Gaming PC

Erm the Phenom 955 is around the same price but the boards will be cheaper to run them on.

The 955 is also around the power output as the i3 (i researched about what I said above). But you could get a nice AM3+ board and then or now get a bulldozer.. but I would get a Phenom X6!
 
beejjacobs said:
Hello :)

A few things have changed, not least hard drive prices have come down since I first specced you. Also, there are LOTs of useful things on offer until Tuesday night/Wednesday morning. So a few prices in the spec below will change then. But you can get a better motherboard, CPU and hard drive in that budget now :)


YOUR BASKET
1 x XFX ATI Radeon HD 6850 1024MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £97.99
1 x Intel Core i3-2100 3.10GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor - Retail £88.79
1 x Gigabyte Z68AP-D3 Intel Z68 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £77.98
1 x Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 500GB SATA 6Gb/s 16MB Cache - OEM (ST500DM002) £62.99
1 x BitFenix Merc Alpha Gaming Case - Black £32.99
1 x Cooler Master GX 450W '80 Plus' Power Supply £26.99
1 x Kingston HyperX Blu 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (KHX1600C9AD3B1K2/4G) £17.99
1 x OcUK 22x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £15.98
Total : £443.11 (includes shipping : £17.85).

Click to expand...

I would get a different PSU, the CM 600W Silent Pro, with a CM case, use the £20 rebate, even if all in all it's a little bit more expensive.

But yeah, i3 + Z68 is worth shelling out a few more quids.
 
beejjacobs said:
Hello :)

A few things have changed, not least hard drive prices have come down since I first specced you. Also, there are LOTs of useful things on offer until Tuesday night/Wednesday morning. So a few prices in the spec below will change then. But you can get a better motherboard, CPU and hard drive in that budget now :)


YOUR BASKET
1 x XFX ATI Radeon HD 6850 1024MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £97.99
1 x Intel Core i3-2100 3.10GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor - Retail £88.79
1 x Gigabyte Z68AP-D3 Intel Z68 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £77.98
1 x Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 500GB SATA 6Gb/s 16MB Cache - OEM (ST500DM002) £62.99
1 x BitFenix Merc Alpha Gaming Case - Black £32.99
1 x Cooler Master GX 450W '80 Plus' Power Supply £26.99
1 x Kingston HyperX Blu 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (KHX1600C9AD3B1K2/4G) £17.99
1 x OcUK 22x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £15.98
Total : £443.11 (includes shipping : £17.85).

Click to expand...
Also, i don't care how much power it takes, just as long as everything runs smoothly.
Does anyone else have any alterations they would make?
I am still thinking of going higher in spec for with AMD.
 
kirkatronics said:
Also, i don't care how much power it takes, just as long as everything runs smoothly.
Does anyone else have any alterations they would make?
I am still thinking of going higher in spec for with AMD.
Click to expand...

Forget about AMD. The 955 is TDP rated at 125W the i3 2100 is 65W!! For the 955BE to compete you need to OC it which means drawing even more "juice". The phenom X6 is worse than the 955 for gaming it's geared more towards video encoding etc. You want the i3 2100 :)

All this means you can use the decent cheap PSU Beej spec'd and still run a decent budget gaming GPU. The Z series mobo is better tech than the AM3+ mobo and with a BIOS update I'm pretty much 100% sure it will take the Ivybridge intel CPUs, if you are looking at future upgrades as well.

You want the best GPU you can afford really (460 SOC wink wink), 4GB of RAM will do fine for gaming. You can add more later if you want, RAM is pretty cheap and it's a drop in upgrade that takes minutes ;)
 
Some games make use of quad-core, (Skyrim, BF3), they still cope fine with dual cores. The i3 is a really good performer, and has hyperthreading. It is a shame Intel hasn't released a unlocked i3, for say, a tenner more :) The older i3's used to overclock like mad.

But the main advantage is that you can stick it in a Z68 board, which means you can upgrade to a IvyBridge i5 in a couple of years and get instant awesomeness, while the i3 being more than capable atm.

