£500-£550 build

Dranzer

Dranzer

Dranzer

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19 Apr 2012
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Hello, my friend needs a new gaming computer for £500-£550. The build needs to include an OS and he doesn't need a monitor, keyboard, mouse.

He has a 1024x768 monitor as well. Thanks :cool:
 
YOUR BASKET
1 x Asus HD 7850 DirectCU II V2 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card w/ FARCRY3 & Sleeping Dogs PC Games £149.99
1 x Intel Core i3-3220 3.30GHz (Ivybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor (77W) - Retail £83.99
1 x Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 64-Bit - OEM (GFC-02050) £79.99
1 x Gigabyte B75M-D3H Intel B75 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Micro ATX Motherboard £64.99
1 x Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 500GB SATA 6Gb/s 16MB Cache - OEM (ST500DM002) £41.99
1 x Antec High Current Gamer 400W '80 Plus Bronze' Power Supply £40
1 x Xigmatek Asgard Pro Gaming Case - Black £32.99
1 x Crucial Ballistix Sport 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (BLS2CP4G3D1609DS1S00CEU) £23.99
1 x Asus 24x DVD±RW DRW-24B5ST SATA ReWriter - Black (Retail) £17.99
Total : £550.91 (includes shipping : £12.50).

 
YOUR BASKET
1 x Asus HD 7850 DirectCU II V2 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card w/ FARCRY3 & Sleeping Dogs PC Games £149.99
1 x Intel Core i3-3220 3.30GHz (Ivybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor (77W) - Retail £83.99
1 x Microsoft Windows 8 64-Bit DVD - OEM (WN7-00403) £79.99
1 x MSI Z77A-G43 Intel Z77 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard - FREE Alpenföhn Civetta Cooler!! £69.98
1 x Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 500GB SATA 6Gb/s 16MB Cache - OEM (ST500DM002) £41.99
1 x Corsair Builder Series CX 430w Modular '80 Plus Bronze' Power Supply (CP-9020058-UK) £38.99
1 x Xigmatek Asgard Pro Gaming Case - Black £32.99
1 x Crucial Ballistix Sport 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (BLS2CP4G3D1609DS1S00CEU) £23.99
1 x Asus 24x DVD±RW DRW-24B5ST SATA ReWriter - Black (Retail) £17.99
Total : £553.99 (includes shipping : £11.75).

 
This should crush everything at that resolution. Next step would be a 1080P monitor at about £100 where this lot will hold up very nicely.

YOUR BASKET
1 x Asus HD 7850 DirectCU II V2 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card w/ FARCRY3 & Sleeping Dogs PC Games £149.99
1 x Intel Core i3-3220 3.30GHz (Ivybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor (77W) - Retail £83.99
1 x Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 64-Bit - OEM (GFC-02050) £79.99
1 x ASRock B75 Pro3-M Intel B75 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Micro ATX Motherboard £55.99
1 x XFX Pro 450W Core Edition '80 Plus Bronze' Power Supply £43.99
1 x Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 500GB SATA 6Gb/s 16MB Cache - OEM (ST500DM002) £41.99
1 x Patriot Viper "Black Mamba" Generation 3 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (PV38G160C9K) £34.99
1 x Xigmatek Asgard Pro Gaming Case - Black £32.99
1 x Asus 24x DVD±RW DRW-24B5ST SATA ReWriter - Black (Retail) £17.99
Total : £556.01 (includes shipping : £11.75).

 
YOUR BASKET
1 x Gigabyte ATI Radeon HD 7850 OC Windforce 2X 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card w/ FARCRY3, Sleeping Dogs & Dirt Showdown PC Games £155.99
1 x Intel Core i3-3220 3.30GHz (Ivybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor (77W) - Retail £83.99
1 x Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 64-Bit - OEM (GFC-02050) £79.99
1 x **B Grade** Gigabyte Z77-D3H Intel Z77 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £60.00
1 x Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 500GB SATA 6Gb/s 16MB Cache - OEM (ST500DM002) £41.99
1 x Antec High Current Gamer 400W '80 Plus Bronze' Power Supply £40.00
1 x Xigmatek Asgard Pro Gaming Case - Black £32.99
1 x Crucial Ballistix Sport 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (BLS2CP4G3D1609DS1S00CEU) £23.99
1 x Asus 24x DVD±RW DRW-24B5ST SATA ReWriter - Black (Retail) £17.99
Total : £551.92 (includes shipping : £12.50).

 
Also, what if my friend wants to keep his old monitor? Would another graphics card be more efficient in terms of value and performance compared to the 7850?
 
