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Thread ID: 128909 2013-01-23 00:20:00 Gaming PC Build LiMiT (16997) Press F1
Post ID Timestamp Content User
1324485 2013-01-23 00:20:00 Hi Im wanting to start building a gaming pc from the price range $1100 to $1500
I want it to be able to run the lastest games eg. black ops 2, bf3 and what not.
Im not really up with everything so I dont understand much but ye all help is appreciated :)

Blake
LiMiT (16997)
1324486 2013-01-23 00:25:00 Computer Lounge (http://www.computerlounge.co.nz/) for parts or new full system, they also have a helpful forum for pc builders (no I do not work for them, but have always had excellent service from them). Davoid (6918)
1324487 2013-01-23 00:30:00 +1 for CL, they are great, good service and good pricing. $1500 is a bit on the cheap side if you want a screen and peripherals, but for a box only you'll get a pretty decent gaming rig for that. wratterus (105)
1324488 2013-01-23 02:10:00 Thoughts? :D
i.imgur.com

Figured the RAM could easily be upgraded to 8GB in the future, the motherboard is cheap (Won't get max SSD speeds but still pretty decent), the PSU allows a bit of wiggle room on GPU upgrades in the future. Not going to need to ever upgrade the CPU, so you can keep that same CPU / Mobo combo for a while yet to come. HDD for filling up with all the mass-storage that doesn't fit on the SSD. Decent sized monitor for the budget while still being full HD. Not a bad keyboard, but not super, and the mouse is awesome but just use it with a cable.
Chilling_Silence (9)
1324489 2013-01-23 02:52:00 Hmmm, TBH, I wouldnt go with AMD at present, the 7xxx series has issues with drivers, especially with older DX9 games.....
forums.anandtech.com
And really, I would go with an i3 rather than AMD FX......single thread on intel is at least 25-30% better. No need for an SSD for a budget gaming rig....and for me x64 is a must for modern games so 8GB RAM at least!
SolMiester (139)
1324490 2013-01-23 03:43:00 Lol AMD drivers are fine and you will get no better bang for your buck than the 78xx range. Slankydudl (16687)
1324491 2013-01-23 03:43:00 Budget build for me would be along the lines of:
Asus or gigabyte MB, a cheaper one is fine on a budget - socket 1155
Best i3 or preferably i5 you can afford - I'd try real hard to fit an i5 into the budget
4 or 8GB of RAM - reccomend 8GB, it's a lot cheaper to do it now than add to it later
Good quailty 500-600W PSU
Whatever case you like as long as airflow is reasonable
Windows 7 OEM
a WD Blue 500GB hard drive, or maybe a 1GB ($20 ish difference)
and spend everything left you can scrape up on the best graphics card you can afford.

Toms hardware recently started revising their low end reccomendations to quad core as the latest games are using all four cores which has pushed AMD back into the running up until you get to the i5, which basically blows away anything AMD can offer. This being the case you may want to consider an AMD rig but it limits your future upgrade potential.

Ideally you should read through these two articles;
www.tomshardware.com
www.tomshardware.com

Do you need a screen and keyboard as well? I could price something up on Computer lounges website as an example if you wanted.
dugimodo (138)
1324492 2013-01-23 03:57:00 8GB is nice, but when you're on such a tight budget, why not just add an extra 4GB in a few weeks. You're not going to ever hit the 4GB if you close all your browser windows while you fire up a game so it's not a HUGE issue.
SSD makes a *massive* difference to load times, I'd happily take one of those any day and a slightly lesser spec GPU personally. Dropping load times on LOTRO for example from 55 seconds down to 3 seconds.
Chilling_Silence (9)
1324493 2013-01-23 04:01:00 8GB is nice, but when you're on such a tight budget, why not just add an extra 4GB in a few weeks. You're not going to ever hit the 4GB if you close all your browser windows while you fire up a game so it's not a HUGE issue.
SSD makes a *massive* difference to load times, I'd happily take one of those any day and a slightly lesser spec GPU personally. Dropping load times on LOTRO for example from 55 seconds down to 3 seconds.

Definitely agree with this. What is 'technically' faster on paper (frame rates etc) is often not the same as what 'feels' faster (eg an SSD, quicker boot/load times).
wratterus (105)
1324494 2013-01-23 04:16:00 also bearing in mind that if you have enough vram then less system ram will be used. Slankydudl (16687)
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