Building a PC - Does this seem good?

[loc978]

...that would be three parts (CPU, motherboard and RAM, respectively), not a whole computer... I won't comment on the price, since in the UK everything looks ridiculously overpriced to me.

But unless your brother is offering to give you a hard drive, case, power supply, video card, optical drive and an operating system installation, I'd say those parts would be a waste of your money.

Just a guess... since, again, UK prices... but I think you would be best served with a low to midrange AMD APU system on your budget (probably an A4 or A6, maybe an A8). I build 'em for around $300 in parts pretty regularly.

I have a corpse of a computer here, it's just old and dead (press the power button and it just beeps) so I figured "time for a new one".

So I have everything you listed really, video card is a little worrying since the one in my dead PC is a hd 5770 (or something).

I just have a nagging feeling that my old motherboard limits what I could put on it.

Thanks.

about the... corpse... do you know for sure what's wrong with it? By your description it could be anything from a weak power supply browning everything out to RAM being slightly unplugged.

If the power supply is definitely good, you'd need to know its wattage to see if it could power that i5 your brother wants to sell you... and yeah, you'd still have the same video card, so games like Bioshock Infinite (heavy on the GPU, light on everything else) would perform the same as ever (a 5770 should run Infinite decently on low settings at a reduced resolution, maybe 720p).

 

[Auron]

I'd personally drop the bluray drive... I don't even use disks anymore but that might be an unpopular opinion. Is 500 GB HD enough though? I'm with 2.5 TB here and am starting to want more.

I use a FX-8350(http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819113284) for CPU and am very pleased with the overall performance so far. Last time I used intel it was still in the x2 era. Both manufacturers really are good but for cost-effectiveness I'm an AMD fan usually.

I'm also using the aforementioned Gigabyte GA-970A-UD3P for MOBO and would recommend it as well.

I got a Nvidia GTX 760 this november and am pretty happy with it, the only game that hit it's performance on ultra high so far was Assassin's Creed IV(which seems to have some performance problems for most people apparently.) I was aiming for a 770 though but the exchange rate for the $ got hit around november and it became a bit beyond my budget back then. I currently know absolutely nothing about Radeon's lineup(haven't used one since the 4870) so I don't even know how high end that GPU you listed is.

 

[omega 616]

about the... corpse... do you know for sure what's wrong with it? By your description it could be anything from a weak power supply browning everything out to RAM being slightly unplugged.

If the power supply is definitely good, you'd need to know its wattage to see if it could power that i5 your brother wants to sell you... and yeah, you'd still have the same video card, so games like Bioshock Infinite (heavy on the GPU, light on everything else) would perform the same as ever (a 5770 should run Infinite decently on low settings at a reduced resolution, maybe 720p).

All I know is one day I was using it as normal, then my 1tb hard drive wasn't showing up in "my computer", turned it off and on, it then started coming up with the "please insert os disk" kind of message, put the disk in and it got the ocean blue of the windows 7 OS then crashed, tried to restart it and it beeped constantly. The only way I can describe the beeping is, say "beep" as fast as you can.

I am going to give it a good clean up tomorrow before I drop over £300 on new parts.

While I haven't had the power supply long, it does have the kind of name that makes you think "cheap" ... my brother likes to call it "ezbake oven", 800w

 

[Shuu]

I'm hardly an expert, but I'd think you'd need to spend more to be able to play current games. Your processor and memory is fine, but if gaming's your game, you should try and future-proof your system. At the very least, I'd bump up the power supply, so that if you need to upgrade for future gaming, you just need a beefier video card and the power supply will be able to accommodate.

 

[loc978]

about the... corpse... do you know for sure what's wrong with it? By your description it could be anything from a weak power supply browning everything out to RAM being slightly unplugged.

If the power supply is definitely good, you'd need to know its wattage to see if it could power that i5 your brother wants to sell you... and yeah, you'd still have the same video card, so games like Bioshock Infinite (heavy on the GPU, light on everything else) would perform the same as ever (a 5770 should run Infinite decently on low settings at a reduced resolution, maybe 720p).

All I know is one day I was using it as normal, then my 1tb hard drive wasn't showing up in "my computer", turned it off and on, it then started coming up with the "please insert os disk" kind of message, put the disk in and it got the ocean blue of the windows 7 OS then crashed, tried to restart it and it beeped constantly. The only way I can describe the beeping is, say "beep" as fast as you can.

