# any gaming pc boffins



## sa80mark (14 Oct 2013)

My son is wanting a gaming pc and ive been offered one and need to know if its any good ?

When its comes to computers my knowledge stops at how to turn it on and off 

Windows 7 ultimate
8 gig ram
500 ghd
Cpu 620 2 core

This will be his first gaming pc hes only 13 so it doesn't need to be the dogs dangly bits just needs to be capable of playing games like battlefield 2 etc


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## RossMartin (14 Oct 2013)

I play PC games a lot and know computers!! You haven't listed what graphics card it has and what games he is wanting to play!! Without these it will be difficult to advise!


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## RossMartin (14 Oct 2013)

Sorry missed the bit about Battlefield 2!! But still need to know what graphics card!!


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## sa80mark (14 Oct 2013)

No idea on graphics card all he knows is "built in graphics card"


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## BigTom (14 Oct 2013)

How much are they asking Mark? And what size monitor will he be using?


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## sa80mark (14 Oct 2013)

£75 with 22 inch monitor, apparently it was custom built 18 months ago and is direct x 11 compliant, what ever that means


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## BigTom (14 Oct 2013)

£75 is a decent price, but you'll definitely want to add a standalone graphics card - assuming the "620 2 core" is an Athlon X4 620 then the integrated HD4200 graphics capabilities are pretty rudimentary, so I'd want to spend about the same amount again on a graphics card to augment it. Find out what the motherboard is if you can so we can check it's got a PCI-E slot.


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## sa80mark (14 Oct 2013)

Brilliant thanks tom I will give him a ring tonight and find out what it is 

Mark


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## BigTom (14 Oct 2013)

Righto. Actually, I just realised the processor is probably an Intel G620, but the same advice applies.


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## RossMartin (14 Oct 2013)

Agreed with the above, a dedicated graphics card will be needed!!


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## sa80mark (14 Oct 2013)

Just got a text reply from him

 " im not sure of the brand but it has 1 mini pci slot and 2 standard pci slots "

Im not sure if that helps any ?


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## BigTom (14 Oct 2013)

If those are PCI-E x16 slots then that's fine, but if they're old legacy PCI slots then you're going to have difficulties. I'm not sure anyone even makes PCI graphics cards any more.


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## RossMartin (14 Oct 2013)

Pretty sure these would be PCI express 2.0 slots.


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## sa80mark (14 Oct 2013)

Is that good or bad ? One thing I have learnt today is I hate computers  you have a learn a new language to understand then lol


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## aliclarke86 (14 Oct 2013)

If they are legacy eBay will be your friend! 

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## RossMartin (14 Oct 2013)

Its a good thing. You could by a graphics card new and it should be able to plug into your motherboard.


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## sa80mark (14 Oct 2013)

Good stuff, so presuming I get a new card and it is a simple plug in job, is it pretty much plug and play or is there much setting up involved


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## aliclarke86 (14 Oct 2013)

Nope just a CD or download of drivers. Then make sure you keep it clean  

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## sa80mark (14 Oct 2013)

Music to my ears


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## OllieNZ (14 Oct 2013)

Another bit of advice that may help is some of the cheaper cards are multimedia and not really designed for gaming. You would be better finding an older top of the line card than a new one as youll get more bang for your buck. An nvida 9800gtx or the like should do the job and wont break the bank


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## OllieNZ (14 Oct 2013)

Ill take some pics of mine tomorrow to show you how to install one if you would like.


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## sa80mark (14 Oct 2013)

That would be great thank you


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## ciderdrinker (15 Oct 2013)

Just bought a 9800gtx card to go in my old box that I'm selling.
Ebay again.Around £20 is the going rate pretty much


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## OllieNZ (15 Oct 2013)

Here goes....
Basic rules, you need to equalise your static charge to prevent any circuit damage, set yourself and any tools you need to get into the case up on a non conductive surface, touch the pc case, then the bag the gpu comes in and touch the bag and the case together. You can now take the gpu out of the bag DO NOT touch the contacts at any point during the process.

Open your case and locate your PCI-e slot, the long blue one in the pic. You will also need to remove the corresponding blank(s) in the rear of the case.




Install your card into the slot and plug in any required connections.


