Considering building my first budget gaming pc

Digitized User

Digitized User

Digitized User

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Hello to those who manage to spare the time to help me. I appreciate the effort.

A little background on me. I have been an avid gamer for the past 15 or so years. Mostly I have revolved around the consoles simply because of their...well...simplicity. My knowledge with computers has held me back, especially the hardware side of things. Everytime I decide to spec myself up a new PC capable of running some past and current games, I get so overwhelmed with the information/choice of hardware that I simply regress and backoff.

But I have managed to convice myself that I would like to slowly transition back to the PC as another platform choice for gaming.

So to the point at hand:

I have a budget for now of about £500 give or take. Now this I would like to go into most of the computer but not a card(atleast not for now) or monitor. To explain with more detail and reasoning, I would like to spread out the cost of my build over a few months. And I recently found an old rig in the attic which I cleaned and tested, and the card (Nvidia Geforce 7950 512mb) is still working A-okay. I also already have a pretty decent monitor (1080p ASUS) so that is definately something I do not need to upgrade anytime soon.

After some general browing on the first couple of pages on this forum, I came to a semi-conclusion of what i generally would like to purchase:

Intel Core i5-3570K 3.40GHz (Ivybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor (77W) - Retail £185.99 OR AMD Phenom II X4 Quad Core 965 Black Edition "125W Edition" 3.40GHz (Socket AM3) - Retail £99.95
MSI Z77MA-G45 Intel Z77 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Micro-ATX Motherboard £92.75 OR Asus M5A97 PRO AMD 970 (Socket AM3+) DDR3 Motherboard £80.99

Cooler Master Silent Pro Modular 700W '80 Plus Bronze' Power Supply £89.99
Corsair Carbide 300R Mid Tower Case - Black £53.99
Kingston HyperX Genesis 8GB (4x2GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual/Quad Channel Kit (KHX1600C9D3K4/8GX) £49.99
Gelid Tranquillo CPU Cooler (Socket 754/939/940/AM2/AM2+/AM3/LGA775/LGA1155/LGA1156/LGA1366) £25.99

This is what I have managed to come up with so far. For reference I will currently be playing old-ish games such as BF1942/BF2 (hence the 512 card now) but would like to purchase a pretty good graphics card in a couple of months to stick in the build and complete it, making it capable of running more current games such as Skyrim, D3, Arma II.

Anyone got any advice to throw my way? And also how hard is building a rig today compared to 6 years ago? Paranoid about fluffing it up.
 
Thanks for the response. To answer your quesiton, there was no reason and infact until you pointed it out I hadn't noticed. I simply looked at the actual boards expansion options. Are there any boards you would recommend?


Few more questions would be: What PSU wattage is preferred/required for a build based around a single card? I keep hearing 700watt is not enough even for 1 card.

I understand that AMD CPU's go well with AMD cards, is this true for Intel/Nvidia or can mix and match be done (assuming my understanding is correct)?

I also forgot to add, I currently also have a 500gig HD which I plan on using if I can help it, I use an external to back up most of my stuff, so 500gb has served me fine for now. Seagate I think is the make.

Also if someone would be able to enlighten me (with a version for dummies!) about the difference between Ivybridge and Sandybridge, and the difference between I-3/I-5/I-7 and why I-5 is the preffered CPU currently (especially intel over amd). I would very much appreciate it.
 
I-3 dual core I5 quad core and I7 quad core with hyperthreading, hyperthreading is not needed for gaming The I5 is the sweet spot for cpu.

Its a total mith that amd card work better on amd chipset boards it only if you need to crossfire, you want that board to have that feature..

A 700 w is more than enough for that system and gpu if not a little overkill .

As for motherboard it about the spec and warrenty so for your needs the cheapest Z77 will do but its your choice, some people prefer diffrent manufactureres.
 
Thanks for the explanation Micky. I will check out the motherboard line again and see if I can pick another one up that isn't micro that fits within the pricing range.

to MP260: Yeah, it is a Sata (not sure if sata or sataii, it is about 5 years old and came with a bare-bones from this site) Seagate Barracuda. Although after checking it, turns out it is only 250gig so I may splash for a 500gig anyway or possibly a 1tb.

Thought I would also add, I am not really looking at overclocking anything if I can help it. Not sure if that would factor in any hardware changes.

