? Obviously the look of the case is entirely preference but what kind of case should I aim for?

I'll need an optical drive for sure as well, but I can get that at a later date i suppose if need be.

What about system cooling as well? Would the fans be enough in that one, or would you recommend getting water cooling?

Anyway, great post would like to see some others opinions on it :)
 

d1craig

LOMCN Veteran
Veteran
Aug 12, 2010
1,937
7
124
i cant bring myself to pick a case that is suitable lol, i will end up picking a case i like the looks of. a case that fits the components you have will most likely be cooled sufficiently.

an external/portable optical drive will be my choice, there are still things i have on disc ie. all my music (well its my GFs) and its lots and lots.

EDIT - i would pick something with fan filters on it for a case.

corsair carbide 300R looks smart and can do the job.

dont take my word for any of this before you buy. make sure you look the stuff up and make sure its all compatible. i have checked quickly but i dont want to cost you money by suggesting something wrong lol.
 
Last edited: