Gaming PC halp needed, enquire within.

[Sassafrass]

Gentlemen and ladies, I come to you seeking advice on getting a decentish gaming PC for a lowish price. Well, about £400 or so, give or take £50. I've got something that apparently is quite good according to spec testing sites but I'd rather get a second opinion. I'm also not looking to be playing on Ultra every game, just looking to run new games like Tomb Raider and things like that well enough so it doesn't make me want to rip my eyes out.

This is what I'm currently looking at.

CPU: AMD A6-3670K Quad Core APU (2.7GHz) & Radeon HD 6530
Motherboard: ASUS F1A55 LK R2.0: FM1 A Series
RAM: 4GBs Kingston Hyper-X Genesis Dual-DDR3
Graphics Card: 1GB AMD Radeon HD6670
PSU: 350W Dual Rail

So is this good, bad, any improvements you fine people suggest that doesn't insanely break the bank?

[small]Site used to build this was http://www.pcspecialist.co.uk if this helps suggest some improvements.[/small]

 

[MiracleOfSound]

Personally I'd go with Nvidia over AMD, they're great with updates and stuff plus have some funky physics stuff. But from my limited knowledge, looks pretty nifty

 

[sanquin]

I think if you go for an AMD athlon CPU you can get one that's a bit better. Shouldn't be too different in price. AMD Athlon II X4 740 Boxed might be good with 3.2 gHz and 3.7 gHz turbo. Costs 65 euro's over here. I would also not shy away from paying an extra 50 pounds or so to get a slightly better video card. I personally would recommend nvidia atm. Maybe a GeForce GTX 650 Ti 2GB. costs 140 euro's over here, not that much more expensive than the one you listed.

Lastly, keep in mind that 350W for your power supply might not be enough to power your video card. (even the one you listed.) These days at least 400W is recommended as far as I know. And for higher-end cards even 500 to 650W.

 

[Irridium]

Looks good. Should be able to run things pretty decently.

One suggestion I'd make is fill it up with as much RAM as possible. It's the cheapest part of the PC and it never helps to have a lot of it. 4gb should be just fine for now, though.

Personally I'd go with Nvidia over AMD, they're great with updates and stuff plus have some funky physics stuff. But from my limited knowledge, looks pretty nifty

I personally go with AMD because their cards are a bit cheaper than Nvidia and offer roughly the same amount of performance. Which is great for cheap bastards like me

 

[sanquin]

I personally go with AMD because their cards are a bit cheaper than Nvidia and offer roughly the same amount of performance. Which is great for cheap bastards like me

A few problems I always have with AMD cards:
1: A bit less user friendly. Not really a problem for me personally, but still a slight annoyance.
2: Drivers aren't kept as up to date as Nvidia does.
3: Some games, specifically some that I like, run worse with AMD than with Nvidia.

And at the moment a good AMD card really isn't cheaper than a good Nvidia card any more. Not over here at least.

 

[MiracleOfSound]

Looks good. Should be able to run things pretty decently.

One suggestion I'd make is fill it up with as much RAM as possible. It's the cheapest part of the PC and it never helps to have a lot of it. 4gb should be just fine for now, though.

Personally I'd go with Nvidia over AMD, they're great with updates and stuff plus have some funky physics stuff. But from my limited knowledge, looks pretty nifty

I personally go with AMD because their cards are a bit cheaper than Nvidia and offer roughly the same amount of performance. Which is great for cheap bastards like me

Yeah, it's only really an issue if you're a huge graphics whore like myself for example Borderlands 2 had some really nice extra Physics and gooey acid-ey death animations that I believe aren't possible on an AMD

 

[Sassafrass]

I personally go with AMD because their cards are a bit cheaper than Nvidia and offer roughly the same amount of performance. Which is great for cheap bastards like me

A few problems I always have with AMD cards:
1: A bit less user friendly. Not really a problem for me personally, but still a slight annoyance.
2: Drivers aren't kept as up to date as Nvidia does.
3: Some games, specifically some that I like, run worse with AMD than with Nvidia.

And at the moment a good AMD card really isn't cheaper than a good Nvidia card any more. Not over here at least.

The replacement card you suggested, the GTX 650, took me over budget by £40, if I also include a 450W PSU. It's not much really but I'd rather keep it between £400 and £450 til I can sort out my funds and what not. Plus putting in a 450W or a 600W PSU in doesn't give me much room to fiddle with cards and what have you. So at the moment, AMD will have to do purely because they're cheaper.

But thanks for your input, I'll keep it in mind if I get some more money for it.

 

[Irridium]

Looks good. Should be able to run things pretty decently.

One suggestion I'd make is fill it up with as much RAM as possible. It's the cheapest part of the PC and it never helps to have a lot of it. 4gb should be just fine for now, though.

