Another spec me: £500 gaming system

[DreXeL]

Ok, a friend of mine wants to get into PC gaming and has tasked me with building a machine for him. I am a little out of the loop, so if you guys could give me something to work with it would be appreciated. £500 is for everything apart from OS and Monitor, I'm aware it isn't going to be bleeding edge for that budget but it should get him something that will play current games without looking too bad, no?

Spec me

 

[Lemin]

YOUR BASKET
1 x OcUK HD 6850 1024MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £99.95
1 x Intel Core i3-2100 3.10GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor - Retail £89.99
1 x Gigabyte Z68AP-D3 Intel Z68 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard REV 1 £84.98
1 x Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 500GB SATA 6Gb/s 16MB Cache - OEM (ST500DM002) £59.99
1 x OCZ ZS Series 550W '80 Plus Bronze' Power Supply £52.99
1 x Kingston HyperX RED Limited Edition 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (KHX1600C9D3B1RK2/8GX) £39.95
1 x BitFenix Merc Alpha Gaming Case - Black £32.99
1 x OcUK 22x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £17.99
Total : £493.82 (includes shipping : £12.50).

 

[stulid]

As above

 

[DreXeL]

Looks good, is it worth persuading him to spend that little extra to get an i5 instead of the i3?

 

[stulid]

Looks good, is it worth persuading him to spend that little extra to get an i5 instead of the i3?

Yes.

 

[Lemin]

Very much so, if its this...


Intel Core i5-2500K 3.30GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor - Retail [BX80623I52500K]
This Week Only Offer
was £179.99 inc VAT
£167.99 inc VAT


http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CP-360-IN&groupid=701&catid=6&subcat=1275

 

[DreXeL]

Would more than likely be the 2300k if I do persuade him TBH, it was hard enough to get him to £500

Whatever we go for I'll be overclocking it, not massively, but enough to warrant a third party cooler. Any recommendations?

 

[Lemin]

Gelid Tranquillo CPU Cooler (Socket 754/939/940/AM2/AM2+/AM3/LGA775/LGA1155/LGA1156/LGA1366) [GEL-TRANQUILLO ]
£25.99 inc VAT

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=HS-001-GD&groupid=701&catid=57&subcat=1395

 

[Flashheart]

The corsair A50 on today only special would be fine for a decent overclock

 

[DreXeL]

What about that Asus Royal Knight? Or is it that cheap for a reason

 

[stulid]

What about that Asus Royal Knight? Or is it that cheap for a reason

Have you seen it? the two coolers above are much more desirable and known to be good performers.

 

[DreXeL]

Yeah I realise it's not the prettiest of things, but was wondering if it was worth saving another £15 to help sway him towards the i5.

 

[Lemin]

Id rather use stock cooler & get a better one when funds allow.

 

[DreXeL]

Does the stock cooler allow any headroom for a little overclocking though?

 

[beejjacobs]

Should be able to get around 4Ghz

 

[Lemin]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vWYrX_X3Fuc

 

[DreXeL]

Sweet, will stick with the stock cooler and aim for 4ghz for now then

 

[Lemin]

Would more than likely be the 2300k if I do persuade him TBH, it was hard enough to get him to £500

Whatever we go for I'll be overclocking it, not massively, but enough to warrant a third party cooler. Any recommendations?

2300K dose not exist, its a 2500K if you want a overclocker.

 

[DreXeL]

Ahh yeah I see now, the 2300 is multi locked. I'd probably have a hard time persuading him to stretch that far, the 2300 is probably the best we can stretch to.

 

[stulid]

Ahh yeah I see now, the 2300 is multi locked. I'd probably have a hard time persuading him to stretch that far, the 2300 is probably the best we can stretch to.

You can do a little overclocking by adjusting the Turbo boost values in the BIOS.
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/sandy-bridge-core-i7-2600k-core-i5-2500k,2833-9.html