Desktop PC advice please

connors07

Hi,

I was wondering if a Tech bod could help me. My current computer is struggling these days - just doing this post is testing it's abilities! I'm looking for a desktop machine that can handle Football Manager 15 comfortably, Microsoft Office, Skype use and internet browsing at once; As much looking as I've done I just don't know enough to guess.

Would the following machine be good enough?
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Desktop-PC-Intel-Core-i5-3-2GHz-8GB-RAM-1TB-HDD-USB-3-VGA-HDMI-Win7-Pro-/111440023394?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_3&hash=item19f257cf62

I've also seen this one, but wondering if it is overkill?
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/CCL-4-20GHz-AMD-Quad-Core-Gaming-PC-Computer-16GB-2TB-HDD-WiFi-Windows-7-PC/181545580226?_trksid=p2047675.c100005.m1851&_trkparms=aid%3D222007%26algo%3DSIC.MBE%26ao%3D1%26asc%3D20140122125356%26meid%3D23ee30eee68a4ce986959ba0e2105e64%26pid%3D100005%26rk%3D3%26rkt%3D6%26sd%3D111440023394&rt=nc&clk_rvr_id=794414001797&afsrc=1&rmvSB=true

Any advice that can be offered would be much appreciated.

Sorry if this is in the wrong place.

Tropez

What is your current machine? Depending on its age, it might have new life breathed into it with a few simple upgrades, such as the addition of an SSD and/or more RAM if you've only got 4GB or less.

As for those machines, they'd both be fine for what you state you want, although the lack of a dedicated graphics chip in the former and the reliance on Intel HD graphics might not give the most pleasing experience in Football Manager if you want to watch highlights with all the settings up. FM is far from a graphically demanding game, but I recall playing FM2009 on a laptop without a dedicated graphics chip and it was a bit juttery - and graphics have improved since then (although so have Intel HD graphics in fairness).

What would be your maximum budget and do you feel comfortable making any changes yourself? I only ask because I'd be inclined to get the first system, bung a 120GB SSD in it to use as a boot drive and for a small number of applications, and then shop around for a relatively inexpensive graphics card such as a GTX750 or AMD HD7750 (although you'd have to check case sizes).

If you don't feel comfortable with that, then possibly take the second option although you are quite right, it is overkill in some respects. It is a shame that it appears to be a prebuilt machine, as really you could comfortably drop the RAM to 8GB and then apply the saving to the cost of an SSD for your boot drive.

Perhaps if you can give a budget (I'm gathering in the £350 - £440 region, but if you can go higher it might help) then someone can advise?

Neither are bad options though, it's just they both have their little faults that don't make them perfect.

Cycrow

Tropez wrote: »

As for those machines, they'd both be fine for what you state you want, although the lack of a dedicated graphics chip in the former and the reliance on Intel HD graphics might not give the most pleasing experience in Football Manager if you want to watch highlights with all the settings up. FM is far from a graphically demanding game, but I recall playing FM2009 on a laptop without a dedicated graphics chip and it was a bit juttery - and graphics have improved since then (although so have Intel HD graphics in fairness).

Football manager has been getting progressively more graphically demanding, the latest ones very much need decent gpu's to run.

When i play on my laptop, and it uses the intel gpu, i cant even play with the graphics on the lowest setting, its just very jerky (this was FM2014) 2015 is even worst and wont even run unless its using the nvidia card.

Id also suggest a quad core cpu, as FM does alot of processing between games, and running on a slow cpu is very noticeable (especially if you use a large database size, or have more than 1 league running). The difference between running it on my i5 laptop, and i7 6 core pc is staggering

Tropez

Cycrow wrote: »

Football manager has been getting progressively more graphically demanding, the latest ones very much need decent gpu's to run.

When i play on my laptop, and it uses the intel gpu, i cant even play with the graphics on the lowest setting, its just very jerky (this was FM2014) 2015 is even worst and wont even run unless its using the nvidia card.

Id also suggest a quad core cpu, as FM does alot of processing between games, and running on a slow cpu is very noticeable (especially if you use a large database size, or have more than 1 league running). The difference between running it on my i5 laptop, and i7 6 core pc is staggering

Both systems listed above by the OP are quad-cores. Modern desktop core i5's are generally quad-cores.

