Gaming Build for max £500

korgtronix

korgtronix

korgtronix

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23 Jan 2013
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I am trying to build my friend a £500 gaming rig for him to play Skyrim and Sim City on.

Any advice on one would be great. He isn't worried about the size of the build so I was going to give him an Antec Eleven Hundred case I can't shift on ebay. So a build around this case would be great. He needs everything else though.
 
This would do quite well:

YOUR BASKET
1 x MSI HD 7850 OC 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Cards with Tomb Raider & Bioshock PC Games £149.99
1 x Intel Core i3-3220 3.30GHz (Ivybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor (77W) - Retail £92.99
1 x Asus P8Z77-V LX Intel Z77 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £85.99
1 x Silverstone Strider Plus 500W Modular '80 Plus Bronze' Power Supply (SST-ST50F-P) £67.99
1 x Toshiba (7K1000.D) 500GB SATA 6GB/s 32MB Cache - OEM (DT01ACA050) HDD £47.99
1 x Avexir MPower Yellow Series 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Memory Kit (AVD3U16000904G-2CM) £37.99
1 x OcUK 22x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £17.99
Total : £512.93 (includes shipping : £10.00).




Obviousily the downside is the dual core. Even though it has hyperthreading more modern games like Crysis and Hitman will push it to its limit. The advantage of this setup is you can pop either a second hand i5 or i7 in after about 6-12 months and it'll be good to go.

Alternatively you can get a something like a AMD FX-6300. This chip is better for the majority of modern games because it has 6 cores not 2 + 2 extra threads. However you would need a fairly decent £80-100 board to get decent VRM's as this can be a cause of problems among current gen AMD chips.
 
that processor/gpu combo runs crysis fine on medium settings.

YOUR BASKET
1 x MSI HD 7850 OC 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Cards with Tomb Raider & Bioshock PC Games £149.99
1 x Intel Core i3-3220 3.30GHz (Ivybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor (77W) - Retail £92.99
1 x ASRock B75M Intel B75 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Micro ATX Motherboard £52.99
1 x Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 500GB SATA 6Gb/s 16MB Cache - OEM (ST500DM002) HDD £49.99
1 x Corsair Builder Series CX 430W V2 '80 Plus Bronze' Power Supply (CP-9020046-UK) £40.99
1 x Avexir MPower Yellow Series 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Memory Kit (AVD3U16000904G-2CM) £37.99
1 x Xigmatek Asgard Pro Gaming Case - Black £32.99
1 x Samsung SH-118AB/BEBE SATA 18x DVD-ROM (Black) - OEM £14.99
Total : £487.02 (includes shipping : £11.75).




this is my build except with different ram and a gigabyte gpu.
 
@Joel,

You speccd the MSI not the Giga GPU in there, you also have a worse HDD for more money and arent DVD-ROMs a bit outdated now...

Thanks Physics ;)
 
Bacon? said:
@Joel,

You speccd the MSI not the Giga GPU in there, you also have a worse HDD for more money and arent DVD-ROMs a bit outdated now...

Thanks Physics ;)
Click to expand...

i went for the MSI as its cheaper. i did say except in my build thing.

dvd-rom again cheapness. i didnt even buy a dvd drive for mine.

you are right about the hdd though.
 
 
Hey, Mr Bacon, Hi, out of interest, im not criticizing your build in any way, I was was just wondering why you choose to go near £70 on that 500watt PSU?
 
The PSU is the most important part of any computer. While it is quite expensive compared to other PSU's it is very reliable (Seasonic OEM I believe) and it is also modular, meaning less cable management needed ;)
 
Bacon? said:
The PSU is the most important part of any computer. While it is quite expensive compared to other PSU's it is very reliable (Seasonic OEM I believe) and it is also modular, meaning less cable management needed ;)
Click to expand...

Actually, it is an FSP OEM. :p
 
YOUR BASKET
1 x Intel Core i5-2500K 3.30GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor - Retail £179.99
1 x MSI HD 7850 OC 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Cards with Tomb Raider & Bioshock PC Games £149.99
1 x Toshiba (7K1000.D) 500GB SATA 6GB/s 32MB Cache - OEM (DT01ACA050) HDD £47.99
1 x XFX Pro 450W Core Edition '80 Plus Bronze' Power Supply £39.95
1 x Avexir Core Blue Series 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Memory Kit (AVD3U16000904G-2CW) - Blue Light £37.99
1 x **B Grade** Gigabyte Z68AP-D3 Intel Z68 (Socket 1155) DDR3 (MB-364-GI) £35.00
1 x OcUK 24x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £18.98
Total : £521.89 (includes shipping : £10.00).



B grade mobo so he might need a couple of sata cables. Other than that he should be good. The i5K has plenty of grunt and can even be overclocked. Ok i've gone over budget a bit but it's worth it I think, especially as he cops free games as well with the GPU :)
 
Last edited:
zakblood said:
nice spec for the price again hono m8
Click to expand...

I thought so too but I am biased ;)

That mobo is a bargain really. It's seriously cheap but still gives him sataIII and USB3. The Z68 was built for sandybridge so no worries about CPU compatibility with the BIOS. Being a Z series it can OC the i5K, should be able to round it off at 4Ghz even on the stock heatsink. The 7850 is good for overclocking too, plenty of bang for his buck :D
 
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