I am going to give it a good clean up tomorrow before I drop over £300 on new parts.

While I haven't had the power supply long, it does have the kind of name that makes you think "cheap" ... my brother likes to call it "ezbake oven", 800w

well, that's certainly enough wattage for anything short of SLI'd Titans and a hexacore i7 extreme...

Any idea what brand your BIOS is? That beep code could tell you what's wrong. http://www.computerhope.com/beep.htm

 

[wulfy42]

I just got a great system.....all put together from parts....for $450.

Some of the parts where used, but everything is tested and works great.

Key was to not go crazy on the more expensive parts for now....I'll upgrade later when it's needed (mainly the GPU)...but to have everything else set up fine for future games.

Parts are:

AMD bulldozer fx8120 3 1ghz eight core am3 processor
AMD cooling fan
ASrock 990fx extreme3 socket am3 amd 990fx amd quad crossfirex nvidia quad sli motherboard
16 (2x8 gig) 240 pin ddr3 1333 dual channel ram
hitachi wd 500 gb 7200 rpm 16 mb drive
Nvidia geforce gtx550 ti 1 g ddr 5 video card (Will upgrade this later)
rosewill blackbone tower computer case
Deluxe cooling package
Thermaltake 500 watt power supply.


Base parts on part picker for all that was about $640, but I got many of the parts used...with a net cost of about $450. It's running everything great right now with no problems even with that graphics card....on my HD tv.

I think pretty much everything I got is going to work fine for awhile, and I even have space for an additional graphics card, so I can run 2 of them if I upgrade to a better one later on.

As far as the power supply goes, the setup says it only needs 350W...so 500 seemed like a good idea to play it safe. Don't see needing more then that even with another GPU.

If you shop around and don't mind using/getting used parts, you can put together a really good system for about as much as a new console. I actually get better graphics on my games on my PC now then on my consoles....on the same TV...and with steam sales etc, it's way cheaper. So I mainly just got with console games for exclusives.

I have not bought any next gen consoles now either (xbox one/ps4/wii u)...although I will probably get the ps4 when Kingdom hearts 3 comes out finally.

Anyway as long as you don't mind used parts..you can really save a bundle..and....if a part does go bad (no warranty), the amount you save is more then enough to replace it.

Would have been another $200 just going with all new parts on my setup....which is actually enough for me to get 2 GPU instead of just 1 (or a much better GPU). I was looking at a $350 GPU for a bit but decided to hold off...since I don't need it now...and prices will drop for the current GPU's as time goes on..and new even better ones will come out (like the one Nvidia just came out with).

See no reason at all to upgrade for awhile though as I can play everything I have at high settings and notice no framerate drops at all.

I don't play FPS games though..which I think have the highest requirements. Mostly RPGS, MMO's etc. And for them (marvel heroes etc)...this comp is awesome.

 

[iseko]

Pretty much what has been said already. The only thing i might add is going for a ssd drive. Seriously, you can build the fastest computer you want and the harddrive will be there to rain on your parade. Granted it doesnt do THAT much once you are in the game (sorta...). Not having one pisses me off in day to day use. A 120gig ssd doesnt cost that much. Plug in a regular 500gig or 1 tb drive for data storage and you are good to go!

cheapest 120gb SSD for me is about £50 while a 1td hard drive is about the same price. Why double your budget on storage and cut something else for a computer that boots up a few seconds faster? I've been using normal hard drives for years and they do the job fine. No point putting in more costs for what is basically an added bonus.

I can agree with everything you are saying. An ssd will not affect framerate whilst gaming. However, when you are purely talking about gaming experience. An ssd will have a tremendous impact on loading times. Not only booting the game but loading in between maps for example. Is it essential? No not in the slightest. But for certain games (i.e. skyrim) it will do alot. Secondly it can have an impact on texture load times. But again that wont influence framerate.

My point however is that a pc is not just used for gaming. An ssd will make your pc boot faster. Open programs faster. Make your pc run much much smoother. Also: pre downloaded updates will install faster. Just a few of many examples what an ssd can do for you.

Final conclusion: is it essential? Hell no, just like you said. Is 50£ an extravagant number to increase pc speed in certain areas literally by a factor ten and more? That would be a personal choice based on your budget. Me personally? I can never go back to a normal hdd.

