Brand New Gaming PC for £300 or less

6644kp

6644kp

6644kp

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27 Nov 2010
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534
Here I have configured a decent gaming pc that will run most games on high on 1680x1050 resolution.

All Parts are Brand New but from another etailer and thus cannot be named.

Casecom 6630 Black Midi Tower Case ~ £13
MSI 870-C45 AMD 770 Motherboard ~ £51
AMD Phenom II X2 555 Black Edition 3.2GHz ~ £65
EXTRA VALUE 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 1333MHz Memory Kit 1.5V CL9 ~ £17
WD 500GB 3.5" SATA 6Gb/s Caviar Blue Hard Drive ~ £33
Asus HD 6770 1GB GDDR5 Direct CU Graphics Card ~ £80
Casecom 500W 12cm Fan PSU - 20+4pin, ATX12v, 4x Molex, 1x SATA ~ £18
LiteOn iHAS124-19 24x DVD±RW ~ £14
Xenta SATA 3 Cable 6Gbps - 46cm ~ £2

Grand Total = £292

Pretty nice gaming PC if on a budget.
 
I think your definition of Decent might be slightly different to other peoples lol.
I'd like to see how long that PSU last under heavy load, and what other parts it takes out with it, when it goes pop.
 
this will be far better at gaming, and uses a PSU that wont blow up in 5 seconds:


YOUR BASKET
1 x OcUK GeForce GTX 460 768MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card - OEM £85.99
1 x Intel Pentium G620 2.60GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor - Retail £53.99
1 x MSI H61M-E33 Intel H61 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard **B3 REVISION** £46.99
1 x Lepa W-Series 500W '80 Plus' Power Supply £46.99
1 x Western Digital Caviar Blue 500GB SATA 6Gb/s 16MB Cache - OEM (WD5000AAKX) £29.99
1 x Crucial Ballistix Sport 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 PC3-10666C9 1333MHz Dual Channel Kit (BL2KIT25664BA1339) £24.98
1 x OcUK Flamingo FM-12A Midi Tower Case - Black/Blue £21.98
1 x OcUK 22x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £16.99
Total : £342.01 (includes shipping : £11.75).

quite a bit over budget (about £35 of that will be the PSU), but you'll get a massive increase in performance, a power supply that can physically power what you.
http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/120?vs=406
http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/172?vs=156
the 6770 is a rebadged 5770: http://www.anandtech.com/show/4296/amds-radeon-hd-6770-radeon-hd-6750-the-retail-radeon-5700-rebadge

it will also last you a lot longer because it will work with an i7 2600k (and possibly ivybridge) whereas the best you can get for the motherboad you chose is a phenom II X6 1100T, which is worse than even the 2500k
 
Davefran said:
I think your definition of Decent might be slightly different to other peoples lol.
I'd like to see how long that PSU last under heavy load, and what other parts it takes out with it, when it goes pop.
Click to expand...

Bit of a snooty response dude. Some people don't get the disposable income to drop £1k+ on a gaming rig they can use to troll people on forums due to other responsibilities (mortgage, kids, social life :rolleyes:).

Sure the PSU in his build isn't going to deal with 2xGFX cards or any world record overclocks, but I doubt that manufacturers are in the habit of routinely producing components that blow up when they do what they're designed to do.
 
You can get a similar spec to cost on OCUK. I just did a quick round-up was able to match everything and improve the memory speed to 1600 for £5 more.

Though if you are proposing buying this I would suggest spending less on graphics/processor and more on case/power - then using that as a base for a future upgrade.
 
Jolteh said:
Bit of a snooty response dude. Some people don't get the disposable income to drop £1k+ on a gaming rig they can use to troll people on forums due to other responsibilities (mortgage, kids, social life :rolleyes:).

Sure the PSU in his build isn't going to deal with 2xGFX cards or any world record overclocks, but I doubt that manufacturers are in the habit of routinely producing components that blow up when they do what they're designed to do.
Click to expand...

Life card?

That's not a gaming PC. Its a normal budget PC. Would rather not play at all than play at 5fps.
 
