£500-600 PC Spec

FinalSquall

FinalSquall

FinalSquall

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25 Jul 2011
Posts
278
Ok, basically my younger brother wants a new PC for his 21st birthday, looking for someone to spec up a PC.

He will use the PC for some gaming, such as WoW and possibly Skyrim, the new Assassins Creed, maybe GTAV if they release the damn thing on PC.

He will also be using the PC for university work

As mentioned in the title, the budget is £500 to £600

Monitor not required
Windows 7 64bit is required
Preferably an intel based system
Preferably an Nvidia GPU
He also needs a new Mouse (Dont worry too much about a top quality one)
A case is also required

Thanks for your time and help!
 
Have a look at the other threads for the same price range but as a guide:

4670k £180
Gigabyte z87 d3hp £110 comes with free CPU cooler
8gb ram £50-£80
500-650w PSU antech or seasonic e.g seasonic g 550w £80
Case personal preference
GPU ?

For windows ms do a 3 month trial for windows 8 so you could save some money on it for now, then after 3months get full version of windows.
 
Well, I could go around and look, I built myself a PC about 2 years ago, did all the research, i52500k and z68, But things have moved on a bit as normal, thought I would leave a pro to spec it out as they probably know something I dont.
 
Been trying to spec one up for you. But going Intel/MB/Nvidia with that budget is difficult. Even going with a i5,motherboard and AMD 7950 that's 450 odd spent with out case,ram,cooler,windows etc.

Maybe going the AMD cpu route would work out better with that budget. But I'll let someone who knows more about the current AMD lineup pick one out :)
 
Just to update you can cheap a bit on the GPU as he will be getting my old 560Ti when I upgrade my GPU. I figure it is worth getting a strong core system as a new GPU is easy to just plug in later on.
 
Can he not get a copy of Windows from his Uni or via Dreamspark.
If not you could either use Win 8.0/8.1 RTM for 3 months or look at that well known auction site for a cheap copy.
I`ve done an AMD build to get the ball rolling, however not to sure about the Gpu. maybe someone can clarify whether it is any better than a 7850 or 660.

YOUR BASKET
1 x Sapphire Radeon R9 270X Boost OC 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Card £149.99
1 x AMD Piledriver FX-8 Eight Core 8320 Black Edition 3.50GHz (Socket AM3+) Processor - Retail £119.99
1 x Asus M5A97 EVO R2.0 AMD 970 (Socket AM3+) DDR3 Motherboard £89.99
1 x Antec High Current Gamer 520W '80 Plus Bronze' Power Supply £59.99
1 x Kingston HyperX Genesis 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (KHX1600C9D3K2/8GX) £49.99
1 x Seagate Barracuda 7200RPM 1TB SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache - OEM (ST1000DM003) HDD £44.99
1 x Xigmatek Asgard Pro Gaming Case - Black £32.99
1 x Thermalright True Spirit 120 REV A [BW] Performance CPU Cooler £24.98
Total : £587.90 (includes shipping : £12.50).

 
Hey mate, thanks for the spec, you think you could try working that to an i5 system with a more budget GPU?
And ah ok, will look into Dreamspark, guess he will put up with Windows 8, I certaintly wouldnt tho lol.
 
Last edited:
FinalSquall said:
Hey mate, thanks for the spec, you think you could try working that to an i5 system with a more budget GPU?
Click to expand...

You still need an OS and mouse.

YOUR BASKET
1 x Intel Core i5-4670K 3.40GHz (Haswell) Socket LGA1150 Processor - OEM £173.99
1 x MSI HD 7850 OC 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Cards £119.99
1 x MSI Z87-G43 Intel Z87 (Socket 1150) DDR3 ATX Motherboard - FREE Alpenfohn Civetta Cooler!! £89.99
1 x Antec High Current Gamer 520W '80 Plus Bronze' Power Supply £59.99
1 x Kingston HyperX Genesis 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (KHX1600C9D3K2/8GX) £49.99
1 x Seagate Barracuda 7200RPM 1TB SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache - OEM (ST1000DM003) HDD £44.99
1 x Xigmatek Asgard Pro Gaming Case - Black £32.99
1 x Thermalright True Spirit 120 REV A [BW] Performance CPU Cooler £24.98
Total : £611.00 (includes shipping : £11.75).

 
even the incredibly cheap 7850 is a quite a bit more powerful than the 560ti, so there's not much point cheaping out with the hope of upgrading with the 560ti.

