Budget Gaming Rig

Cookeh · 9 May 2010 at 13:53

Hi guys,
In desperate need of a new PC as my current one simply cant cope - even with source games!

Seeing as its for mainly gaming and school work Id like either a 5750 or 5770 (with the 5770 being my preference).

I need to keep it to around £250 but the lower the better (being a student sucks

)
I dont need anything great now as Ill be upgrading as I go along.

I can re-use case, hdd's, optical drive and I reckon my PSU (a CM 460W affair that came with my case).

Thanks guys!
Cookeh

SteveB · 9 May 2010 at 14:07

How about RAM, what do you currently have?

So we're looking for Mobo, GFX card (5750 or 5770), probably RAM, CPU, CPU cooler if you're wanting to overclock, if not then stock cooler.

CAT-THE-FIFTH · 9 May 2010 at 14:12

What is the specification of you existing PC??

This is what I would look at:

Asus ATI Radeon HD 4850 512MB GDDR3 ~ £59

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-168-AS

Phenom II X2 550BE ~ £74

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CP-249-AM

OR

AMD Athlon II X2 Dual Core 250 ~ £55

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CP-248-AM&groupid=701&catid=6&subcat=803

Asus M4A78L-M LE ~ £47

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MB-377-AS&groupid=701&catid=5&subcat=1482

OCZ Gold Edition 4GB (2x2GB) DDR2 PC2-8500C5 Dual Channel ~ £80

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MY-149-OC&groupid=701&catid=8&subcat=817

The total comes to around £241 to £260 excluding postage.

Redmint · 9 May 2010 at 14:12

XFX ATI Radeon HD 5750 512MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £99.99
(£85.10) £99.99
(£85.10)
OCZ Gold Edition 4GB (2x2GB) DDR2 PC2-8500C5 Dual Channel (OCZ2G10664GK) £79.99
(£68.08) £79.99
(£68.08)
AMD Athlon II X2 Dual Core 245 2.90GHz (Socket AM3) - Retail £51.99
(£44.25) £51.99
(£44.25)
Asus M4A78L-M LE AMD 760G (Socket AM3/AM2+) DDR2 microATX Motherboard £46.99
(£39.99) £46.99
(£39.99)
Sub Total : £237.42
Shipping cost based on delivery to Credit/debit card billing address, GU2 8AU with:
FREE SHIPPING (DPD Next Day)
(This can be changed during checkout) Shipping : FREE
VAT is being charged at 17.50% VAT : £41.55
Total : £278.97

Can't really be done for less than that without going 2nd hand or changing the graphics card as the CAT suggested.

Personally I'd suggest keeping an eye on the MM for the graphics card and maybe the DDR2 RAM.

SteveB · 9 May 2010 at 14:16

I was looking at similar to the above, if you've already got some DDR2 that is useable it's a bonus. If not you'll need to look at a different GFX card really.

-EDIT- Just spec'd up a Celeron for lolz:

Club 3D ATI Radeon HD 5770 512MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £112.99
Corsair Dominator 2GB (2x1GB) DDR2 XMS2 PC2-8500C5 TwinX Dual Channel £69.99
Gigabyte GA-G31M-ES2L Intel G31 (Socket 775) DDR2 Motherboard £36.99
Intel Celeron E1400 2.0Ghz Dual-Core Processor (LGA775) - Retail £32.99
£252.97

I wouldn't really advise this though.

Cookeh · 9 May 2010 at 14:26

Current PC specs:
Intel P4 Northwood @ 3.2GHz
2GB DDR PC3200 RAM
Sapphire HD3850 512mb AGP 8x gfx
And you know the rest

Told you it was old and useless

Ive only got a 32bit OS, so 2GB ram will be fine - should save a bit of cash! Possibly try and get some DDR3 in there?
Get free postage as well so thats more saved

CAT-THE-FIFTH · 9 May 2010 at 14:30

The HD3850 AGP should be still worth a reasonable amount TBH. Also you will need reinstall your OS when you change the motherboard.

SteveB · 9 May 2010 at 14:35

Cookeh said:
...2GB ram will be fine - should save a bit of cash! Possibly try and get some DDR3 in there?

I can't see that OCUK do less than 4GB kits of DDR3. Also their DDR2 range is quite limited now. You might be best looking for some second hand parts.

pastymuncher · 9 May 2010 at 14:50

Like Cat says, your 3850 pro will fetch a premium on the bay over a pci-e card. You should get a decent price for your ram too.

Cookeh · 9 May 2010 at 15:11

pastymuncher said:
Like Cat says, your 3850 pro will fetch a premium on the bay over a pci-e card. You should get a decent price for your ram too.

