£300 Budget gaming PC for little brothers birthday! :D

NinetyOne

NinetyOne

NinetyOne

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Relocated to Northern Sweden
So I'm building my little brother a gaming pc for his birthday and this is what I've come up with so far with my £300 budget

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MB-468-AS
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CP-244-AM
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CA-031-OC
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MY-060-GS

Total £267 so far and still need a case and a heatsink. I have other bits already from my old pc, like HDD and disc drive etc and giving him my old 5850.

I would have liked a cheaper mobo but nothing else much cheaper at ocuk.

If anyone has any better ideas please! :)
 
Thanks for the reply. I haven't really got any experience with matx mobo's, do they still overclock just as well as a standard atx mobo?

Also forgot to mention I need room for a wireless internet card.
 
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Whats he game on? I doubt he'd need 8GB RAM (even though its silly not to go for it at its current prices), plus theres no dedicated GPU, so it cant be that heavy?

Is he likely to overclock?
Is he likely to upgrade in the future?

In all honesty, might be worth considering an i3.
 
Rik1254 said:
Whats he game on? I doubt he'd need 8GB RAM (even though its silly not to go for it at its current prices), plus theres no dedicated GPU, so it cant be that heavy?

Is he likely to overclock?
Is he likely to upgrade in the future?

In all honesty, might be worth considering an i3.
Click to expand...

Exactly that's why I got it, silly not to. What do you mean no dedicated gpu? i already stated I'm giving him my old 5850. :)

Edit* Ok you saw never mind. ^^
 
do you have everything like kb+m,monitor,optical drive leads,OS

just try to think of absolutely everything as something always creeps in last minute
 
Looking at some benches and considering its a budget gaming rig....Id personnaly suggest the i3-2100.

http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/88?vs=289



Cooler Master Silencio RC-550 Case and GX 650W Power Supply with Hyper-TX3 Cooler Bundle £109.99

Intel Core i3-2100 3.10GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor - Retail £94.99

Asus P8Z68-V LX Intel Z68 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £81.59

Crucial Ballistix Sport 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C10 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (BL2KIT25664BA160A) £21.98

Sub Total : £257.13
Shipping cost based on delivery to paypal address with:
FREE SHIPPING (DPD Next Day)
(This can be changed during checkout) Shipping : FREE
VAT is being charged at 20.00% VAT : £51.43
Total : £308.56


This leaves room for an i5/ i7/ ivybridge upgrade.
For an extra £15 you can have Gskill ripjawsx that you have.
 
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NinetyOne said:
Thanks for the reply. I haven't really got any experience with matx mobo's, do they still overclock just as well as a standard atx mobo?

Also forgot to mention I need room for a wireless internet card.
Click to expand...

Ahh, I know with mATX mobo's (mine atleast) the PCI-Ex16 Slot and PCI x1(x4) are really close together. I had a wireless card in mine for a week before i got my GPU. That took up two slots and was near enough rubbing the underside of the wireless card. I took it out, i dont think the wireless card works anymore.

It doesn't seem like a mATX motherboard is for you.

If you look elsewhere you can find the Asus M5A78L/USB3 for £57.
Though if you want to leave option for Xfire your best going with the board you suggested (this item cheaper elsewhere).
 
Hmm I don't really like using psu's that get bundled together with a case, they're usually pretty cheap, I'd rather stick to a decent name when it comes to psu's.
 
The GX650 are not the best, the one i have came across was really loud and got replaced not long after buying it. Though the case it comes with is a great quiet case. But theres no need for a quiet case if you don't have a loud PSU.
 
the coolermaster PSU is actually alright. not amazing though.

having the GPU is going to be a great help towards your budget. assuming your HDD and DVD drive is SATA i'd go for something like this:


YOUR BASKET
1 x MSI Z68A-G45-B3 Intel Z68 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £104.99
1 x Intel Core i3-2100 3.10GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor - Retail £94.99
1 x XFX Pro 450W Core Edition '80 Plus Bronze' Power Supply £45.98
1 x BitFenix Merc Alpha Gaming Case - Black £32.99
1 x Crucial Ballistix Sport 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C10 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (BL2KIT25664BA160A) £21.98
Total: £300.94 (includes shipping: FREE).

allows for SLI/crossfire in the future (with a PSU upgrade) :)
 
Reaper 392 said:
the coolermaster PSU is actually alright. not amazing though.

having the GPU is going to be a great help towards your budget. assuming your HDD and DVD drive is SATA i'd go for something like this:


YOUR BASKET
1 x MSI Z68A-G45-B3 Intel Z68 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £104.99
1 x Intel Core i3-2100 3.10GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor - Retail £94.99
1 x XFX Pro 450W Core Edition '80 Plus Bronze' Power Supply £45.98
1 x BitFenix Merc Alpha Gaming Case - Black £32.99
1 x Crucial Ballistix Sport 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C10 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (BL2KIT25664BA160A) £21.98
Total: £300.94 (includes shipping: FREE).

