Reasonable Spec for £500??

adamnuk · 18 Sep 2011 at 01:13

Hi All,

Long time reader first time poster!

Just a bit of advice really I am wanting to get the best spec I can for £500 obviously i am not going to get top of the range but at least something to get me through some serious gaming.

The spec i have put together is the following, if there is anything that can be improved for the same sort of price please go ahead and let me know:

XFX ATI Radeon HD 6850
Gigabyte GA-MA78LMT-US2H 760G Mobo
AMD Phenom II X4 Quad Core 970
Corsair Vengeance 8GB DDR3 PC3-15000C9 1866MHz Dual Channel
OcUK Crusade 650W Dual-Rail High Efficiency '80 Plus' Power Supply
Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 1TB SATA 6Gb/s 32MB Cache
LG GH22NS70 22x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter

Thanks

chrisarm · 18 Sep 2011 at 01:47

How about something like this

YOUR BASKET
1 x Intel Core i5-2400 3.10GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor - Retail £149.99
1 x HIS ATI Radeon HD 6850 1024MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card with DIRT3 & Deus Ex PC Games £112.99
1 x Asus P8P67 LE Intel P67 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard ** B3 REVISION ** £72.59
1 x Lepa W-Series 500W '80 Plus' Power Supply £46.99
1 x Zalman Z9 Plus Tower Case with Fan Controller - Black £44.99
1 x Western Digital Caviar Blue 500GB SATA 6Gb/s 16MB Cache - OEM (WD5000AAKX) £30.98
1 x Kingston HyperX Blu 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (KHX1600C9AD3B1K2/4G) £23.99
1 x LG GH22NS70 22x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £16.99
Total : £499.51 (includes shipping : FREE).

Or for a lower spec CPU and a better Graphics card maybe something like this

YOUR BASKET
1 x OcUK GeForce GTX 560Ti 1024MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card **Supplied with FREE Batman: Arkham City PC game** £169.99
1 x Intel Core i3-2100 3.10GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor - Retail £94.99
1 x MSI H67MA-E35 Intel H67 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Micro-ATX Motherboard - (Sandybridge) **B3 REVISION** £64.99
1 x Lepa W-Series 500W '80 Plus' Power Supply £46.99
1 x Zalman Z9 Plus Tower Case with Fan Controller - Black £44.99
1 x Western Digital Caviar Blue 500GB SATA 6Gb/s 16MB Cache - OEM (WD5000AAKX) £30.98
1 x Kingston HyperX Blu 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (KHX1600C9AD3B1K2/4G) £23.99
1 x LG GH22NS70 22x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £16.99
Total : £493.92 (includes shipping : FREE).

TBH I'd wait until the 2500k is on offer again and build around that (it's a tad expensive at the mo)

GizmoTheMogwai · 18 Sep 2011 at 01:58

What price has the 2500k been in the past? I am looking at getting one shortly also...

chrisarm · 18 Sep 2011 at 02:01

Was about £20 cheaper when I got one for a friend but usually about £160

Jaffar · 18 Sep 2011 at 02:03

If you can't wait, the 2500k is currently on offer for £155.99 elsewhere (can't say where as it's a competitor). However, if you don't have free delivery with them, then that'd be an extra £4.79 so not a whole lot cheaper.

adamnuk · 18 Sep 2011 at 10:13

Thanks for the help thus far much appreciated Ive never had an intel system before so not really sure what they are like on performance and overclocking capabilities etc etc where as AMD am I thinking you all round get more bang for buck in terms of performance or is it visa versa?

Davefran · 18 Sep 2011 at 10:23

adamnuk said:
Thanks for the help thus far much appreciated Ive never had an intel system before so not really sure what they are like on performance and overclocking capabilities etc etc where as AMD am I thinking you all round get more bang for buck in terms of performance or is it visa versa?

AMD Phenom 11 x4 970 BE v Intel Core i5 2400

http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/186?vs=363

stulid · 18 Sep 2011 at 10:25

adamnuk said:
Thanks for the help thus far much appreciated Ive never had an intel system before so not really sure what they are like on performance and overclocking capabilities etc etc where as AMD am I thinking you all round get more bang for buck in terms of performance or is it visa versa?

You get much better performance and less heat and electricity usage with the new Intel Sandybridge,

i3 2100 beating a AMD 955BE - http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/cpu/display/core-i3-2120-2100_5.html#sect0

i5 2300/2400 destroying a 975BE - http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/cpu/display/core-i5-2500-2400-2300_7.html#sect0

i3 2100 matching a 980BE - http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/cpus/2011/07/01/intel-core-i3-2100-review/6

stulid · 18 Sep 2011 at 10:39

If I had to suggest a spec to give the best all round CPU and GFX performance,

• 6870 is very fast - http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/290?vs=291
• motherboard has SATA3.0 and USB3.0 - http://eu.msi.com/product/mb/H67MA-E35--B3-.html

adamnuk · 18 Sep 2011 at 10:40

stulid said:
You get much better performance and less heat and electricity usage with the new Intel Sandybridge,

i3 2100 beating a AMD 955BE - http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/cpu/display/core-i3-2120-2100_5.html#sect0

i5 2300/2400 destroying a 975BE - http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/cpu/display/core-i5-2500-2400-2300_7.html#sect0

i3 2100 matching a 980BE - http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/cpus/2011/07/01/intel-core-i3-2100-review/6

Wow that's both helpful and an eye opener I was wanting tontine a rig at a gaming spec to be able to play bf3 at a comfortable rate but it looks like the i5 is the best way to go if I'm wanting the best for the job.

In terms of future upgrades the amd processors are socket am3 so means upgrading processors in the future are pretty simple is it the same story for intel?

stulid · 18 Sep 2011 at 10:45

In terms of future upgrades the amd processors are socket am3 so means upgrading processors in the future are pretty simple is it the same story for intel?

For AMD you want to make sure you get a AM3+ board to support Bulldozer chips, it also useful to find a board that supports 125W CPUs, which most of the "Black edition" chips are so they dont work on lesser boards.

For example

95W max CPU support - http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MB-467-AS&groupid=701&catid=1903&subcat=1481
125W+ CPU support - http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MB-466-AS&groupid=701&catid=1903&subcat=1481

Intel boards support all the current chips, the Ivybridge range of CPU released next year are also socket1155 compatible and will just need a BIOS update.

To overclock a Sandybridge system you must have either a P67 or Z68 motherboard and a "K" version CPU, such as i5 2500K/i7 2600K

Jaffar · 18 Sep 2011 at 12:10

I'd second Stulid's build, but would substitute the 2400 with the 2500k I mentioned earlier for an extra £6 (if you can get it). Along with a mobo that supports overclocking.

E.g. Asus P8P67 (£72.59) or Gigabyte Z68A-D3 (£75.98).

That'd give you a lot of performance for an extra £15ish.

adamnuk · 18 Sep 2011 at 14:47

I agree Stulid's build looks like a good starting point for a gaming pc and perhaps upgrading from there funds permitting. Whats the difference between dual channel ram and triple channel?

Thanks Again

stulid · 18 Sep 2011 at 15:03

adamnuk said:
I agree Stulid's build looks like a good starting point for a gaming pc and perhaps upgrading from there funds permitting. Whats the difference between dual channel ram and triple channel?

The Sandybridge chips have a dual channel memory controller, triple channel is for the older socket 1366 systems, so ignore that.

adamnuk · 18 Sep 2011 at 16:15

stulid said:
The Sandybridge chips have a dual channel memory controller, triple channel is for the older socket 1366 systems, so ignore that.

Again very helpful thanks for your knowledge