Help With New Gaming Rig £500 to £550

Pr0udy

Pr0udy

Pr0udy

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Joined
29 Jul 2013
Posts
23
My 18 year old sons Dell Laptop has died. It was an i3 and was being used a lot for on-line gaming social contact via headset etc. I have built several PC's but not for a few years so a little out of touch and would really appreciate some help with either a pre-built or parts list for a new build. Do not need monitor, keyboard, mouse or O/S.

Is lower cpu with better graphics card the way to go or higher cpu and OK graphics card given that the most demanding game he plays is Saints Row the 3rd.

Any help much appreciated.

Proudy
 
Hello and welcome to the forum :)

YOUR BASKET
1 x MSI HD 7850 OC 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Cards £149.99
1 x Gigabyte 990XA-UD3 AMD 990X (Socket AM3+) DDR3 Motherboard £89.99
1 x AMD Piledriver FX-6 Six Core 6300 Black Edition 3.50GHz (Socket AM3+) Processor - Retail £89.99
1 x Thermaltake Smart 530W '80 Plus' Power Supply £49.99
1 x Patriot Viper "Black Mamba" Generation 3 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (PV38G160C9K) £49.99
1 x Seagate Barracuda 7200RPM 1TB SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache - OEM (ST1000DM003) HDD £48.95
1 x BitFenix Outlaw Gaming Case - Black £39.95
1 x OcUK 20x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £16.99
Total : £548.44 (includes shipping : £10.50).



Intel option:


YOUR BASKET
1 x Intel Core i5-3330 3.00GHz (Ivybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor (77W) - Retail £149.99
1 x MSI HD 7850 OC 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Cards £149.99
1 x Thermaltake Smart 530W '80 Plus' Power Supply £49.99
1 x Patriot Viper "Black Mamba" Generation 3 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (PV38G160C9K) £49.99
1 x Seagate Barracuda 7200RPM 1TB SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache - OEM (ST1000DM003) HDD £48.95
1 x Gigabyte Z68AP-D3 Intel Z68 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £45.95
1 x BitFenix Outlaw Gaming Case - Black £39.95
1 x OcUK 20x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £16.99
Total : £564.40 (includes shipping : £10.50).

 
Last edited:
Another Intel with a better case and higher end GPU:


YOUR BASKET
1 x MSI HD 7870 Black Knight 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card (R7870-2GD5T) £167.99
1 x Intel Core i3-3220 3.30GHz (Ivybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor (77W) - Retail £92.99
1 x Thermaltake Smart 530W '80 Plus' Power Supply £49.99
1 x Patriot Viper "Black Mamba" Generation 3 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (PV38G160C9K) £49.99
1 x Seagate Barracuda 7200RPM 1TB SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache - OEM (ST1000DM003) HDD £48.95
1 x Corsair Carbide 200R Compact ATX Case - Black £47.95
1 x Gigabyte Z68AP-D3 Intel Z68 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £45.95
1 x OcUK 20x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £16.99
Total : £533.40 (includes shipping : £10.50).



Including after market cooler:


YOUR BASKET
1 x MSI HD 7870 Black Knight 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card (R7870-2GD5T) £167.99
1 x Intel Core i3-3220 3.30GHz (Ivybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor (77W) - Retail £92.99
1 x Thermaltake Smart 530W '80 Plus' Power Supply £49.99
1 x Patriot Viper "Black Mamba" Generation 3 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (PV38G160C9K) £49.99
1 x Seagate Barracuda 7200RPM 1TB SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache - OEM (ST1000DM003) HDD £48.95
1 x Corsair Carbide 200R Compact ATX Case - Black £47.95
1 x Gigabyte Z68AP-D3 Intel Z68 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £45.95
1 x Raijintek Themis Direct Contact CPU Cooler £21.95
1 x OcUK 20x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £16.99
Total : £555.35 (includes shipping : £10.50).

 
I quite like my last build, you could save a few pounds by using the stock cooler, and this has a better case and decent GPU - 7870 rather than the 7850.

The board can also use the Ivy Bridge K series cpu's and overclock them if you did want a upgrade in the future.

But the AMD option does offer a good performance for the price.
 