allows for SLI/crossfire in the future (with a PSU upgrade) :)
Click to expand...

change mb to http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MB-364-GI&groupid=701&catid=5&subcat=1990

change psu to http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CA-118-AN&groupid=701&catid=123&subcat=
 
Reaper 392 said:
the coolermaster PSU is actually alright. not amazing though.

having the GPU is going to be a great help towards your budget. assuming your HDD and DVD drive is SATA i'd go for something like this:


YOUR BASKET
1 x MSI Z68A-G45-B3 Intel Z68 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £104.99
1 x Intel Core i3-2100 3.10GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor - Retail £94.99
1 x XFX Pro 450W Core Edition '80 Plus Bronze' Power Supply £45.98
1 x BitFenix Merc Alpha Gaming Case - Black £32.99
1 x Crucial Ballistix Sport 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C10 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (BL2KIT25664BA160A) £21.98
Total: £300.94 (includes shipping: FREE).

allows for SLI/crossfire in the future (with a PSU upgrade) :)
Click to expand...

The case is out of stock. What makes the i3 a better choice seeing as it's only a dual core?

http://www.biostar.com.tw/app/en/mb/introduction.php?S_ID=494

What about this board? Can be had for £50 elsewhere.

http://asrock.com/mb/overview.asp?Model=970 Extreme4 or this £80.
 
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the i3 only has 2 physical cores but they're each hyperthreaded meaning each core can run 2 tasks simultaneously so it behaves like a quad only not quite as well as

my understanding is the reason the i3 is better at gaming though is it handles single threaded applications better than the phenom

if you plan on doing a lot of heavily threaded tasks though i.e. encoding then the phenom trumps the i3
 
NinetyOne said:
The case is out of stock. What makes the i3 a better choice seeing as it's only a dual core?

http://www.biostar.com.tw/app/en/mb/introduction.php?S_ID=494

What about this board? Can be had for £50 elsewhere.

http://asrock.com/mb/overview.asp?Model=970 Extreme4 or this £80.
Click to expand...

the ASRock board has support for the new bulldozer chips (socket AM3+) if you ever fancy a CPU upgrade plus USB3 and SATA6 which is useful if you want to add a SSD

but if you can live without those extras then the Biostar will do the job but you might find yourself regretting it 6 months down the line when you need a new mobo to upgrade other parts of your system

i know this because i bought a similar board only 2 months ago and i'm already thinking i want to change it :(
 
fowler002 said:
change mb to http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MB-364-GI&groupid=701&catid=5&subcat=1990

change psu to http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CA-118-AN&groupid=701&catid=123&subcat=
Click to expand...

that motherboard does not support crossfire/SLI properly. if you have a second graphics card they will run at x4/x4 speeds, which is a major bottleneck to the card, unlike the x8/x8 speeds of the one i chose.

i would have chosen that PSU, but i had to cut down on the PSU power to get the SLI/crossfire motherboard in there

*edit*
just seen a couple of replies here about AMD. do not go AMD, it is a really terrible option right now. bulldozer is a complete flop and is worse at gaming than the equivalently priced phenoms. intel sandybridge is the only processor you should buy right now.

few benchmarks to show you what im on about:
phenom II X6 vs bulldozer FX 8150: http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/203?vs=434
look at the FPS scores. bulldozer is behind everywhere except Civ5 (and metro on silly low resolutions)

i3 2100 vs bulldozer FX 8150: http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/289?vs=434
a processor less than half the price beats the bulldozer at gaming. unsurprisingly its not as good in the highly multithreaded stuff, but if your after a gaming processor then bulldozer is not it

i5 2500k vs bulldozer FX 8150: http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/288?vs=434
the cheaper sandybridge wipes the floor with the bulldozer, except for in a few specialist areas

also, dont forget that theres the i7 2600k and the soon to be released ivybridge processors from intel, so AMD is going to have a hard time keeping up with that.

man i wish i went for the i3 2100 :(
 
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bobbyspangles said:
the i3 only has 2 physical cores but they're each hyperthreaded meaning each core can run 2 tasks simultaneously so it behaves like a quad only not quite as well as

my understanding is the reason the i3 is better at gaming though is it handles single threaded applications better than the phenom

if you plan on doing a lot of heavily threaded tasks though i.e. encoding then the phenom trumps the i3
Click to expand...
most games can easily use 3 full cores these days and make use of 4+
my sons got an i3 laptop only 2.6ghz but its severly cpu limited for gaming even with a crappy gpu (if your using that andandtech crappy cpu benchmark compare dont most the games it uses are old and dont come anywhere near to the cpu demands of a modern game)

you can get a phenom II 965 4 core 3.4ghz cpu for £91.99 or a x6 1055t for not much more than the cost of an i3 and you can get some really good cheaper motherboards for amd cpus.

1055t + mobo is probably cheaper than i3 2100 + mobo

why are people worring about sli/crossfire? i didnt see any mention of it beeing a requirement and with the psu he will be getting for that money he wont be able to anyway?
 
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