£600 Virtual Lab / Light Gaming PC - SPEC Me!

LordSplodge · 7 Apr 2014 at 17:32

Hi,

It's been quite some time since I've built a PC so I have no idea what is what anymore. I'm thinking of building a PC as a lab for virtual machines, rendering videos and some light gaming (think mostly Portal 2 area games but possibly a bit of BF4 too just to throw a spanner in there) on a 1080p monitor.

The budget is around £600 (the rest is going to replace my ageing 2009 27" iMac)

As many cores as possible, as much RAM as possible with 16GB minimum. I have a monitor, KB, mouse and HDD for secondary storage. Just need the core bits.

Intel would be better for the video rendering but the budget is tight. I'm not bothered going the AMD route, I have done so in the past.

Cheers!

tamzzy · 7 Apr 2014 at 18:05

YOUR BASKET
1 x Intel Core i5-4440 3.10GHz (Haswell) Socket LGA1150 Processor - Retail £134.99
1 x Sapphire Radeon R9 270 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card (11220-00-20G) £134.99
1 x TeamGroup Elite Black 16GB (2x8GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C11 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (TED316GM1600HC11DC01) £99.95
1 x Toshiba SSD HDTS212EZSTA 9.5mm 128GB Solid State Hard Drive - Retail £65.99
1 x Gigabyte B85M-HD3 Intel B85 (Socket 1150) DDR3 Micro ATX Motherboard £50.99
1 x Seagate Barracuda 7200RPM 1TB SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache - OEM (ST1000DM003) HDD £43.99
1 x SuperFlower Amazon 450W "80 Plus Bronze" Power Supply £39.95
1 x Zalman T3 Micro -ATX Case USB 3.0 - Black £20.99
1 x LiteOn IHAS124-14 24x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £14.99
1 x OcUK Tech Labs Zaward OEM 120mm Golf Ball Fan £2.99
1 x Akasa AK-FY320 3 Pin Fan cable splitter (AK-FY320) £1.99
Total : £611.80 (includes shipping : ).

LordSplodge · 7 Apr 2014 at 18:55

tamzzy said:
YOUR BASKET
1 x Intel Core i5-4440 3.10GHz (Haswell) Socket LGA1150 Processor - Retail £134.99
1 x Sapphire Radeon R9 270 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card (11220-00-20G) £134.99
1 x TeamGroup Elite Black 16GB (2x8GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C11 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (TED316GM1600HC11DC01) £99.95
1 x Toshiba SSD HDTS212EZSTA 9.5mm 128GB Solid State Hard Drive - Retail £65.99
1 x Gigabyte B85M-HD3 Intel B85 (Socket 1150) DDR3 Micro ATX Motherboard £50.99
1 x Seagate Barracuda 7200RPM 1TB SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache - OEM (ST1000DM003) HDD £43.99
1 x SuperFlower Amazon 450W "80 Plus Bronze" Power Supply £39.95
1 x Zalman T3 Micro -ATX Case USB 3.0 - Black £20.99
1 x LiteOn IHAS124-14 24x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £14.99
1 x OcUK Tech Labs Zaward OEM 120mm Golf Ball Fan £2.99
1 x Akasa AK-FY320 3 Pin Fan cable splitter (AK-FY320) £1.99
Total : £611.80 (includes shipping : ).

Nice. Don't need the spinning disk. I've got a couple of 2TB drives already. I've also not used a DVD drive in anger for about two years.

tamzzy · 7 Apr 2014 at 19:01

what about this instead?
YOUR BASKET
1 x Sapphire Radeon R9 270X Boost OC 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Card £149.99
1 x Intel Core i5-4440 3.10GHz (Haswell) Socket LGA1150 Processor - Retail £134.99
1 x TeamGroup Elite Black 16GB (2x8GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C11 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (TED316GM1600HC11DC01) £99.95
1 x Crucial M500 240GB SATA 6Gb/s Solid State Hard Drive - (CT240M500SSD1) £89.99
1 x Gigabyte B85M-D3H Intel B85 (Socket 1150) DDR3 Micro ATX Motherboard £56.99
1 x SuperFlower Amazon 450W "80 Plus Bronze" Power Supply £39.95
1 x Cooler Master N200 NSE-200-KKN1 Midi-Tower - Black £36.95
Total : £608.80 (includes shipping : ).

better quality case
better gpu
better mobo
bigger ssd

LordSplodge · 7 Apr 2014 at 19:06

tamzzy said:
what about this instead?

better quality case
better gpu
better mobo
bigger ssd

Better is better.