 

[omega 616]

about the... corpse... do you know for sure what's wrong with it? By your description it could be anything from a weak power supply browning everything out to RAM being slightly unplugged.

If the power supply is definitely good, you'd need to know its wattage to see if it could power that i5 your brother wants to sell you... and yeah, you'd still have the same video card, so games like Bioshock Infinite (heavy on the GPU, light on everything else) would perform the same as ever (a 5770 should run Infinite decently on low settings at a reduced resolution, maybe 720p).

All I know is one day I was using it as normal, then my 1tb hard drive wasn't showing up in "my computer", turned it off and on, it then started coming up with the "please insert os disk" kind of message, put the disk in and it got the ocean blue of the windows 7 OS then crashed, tried to restart it and it beeped constantly. The only way I can describe the beeping is, say "beep" as fast as you can.

I am going to give it a good clean up tomorrow before I drop over £300 on new parts.

While I haven't had the power supply long, it does have the kind of name that makes you think "cheap" ... my brother likes to call it "ezbake oven", 800w

well, that's certainly enough wattage for anything short of SLI'd Titans and a hexacore i7 extreme...

Any idea what brand your BIOS is? That beep code could tell you what's wrong. http://www.computerhope.com/beep.htm

I have no idea but I have just messaged my brother, he built my computer, so I'm sure he will know.

This is why I am mainly a console gamer, this shit is just way over my head ... all these names of parts and numbers and no idea what works with what and when something breaks you have to go on a small journey around forums.

EDIT: actually he doesn't know my BIOS

 

[SJXarg]

I can agree with everything you are saying. An ssd will not affect framerate whilst gaming. However, when you are purely talking about gaming experience. An ssd will have a tremendous impact on loading times. Not only booting the game but loading in between maps for example. Is it essential? No not in the slightest. But for certain games (i.e. skyrim) it will do alot. Secondly it can have an impact on texture load times. But again that wont influence framerate.

My point however is that a pc is not just used for gaming. An ssd will make your pc boot faster. Open programs faster. Make your pc run much much smoother. Also: pre downloaded updates will install faster. Just a few of many examples what an ssd can do for you.

Final conclusion: is it essential? Hell no, just like you said. Is 50£ an extravagant number to increase pc speed in certain areas literally by a factor ten and more? That would be a personal choice based on your budget. Me personally? I can never go back to a normal hdd.

I concur what this man said. I have an SSD for my main drive and it's absolutely wonderful, performance wise.

Just keep in mind, they're quite limited in storage and still ridiculously expensive. I have a 120GB as well and the way Windows just eats up space makes it far too small, in my opinion.
The benefits are awesome, but they have to be weighed and as OP said, he doesn't have that much money to begin with.

I also agree, I have an established system I'm in no hurry to reinstall on, so when I got my SSD I put it in, added it as a secondary install location for Steam, and backed up, then restored some games from the HDD to the SSD, and WOW what a difference it makes. Some of the differences I noticed were

DayZmod
- to multiplayer lobby
-- with hdd, 40s
-- with ssd, 21s

- from lobby to playing the game
-- with hdd, 1m30s-2m
-- with ssd, <1m


Total War Shogun 2 (dx9, dx11 takes much longer)
- from clicking OK on mod manager, to ingame menu
-- with hdd, between 1 and 5 minutes (taking Shogun2 out of focus DRAMATICALLY increases load time)
-- with ssd, 26 seconds

- from starting historical scenario (1561) to ingame
-- with hdd, 35s
-- with ssd, was about 10-12 seconds


Path of Exile
- from desktop to menu
-- with hdd, a bit over a minute
-- with ssd, 15s

- changing zones
-- with hdd, 10+ seconds
-- with ssd, 2-3 seconds

An SSD makes an amazing difference in load times, depending on the game, and if you're stuck with load times frequently and they're beginning to really agigate you with their frequency and duration, an SSD can really make a large difference, but as other posters have noted, they are quite expensive for the amount of storage you get on them, and I would never get one for storage at today's prices.

 

[loc978]

about the... corpse... do you know for sure what's wrong with it? By your description it could be anything from a weak power supply browning everything out to RAM being slightly unplugged.

If the power supply is definitely good, you'd need to know its wattage to see if it could power that i5 your brother wants to sell you... and yeah, you'd still have the same video card, so games like Bioshock Infinite (heavy on the GPU, light on everything else) would perform the same as ever (a 5770 should run Infinite decently on low settings at a reduced resolution, maybe 720p).

