PC reccommendation - will this do?

The only bit I'd be concerned with there is the integrated GPU as mentioned, there's no doubt it will run it but maybe not as well as you'd like.
Personally I'd build it myself, go with the seperate processor and GPU and should be doable for a little over £500 but for much more PC.
I'd just stuck a bunch of components together on Scan and got that below. No doubt its not the fastest Gaming PC in the world but its near enough the same spec as mine and mine plays the game with all settings on full at 1920x1080.


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In response to the previous poster, AMD's do run hotter and don't perform as well as intel in most games but they are good bang for buck and on ED don't have any issues.

FX series AMD is in my opinion not a good CPU. If you do not like the A series go for an Intel i CPU...

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I have to disagree here I have an AMD FX8320 oct core black edition in a gigbyte 990fxa 12 gb ram and an amd r9 270x toxic and it runs quite kool and all of it plays ED in ultra mode eyefinity 3x with absolutely no drama

Enty

I run ED on a AMD phenomII 965 (older quad CPU @3,5ghz) with a GTX 770 and runs @1920x1080 always above 80 fps. All settings high - on - enbled etc...
 
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http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/p/4ZFtqs

Something along these lines will do you good for the next few years. Should run everything on ultra (you're looking at 100+fps in bioshock infinite @ 1920x1080). It's easily max out elite. It will give you room for upgrades in future. Assumes you have monitor mouse and keys and you'll install your OS through a usb stick.

If you want to upgrade from that then I suggest bumping up the mobo first as that it proper cheap and cheerful.
 
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http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/p/4ZFtqs

Something along these lines will do you good for the next few years. Should run everything on ultra (you're looking at 100+fps in bioshock infinite @ 1920x1080). It's easily max out elite. It will give you room for upgrades in future. Assumes you have monitor mouse and keys and you'll install your OS through a usb stick.

If you want to upgrade from that then I suggest bumping up the mobo first as that it proper cheap and cheerful.

I would never pair an i5 with an ultra cheappo motherboard (and I own a Computer shop)....
 
I would never pair an i5 with an ultra cheappo motherboard (and I own a Computer shop)....

It's spreading unnecessarily expensive opinions like that which have most likely helped you stay in business through the credit crunch ;)
 
http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/p/4ZFtqs

Something along these lines will do you good for the next few years. Should run everything on ultra (you're looking at 100+fps in bioshock infinite @ 1920x1080). It's easily max out elite. It will give you room for upgrades in future. Assumes you have monitor mouse and keys and you'll install your OS through a usb stick.

If you want to upgrade from that then I suggest bumping up the mobo first as that it proper cheap and cheerful.

The 970gtx is a rather expensive piece of kit at the moment. Considering what happens when you go over 3,5GB of VRam usage, it also wouldn't be my first choice as far as futureproofing goes.
AMD still does decent bang for your buck, so consider a R9 280 or 280x. Sadly, Intel is indeed king when it comes to PC gaming (with a few exceptions), so that I5 is a good choice. Since AMD CPU Mainboards tend to be cheaper than comparable Intel Boards, you might still decide to go for an AMD if you want to save in the CPU department rather than going for a cheaper GPU. Someone said that they were running Elite decently on a AMD Phenom II. That's a pretty oldschool CPU (which I had before I got my current one). Tells me that Elite is not terribly CPU intensive.
 
I love how some people are suggesting parts that are within budget on the OP but there are many people who are making suggest that are 4x overbudget. Oh, I love this community. lol
 
To be honest I think you should wait until you have a bit more cash and get something a bit better. £500 for an average PC will mean you'll never fully enjoy it, and you can get a lot more for £1000. Just speaking from personal experience (the graphics card for my PC cost about as much as the PC you described).
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I'm not being snooty, I personally think its one of those things its best not to scrimp on.
It really depends where you buy it from. I bought mine for £750 and it's way beyond what I really need to play ED. Don't go to PC World and get ripped off, those guys rarely know what they are talking about, that's coming from me, a PC engineer and programmer. Find a small(ish) shop and speak to the shopkeepers to see if any of them are avid gamers themselves. I get mine from Medway Computers http://www.medwaycomputers.com/ and most often get a better deal than I would at any large high street store, they build to order too so you can specify your budget and what you want it to do. The young guy who takes the order and builds them is a very avid game buff so he knows what you'll need and whether it can be done on your budget.

If you already have a PC, go for something with no disks so you can use your existing ones, it gives you a bit more room to upgrade other parts like graphics and processor if you can save on certain parts like disks. Same goes for the monitor too. Things like that can be bought as extras later if you really want to upgrade them.

Having said that, I do really think you;ll need about £100 more to get something decent and capable of running ED with not too much problem. You can always get a cheaper graphics card for now and upgrade the graphics later if you want better graphics. Just make sure the processor is capable of doing the job first, that is a primary concern.

I would suggest an AMD FX 6350 6 core 3900Mhz as a starter, that's what mine has and ED runs like a dream with graphics maxed with a Geforce GTX 750 Ti (2Gb) and 16Gb Ram, that's not an expensive combo really.
Most of what cost a lot for me was the motherboard because I didn't want it just for games, I have 4 2Tb Hard disks, 1 1Tb and a SSD as a boot disk to start with and the cool running case and high output PSU, (to power all the drives) I wanted wasn't cheap either, I paid about £200+ just for the M/B, case and PSU alone.

