Sandor Posted September 5, 2013 Share Posted September 5, 2013 In the market for a new PC. In the past I've always built my own but this time I'm struggling to be bothered. I moved countries so don't have my tools, spare cables and such like that I'd have "back home". Also by moving countries I'm just using a hand-me-down 7 year old dual core machine salvaged from the workplace of my mother in law so nothing in it can be cannibalized either. Basically I'm starting from scratch. I spied this machine on Newegg and at time of writing it's $777+tax and delivery after some instant savings. I'm looking for a machine that'll play BF3 and the upcoming BF4 (preferably >50FPS at high settings...don't need something that goes 150FPS ON ULTRA EPIC 5700x1080 res on 3 MONITORS!!1). Other than that I mostly play some older games that shouldn't trouble this system at all. My most recent builds have been Intel based and it's been quite a while since I had an AMD processor (athlon 64 days). Is the processor decent? Any information I've gleaned off google suggests it's fine but anyone out there got it in their machine? The rest of it looks fairly reasonable. I owned a variant of that case for my last build and it was fine. RAM looks like it'll be generic but acceptable. GTX 760 seems to be good enough for what I'm looking to do if I'm reading the reviews/benchmarks right. Any weaknesses? I'd like an SSD but I can buy that myself later on. PSU is scant on details and I reckon it'll be as cheap as they can get away with. 600W should cover the power needs though I think. Again if it's rough I can probably upgrade that to something better down the road. Have Windows 8 already on my current PC and have no problem with it really. Used Gigabyte boards in the past too and usually find them middle of the road but good performance. Tried pricing out the parts myself on Newegg (and guessed at the cheap end for stuff that isn't directly given a model/part number like the PSU) and it came out almost exactly the same price (actually a few dollars higher) so I'm wondering why I'd not just let someone else build it and then I just plug it in. I guess the instant savings on it at the moment was their "profit margin". I figure the hour or two of my time if I was building also has "worth" to be factored in. So basically...any glaring weaknesses or lemons in this spec that I've missed? If the link changes or goes dead here is a breakdown: Processor AMD FX-4200 3.3GHz Memory 8GB DDR3 1333 Hard Drive 1TB SATA II Optical Drive 24X DL DVD+/-RW Drive Graphics NVIDIA GeForce GTX 760 2GB Power Supply 600W Operating System Windows 8 64-bit Case NZXT Source 210 w/ Window Blue trim Motherboard GIGABYTE GA-78LMT-USB3 Cheers for opinions. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ShadowMajestic Posted September 5, 2013 Share Posted September 5, 2013 I have an FX4100 and BF3 is not in any means limited or bottlenecked by it. Never coming close to its capacities, so FX4200 will do more then fine. (even without any overclocking).(also pretty sure BF4 frostbite engine is much more optimized for X86 multi-core due to ps4/xbo) GPU is more than fine to run BF3 in highest settings for sure. And most likely BF4 as well in the (very) high range. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sandor Posted September 5, 2013 Author Share Posted September 5, 2013 I have an FX4100 and BF3 is not in any means limited or bottlenecked by it. Never coming close to its capacities, so FX4200 will do more then fine. (even without any overclocking).(also pretty sure BF4 frostbite engine is much more optimized for X86 multi-core due to ps4/xbo) GPU is more than fine to run BF3 in highest settings for sure. And most likely BF4 as well in the (very) high range. Nice. That's what I'd figured by sometimes a CPU that looks good can turn out to be complete dung. Not really interested in overclocking. I figure a quad core will be fast enough usually. Had heard they're "optimizing" BF4 for AMD too (due to consoles using AMD) but you never know how that'll turn out on a PC either. Lamenting the fact the PC is now the port rather than the console. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Astra.Xtreme Posted September 5, 2013 Share Posted September 5, 2013 I'm willing to bet you could build your own with better parts for the same price or very close to. The keyboard and mouse look like junk, and you could get a wireless Logitech alternative. The PSU is likely a cheapo, which is a little worrying since the 760 and FX-4200 are pretty power hungry. If you're up to the task of building it yourself, we can give you plenty of options. The GTX 760 is a good choice, so I'd stick with it. Instead of the AMD, go with an Intel i5. It will be leaps better than the AMD and use considerably less power. Get a quality PSU like Corsair and make sure it's modular. Makes wire management so much easier. I guess before we get into more specifics, let us know what route you'd like to go. We might be able to suggest alternative pre-built systems for you too. