£500 build

Flashheart

Flashheart

Flashheart

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Joined
23 Oct 2010
Posts
618
Location
Telford, Shropshire
Guys I have build a fair few pc's in the past, usually for budgets of £900-£1000. So there is a good amount of scope for high end parts.
A friend of mine has asked me to build a pc with a budget of £500.
It will purely be a gaming pc, just the Tower. We already have the OS, so that isn't necesarry. And it would be as nice for it to last as long as possible, as he isnt the type of guy to upgrade one component at a time.
Wondering if you guy's could give me any thoughts, I constantly find myself running into compromises.

Thanks
Flash

*Edit, It has to be an Nvidia card, as currently ATI are having trouble with a few flight sims, and this is what iw would mainly be used for.
 
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I would suggest this:


YOUR BASKET
1 x MSI GeForce GTX 560Ti Twin FrozR II 1024MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £178.99
1 x Intel Core i3-2100 3.10GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor - Retail £91.99
1 x Asus P8H61-M Intel H61 Chipset (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard **B3 REVISION** £61.99
1 x Corsair Builder Series CX 600W V2 '80 Plus' Certified Power Supply (CMPSU-600CXV2) £59.99
1 x Zalman Z9 Plus Tower Case with Fan Controller - Black £42.98
1 x Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 1TB SATA 6Gb/s 32MB Cache - OEM (ST31000524AS) £39.98
1 x Corsair Value 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 PC3-10666C9 1333MHz Low Voltage Dual-Channel Kit £23.98
1 x OcUK 22x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £14.99
Total : £529.90 (includes shipping : £12.50).

Could always drop down to the GTX560 if you need it closer to the budget as well as the fact there are no GTX560Ti's in stock at OcUK atm for under £200 when they can usually be found for 175. Also to cut costs, a cheaper PSU could be bought such as this. Will still be fine really, Corsair are just seen as one of the best.
 
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Your basketProduct Name Qty Price Line Total
Intel Core i5-2500K 3.30GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor £173.99
(£144.99) £173.99
(£144.99)
OcUK GeForce GTX 460 OC 1024MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £115.99
(£96.66) £115.99
(£96.66)
MSI P67A-C45 Intel P67 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard - (Sandybridge) ** B3 REVISION ** £89.98
(£74.98) £89.98
(£74.98)
BeQuiet Pure Power L7 530W '80 Plus' Power Supply £44.99
(£37.49) £44.99
(£37.49)
Cooler Master Elite 430 Windowed Case - Black £33.98
(£28.32) £33.98
(£28.32)
Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 500GB SATA 6Gb/s 16MB Cache - OEM (ST3500413AS) £28.99
(£24.16) £28.99
(£24.16)
Corsair Value 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 PC3-10666C9 1333MHz Low Voltage Dual-Channel Kit £23.98
(£19.98) £23.98
(£19.98)
OcUK 22x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £14.99
(£12.49) £14.99
(£12.49)
Sub Total : £439.07
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 : £89.91
Total : £539.48

=============


Your basketProduct Name Qty Price Line Total
OcUK GeForce GTX 560 1024MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £145.99
(£121.66) £145.99
(£121.66)
Intel Core i5-2400 3.10GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor - Retail £145.99
(£121.66) £145.99
(£121.66)
MSI H67MA-E35 Intel H67 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Micro-ATX Motherboard - (Sandybridge) **B3 REVISION** £59.99
(£49.99) £59.99
(£49.99)
BeQuiet Pure Power L7 530W '80 Plus' Power Supply £44.99
(£37.49) £44.99
(£37.49)
Cooler Master Elite 430 Windowed Case - Black £33.98
(£28.32) £33.98
(£28.32)
Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 500GB SATA 6Gb/s 16MB Cache - OEM (ST3500413AS) £28.99
(£24.16) £28.99
(£24.16)
Corsair Value 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 PC3-10666C9 1333MHz Low Voltage Dual-Channel Kit £23.98
(£19.98) £23.98
(£19.98)
OcUK 22x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £14.99
(£12.49) £14.99
(£12.49)
Sub Total : £415.75
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 : £85.25
Total : £511.50

Both motherboards include SATA3.0 and USB3.0, the 2500K and P67 board allow you to overclock, both CPU's are quad core.
 
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Well you can see what you can get for the money. Stulid has done what he does best and got the best possible core components in the price range but then obviously some of the other components have to be dropped down a bit.
I forgot about the bequiet tbh (Even though it's the PSU I have :o) and I think that might be more suited for your needs especially as it saves £15. I personally prefer the Z9 Case to the 430 but that's mostly personal preference, if he doesn't care what case it's in then there is a saving of £10. I specced a 1TB drive whereas Stulid specced 500GB another possible £10.

Also I chose a better GPU, Stulid has squeezed in a quad core CPU instead. Although I probably haven't done the spec you go for I hope I have helped somewhat :)
 
Thanks guys I appreciate this a lot. Do we think the be quiet psu will be good enough for an overclocked 560ti? I can't really find any reviews on it
 
35A @ 12V (420W). The rest is good (voltage regulation, ripples, ect...). 560ti system power consumption : 350W. So looks like it would fit.

