Experts - Looking to spend £700 on a Gaming Spec PC

Mayoor · 21 Mar 2010 at 19:00

Could someone that knows what they are talking about put together a decent gaming spec PC for me. It needs everything, preferably a 24" flatscreen, shed loads of processing power and as much RAM as possible. It also needs a BlueRay writer as we'll be copying home made movies onto discs.

Much appreciated for any help anyone is to offer. Its for a friend who is getting ripped right off by a local PC shop repair guy and I need to convince him quickly that me building it for him using your advice is going to be loads cheaper. You guys have helped me out before and I'm hoping you can do it again!

regulus · 21 Mar 2010 at 19:15

Need the case, peripherals and OS as well?

OpenToSuggestions · 21 Mar 2010 at 19:21

OP: Your friend will save £££ by you doing it, BUT.....

MAKE SURE HE KNOWS THAT YOU BUILDING HIM A PC DOES NOT MEAN THAT EVERY TIME IT GOES WRONG HE CAN EXPECT YOU TO FIX IT FOR FREE

regulus · 21 Mar 2010 at 19:37

Very true actually. I build a colleague a PC from OCUK and the USB port went wrong after THREE years. He rung me to come and fix it since I built him the PC. Sadly some people lack basic intelligence and therefore you need to drill it into them that building them a PC is a favour and doesn't constitute being responsible for the basic upkeep. If you let us know about the case, mouse/keyboard and OS, I can spec you something.

CAT-THE-FIFTH · 21 Mar 2010 at 19:40

This is what I would get:

AMD Athlon II X4 Quad Core 630 ~ £84

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CP-259-AM

Asus M4A78L-M LE ~ £47

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MB-377-AS&groupid=701&catid=5&subcat=1482

4GB 1066MHZ DDR2 ~ £70

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MY-192-CS&groupid=701&catid=8&subcat=817

Samsung SpinPoint F3 500GB ~ £42

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=HD-081-SA

This is a single platter hard disk and is very fast. Older 500GB hard drives are usually slower and also be careful as there are also storage optimised hard drives which are also slower.

LG BH10LS30~ £135

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CD-106-LG&groupid=701&catid=10&subcat=314

Xigmatek Asgard Mid-Tower Case ~ £29

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CA-002-XG&groupid=701&catid=7&subcat=

OCZ StealthXStream 400w ~ £32

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CA-029-OC

This is made by CWT and can provide upto 450W.

XFX ATI Radeon HD 4850 1024MB GDDR3 ~ £77

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-140-XF&groupid=701&catid=56&subcat=

Windows 7 Home Premium OEM ~ £82

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=SW-127-MS

Iiyama ProLite E2008HDS 20" Widescreen LCD Monitor ~ £105

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MO-000-IM&groupid=17&catid=948&subcat=

The total comes to around £703 excluding postage.

A Blu-Ray writer is very expensive and if you can drop that you will get a much better PC for your budget.

The £84 Athlon II X4 630 is even faster than a £98 Core i3 530 for video encoding tasks:

http://www.anandtech.com/bench/default.aspx?p=105&p2=118&c=1

For games it provides slightly better performance than an E7500:

http://www.anandtech.com/bench/default.aspx?p=105&p2=87&c=1

Mayoor · 21 Mar 2010 at 20:01

regulus said:
Need the case, peripherals and OS as well?

Just the case please. We have all the software, mouse and keyboard

Mayoor · 21 Mar 2010 at 20:04

OK also he is specifying he wants 8GB of RAM and wants an Intel Chip.

regulus · 21 Mar 2010 at 20:06

Then £700 will be a challenge

CAT-THE-FIFTH · 21 Mar 2010 at 20:07

Here is an updated spefication:

Phenom II X4 955BE ~ £136

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CP-244-AM

Gigabyte GA-MA770T-UD3 ~ £71

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MB-244-GI&groupid=701&catid=5&subcat=1481

Has an 8+2 phase VRM,USB 3.0 and SATA 3.0 and all solid capacitors.

4GB 1333MHZ DDR3 ~ £80

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MY-030-PA&groupid=701&catid=8&subcat=1516

Samsung SpinPoint F3 500GB ~ £42

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=HD-081-SA

This is a single platter hard disk and is very fast. Older 500GB hard drives are usually slower and also be careful as there are also storage optimised hard drives which are also slower.

LG BH10LS30~ £135

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CD-106-LG&groupid=701&catid=10&subcat=314

Xigmatek Asgard Mid-Tower Case ~ £29

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CA-002-XG&groupid=701&catid=7&subcat=

OCZ StealthXStream 400w ~ £32

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CA-029-OC

This is made by CWT and can provide upto 450W.

