£400-500 - Budget PC Build Help

GWoody93

GWoody93

GWoody93

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Joined
17 Jun 2011
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12
Hey guys, first time posting so apologise in advance if anything I say is not following forum etiquette etc.

Well seeing as its my birthday today (:D) I am deciding to build a new rig as i'd like to get back into WoW as well as other games I used to play on a rubbish rig, that barely held the fps.

The problem is I am really outdated and not that very experienced on what to buy for the best price. The main thing and pretty much only strenuous task I will be doing is playing games. I would like to play newer games, but max graphics and resolutions are not essential, however WoW at a stable and good framerate is. Ofcourse I want to get the best deal for my budget and really I hope someone can help me as i'm not experienced enough to know... Thanks in advance :)

Also it would be nice to be upgradable in the future when I start working and earn a bit more cash :), I would also be interested in learning how to overclock to get the best out of my system.. If I have missed anything out let me know :) cheers
 
Any hard drives/disk drives that can be reused from your old computer

Do you require a screen to? Keyboard and mouse?

(if i dont ask them im sure someone else would have :P :D)

*Edit : Beaten by Stulid, dam so fast!*
 
Ugh sorry guys.. Meant to include them :p

I do not need a monitor (Well I technically do but that will have to wait, ill use a rubbish one for the time being)

No OS needed

Need HDD and Diskdrive

No keyboard / mouse needed either, thanks a lot :)
 
Top end of your budget and a little over.


Your basketProduct Name Qty Price Line Total
Intel Core i5-2500K 3.30GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor - OEM £156.98
(£130.82) £156.98
(£130.82)
XFX ATI Radeon HD 5830 1024MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £79.99
(£66.66) £79.99
(£66.66)
Gigabyte Z68A-D3 Intel Z68 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £79.99
(£66.66) £79.99
(£66.66)
Cooler Master Elite 430 Windowed Case - Black (with 500w Elite Power PSU) £64.99
(£54.16) £64.99
(£54.16)
Kingston HyperX Genesis Grey 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (KHX1600C9D3X2K2/4GX) £34.99
(£29.16) £34.99
(£29.16)
Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 500GB SATA 6Gb/s 16MB Cache - OEM (ST3500413AS) £26.99
(£22.49) £26.99
(£22.49)
Arctic Cooling Freezer 13 High Performance CPU Cooler (Socket LGA775/1155/1156/1366/939/AM2/AM2+) £22.99
(£19.16) £22.99
(£19.16)
OcUK 22x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £14.99
(£12.49) £14.99
(£12.49)
Sub Total : £401.60
Shipping cost assumes delivery to UK Mainland with:
DPD Next Day Parcel
(This can be changed during checkout) Shipping : £10.50
VAT is being charged at 20.00% VAT : £82.42
Total : £494.52


Or if you use this 5850 - http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-259-SP

5850 vs 5830 - http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/171?vs=164

Its a total of £531.52


As you said you want to upgrade in the future, the only weak link in the above build is the PSU, its fine for a 5830 etc, but anything else is going to need a better unit.

Overclocking is simple with the "K" CPU, just set the multiplier from 33 to 45 and you have an instant 4.5GHZ.
 
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at that price an AMD build will be better for gaming:


YOUR BASKET
1 x XFX ATI Radeon HD 5870 1024MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £159.98
1 x AMD Phenom II X4 Quad Core 955 Black Edition "125W Edition" 3.20GHz (Socket AM3) - Retail £89.99
1 x Antec High Current Gamer 620W Power Supply £49.99
1 x Gigabyte GA-MA78LMT-US2H 760G (Socket AM3) DDR3 Motherboard £49.99
1 x Kingston HyperX Genesis Grey 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (KHX1600C9D3X2K2/4GX) £34.99
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) £26.99
1 x Gelid Tranquillo CPU Cooler (Socket 754/939/940/AM2/AM2+/AM3/LGA775/LGA1155/LGA1156/LGA1366) £25.99
1 x OcUK 22x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £14.99
Total : £499.50 (includes shipping : £10.50).


also, stulid made a mistake when speccing a build :eek:
its a sign of the apocalypse :p
 
stulid said:
?

We both know that a 2500K wastes a 955BE, And I know from personal experience too:p
Click to expand...

Yes but gaming is more GPU based, if he is going to be buying a new monitor soon as he says then it will most likely be at least 1080p, a lot of newer games perform quite badly at 1080p on a 5830 judging by AnandTech. A minimum FPS of 15 from Crysis Warhead on gamer quality is pretty much unplayable.

I don't like to disagree with you Stulid as you tend to prove a lot of people wrong but I don't know how a 5830 can be justified.
 
stulid said:
?

We both know that a 2500K wastes a 955BE, And I know from personal experience too:p
Click to expand...

yes, if this was a video editing build with a little gaming at the side i would agree with you, but DJmartin is totally right. the graphics card is more important than the processor
 
Because the OP said he wanted to play WOW and max graphics and resolutions are not essential.

He also said he wanted to upgrade and overclock.

With the newer socket1155 motherboard he's more future proof with Intel ivy bridge being socket1155 and just a new UEFI.

Buying a old AM3 760G chipset board wont allow much CPU upgrades and Bulldozer certainly wont work.

If you overclock a 2500K to 4.5GHZ nothing will touch it, even at stock its faster at gaming,

http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/cpu/display/core-i5-2500-2400-2300_7.html#sect0
http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/288?vs=88

Theres also SATA3.0 on the Z68 board so adding a fast 60GB SSD in the future will be better than being stuck on SATA2.0 too.


I have done the whole AMD 955BE thing, and compared to Sandybridge its crap.
 