If in doubt, the XFX 550W has more grunt and will do the job.

LEPA PSUs worth a look (Enermax). Need to at least match the Be Quiet L7 amps at 12 V to be any use.
 
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Id go for this:

OcUK GeForce GTX 570 1280MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £249.98

BeQuiet Pure Power L7 530W '80 Plus' Power Supply £44.99

AMD Athlon II X2 Dual Core 250 3.00GHz (Socket AM3) - Retail £43.19

Asus M4N68T-M LE NForce 630a (Socket AM2+/AM3) DDR3 Motherboard £39.98

Western Digital Caviar Blue 500GB SATA 6Gb/s 16MB Cache - OEM (WD5000AAKX)7 £29.99

Xigmatek Asgard Midi Tower Case - Black £29.99

Corsair Value 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 PC3-10666C9 1333MHz Low Voltage Dual-Channel Kit £23.98

OcUK 22x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £14.99


Sub Total : £397.57
Shipping : £11.75
VAT is being charged at 20.00% VAT : £81.86
Total : £491.18

Unlocking 4 cores should be easy and it can hit 3.5ghz on stock volts with all 4 cores unlocked.
 
BAMBI said:
Unlocking 4 cores should be easy and it can hit 3.5ghz on stock volts with all 4 cores unlocked.
Click to expand...

i think you can only unlock the 4th core if its a tri-core or a phenom ii black edition(and youll need a third party cooler to cool it), and tbh i think too much is put on to the gpu.
 
Jony27 said:
i think you can only unlock the 4th core if its a tri-core or a phenom ii black edition(and youll need a third party cooler to cool it), and tbh i think too much is put on to the gpu.
Click to expand...

You could possibly unlock 4 cores but it's not a great chance plus no aftermarket cooler is included. The CPU will insanely bottleneck the GPU making it not worth it. People said I had put too much towards my GPU at a £500 budget when I got a 560Ti.
 
Im more concerned about the nasty case.

The ASUS board I didn't know supported core unlocking (I cant find anything on the ASUS website/BIOS descriptions, usually its well mentioned.)

Then core unlocking isnt guaranteed at all.

Any of the Sandybridge CPU's above will blitz it completely even if you could get 4 cores from it.

Then the PSU maybe a little to weak for the card, not enough AMPS on the 12V.

And a WD Blue drive is slower than a Samsung F3/Seagate Barracuda 7200.12
 
no what i meant with putting too much on the gpu was, he sacrificed CPU powar to get a GTX 570 which as you said will bottleneck it.
 
DJmartin said:
You could possibly unlock 4 cores but it's not a great chance plus no aftermarket cooler is included. The CPU will insanely bottleneck the GPU making it not worth it. People said I had put too much towards my GPU at a £500 budget when I got a 560Ti.
Click to expand...

You dont need an after market cooler to run that CPU at 3.5 on 4 cores.

I think you are underestimating that CPU its easily the most powerful gaming spec posted so far, id put good money on it.
 
BAMBI said:
You dont need an after market cooler to run that CPU at 3.5 on 4 cores.

I think you are underestimating that CPU its easily the most powerful gaming spec posted so far, id put good money on it.
Click to expand...

In what way more powerful?

I may be looking at some money here unless this is something purely GPU based.
 
Time to end this AthlonIIX2 thing, even if it could be unlocked to a AthlonIIX4.

A i3 2100 easily competes against a 4.3GHZ AMD PhenomII 980BE
http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/cpus/2011/07/01/intel-core-i3-2100-review/6
Using a 5870 card so GPU bottlenecking cant really be blamed.


And a i5 2300/2400/2500 completely dumps on a AMD 975BE and 1100T.
http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/cpu/display/core-i5-2500-2400-2300_7.html#sect0
Using a 6870 card so GPU bottlenecking cant be blamed here either.
 
stulid said:
Time to end this AthlonIIX2 thing, even if it could be unlocked to a AthlonIIX4.

A i3 2100 easily competes against a 4.3GHZ AMD PhenomII 980BE
http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/cpus/2011/07/01/intel-core-i3-2100-review/6
Using a 5870 card so GPU bottlenecking cant really be blamed.


And a i5 2300/2400/2500 completely dumps on a AMD 975BE and 1100T.
http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/cpu/display/core-i5-2500-2400-2300_7.html#sect0
Using a 6870 card so GPU bottlenecking cant be blamed here either.
Click to expand...

That's exactly it. CPU vs CPU its no contest and Im not disputing that. However, most games will be GPU bottle necked if you want to max out your PCs performance by setting your game settings to max at which the CPU becomes a far less important factor.

"also set the resolution to 1,680 x 1,050 with no AA and no AF to provide a reasonably real-world test without the risk that the graphics card will be a limiting factor to CPU performance."

Those tests are clearly stressing CPUs only. Check out some CPU tests at max graphics settings.
 
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