All I know is one day I was using it as normal, then my 1tb hard drive wasn't showing up in "my computer", turned it off and on, it then started coming up with the "please insert os disk" kind of message, put the disk in and it got the ocean blue of the windows 7 OS then crashed, tried to restart it and it beeped constantly. The only way I can describe the beeping is, say "beep" as fast as you can.

I am going to give it a good clean up tomorrow before I drop over £300 on new parts.

While I haven't had the power supply long, it does have the kind of name that makes you think "cheap" ... my brother likes to call it "ezbake oven", 800w

well, that's certainly enough wattage for anything short of SLI'd Titans and a hexacore i7 extreme...

Any idea what brand your BIOS is? That beep code could tell you what's wrong. http://www.computerhope.com/beep.htm

I have no idea but I have just messaged my brother, he built my computer, so I'm sure he will know.

This is why I am mainly a console gamer, this shit is just way over my head ... all these names of parts and numbers and no idea what works with what and when something breaks you have to go on a small journey around forums.

EDIT: actually he doesn't know my BIOS

Well, if he built it in the first place, I suppose you should generally trust him over some other system builder you met on the internet.

That said, ask him to make sure your power supply and video card are functional before going ahead with the upgrade he has in mind. Sounds like he'll need to be there physically to do the parts swap anyway. Hopefully he has other hardware laying around to test your parts with. I've always got a spare parts computer for that sort of work.

 

[omega 616]

about the... corpse... do you know for sure what's wrong with it? By your description it could be anything from a weak power supply browning everything out to RAM being slightly unplugged.

If the power supply is definitely good, you'd need to know its wattage to see if it could power that i5 your brother wants to sell you... and yeah, you'd still have the same video card, so games like Bioshock Infinite (heavy on the GPU, light on everything else) would perform the same as ever (a 5770 should run Infinite decently on low settings at a reduced resolution, maybe 720p).

All I know is one day I was using it as normal, then my 1tb hard drive wasn't showing up in "my computer", turned it off and on, it then started coming up with the "please insert os disk" kind of message, put the disk in and it got the ocean blue of the windows 7 OS then crashed, tried to restart it and it beeped constantly. The only way I can describe the beeping is, say "beep" as fast as you can.

I am going to give it a good clean up tomorrow before I drop over £300 on new parts.

While I haven't had the power supply long, it does have the kind of name that makes you think "cheap" ... my brother likes to call it "ezbake oven", 800w

well, that's certainly enough wattage for anything short of SLI'd Titans and a hexacore i7 extreme...

Any idea what brand your BIOS is? That beep code could tell you what's wrong. http://www.computerhope.com/beep.htm

I have no idea but I have just messaged my brother, he built my computer, so I'm sure he will know.

This is why I am mainly a console gamer, this shit is just way over my head ... all these names of parts and numbers and no idea what works with what and when something breaks you have to go on a small journey around forums.

EDIT: actually he doesn't know my BIOS

Well, if he built it in the first place, I suppose you should generally trust him over some other system builder you met on the internet.

That said, ask him to make sure your power supply and video card are functional before going ahead with the upgrade he has in mind. Sounds like he'll need to be there physically to do the parts swap anyway. Hopefully he has other hardware laying around to test your parts with. I've always got a spare parts computer for that sort of work.

My brother is kind of ass, His advice for my video card installation "just undo a couple of screws and stick it in" ... his kind of mentoring is tough love, though I have done hard drive, video card, sound card, ram and processor on my own ... kind of surprised my computer lasted this long.

His advice now is and I quote"Probably Phoenix bios", "Phoenix is common, start there".

 

[loc978]

about the... corpse... do you know for sure what's wrong with it? By your description it could be anything from a weak power supply browning everything out to RAM being slightly unplugged.

If the power supply is definitely good, you'd need to know its wattage to see if it could power that i5 your brother wants to sell you... and yeah, you'd still have the same video card, so games like Bioshock Infinite (heavy on the GPU, light on everything else) would perform the same as ever (a 5770 should run Infinite decently on low settings at a reduced resolution, maybe 720p).

All I know is one day I was using it as normal, then my 1tb hard drive wasn't showing up in "my computer", turned it off and on, it then started coming up with the "please insert os disk" kind of message, put the disk in and it got the ocean blue of the windows 7 OS then crashed, tried to restart it and it beeped constantly. The only way I can describe the beeping is, say "beep" as fast as you can.