Close everything up, connect the monitor to the gpu and boot up the pc. Once windows has loaded install your drivers. I always download mine to ensure I have the latest ones.

You need to check your power supply has a power out for the gpu, if it doesn't you will need a 2x Molex to gpu card adaptor like this


All in all, Simples!!!!


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## sa80mark (15 Oct 2013)

Wow  thank you for that, its a lot simpler than I was expecting  

Mark


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## OllieNZ (15 Oct 2013)

sa80mark said:


> Wow  thank you for that, its a lot simpler than I was expecting
> 
> Mark


TBH building a pc from scratch is that easy, its all plug and play. The hardest bit is getting your head around  the compatibility of the components.


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## RossMartin (15 Oct 2013)

It is all easy when it works!!! It's when it doesn't work, that's when the fun begins!!


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## sa80mark (15 Oct 2013)

RossMartin said:


> It is all easy when it works!!! It's when it doesn't work, that's when the fun begins!!
> 
> 
> Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk - now Free




Fun begins.... Is that when you hit it with a very big hammer


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## OllieNZ (15 Oct 2013)

sa80mark said:


> Fun begins.... Is that when you hit it with a very big hammer


Truer than you may think. I had an issue with an old pc that was simply caused one of the ram cards not being seated correctly. Fixed with a solid prod.


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## sa80mark (15 Oct 2013)

Lol mans magic fix, whack it


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## aliclarke86 (15 Oct 2013)

Ollie....... your cable management leaves a lot to be desired 

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## ciderdrinker (16 Oct 2013)

Ollie....... your cable management leaves a lot to be desired !!!
Looks like one of my builds back in the day.
And a stock CPU cooler!! didn't think anyone used them!
Good sound advice tho' Hope it sorts you out


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## OllieNZ (16 Oct 2013)

FYI my pc is not a custom built rig. Just an off the shelf one with a couple of bits added that's why its not very tidy. I was on a very tight budget and after bang for buck. £220 pounds for intel g860 3ghz, 8gb of ddr3 ram, 750gb hdd, dvd burner, usb 3.0 and the 9800 gpu.  Should see me good for the next couple of years.


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## Samuran (16 Oct 2013)

I've only got one picture of inside my pc... and it's not very good heh

Also it doesnt look like this now there are more graphics cards in the way. I've been down the water cooled route before it became common... the first piece of eheim kit I ever bought was to go inside a PC 





Ben


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## ciderdrinker (16 Oct 2013)

Looks good.Never been brave enough to go down the water cooling route.
Should try it for my next build.
Whats your spec there? Modified case or of the shelf?


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## Samuran (16 Oct 2013)

Water cooling is easy really, the only slightly dodgy bit was filling the system once it was all in place heh
My current one I built a couple of years ago. It is...
i7 2600K with an off the shelf all enclosed liquid cooler thingy.
16GB of DDR3
2 x 60GB SSD's in RAID 0
2 x 1TB storage drives
2 x HD5770's in crossfire (these are pretty old now but are still going strong).

The case is a corsair 600T one of these...




Cheers
Ben


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## Nathaniel Whiteside (16 Oct 2013)

You know what, I don't even want to try to understand anything about what everyone's talking about in here. 

Completely don't get inside computers


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## aliclarke86 (16 Oct 2013)

Mine is not quite as beefy as that I have i5 3570k 8gb ddr3 80gb ssd 1tb HDD and Asus hd7770 2gb ddr5

Can run everything ultra at the most though so I'm happy as I don't even game anymore  can't seem to find the time. I just buy games and never play em

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## LondonDragon (16 Oct 2013)

The only gaming I do at the moment is Angry Birds!! lol long are the days of gaming! My Wii (400 games) and PS3 (180 games) are gathering dust too!


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## aliclarke86 (16 Oct 2013)

I've not even plugged my consoles from the move 2 months ago... not even sure where they are 

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## Nathaniel Whiteside (16 Oct 2013)

LondonDragon said:


> The only gaming I do at the moment is Angry Birds!! lol long are the days of gaming! My Wii (400 games) and PS3 (180 games) are gathering dust too!



What the HELL! Lol! 

You got a PS4 on order Paulo?


