Gaming PC spec (£500 budget)

DJ_Martin · 30 May 2011 at 14:56

I have decided that I would like to build my own PC next. This will be used for playing games as well as video editing along with basic stuff for school work. I need it to have a large amount of memory (1 TB) and also be able to play the latest games such as BFBC2 and hopefully BF3 when it comes out.

I tried to spec it out myself but I am struggling to keep the price below £500 while still getting everything that I want. I have been told by a few people that a GTX 560 would be the minimum GPU I could get to play BF3 well at 1920x1080 on decent settings so I don't think that could change.

Is there anything I have chosen which is unnecessary or has a cheaper alternative? I have already pushed my budget from £400 to £500 and I really can't afford to push it any more.

Thanks

CrixxzeH · 30 May 2011 at 15:08

I dont think that you would need a 560.
if you think about overclocking i would recommend the ATI 5850 or ATI Radeon HD 6850 ICEQ X TURBO 1024MB for a little cheaper.

that is ofcourse if you are overclocking.

Eric's collar · 30 May 2011 at 15:10

For a start your buying a crossfire board when your hoping to use a nvidia graphics card which needs sli. Will you ever want to to use 2 graphics cards?

DJ_Martin · 30 May 2011 at 15:17

CrixxzeH said:
I dont think that you would need a 560.
if you think about overclocking i would recommend the ATI 5850 or ATI Radeon HD 6850 ICEQ X TURBO 1024MB for a little cheaper.

that is of course if you are overclocking.

I may try overclocking, it isn't something I have ever tried before and I am nervous enough as it is about building my own PC. I would need some more opinions about the graphics card before I decided against a 560 I think as a lot of people have pointed me in that direction.

Something I just thought of is that I will actually be ordering these parts on the 21st of June (my birthday) which is when I will be getting the money. Will the processor or even the motherboard have gone down by then? I have heard that there are new AMD processors and mobos coming out at some time in June but haven't looked into it too much?

DJ_Martin · 30 May 2011 at 15:20

Eric's collar said:
For a start your buying a crossfire board when your hoping to use a nvidia graphics card which needs sli. Will you ever want to to use 2 graphics cards?

Right away I won't want to be using 2 graphics cards but I wouldn't want to limit myself. Sorry, I have been changing motherboards loads as people have suggested so many. Any suggestion on one which supports SLI? (That may be cheaper)

Eric's collar · 30 May 2011 at 15:23

I think it would be better to get a i5 2500k. You should shop around as these prices aren't the best atm as they 2500k was 149.99 last week.

DJ_Martin · 30 May 2011 at 15:27

Honestly, I need to keep the costs down, I really don't think that shopping around would be able to take £100 off that build, especially as I also need a gaming mouse.

Thanks though :/

olivier renault · 30 May 2011 at 15:27

DJmartin said:
Right away I won't want to be using 2 graphics cards but I wouldn't want to limit myself. Sorry, I have been changing motherboards loads as people have suggested so many. Any suggestion on one which supports SLI? (That may be cheaper)

If you are on the budget, better avoid xfire / sli. Or save until you can get everything decent to support it, otherwise you'll be crippled with an outdated CPU / unfit PSU, and that kind of stuff.

Eric's build for £600, or a 2400 + H61 board / 955BE. But 2500K is more recommended if you want a gaming system that will last.

Actually, your original build is good. I'd go with that, or save for a 2500K build. If you want to save, get a HD 5850. It's still a very good card (equivalent to a 6850-6870).

YOUR BASKET
1 x Sapphire ATI Radeon HD 5850 Extreme 1024MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card **OcUK Exclusive** £124.99
1 x AMD Phenom II X4 Quad Core 955 Black Edition "125W Edition" 3.20GHz (Socket AM3) - Retail £89.99
1 x Gigabyte GA-880GM-UD2H AMD 880G (Socket AM3) microATX DDR3 Motherboard £69.98
1 x Antec High Current Gamer 620W Power Supply £49.99
1 x Corsair XMS3 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (CMX4GX3M2A1600C9) £39.98
1 x Cooler Master Elite 430 Windowed Case - Black £33.98
1 x Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 500GB SATA 6Gb/s 16MB Cache - OEM (ST3500413AS) £28.99
1 x Gelid Tranquillo CPU Cooler (Socket 754/939/940/AM2/AM2+/AM3/LGA775/LGA1155/LGA1156/LGA1366) £25.99
1 x Sony Optiarc AD-5260S 24x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £15.98
1 x Arctic Cooling MX-2 Thermal Compound (4g) £5.10
Total : £497.59 (includes shipping : £10.50).

DJ_Martin · 30 May 2011 at 16:06

hmmm... Looks like I'm going to just have to spend the extra £50 and get my original spec I suppose. I really can't go any higher, in fact I can't even go this high if I'm honest.
I think I will just go for the mATX mobo you suggested though, I can't see me needing to try dual graphics cards if I get the 560. The 5850 tempted me but after reading some stats, the extra 20 fps (60fps average vs 80fps average) on BFBC2 really made the extra money worth it, especially as BF3 will be even more GPU intensive.

I'm not sure how else you saved money though, considering my spec was £550 and yours was less than £500 as well as the fact you included a CPU cooler and paste. I'll remake a list combining the two and see what I can come up with.

Thanks anyway guys

EDIT: It appears that making small changes here and there has worked. Assuming I didn't have the mouse (Which I also downgraded) we would be below £500

Thanks for the help

As long as there is nothing that just won't work there I will be placing this order in a few weeks

panyan · 30 May 2011 at 16:18

DJmartin said:
I need it to have a large amount of memory (1 TB)

i think youll struggle to even find 1TB of ram, let alone fund the purchase!