Dranzer said:
Also, what if my friend wants to keep his old monitor? Would another graphics card be more efficient in terms of value and performance compared to the 7850?
Click to expand...

Most GPU's now-a-days cope with pre-1080p easily but the 7850 will last along while, as it breezes at 1080p and its 2GB of VRAM will make it very future-proof as games are slowly starting to eat up VRAM.

Though the 7770 may be a good shout at £95.. :)

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-184-MS
 
Dranzer said:
Also, what if my friend wants to keep his old monitor? Would another graphics card be more efficient in terms of value and performance compared to the 7850?
Click to expand...

You wont be reusing parts fella. That rig is very old, the drives will be IDE no doubt too.

YOUR BASKET
1 x Samsung S22B300HS 22" Widescreen LED Monitor - Glossy Black £99.98
1 x Samsung 128GB SSD 830 Notebook/Apple Series SATA 6Gb/s KIT with Norton Ghost - (MZ-7PC128N/EU) £89.99
1 x AMD A10-5800K Black Edition 3.80GHz (Socket FM2) APU Trinity Quad Core Processor (AD580KWOHJBOX) £86.99
1 x PC Power & Cooling Silencer Mk III Series 500W '80 Plus Bronze' Modular Power Supply - White £59.99
1 x Gigabyte F2A85XM-D3H AMD A85X Chipset (Socket FM2) DDR3 micro ATX Motherboard £58.99
1 x Toshiba (7K1000.D) 1TB SATA 6GB/s 32MB Cache - OEM (DT01ACA100) £54.98
1 x Patriot Viper "Black Mamba" Generation 3 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-17000C11 2133MHz Dual CHannel Kit (PV38G213C1K) £39.95
1 x Xigmatek Asgard Pro Gaming Case - Black £32.99
1 x Asus 24x DVD±RW DRW-24B5ST SATA ReWriter - Black (Retail) £17.99
Total : £556.85 (includes shipping : £12.50).



Little over but included a 1080P screen, the 7850 just isnt needed for his current monitor which frankly would make my eyes bleed lol

The AMD A10 APU is gaming capable but he can add a GPU down the line to add some more ooompf when needed. Fast RAM to feed the IGP to keep it happy for gaming, 8GB so you can lend some to the IGP. SSD will provide seriously fast boot times, 1TB of storage to keep films on etc. The mobo has a 3 year uk based warranty and HDMI output to the monitor. PSU is very good and is also modular making cable management easier.

Hope this helps. He could use the developers preview of windows 8 for free and then choose to buy either the win7 or win8 OS later. If he wants one now then drop the SSD to pay for one :D
 
Last edited:
He could possibly get away with using a HD 7770 depending on how much eye candy is wanted/'needed'.
Although the i3 is at the cheapest I have ever seen it right now, a Pentium G860 or G870 would save another £25 if trying to go sub-£500.
I've also swapped out the Power Supply for a lower output but more efficient one however this may be an obstacle to future upgrade plans.

YOUR BASKET
1 x MSI HD 7770 GHz Edition 1024MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £95.99
1 x Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 64-Bit - OEM (GFC-02050) £79.99
1 x Intel Pentium G870 3.10GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor - Retail £59.99
1 x ASRock B75 Pro3-M Intel B75 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Micro ATX Motherboard £55.99
1 x Seasonic G series 360w '80 Plus Gold' Power Supply £48.98
1 x Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 500GB SATA 6Gb/s 16MB Cache - OEM (ST500DM002) £41.99
1 x Patriot Viper "Black Mamba" Generation 3 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (PV38G160C9K) £34.99
1 x Xigmatek Asgard Pro Gaming Case - Black £32.99
1 x Asus 24x DVD±RW DRW-24B5ST SATA ReWriter - Black (Retail) £17.99
Total : £483.00 (includes shipping : £11.75).



The problem with going for this spec over an i3/7850 one at ~£550 is that you will be at the lower end of the scale when games start to increase their requirements (such as when the next generation of consoles come along in about a year) that would then be when this lower spec would really start to show it's flaws.
 
Defconluke said:
He could possibly get away with using a HD 7770 depending on how much eye candy is wanted/'needed'.
Although the i3 is at the cheapest I have ever seen it right now, a Pentium G860 or G870 would save another £25 if trying to go sub-£500.
I've also swapped out the Power Supply for a lower output but more efficient one however this may be an obstacle to future upgrade plans.