Last edited:
YOUR BASKET
1 x Gigabyte ATI Radeon HD 7850 OC Windforce 2X 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £155.99
1 x AMD Piledriver FX-6 Six Core 6300 Black Edition 3.50GHz (Socket AM3+) Processor - Retail £89.99
1 x MSI 990XA-GD55 AMD 990X Chipset (Socket AM3+) DDR3 Motherboard £79.99
1 x Corsair Builder Series CX 600W V2 '80 Plus Bronze' Power Supply (CP-9020048-UK) £59.99
1 x Patriot Viper "Black Mamba" Generation 3 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (PV38G160C9K) £49.99
1 x **B Grade** Seagate Barracuda 7200RPM 1TB SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache - OEM (S (HD-257-SE) £45.00
1 x **B Grade** BitFenix Shinobi USB3.0 Gaming Case - White/Black £34.99
1 x OcUK 20x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £16.99
Total : £547.93 (includes shipping : £12.50).



This should leave a bit of room for upgrades such as adding a better gfx card (or Crossfire 7850) / OC'ing / SSD
 
Potty27 said:
YOUR BASKET
1 x Gigabyte ATI Radeon HD 7850 OC Windforce 2X 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £155.99
1 x AMD Piledriver FX-6 Six Core 6300 Black Edition 3.50GHz (Socket AM3+) Processor - Retail £89.99
1 x MSI 990XA-GD55 AMD 990X Chipset (Socket AM3+) DDR3 Motherboard £79.99
1 x Corsair Builder Series CX 600W V2 '80 Plus Bronze' Power Supply (CP-9020048-UK) £59.99
1 x Patriot Viper "Black Mamba" Generation 3 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (PV38G160C9K) £49.99
1 x **B Grade** Seagate Barracuda 7200RPM 1TB SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache - OEM (S (HD-257-SE) £45.00
1 x **B Grade** BitFenix Shinobi USB3.0 Gaming Case - White/Black £34.99
1 x OcUK 20x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £16.99
Total : £547.93 (includes shipping : £12.50).



This should leave a bit of room for upgrades such as adding a better gfx card (or Crossfire 7850) / OC'ing / SSD
Click to expand...

The mobo isn't a true dual GPU mobo as the lanes don't run in sync IIRC. The 1TB HDD is false economy as a new one with a full warranty is less than £5 more
 
Could you explain that please mate? (I'm a simpleton when it comes to Crossfire/SLI and just read the mobo specs :p) All I can see on the spec's is that it supports both SLI and Crossfire, with 2 PCI-E 16x slots.

How would this effect something like 7850 Crossfire?

Cheers :)
 
Potty27 said:
Could you explain that please mate? (I'm a simpleton when it comes to Crossfire/SLI and just read the mobo specs :p) All I can see on the spec's is that it supports both SLI and Crossfire, with 2 PCI-E 16x slots.

How would this effect something like 7850 Crossfire?

Cheers :)
Click to expand...

I could be wrong as I have little interest in the AMD mobos. MSI is notorious for having vague spec sheets too. Ideally you want both the PCI-E lanes to run in sync i.e at the same speed. The MSI GD55 has X16 and X8 PCI-E slots. It may well drop the first slot down to X8 to match in Xfire but something in the back of my head said it didn't.

I know the Gigabyte 990FXA-UD3 runs both PCI-E 1&2 in sync at X16 with GPUs installed in them but that's a more expensive mobo.
 
Thanks :)

So for PCI-E slots in a mobo to be in sync, they need to be the same speed yeah? (16x)

Think the above mobo does have "x2 PCI-E x16" from the OCUK webpage.

Cheers for the reply :)
 
Out of interest if I were to Crossfire on a mobo with 1 16x and 1 4x, how much lower would the performance be compared to "true crossfire" please?
 
Potty27 said:
Out of interest if I were to Crossfire on a mobo with 1 16x and 1 4x, how much lower would the performance be compared to "true crossfire" please?
Click to expand...

Both would run at x4 so it's not ideal.

Most boards have one at x16 and the other at x8. My new Z87X-OC has that too.
 
Last edited:
Your board will operate at dual 8 x when 2 cards are used, this is most cases.

The X79 boards have more PCI-e lanes and can operate at dual 16x.
 
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