DJ_Martin · 30 May 2011 at 16:21

panyan said:
i think youll struggle to even find 1TB of ram, let alone fund the purchase!

Shhhhh, you know what I meant

CrixxzeH · 30 May 2011 at 16:24

ps, i would get the MX518 over the M6880 seems to get a lot of reps around here.
you should know, logitechs engineering creams on any other gaming mouse/mouses.
\silence Razor fans, just hush!

honosuseri · 30 May 2011 at 16:27

I think you did well fella.....very well!

I was ready to suggest AMD seeing as it was a low budget but you are way ahead of me. You might as well go with an mATX mobo. The AM3 socket is now a deadend really, all your other parts are good and you can just replace the mobo and cpu later once you feel it's necessary.

The Gigabyte GA-M68MT-S2 is £40, pretty much halfing your expense on the mobo and you admitted yourself you probably won't dual card the rig. That 955BE can be made into a 965BE, you up the multiplier by 1 in the bios (this is why we buy black editions). I would suggest buying an aftermarket cooler as the AMD stock one is pretty loud, if that doesnt bother you then go stock and save the money (you can always change it later).

The gpu is down to personal preference. The 5850 is a very good card for the price especially with a slight overclock you should get it near 5870 spec. Depending on how much is left in the budget a current gen card would make sense. Although the 5850 holds out well against the 6850 (beats it in some cases) as new games start to embrace the new tech the 5850 will get left behind.

Look forward to seeing what u come up with, any problems with the build come back to us

chris_holmes · 30 May 2011 at 16:34

I wouldnt recomend the above mobo the m68mt-s2 it is a pain in the proverbial to OC mine keeps reseetting with phenom ii x4840 on board :/

John101 · 30 May 2011 at 16:39

Wouldn't an i3 2120 be better cpu??

http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/cpu/display/core-i3-2120-2100_5.html#sect0

honosuseri · 30 May 2011 at 16:41

He said he may try overclocking chris but was hesitant. I was just showing how he could reduce the overall cost, there are plenty of mATX mobos to choose from. Not really heard anyone complain about that mobo before.

A safe expected OC would be around 3.8Ghz (yes some people have managed 4Ghz im sure) not really a massive gain. All i suggested was to up the multiplier as the 955BE is unlocked this makes it a 965. A saving of £15ish just by pressing a couple of keys

DJ_Martin · 30 May 2011 at 16:43

CrixxzeH said:
ps, i would get the MX518 over the M6880 seems to get a lot of reps around here.
you should know, logitechs engineering creams on any other gaming mouse/mouses.
\silence Razor fans, just hush!

Alright I'll go back to the MX518, just for you

I was not liking the idea of downgrading anyway and as I have managed to save some I can probably go back to it.

honosuseri said:
I think you did well fella.....very well!

I was ready to suggest AMD seeing as it was a low budget but you are way ahead of me. You might as well go with an mATX mobo. The AM3 socket is now a deadend really, all your other parts are good and you can just replace the mobo and cpu later once you feel it's necessary.

The Gigabyte GA-M68MT-S2 is £40, pretty much halfing your expense on the mobo and you admitted yourself you probably won't dual card the rig. That 955BE can be made into a 965BE, you up the multiplier by 1 in the bios (this is why we buy black editions). I would suggest buying an aftermarket cooler as the AMD stock one is pretty loud, if that doesnt bother you then go stock and save the money (you can always change it later).

The gpu is down to personal preference. The 5850 is a very good card for the price especially with a slight overclock you should get it near 5870 spec. Depending on how much is left in the budget a current gen card would make sense. Although the 5850 holds out well against the 6850 (beats it in some cases) as new games start to embrace the new tech the 5850 will get left behind.

Look forward to seeing what u come up with, any problems with the build come back to us

Thanks, I guess I will go for that motherboard, not like I can tell the difference between them all anyway. Also I probably will need to come back for help. This building of the PC looks fine from videos but I am a little nervous about first boot. I'm sure there are plenty of guides online but I am a pretty cautious person

chris_holmes said:
I wouldnt recomend the above mobo it is a pain in the proverbial to OC mine keeps reseetting with phenom ii x4840 on board :/

Hmmm one of the reasons I decided on this processor was the fact it was apparently easy to overclock. Could this just be a faulty mobo or is it likely to happen to them all?

honosuseri · 30 May 2011 at 16:52

Like I said i've not heard any people complain about that mobo, well apart from chris. It is frequently spec'd in "budget" amd gaming rigs to keep costs down and allow more money to goto the gpu.

What i told you to do is infact overclocking. I have just told you to alter the multiplier rather than keep slowly upping the FSB. In truth for gaming you want to worry more about the gpu than the cpu. The 955 made into a 965 will have plenty of grunt for gaming.

When it's aged and needs replacing you can try the black magic that is overclocking......if you fry the chip it's no matter as you were going to replace it anyway

John101 · 30 May 2011 at 16:52

Id personally go for the i3 2120 as its a faster chip than the 955, ive made a build around the £500 mark if you want to see

honosuseri · 30 May 2011 at 16:58

The AnandTech website is down. They do a benchmark comparison for cpus. Intel vs AMD. I have posted it many times before. The 965 is on par with the i3 2100 and does work out slightly cheaper in the end (especially as you are buying the 955 really).

If you can get a sandybridge setup in budget fair enough. There is more "life" in that socket. In truth I personally feel it's not really worth it unless you can go with the i5 from the get go. I'm sure you'll notice the AM3 mATX mobos are cheaper than intel. £500 is a tight budget and every pound really does count.