And I do agree that the experience would be much better with a dedicated graphics card, although oddly the desktop version of the Intel HD 4600 is on a par performance-wise with the nVidia GT340 or Radeon X1900XT that is listed in the "recommended specs" for FM2015. That said, however, devs do have a peculiar definition of 'recommended', usually to encourage poor saps to buy games that their systems are not really suited towards.

That's why I recommended the first system and the addition of a dedicated graphics card. A GTX750 massively exceeds the recommended specs, which should also assist in keeping future versions of FM running smoothly too and if you shop around the cost of the first option and adding a 750 would still be less than the second system (though if an SSD was also added, that would push it over).

Cisco001

Consider this, change PSU to consiar VS 450
http://www.dinopc.com/shop/pc/configurePrd.asp?idproduct=2209


What is your existing spec? You may be able to upgrade it instead.

grimerking

You could buy a server and fit a graphics card. Lenovo are doing £150 cashback at the moment, so this one is £220. It comes with a quad core Xeon CPU, 4GB or RAM, 500GB Hard Drive and a 450W certified power supply.

http://www.ebuyer.com/623350-lenovo-thinkserver-ts140-4gb-xeon-e3-1225-v3-3-2ghz-tower-server-70a5000kuk

A lot of servers require special memory. Apparently, this one doesn't and you can use 'normal' desktop RAM - although RAM with 1.5V & CL11 is recommended. You can get 8GB for £48, but you would have to remove the 4GB it comes with. You could try it with the supplied 4GB and maybe upgrade at a later date:

http://www.ebuyer.com/500957-crucial-ct2kit51264ba160b-8gb-kit-4gbx2-ddr3-1600-mt-s-pc3-12800-cl11-unbuffered-ct2kit51264ba160b

You'd need a graphics card, which really depends on how much you want to spend. I'm not familiar with Football Manager, but I can't imagine it is that demanding compared to games such as Far Cry 4. This card would probably be complete overkill for your needs. I'm sure you could get something a lot cheaper:

http://www.ebuyer.com/698375-gigabyte-gtx-960-2gb-gddr5-dual-link-dvi-hdmi-displayport-pci-e-graphics-card-gv-n960ixoc-2gd

I recently sold an ATI 7850 1GB on ebay for £50 and I'm sure that would be fine for Football Manager.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/sch/Graphics-Video-Cards-/27386/i.html?_from=R40&ghostText=&_nkw=7850

I don't know your familiarity with PCs and upgrades, but fitting RAM and graphics cards are very straight forward. There are plenty of videos on YouTube that show you what to do.

Fitting RAM:
https://youtu.be/oLa0E7XzP0k

Fitting Graphics Card:
https://youtu.be/O9x097QRXeA

If a friend wanted a a very cheap gaming PC, this is probably what I'd recommend. Don't be put off by the fact it is sold as a 'server', it is just a *very* good value PC.

The only thing missing is Windows, but you can find copies online for a considerable 'discount'.

nyermen

As grimerking has mentioned, server grade memory can be more expensive (though not as bad as it used to be) - look up the price of the memory type first.

For gaming, I work out the GPU using passmark's benchmarks. Not necessarily perfect, but a pretty good indication. They cover GPU's and CPU's (as well as hard disks etc). You can often even find full "system" benchmarks for off the shelf machines.

Looking up Football Manager 2015, the requirements aren't very high. I just googled "passmark minimum specification", it says minimum ATI Radeon 9800 or equivalent. Looked up on passmark, it gets a rating of 54 (which is really low).
Note: I can't find a recommended hardware anywhere (even in the manual).

But, for what it's worth, the cheapest option - current intel CPU's have a built in GPU called an "HDXXXX", the latest ranging from HD5300 upwards, with names like "Iris pro" being the best.
The HD5300 was released last year, and benchmarks at 354...

It's worth noting that older generation GPU's may be faster on passmark than something like an HD5300 (in some cases, significantly), but may be missing some particular "features" (such as shader v2.0, etc), so a lower spec modern one may play something that a much older one won't.
I should add that I'm not building my own PC's anymore, so don't take my word entirely.

Best Wishes,

Peter