WHICH AMD MICRO GEAR TO GO WITH

HARKAI · 22 Mar 2013 at 00:41

HI TO EVERYONE

I'M NEW HERE SO PLEASE BE GENTLE.

I AM LOOKING TO BUILD A NEW PC IN THE FRACTAL ARC MINI CASE.

I HAVE LOOKED AT A FEW VIDS ON YOUTUBE AND AM INTERESTED IN GOING ON TO WATER COOLING. I HAVE BIULT A NUMBER OF PCS FOR MYSELF AND FREINDS BUT NONE IN MICRO FORMAT.

I AM LOOKING TO GO BY AMD FORMAT PURELY FOR COST AS I AM UNDERSTANING I MAY BE ABLE TO GET BETTER GRAPHICS FOR MY BUDGET. THE PC WILL BE AN ALL ROUNDER AS MY WIFE WILL BE USING IT FOR SCHOOL WORK ALSO.

CAN ANYONE INFORM ME OF THE BEST M/BOARD - CPU TO USE
I AM THINKING OF 16 GB RIPJAW RAM AT 1600 MHZ
ALREADY HAVE HDD, OPTICAL

I HAVE AROUND £500 TO SPEND BUT THIS IS NEGOTIABLE.

THANKS FOR ANY ADVICE

CHRIS (HARKAI)

bremen1874 · 22 Mar 2013 at 01:12

Caps Lock broken?

HARKAI · 22 Mar 2013 at 01:17

NO JUST THOUGHT I MIGHT GET SOME DECENT HELP HERE NOT SOMEONE WITH NOTHING BETTER TO DO THAN TAKE THE MICK, NOT TO WORRY SOMEONE SERIOUS MUGHT COME ALONG SOON EH!

THANKS ANYWAY BREMEN 1874 XX

Liquiduk · 22 Mar 2013 at 01:19

I don't think you are going to get on to well here with those caps locks but anyway! Judging from what you have put in front of us, I think going down the Intel path is a better pay off.

HARKAI · 22 Mar 2013 at 01:23

ok ok sorry about the caps lock i just use it for the wife typing for school. I was just thinking i might be able to spend more on graphics if i used a cheaper m/board - cpu.

will bear that in mind about the caps lock just got so used to it now

bastic · 22 Mar 2013 at 06:01

In what resolution you want to play?
What games?

I have build HTPC on A8 and I can play on medium in full HD -havent tried to play new crysis

You can easily speed it up by using additional card in crossfire.
If you wound be going for A8-A10, than you would need faster TAM then 1600MHz

HARKAI · 22 Mar 2013 at 08:56

I will be playing battlefield 3,crysis 3,farcry black ops 2 etc. not too worried about frame rates as such just wanting something half decent if anyone can help. Cant really afford the above as it works out a lot over the £500 budget i had in mind. Thanks in advance as i will be at work rest of today so might not be able to check in

Doc Holliday · 22 Mar 2013 at 14:55

Are you dead set on the Fractal Arc Mini ? It's going to be around £60 ish from what I can see.

You can get a reasonable Aerocool Q 200 for £35
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CA-060-AE&groupid=2362&catid=2278

That saves a little bit more to spend on the important gubbins that goes inside.
I'm sure you've already sussed there's two routes. AMD integrated graphics
A10 - 8500K with an option to upgrade with a discrete GPU later on,
Something like this

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=BU-136-OE&groupid=43&catid=2512&subcat=2513

Check the cooler will fit inthe case though

Which leaves approx £150 for a decent PSU approx £50 and maybe a discrete graphics card to crossfire with the Integrated graphics something like this

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-297-AS&groupid=701&catid=56&subcat=1699

Or Intel based on the i5 series and this bundle

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=BU-080-OE&groupid=43&catid=2512&subcat=2513

which is pretty sweet and provides more raw power for future upgrades but would require a good dedicated graphics card to get the best out of it( therefore less money for the other stuff).

HARKAI · 22 Mar 2013 at 20:58

Thanks again

I know this sounds a bit green but i was always led to believe onboatd graphics were not up to much this is why i thought i needed more graphics card.

wakayoda · 23 Mar 2013 at 04:28

I would recommend that you go for a dedicated Graphics card to make the most of the PC platform, otherwise you may as well use a console...

Doc Holliday · 23 Mar 2013 at 06:53

Check out the youtube vids for "A10 8500K gaming" to see performance quality in games like BF3 both with and without a seperate GPU in crossfire support.

See if you think that graphic quality is "playable" for you.
With the A10 trinity set up you can still afford a a dedicated graphics card to cross fire with the very respectable igpu that comes integrated with it.

But for the i5 deal, you definintely need the best GPU you can afford to get.

HARKAI · 23 Mar 2013 at 12:19

Thanks a lot guys. Only question left is would a
gigabyte-ga-f2a85xm-d3h-a85x-socket-fm2-vga-dvi-hdmi-7-1-channel-audio
Motherboard be ok as it needs to be micro atx as i am using a micro atx case for this build.

Thanks again