New system Spec Budget Gaming

smithy1988

smithy1988

smithy1988

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Just after some advice as I have been out of the loop for a while.
My friend's laptop has given up and hes thinking of going for a desktop due to better performance for the price and no need to really be mobile with it.

His main uses are web browsing and occasionally gaming. Football Manager at the moment (not sure how graphics intensive that is?) but the ability to play other games is also beneficial.
His budget is around the 400.00 mark but prepared to stretch that if its worthwhile. So id say 400-500 mark.

I was thinking about
Intel i5
Mobo- not sure what chipset. Any recommendations?
4-8gb of ram
500gb HDD SATA OR a small solid state giving the ability to add another internal HDD at a later date.
GPU- Probably an ATI 6600 series (whatever the budget will stretch to)
PSU- Something reliable to run the above id imagine it'll have to be 500W+?
Case- Something cheap and cheerful
Optical- Just a dvd rw sata.
Network- An internal card to pick up his wifi signal.

Im assuming a dedicated GPU will beat integrated graphics on the mobo. Hence going for a card rather than just the mobo's onboard?

Any printscreen specs/suggestions or advice would be great.
Thanks
 
YOUR BASKET
1 x AMD A8-3870K 3.00GHz (Socket FM1) APU Processor (AD3870WNGXBOX) £107.99
1 x Crucial RealSSD M4 128GB 2.5" SATA 6Gb/s Solid State Hard Drive (CT128M4SSD2) £88.99
1 x Gigabyte GA-A75M-UD2H AMD A75 (Socket FM1) DDR3 Micro ATX Motherboard £69.38
1 x OCZ ZS Series 550W '80 Plus Bronze' Power Supply £44.99
1 x BitFenix Outlaw Gaming Case - Black £36.98
1 x Kingston Blu 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (KHX1600C9AD3B1K2/4G) £23.99
1 x Samsung SH-S222BB/BEBE 22x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £14.99
1 x OcUK Value 150Mbps Wireless-N PCI-Express Adapter £9.98
Total : £409.90 (includes shipping : £10.50).



A llano option, the APU should easily cover his football manager game, can always look to drop in a budget GPU (6850/460) later for more serious gaming.
 
Thanks for your ideas. I hadnt thought about a SSD with the possibility of upgrading with a cheap HDD at a later stage and yes i think onboard GPU should suffice for now.

I think hes keen on the idea of an I5 and a solid state hard drive, so prepared to push up towards the 500.00 mark.

I'll post a spec sheet im putting together shortly and see what you guys think
 
What do you think of this.
Gone for an I5 sandybridge. Would have liked an Ivybridge for the better onboard gpu but budget wouldnt stretch that far.

Mobo wise- is there a better option than the one i have listed?

Gone for an SSD, currently he only has around 80gb of data. So this will do and if he needs to, he can add a HDD at a later stage.
Can also add a GPU if he requires at a later stage.

RAM i went for the cheapest 1333mhz. Same timings and voltage as the slightly more expensive stuff, couldnt see this making much difference? Will it work fine with the motherboard?

Any suggestions/changes welcome




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With that mobo you would waste yours 2500k potencial, because you can't overclock with that mobo. What you could do, if you're not into overclocking is that you could take a h61 chipset mobo (newer one) which supports ivy and get i5 3450 which is a bit cheaper than 2500k
 
how about getting a seagate 500gb sata drive , using the difference to get the msi z77 mobo for the 2500K processor ?
 
 
setzok said:
With that mobo you would waste yours 2500k potencial, because you can't overclock with that mobo. What you could do, if you're not into overclocking is that you could take a h61 chipset mobo (newer one) which supports ivy and get i5 3450 which is a bit cheaper than 2500k
Click to expand...

He wouldnt be overclocking. Which H61 chipset can take an ivybridge? I thought they all took Sandybridges.
 
mp260767 said:
how about getting a seagate 500gb sata drive , using the difference to get the msi z77 mobo for the 2500K processor ?
Click to expand...

Had thought about this. But will I then not have a bottleneck due to the memory i have selected? I would have to choose faster memory to match the board which would then probably put me back over budget?
 
Idleman said:
YOUR BASKET
1 x MSI HD 6850 OC 1024MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £84.95
1 x Intel Core i3-2120 3.30GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor - Retail £83.99
1 x Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 64-Bit - OEM (GFC-02050) £72.00
1 x Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 500GB SATA 6Gb/s 16MB Cache - OEM (ST500DM002) £56.99
1 x OCZ ZS Series 550W '80 Plus Bronze' Power Supply £44.99
1 x Corsair XMS3 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (CMX8GX3M2A1600C9) £41.99
1 x Asus P8H61-M LE/USB3 Intel H61 (Socket 1155) DDR3 MicroATX Motherboard £40.80
1 x BitFenix Merc Alpha Gaming Case - Black £31.99
1 x Samsung SH-S222BB/BEBE 22x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £14.99
Total : £486.78 (includes shipping : £11.75).

Click to expand...

Thanks Idleman.
When i looked at some benchmarks there seemed to be a decent improvement to be had i5 vs i3.
At the moment, my mate is only playing football manager, so i think we were working on not needing a GPU. Therefore spending a bit extra money on the processor (i5) and SSD.
Whats your thoughts?
 
 
Idleman said:
YOUR BASKET
1 x Intel Core i5-2500K 3.30GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor - Retail £161.99
1 x MSI Z77A-G43 Intel Z77 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £77.38
1 x Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 64-Bit - OEM (GFC-02050) £72.00
1 x Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 500GB SATA 6Gb/s 16MB Cache - OEM (ST500DM002) £56.99
1 x Corsair XMS3 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (CMX8GX3M2A1600C9) £41.99
1 x OCZ CoreXtreme 500w '80 Plus' Power Supply £31.99
1 x BitFenix Merc Alpha Gaming Case - Black £31.99
1 x Samsung SH-S222BB/BEBE 22x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £14.99
Total : £503.41 (includes shipping : £11.75).

Click to expand...

Thanks for that
With that board being the Z77 does that now allow me to switch the 2500k for an ivybridge i5? The 3570K is the same money as the 2500k?
 
The 3570K oem is the same price as the 2500k, but you would need an aftermarket cooler.
The 3570K retail is £173.99 and comes with a stock cooler and a 3yr warranty.
 
Idleman said:
The 3570K oem is the same price as the 2500k, but you would need an aftermarket cooler.
The 3570K retail is £173.99 and comes with a stock cooler and a 3yr warranty.
Click to expand...

Would it be compatible with that board?

Just iv read the onboard graphics are much improved over the sandybridges. Therefore for the sake of taking the budget to 520.00 is it not worth doing?
 
 
Considering the budget, i think you will be hard pressed to do any better.
He could add an ssd at a later date. Also a Gpu if required for other games and a cooler if he wants to OC or if the stock fan is a bit noisey.
 
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