£500 gaming pc, help please

YOUR BASKET
1 x Crucial RealSSD M4 128GB 2.5" SATA 6Gb/s Solid State Hard Drive (CT128M4SSD2) £99.95
1 x Intel Core i3-2120 3.30GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor - Retail £99.95
1 x MSI HD 6850 OC 1024MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £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 Western Digital Caviar Blue 500GB SATA 6Gb/s 16MB Cache - OEM (WD5000AAKX) £57.98
1 x Zalman Z9 Plus Tower Case with Fan Controller - Black £40.99
1 x GeIL Dragon 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C11 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (GD38GB1600C11DC) £35.99
1 x OcUK 22x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £17.99
Total : £594.20 (includes shipping : £12.50).



Z77 mobo will help the 6850 performance. You can't OC the i3 CPU but you can OC that 6850 to nigh on 6870 performance (£120ish GPU). 8GB of RAM at a good price, looks quite flash too :)

Case is a bargain. 4 120mm fans, fan controller with digital temp display and cable management. PSU is modular and nice and quiet. At 700W it is overkill but is currently on offer for less than the 600W ;)

Included an excellent sataIII SSD with enough space for the OS and games, so the OS and games will load much faster, i also added 500GB of extra storage. I realise it's top end of your budget but I would suggest downloading the developers copy of windows 8 (free and legal) and run that rather than pay for Windows 7 now.

If you exclude the SSD you are bang on budget. Hope this helps :)
 
Thanks so much for you help, it looks quite amazing. So will windows 8 run all my games fine? I wont be buying these components for about a month, im guessing the psu wont be on offer anymore. do i need something bigger than the 550w? On the other thread you recommended the seagate rather than the western digital, was there a reason for that? Do you think the SSD is needed, i've never used an ssd so i dont know how much it will benefit me. Thanks!
 
It does seem impressive the improved speed however i doubt my mum will be sympathetic to my cause so i dont think i can justify the extra cost. Sorry, is 550W too low for this machine and is the seagate slightly better than the Western digital hdd. Im also unfamiliar with what the reliable types of RAM are. Is there any reason why the cheaper set you listed is worse than another?
 
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No 550W is adequate.

The RAM I spec'd is technically slower as it has a higher CAS rating. In the real world you won't notice the difference though. It was cheaper than the alternatives, looks quite flash and is low profile, the stuff sparx is using looks like it will be taller. Low profile RAM always fits easily under aftermarket heatsinks.

Not much to choose between those two HDDs. The seagate is ever so slightly faster but is a couple of quid more. Your not buying now so prices will be different a month from now.

Atleast you get an idea of what you can get for your money, nearer the time we can spec again.
 
Well as im getting 8gb of ram i think it being slightly slower isn't a big issue. If the seagate won't be noticeably faster then ill go with the other as its cheaper. Do you think prices change enough in a month to warrant checking it all again in a month?
 
 
T1ggZ said:
Well as im getting 8gb of ram i think it being slightly slower isn't a big issue. If the seagate won't be noticeably faster then ill go with the other as its cheaper. Do you think prices change enough in a month to warrant checking it all again in a month?
Click to expand...

The Seagate I picked is 1TB, the WD that honosuseri spec'd is 500GB - hence the price difference.. ;)

Yes, I would check back again in a month...
 
Ye i saw the difference in size, i think i probably wont use a whole TB as im currently using a 220 gb and i've got 34 gb spare =) ok well ill make sure to save the spec i've got now and see if its still valid in a month. Thanks for the help
 
Sparx said:
The Seagate I picked is 1TB, the WD that honosuseri spec'd is 500GB - hence the price difference.. ;)

Yes, I would check back again in a month...
Click to expand...

I thought he was refering back to another thread I was on. I had spec'd the seagate and a fellow forum buddy had used the WD at the same capacity 500GB. The 1TB drives aren't much more £20ish. I had spent £10-15 more on the modular PSU bit of a luxury but a bargain not to be missed in my eyes.

I do like Sparxs spec, think i'd still use the GEIL RAM and the cheaper DVD drive but that's only saving £5 at best. Hardly worth arguing about.
 
Ye i will be using the cheaper ram and dvd drive just to shave off any uneccessary costs. I'll be going with the seagate which you said was slightly faster because the western digitial is on offer at the moment only for one week tho so it will be more expensive when i come to purchase the components. Thanks a lot guys you've been a great help. Ill re post in a few weeks just to check that you think this build is still ok and that the're haven't been any major changes in prices. Thanks again
 
Im planning on using the cheaper RAM and dvd drive. Ill be going with the sea gate hard drive because the western digital is only cheaper because its currently on offer. Thanks a lot for your help. Ill ask again in a few weeks to see if you think i should change the spec. Thanks again guys, great help
 
Can you not delete posts on this forum? Accidentally posted my response twice because couldn't see the first one...
 
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