A few questions

Hardware Hub Build a PC
1

Hey there everyone, I am going to finally get a decent computer soon, I've had enough of getting 15 FPS on minimum graphics Just Cause 2 and Chivalry gets 10 FPS in single player and crashes on multi player. On miniumum everything...

I've been stalking around the forums here, and since I haven't gone near building a PC yet, I have a few questions

 

1) Is it really THAT easy? I'm pretty sure I'll ask my friend who has done it before to help me, but another friend says it's super complicated. I'm sure he's just a retard (xD) as everyone else says it's simple, but if my friend was to say no to helping me, would it be very difficult?

2) Are Blu-Ray drives expensive? Pretty self explanitory.

3)What is overclocking? What are the downsides, I don't see why everyone wouldn't do it as it seems that all it does is increase processing power greatly for a bit of extra heat and energy.

4) Is it really that easy to upgrade? I won't be able to spend too much at first, and I'm nearly positive I would want to upgrade quite a lot, so is it simple?

5) I have no idea how much my budget will be, but I very vaguely estimate it will be somewhere around £380 to £500. I know it's a huge margin, but I think it will be somewhere in the middle. (I have £180, I think I'll be getting quite a bit from parents and grandparents, as well as a few £20s from relatives). What sort of games could I play with that? By the way, I have never had good graphics on my PC, so that's a good thing I guess. It doesn't have to be high graphics.

That would be all for now. Can you answer any questions you think I wouldn't know too, since I have probably forgotten them. Thanks a lot if you respond. Also, I don't think it would be too hard to respond, as I know most of you know your stuff :)

2

1) yes

2) They can be but not really. Heres mine http://www.cclonline.com/product/125836/CH10LS28/Optical-Drives/LG-CH10LS28-Blu-Ray-Combo-Player-10X-Read-OEM/CDR0214/?siteID=8BacdVP0GFs-UUdCYjPZAsmgxkM1._GWwA they are cheaper alternatives

3) The downside to overclocking is that the moment you increase the voltage you shorten the cpu's life. obviously if you upgrade every 2-3 years you should still be fine but it also means that keeping it cool will cost you money. You need to make sure it stays below a certain heat for something like a amd fx 6300 it should never be above 63 degrees.

4) If your going to upgrade make sure you think of what you might do before you buy your components ( will your mobo support it) apart from that upgrading is simply leaving you pc off for a couple of ours, grounding yourself and then unplugging the component and plugging the next one in.

5) I too recently build a pc and im not really an expert ( at all) but i went through what your going through right now and everytime i made a list of parts i found i wanted more and my budget went from £650 for ahin to £1100 you dont need to have a super expensive pc at all but i just found i really wanted something to last

 

hope i was of help (i live in scotland if you want some reccommendations for price to performance parts in pounds)

3

1)Yes, the first build might be a bit more difficult but it's still very simple (I just did my first build last year and it only took me 4hrs :L haha).

2)Depends. They're much more expensive than I'd like but they're getting cheaper so I'd look out for deals.

3)Overclocking is (urban dictionary meaning here)

'To overclock is to force some hardware mentioned above to run at faster, often non-intented speeds.
Generally this is doable, however few factors come in such as when one overclocks a piece of hardware to its max the power circuitry usually does not deliver enough voltage to the hardware, thus the voltage needs to be manually raised.

When raising the voltage, heat will be generated more substantially, which is the hardware's number one enemy.'

Basically it makes the hardware faster, but lowers their lifetimes and they can die if you overclock them too far.

4)Yes. It's like re-building the system basically, but much less time consuming, as much less parts have to be put in. Before you upgrade, make sure the parts are compatible.

5)Between £380 and £500 (not including peripherals or operating system) could get you low-medium graphics on almost every game at over 60fps

Here's what I recommend:
£380 Build: http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/user/AronJones_/saved/2Tb0

£500 Build:
http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/user/AronJones_/saved/2Tb5

£460 Build:
http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/user/AronJones_/saved/2Tb7

Do remember that you need a mouse (get a laser mouse if you're gaming), keyboard and a monitor (or you can use a HDMI cable to your TV as long as it has 1080p support). You might also want a headset or something similar. You also need an Operating system (I suggest Windows 8 with Start Is Back) which costs £60-70 by itself.

Hope this helped.

P.S. Peripherals Recommendation

Cheap but very good Gaming Mouse:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Anker-Precision-Programmable-Cartridges-Switches/dp/B00AAQRNQ8/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1384124339&sr=8-1&keywords=gaming+mouse

Pretty Good keyboard with a good handrest:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Perixx-PX-1000-Backlit-Gaming-Keyboard/dp/B009CQYPF4/ref=zg_bs_430926031_3

A keyboard without aything fancy:
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=KB-006-OP

Simple keyboard with a few programmable buttons:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Zalman-ZM-K200M-USB-Multimedia-Keyboard/dp/B00B1NZ9OM/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1384125139&sr=8-1&keywords=Zalman+ZM-K200M

Very cheap but very good quality headset (I think it's 5.1 audio but not sure) http://www.amazon.co.uk/Plantronics-86050-05-Gamecom-Gaming-Headset/dp/B0079G2Y2A/ref=zg_bs_430593031_5

Pretty Cheap but very good 7.1 Surround Sound headset:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Plantronics-GameCom-Gaming-Headset-Surround/dp/B0079G2Y52/ref=sr_1_2?s=computers&ie=UTF8&qid=1384124446&sr=1-2&keywords=gaming+headset+pc

or

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=SP-022-CS&groupid=702&catid=1058

Sorry for the long post. Hope this helps.

4

1) Yes, if you played with lego you're good to go, it's simply plugging and screwing. Just learn to repeatedly ground yourself by touching a piece of metal.

2) No.

3) It's something you do after the initial build and after you learn to back up your system and bios. Good fun.

4) Yes.

5) Watch out for holiday sales, and ask anyone getting you a present to just give you cash ahead of time so you can catch the up to the minute deals.

5

Pretty much everyone above answered your questions.

I had no help building a computer.  My companions were Google and Youtube.  After you watch a couple of good build tutorials, it's actually pretty easy.  Learning to pick components for a balanced build takes a bit more research though.  The thing that helped me learned how to build a computer the most was disassembling and reassembling my gaming desktop which I bought used.  The wiring on it was horrid, and reassembling the thing is essentially building a computer.  Once you've built one, you don't really forget.

The builds that "Deals" put up are great builds.

6
when looking at the builds above ^^ i would go with the £500 one. should be able to play next gen games at 60fps medium-high ( dont know about any MSAA) while some of the components in that build are fairly cheap ( like the high voltage ram) It has a solid mobo and that graphics card is fantastic for price to performance. however if you want to futureproof you upgrades id reccommend a better mobo that supports crossfire x16 x16 so then when you find your games are running slow you can chuck in another 270x and you'll be good to go. for that id reccommend something like a M5A99FX PRO R2.0 http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0089GN9KU/?tag=pcp0f-21.remember buying something like this will cost more initially but save you money in the future so id reccommend saving up. Dont rush it
7

^+1

Had to go with that RAM to save money because UK RAM prices are silly high now :(

8

i know what you mean, i wanted to go with the 16gb 2x8gb dual channel 1600mhz 9-9-9-24 but i simply couldnt afford it because of my budget. Gonna have to upgrade down the line