Edit: Infact another important variable I forgot to add is that I currently plan on running this system on Windows XP. I do not have access to Windows 7 yet, and would prefer to wait for a price drop before converting. As I understand that over 4gb of ram does not display correctly, would it still be worth including an 8gb set of ram, or would I be better off keeping it at 4gb for now cutting recent costs, and upgrading when I convert to Win7?

Sorry for all the questions, just making sure I have enough knowledge to make a decision which won't come back to bite me in the near future.
 
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I think it's fine that your asking all these questions - everyone here is happy to jump in to answer any you have.

As long as the hard drive is SATA it will be fine, the older generation are backward compatible.
If you consider to get a SSD, we can talk about that if you wish.

I would suggest you get 8GB ram as it is cheap anyway (£30-£40)
 
Thanks for the input i7_860. In the end I am going to get the 8gb as you were correct about the pricing, and its one less thing to worry about in the future.

I haven't considered an SSD currently and to be frank I am probably in no rush to buy one. It would be nice to add it to the build in the near future, but at the moment it is more or less about getting myself transitioned into a gaming system that isn't a console, if you can understand that.

Just trying to get the bare minimum that can handle most games on high or max settings, give or take a couple of games. My current plan with games is just to make use of the BF games I currently own (1942/bf2) to pass sometime until I can afford to sink some money into a more powerful card. End goal games are pretty much ARMA/ARMAII/D3/Skyrim/GTA4(I know this game can be awkward) and some others.
 
Sorry for the late reply, and thank you for the links and recommendations.

I decided to keep the I-5 as before today I had really no idea about it, but now I am aware it is quad-core I shall purchase into that which leaves I-7 for a future upgrade when it is needed.

What I did was look into a different motherboard rather than the micro atx. So far my build is shaping up like this:

Intel Core i5-3570K 3.40GHz (Ivybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor (77W) - Retail £185.99
Gigabyte Z77-D3H Intel Z77 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £89.98 (when it is in stock)
Cooler Master Silent Pro Modular 700W '80 Plus Bronze' Power Supply £89.99
Corsair Carbide 300R Mid Tower Case - Black £53.99
Kingston HyperX Genesis 8GB (4x2GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual/Quad Channel Kit (KHX1600C9D3K4/8GX) £49.99
Gelid Tranquillo CPU Cooler (Socket 754/939/940/AM2/AM2+/AM3/LGA775/LGA1155/LGA1156/LGA1366) £25.99

That lot should come to about £520 roughly, not including p+p. I will also add a 500gb - 1tb harddrive. This leaves me with a couple of hundred to sink into a graphics card at some point.

Anyone got any other recommendations? Perhaps there is a cheaper just as effective case? I chose corsair simply because I am familiar with the products they make, and I went for something which has been reviewed on the site. I am looking for something that is more functional than pretty (no lights etc). Provides decent space and cooling, while minimizing the intake of dust.
 
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Do you have an OS?

An the Psu is on special offer...
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CA-165-CM&groupid=701&catid=123&subcat=1103

YOUR BASKET
1 x Intel Core i5-3570K 3.40GHz (Ivybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor (77W) - Retail £189.95
1 x Gigabyte Z77-D3H Intel Z77 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £89.98
1 x Cooler Master Silent Pro Modular 700W '80 Plus Bronze' Power Supply £64.99
1 x Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 500GB SATA 6Gb/s 16MB Cache - OEM (ST500DM002) £59.99
1 x Corsair Carbide 300R Mid Tower Case - Black £53.99
1 x Crucial Ballistix Sport 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (BLS2CP4G3D1609DS1S00CEU) £43.99
1 x Gelid Tranquillo CPU Cooler (Socket 754/939/940/AM2/AM2+/AM3/LGA775/LGA1155/LGA1156/LGA1366) £25.99
Total : £543.88 (includes shipping : £12.50).



http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CD-099-LG&groupid=701&catid=10&subcat=951 this if you need it.
 
Thank you for that Idleman. To answer your question; I do have an OS. I plan on using WinXP for now until I decide to shell out for Win7.

I also have a diskdrive too, which is part of the barebones system I purchased from this site a few years back.
 
May I suggest an SSD if you already have a (SATA?) hard drive.
Also, you could try using Windows 8 for now until you buy an OS, as you can try it for free.