Personally I'd go with Nvidia over AMD, they're great with updates and stuff plus have some funky physics stuff. But from my limited knowledge, looks pretty nifty

I personally go with AMD because their cards are a bit cheaper than Nvidia and offer roughly the same amount of performance. Which is great for cheap bastards like me

Yeah, it's only really an issue if you're a huge graphics whore like myself for example Borderlands 2 had some really nice extra Physics and gooey acid-ey death animations that I believe aren't possible on an AMD

Yeah. When you try it with an AMD card it eats performance like freaking crazy. Once tried it to see if it worked, and during a fight I went from 60fps down to 15. Freaking crazy. Did manage to catch the acid barrels melting a couple guys though, and it indeed looked sweet.

 

[MiracleOfSound]

[

Yeah. When you try it with an AMD card it eats performance like freaking crazy. Once tried it to see if it worked, and during a fight I went from 60fps down to 15. Freaking crazy. Did manage to catch the acid barrels melting a couple guys though, and it indeed looked sweet.

Heh, sounds like the same thing that was happening Lara's hair before the Nvidia update

 

[Irridium]

[

Yeah. When you try it with an AMD card it eats performance like freaking crazy. Once tried it to see if it worked, and during a fight I went from 60fps down to 15. Freaking crazy. Did manage to catch the acid barrels melting a couple guys though, and it indeed looked sweet.

Heh, sounds like the same thing that was happening Lara's hair before the Nvidia update

Oh yeah, AMD is using Tomb Raider to show off their new hair physics thing. PC gaming! It's got all your performance eating acid melting pretty-hair looking needs!

 

[sanquin]

The replacement card you suggested, the GTX 650, took me over budget by £40, if I also include a 450W PSU. It's not much really but I'd rather keep it between £400 and £450 til I can sort out my funds and what not. Plus putting in a 450W or a 600W PSU in doesn't give me much room to fiddle with cards and what have you. So at the moment, AMD will have to do purely because they're cheaper.

But thanks for your input, I'll keep it in mind if I get some more money for it.

Heh, I guess a gtx 650 won't do at all then. As one of those needs a good 600 or maybe even a 650W to run properly. Just be sure to check that your 6670 can run properly with a measly 350W, as I'm not so sure it can.

 

[MiracleOfSound]

[

Yeah. When you try it with an AMD card it eats performance like freaking crazy. Once tried it to see if it worked, and during a fight I went from 60fps down to 15. Freaking crazy. Did manage to catch the acid barrels melting a couple guys though, and it indeed looked sweet.

Heh, sounds like the same thing that was happening Lara's hair before the Nvidia update

Oh yeah, AMD is using Tomb Raider to show off their new hair physics thing. PC gaming! It's got all your performance eating acid melting pretty-hair looking needs!

In fairness it does look freaking amazing and after the driver update it runs on Nvidia too - capping some footage of it for the TR song vid

 

[Irridium]

[

Yeah. When you try it with an AMD card it eats performance like freaking crazy. Once tried it to see if it worked, and during a fight I went from 60fps down to 15. Freaking crazy. Did manage to catch the acid barrels melting a couple guys though, and it indeed looked sweet.

Heh, sounds like the same thing that was happening Lara's hair before the Nvidia update

Oh yeah, AMD is using Tomb Raider to show off their new hair physics thing. PC gaming! It's got all your performance eating acid melting pretty-hair looking needs!

In fairness it does look freaking amazing and after the driver update it runs on Nvidia too - capping some footage of it for the TR song vid

Ooooh boy, now that I can't wait to see

 

[AWAR]

What you nvidia elitists fail to realise here is that the APU processors need that AMD graphics card for crossfire.
Also, this is a much better build, and cheaper too.

 

[Sassafrass]

What you nvidia elitists fail to realise here is that the APU processors need that AMD graphics card for crossfire.
Also, this is a much better build, and cheaper too.

That is much cheaper.
Although is that built before shipping or will I have to build it myself?

 

[AWAR]

-

pcpartpicker is not a shop but a tool to help you choose parts for your new PC. You should pick these parts from various shops and either build it yourself or have someone do it for you.

 

[sanquin]

That is much cheaper.
Although is that built before shipping or will I have to build it myself?

Looks like they're separate parts so you'll have to build it yourself with that.

What you nvidia elitists fail to realise here is that the APU processors need that AMD graphics card for crossfire.
Also, this is a much better build, and cheaper too.

Right, we're just giving advice, tossing idea's around and you have to get hostile over the video card brand? Not every discussion has to turn hostile you know.

 

[AWAR]

-

It was never my intention to be hostile and I'm sorry if I seemed to act that way.