How good is this gaming PC?

D

davethedave123

First time out of the vault
Specs:
RAM: 8GB Dual Channel DDR3 at 1600Mhz
CPU: 4th Generation Intel Core i5-4430 processor
GPU: NVIDIA® GeForce® GTX 645 with 1GB GDDR5
HDD: 1TB SATA 6Gb/s
OS: Windows 7 or 8(my choice)

It cost $800 and it's a desktop. I was also considering replacing the GPU with the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 660 with 1.5GB GDDR5, however this would raise the price to $1050. Would using this card increase my computers performance significantly or should I stick with the cheaper one? Also how long will this computer last before certain parts become outdated?

PS dont tell me to build me own computer. I've considered many times and it's not for me
 
i would look at the i7 line again

and the gpu, yea try to find something in the $150 range.

and make sure your PSU can power that GPU

and what i prefer for hard drives

250 gig for OS, 10k RPM

and then either another 500 gig or more 10k rpm 250gig hard drives.
 
cost and durability

i still dont like the durability of SSDs.

they have gotten a lot better, but still.
 
Once you go solid state, you can never go back. At least I can't.
I don't keep all my stuff on it of course, just the OS and FSX at the moment.
 
davethedave123 said:
It cost $800 and it's a desktop. I was also considering replacing the GPU with the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 660 with 1.5GB GDDR5, however this would raise the price to $1050. Would using this card increase my computers performance significantly or should I stick with the cheaper one? Also how long will this computer last before certain parts become outdated?

PS dont tell me to build me own computer. I've considered many times and it's not for me
Click to expand...
You can always buy the parts, and pay any PC establishment to build it for you. It's not quite the same as "build it yourself", but you get the same great quality, and it's just a bit more expensive than had you done it all on your own. But if you really can't commit to that, that's understandable. The achilles heal of DIY desktop PCs is their propensity to experience multiple minor crashes and all manner of bugs until you sort them all out, which for the novice can take some time to grow accustomed to the process. If you're not comfortable with the prospect of having a relatively simple problem to fix that you don't know the solution to and don't have the warranty to have it fixed for you, for free, go with the safer option.

I'd say that the main drawback with that build is the RAM. Speaking from experience, RAM is the thing you wanna go all-out on, not the GPU. The GPU is important, but without enough RAM, your PC will get bogged down by none-too-new games. 8GB RAM should be the absolute minimum, nowadays (I struggle with 4GB), and you should aim for 16 or more. Everything else looks cost-efficiently solid.
 
Thanks to everyone for the help, I've decided to re-access my options and I am now leaning towards this pc:

CPU: AMD FX-6100 3.30 GHz Six-Core
RAM: 8GB (4GBx2) DDR3/1600MHz Dual Channel Memory
GPU: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 650 Ti Boost 2GB 16X
HDD: 1TB

Any better? (same price)
 
davethedave123 said:
Also how long will this computer last before certain parts become outdated?
Click to expand...
Spend some money on a quality PSU and motherboard, that's most important thing in the long term.
 
yea, i have windows 7 and i was always running low on RAM with 8 gig after 2-3 weeks from all the services bloating up causing reboots.

now that i have 16 gigs i rarely have to restart due to low ram, usually i end up restarting over something else before i start running low on RAM.
 
TheWesDude said:
yea, i have windows 7 and i was always running low on RAM with 8 gig after 2-3 weeks from all the services bloating up causing reboots.

now that i have 16 gigs i rarely have to restart due to low ram, usually i end up restarting over something else before i start running low on RAM.
Click to expand...

Damn, what programms are you running? I never had problems with 4gb even when running daws, or blender.
 
davethedave123 said:
Thanks to everyone for the help, I've decided to re-access my options and I am now leaning towards this pc:

CPU: AMD FX-6100 3.30 GHz Six-Core
RAM: 8GB (4GBx2) DDR3/1600MHz Dual Channel Memory
GPU: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 650 Ti Boost 2GB 16X
HDD: 1TB

Any better? (same price)
Click to expand...

So can someone tell me if this is a good PC?
 
davethedave123 said:
davethedave123 said:
Thanks to everyone for the help, I've decided to re-access my options and I am now leaning towards this pc:

CPU: AMD FX-6100 3.30 GHz Six-Core
RAM: 8GB (4GBx2) DDR3/1600MHz Dual Channel Memory
GPU: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 650 Ti Boost 2GB 16X
HDD: 1TB

Any better? (same price)
Click to expand...

So can someone tell me if this is a good PC?
Click to expand...

I have upgraded my old computer to similar specs (- the 2 cores :)). For some reason many people that i talked to don't like the amd chips, the one (old phenom 4 core) that i changed to an intel, liked being very warm :lol:, i had to keep my case open. Don't know about the new chips, but intel would probably be a safer bet. The graphics card i haven't tried out yet, but it eats up a lot less energy then my previous one did (amd 4850HD), actually half as less.
 
AMD is not bad but Intel is way ahead of them nowadays.. But i still got an AMD due to my old fanboy feelings :)
 
AskWazzup said:
davethedave123 said:
davethedave123 said:
Thanks to everyone for the help, I've decided to re-access my options and I am now leaning towards this pc:

CPU: AMD FX-6100 3.30 GHz Six-Core
RAM: 8GB (4GBx2) DDR3/1600MHz Dual Channel Memory
GPU: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 650 Ti Boost 2GB 16X
HDD: 1TB

Any better? (same price)
Click to expand...

So can someone tell me if this is a good PC?
Click to expand...

I have upgraded my old computer to similar specs (- the 2 cores :)). For some reason many people that i talked to don't like the amd chips, the one (old phenom 4 core) that i changed to an intel, liked being very warm :lol:, i had to keep my case open. Don't know about the new chips, but intel would probably be a safer bet. The graphics card i haven't tried out yet, but it eats up a lot less energy then my previous one did (amd 4850HD), actually half as less.
Click to expand...

Yeah the main thing I'm worrying about is the processor, I'm not sure if it will hold back the potential of my computer as I don't know alot about the hardware side of computers
 
Unless you know you run programs that really need more than 4 cores, there's no good reason to choose anything than a Core i5 for your CPU, IMO (assuming you're looking for performance and are running a discrete GPU). A K-series is the best so you can overclock, unless you want to save a few bucks or just don't feel comfortable overclocking.

Otherwise, it's decent enough. I'd say pick up a 128GB SSD for your OS and performance-sensitive apps. All the "durability" concerns are overblown and what few legitimate issues there were are in the past. Plus they're well under $1/GB nowadays.
 
From my own experience, I think it's better to stick with a purely AMD build (that includes an ATI card) or an Intel build with an Nvidia card. An i5-2500 should do the job.
 
There's no reason you can't use an Intel CPU with an AMD GPU (or an AMD CPU with an Nvidia GPU, but again, for a gaming rig with a dedicated GPU there's not much reason to use an AMD CPU at this point).
 
TheWesDude said:
i would look at the i7 line again

and the gpu, yea try to find something in the $150 range.

and make sure your PSU can power that GPU

and what i prefer for hard drives

250 gig for OS, 10k RPM

and then either another 500 gig or more 10k rpm 250gig hard drives.
Click to expand...

10k rpm hard drives are barely faster than 7200rpm hard drives he'd be better off getting a second ssd or a 7200rpm hard drive.
 
Hey guys, just an update, I ended up building a much better computer for about the same price:
8gb RAM
i5 3470 3.2ghz
msi OC 7950 3gb DDR5
1TB HDD
 
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