I like the case a lot more too. Thanks!

tamzzy · 7 Apr 2014 at 19:14

LordSplodge said:
Better is better.

that's what she said! xD

LordSplodge · 9 Apr 2014 at 15:39

tamzzy said:
that's what she said! xD

I've just realised that I need mini-Display port to use my iMac as a target display (for a second monitor) so is this any good?

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-161-PC

Powercolor Radeon R9 270X DEVIL 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card

tamzzy · 9 Apr 2014 at 15:52

is the port on the imac minidp or full size dp?

Spursingham · 9 Apr 2014 at 16:34

About to leave work so cant get a spec list going. If you're using the PC more for virtual, I'd push more towards the I7 for the 8 threads with more Cache than the I5.

LordSplodge · 10 Apr 2014 at 08:39

Spursingham said:
About to leave work so cant get a spec list going. If you're using the PC more for virtual, I'd push more towards the I7 for the 8 threads with more Cache than the I5.

I know an i7 is better but I'm trying to keep the budget to the minim so the i5 is probably more realistic.

Spursingham · 10 Apr 2014 at 09:17

Slightly over budget but here goes:

YOUR BASKET
1 x Intel Core i7-4770S 3.10GHz Low Power (Haswell) Socket LGA1150 Processor - Retail £215.99
1 x MSI Radeon R9 270 Gaming Edition OC 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £127.99
1 x TeamGroup Elite Black 16GB (2x8GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C11 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (TED316GM1600HC11DC01) £109.99
1 x Samsung 120GB SSD 840 EVO SATA 6Gb/s Basic - (MZ-7TE120BW) £65.99
1 x Gigabyte B85M-D3H Intel B85 (Socket 1150) DDR3 Micro ATX Motherboard £56.99
1 x SuperFlower Amazon 450W "80 Plus Bronze" Power Supply £39.95
1 x Cooler Master N200 NSE-200-KKN1 Midi-Tower - Black £36.95
Total : £667.34 (includes shipping : £11.25).

LordSplodge · 10 Apr 2014 at 09:22

Spursingham said:
Slightly over budget but here goes:

YOUR BASKET
1 x Intel Core i7-4770S 3.10GHz Low Power (Haswell) Socket LGA1150 Processor - Retail £215.99
1 x MSI Radeon R9 270 Gaming Edition OC 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £127.99
1 x TeamGroup Elite Black 16GB (2x8GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C11 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (TED316GM1600HC11DC01) £109.99
1 x Samsung 120GB SSD 840 EVO SATA 6Gb/s Basic - (MZ-7TE120BW) £65.99
1 x Gigabyte B85M-D3H Intel B85 (Socket 1150) DDR3 Micro ATX Motherboard £56.99
1 x SuperFlower Amazon 450W "80 Plus Bronze" Power Supply £39.95
1 x Cooler Master N200 NSE-200-KKN1 Midi-Tower - Black £36.95
Total : £667.34 (includes shipping : £11.25).

Nice. I *need* mini-Display port (for Target Display on the iMac) so I'd have to add this card: Powercolor Radeon R9 270X DEVIL 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card bringing it to around £700 unless there's a cheaper GPU with mini-DP?

CrixxzeH · 10 Apr 2014 at 11:11

LordSplodge said:
Nice. I *need* mini-Display port (for Target Display on the iMac) so I'd have to add this card: Powercolor Radeon R9 270X DEVIL 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card bringing it to around £700 unless there's a cheaper GPU with mini-DP?

Imho, best bet would be to get the spec you quoted, aswell as picking up the Powercolor Radeon R9 270X DEVIL 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card.

Decent card and least you know its going to do the job you want it to with having the mini-display port, dont think any nvidia 750/760's have them for the price range your looking at.

LordSplodge · 10 Apr 2014 at 11:21

CrixxzeH said:
Imho, best bet would be to get the spec you quoted, aswell as picking up the Powercolor Radeon R9 270X DEVIL 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card.

Decent card and least you know its going to do the job you want it to with having the mini-display port, dont think any nvidia 750/760's have them for the price range your looking at.

Yeah it seems hard to get Mini-display port but the specifications for using an iMac as a monitor are very strict and require Mini-DP for my iMac (Thunderbolt for new ones, good luck getting that on a GPU!

)