YOUR BASKET
1 x MSI HD 7770 GHz Edition 1024MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £95.99
1 x Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 64-Bit - OEM (GFC-02050) £79.99
1 x Intel Pentium G870 3.10GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor - Retail £59.99
1 x ASRock B75 Pro3-M Intel B75 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Micro ATX Motherboard £55.99
1 x Seasonic G series 360w '80 Plus Gold' Power Supply £48.98
1 x Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 500GB SATA 6Gb/s 16MB Cache - OEM (ST500DM002) £41.99
1 x Patriot Viper "Black Mamba" Generation 3 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (PV38G160C9K) £34.99
1 x Xigmatek Asgard Pro Gaming Case - Black £32.99
1 x Asus 24x DVD±RW DRW-24B5ST SATA ReWriter - Black (Retail) £17.99
Total : £483.00 (includes shipping : £11.75).



The problem with going for this spec over an i3/7850 one at ~£550 is that you will be at the lower end of the scale when games start to increase their requirements (such as when the next generation of consoles come along in about a year) that would then be when this lower spec would really start to show it's flaws.
Click to expand...

Does that 7770 have a VGA adapter?
 
Dranzer said:
Does that 7770 have a VGA adapter?
Click to expand...

The 7770 isn't worth the cash bud. A 2nd hand 1GB 460 or 6850 is actually better and i've seen them go in the MM for £50ish. The 2GB 7850 is the only GPU I can honestly recommend buying new, its a little more than the 7770 but double the performance and comes with games to help soften the blow of the price increase.

I really think he should consider Trinity especially if he wants to keep that low rez screen. You could drop the monitor off of my spec to pay for the OS, the IGP is surprisingly good. I recommend llano or trinity for budget laptops so gaming is possible on them....you cant do that on the intel laptops at the same price.

Click me for the A10K playing Mass effect 3 on it's IGP at the resolution your friend has. Shame he used 1600mhz RAM and not a faster kit to help the IGP :( Even the A6 dual core isn't too shabby but he can afford the quadcore A10 (another demo this time the A6)
 
Last edited:
honosuseri said:
You wont be reusing parts fella. That rig is very old, the drives will be IDE no doubt too.

YOUR BASKET
1 x Samsung S22B300HS 22" Widescreen LED Monitor - Glossy Black £99.98
1 x Samsung 128GB SSD 830 Notebook/Apple Series SATA 6Gb/s KIT with Norton Ghost - (MZ-7PC128N/EU) £89.99
1 x AMD A10-5800K Black Edition 3.80GHz (Socket FM2) APU Trinity Quad Core Processor (AD580KWOHJBOX) £86.99
1 x PC Power & Cooling Silencer Mk III Series 500W '80 Plus Bronze' Modular Power Supply - White £59.99
1 x Gigabyte F2A85XM-D3H AMD A85X Chipset (Socket FM2) DDR3 micro ATX Motherboard £58.99
1 x Toshiba (7K1000.D) 1TB SATA 6GB/s 32MB Cache - OEM (DT01ACA100) £54.98
1 x Patriot Viper "Black Mamba" Generation 3 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-17000C11 2133MHz Dual CHannel Kit (PV38G213C1K) £39.95
1 x Xigmatek Asgard Pro Gaming Case - Black £32.99
1 x Asus 24x DVD±RW DRW-24B5ST SATA ReWriter - Black (Retail) £17.99
Total : £556.85 (includes shipping : £12.50).



Little over but included a 1080P screen, the 7850 just isnt needed for his current monitor which frankly would make my eyes bleed lol

The AMD A10 APU is gaming capable but he can add a GPU down the line to add some more ooompf when needed. Fast RAM to feed the IGP to keep it happy for gaming, 8GB so you can lend some to the IGP. SSD will provide seriously fast boot times, 1TB of storage to keep films on etc. The mobo has a 3 year uk based warranty and HDMI output to the monitor. PSU is very good and is also modular making cable management easier.

Hope this helps. He could use the developers preview of windows 8 for free and then choose to buy either the win7 or win8 OS later. If he wants one now then drop the SSD to pay for one :D
Click to expand...


Would you get an aftermarket cooler to overclock the APU?
 
Last edited:
Dranzer said:
Would you get an aftermarket cooler to overclock the APU?
Click to expand...

I did another post with links to video demonstrations of trinity gaming. You can see even the dual core A6 is playing skyrim @1080p quite nicely. The A10 has a better IGP than the A6 and these "mugs" used 1600mhz RAM rather than the 2133mhz kits I used. The IGP will do better with the faster RAM.

£500 is a tricky budget to do a gaming rig, especially if you want an OS as you nearly lose £100 to that.

Dranzer said:
Would you get an aftermarket cooler to overclock the APU?
Click to expand...