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## LondonDragon (16 Oct 2013)

Nathaniel Whiteside said:


> What the HELL! Lol!
> 
> You got a PS4 on order Paulo?


lol nah no point, need to see who is going to win that war first with the better games  also need to buy an NA before that  

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## Nathaniel Whiteside (16 Oct 2013)

LondonDragon said:


> lol nah no point, need to see who is going to win that war first with the better games  also need to buy an NA before that
> 
> Sent from my GT-I9300 using Tapatalk 4



Mines on order, and I'm trying to get a full NA setup at the mo lol


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## ciderdrinker (17 Oct 2013)

Hey Ben.That has to be the best looking case I,ve seen!!
I now officially want one for my next build!!
I just checked the price tho'!!
A tad frightening!


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## ajadcock (17 Oct 2013)

I haven't used mine for a long time  poor thing sits in the loft gathering dust.
I have a whanging great Antec aluminium case which had the PSU and hdds at the bottom in a separate compartment for heat reasons which was revolutionary at the time hehe! some tornado ( I think?) Fans that sound like turbos spooling up and a homebrew peltier TEC/watercooled setup lol. 
Ahhh the joys of miss-spent youth 

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## sa80mark (17 Oct 2013)

Ive picked up the computer and the motherboard is 

msi h61m-p21b3


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## aliclarke86 (17 Oct 2013)

That shoult have 1 PCI ex16 slot so you can stick a nice card in there 

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## sa80mark (17 Oct 2013)

Just to make myself look even thicker  im guessing that would be the blue one ?


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## BigTom (17 Oct 2013)

Yup.


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## Samuran (17 Oct 2013)

Yep Yep, the one that says PCI E1 next to it 

Ben


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## BigTom (17 Oct 2013)

Looks like an OK board, should give you some scope to upgrade the CPU down the line if required (accepts Socket 1155 CPUs - i3/i5/i7).


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## aliclarke86 (17 Oct 2013)

Its a cracking board

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## sa80mark (17 Oct 2013)

Good stuff,  was worth the gamble then and the best bit is I got him down to £50 and got a 24" monitor and wireless keyboard and mouse


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## aliclarke86 (17 Oct 2013)

Bloody hell! Have you tried booting it up? Ha

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## BigTom (17 Oct 2013)

That's an outrageous bargain.

I'd be looking at putting a AMD 7750 or 7770 in there (£60-75) , or one of the equivalent new R7 cards, unless you're considering upgrading the CPU at any point, in which case it'd be worth spending a little more.


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## sa80mark (17 Oct 2013)

Yes its running now, its got windows 7 ultimate on it  upto now its playing solitaire very well lmao


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## aliclarke86 (17 Oct 2013)

Come to think of it mate I played bf2 on my laptop no problem with the onboard hd3000 graphics an amd 7770 would definatly give it a kick though

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## aliclarke86 (17 Oct 2013)

Your gonna spend more on the card than the box 

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## BigTom (17 Oct 2013)

Yeah, the kid is definitely going to want BF 3 or 4 now he's got a new computer though


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## aliclarke86 (17 Oct 2013)

True but bf: bad company 2 needs to be played. It was the best from the whole series so far

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## Samuran (17 Oct 2013)

Time to introduce him to EVE and then say good bye to him because you'll never see him again lol

Ben


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## sa80mark (17 Oct 2013)

Lol hes already like that now with his xbox 

Will I need to upgrade the psu for these cards its says its 120w max output ?


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## BigTom (17 Oct 2013)

120w sounds extremely low. Can you spot a model number or anything?


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## aliclarke86 (17 Oct 2013)

That is really low I would upgrade if you plan on upgrading anything at all. 
I'm surprised its not struggling already.

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## Samuran (17 Oct 2013)

I would doubt it's only 120w... that's very very low... like even for 10 years ago that would have been too low...

Ben


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## sa80mark (17 Oct 2013)

I might have read the wrong box at the bottom it says 500w ?


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## aliclarke86 (17 Oct 2013)

That's more like it. That will do you fine

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## Samuran (17 Oct 2013)

Yeah it's a 500w 

Similar if not the same as this

Ben


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## BigTom (17 Oct 2013)

Yeah should be fine. Slap a 7770 in there and you're done.


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## sa80mark (17 Oct 2013)

Brilliant thanks everyone  youve all been a huge help


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## aliclarke86 (17 Oct 2013)

Forgot what forum I was on then lol


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