I am going to give it a good clean up tomorrow before I drop over £300 on new parts.

While I haven't had the power supply long, it does have the kind of name that makes you think "cheap" ... my brother likes to call it "ezbake oven", 800w

well, that's certainly enough wattage for anything short of SLI'd Titans and a hexacore i7 extreme...

Any idea what brand your BIOS is? That beep code could tell you what's wrong. http://www.computerhope.com/beep.htm

I have no idea but I have just messaged my brother, he built my computer, so I'm sure he will know.

This is why I am mainly a console gamer, this shit is just way over my head ... all these names of parts and numbers and no idea what works with what and when something breaks you have to go on a small journey around forums.

EDIT: actually he doesn't know my BIOS

Well, if he built it in the first place, I suppose you should generally trust him over some other system builder you met on the internet.

That said, ask him to make sure your power supply and video card are functional before going ahead with the upgrade he has in mind. Sounds like he'll need to be there physically to do the parts swap anyway. Hopefully he has other hardware laying around to test your parts with. I've always got a spare parts computer for that sort of work.

My brother is kind of ass, His advice for my video card installation "just undo a couple of screws and stick it in" ... his kind of mentoring is tough love, though I have done hard drive, video card, sound card, ram and processor on my own ... kind of surprised my computer lasted this long.

His advice now is and I quote"Probably Phoenix bios", "Phoenix is common, start there".

Hmm... if you're stuck doing this yourself, I maintain you need to figure out the problem with your current system before replacing parts. By your description of the beep it makes, best guess is a RAM or CPU failure with either an AWARD or AMI BIOS.

I'd recommend following a basic troubleshooting guide, maybe something like this: http://www.computerhope.com/issues/ch000607.htm ...though some steps are a bit erroneous at this point. After making sure your power works and fans spin up, the important parts would be disconnecting hard drives, removing/reseating your RAM and CPU.

 

[omega 616]

about the... corpse... do you know for sure what's wrong with it? By your description it could be anything from a weak power supply browning everything out to RAM being slightly unplugged.

If the power supply is definitely good, you'd need to know its wattage to see if it could power that i5 your brother wants to sell you... and yeah, you'd still have the same video card, so games like Bioshock Infinite (heavy on the GPU, light on everything else) would perform the same as ever (a 5770 should run Infinite decently on low settings at a reduced resolution, maybe 720p).

All I know is one day I was using it as normal, then my 1tb hard drive wasn't showing up in "my computer", turned it off and on, it then started coming up with the "please insert os disk" kind of message, put the disk in and it got the ocean blue of the windows 7 OS then crashed, tried to restart it and it beeped constantly. The only way I can describe the beeping is, say "beep" as fast as you can.

I am going to give it a good clean up tomorrow before I drop over £300 on new parts.

While I haven't had the power supply long, it does have the kind of name that makes you think "cheap" ... my brother likes to call it "ezbake oven", 800w

well, that's certainly enough wattage for anything short of SLI'd Titans and a hexacore i7 extreme...

Any idea what brand your BIOS is? That beep code could tell you what's wrong. http://www.computerhope.com/beep.htm

I have no idea but I have just messaged my brother, he built my computer, so I'm sure he will know.

This is why I am mainly a console gamer, this shit is just way over my head ... all these names of parts and numbers and no idea what works with what and when something breaks you have to go on a small journey around forums.

EDIT: actually he doesn't know my BIOS

Well, if he built it in the first place, I suppose you should generally trust him over some other system builder you met on the internet.

That said, ask him to make sure your power supply and video card are functional before going ahead with the upgrade he has in mind. Sounds like he'll need to be there physically to do the parts swap anyway. Hopefully he has other hardware laying around to test your parts with. I've always got a spare parts computer for that sort of work.

My brother is kind of ass, His advice for my video card installation "just undo a couple of screws and stick it in" ... his kind of mentoring is tough love, though I have done hard drive, video card, sound card, ram and processor on my own ... kind of surprised my computer lasted this long.

His advice now is and I quote"Probably Phoenix bios", "Phoenix is common, start there".

Hmm... if you're stuck doing this yourself, I maintain you need to figure out the problem with your current system before replacing parts. By your description of the beep it makes, best guess is a RAM or CPU failure with either an AWARD or AMI BIOS.

