Budget gaming pc for under £400

akount

akount

akount

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Budget gaming pc for £500

This is all I can come up with.

YOUR BASKET
1 x Intel Core i5-4430 3.00GHz (Haswell) Socket LGA1150 Processor - Retail £131.99
1 x **B Grade** Gigabyte Radeon R9 270X WindForce 3X OC 4096MB GDDR5 PCI-Express G (GX-134-GI) £129.95
1 x Gigabyte Z97M-D3H Intel Z97 (Socket 1150) DDR3 Micro ATX Motherboard £82.99
1 x TeamGroup Vulcan ORANGE 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-19200C11 2400MHz Dual Channel Kit (TLAD38G2400HC11CDC01) £55.99
1 x Xigmatek Asgard II Windowed Midi Tower Case - Black £34.99
Total : £450.01 (includes shipping : £11.75).



Was wondering if it could be done cheaper, but with the same performance.

Thanks.
 
Last edited:
akount said:
Was wondering if it could be done cheaper, but with the same performance.

Thanks.
Click to expand...

Yes, because you don't need a Z97 motherboard for a locked CPU. It, and the GPU, will work in a cheaper B85 or H81 motherboard. The B95 and H91 haven't arrived yet. They'd be the newer equivalent.

I'd change the case too. It's an old USB 2.0 model.

This basket starts to knock the price down a bit and contains a considerably more powerful and newer i5 CPU:


YOUR BASKET
1 x Intel Core i5-4690 3.50GHz (Haswell) Socket LGA1150 Processor - Retail £161.99
1 x **B Grade** Gigabyte Radeon R9 270X WindForce 3X OC 4096MB GDDR5 PCI-Express G (GX-134-GI) £129.95
1 x TeamGroup Vulcan GOLD 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (TLYD38G1600HC9DC01) £55.99
1 x Asus H81M-PLUS Intel H81 (Socket 1150) DDR3 Micro ATX Motherboard £40.99
1 x BitFenix Neos ATX Tower Black/Gold £29.99
Total : £428.51 (includes shipping : £8.00).




And this is with a slightly more powerful i5 CPU than the one you specced (at the same price), and under budget:


YOUR BASKET
1 x Intel Core i5-4440 3.10GHz (Haswell) Socket LGA1150 Processor - Retail £131.99
1 x **B Grade** Gigabyte Radeon R9 270X WindForce 3X OC 4096MB GDDR5 PCI-Express G (GX-134-GI) £129.95
1 x TeamGroup Vulcan GOLD 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (TLYD38G1600HC9DC01) £55.99
1 x Asus H81M-PLUS Intel H81 (Socket 1150) DDR3 Micro ATX Motherboard £40.99
1 x BitFenix Neos ATX Tower Black/Gold £29.99
Total : £398.51 (includes shipping : £8.00).




The non-Z Intel mobos will only run RAM @ 1600MHz, and it hardly affects performance, just 1-2 FPS. If you want the faster 2400MHz RAM for the same price and manually set it to run @ 1600MHz, go ahead. Just picked the gold RAM for that price as it matched the theme that materialized with that case and mobo.

An AMD build is also worth a look at, as you can get an R9 280 in for very close to budget, with the sacrifice being some loss in the CPU department. So it would depend on the type of games you play, whether they are mostly CPU-bound or GPU-bound:


YOUR BASKET
1 x **B Grade** Powercolor Radeon R9 280 TurboDUO 3072MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £149.99
1 x AMD Piledriver FX-6 Six Core 6300 Black Edition 3.50GHz (Socket AM3+) Processor - Retail £83.99
1 x Gigabyte 970A-UD3P AMD 970 (Socket AM3+) DDR3 Motherboard £67.99
1 x TeamGroup Vulcan ORANGE 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-19200C11 2400MHz Dual Channel Kit (TLAD38G2400HC11CDC01) £55.99
1 x Aerocool V3X Advance Evil Blue Edition Midi-Tower - Black/Blue £25.99
1 x Deepcool GAMMAXX S40 CPU-Cooler - 120mm £19.99
Total : £413.54 (includes shipping : £8.00).




The Intel stock coolers are sufficient for locked chips but AMD requires aftermarket coolers for overclocking (and to keep noise down).

Are you sorted for drives and PSU?
 
Last edited:
Well not quite. I'm using an old Powercool 550W PSU, and an extremely old Western Digital 250GB Hard drive.

Not sure if these are worth upgrading, or affecting my current performance. But games are incredibly stuttery/laggy. The rest of my specs are fairly outdated too;

AMD Phenom II x4 840 3.21GHz
4GB RAM
Radeon 5770HD 1GB

The games I'm currently playing (Usually having to play on lowest, but would love to play on high with smooth frame rates) are Watch Dogs, Vindictus, Skyrim, pretty much anything that's new. How well does the AMD 6300 compare with an i5 (Haswell)? Will I notice any difference while gaming?

Thanks for the reply by the way, extremely helpful.
 
akount said:
Well not quite. I'm using an old Powercool 550W PSU, and an extremely old Western Digital 250GB Hard drive.

Not sure if these are worth upgrading, or affecting my current performance. But games are incredibly stuttery/laggy. The rest of my specs are fairly outdated too;

AMD Phenom II x4 840 3.21GHz
4GB RAM
Radeon 5770HD 1GB

The games I'm currently playing (Usually having to play on lowest, but would love to play on high with smooth frame rates) are Watch Dogs, Vindictus, Skyrim, pretty much anything that's new. How well does the AMD 6300 compare with an i5 (Haswell)? Will I notice any difference while gaming?

