best gaming build for £350 and not a penny more

famas

famas

famas

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My friends laptop has just died and he's asked if I could build him a cheap gaming pc.

he has a budget of £350 max and not a penny over, unless it is actually a penny then we can let it slide :)

obviously he's not going to get much but then he's not a serious gamer, just likes to play every now and then on L4D2 and a few other similar titles.

He'll need, case, mobo, cpu, ram, gpu, hdd and psu. no peripherals or OS.

this is a quick spec i did with the option of adding a dedicated gpu later if he feels the need.
Also i think I could save some money on the motherboard, but not sure which other one is best?

Whats your thoughts? is there better for the money?

YOUR BASKET
1 x AMD A10-6800K Black Edition 4.10GHz (Socket FM2) APU Richland Quad Core Processor (AD680KWOHLBOX) £124.99
1 x Asus F2A55-M AMD A55 Chipset (Socket FM2) DDR3 Micro ATX Motherboard £67.99
1 x Seagate Barracuda 7200RPM 1TB SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache - OEM (ST1000DM003) HDD £47.99
1 x Cooler Master Elite 344 Micro ATX Case - Black/Purple £32.99
1 x TeamGroup Elite 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C11 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (TED34GM1600HC11DC01) £29.99
1 x Swift 550W V2 Silent Power Supply £19.99
Total : £335.94 (includes shipping : £10.00).



cheers.
 
 
 
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Or AMD budget quad plus slightly less graphics though still twice the power of the APU rendering.

Again shipping takes it slightly over

YOUR BASKET
1 x MSI HD 7770 GHz Edition 1024MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card with FREE GAMES £79.99
1 x AMD Athlon X4 750K Black Edition 3.40GHz (Socket FM2) Trinity Quad Core Processor (AD750KWOHJBOX) £59.99
1 x Gigabyte F2A55M-HD2 AMD A55 Chipset (Socket FM2) DDR3 Micro ATX Motherboard £53.99
1 x Seagate Barracuda 7200RPM 1TB SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache - OEM (ST1000DM003) HDD £47.99
1 x Corsair Builder Series CX 430W V2 '80 Plus Bronze' Power Supply (CP-9020046-UK) £39.95
1 x Cooler Master Elite 330U Midi Tower Case - Black £32.4
1 x TeamGroup Elite 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C11 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (TED34GM1600HC11DC01) £29.99
Total : £358.39 (includes shipping : £11.75).

 
 
famas said:
cheers for the suggestions guys, liking the look of both of them.

got the budget down even lower, what you think of this?

YOUR BASKET
1 x AMD A10-5800K Black Edition 3.80GHz (Socket FM2) APU Trinity Quad Core Processor (AD580KWOHJBOX) £99.95
1 x Gigabyte F2A85XM-D3H AMD A85X Chipset (Socket FM2) DDR3 micro ATX Motherboard £61.99
1 x Crucial Ballistix Sport 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (BLS2CP4G3D1609DS1S00CEU) £49.99
1 x Seagate Barracuda 7200RPM 1TB SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache - OEM (ST1000DM003) HDD £47.99
1 x Imp MicroATX Tower Case (500w PSU) £31.99
Total : £303.91 (includes shipping : £10.00).

Click to expand...

with your free shipping i would get your spec but the A10-6800k just becuase it has a little getter GPU.

it would only work out at around £315
 
While a dedicated graphics card would be good I don't necessarily think he needs one at the moment, which is why I initially went with a cpu with the best iGP.

He doesn't play any new games, and only plays the games he has once or twice a week. rest of the time is listening to music and surfing the web.
 
The 6800K isn't really any better than the 5800K (a couple of per cent). You can overclock the 5800K to make up the small difference in clocks. The IGP is more than good enough to play games like LFD2 and TF2 at max settings.

The Imp case has a cheap OEM PSU, and that would be ok for a low end low power system like this, but I'd never put a discrete graphics card in there on one of those.