I think you'd get more satisfying performance by trying trying to get a 7950 in
 
It's Intel, and i5..just not the best i5. As already said, at your budget you're going to have to compromise on something

YOUR BASKET
1 x Intel Core i5-4440 3.10GHz (Haswell) Socket LGA1150 Processor - Retail £139.99
1 x HIS HD 7850 IceQ X 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card (H785QN2G2M) £119.99
1 x Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 64-Bit - OEM (GFC-02050) £79.99
1 x Asus B85-PLUS Intel B85 (Socket 1150) DDR3 ATX Motherboard £71.99
1 x Antec High Current Gamer 520W '80 Plus Bronze' Power Supply £59.99
1 x TeamGroup Elite Black 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C11 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (TED38GM1600HC11DC01) £47.99
1 x Seagate Barracuda 7200RPM 1TB SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache - OEM (ST1000DM003) HDD £44.99
1 x Xigmatek Asgard Pro Gaming Case - Black £32.99
1 x Gigabyte M5050 800 DPI Mouse - Black £4.99
Total : £617.00 (includes shipping : £11.75).

 
 
Last edited:
some nice builds but you really should consider AMD build as it will help your budget and be just as good

Idle man has done very nice build and as its a present maybe someone else will buy the other bits :)
 
Overclock this to 4.5 or above and I doubt any i5 setup will come close in skyrim

YOUR BASKET
1 x HIS HD 7950 3072MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card (H795F3G2M) £191.99
1 x AMD Piledriver FX-6 Six Core 6300 Black Edition 3.50GHz (Socket AM3+) Processor - Retail £89.99
1 x Asus M5A97 EVO R2.0 AMD 970 (Socket AM3+) DDR3 Motherboard £89.99
1 x Avexir Core Blue Series 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Memory Kit (AVD3U16000904G-2CW) - Blue Light £53.99
1 x OCZ ZS Series 550W '80 Plus Bronze' Power Supply £49.99
1 x Toshiba (7K1000.D) 500GB SATA 6GB/s 32MB Cache - OEM (DT01ACA050) HDD £37.99
1 x Xigmatek Asgard Pro Gaming Case - Black £32.99
1 x Cooler Master Hyper 212 Evo CPU Cooler £26.99
1 x Ozone Xenon Gaming Mouse - Black £24.98
Total : £613.90 (includes shipping : £12.50).

 
YOUR BASKET
1 x Sapphire Radeon R9 270X Boost OC 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Card £149.99
1 x AMD Piledriver FX-6 Six Core 6300 Black Edition 3.50GHz (Socket AM3+) Processor - Retail £89.99
1 x Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 64-Bit - OEM (GFC-02050) £79.99
1 x ASRock 970 Extreme3 R2.0 AMD 970 (Socket AM3+) DDR3 ATX Motherboard £68.99
1 x Corsair Vengeance 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (CMZ8GX3M2A1600C9) £59.99
1 x Corsair Builder Series CX 500W V2 '80 Plus Bronze' Power Supply (CP-9020047-UK) £49.99
1 x Seagate Barracuda 7200RPM 1TB SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache - OEM (ST1000DM003) HDD £44.99
1 x NZXT Source 210 Elite Midi Tower Case - Black £39.95
1 x Gigabyte M6900 3200DPI Gaming Mouse £16.99
Total : £615.86 (includes shipping : £12.50).



The R9 270X will destroy the 560 Ti and if you were willing to spend £30 more you could get a AMD FX-8320 in there.
 
Thanks for all these builds certaintly worth considering, but I am talking potential to use a really budget GPU in the build to allow it to be an intel build, like even as low as a £60 GPU
 
FinalSquall said:
Thanks for all these builds certaintly worth considering, but I am talking potential to use a really budget GPU in the build to allow it to be an intel build, like even as low as a £60 GPU
Click to expand...

That would make sense if you sourced say a 2nd hand Nvidia 460. I still have one and it'll handle WOW and Skyrim just fine. Remember the intel CPUs have an IGP so you can add a dedicated GPU much later on, a new £60 GPU is going to pretty much garbage for gaming. Something like the 270X offers great bang for buck and would be a nice drop in upgrade down the road.

As my buddy Idleman said, check if he can cop the OS cheap as a student, the windows 8 trial is also an option to try it and save some cash.

YOUR BASKET
1 x Intel Core i5-4670K 3.40GHz (Haswell) Socket LGA1150 Processor - Retail £179.99
1 x Gigabyte Z87-D3HP Intel Z87 (Socket 1150) DDR3 ATX Motherboard £109.99
1 x Antec High Current Gamer 520W '80 Plus Bronze' Power Supply £59.99
1 x TeamGroup Vulcan RED 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-19200C11 2400MHz Dual Channel Kit (TLD38G2400HC11CDC01) £59.99
1 x BitFenix Shadow Tower Case - Midnight Black £54.98
1 x Seagate Barracuda 7200RPM 1TB SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache - OEM (ST1000DM003) HDD £44.99
1 x Corsair Raptor LM3 Gaming Mouse (CH-9000038-EU) £24.95
1 x Samsung SH-224DB/BEBE 24x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £14.99
Total : £549.86 (includes shipping : FREE).



The mobo comes with a decent cooler to help OC the i5K
 
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