Building a new PC: Any help would be greatly appreciated

Comments

• Quizzical Member LegendaryPosts: 25,351

  December 2011

  An Intel processor just doesn't fit your budget.  Try an AMD Athlon II X4 with an AMD 970 chipset, Socket AM3+ motherboard.  That will save you a lot of money, and for SWTOR, the processor should still easily get you 60-70 frames per second.

  If you're pulling the hard drive out of your old computer, then you might as well do the same with the optical drive.  Do note that this will make the old computer no longer functional.  Sometimes it's better to keep the old computer functional and sell it that way.  There's also the risk that continuing to use an old hard drive could lead to the hard drive failing, as hard drives are only designed to last about five years.

  You also need a case and an OS license.

  It's probably best to come back and ask again when you're ready to buy, so that you can pick out parts that are a good deal that day.  If two parts are equivalent in performance, but one is £50 and the other is £60 today, then you'd rather get the one that is £50.  But maybe they'll switch prices in the next two months (prices bounce around a lot, even apart from discounts), and you'd rather get the one that is £50 then than the one that is £60 then even though the latter was cheaper today.
• Clifford1987 Member Posts: 29

  December 2011

  Thanks for the suggestions Quizzical, they sound a better option than the ones I posted.
  
  Good idea, I shall wait until I am 100% ready to buy my new hardware before I post specs again.
  
  One last question. I was reading one of your replies in a thread about laptops where you recommend a Lenovo IdeaPad Z575 Laptop for a mid range option.
  
  I was previously looking at buying a netbook for work/word processing etc, however I am now thinking of combining my two priorities; playing TOR and PC work by buying a mid range laptop that will allow me to do both.
  
  So my question is; clearly a custom built mid-range desktop with the specs I was looking at will outperform the Lenovo IdeaPad Z575 Laptop, but will it be by a large, significant margin? Would the laptop cope with TOR on medium settings with a stable frame rate? That is all I am really looking for.
  
  Thanks so much for your continued help!
• scotty899 Member Posts: 166

  December 2011

  if you can be a little patient you should wait till about late january/early febuary for new releases of hardware to come out and buy this years mid-high range equipment. then you could get a cheap hd6970 card. if you got the spare cash get a 80gb solid state for your OS.

   

  good luck!
• Quizzical Member LegendaryPosts: 25,351

  December 2011

  The Radeon HD 6850 that you were looking at has somewhere around five times the graphical performance of the Radeon HD 6620G integrated graphics.  I'd say that's pretty significant.  It's the difference between games running at low to moderate settings, versus games nearly always running smoothly at high settings and sometimes at max settings.
• kakasaki Member UncommonPosts: 1,205

  December 2011

  
  Originally posted by Quizzical

  The Radeon HD 6850 that you were looking at has somewhere around five times the graphical performance of the Radeon HD 6620G integrated graphics.  I'd say that's pretty significant.  It's the difference between games running at low to moderate settings, versus games nearly always running smoothly at high settings and sometimes at max settings.

  With my latest build (year old), I went with the HD 6870. Not sure if it was worth the extra $ but I have been pleased with the performance. Have to say that as a looooong time NVidia consumer, I have been pleaseantly surprised with my Radeon.

  A man is his own easiest dupe, for what he wishes to be true he generally believes to be true...
• BullseyeArc1 Member UncommonPosts: 410

  December 2011

  
  Originally posted by kakasaki

  
  Originally posted by Quizzical

  The Radeon HD 6850 that you were looking at has somewhere around five times the graphical performance of the Radeon HD 6620G integrated graphics.  I'd say that's pretty significant.  It's the difference between games running at low to moderate settings, versus games nearly always running smoothly at high settings and sometimes at max settings.

  With my latest build (year old), I went with the HD 6870. Not sure if it was worth the extra $ but I have been pleased with the performance. Have to say that as a looooong time NVidia consumer, I have been pleaseantly surprised with my Radeon.

   Ya Im running a 6750, only needs 450W PU,  not to spendy, it handles BF3 pretty good.   720 process units.   A pretty good average card.     Ill upgrade later after the next gens come down in price.

  Take the Magic: The Gathering 'What Color Are You?' Quiz.
• shazzmon Member UncommonPosts: 4

  December 2011

  I would also strongly suggest into getting 8 GB (2x4GB sticks) of ram instead of 4. Ram is pretty cheap right now and I think 4 GB might act as bottleneck for your current setup.

  I also highly agree with going for a AMD option since it will fit a lot better into your price range then going with an Intel choice.
• Clifford1987 Member Posts: 29

  December 2011

  scotty899 - Thanks for the suggestion, I think I will be waiting until January to upgrade anyway, so I shall definitely wait that extra bit longer until the new hardware rolls out, thanks. Any money saving is always welcome!
  
  Quizzical - That sure does sound like a large margin indeed! I guess I shall have a month or so to decide whether I want a much more powerful desktop that will run TOR well, or a mobile laptop that will be better for work but only just adequately run games.
  
  shazzmon - Thanks for the suggestion, I think I will go for a minimum of 8GB as you suggested! I don't want the memory to be holding the system up. Yeah AMD seems to be the way forward for my budget