Q. It says it can play bf3 and skyrim med settings at a constant 30 fps, check it out and tell me if u think that's true or not based on the specs please :) thx
http://www.omnitechnews.net/2011/11/building-a-gaming-pc-that-will-run-battlefield-3-or-skyrim-maxed-out-for-under-600/
http://www.omnitechnews.net/2011/11/building-a-gaming-pc-that-will-run-battlefield-3-or-skyrim-maxed-out-for-under-600/
A. *** Updated ***
Yes and no.
Strictly speaking in terms of the supported hardware specs, yes. However, a couple of those items are VERY poor choices. Also, they're talking about a $600 hardware build, which means you're spending $700 after adding a copy of Windows 7. Anyway, let's break their proposed build down into the good, the bad and the ugly.
The Good:
A Radeon HD 6870 is definitely up to the task. In BF3 on HIGH settings, the 6870 manages just over 50fps at 1920x1080. It manages over 30fps on *ULTRA* settings at 1680x1050 or lower resolution. It does Skyrim on ultra at 1080p easily. That's a winner!
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/battlefield-3-graphics-performance,3063-8.html
http://www.guru3d.com/article/battlefield-3-vga-and-cpu-performance-benchmark-test/5
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/skyrim-performance-benchmark,3074-6.html
The 8GB of Patriot RAM is also great, although these days RAM is so cheap it could just as easily be G.SKILL, Corsair, A.DATA, whatever.
The Bad:
A Phenom II X6 1035T is one of the WORST choices around that price for a gaming computer. It's got 6 cores----- so what!?!?! Extra cores are great for movie editing encoding, but are worthless for gaming- most titles (including Battlefield 3, Crysis, Skyrim and Starcraft 2) don't utilize more than 2-3 cores! What matters on the CPU side is clock speed, not the number of cores. And the 1035T is a paltry 2.6Ghz, making it slower than a Phenom II X4 945 in games!! And *MUCH* slower than a Core i3 2100, which only costs $125 and matches (or beats) AMD's high-end Phenom II X4 970 and X6 1100T.
The Cooler Master Storm Scout case is a head-scratcher. Nice case, but it costs $80.. if we're trying to squeeze down to a $600 budget, why not go with a $50-$60 case? The HAF 912 is only $60 out the door.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811119233
The SSD- they even admit it's a gimmick. Only useful if you've already got another hard drive to install your games. Since you can get a regular hard drive for the same price, you'd want to do that instead.
The Ugly:
That Coolmax power supply is something I'd expect to find strapped to a psychopath trying to sneak past checkpoints in Pakistan, not in your new gaming computer. Really.. Coolmax is one of the lowest-quality brands of psus. That thing is likely to fail with a spectacularly loud pop and shower of sparks sooner rather than later, probably taking other expensive components along with it. I wouldn't plug that psu into any components I cared about.
http://www.eggxpert.com/forums/thread/323050.aspx
So you definitely need a better psu. I always recommend going with a Tier 2 or better brand like Corsair, Antec, Seasonic, Silverstone, XFX, Enermax etc. That way you don't have any problems, and it lasts 4+ years. I'd go with the Antec Neo Eco 620W psu for about $70, or maybe the Seasonic S12II 620W or XFX Core Editon 550W around the same price. Buying a pair of crappy $35 power supplies over the same timeframe (and hoping they don't damage anything else when they fail) isn't more economical.
On the CPU/motherboard you've got choices. Either you stick with their proposed socket AM3 build and try to find a Phenom II X4 somewhere (only the 960T is still available on Newegg) or go socket LGA1155. The AsRock H61M-VS motherboard is only $55 and a Core i3 2120 is just $128.
http://www.anandtech.com/show/4083/the-sandy-bridge-review-intel-core-i7-2600k-i5-2500k-core-i3-2100-tested/20
So it's doable, but probably a little more expensive than advertised.
Yes and no.
Strictly speaking in terms of the supported hardware specs, yes. However, a couple of those items are VERY poor choices. Also, they're talking about a $600 hardware build, which means you're spending $700 after adding a copy of Windows 7. Anyway, let's break their proposed build down into the good, the bad and the ugly.
The Good:
A Radeon HD 6870 is definitely up to the task. In BF3 on HIGH settings, the 6870 manages just over 50fps at 1920x1080. It manages over 30fps on *ULTRA* settings at 1680x1050 or lower resolution. It does Skyrim on ultra at 1080p easily. That's a winner!
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/battlefield-3-graphics-performance,3063-8.html
http://www.guru3d.com/article/battlefield-3-vga-and-cpu-performance-benchmark-test/5
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/skyrim-performance-benchmark,3074-6.html
The 8GB of Patriot RAM is also great, although these days RAM is so cheap it could just as easily be G.SKILL, Corsair, A.DATA, whatever.
The Bad:
A Phenom II X6 1035T is one of the WORST choices around that price for a gaming computer. It's got 6 cores----- so what!?!?! Extra cores are great for movie editing encoding, but are worthless for gaming- most titles (including Battlefield 3, Crysis, Skyrim and Starcraft 2) don't utilize more than 2-3 cores! What matters on the CPU side is clock speed, not the number of cores. And the 1035T is a paltry 2.6Ghz, making it slower than a Phenom II X4 945 in games!! And *MUCH* slower than a Core i3 2100, which only costs $125 and matches (or beats) AMD's high-end Phenom II X4 970 and X6 1100T.
The Cooler Master Storm Scout case is a head-scratcher. Nice case, but it costs $80.. if we're trying to squeeze down to a $600 budget, why not go with a $50-$60 case? The HAF 912 is only $60 out the door.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811119233
The SSD- they even admit it's a gimmick. Only useful if you've already got another hard drive to install your games. Since you can get a regular hard drive for the same price, you'd want to do that instead.
The Ugly:
That Coolmax power supply is something I'd expect to find strapped to a psychopath trying to sneak past checkpoints in Pakistan, not in your new gaming computer. Really.. Coolmax is one of the lowest-quality brands of psus. That thing is likely to fail with a spectacularly loud pop and shower of sparks sooner rather than later, probably taking other expensive components along with it. I wouldn't plug that psu into any components I cared about.
http://www.eggxpert.com/forums/thread/323050.aspx
So you definitely need a better psu. I always recommend going with a Tier 2 or better brand like Corsair, Antec, Seasonic, Silverstone, XFX, Enermax etc. That way you don't have any problems, and it lasts 4+ years. I'd go with the Antec Neo Eco 620W psu for about $70, or maybe the Seasonic S12II 620W or XFX Core Editon 550W around the same price. Buying a pair of crappy $35 power supplies over the same timeframe (and hoping they don't damage anything else when they fail) isn't more economical.
On the CPU/motherboard you've got choices. Either you stick with their proposed socket AM3 build and try to find a Phenom II X4 somewhere (only the 960T is still available on Newegg) or go socket LGA1155. The AsRock H61M-VS motherboard is only $55 and a Core i3 2120 is just $128.
http://www.anandtech.com/show/4083/the-sandy-bridge-review-intel-core-i7-2600k-i5-2500k-core-i3-2100-tested/20
So it's doable, but probably a little more expensive than advertised.
Affordable gaming computers?
Q. I'm looking for a computer (not a lap top or note book etc) that is suited for gaming from retail. Not something mega expensive that can run the worlds best graphics on highest settings, just something affordable that can run newer games like Bf3, arma 2 on higher-medium visuals.
A. If you do want a computer which can run ALL the newest games on highest settings then it won't be cheap. You could prob get one for about £600 or £500 for a stretch.
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