A first build on a £500 budget.

Stroller4

Stroller4

Stroller4

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Joined
2 Oct 2012
Posts
13
Hi,

I'm new and have been reading the OC forums with interest for the past couple of weeks. I'm looking to build a cheap PC suitable for playing the likes of FM2013 (with a decent range of leagues) and FPS like Day Z and Battlefield 3.

I'm happy with 1080p and don't need to access "Ultra" settings on games. I can't justify spending pver £500 pounds as I am, for my sins (and good network of on-line friends) a console gamer. My old desktop is 5 or 6 years old, bought from PC World and currently of more use as a heater than a games machine, so I need to start from scratch. That said, a friend is donating a (Cooler Master?) case, HDD, OS and a monitor, so I'm after a Motherboard, CPU, RAM, GPU, PSU and maybe a SSD.

What I have in mind is:

1 x Gigabyte Z77-D3H Intel Z77 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £84.98
(chosen to allow future upgrade to a faster CPU)
1 x Intel Core i3-3220 3.30GHz (Ivybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor (77W) - Retail £99.95 (should be fine to run what I want?)
1 x Patriot Viper "Black Mamba" Generation 3 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (PV38G160C9K) £23.99
1 x MSI HD 7850 Twin Frozr III OC 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Cards w/ Nexuiz, Sleeping Dogs & Dirt Showdown PC Games £169.99 (the price has gone back up this week, is there now a better value card?)
1 x OCZ ZS Series 550W '80 Plus Bronze' Power Supply £49.99

Total £428.90 + postage

Optional:
1 x OCZ Agility 3 120GB 2.5" SATA 6Gb/s Solid State Hard Drive (AGT3-25SAT3-120G) £76.99

Grand Total £505.89

My questions are:

Am I covering all the bases.
What can be improved upon within a £500 budget.
Is a SSD worthwhile, or should I stick to just my friends donated HDD (and possibly the 200GB from my old machine) and spend the money elsewhere?

Your help would be very much appreciated!

Cheers, Stroller 4
 
Without an SSD you could fit in a i5 3570k instead of a i3 3220. Other than that, if your happy with it, it looks a good build. Also, is the OS 64 bit or 32 bit, and out of curiosity what resolution is the monitor?
 
 
Septym said:
If you're ordering today you can get this:

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=BG-093-SP&groupid=595&catid=683&subcat=

It's B grade but it's a 7870 and cheaper than the 7850 in your build.
Click to expand...

YOUR BASKET
1 x Intel Core i5-3570K 3.40GHz (Ivybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor (77W) - Retail £179.99
1 x **B Grade** Sapphire HD 7870 GHz Edition 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card w/ Nexuiz, Sleeping Dogs & Dirt Showdown PC Games £161.99
1 x Gigabyte Z77-D3H Intel Z77 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £81.98
1 x Corsair Builder Series CX 600W V2 '80 Plus' Power Supply (CMPSU-600CXUKV2) £56.99
1 x Arctic Cooling Freezer Xtreme Rev.2 High Performance Quiet CPU Cooler (Socket 775/1155/1156/1366/AM2/AM2+/AM3) £29.99
1 x Kingston HyperX Genesis Grey 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (KHX1600C9D3X2K2/8GX) £25.99
Total : £548.93 (includes shipping : £10.00).

 
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Hi - thanks for the quick reply - I'm caught between i3 + SSD and i5 as you suggest!

The OS is 64bit to make use of the RAM.

I'm toying with the idea of putting the PC in the lounge and running it via a 50" 1080 Plasma. I've not seen the monitor but believe it around a 18" to 19", a couple of years old and so most likely 1366 x 768.
 
Stroller4 said:
Hi - thanks for the quick reply - I'm caught between i3 + SSD and i5 as you suggest!

The OS is 64bit to make use of the RAM.

I'm toying with the idea of putting the PC in the lounge and running it via a 50" 1080 Plasma. I've not seen the monitor but believe it around a 18" to 19", a couple of years old and so most likely 1366 x 768.
Click to expand...

1080p may look pretty bad on a screen that size depending on how close you are sitting. Also you may get ghosting and slow response times from gaming through a PC to a Plasma screen.
 
 
I'm sat a good 5m from the TV; a Panasonic bought partly due to good (console) gaming response times. Would the response time from a PC be any worse than from an Xbox?
 
Stroller4 said:
I'm sat a good 5m from the TV; a Panasonic bought partly due to good (console) gaming response times. Would the response time from a PC be any worse than from an Xbox?
Click to expand...

I'm really not sure, someone else would be better answering that one, but from my experience televisions have never worked well for me with PC gaming.
 
 
 
YOUR BASKET
1 x Intel Core i5-3570K 3.40GHz (Ivybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor (77W) - Retail £179.99
1 x KFA2 GeForce GTX 660 EX OC 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £179.99
1 x Gigabyte Z77-D3H Intel Z77 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £81.98
1 x XFX Pro 550W Core Edition '80 Plus Bronze' Power Supply £56.99
1 x Kingston HyperX Genesis Grey 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (KHX1600C9D3X2K2/8GX) £25.99
1 x Xigmatek Achilles II SD1284 CPU-Cooler - 120mm (Socket LGA775/1155/1156/1366 AMD AM2/AM3/FM1) £23.98
Total : £560.92 (includes shipping : £10.00).




It's all in stock.

The cooler can do push/pull and has the fittings to do so.

You can of course use the stock cooler and overclock the CPU to about 4GHz if the price is a bit rich.

A GTX660 is better than a 7850 - http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/660?vs=549
 
LukieBoy007 said:
If it is 1366x768 then you will be able to run virtually any game on Ultra settings with a 7850 :)
Click to expand...

Given that the 7850 (or GTX 660) sounds like it should be able to cope with anything I can throw at it (currently), is the i5 overkill? I'd rather stay in budget now get a good wireless keyboard and mouse (just realised that I missed them off my list) and upgrade the CPU in a year or two?
 
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