Thanks for the reply by the way, extremely helpful.
Click to expand...

I think at this price point getting the best graphics card is the priority. I would get the the fx-6300 and the best graphics card that you can!
 
Budget has increased to £500.

Was thinking of buying the 280x, and just going with the fx-6300.

Would an SSD be worth getting over my old Western digital 250GB? Or use a 60GB SSD for OS, and the old HD for games? Hopefully someone can spec me something for £500 or under again, thanks.
 
 
I'd start by just getting a better GPU and upgrading to 8 GB RAM. You will likely find that sufficient.
 
YOUR BASKET
1 x Intel Core i5-4440 3.10GHz (Haswell) Socket LGA1150 Processor - Retail £131.99
1 x Powercolor Radeon R9 270 TurboDUO 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £125.99
1 x Intel 320 Series 120GB Internal SSD SATA 3GB/s 2.5" 7mm (SSDSA2BW120G3) £54.98
1 x TeamGroup Elite Black 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C11 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (TED38GM1600HC11DC01) £49.99
1 x Asus H81M-E Intel H81 (Socket 1150) DDR3 Micro ATX Motherboard £37.99
1 x Toshiba (7K1000.D) 500GB SATA 6GB/s 32MB Cache - OEM (DT01ACA050) HDD £35.99
1 x SuperFlower Amazon 450W "80 Plus Bronze" Power Supply £31.99
1 x Zalman T1U3 Mini-Tower USB 3.0 - Black £20.99
1 x LiteOn IHAS124-14 24x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £11.99
1 x OcUK Tech Labs Zaward OEM 120mm Golf Ball Fan £2.99
Total : £518.39 (includes shipping : £11.25).



500 quid or thereabouts ;p
non-ocable i5, but probably a better build then fx6300 builds (processor wise anyway ;p)

i dont know what you need exactly, so i specced a full build =x
 
Tamzzy, that build is definitely something i'm thinking of purchasing. I don't need a cd/dvd drive though. Is having an r9 270 and an i5-4440 going to increase performance over a fx-6300 and an r9 280?

I'm not sure what I can expect from that build, but I would like to play Watch dogs atleast on high, smoothly if it's possible. Thanks again for all the replies and advice so far.
 
 
lee32uk said:
Slightly cheaper psu

YOUR BASKET
1 x NZXT Hale Power 90+ 550W '80 Plus Gold' Power Supply £43.99
Total : £53.59 (includes shipping : £8.00).




You could probably go for a cheaper board with the fx6300 such as the Asus M5A97 LE R2. It is 4+2 phase power design so should handle the fx6300.
Click to expand...

Nah I would stick with my recommendation, it has a 6+2 vrm phase which will be better for overclocking and allow an upgrade to FX8320/8350 in future.
 
It appears Watch Dogs runs better on Nvidia hardware - http://www.guru3d.com/articles_pages/watch_dogs_vga_graphics_performance_benchmark_review,9.html

So with that in mind,

YOUR BASKET
1 x KFA2 GeForce GTX 760 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card (76XPH6DV6XSX) £175.99
1 x AMD Piledriver FX-6 Six Core 6300 Black Edition 3.50GHz (Socket AM3+) Processor - Retail £83.99
1 x Gigabyte 970A-UD3P AMD 970 (Socket AM3+) DDR3 Motherboard £67.99
1 x TeamGroup Elite Black 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C11 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (TED38GM1600HC11DC01) £49.99
1 x SuperFlower Golden Green HX 550W "80 Plus Gold" Power Supply - Black £49.99
1 x BitFenix Neos ATX Tower Black/Gold £29.99
1 x Akasa AK-CC4013EP01 Nero 3 V2 Premier CPU Cooler £25.99
Total : £493.54 (includes shipping : £8.00).



• AMD FX doesn't need fast RAM , also not many AM3+ boards support RAM over 2000/2133MHz.

• The GFX card comes with a copy of Watch Dogs;)

As you can see this case has a nice side panel window and everything is dark/black etc.
 
dacads said:
Nah I would stick with my recommendation, it has a 6+2 vrm phase which will be better for overclocking and allow an upgrade to FX8320/8350 in future.
Click to expand...

I only mentioned it as an alternative. If the op isn't bothered about upgrading to a fx8320 then it is an option. You would still be able to overclock the 6300 to some extent with the cheaper asus board.
 
I was so underbudget I thought why not spend it on an even better board.

That cheap Gigabyte board has VRM cooling, so is ok too.

You can even get an 8 core CPU for around £500,

YOUR BASKET
1 x KFA2 GeForce GTX 760 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card (76XPH6DV6XSX) £175.99
1 x AMD Piledriver FX-8 Eight Core 8320 Black Edition 3.50GHz (Socket AM3+) Processor - Retail £113.99
1 x Gigabyte 970A-DS3P AMD 970A (Socket AM3+) DDR3 Motherboard £50.99
1 x TeamGroup Elite Black 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C11 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (TED38GM1600HC11DC01) £49.99
1 x SuperFlower Golden Green HX 550W "80 Plus Gold" Power Supply - Black £49.99
1 x BitFenix Neos ATX Tower Black/Gold £29.99
1 x Akasa AK-CC4013EP01 Nero 3 V2 Premier CPU Cooler £25.99
Total : £506.53 (includes shipping : £8.00).

 
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