£350 soft budget, used

Nudles · 29 Mar 2013 at 10:09

Hey guys,

Spent 600 on a new build about 4 years ago on OCUK, ended up selling it and buying a laptop as I started UNI, but I've been itching for something to game on ever since.

I am totally out of touch with what hardware is any good these days, so feel free to give me any advice you see fit.

I already have the peripherals (monitor, mouse, etcetera).

I'm looking for a base unit that can run the newest games as well as possible, but with this budget I clearly can't be too choosy

. I would prefer as small a tower as possible, with the ability to upgrade the CPU and graphics card later on down the line.

So with a (softish...) £350 budget for used parts what would you recommend?

Nudles · 29 Mar 2013 at 10:45

Cheers Ripjaw, don't need a blue ray, no. Probably wont even need a dvd player.

Nudles · 29 Mar 2013 at 11:01

Thanks Ripjaw, lol, not a bad size. Thanks everyone, given me some options to think about. I've noticed the lack of graphics card on this and other threads, I take it on-board graphics are not terrible like they were 5 years ago? Haha.

How much do these mobos offer in the way for potential upgrade of graphics card and CPU in future?

Nudles · 29 Mar 2013 at 11:20

Thanks Ripsaw and Bacon. Bacon, how does that build compare to the Trinity in terms of gaming performance?

And since it is a 1155 socket build, I'm guessing (totally guessing, : ) that it leaves open the path to upgrade up to i7 and better cards in future? Or would it be too much of a bottle neck with that mobo?

Ripjaw, I am considering spending a bit more. How much more I am not sure yet! But I am sure spending time around here will keep increasing that budget

.

Nudles · 29 Mar 2013 at 11:25

Idleman said:
Not quite mate, no RAM.

Lol, add "if it had ram" to my questions in my previous post..

Nudles · 29 Mar 2013 at 17:45

Ripjaw said:
412 + a few more quid on cables as the mobo is b-stock and sods law dictates haveing to run out and grab an odd cable here and there puts it a good 65 over budget :S BUT like bacon said it opens up a lot more options for upgrade down the road.

Decisions decisions

Not to blag your head even more but you could go with a AMD Phenom II X4 965 build for around 400 and it'd blow the i3 away as far as im concerned. Im useing a poxy athalon ii x4 640 atm and everything im playing is either maxed out or ultra and i spent pennies over 400 on mine

Head is totally blagged lol, but that's ok, keep it up, starting to learn more this way. I think I will probably end up being between the AMD PII x4 build or the i3... Could you recommend a build for around £400 for the AMD?

Nudles · 29 Mar 2013 at 17:46

bbbearrr said:
...Sorry to jump in on another thread but saves making a new one

Jump in all you like, only helps me and anyone wondering similar things

Nudles · 30 Mar 2013 at 10:27

Bacon and Ripjaw, I really appreciate yours' and everyone else's input, it has highlighted focus areas for me to research deeper into, saving me a lot of time and stress!

bbbearrr said:
Ha yeh

I'm looking to build a gaming pc on a budget.

All this info helps me too ! What games would you be looking at playing ?

I'm considering BF3 as well. I've had many hours of sitting sniping around the maps of BF2 and hope BF3 can fulfil the same role! I'll probably end up playing Skyrim and Bioshock: Infinite as well.
Although most of my gaming time will be spent playing less graphically intensive games such as the up and coming Torment: Tides of Numenera ('successor' so Planescape: Torment), Dead State, Wasteland 2, Shadowrun Returns, Dreamfall Chapters, and Project Eternity. All of them based in old school RPG style gaming. But they are so far away!

Nudles · 31 Mar 2013 at 12:38

Thanks again everyone for your input, every single bit has been useful.

You certainly did well to get that acme.

I've been researching like a fiend the last few days. Following the advice from this thread and about 100 others I decided to spend a bit more and go for this, new:

YOUR BASKET
1 x Intel Core i5-3570K 3.40GHz (Ivybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor (77W) - Retail £199.99
1 x Silverstone Sugo SG05 HTPC Case with 450W Power Supply - All Black ( SST-SG05BB USB 3.0) £114.98
1 x Gigabyte Z77N-WIFI Intel Z77 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Mini ITX Motherboard £98.99
Total : £427.46 (includes shipping : £11.25).

Decided that since I'll have the machine for quite a few years I should spend a bit more and get something that I'll love. So went for mini-ITX as I want it to look discrete and presentable.

Got a 250 gb 7200 rpg seagate for the time-being to use, currently keeping an eye out for a bargain on 8gb or 16gb of 1600mhz ram and a used 7850 2gb card. I'm going to hold out on getting the card until I see something for a great price, the on-board video should get me by for the time-being as I can wait a bit before playing the intensive games.

Nudles · 9 Apr 2013 at 23:46

Ripjaw said:
Good to see you got sorted mate Keep your eyes peeled on ocuk for a this week offer on the gpus (and ram for that matter) and pop some pickys up once you've built it

Thanks man

I ended up getting everything sorted

. My brother has access to the MM here and picked me up 8gig RAM and a graphics card. Managed to stuff a 7950 into the tiny case, as you can see in the pictures in the first post here it's well stuffed in there lol, a few pictures of it in there. Still over the moon with it

.

Nudles · 9 Apr 2013 at 23:50

uzairzaidi said:
I'm thinking of purchasing this card to run it in discrete mode. Will I see considerably improved performance?

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-077-HS

As Bacon? said, having frames higher than your monitors refresh rate has no impact on what you can see. If you really want an upgrade, consider looking into a gaming monitor, something with low input lag is the most important aspect.

Edit ..and higher hz. This video demonstrates the potential issues with refresh rates well. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ax8NxWn48tY