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sandor Posted September 5, 2013 Author Share Posted September 5, 2013 I'm willing to bet you could build your own with better parts for the same price or very close to. The keyboard and mouse look like junk, and you could get a wireless Logitech alternative. The PSU is likely a cheapo, which is a little worrying since the 760 and FX-4200 are pretty power hungry. If you're up to the task of building it yourself, we can give you plenty of options. The GTX 760 is a good choice, so I'd stick with it. Instead of the AMD, go with an Intel i5. It will be leaps better than the AMD and use considerably less power. Get a quality PSU like Corsair and make sure it's modular. Makes wire management so much easier. I guess before we get into more specifics, let us know what route you'd like to go. We might be able to suggest alternative pre-built systems for you too. That's the thing....I don't think I could buy a system with better parts for the same money. Even at the old price it's not a bad deal. As mentioned pricing out the parts in it myself from Newegg is essentially a dead heat. I don't think I'd get an i5 with a GTX760 system for that sort of money. I'm not really fussed what's inside it as long as it'll play BF3 and BF4 well. Beyond that I just do some web design and watch netflix on my PC...all very standard uses. Trying to come in at $1000CAD or less after tax and delivery. Tax in my province is 13% so the base cost can top out about $840 by my calculations assuming about $50 for delivery (being generous) If you can find a pre-built (in Canada) that is better for the same money then feel free to tell me about it :) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ShadowMajestic Posted September 5, 2013 Share Posted September 5, 2013 Yeah FX4200 will be plenty. It's hardly ever when I reach the limits of my FX4100, and that's usually with something is crashing, running multiple VM's or en-decoding. AMD is a bit more future proof though. If you someday want to upgrade to the latest(now/soon) FX because the 4200 wont cut it anymore, you still can due to socket AM3+. And power usage is nothing to worry about. With Win7 and latest updates or Win8, the FX usually runs in lowpower mode most of the time. Even while I overclocked my 4100 from 3.6 to 4.0, it usually runs at ~1.3ghz . More or less personal desision though. And self build could be cheaper, quickly checking dutch equavalant of newegg (i supose) almost same build is ~488 euros(includes taxes) roughly 640 US dollars. Might be worth checking into, all you need is (usually) a small screwdriver and an ~hour or so of work tops could save you some money you can spend on the DLC's for BF3/4 :P Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Astra.Xtreme Posted September 5, 2013 Share Posted September 5, 2013 Yeah you might be right. I pieced one together using Newegg.ca and I totaled it to ~$875 before shipping and that was without a Windows license. Granted I used all high-quality parts and a new i5, which obviously add to the price a bit. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sandor Posted September 5, 2013 Author Share Posted September 5, 2013 Yeah you might be right. I pieced one together using Newegg.ca and I totaled it to ~$875 before shipping and that was without a Windows license. Granted I used all high-quality parts and a new i5, which obviously add to the price a bit. Well I can see a system that appears to be pretty much identical to the AMD one. The only difference is it's i5 based. Same graphics, ram, HD, even "600W" psu. It's about $400 more but it certainly doesn't appear to be $400 (50%) more valuable or powerful. I think I'll be hard pushed to better the current system...probably why it caught my eye in the first place. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Astra.Xtreme Posted September 5, 2013 Share Posted September 5, 2013 Well I can see a system that appears to be pretty much identical to the AMD one. The only difference is it's i5 based. Same graphics, ram, HD, even "600W" psu. It's about $400 more but it certainly doesn't appear to be $400 (50%) more valuable or powerful. I think I'll be hard pushed to better the current system...probably why it caught my eye in the first place. Yeah I saw that one too. Basically a horrendously bad price for those components. I guess the other thing to consider is do you already have a keyboard, mouse, and Windows license? If you do, then we can certainly get everything within your price range. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sandor Posted September 5, 2013 Author Share Posted September 5, 2013 Yeah I saw that one too. Basically a horrendously bad price for those components. I guess the other thing to consider is do you already have a keyboard, mouse, and Windows license? If you do, then we can certainly get everything within your price range. Well I have Windows 8 installed...it was installed as an upgrade to Windows 7 so not sure how simple it would be to move it across to any new PC. Have a generic lenovo keyboard and a standard enough microsoft mouse Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Astra.Xtreme Posted September 5, 2013 Share Posted September 5, 2013 Ah ok, well all I really know is that you can pull keys from your PC using a program called Magic Jellybean. If you pull the Win8 upgrade key, I'm not sure if it would work for a fresh install. Regardless, I'll dump the links to the parts I figured would make for a good build. Then you or others can pick through it and see if there are reasonable ways to cut the cost further. CPU: http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819116895 Mobo: http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131985 PSU: http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139048 RAM: http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231311 GPU: http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130938 Case: http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811119233 HDD: http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822236339 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sandor Posted September 5, 2013 Author Share Posted September 5, 2013 Decent looking kit there. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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