I was considering selling these parts, however I need a PC whilst Im building new one so cant sell the stuff to add to my budget and parents wont give me a loan :rolleyes:

Hence the statement earlier about how it will be upgraded as I get the money

Cookeh · 9 May 2010 at 17:05

OR

Which is better? :confused:

CAT-THE-FIFTH · 9 May 2010 at 17:24

I would look through the reviews I linked to in this thread:

http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?p=16522024#post16522024

In games which do take advantage of more cores the X3 435 would tend to be a better choice IMHO. In one of the reviews the X3 435 was 40% faster than the X2 550BE in Resident Evil 5. Another game well optimised for multiple cores is Dragon Age Origins.

The X3 435 is over 40% faster than the X2 550BE at 1680X1050!

Here is the comparison:

http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/112?vs=97

In most other games the X2 550BE tends to be ahead as many games still run fine on a higher clocked dual core.

If running at stock speeds I would consider the second build especially if you do some video encoding. The Athlon II X3 can be unlocked to an Athlon II X4 if you are lucky or in some cases a Phenom II.

However if you intend to do some overclocking and want to take a chance you may get a quad core through unlocking it would be worth going for the first build.

Edit!!

The MSI 770-G45 does asymmetrical Crossfire even though it has a pair of full length PCI-E slots.

thingemajib · 9 May 2010 at 17:43

get yourself a phenom 555, get yourself seom RAM, and getyourself a 785g/880g borad. use the IGP, sell your 3850, and use the funds from that and the change to get you your 5750/5770.

simples!

Cookeh · 9 May 2010 at 17:48

thingemajib said:
get yourself a phenom 555, get yourself seom RAM, and getyourself a 785g/880g borad. use the IGP, sell your 3850, and use the funds from that and the change to get you your 5750/5770.

simples!

Not so simples.
Phenom 555 + RAM + 785G/880G mobo = a helluva lot more than £250 already, excluding graphics.

I dont have that kind of money

@Cat, I did read those benchies but they dont seem to give a conclusive statement.

I play quite a lot of source games - which would benefit from the extra cores.
However, I play quite a few rpg's and fps' which would probs benefit from the L3 cache.

CAT-THE-FIFTH · 9 May 2010 at 17:56

TBH, the Athlon II X3 or the Phenom II X2 would be a massive upgrade over what you have now! The X3 435 is around £10 cheaper so I would have a look at what £10 extra would buy you on the graphics card front!

scrlk · 9 May 2010 at 17:59

Sorry to sound like a **** here but can you not hold out for longer = more money, better kit?

thingemajib · 9 May 2010 at 18:06

phenom 555 - 85 quid
Gigabyte GA-880GM-UD2H - 71 quid
2 gig ddr3 - 50-60 quid (ocuk did have some corsair stuff @ 50 in, but its disappeared)

total - £206 -216

or save yourself a tenner and go for a 550.

that gives you anywhere between 30-50 quid change, ontop of whatever you make from selling parts for a new graphics card

Cookeh · 9 May 2010 at 18:07

Vinni3 @H|H said:
Sorry to sound like a **** here but can you not hold out for longer = more money, better kit?

It is a valid point.
But Im not exactly coming into money any time soon, and simply I believe my current rig to be dying.

Its progressively getting slower and slower despite defrags, reformatting and registry cleans.

In short, I feel that with the longevity of AMD socket life, I can buy reasonably cheap stuff now and upgrade as needed or as I get the money

Cookeh · 9 May 2010 at 18:22

thingemajib said:
Gigabyte GA-880GM-UD2H - 71 quid

Fairly expensive board for something lacking in USB3.0 or even S-ATA 3.
Could spend the same and get USB3.0 and S-ATA 3 AND symmetrical crossfire.

Thanks for the idea though, it did bear some thinking

Also, the 555 is £20 more than 435 and there isnt a massive difference between the two for gaming and the 435 is better for the small amount of editing I do

CAT-THE-FIFTH · 9 May 2010 at 18:23

Cookeh said:
It is a valid point.
But Im not exactly coming into money any time soon, and simply I believe my current rig to be dying.

Its progressively getting slower and slower despite defrags, reformatting and registry cleans.

In short, I feel that with the longevity of AMD socket life, I can buy reasonably cheap stuff now and upgrade as needed or as I get the money

If you went for the Athlon II X3 based build you could get an HD4850 1GB from OcUK:

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-007-HS&groupid=701&catid=56&subcat=938

As you can get free postage from OcUK the complete upgrade should be just under £250.

Most reviews have pitted the HD5750 1GB against the HD4850 512MB. If you are using XP still you can only use DX9 as DX10 and DX11 require Vista or Windows 7. In DX9 and DX10 games both the HD4850 1GB and the HD5750 1GB should be quite similar in performance IMHO.

I assume you have a copy of an OS to install?