Are these good specs for a cheap gaming PC?

[john salter]

Hi I'm new to this but I've been looking at a cheap gaming PC and I found one for about £500, I need to know if these specs are good to run games like bf3 and skyrim at good settings.

AMD FX-4130 3.8GHz Quad Core Processor

8GB ram

500GB hard drive storage space

Nvidia GTX 650 1GB Graphics card

Asus M5A78L-M LX V2 motherboard

DVD-RW

500w PSU

I can't really pay much for my PC but is this okay for the amount I'm paying and can you please suggest any upgrades that are affordable also what system settings can I run on games like bf3.

Thank you for the help

 

[Jad Chaar]

That build will struggle with BF3. This is a better $750 USD build:

 

[GhostRyder]

Yeah, you need a better processor than that one you have listed, it will struggle greatly in most of the games you speak of and just wont hold its value. Try an FX 6350 or 8320 to keep the price low and get a good chip for gaming, or try for a i5 3570k.

 

[Jad Chaar]

Yeah, you need a better processor than that one you have listed, it will struggle greatly in most of the games you speak of and just wont hold its value. Try an FX 6350 or 8320 to keep the price low and get a good chip for gaming, or try for a i5 3570k.

With his budget, he can probably only get a 6350 or 8350. Intel is way too expensive for his price range.

 

[slh28]

Yeah you should get the FX 6350 at least, it's not that much more expensive than the 4130. Since that's quite a low budget you can try looking for better used cards on ebay.

 

[john salter]

Would it be worth upgrading to a radeon HD 7850? And is the AMD FX-4170 4.2GHZ Quad core worth the money or should I go with something different. Thank you for the help guys.

 

[GhostRyder]

In order, it would be worth the upgrade A, B no get a 6 core 6300 or 6350 minimum over the 4170, the difference is huge, you will be disappointed at the speed of the 4170 compared to a Vishera 6 Core.

 

[john salter]

Okay I will skip on the 4170 but one last question are the 8120 or 8150 any good in terms or performance and price or should I stay with 6300 and will this be able to run games like bf3 and skyrim on good settings?

Thanks for the help

 

[Jad Chaar]

Would it be worth upgrading to a radeon HD 7850? And is the AMD FX-4170 4.2GHZ Quad core worth the money or should I go with something different. Thank you for the help guys.

The 7850 is a great card for the price.

Okay I will skip on the 4170 but one last question are the 8120 or 8150 any good in terms or performance and price or should I stay with 6300 and will this be able to run games like bf3 and skyrim on good settings?

Thanks for the help

The 6350 and 8350 will be fine for BF3, but they cannot beat Intel.

 

[slh28]

The 6350 and 8350 will be fine for BF3, but they cannot beat Intel.

Actually BF3 is one of the games where AMD compete very well with Intel because it's a game that like as many cores as possible.

 

[Jad Chaar]

Actually BF3 is one of the games where AMD compete very well with Intel because it's a game that like as many cores as possible.

Yeah, it has a modern engine that can take advantage of the cores.

 

[Awen24]

If you want a cheap gaming PC, I'd look at going second hand.
if you look around, I'm sure you'll find forums somewhere in your local area(ish) that will allow you to pick up something much more powerful than what you've listed in your budget. Granted, you won't get a warranty or anything like that, but you'll end up with something much better for gaming.

For a point of reference - at that price point, you could pick up an i7 with a GTX780 (just looking quickly at the forums I use (Australian)) and still have some cash to throw around.

...ultimately though, I'd recommend... the best processor you can afford, definitely a better video card (the 650 will struggle to give you decent frame rates for gaming), and an SSD (even something smaller, around 120gb would be fine).

In terms of overall speed and smoothness (though it won't affect frame rates for gaming), the SSD will be the single most 'impressive' upgrade you can buy.

So, for example... you could always look for something like this:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16883113266

...then upgrade with a new video card (maybe a 680 would be in your price range, 2nd hand) and a ~120gb SSD...

That should bring you up to the ceiling of your budget, probably... but you'd have a reasonable processor (that i5 isn't amazing, but it's comparatively decent - and most games will prefer a chunky GPU over a chunky CPU, at least for now - though Battlefield is a bit of an exception in this area), a decent video card, and an SSD thrown in to boot.

 

[john salter]

Yea I'm probably going to use my build but with the AMD fx 6300 and the redeon HD 7850 this will cost me about £600 pre build with windows 7 64 included. Is this a good deal? I heard you can build your own for cheaper but trust me I am awful when it comes to PCs.

 

[slh28]

Yea I'm probably going to use my build but with the AMD fx 6300 and the redeon HD 7850 this will cost me about £600 pre build with windows 7 64 included. Is this a good deal? I heard you can build your own for cheaper but trust me I am awful when it comes to PCs.

Add up the prices of all the components (CPU, RAM, mobo, GPU, PSU, case, hard drive, DVD drive, Windows 7) and see how much that comes to.

£600 sounds reasonable for an FX 6300 and 7850 although they will probably have cheaped out on the PSU and mobo.