Opinion on possible new desktop?

**OceanPhoenix** · July 12, 2012, 07:24 PM

Hey guys, I'm buying a new desktop to replace my old laptop, but I'm not the best with hardware. I'm getting it from an independent company from whom we (my family) has bought at least three computers - one laptop and two desktops. But I want your opinion on the specs and the price: although I trust the company, I still don't want to risk being ripped off.

Price is ~£600, including VAT
Specs:

Spoiler Alert, click show to read:

So what do you think?

EDIT: £600 = ~$925, or ~750€

**Jakethe_Snake15** · July 12, 2012, 11:41 PM

I'd say that the Graphics card is a bit weak...It would possibly get the job done, but its definitely not the best option. What resolution is the monitor?

I'm not 100% sure on how well the rest of that system stacks up, I've heard from one or two people that you'd have to OC the FX-4 4100 to get the best performance possible out of it...

There are definitely far more knowledgeable people than I on this forum, who would know exactly how much that system is really worth.

**OceanPhoenix** · July 13, 2012, 04:00 AM

Originally Posted by Jakethe_Snake15

I'd say that the Graphics card is a bit weak...It would possibly get the job done, but its definitely not the best option. What resolution is the monitor?

I'm not 100% sure on how well the rest of that system stacks up, I've heard from one or two people that you'd have to OC the FX-4 4100 to get the best performance possible out of it...

There are definitely far more knowledgeable people than I on this forum, who would know exactly how much that system is really worth.

I'm not sure about the resolution on the monitor, but the display doesn't really matter to me.

I'd rather not OC, if I could help it. I've gone for a pretty standard case - I doubt it'll be enough to keep an overcocked cpu cool, if it's under stress. Would the six core be much of a step up, or would it still need overclocking?

As for the gpu, that's really where I have no idea. Could anybody comment on how it would stand up against, say, shogun on mid-mid/high settings?

**Crazyeyesreaper** · July 13, 2012, 07:56 AM

i will impart this wisdom if you plan to play total war games, buy intel, get an i5 quadcore aka socket 1155 sandybridge or ivy bridge, so i5 2300 / 2400 / 2500 or if you get a $20 cooler namely the hyper 212+ from coolermaser get the 2500k and overclock it, performance gains will be atonishing,

the FX4100 is a cheap processor but their is no denying it tanks in CPU heavy games such as, Skyrim, Bad Company 2, Shogun 2, Dragon Age Origins etc.

**CoconutFred** · July 14, 2012, 11:54 AM

As an evaluation of your PC as of now:

AMD FX 4100- ~90
AM3+ Motherboard- ~80
600W Power Supplies- ~80
PCIe Network card- ~30
1TB Hard Drive- ~80
18.5" Monitor- ~70
GTS 450 (GDDR5)- ~80
4 GB DDR3-1333 RAM- ~27
Stock case- ~40
DVD Drive- ~15
________________________
Total- ~592

Note that component prices are based on arbitrary averages according to available prices in retailers today.

So with the average prices of components that your independent company is presumably using, the final price comes out to about £592. For a thrid party company building your PC, that's a very reasonable price and nothing to fret at. So I think you can be pretty sure that they are not ripping you off.

However, I'd look further into upgrading some of your individual components:

Graphics card is half a generation out of date. If you're planning on playing Shogun 2, I'd shoot for an AMD card rather than an Nvidia card, namely a Radeon HD 7770, 7750, or 6770. The Warscape engine (which Shogun 2 uses, and Rome 2 will presumably use) runs much smoother on AMD cards. You can find an HD 7750 online for ~£88, which is slightly more expensive than a 450. However the slight difference should be able to net you a richer experience in Shogun 2, greater power efficiency, and more future-proofing. Any <£100 graphics card you get, though, should only be able to play games at relatively low resolutions and med-high detail levels.

For your CPU, AMD Bulldozer is imo a weak choice and its only advantage over Intel is price. As Crazyeyesreaper said, a simple $20-30 (~£13) CPU cooler will give you much headroom to overclock your CPU, even with a stock computer case. I'd grab a socket 1155 motherboard if I were you (see Z68, Z77, P67, or H67 motherboards), and either a Sandy Bridge or Ivy Bridge processor (Sandy and Ivy Bridge are codenames for lines of Intel CPUs). If you can spare the extra £170 plus extra £150 for motherboard (yes, it is quite a bit), you can be absolutely sure that you won't be bottlenecked by your CPU in any games.

**OceanPhoenix** · July 14, 2012, 01:48 PM

Thanks guys. I think I am going to stick with the amd processor, for the sake of price, but I think I will go for a better gpu. The main thing that swayed me was actually my boss - he decided that, since I was getting a new pc, if it were able to run the rendering program we use for models (I work part time as a '3D Visualiser' - basically I make models in sketchup and export them to a program called lumion to render). Considering that I'm staying with the buldozer, what do you think would be a good gpu to go with it? I have about eighty pounds to spare, after the six hundred, but I'd rather not use all of it if at all possible.

**Crazyeyesreaper** · July 15, 2012, 11:11 PM

your choice but for total war the CPU = minimum fps in melee battles and the FX chips = piss poor were talking 10-14fps during melee fights while and intel sandybridge walks all over AMD in Total War titles,

http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/cpu...k-cpu-review/6

not sure if they finally fixed it or not but Bulldozer CPUs aka FX 4100 FX 6100 FX 8100 etc etc etc etc all had issues and couldnt run Shogun 2, might want to check the tread located in the Shogun 2 Technical Help area, certain motherboards got bios updates to fix the problem others didnt I stopped using AMD after the lackluster Phenom II lineup.