My suggestion, with an SSD:

YOUR BASKET
1 x Intel Core i5-3570K 3.40GHz (Ivybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor (77W) - Retail £189.95
1 x Sandisk Extreme SSD 120GB 2.5" SATA 6Gb/s Solid State Hard Drive - (SDSSDX-120G-G25) £83.99
1 x MSI Z77A-G43 Intel Z77 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £77.38
1 x Cooler Master Silent Pro Modular 700W '80 Plus Bronze' Power Supply £64.99
1 x Crucial Ballistix Sport 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (BLS2CP4G3D1609DS1S00CEU) £43.99
1 x Zalman Z9 Plus Tower Case with Fan Controller - Black £40.99
1 x Akasa AK-CC4007EP01 Nero 3 CPU Cooler (Socket LGA775/1155/1156/1366/2011/AMD AM2/AM2+/AM3/FM1) £23.99
Total : £540.28 (includes shipping : £12.50).

 
Thank you for suggesting win8 I will look into it, although I been told it is only for those who require touch screen (you my notice I am told a lot of misinformation).

Not to sound miserable, but could you please elaborate on why I would need an SSD drive? I could put that money towards an 1tb drive instead. SSD are new to me, last system I baught the 1tb was the new size HDD.

This system I have now only has a 250gb on it, and I only have about 30gb left on it. And that isn't including all the modding I'll be getting back into when I start playing more current video games!

I appreciate all advice put forth in this thread, it has helped tremendously. I feel less overwhelmed about the whole experience now.
 
Digitized User said:
Thank you for suggesting win8 I will look into it, although I been told it is only for those who require touch screen (you my notice I am told a lot of misinformation).

Not to sound miserable, but could you please elaborate on why I would need an SSD drive? I could put that money towards an 1tb drive instead. SSD are new to me, last system I baught the 1tb was the new size HDD.

This system I have now only has a 250gb on it, and I only have about 30gb left on it. And that isn't including all the modding I'll be getting back into when I start playing more current video games!

I appreciate all advice put forth in this thread, it has helped tremendously. I feel less overwhelmed about the whole experience now.
Click to expand...

Windows 8 is better for touchscreens I think, but at the moment being free its a good stepping stone until you buy Windows 7. it's far better than XP In my opinion!

SSDs make a system more responsive, they start up quicker, load programs/games quicker too. Once you have one, you wont go back. They are getting much cheaper too. They are perhaps still a luxury, and if you need more space then definitely get a bigger hard drive first, and you can always add an SSD later. There is an even cheaper 120GB SSD if that tempts you:
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=HD-003-SD&groupid=701&catid=2104&subcat=1427
 
Thank you for the SSD info. I think right now my priority is basically getting onto a pc for gaming, rather than worrying about all the other tidbits. In the future I think upgrading to both SSD and Win7 will benefit me, but for now i'd rather most my budget went into the basic hardware, if that makes sense.

Also Beej I would like to thank you for the Motherboard and Ram recommendations because you have lowered the over-all total of my build allowing me to sink some more money into other aspects.
 
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beejjacobs said:
May I suggest an SSD if you already have a (SATA?) hard drive.
Also, you could try using Windows 8 for now until you buy an OS, as you can try it for free.

My suggestion, with an SSD:

YOUR BASKET
1 x Intel Core i5-3570K 3.40GHz (Ivybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor (77W) - Retail £189.95
1 x Sandisk Extreme SSD 120GB 2.5" SATA 6Gb/s Solid State Hard Drive - (SDSSDX-120G-G25) £83.99
1 x MSI Z77A-G43 Intel Z77 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £77.38
1 x Cooler Master Silent Pro Modular 700W '80 Plus Bronze' Power Supply £64.99
1 x Crucial Ballistix Sport 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (BLS2CP4G3D1609DS1S00CEU) £43.99
1 x Zalman Z9 Plus Tower Case with Fan Controller - Black £40.99
1 x Akasa AK-CC4007EP01 Nero 3 CPU Cooler (Socket LGA775/1155/1156/1366/2011/AMD AM2/AM2+/AM3/FM1) £23.99
Total : £540.28 (includes shipping : £12.50).

Click to expand...

Even the Win 8 Release Preview is out now, which is a decent O/S with driver support coming from AMD and NVIDIA.

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows-8/download
 
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