Same idea behind a good PSU. You can drop in a new Kepler / 79xx gpu when you feel like it. So better make good use of the £20 Coolermaster rebate and save £20 on a decent PSU that will take any high-mid-range graphics card.
 
YOUR BASKET
1 x EVGA GeForce GTX 460 Superclocked 1024MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £119.99
1 x Intel Core i3-2100 3.10GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor - Retail £88.79
1 x Gigabyte Z68AP-D3 Intel Z68 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £77.98
1 x Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 500GB SATA 6Gb/s 16MB Cache - OEM (ST500DM002) £62.99
1 x Cooler Master Silent Pro Modular 600W '80 Plus Bronze' Power Supply £62.99
1 x Cooler Master Elite 430 Windowed Case - Black £39.98
1 x Kingston HyperX Blu 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (KHX1600C9AD3B1K2/4G) £17.99
1 x OcUK 22x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £15.98
Total : £500.78 (includes shipping : £11.75).



Is a lil more money but that's my stab at it.

The PSU is very good, quiet and modular cables. The case and the CM double code works out at £20 when bought with that PSU (CM double £20 discount).

Case has cable management to keep things tidy inside so it looks nice through the window and more importantly increase airflow keeping your kit cool.

You could still opt with the 6850 but I think the 460 SOCs performance coupled with cuda is worth the extra £20
 
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stulid said:
You might want to double check that.
Click to expand...

I've never used one, i confess but I swear I saw a video review of one and the cables were tucked away behind the mobo :/ (I'll check if you wish but im willing to take your word on it)

Even at £20 it's still a steal, the PSU is good and will be of use for quite some time. If what you say is true about the case then having the modular cables is even more useful.

Choice of case and PSU is down to OP as he knows his needs better than me. I've shown just a couple of ways to go, the end choice is down to you fella. The whole point of building your own is knowing exactly where your money is going.

Be interested to see what he settles on in the end :)
 
kirkatronics said:
Will most cases fit most motherboards?
Click to expand...

Most boards are ATX or cheaper ones with less features are micro ATX (mATX)

A ATX case will take both usually, a small case for mATX usally wont take ATX.

There are other form factors, but don't worry about them, doubt you will ever be looking at one of these.
 
beejjacobs said:
Hello :)

A few things have changed, not least hard drive prices have come down since I first specced you. Also, there are LOTs of useful things on offer until Tuesday night/Wednesday morning. So a few prices in the spec below will change then. But you can get a better motherboard, CPU and hard drive in that budget now :)


YOUR BASKET
1 x XFX ATI Radeon HD 6850 1024MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £97.99
1 x Intel Core i3-2100 3.10GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor - Retail £88.79
1 x Gigabyte Z68AP-D3 Intel Z68 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £77.98
1 x Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 500GB SATA 6Gb/s 16MB Cache - OEM (ST500DM002) £62.99
1 x BitFenix Merc Alpha Gaming Case - Black £32.99
1 x Cooler Master GX 450W '80 Plus' Power Supply £26.99
1 x Kingston HyperX Blu 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (KHX1600C9AD3B1K2/4G) £17.99
1 x OcUK 22x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £15.98
Total : £443.11 (includes shipping : £17.85).

Click to expand...

I've decided to go for this build, but i'm thinking about a different case.
Any more suggestions guys?
 
YOUR BASKET
1 x Intel Core i3-2120 3.30GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor - Retail £99.98
1 x OcUK ATI Radeon HD 6850 1024MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £95.99
1 x Gigabyte Z68AP-D3 Intel Z68 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £84.98
1 x Samsung SpinPoint F3 500GB SATA-II 16MB Cache - OEM (HD502HJ) £68.99
1 x Zalman Z9 Plus Tower Case with Fan Controller - Black £54.98
1 x Cooler Master GX 450W '80 Plus' Power Supply £29.99
1 x OcUK 22x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £17.99
1 x Kingston HyperX Genesis Grey 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (KHX1600C9D3X2K2/4GX) £17.99
Total : £492.31 (includes shipping : £17.85).



That's the case I use when doing budget gaming builds. I have found them for just over £40.

Supplied with 4 fans, a digital temp display and fan controller with the all important cable management......that's a lot to get from a budget case!
 
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