Gaming PC

kirkatronics

kirkatronics

kirkatronics

Associate
Joined
6 Dec 2011
Posts
15
Hey guys, i'm new to the whole build your own computer, but i want to give it a go.
I have a budget of £400 excluding monitor, OS, mice, keyboard etc..
Just the tower effectively.

I don't mind what power it uses, or what noise it emits, i just want a PC that can play most/all modern games.

For £400 is this possible?
 
Do you have a SATA HDD you can use? They're very expensive atm!

Something like:


YOUR BASKET
1 x EVGA GeForce GTX 460 Superclocked 1024MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £119.99
1 x Samsung SpinPoint F3 250GB SATA-II 16MB Cache - OEM (HD253GJ) £77.99
1 x Intel Pentium G840 2.80GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor - Retail £64.99
1 x MSI H67MA-E35 Intel H67 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Micro-ATX Motherboard - (Sandybridge) **B3 REVISION** £61.99
1 x Cooler Master Silent Pro Modular 500W '80 Plus Bronze' Power Supply £49.99
1 x Cooler Master Elite 430 Windowed Case - Black £39.98
1 x Kingston HyperX Genesis Grey 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (KHX1600C9D3X2K2/4GX) £19.98
Total : £449.02 (includes shipping : £11.75).



You get £20 off with this deal
http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?t=18347004

Or these GPUs will bring it more in budget:
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/productlist.php?groupid=701&catid=56&subid=1982
 
 
Not too shabby spec there but the Pentium Dual Core is a CRAP gaming CPU, there is just NO grunt in it.

Great board mind and great for upgrading in the future to an i5-2500k or better, but I would spend a little more if possible on the i3-2100... not overclockable, but on par with an amd phenom 955 (stock levels, BUT can be OC'd to 4ghz) and will give a lot better performance for the money than the lonely pentium!
 
Another option here for you

Ocuk ATI Radeon 6850 1024mb GDDR5 - 99.95 (this week only special)
Intel Core I3 3.1Ghz Retail - 95.99
Corsair Force Series 3 60GB Sata 6GB/s Solid State Drive - 79.99
MSI H67MA-E35 Intel H67 DDR3 Micro-ATX Motherboard - 61.99
BeQuiet Pure Power L7 530W '80 Plus' PSU - 39.98
Xigmatek Asgard Midi Tower Case - Black - 29.99
Corsair Value 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 (PC3-10666) 1333Mhz low voltage Ram - 19.90

Total Inc Delivery = 441.92

No Custom CPU cooling because the processor wont be overclocked and the stock fan should be sufficient. It also keeps costs down and allows for improvements elsewhere.

You could skimp a bit more by getting a cheaper power supply etc but you would only save yourself around 10 pounds and it wouldn't really do you any favours

Hope this helps :D
 
Last edited:
CinderzFTW said:
Not too shabby spec there but the Pentium Dual Core is a CRAP gaming CPU, there is just NO grunt in it.

Great board mind and great for upgrading in the future to an i5-2500k or better, but I would spend a little more if possible on the i3-2100... not overclockable, but on par with an amd phenom 955 (stock levels, BUT can be OC'd to 4ghz) and will give a lot better performance for the money than the lonely pentium!
Click to expand...

I wouldn't say the Pentiums are crap (sandybridge ones):
http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/406?vs=289

Sure its not as good as an i3, but it's nearly half the price! Just seemed the CPU to get for the budget, but if you can afford an i3 all the better!
 
beejjacobs said:
Do you have a SATA HDD you can use? They're very expensive atm!

Something like:


YOUR BASKET
1 x EVGA GeForce GTX 460 Superclocked 1024MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £119.99
1 x Samsung SpinPoint F3 250GB SATA-II 16MB Cache - OEM (HD253GJ) £77.99
1 x Intel Pentium G840 2.80GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor - Retail £64.99
1 x MSI H67MA-E35 Intel H67 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Micro-ATX Motherboard - (Sandybridge) **B3 REVISION** £61.99
1 x Cooler Master Silent Pro Modular 500W '80 Plus Bronze' Power Supply £49.99
1 x Cooler Master Elite 430 Windowed Case - Black £39.98
1 x Kingston HyperX Genesis Grey 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (KHX1600C9D3X2K2/4GX) £19.98
Total : £449.02 (includes shipping : £11.75).



You get £20 off with this deal
http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?t=18347004

Or these GPUs will bring it more in budget:
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/productlist.php?groupid=701&catid=56&subid=1982
Click to expand...

You could opt for the 6850 if that helped you get the i3 CPU. That SOC 460 really is the default budget gaming card of choice. I'm glad to see BJ finally agrees with me and has started using it in his specs.

If your not fussed about usb3 support get the h61 mobo. It's £20 less that could go into the CPU or GPU.
 
Last edited:
honosuseri said:
You could opt for the 6850 if that helped you get the i3 CPU. That SOC 460 really is the default budget gaming card of choice. I'm glad to see BJ finally agrees with me and has started using it in his specs.
Click to expand...

I put it in if its in budget :P Built a PC with one recently for a friend, made for a very nice PC :)
 
beejjacobs said:
I did no such thing, I think you're mistaking me for someone! I may have specced an 6850 but never did I claim it was better than the 460!
Click to expand...

http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?t=18349899

My bad! I do apologise!! It was bobbyspangles i thought it was you who commented after me..........i've done a fair bit of posting today as have you. Forgive my memory lapse lol

I linked the thread as it's similar to this one. I do think you have proprosed the best base spec to work from fella. Although i do think the 6850 really is the minimum GPU to consider for gaming that 460 really is worth the extra cash though.

