PC Specification

PenguinJim

Samsonite1 wrote: »

I noticed that he asked for laptops but the fact that he posted 3 desktops seems like he meant gaming desktop, otherwise more research needed! You will not get much of a gaming desktop for £500 and an A10 is decent for gaming on a laptop. I have an A10 gaming laptop myself - works perfectly in 1080p and full detail - that means more to me than some user benchmarks that include overclocking, etc.. Modern games will use more memory if it is available - it is more important on a laptop of course as there is probably going to be shared graphics memory. Also future proofing is a thing.

Wait... you have an A10 gaming laptop that runs games at 1080P with full (i.e. Ultra) details? :eek:

Which games are those, exactly? Final Fantasy VIII? FTL?

It's great that you've got an A10 and it's working well for you. They do run well. It's just that you can get a much, much, much faster CPU for similar money. You don't have to take the word of me or thousands of other users - just read the professional reviews.

For example, with a 780Ti:



"As you know, it is the graphics subsystem that determines the performance of the entire platform in the majority of contemporary games if the platform has a fast enough processor. However, the Kaveri [A10-7850K] is so slow that you can see the difference even if you've got a high-performance discrete graphics card and use maximum visual quality settings."

It is priced to compete against Intel's low-end i3, and in terms of gaming with a discrete card, it usually falls short of the i3. Meanwhile, the i5 is a whole tier above - and note that these are pre-Skylake reviews from 2014. A DDR4 Skylake i5 is simply untouchable by any of AMD's current CPUs.

I also don't follow the logic of having far, far poorer performance from day one, just so that in four or five years you don't need to spend £20 to double the RAM. Future-proofing is a thing, but so is upgrading - and buying into a DDR3 platform today is the exact opposite of future-proofing.

Cisco001

This
http://www.ebuyer.com/747135-zoostorm-gaming-desktop-pc-7260-5247

intel i5 > A10 7850/ FX4300
Get yourself a SSD if possible. (do it after warranty run out)

PenguinJim

sebo0607 wrote: »

Thank you both for the replies, I am looking for a gaming PC not a laptop, it is my mistake I am looking for a desk top PC.

We already have an external 1TB hard drive which is not being used so I assume this could be used with the desktop if more memory is needed.

As you can tell I am not very tech savvy.

Thanks again for the replies.

Yes, your 1TB external drive can connect to the PC for more storage.

The tech stuff is really horrific - there's no real way to break it down simply. And any rules tend to have their caveats anyway!

The i5 system you suggested - that's really quite good for the money. I've had a quick (but not exhaustive) look around, and can't get a similar spec elsewhere for under £600.

It's part of a new range of systems with faster memory (DDR4). You should be able to continue to use that DDR4 in systems for the next ten years. (DDR3 is the old memory, that is about ten years old now. It's not worth buying DDR3 systems any more if you have a decent budget - and £600 is quite decent.)

The CPU, the Intel i5, is very fast, and has four cores. There's no problem at all with the Intel i5 there.

The 8GB DDR4 RAM is plenty for everything today. It's not a big deal to add more in several years if necessary.

The graphics card (also called GPU) is the part of the PC that handles all of the 3D graphics in the games. It's probably the most important single PC part for gaming performance. The GTX 960 in that PC is very good for that price, today.

But... we haven't had any "new" graphics cards in a couple of years. If you can wait ~3 weeks, there should be a much faster graphics card available - really, noticeably faster, and at the exact same price. (It's called the "RX 480".) So: could you wait until the first week of July?

Also, you could save some money by buying parts and putting it together yourself. It's not VERY easy, but it isn't difficult. Perhaps ask your oldest if they want to put it together?

Finally, do you also need a monitor?

If you can't wait, don't want to build, and don't need a monitor, though, that looks like a bargain PC to me. Don't forget that Zoostorm cashback offer, too (see if it stacks with TopCashBack as well! :beer: ).

w00519772

I was looking at the minimum requirements to play: 'Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare".

Processor

The minimum requirement is a: Intel Core i3-3225 @ 3.30GHz. This is a 3rd generation (Ivy Bridge) processor. I have a Core I7 930, which is a 1st Generation (Nehalem - Bloomfield). How do you compare different chips (I3 and I5) from different generations. For example, is an I3 3rd generation superior to a I7 1st generation in terms of gaming?

Graphics Card
I have a AMD Radeon HD 6800 Series. I guess I am going to have to upgrade?

Johnmcl7

w00519772 wrote: »

I was looking at the minimum requirements to play: 'Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare".

Processor

The minimum requirement is a: Intel Core i3-3225 @ 3.30GHz. This is a 3rd generation (Ivy Bridge) processor. I have a Core I7 930, which is a 1st Generation (Nehalem - Bloomfield). How do you compare different chips (I3 and I5) from different generations. For example, is an I3 3rd generation superior to a I7 1st generation in terms of gaming?

Graphics Card
I have a AMD Radeon HD 6800 Series. I guess I am going to have to upgrade?

You'd be better starting your own topic rather than bumping this old one.

There's not really an answer to your question, it will depend on the game - some games favour clock speed, some favour more cores although I'd think you're ok on the cpu front as the i7 930 was a fast processor and they hadn't moved on much with the IB i3's.

The Radeon 6850 will meet the minimum requirements but I don't what that means in reality, it's possible you may need to upgrade and in general games tend to favour graphics cards over cpu's these days.

I was going to say download a demo and give it a go but there doesn't seem to be one, instead I'd have a look for any online discussions on the game and find how it performs on hardware similar to yours.

John