Any good?

[Mikesmith08]

Hi, looking at building a computer and just wondering if this rig is any good. Looking to run Shogun on medium settings, any advice would be much appreciated.

AMD Phenom X4 @ 2.57GHz
3GB Memory
GeForce GT430
500GB HDD
Soundblaster 5.1
CD DVD Drive
2 Extra fans.

[Devilmaypoop]

Not at all. I doubt you'll be running anywhere near medium settings. The CPU is absolutely horrible, more than the GPU.

[irishron]

I don't know if the graphics card can even play it being so low-end. Great for watching movies but that's about it.

[ROFL Copter]

That GPU is awful. The CPU isn't great either. If you must go AMD, then at least get one of their hexacores. Though it would be smarter to get an Intel chip, at least until the Bulldozers come out.

[Crazyeyesreaper]

hexcores offer no real improvement when gaming compared to the quadcores, sadly the performance per clock on AMD is just terrible in general for Shogun II, since the game only uses effectively 2 cores.

from the looks the machine is even worse because it looks to be a Phenom I not a Phenom II thats even worse since Phenom I was slow as molasses in games.

[Mikesmith08]

Thanks for the replies. So I’m getting the feeling this is pretty terrible. Any chance you could make some recommendations. I’m looking to stick within the 500 mark, any help would be appreciated.

[Crazyeyesreaper]

3 key thing si need to know

do you need a monitor?
can you assemble a PC yourself or know someone who can
are you capable of sending in Mail In Rebates properly

[Mikesmith08]

3 key thing si need to know

do you need a monitor?
can you assemble a PC yourself or know someone who can
are you capable of sending in Mail In Rebates properly

Hi thanks for the reply, I already have the monitor, I know someone who can assemble it for me and not knowing what the third one actually is im gonna say that no im not capable of that.

[Crazyeyesreaper]

mail in rebates or info and coupons you send back to the manufacturer if you follow there steps properly they send you money back so you save money lol
Below is an image of my Newegg cart, total cost was $499, if parts are missing from there ill do another build later but i have work to get to. so it will have to wait.
http://img.techpowerup.org/110702/PC...%20July246.jpg

[Mikesmith08]

Right, thanks for the help so far but the guy I've got building it for me has put this forward. What do you think?,
Gaming motherboard.
AMD Phenom Quad Core @ 2.87GHz (3.2 turbo)
4GB DDR3 Over clocked RAM
ATI Radeon HD6850 Extreme
700W Power

[Devilmaypoop]

Right, thanks for the help so far but the guy I've got building it for me has put this forward. What do you think?,
Gaming motherboard.
AMD Phenom Quad Core @ 2.87GHz (3.2 turbo)
4GB DDR3 Over clocked RAM
ATI Radeon HD6850 Extreme
700W Power

If that's a Phenom I, it's going to suck. No Phenom II has a clock frequency like that. Also I wouldn't trust a "gaming" motherboard. You need to give us the real name, as far as we know it can be horrible and catch fire the second you load up a game(I'm serious).

[Crazyeyesreaper]

yea the guys not giving you real part names

700w power supply, that could be a Diablotek unit and those are known to explode and kill PCs if you even try to load them close to what they SAY they can handle

gaming motherboard dosent mean jack heres why

any motherboard with a PCIE x16 slot can be labled a gaming motherboard

Phenom quads and phenom II quads last i checked dont have turbo, no Phenom I series ever reached 2.87ghz fastest Phenom 1 was 2.6ghz Phenom IIs have rounded speeds of 2.8 3.0 3.2 3.4 3.5 3.6 etc no 2.87 with turbo

the Phenom II quads with turbo never got released as far as i know there only available in japan. even then none of them were 2.87ghz

[irishron]

I have a Phenom II Black 3.0 that can be overclocked to 3.6 but no turbo.

[Mikesmith08]

Ok thanks for all the replys so far but i've been looking at getting a rig built from pcspecialist.co.uk, so what do you guys think?
Case
STYLISH PIANO BLACK ENIGMA MICRO-ATX CASE + 2 FRONT USB
Processor (CPU)
AMD ATHLON II X2 265 (3.30GHz/2MB CACHE/AM3)
Motherboard
ASUS® M4A78LT-M: mATX MAINBOARD, DDR3, USB 2.0, SATA 3.0Gb/s
Memory (RAM)
4GB SAMSUNG DDR3 DUAL-DDR3 1333MHz (2 X 2GB)
Graphics Card
1GB AMD RADEON™ HD6770 - DVI,HDMI,VGA - DX® 11
Free Item
FREE Total War Shogun™ 2 with any AMD® Radeon™ Graphics card!
Memory - 1st Hard Disk
500GB SERIAL ATA 3-Gb/s HARD DRIVE WITH 8MB CACHE (7,200rpm)
1st DVD/BLU-RAY Drive
24x DUAL LAYER DVD WRITER ±R/±RW/RAM
Memory Card Reader
INTERNAL 52 IN 1 CARD READER (XD, MS, CF, SD, etc) + 1 x USB 2.0 PORT
Power Supply
450W Quiet 80 PLUS Dual Rail PSU + 120mm Case Fan (£29)
Processor Cooling
STANDARD AMD CPU COOLER
Sound Card
ONBOARD 6 CHANNEL (5.1) HIGH DEF AUDIO (AS STANDARD)
Network Facilities
ONBOARD 10/100/1000 GIGABIT LAN PORT - AS STANDARD ON ALL PCs
USB Options
4 x USB 2.0 PORTS @ BACK PANEL (MIN 2 FRONT PORTS) AS STANDARD
Operating System
Genuine Windows 7 Home Premium 64 Bit - inc DVD & Licence (£79)
Warranty
3 Year Silver Warranty (1 Year Collect & Return, 1 Year Parts, 3 Year Labour) (£5)

