£300 gaming spec

So.. if budget is a budget (as You say), there's no need to platform change.
Go for Q9550 - if your motherboard support Wolfdale, it would support Yorkfield as well. It's 53 pounds on Ebay only. And it's all you describe as "throwing away money". It will be better than Pentium K, and even more better in online games, should be overclockable well as well upto 3.4 GHz depending on motherboard and cooling you have (with no voltage raise). Buy 280X and wait until funds raise up to some sensible upgrade (but then you'll have 280X already, and will get money back from sellin Q9550). Buying Pentium K it's not an upgrade IMO, sorry - stick to 4cores.. Or - at least - don't buy only new stuff (due to a budget!) - but buy some P67/Z68/Z77 platform, or even cheapest H61 - but then you won't overclock non-K CPU, might be B-Grade from OcUK, and pair it with used CPU like i5-2300/2400/33xx/34xx/35xx + new card like Radeon 280. CPUs don't break so often like GPUs, so buying used non-K CPU is worth the shot. BTW, what is your motherboard ?
 
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biuro74 said:
So.. if budget is a budget (as You say), there's no need to platform change.
Go for Q9550 - if your motherboard support Wolfdale, it would support Yorkfield as well. It's 53 pounds on Ebay only. And it's all you describe as "throwing away money". It will be better than Pentium K, and even more better in online games, should be overclockable well as well upto 3.4 GHz depending on motherboard and cooling you have (with no voltage raise). Buy 280X and wait until funds raise up to some sensible upgrade (but then you'll have 280X already, and will get money back from sellin Q9550). Buying Pentium K it's not an upgrade IMO, sorry - stick to 4cores.. BTW, what is your motherboard ?
Click to expand...

http://www.anandtech.com/bench/product/50?vs=1265

Pentium K holds it's own against the 4-core Q9550 easily, and overclocking the Pentium K (even can do this on stock cooler) that gap on multi-core will narrow even more

The Z97 platform is very upgradeable, the OP will be able to drop in an i3/i5/i7 and (rumoured) a Broadwell CPU in the future for good boosts, and the Pentium K is £50 so might as well jump to Z97 instead of spending £53 as you said on a noew older CPU, though you do make a good point with it overall saving money :)
 
biuro74 said:
So.. if budget is a budget (as You say), there's no need to platform change.
Go for Q9550 - if your motherboard support Wolfdale, it would support Yorkfield as well. It's 53 pounds on Ebay only. And it's all you describe as "throwing away money". It will be better than Pentium K, and even more better in online games, should be overclockable well as well upto 3.4 GHz depending on motherboard and cooling you have (with no voltage raise). Buy 280X and wait until funds raise up to some sensible upgrade (but then you'll have 280X already, and will get money back from sellin Q9550). Buying Pentium K it's not an upgrade IMO, sorry - stick to 4cores.. BTW, what is your motherboard ?
Click to expand...

Gigabyte P35C DS3R, I have looked into adsactly what you suggest (but I looked at Q6600) I even have 2x DDR3 slots on this board but I dont think Core2Duo can use the extra bandwidth? and its 50/50 if 8gb would boot with this board, it only supports 4gb of DDR3.

I don't know, you got me thinking just grab

YOUR BASKET
1 x **B Grade** Gigabyte Radeon R9 280X Rev2.0 WindForce 3X OC 3072MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card with Battlefie (GX-122-GI) £129.95
1 x TeamGroup Vulcan RED 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-17100C11 2133MHz Dual Channel Kit (TLRED38G2133HC11ADC01) £65.99
Total : £205.54 (includes shipping : £8.00).



and try my luck, if it fails, just pickup the board and cpu as planned.
 
Don't understand why so many people are suggesting a z97 and pentium k, your buying an upgrade for now not for tomorrow, there are games you want to play now.

Like I said above and in many many other threads people have, fx6300 is the best bang for buck cpu about, even now, I'd get that with an am3+ board and some ddr3 etc, be £20 over but atleast you will have all the performance now.
 
Well, most games are not really multi threaded and all the ones that are not will run better on the overclocked pentium K.