The A85x chipset offers USB 3, SATA 6, etc. It's more modern than the A55.
 
 
scrap the last message i noticed you only had 1600mhz ram on the APU you must use a high speed ram or it kill the iGPU

if i had £350 and had to get gaming ASAP this is what i would get
YOUR BASKET
1 x AMD A10-6800K Black Edition 4.10GHz (Socket FM2) APU Richland Quad Core Processor (AD680KWOHLBOX) £124.99
1 x TeamGroup Xtreem LV 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-17000C11 2133MHz Dual Channel Kit (TXD38G2133HC11DC01) £65.99
1 x Gigabyte F2A85XM-D3H AMD A85X Chipset (Socket FM2) DDR3 micro ATX Motherboard £61.99
1 x Seagate Barracuda 7200RPM 1TB SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache - OEM (ST1000DM003) HDD £47.99
1 x Imp MicroATX Tower Case (500w PSU) £31.99
Total : £332.95 (includes shipping : FREE).

 
teppic said:
The 6800K isn't really any better than the 5800K (a couple of per cent). You can overclock the 5800K to make up the small difference in clocks. The IGP is more than good enough to play games like LFD2 and TF2 at max settings.

The Imp case has a cheap OEM PSU, and that would be ok for a low end low power system like this, but I'd never put a discrete graphics card in there on one of those.

The A85x chipset offers USB 3, SATA 6, etc. It's more modern than the A55.
Click to expand...

when you OC the 6800k would it not still be a few % in front? OC'ing a look of the drew and you betting of starting when a better chip then if you get a nail that will not OC, you still have something and that better then nothing?
 
The 5800K and 6800K running at the same clock speed would give the same performance - it's the same CPU. Were they the same cost it'd be a no brainer, but the 68k is £25 more.

As for memory, you do get some benefits in gaming with higher speed RAM for sure, but 1600 to 2133MHz is at best around 20% on top, it's not like double the speed. On a tight budget, faster memory is currently too much.
 
teppic said:
The 5800K and 6800K running at the same clock speed would give the same performance - it's the same CPU. Were they the same cost it'd be a no brainer, but the 68k is £25 more.

As for memory, you do get some benefits in gaming with higher speed RAM for sure, but 1600 to 2133MHz is at best around 20% on top, it's not like double the speed. On a tight budget, faster memory is currently too much.
Click to expand...

20% extra for £18.
 
 
he already has a ps3 and doesn't use it much/if at all for gaming.

Is the better IGP performance worth it on the 6800k? Thinking if he wanted to add a GFX card later he could add a 6670 and get hybrid crossfire?
 
famas said:
he already has a ps3 and doesn't use it much/if at all for gaming.

Is the better IGP performance worth it on the 6800k? Thinking if he wanted to add a GFX card later he could add a 6670 and get hybrid crossfire?
Click to expand...

No, it's the same GPU with a slightly bumped up clock (which again can be increased on the 5800K). Adding a 6670 for CF later is an option, but getting an X4 CPU with a reasonably good card (e.g. DDR5 7770) now will eliminate any issues with memory speed, and give much better performance from the outset. It'll take you over £350, though.
 
 
YOUR BASKET
1 x AMD A10-5800K Black Edition 3.80GHz (Socket FM2) APU Trinity Quad Core Processor (AD580KWOHJBOX) £99.95
1 x Gigabyte F2A85XM-D3H AMD A85X Chipset (Socket FM2) DDR3 micro ATX Motherboard £61.99
1 x Crucial Ballistix Sport 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (BLS2CP4G3D1609DS1S00CEU) £49.99
1 x Seagate Barracuda 7200RPM 1TB SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache - OEM (ST1000DM003) HDD £47.99
1 x OCZ CoreXtreme 500w '80 Plus' Power Supply £35.99
1 x Cooler Master Elite 330U Midi Tower Case - Black £32.4
Total : £341.81 (includes shipping : £11.25).



Or slightly over, but faster ram and you get free shipping.

YOUR BASKET
1 x AMD A10-5800K Black Edition 3.80GHz (Socket FM2) APU Trinity Quad Core Processor (AD580KWOHJBOX) £99.95
1 x TeamGroup Xtreem LV 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-17000C11 2133MHz Dual Channel Kit (TXD38G2133HC11DC01) £65.99
1 x Gigabyte F2A85XM-D3H AMD A85X Chipset (Socket FM2) DDR3 micro ATX Motherboard £61.99
1 x Seagate Barracuda 7200RPM 1TB SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache - OEM (ST1000DM003) HDD £47.99
1 x OCZ CoreXtreme 500w '80 Plus' Power Supply £35.99
1 x Cooler Master Elite 330U Midi Tower Case - Black £32.4
Total : £357.80 (includes shipping : £11.25).

 
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