I dont think I would bother, even though overclocking would boost the IGP too. Thing is that would be £25-30 quid for a good budget cooler and as I said you could get a 1GB 460 or 6850 secondhand for £50ish. I have a 460 clocked @900mhz and I still find it capable in my HTPC/console killer
 
Last edited:
honosuseri said:
I did another post with links to video demonstrations of trinity gaming. You can see even the dual core A6 is playing skyrim @1080P quite nicely. The A10 has a better IGP than the A6 and these "mugs" used 1600mhz RAM rather than the 2133mhz kits I used. The IGP will do better with the faster RAM.

£500 is a tricky budget to do a gaming rig, especially if you want an OS as you nearly lose £100 to that.



I dont think I would bother, even though overclocking would boost the IGP too. Thing is that would be £25-30 quid for a good budget cooler and as I said you could get a 1GB 460 or 6850 secondhand for £50ish. I have a 460 clocked @900mhz and I still find it capable in my HTPC/console killer
Click to expand...

What if the budget is £500-600 without the OS?
 
Last edited:
Dranzer said:
What if the budget is £500-600 without the OS?
Click to expand...

YOUR BASKET
1 x Intel Core i5-3570K 3.40GHz (Ivybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor (77W) - Retail £167.99
1 x Gigabyte ATI Radeon HD 7850 OC Windforce 2X 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card w/ FARCRY3, Sleeping Dogs & Dirt Showdown PC Games £155.99
1 x MSI Z77A-G43 Intel Z77 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard - FREE Alpenföhn Civetta Cooler!! £69.98
1 x PC Power & Cooling Silencer Mk III Series 500W '80 Plus Bronze' Modular Power Supply - White £59.99
1 x Seagate Barracuda 7200RPM 1TB SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache - OEM (ST1000DM003) £59.99
1 x Xigmatek Asgard Pro Gaming Case - Black £32.99
1 x TeamGroup Elite 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C11 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (TED38GM1600HC11DC01) £29.99
1 x Asus 24x DVD±RW DRW-24B5ST SATA ReWriter - Black (Retail) £17.99
Total : £609.90 (includes shipping : £12.50).



The mobo is voltage locked so not ideal for overclocking but you now have the ivybridge i5K and the mobo bundle includes a semi-decent cooler (better than stock).
 
Dranzer - the 7770 should have a VGA adaptor included although you can start a thread >HERE< to check with OcUK.

Honosuseri - Why bother recommending a graphics card from the MM when the poster doesn't have access to that section of the forum? Why not spec everything used to save OP more money? I can only spec what is in the OcUK shop so is there something better than the 7770 that OP asked for is below the previously recommended 7850?

Also, personally, I would never consider recommending an APU to someone if they are going to be adding a graphics card at a later date because it completely undoes the whole point of going for an APU in the first place.

At £500-£600 without OS I'd still stick with the i3/7850 combo and get a new, 1080P screen in there too. Gaming with an i5 and HD 7850 at a resolution of 1024x768 would be painful imo.

YOUR BASKET
1 x Asus HD 7850 DirectCU II V2 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card w/ FARCRY3 & Sleeping Dogs PC Games £149.99
1 x Iiyama ProLite E2208HDS 22" Widescreen LCD Monitor £89.99
1 x Intel Core i3-3220 3.30GHz (Ivybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor (77W) - Retail £83.99
1 x Gigabyte H77-D3H Intel H77 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £80.99
1 x PC Power & Cooling Silencer Mk III Series 500W '80 Plus Bronze' Modular Power Supply - White £59.99
1 x Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 500GB SATA 6Gb/s 16MB Cache - OEM (ST500DM002) £41.99
1 x Patriot Viper "Black Mamba" Generation 3 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (PV38G160C9K) £34.99
1 x Xigmatek Asgard Pro Gaming Case - Black £32.99
1 x Asus 24x DVD±RW DRW-24B5ST SATA ReWriter - Black (Retail) £17.99
Total : £615.82 (includes shipping : £19.10).

 
I didn't recommend anything from the MM! I just said that the 1GB 460 and 6850 are better than the 7770 and go for £50. I've seen them sell for that price in the MM so I'm not making that price up.

The trinity spec I gave as an alternative. It is gaming capable the links I provided also prove this. I used all of the budget and just pointed out that if he wanted to a GPU could be added later for better performance as an upgrade.

Don't really like your spec to be honest. Looking at your sig you dont know much about mobos. You bought the DS3H which is worse than the D3H and you are suggesting a H77 when there is a MSI Z77 with a free cooler for basically the same price.
 
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