On a side note: Don't go wifi for games, they are too unreliable really unless you pay some serious cash for a good quality wifi router. Stick to Cat5 cable connections for trouble free gaming.

You may still get stutter very occasionally, usually when approaching a station in SC but that's not hardware, it's your internet trying to get a response from the server at intervals. That's more down to ping rates than anything else.
 
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Don't buy that AMD processor, or any AMD. They perform worse in games, they use more electricity, and run hotter. Sure they might have higher clock speeds but that doesn't mean it's better.

Get an i5 4670k for ~$220 (US), or i7 4770k ~$330. Trust me, you just don't want to deal with AMD until they get a new generation out.

MEMORY! You do NOT need 32gb, 8gb is MORE than enough. Elite's a 32 bit application, and is therefore not able to make use of all that memory. Windows has a page file for if you go over it anyways.

Harddrive: Get a 512gb SSD, it's worth it.

Video Card: Make sure it has 2gb video ram, invest as much as you can here.

Mobo: Find one that fits CPU, read reviews, don't get a second Pci-X slot mobo if you don't plan on getting SLI to save some bucks.

Please ignore this complete and utter nonsense. The AMD FX Series CPUs offer great performance for very reasonable prices and they overclock exceptionally well in general. Intel are great, but they rarely justify the huge difference in price.

Ignore Intel fanbois and build something your budget allows. My main recommendation would be to buy a dedicated GPU if you're going to go ahead with buying the rig you linked. The AMD 270x series is good if money is tight and they can be had for around £100 if you look hard enough. Set yourself a budget and stick to it, do some research and you will find you can build something great for less than £500, trust me ;)
 
I have a small budget of £500 for a new PC.

Is this going to be sufficient to play at a decent (non-stuttering) level?:

If not can anyone recommend a box around the £500 mark that would be sufficient (I don't mind shelling out extra for a monitor).

Thanks

(I last played Elite on a BBC Model B)

Hi Honecker,

lots of posts about getting x or y, but I think you should give us a bit more information regarding your level or experience in building or upgrading your own pc... :)
 
Please ignore this complete and utter nonsense. The AMD FX Series CPUs offer great performance for very reasonable prices and they overclock exceptionally well in general. Intel are great, but they rarely justify the huge difference in price.

Ignore Intel fanbois and build something your budget allows. My main recommendation would be to buy a dedicated GPU if you're going to go ahead with buying the rig you linked. The AMD 270x series is good if money is tight and they can be had for around £100 if you look hard enough. Set yourself a budget and stick to it, do some research and you will find you can build something great for less than £500, trust me ;)

This is good advice right here.

You'll find most people will not have read your post properly. They think you need to know that what you really need is some maduberoverclockedneonmonstagamerzrig. You do not. It will just cost you more than you really need to spend. £500 will more than do it.

Good luck.
 
Should really be possible to build a rig for that.
Built one myself a short while ago:
core i5 4590
16 GB Ram
Gtx 960
they can be found for about 700€ including Hdd, Dvd and windows license.
 
This will run ED beautifully and would cost you less than £500 to build. Like POIDSLY said; You'll always get people saying "Oh no, buy Intel, buy Nvidia, spend £1000" but you're on a budget, and when you're trying to build a good rig, with a budget, Intel and Nvidia are the polar opposite of what you should be looking at.

Budget builds use AMD, and I challenge anyone to build a better Intel based system for under £500. This will obliterate any sub £500 Intel rigs with ease...

As for Windows. Well, there's plenty of places you can pick up a copy of Windows 7 or 8 for next to "nothing" ;)

cheap rig.png
 

BlackReign

Banned
600 Watts seems a bit small. I would go 750 to be sure. Especially if you want to future-proof your config for an SLI setup later on.
 
600 Watts seems a bit small. I would go 750 to be sure. Especially if you want to future-proof your config for an SLI setup later on.

I could have thrown a refurbed Corsair 750 into the basket, but that would have taken him over budget (Not by much granted, but still over). For £497 he'd have himself something that's more than capable of playing ED on Ultra with full SMAA @ 1080p at a steady 60fps. If he decides he wants to splash a bit of extra cash on a bigger PSU, that's his call. I'm just doing what the guy asked in the OP, and finding him a better rig for £500 ;)
 
Hehe. Reading this thread with interest. My home built specs are Dual Core 3Ghz AMD, 4GB RAM and a Radeon R9 270x which is quite some way off what they'd recommend but is absolutely super fine for me right now - a few stutters here and there but i'm okay with a fairly steady 30fps for now. Am rebuilding the home rig bit by bit and will likely hit the mobo, cpu, and memory next (along with a new PSU). Heck... most of it actually. Apparently I have to get married first though :D
 
Thanks to everyone that's responded, very much appreciated.

Will have a good think and speak to an independent shop, sounds like the best way forward.

Cannot way to get back into the game, I still have the original BBC B version on tape on my shelf. Awesome.
 
You can easily build a decent mid-range gaming PC for £500 (max settings 1080p for Elite no problem). I personally would go with one of the faster i3's and some AMD graphics card like the R9 270 or 270x, 8GB of RAM and a decent 430/500W Corsair builder PSU.

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I would never pair an i5 with an ultra cheappo motherboard (and I own a Computer shop)....

Why? There is nothing about any non-K i5 that requires anything more than a low-end mobo.
 
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