I'd recommend following a basic troubleshooting guide, maybe something like this: http://www.computerhope.com/issues/ch000607.htm ...though some steps are a bit erroneous at this point. After making sure your power works and fans spin up, the important parts would be disconnecting hard drives, removing/reseating your RAM and CPU.

If I'm honest I was a bad pc owner, I kind of left the side off my case, for a good number of months. So after looking at compressed air and thinking "damn, air is expensive" I just used cotton buds to clean a lot of dust off and cleaned then reapplied thermal paste.

I shall follow those steps tomorrow, they don't seem complicated.

 

[omega 616]

Snip

Thank for your help.

Got home today swapped the first thing to boot from floppy to cdrom (had my windows disk in it) and then stuff happened and now my PC is working perfectly ... well, except for my PC being bad at math (2gb of ram + 2 gb of ram = 2.9 gb of ram).

 

[Imperioratorex Caprae]

**SNIP**

Unless you're really attached to bluray, its not needed at the moment and you can always upgrade yourself later. Wifi is crap except for portable things, you're better off going to wired connection, especially since you're not buying a notebook. Just get a long cable if you're far from the router and invest in some tools to mount it on the wall or just run it under carpet if you don't want to see the cable. You'd save money that way.
Other than that the specs are good for now and you won't need to upgrade for a bit.

 

[loc978]

Snip

Thank for your help.

Got home today swapped the first thing to boot from floppy to cdrom (had my windows disk in it) and then stuff happened and now my PC is working perfectly ... well, except for my PC being bad at math (2gb of ram + 2 gb of ram = 2.9 gb of ram).

No problem.

...and your RAM problem is probably stemming from running a 32-bit OS. XP and Vista/7-32 bit can only utilize ~3GB...
Which is why I think it's funny when I see a 32-bit game claim it requires more than 3GB of system memory. They really don't.

 

[omega 616]

Snip

Thank for your help.

Got home today swapped the first thing to boot from floppy to cdrom (had my windows disk in it) and then stuff happened and now my PC is working perfectly ... well, except for my PC being bad at math (2gb of ram + 2 gb of ram = 2.9 gb of ram).

No problem.

...and your RAM problem is probably stemming from running a 32-bit OS. XP and Vista/7-32 bit can only utilize ~3GB...
Which is why I think it's funny when I see a 32-bit game claim it requires more than 3GB of system memory. They really don't.

The "system" option in the control panel says "installed memory (ram): 4.00 GB (2.94 GB usable), System type: 64-bit Operating system".

It's stopping me playing games at recommended settings and wont even let me play dishonored (according to "can you run it"), sad panda!

 

[SKBPinkie]

**SNIP**

Unless you're really attached to bluray, its not needed at the moment and you can always upgrade yourself later. Wifi is crap except for portable things, you're better off going to wired connection, especially since you're not buying a notebook. Just get a long cable if you're far from the router and invest in some tools to mount it on the wall or just run it under carpet if you don't want to see the cable. You'd save money that way.
Other than that the specs are good for now and you won't need to upgrade for a bit.

Yeah, I got rid of the Blu ray, WiFi, replaced the motherboard, and it's only a bit over my current budget. I cannot wait for it to arrive!

On a related note - any game recommendations from anyone here to test out the system? Something that looks and plays great as well, perhaps?

 

[loc978]

Snip

Thank for your help.

Got home today swapped the first thing to boot from floppy to cdrom (had my windows disk in it) and then stuff happened and now my PC is working perfectly ... well, except for my PC being bad at math (2gb of ram + 2 gb of ram = 2.9 gb of ram).

No problem.

...and your RAM problem is probably stemming from running a 32-bit OS. XP and Vista/7-32 bit can only utilize ~3GB...
Which is why I think it's funny when I see a 32-bit game claim it requires more than 3GB of system memory. They really don't.

The "system" option in the control panel says "installed memory (ram): 4.00 GB (2.94 GB usable), System type: 64-bit Operating system".

It's stopping me playing games at recommended settings and wont even let me play dishonored (according to "can you run it"), sad panda!

Huh. Learn something every day, I guess:
http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/windows/en-US/b63620dd-352b-4d40-89b4-768ce846825c/usable-ram-in-windows-7

Might be in msconfig, might be in your BIOS settings.