As an aside, OP, there is a way to get around the cpu requirement thing that is stopping you from playing COD:AW, you know?
 
thing is, with a low end dual core intel cpu paired with an amd card you are going to hit some problems with cpu bottle necking..this video is two days old and explains the problem.

 
Now overclock the i3 in those tests to 4.4 and rerun them.

Oh, we can't because the i3 is a locked chip.


Plus - It is a driver issue that will eventually be solved by AMD...

...now what happens when the driver issue is solved, the Pentium K is at 4.4 and then we rerun the test?


You really have to think of the Pentium K when overclocked, esp if we are going to chat CPU bottlenecking.
 
The pentium K is a great example of cores (threads) vs core speed..

If an application is single threaded, like Photoshop or most low level (indie) games, an over clocked Prntuim K will challenge a £170 i5. But where multiple fores/threads are needed it will drag its feet behind, in a pretty noticable way. for a cheap build, if you are seriously looking at over clocking too.. Its certainly the chip to go for. In a year or so when you can grab a second hand 4670k or 4440 for £90-£100 you'll be fortunate enough to be on the right platform to upgrade...
 
Threepwood said:
As an aside, OP, there is a way to get around the cpu requirement thing that is stopping you from playing COD:AW, you know?
Click to expand...

Yes and wow, never seen my PC fall to its knees so fast, I can see why the lock is there! Gobbles up my 4gb of ram and is an unplayable slideshow, certainly one game to keep on the shelf till after the upgrade to not spoil the experiance.

I was looking through purchase history and the motherboard I'm on now is 7 years old to the day! (see why I want to go gigabyte again)
I don't update very often...

As such might not be the worst idea to spend a little more on a motherboard to help with future proofing?
I'm liking the sata express and m.2 slot on this board, and it has reviewed well.

YOUR BASKET
1 x **B Grade** Gigabyte Radeon R9 280X Rev2.0 WindForce 3X OC 3072MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card with Battlefie (GX-122-GI) £129.95
1 x Gigabyte Z97X-SLI Intel Z97 (Socket 1150) DDR3 ATX Motherboard £92.99
1 x TeamGroup Vulcan RED 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-17100C11 2133MHz Dual Channel Kit (TLRED38G2133HC11ADC01) £65.99
1 x Intel Pentium K Anniversary G3258 Socket LGA1150 Processor - Retail £49.99
Total : £348.52 (includes shipping : £8.00).



My original plan

YOUR BASKET
1 x **B Grade** Gigabyte Radeon R9 280X Rev2.0 WindForce 3X OC 3072MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card with Battlefie (GX-122-GI) £129.95
1 x TeamGroup Vulcan RED 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-17100C11 2133MHz Dual Channel Kit (TLRED38G2133HC11ADC01) £65.99
1 x Gigabyte Z97P-D3 Intel Z97 (Socket 1150) DDR3 ATX Motherboard £61.99
1 x Intel Pentium K Anniversary G3258 Socket LGA1150 Processor - Retail £49.99
Total : £317.52 (includes shipping : £8.00).



Spending an extra £30 elsewhere is not going to get me much, Should get 4ghz+ on stock air, should keep me happy for another 7 years. ;) Will upgrade the CPU as the years go by.

Only 2 concerns I have are, memory. I can't see this memory listed on the support list, I think the 8gb sticks are shown but not the 4gb - Assume this will work anyway?

and as this is a Haswell refresh chip the board needs Bios F5 to work, So I best check with OcUK that they are shipping with this or im up a creek with no paddle!
due diligence, want a smooth upgrade.

Thanks for all the input guys
 
The moment you start spending more on the budget build, the more tempting it is to just do it once, spend the extra £100 and boom, worries are over.

YOUR BASKET
1 x Intel Core i5-4690K 3.50GHz (Devil's Canyon) Socket LGA1150 Processor - Retail £185.99
1 x **B Grade** Gigabyte Radeon R9 280X Rev2.0 WindForce 3X OC 3072MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card with Battlefie (GX-122-GI) £129.95
1 x Gigabyte Z97P-D3 Intel Z97 (Socket 1150) DDR3 ATX Motherboard £61.99
1 x TeamGroup Xtreem LV "Frost Edition" 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-21300C11 2666MHz Dual Channel Kit £59.99
Total : £447.52 (includes shipping : £8.00).