Whoever suggested a cheaper PSU that is a very bad idea! There is nothing wrong with the pentium G sandybridge CPUs if that's all the budget allows. You definately have an idea of whats possible in the budget now. It's certainly worth considering a small Crucial M4 SSD and then look to add a bigger storage drive much later when HDD prices come back down.

The OP needs to remember there are daily as well as weekly offers so the specs do change as we try to work the offers to your advantage.
 
I still don't buy it, the GTX 460 costs 20% more than the HD 6850's current offer price but the performance difference, if any (in some games), is more like a couple percent.

Maybe if the 6850 was at it's normal price of 109.99 I might be inclined to recommend the GTX 460 but as it is currently I believe the HD 6850 is a steal.

Edit: Honosuseri could you link the EVGA GTX 460 SOC review you mention in other threads please, perhaps I can be persuaded :)
 
Last edited:
The Pentium is utter crap compared to the i3 beejjacobs!

The i3 is poor too! Crap overclocking, only a dual core when you can get a very fast quad for the same price and its over priced!!! But he should go with it because he can get an i5/i7 to fit the board, which means he won't have to spent loads on a new board if he wants to upgrade.

AMD quads are not actually that bad and when overclocked beat the i3 hands down. I run an Athlon X4 640 @ 3.4ghz and couldn't be happier. The i3 is just over priced, poor, slow BUT good for his future upgrade path!
 
http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/102?vs=289

Apart from when you need more cores, which is rare for games. The i3 is not a bad CPU at all. That benchmark shows it beating (mostly) a similar priced AMD quad core - sure it can't be overclocked but you don't need to for most games. Regardless, you are right and it's worth it if only for the upgrade path.

The balance between GPU and CPU the OP has to decide, it largely depends on which games he plays but most/all the time Intel are the way to go at the moment.
 
Hello all, sorry i didn't get to reply to any of you, but my life has been a little hectic these past few weeks.
I am now in a position to purchase a computer, and with a budget of £450.
I like the one honosuseri suggested, but one of the components is no longer available, and i wondered if anything has changed on the market in the short time i was away.
 
Hello :)

A few things have changed, not least hard drive prices have come down since I first specced you. Also, there are LOTs of useful things on offer until Tuesday night/Wednesday morning. So a few prices in the spec below will change then. But you can get a better motherboard, CPU and hard drive in that budget now :)


YOUR BASKET
1 x XFX ATI Radeon HD 6850 1024MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £97.99
1 x Intel Core i3-2100 3.10GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor - Retail £88.79
1 x Gigabyte Z68AP-D3 Intel Z68 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £77.98
1 x Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 500GB SATA 6Gb/s 16MB Cache - OEM (ST500DM002) £62.99
1 x BitFenix Merc Alpha Gaming Case - Black £32.99
1 x Cooler Master GX 450W '80 Plus' Power Supply £26.99
1 x Kingston HyperX Blu 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (KHX1600C9AD3B1K2/4G) £17.99
1 x OcUK 22x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £15.98
Total : £443.11 (includes shipping : £17.85).

 
beejjacobs said:
Hello :)

A few things have changed, not least hard drive prices have come down since I first specced you. Also, there are LOTs of useful things on offer until Tuesday night/Wednesday morning. So a few prices in the spec below will change then. But you can get a better motherboard, CPU and hard drive in that budget now :)


YOUR BASKET
1 x XFX ATI Radeon HD 6850 1024MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £97.99
1 x Intel Core i3-2100 3.10GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor - Retail £88.79
1 x Gigabyte Z68AP-D3 Intel Z68 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £77.98
1 x Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 500GB SATA 6Gb/s 16MB Cache - OEM (ST500DM002) £62.99
1 x BitFenix Merc Alpha Gaming Case - Black £32.99
1 x Cooler Master GX 450W '80 Plus' Power Supply £26.99
1 x Kingston HyperX Blu 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (KHX1600C9AD3B1K2/4G) £17.99
1 x OcUK 22x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £15.98
Total : £443.11 (includes shipping : £17.85).

Click to expand...

That's about as good as you are going to get. Nice that the Z series mobo is in the spec now :)

I still maintain it would be nice to get the 460 SOC in there.

http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/291?vs=313

That's the stock 460 vs the 6850. Beej has the 460 SOC and his is clocked at 850mhz it comes out of the box clocked at 763 (stock 460s are 675). It also adds cuda support which can aid some software (adobe and some video encoders) so you arent just relying on the CPU to crunch the numbers.

Good luck with the build fella. Waiting has done you a favour, any probs or questions you know where we are
 
kirkatronics said:
Would it be worth getting an AMD processor to bring up the spec or down the price?
Click to expand...

Nope, AMD Bulldozer CPU's are too slow/hot and use more power.

You have a much better upgrade path with the Z68 board as it supports Ivybridge.
http://www.gigabyte.com/press-center/news-page.aspx?nid=1048



i3 2100 vs a Phenom955be - http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/289?vs=88

And see how a i3 2100 beats a Phenom955be in gaming,
http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/cpus/2011/07/01/intel-core-i3-2100-review/6
http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/cpu/display/core-i3-2120-2100_5.html#sect0
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom