[TenEightyOne]

I just wondered what the knowledgeable users here would make of this spec?

I've been a console gamer for many years but, despite having worked in IT for a long time, never got around to getting a proper gaming PC.

I saw the following machine on offer at £515 a few days ago and thought that the spec looked pretty good overall... and bought it. It's at the far edge of what I could afford right now (darned kids) but I'm hoping that it will play modern PC games pretty well. I've got to be honest and say that some of the GTAIV PC screenshots I've seen have been simply mouthwatering. Am I likely to get good quality on GTAIV / V?

The PCs are built to order so I've got to wait a week or so to find out for myself, but here are the specs - what do you think?

QUOTE

AMD Quad-Core FX-4170 Processor - 8GB DDR3 1600MHz Memory - 500GB SATA 6GB/s Hard Drive - AMD 970A Chipset Motherboard - SATA 6GB/s & USB 3.0 - AMD Radeon HD 6770 DX11 VGA - DVD±RW with DL.

[Stinky12]

I always get confused with this currency stuff, is £ known as pounds that's used in the UK?
If it's that £515 is $818
Unless components pricing are different over there, for that amount, you can grab yourself a Core i5.

[Wolf68k]

Post the link where you're seeing this.

[Slamman]

Should be fine, remember GTA IV is a few years old now, and I believe or at least hope, GTA V is going to smooth out a lot of the PC issues, but I'd be testing Ballad of Gay Tony as well as ENB/iCE to see what transpires, since I believe you're alluding to the mod work in RAGE?

[TenEightyOne]

QUOTE (Wolf68k @ Monday, Apr 9 2012, 17:00)

Post the link where you're seeing this.

No problem - I didn't post it originally as I was unsure about if I was allowed to post a commercial link. The sytem's the less-than-bashfully named Cyclone Annihilator MKIII from Aria.co.uk. The suppliers themselves have been recommended to me by someone I work with who, unlike me, has managed to find the time to build his own stuff.

I got this machine on offer at £515 UK Sterling, that works out at $817 (given that tech prices across the Atlantic aren't necessarily like-for-like). I'm fairly happy with the price (and the maker's guarantees), I'm just wondering how well this will compare with 'state of the art' machines and what kind of playing quality this system will provide in games like GTAIV and, of course, GTAV.

I'm a database engineer with a lot of programming experience so I know about kit, but I've always gamed on consoles and my experience of PCs built for gaming (as opposed to data dissemination) is pretty negligible

@Stinky12, you're right of course - but that wouldn't leave much change for other stuff, I thought this system seemed to be a good balance. For reference, an boxed i5 Core here is around £160 ($250).

[Slamman]

If you're planning to buy, or already own, and the link can't be supported here directly, it's no problem to show us where to look, or cut and paste details as well

4.3 clocks, no overclocking? Dang nice I'd say, but that rear panel layout is boring and drab, almost naked by todays standard, supporting no optical or HDMI, and the two PS/2 ports?!?

AMD Quad-Core FX-4170 Processor - 8GB DDR3 1600MHz Memory - 500GB SATA 6GB/s Hard Drive - AMD 970A Chipset Motherboard - SATA 6GB/s & USB 3.0 - AMD Radeon HD 6770 DX11 VGA - DVD±RW with DL


This post has been edited by Slamman on Monday, Apr 9 2012, 21:11

[TenEightyOne]

QUOTE (Slamman @ Monday, Apr 9 2012, 21:09)

If you're planning to buy, or already own, and the link can't be supported here directly, it's no problem to show us where to look, or cut and paste details as well 4.3 clocks, no overclocking? Dang nice I'd say, but that rear panel layout is boring and drab, almost naked by todays standard, supporting no optical or HDMI, and the two PS/2 ports?!?

Thanks, Slam, I'll bear that in mind!

The board's back-panel is, as you say, a little drab - but the GFX card itself has HDMI-out and twin DVI ports (AMD homepage for card) - if it had no HDMI-out I wouldn't have bought it

[illegal_luggage]

You got a good deal there. The machine should handle GTA V pretty well but lets hope they do a good job this time. GTA IV PC had pretty poor optimisation but a few patches sorted it.

[Gareth Croke]

I've got a fairly similar system myself, and it plays GTA:IV smooth as a glove. Granted I've got a AMD Phenom II x6 1055T and a HD6870, but only 4Gb RAM, but it plays IV at near as damn it full on. I would imagine there wouldn't be much of difference when GTA:V finally sees its way on to the PC (-/+ 1 Decade)

It's looks not a bad deal actually, although you could also look to building it yourself with the same components if you shop around, try scan.co.uk, ebuyer.com or even amazon, you'll probably find the parts cheaper.

[SyphonPayne]

I suppose that rig is decent for AMD, but you would be better off with a 2500K build.

[yojo2]

It wasn't a really good deal for £515, IMHO. Nothing special.

[Wolf68k]

There is an i3-2120 version with a GTX550Ti that I like better, plus it's cheaper.
I start thinking about the later upgrades. The AMD can upgrade to an FX8150 which currently cost more than an i5-2500K and yet the i5 will kick the 8150's butt. However as it is, I can't say the i3-2120 can fair nearly as well against the FX-4170. But upgrades is something to keep in mind.

The graphics cards are pretty much equal to each other. As is the rest of the systems specs

[PrometheusX]

QUOTE (SyphonPayne @ Tuesday, Apr 10 2012, 05:54)

I suppose that rig is decent for AMD, but you would be better off with a 2500K build.

This, w/ a GTX 570.

[Slamman]

Sadly, even with the multicores, AMD struggles against Intel's "i"s, but I would still say they should suffice, a multiple core is a multiple core, bottom line, and the components like RAM and other, are the same without bias

The other thing that does not bode well long term is that 4 cores will be something of a minimum in the upcoming years, and dual core will be related to the legacy hardware! Well, at least should become much more accessible, as me being able to score a few shows.
I guess the HDMI on board I'm relating to the latest Intel, and I am biased toward Intel and Windows, it shows. Still have kept my AMD 939 to see it evolve a bit more, using plain jane DDR400! (4GB maxing)

This post has been edited by Slamman on Wednesday, Apr 11 2012, 05:08

[yojo2]

QUOTE (Wolf68k @ Tuesday, Apr 10 2012, 07:58)

The AMD can upgrade to an FX8150 which currently cost more than an i5-2500K and yet the i5 will kick the 8150's butt.

You can always get a FX8120 (which is cheaper than i5-2400) and OC it But I do agree that i5 is a better all-rounder.

//edit: At least in Poland it's cheaper.

[Wolf68k]

Sure it's cheaper, but it's also still a lot weaker. My point is that the 8150 is the flagship (for now), just like the i7-2600K is Sandy Bridge's flagship, and with it's 8 real cores (no hyperthreading like in the i7) it's getting beat down by a quad-core i5 which cost less.

[yojo2]

Well, it's debatable if FX8120/8150 has 8 real cores. It has 8 ALU, but only 4 FPU (which is one of the contributors to low performance in games.
IMHO it's not a real octa-core CPU... might as well call the i7-2600k an octa-core CPU.

[Slamman]

In looking over some print articles in the tech historical realm, I saw that AMD ushered in a dual AMD64 board, I believe supporting the FX in particular, allowing multi core and multi CPU from the time that Intel still had Pentium D, I'd not come across that before though