£500 Gaming PC

Tibbz2 · 6 Sep 2011 at 17:48

Hey Guys,

I was just trying to build a gaming PC for £500, that could run games decently and be able to hold out until upgraded to the up and coming Ivebridge processors...

So what do you think? (Sorry i dont know how to put the basket here from the site, so a prt scr it is)

Danke

Tibbz2 · 6 Sep 2011 at 17:50

Image doesnt seem to work, try this:

http://www.freeimagehosting.net/ef9f2

Comes to £500 almost exactly.

Redmint · 6 Sep 2011 at 17:52

Looks good for the most part, I would suggest spending an extra £7 on this card though:

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-143-OK&groupid=701&catid=56&subcat=1866

CreMafia · 6 Sep 2011 at 17:52

To support the ivybridge processors you need the Gen3 motherboards

Orcvader · 6 Sep 2011 at 17:54

Seems alright. Do you plan to overclock though? As the 2100 cannot be overclocked, you need a K version of the CPU. Cheapest K i5 is the 2500K. If you don't plan to then grab a cheaper H67/H61 board.

EDIT: Skimmed past the IB support part. You will need a Z68 board for this. I know all of the Gigabyte line will support IB with a BIOS update, there are some Asrock boards that will too (They will state PCI-E 3.0 on them), but I'm unsure about MSI and Asus.

Reaper 392 · 6 Sep 2011 at 17:58

CreMafia said:
To support the ivybridge processors you need the Gen3 motherboards

no you dont. all socket 1155 motherboard will support ivybridge (there might be a couple of exceptions). gen3 motherboards simply support the PCIe gen3 lanes when there is an ivybridge processor in them (at least this is what ive assumed)
*edit*
looks like it'll be supported on all the sandybridge motherboards OcKU sell as long as the motherboard companies release a bios and firmware update, which they'd be kinda stupid not to
*/edit*

as for the build made a couple of changes, and if my maths is correct this is only £10 more than you were spending originally but comes with a much better modular PSU, a better case, better graphics, much better cooler and a couple of free games

YOUR BASKET
1 x OcUK ATI Radeon HD 6870 1024MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card with FREE Deus Ex PC Game £131.99
1 x Intel Core i3-2100 3.10GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor - Retail £94.99
1 x Asus P8P67 LE Intel P67 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard ** B3 REVISION ** £74.99
1 x Antec TruePower New Modular 550W '80 Plus Bronze' Power Supply £53.99
1 x Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 1TB SATA 6Gb/s 32MB Cache - OEM (ST31000524AS) £44.99
1 x Antec 100 One Hundred Ultimate Gaming Case - Black £42.19
1 x Gelid Tranquillo CPU Cooler (Socket 754/939/940/AM2/AM2+/AM3/LGA775/LGA1155/LGA1156/LGA1366) £25.99
1 x Kingston HyperX Blu 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (KHX1600C9AD3B1K2/4G) £23.99
1 x Samsung SH-S222AL/BEBE 22x DVD±RW SATA Lightscribe ReWriter (Black) - OEM £16.99
Total : £525.11 (includes shipping : £12.50).

CreMafia · 6 Sep 2011 at 18:05

Reaper 392 said:
no you dont. all socket 1155 motherboard will support ivybridge (there might be a couple of exceptions). gen3 motherboards simply support the PCIe gen3 lanes when there is an ivybridge processor in them (at least this is what ive assumed)

Oh ok, i thought they were the only ones to support Ivybridge. Didn't know that the only difference was that they supported the new pcie slots

Tibbz2 · 6 Sep 2011 at 18:42

Thanks for the help guys

However i thought you were able to overclock most processors, as long as the mobo supported it? :S

Reaper 392 · 6 Sep 2011 at 18:50

Tibbz2 said:
Thanks for the help guys

However i thought you were able to overclock most processors, as long as the mobo supported it? :S

to overclock you need a K series processor and a P67 or Z68 motherboard. there is no K version of the i3 2100 out yet, but its still the best processor for the money.

i am recommending the motherboard you have chosen because it is only £10 more than an equivalent H series motherboard and will allow overclocking if you upgrade the processor

Redmint · 6 Sep 2011 at 19:31

Tibbz2 said:
Thanks for the help guys

However i thought you were able to overclock most processors, as long as the mobo supported it? :S

Sadly this changed when Intel introduced Sandy Bridge.

Tibbz2 · 6 Sep 2011 at 19:38

Balls.

Will the Ivybridge processors be overclockable like the K's?

Orcvader · 6 Sep 2011 at 20:30

Tibbz2 said:
Balls.

Will the Ivybridge processors be overclockable like the K's?

No one knows yet. But seeing as Ivy Bridge is a die shrink of the same architecture, I would assume they'll keep everything on the chip locked to a 100mhz base just like Sandy Bridge. So maybe only the K versions of Ivy Bridge would be overclockable. Still too early to guess though.

fowler002 · 7 Sep 2011 at 01:16

if you can streatch the budget another ~£15 this will also give you pcie-3.0 spport with the bios update.

Redmint · 7 Sep 2011 at 14:21

Orcvader said:
No one knows yet. But seeing as Ivy Bridge is a die shrink of the same architecture, I would assume they'll keep everything on the chip locked to a 100mhz base just like Sandy Bridge. So maybe only the K versions of Ivy Bridge would be overclockable. Still too early to guess though.

Ivy bridge is supposed to be the enthusiast level platform though so they may only release overclockable IB chips, although it's anyone's guess right now.