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I've posted on another forum aswell (I know blasphemy :p) and they recommended AMD... Its all a bit confusing really.

Would you mind a 400£ build now just so I know my options guys if its not much hassle??

I would be more inclined to go for the intel, im not too sure. Max res is not essential, but graphics would be nice but FPS is all I care about. Im competitive, so I like smoothness over that bit of extra graphics for sure. :) thanks a lot (so which is best do you think for me AMD or Intel guys?)
 
stulid said:
I have done the whole AMD 955BE thing, and compared to Sandybridge its crap.
Click to expand...

yes its crap compared to sandybridge, but its not crap. the phenom will have no problems with WOW, especially overclocked. imo, if its gaming that the OP wants, then you should build the rig towards gaming performance, not processor performance.

if the OP really wants an upgrade path to bulldozer, then he could go with something like this:

YOUR BASKET
1 x Sapphire ATI Radeon HD 5850 Extreme 1024MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card **OcUK Exclusive** £116.99
1 x Gigabyte 990XA-UD3 AMD 990X (Socket AM3+) DDR3 PCI-Express ATX Motherboard £93.98
1 x AMD Phenom II X4 Quad Core 955 Black Edition "125W Edition" 3.20GHz (Socket AM3) - Retail £89.99
1 x Cooler Master Elite 430 Windowed Case - Black (with 500w Elite Power PSU) £64.99
1 x Kingston HyperX Genesis Grey 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (KHX1600C9D3X2K2/4GX) £34.99
1 x Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 500GB SATA 6Gb/s 16MB Cache - OEM (ST3500413AS) £26.99
1 x Arctic Cooling Freezer 13 Pro Extreme Performance CPU Cooler (Socket LGA775/1155/1156/1366/AM3/AM2+/AM2) £24.98
1 x OcUK 22x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £14.99
Total : £480.50 (includes shipping : £10.50).

whats the freezer 13 like compared to the gelid? i have literally no idea so i was just going for the default cooler recommendation

*edit*
£400 build (well, £415):
this removes bulldozer upgrade potential and has a much worse motherboard than either of my two previous suggestions. still does what you need though:


YOUR BASKET
1 x Sapphire ATI Radeon HD 5850 Extreme 1024MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card **OcUK Exclusive** £116.99
1 x AMD Phenom II X4 Quad Core 955 Black Edition "125W Edition" 3.20GHz (Socket AM3) - Retail £89.99
1 x Cooler Master Elite 430 Windowed Case - Black (with 500w Elite Power PSU) £64.99
1 x Kingston HyperX Genesis Grey 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (KHX1600C9D3X2K2/4GX) £34.99
1 x ASRock N68C-S UCC GeForce 7025 (Socket AM3/AM2+) DDR2/DDR3 microATX Motherboard £34.99
1 x Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 500GB SATA 6Gb/s 16MB Cache - OEM (ST3500413AS) £26.99
1 x Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro Rev 2 CPU Cooler (Socket 939 / AM2 / AM3 / 775 / 1155/ 1156 / 1366) £17.99
1 x OcUK 22x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £14.99
Total : £414.52 (includes shipping : £10.50).
 
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Your basketProduct Name Qty Price Line Total
Intel Core i5-2400 3.10GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor - Retail £145.99
(£121.66) £145.99
(£121.66)
XFX ATI Radeon HD 5830 1024MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £79.99
(£66.66) £79.99
(£66.66)
Cooler Master Elite 430 Windowed Case - Black (with 500w Elite Power PSU) £64.99
(£54.16) £64.99
(£54.16)
MSI H67MA-E35 Intel H67 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Micro-ATX Motherboard - (Sandybridge) **B3 REVISION** £59.99
(£49.99) £59.99
(£49.99)
Kingston HyperX Genesis Grey 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (KHX1600C9D3X2K2/4GX) £34.99
(£29.16) £34.99
(£29.16)
Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 500GB SATA 6Gb/s 16MB Cache - OEM (ST3500413AS) £26.99
(£22.49) £26.99
(£22.49)
OcUK 22x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £14.99
(£12.49) £14.99
(£12.49)
Sub Total : £356.61
Shipping cost assumes delivery to UK Mainland with:
DPD Next Day Parcel
(This can be changed during checkout) Shipping : £10.50
VAT is being charged at 20.00% VAT : £73.42
Total : £440.53

Over your £400 new target, but the motherboard still has SATA3.0 and USB3.0


Still keeping the Sandybridge, no overclocking now, but its not needed as its faster than any AMD CPU - http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/cpu/display/core-i5-2500-2400-2300_7.html#sect0

As for smoothness, the Sandybridge keeps the minimum fps much higher and much more stable making a better gaming experience.
 
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Argh, two opposing views and I have no personal experience :P. I do want it geared towards Gaming performance, and thanks a lot both of you but how do I know which too choose! xD!
 
theres an idea, sandybridge without the overclocking. will be much faster than anything AMD can offer. shove a 5850 into stulids cheap build and your away :)
 
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GWoody93 said:
Argh, two opposing views and I have no personal experience :P. I do want it geared towards Gaming performance, and thanks a lot both of you but how do I know which too choose! xD!
Click to expand...

http://www.anandtech.com/show/4083/...core-i7-2600k-i5-2500k-core-i3-2100-tested/20

There's simply no better gaming CPU on the market today than Sandy Bridge. The Core i5 2500K and 2600K top the charts regardless of game. If you're building a new gaming box, you'll want a SNB in it.
Click to expand...

They even used a modest GTX280 GPU in the tests, which is 3 generations old now and about 5830 to 5850 speeds.
 
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