Jolteh said:
Bit of a snooty response dude. Some people don't get the disposable income to drop £1k+ on a gaming rig they can use to troll people on forums due to other responsibilities (mortgage, kids, social life :rolleyes:).

Sure the PSU in his build isn't going to deal with 2xGFX cards or any world record overclocks, but I doubt that manufacturers are in the habit of routinely producing components that blow up when they do what they're designed to do.
Click to expand...

pot, kettle, black tbh.

his response is not insulting atall, that PSU would not be able to power his computer atall because it is short on connectors and power output on the 12V line.
 
Reaper 392 said:
pot, kettle, black tbh.

his response is not insulting atall, that PSU would not be able to power his computer atall because it is short on connectors and power output on the 12V line.
Click to expand...

actually it is a 12V PSU. And it is not short on connectors at all it has 4X molex which can be used to give the GPU power and since gpu's come with coverter cables anyway you dont even have to buy it.

I have run a Asus radeon 4850 on a 250W FSP group PSU for the last year and a half and had no problems.

I think many people on ocuk are beign far too negative on cheap PSUs, thinking you have to spend £40 or £50 on it or its going to blow up.
 
6644kp said:
actually it is a 12V PSU. And it is not short on connectors at all it has 4X molex which can be used to give the GPU power and since gpu's come with coverter cables anyway you dont even have to buy it.

I have run a Asus radeon 4850 on a 250W FSP group PSU for the last year and a half and had no problems.

I think many people on ocuk are beign far too negative on cheap PSUs, thinking you have to spend £40 or £50 on it or its going to blow up.
Click to expand...

maybe this will convince you otherwise:
http://www.jonnyguru.com/modules.php?name=NDReviews&op=Story&reid=123
http://www.jonnyguru.com/modules.php?name=NDReviews&op=Story&reid=154

budget PSU's have poor energy efficiency, and little to no safety features, the PSU is the most important part of the build and should never be skimped on

when i said it was short of power output on the 12V line, i meant that not enough of the power it produces was coming from the 12V source. PSU's have a 3.3V, 5V and 12V line (power source). PC's use about 90-85% of their power on the 12V line these days, but cheap PSU's will typically have less than 50% of their rated power coming from the 12V line

i also would have been perfectly happy to recommend the ~£35 corsair builder series 430W PSU for the 6770, but the 460 takes considerably more power, so needs a bigger PSU.

*edit*
just done some calculations. the 12V line on that casecom PSU can deliver up to 17A. that means it can deliver up to 204W on the 12V line. this will not be enough for the computer the OP has selected: http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/172

if you tried to power the 460 off of that PSU you'd be in real trouble because it could easily need 100W more than the power the casecom PSU is rated for: http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/156
 
Last edited:
Reaper 392 said:
this will be far better at gaming, and uses a PSU that wont blow up in 5 seconds:


YOUR BASKET
1 x OcUK GeForce GTX 460 768MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card - OEM £85.99
1 x Intel Pentium G620 2.60GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor - Retail £53.99
1 x MSI H61M-E33 Intel H61 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard **B3 REVISION** £46.99
1 x Lepa W-Series 500W '80 Plus' Power Supply £46.99
1 x Western Digital Caviar Blue 500GB SATA 6Gb/s 16MB Cache - OEM (WD5000AAKX) £29.99
1 x Crucial Ballistix Sport 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 PC3-10666C9 1333MHz Dual Channel Kit (BL2KIT25664BA1339) £24.98
1 x OcUK Flamingo FM-12A Midi Tower Case - Black/Blue £21.98
1 x OcUK 22x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £16.99
Total : £342.01 (includes shipping : £11.75).

quite a bit over budget (about £35 of that will be the PSU), but you'll get a massive increase in performance, a power supply that can physically power what you.
http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/120?vs=406
http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/172?vs=156
the 6770 is a rebadged 5770: http://www.anandtech.com/show/4296/amds-radeon-hd-6770-radeon-hd-6750-the-retail-radeon-5700-rebadge

it will also last you a lot longer because it will work with an i7 2600k (and possibly ivybridge) whereas the best you can get for the motherboad you chose is a phenom II X6 1100T, which is worse than even the 2500k
Click to expand...