[Crazyeyesreaper]

whats the total cost, for the above and ill tell you if its a good deal or not

[Ybbon]

Try http://www.cyberpowersystem.co.uk/ as well. They were very good on my PC, sales and support were excellent. Be worth a comparison and their build tool is good to get a set of specs against. Think where you want to spend your money.

Do you want an expensive case that looks good? or one that looks ordinary but is loaded with top notch stuff inside?

[Mikesmith08]

Thanks for the replies, the total cost is 441 great British pounds, what do you think. I'll have a look at cyberpowersystems website and see if there any cheaper, thanks again.

[Crazyeyesreaper]

you could build far better on your own for the same cost. 440 quid for that yea you could do better and have better quality parts.

[Mikesmith08]

Ok, I look at cyberpowersystems and configured this for just over 400, any good?

• CAS: Azza Orion Gaming Mid-Tower Case with See-Thru Side Panel (Silver with Blue Lightning)
• CASUPGRADE: NONE
• CD: 24X Double Layer Dual Format DVD±R/±RW + CD-R/RW DRIVE. (BLACK COLOR)
• CD2: NONE
• CPU: Intel® Core™ i3-2120 3.30 GHz 3M Intel Smart Cache LGA1155 [+16]
• CS_FAN: Default Case Fan
• DONGLES: NONE
• EXPAN: NONE
• FA_HDD: None
• FAN: INTEL LGA1156 CERTIFIED CPU FAN & HEATSINK [-23]
• FREEBIE_CU1: FREE Game - Shogun 2 Coupon: Total War
• GLASS3D: NONE
• HDD: 500GB SATA-II 3.0Gb/s 16MB Cache HDD (Single Hard Drive)
• HDD2: NONE
• HOMEINSTALL: NONE
• IEEE_CARD: NONE
• KEYBOARD: NONE
• MB_SRT: None
• MEMORY: 4GB (2x2GB) PC10666 DDR3/1333mhz Dual Channel Memory (Corsair Value Select or Major Brand)
• MODEM: NONE
• MONITOR: NONE
• MONITOR2: NONE
• MONITOR3: NONE
• MOTHERBOARD: MSI H61M-E33 H61 DDR3 Intel LGA1155 Micro ATX Mainboard w/ 7.1 HD Audio, GbLAN, SATA-II, 1 Gen2 PCIe & 2 PCIe X1 (B3 Stepping) [-13]
• MOUSE: NONE
• MVC: Xtreme Performance in SLI/CrossFireX Gaming Mode Supports Single Monitor
• NETWORK: ADDITIONAL 10/100/1000 NETWORK CARD PCI [+6]
• OS: NONE - FORMAT HARD DRIVE ONLY(NO OVERCLOCKING AVALIABLE)
• OVERCLOCK: No Overclocking
• POWERSUPPLY: 500 Watts Power Supplies [+8] (CyberPower 500W Gaming Power Supply)
• RUSH: NONE
• SOUND: HIGH DEFINITION ON-BOARD 7.1 AUDIO
• SPEAKERS: NONE
• TEMP: NONE
• TVRC: NONE
• UPS: None
• USB: Built-in USB 2.0 Ports
• USBHD: NONE
• VC_PHYSX: None
• VIDEO: AMD Radeon HD 6570 1GB GDDR3 16X PCIe Video Card [+53] (Major Brand Powered by ATI)
• VIDEO2: None, or On-Board Integrated Graphics
• VIDEO3: None, or On-Board Integrated Graphics
• WAP: NONE
• WARRANTY: STANDARD WARRANTY: 3 Year Labour, 1 Year Parts, 1 Month Collect and Return plus Life-Time Technical Support
• WNC: PCI-E Wireless 802.11n 150Mbps Network Interface Card [+9]

[Devilmaypoop]

Get a Phenom II 955 or 840 or Athlon II 640 instead and get a better GPU.