The trouble is that then... at £450 I would be tempted to stick with the pentium k and get a 970 like so
YOUR BASKET
1 x GALAX GeForce GTX 970 4096MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card - OEM (97NPH6DT6XTZ) £247.99
1 x Gigabyte Z97P-D3 Intel Z97 (Socket 1150) DDR3 ATX Motherboard £61.99
1 x TeamGroup Xtreem LV "Frost Edition" 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-21300C11 2666MHz Dual Channel Kit £59.99
1 x Intel Pentium K Anniversary G3258 Socket LGA1150 Processor - Retail £49.99
Total : £429.56 (includes shipping : £8.00).



and still upgrade the CPU in the future.

:S :)
 
YoungBlood said:
Gigabyte P35C DS3R, I have looked into adsactly what you suggest (but I looked at Q6600) I even have 2x DDR3 slots on this board but I dont think Core2Duo can use the extra bandwidth? and its 50/50 if 8gb would boot with this board, it only supports 4gb of DDR3.

I don't know, you got me thinking just grab
Click to expand...

People saying Pentium would be better are - sorry - underinformed (check here):
http://www.futuremark.com/hardware/cpu/Intel+Pentium+G3258/review
It's all about gaming, not *efficiency per 1 thread*. Some of them forgot gaming it's not only maximumFPS, or even avgFPS (which would be comparable, or better sometimes for Pentium K), but minFPS which simply states the quality of gaming. Framedrops is not what any gamer wants, but with 2cores CPU it's rather obvious, especially in online games. I'd bet my wife ;-) if any of you had 2 sets: 1 with Q9550 and second with Pentium K and try to play online few games, majority of you would be dissapointed with Pentium K *comparing to Q9550* because of framedrops. No fluency = no joy.

This motherboard supports DDR2 memory with 8GB capacity, but it's most embarassing thing: to get another 4GB set working with existing one. It's not the top Asus motherboard, so chances are high, but such set costs about 25 pounds (Ebay). I presumed you've got 2x2GB sticks already, so slots #3 and #4 (DDR2) are free. Just avoid ECC server memory, unless motherboard supports it (look for: Patriot, G.Skill, Corsair, Kingston, Geil, Crucial, might be even "no-name" with no heatsinks LOL just working).

If I were you, I'd upgrade existing platform first: Q9550 (not Q6600) + this RAM for about 80 quids. Reinstalling all software is a pain sometimes, so such upgrade is pain free :) Plus 280X from your link for 130 pounds. And see how that works. Leave an option to sell platform just in case, so selling CPU + memory is not a big deal (you might loose few pounds only) in a short time period.

If such upgrade is not satisfying, look for this (27 pounds):
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=BG-301-GI&groupid=595&catid=689
plus i5-2400 3.1 GHz for 70 pounds @Ebay
plus memory for 60 pounds:
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MY-033-TG&groupid=701&catid=8&subcat=1517
plus 280X from your link for 130 pounds.
287 pounds in total, you've got 4cores i5 3.1 GHz + 280X. Ideal for gaming. Motherboard is a bit cra**y, but in tight budget there's nothing to complain. You can search for P67/Z68/Z77 motherboard @Ebay, but it requires spending more time for snipping some stuff under 40 pounds, or asking seller for BestOffer. It's worth of searching as quality of motherboard would be better, and you could overclock 2400 from 3.1 to 3.6 GHz (yes, non-K CPU are overclockable +5 bins).

But not PentiumK, even if it's an 1150 platform for further upgrade (otherwise you'll live with such "further upgrade" option, and not today-gaming) :)
 
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Interesting thread.

I personally like gfx cards with 3 year warranties! You have to ask yourself how you would feel if you bought a B grade card and it went on the fritz at an early stage of ownership! With a new one - you RMA, you get a repair or a new one!

I have RMA'd several gfx cards over the years and I am an occasional gamer.

As your attorney I advise you to buy new!
 
You do not lose the manufacturer warranty with a B-Grade product. That gigabyte card will still come with 3 years warranty from gigabyte.

True story.
 
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