XFX ATI Radeon HD 4850 1024MB GDDR3 ~ £77

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-140-XF&groupid=701&catid=56&subcat=

Iiyama ProLite E2008HDS 20" Widescreen LCD Monitor ~ £105

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MO-000-IM&groupid=17&catid=948&subcat=

The total comes to around £707 excluding delivery.

CAT-THE-FIFTH · 21 Mar 2010 at 20:12

Mayoor said:
OK also he is specifying he wants 8GB of RAM and wants an Intel Chip.

TBH,then you will need to get a Core i3 530 for £98 and the cheapest possible H55 motherboard. You might be able to fit another 4GB into the build.

However the Phenom II X4 955BE based build will still be faster for video encoding and gaming:

http://www.anandtech.com/bench/default.aspx?p=118&p2=88&c=1

It also has USB 3.0 and SATA 3.0 too!

RJC · 21 Mar 2010 at 20:12

Not the greatest:

BenQ G2420HDBL 24" Widescreen LED Monitor £154.99
(£131.91) £154.99
(£131.91)

LG BH10LS30 10x BluRay-RW / 16 x DVD±RW Drive - Black (OEM) £134.98
(£114.88) £134.98
(£114.88)

AMD Athlon II X4 Quad Core 630 2.80GHz (Socket AM3) - Retail £83.99
(£71.48) £83.99
(£71.48)

Geil Value 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 PC3-10666C9 1333MHz Dual Channel (GV34GB1333C9DC) £81.99
(£69.78) £81.99
(£69.78)

Sapphire ATI Radeon HD 5670 512MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £65.99
(£56.16) £65.99
(£56.16)

Gigabyte GA-MA770T-ES3 MA770 (Socket AM3) DDR3 Motherboard £64.99
(£55.31) £64.99
(£55.31)

Samsung SpinPoint F3 500GB SATA-II 16MB Cache - OEM (HD502HJ) £41.99
(£35.74) £41.99
(£35.74)

Corsair CX 400W ATX Power Supply (CMPSU-400CXUK) £39.99
(£34.03) £39.99
(£34.03)

Coolermaster Elite 335 Case - Black £29.99
(£25.52) £29.99
(£25.52) Sub Total : £594.81 Shipping cost assumes delivery to UK Mainland with:
DPD Next Day Parcel
(This can be changed during checkout) Shipping : £13.25 VAT is being charged at 17.50% VAT : £106.41 Total : £714.47

C64 · 21 Mar 2010 at 20:43

You should forget a 24" monitor and go for a 22" because 24" will always need an expensive graphics card to run new games at high details native res 1920-1200.

I'd go with a 22" unless they plan on always having a 5850/5870 latest high end graphics card etc in the future.

And as above really been there and done that with the building work colleagues / mates pc's yes they expect technical support.

coupe69 · 21 Mar 2010 at 20:54

Your friend either A: needs to up his budget or B: be a bit more realistic on what you can actually get for 700 quid.

8GB of ram and a blu ray re-writer is gobbling up the best part of 300 quid before you start on any of the other components!

If you were to go AMD then maybe just maybe you may be able to get close, with Intel you're only choice is core i3 at this budget, and that won't really have the processing power you're after for your video encoding.

Mayoor · 22 Mar 2010 at 09:55

coupe69 said:
Your friend either A: needs to up his budget or B: be a bit more realistic on what you can actually get for 700 quid.

8GB of ram and a blu ray re-writer is gobbling up the best part of 300 quid before you start on any of the other components!

If you were to go AMD then maybe just maybe you may be able to get close, with Intel you're only choice is core i3 at this budget, and that won't really have the processing power you're after for your video encoding.

OK the whole thing about the blue ray rewriter is he has a HD movie Camera he is using to film pictures of his new born daugher, and wants a decent way to back all this stuff up onto disc which he will then use to playback oon his playstation and can also send copies to his family e.t.c

Anyway I have spoken to him and he can stretch to £900 if that helps at all. He still wants th 8GB, intel chip and Blueray player as definates and as good/large a monitor as possible.

CAT-THE-FIFTH · 22 Mar 2010 at 10:19

Audigex · 22 Mar 2010 at 10:34

It can be done for £900: although his mileage may vary depending on what games he wants to play.

Personally I'd tell him to stop being silly, get the Phenom II rig and upgrade the graphics card with the £100 difference. He'll barely notice the difference when encoding his videos, but it'll make all the difference in games.