Your £40+ overbudget

That GTX 460 is a refurb while all my components were brand new.
Also with the AMD cpu you can OC and unlock it to a quad

And the G620 and Phenon X2 are equal at stock settings

http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/120?vs=406
 
Sounds like you're not really interested in seeing what other people think. Wonder why you started the thread?
 
6644kp said:
Your £40+ overbudget

That GTX 460 is a refurb while all my components were brand new.
Also with the AMD cpu you can OC and unlock it to a quad

And the G620 and Phenon X2 are equal at stock settings

http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/120?vs=406
Click to expand...

not all of them can unlock. quite a lot of them are sold as an X2 because the other cores dont work properly.

also, you might want to look at those benchmarks more closely, some of them are lower is better ;)

dont forget about what i said about upgrade paths too :)
 
Reaper 392 said:
maybe this will convince you otherwise:
http://www.jonnyguru.com/modules.php?name=NDReviews&op=Story&reid=123
http://www.jonnyguru.com/modules.php?name=NDReviews&op=Story&reid=154

budget PSU's have poor energy efficiency, and little to no safety features, the PSU is the most important part of the build and should never be skimped on

when i said it was short of power output on the 12V line, i meant that not enough of the power it produces was coming from the 12V source. PSU's have a 3.3V, 5V and 12V line (power source). PC's use about 90-85% of their power on the 12V line these days, but cheap PSU's will typically have less than 50% of their rated power coming from the 12V line

i also would have been perfectly happy to recommend the ~£35 corsair builder series 430W PSU for the 6770, but the 460 takes considerably more power, so needs a bigger PSU.
Click to expand...

Of course if you go for an expensive build you should go for good PSU.
But this is a budget build.

If say I went for a bulldozer quad core and a radeon 6870 and had about £400 to spend I would pick a

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CA-155-CM&groupid=701&catid=7&subcat=29

and for the PSU

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CA-238-CM
 
GizmoTheMogwai said:
Save up an extra £150, it'll make all the difference.


Then you'll be looking at an i5 and 68xx that'll be futureproof for 2+years
Click to expand...

Yeah I think its better to wait another 6 to 9 month for Ivy Bridge 3800K and Radeon 7950/7970 series and increase the budget to £600

Now that computer would last ages.
 
6644kp said:
Your £40+ overbudget

That GTX 460 is a refurb while all my components were brand new.
Also with the AMD cpu you can OC and unlock it to a quad

And the G620 and Phenon X2 are equal at stock settings

http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/120?vs=406
Click to expand...

reapers spec is better. I have that 555BE and yes it's possible to unlock cores (i was lucky). You havent added an aftermarket heatsink so you wont be unlocking cores anyway. The stock heatsink is tiny and wont cope cooling an X4. By the time you add the cost of the heatsink you might as well buy the 955 and get a guaranteed quad core.....although the i3 2100 is actually slightly better and the same price roughly ;)

You've also picked an AM3 mobo not an AM3+ so you can't add a BD CPU later unless you swap out the mobo too. If you're insisting on going AMD the AM3+ mobos make a lot more sense.

The nvidia 460 might be a refurb but it does come with a years warranty. Sadly they dont do the 1GB edition anymore that used to be £95. It's better than the card you spec'd and also adds cuda support to assist the CPU in certain tasks.

Although reaper spec'd 1333 RAM when surely you can get 1600 for the same price :/

We are trying to help not pick on you. We would like you to get the best possible spec for your money and have the potential to upgrade that's all

*edit*

For the record reaper isnt £40 over budget. You qualify for free delivery so that's £10ish knocked off the bill ;)
 
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^^^ traitor! :p


6644kp said:
Of course if you go for an expensive build you should go for good PSU.
But this is a budget build.

If say I went for a bulldozer quad core and a radeon 6870 and had about £400 to spend I would pick a

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CA-155-CM&groupid=701&catid=7&subcat=29

and for the PSU

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CA-238-CM
Click to expand...

so your saying that if you went for a card that uses exactly the same amount of power as the 460 i recommended (give or take 2W) that you'd go for a bigger PSU. good to see youve come round to my way of thinking :)

the lepa would still be my choice with the 460 though - you cant go wrong with an enermax PSU :)
 
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