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£500 Gaming PC

BennettWHU

BennettWHU

BennettWHU

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Joined
17 May 2012
Posts
393
I want to build a new gaming PC and my budget is £500. It needs to be capable of running games like SWTOR, Total War franchise, Skyrim, World of Tanks and some new games which are yet to come out like World of Warships. I already have a mouse, keyboard and monitor so I don't need those adding to the list. If it's still the case with AMD, I'd like an AMD CPU because it's cheaper and I'll get more cores. If there is enough budget left over, I might spring for an all in one water cooling unit like a H55 or something by Cooler Master. The only thing I'm really bothered about in regards to the build itself is size and style. The case HAS to be minimalistic like a lot of Fractal Design cases are and it can't be too big as I don't have a lot of space for it. Any help would REALLY be appreciated. Thank you.
 
Okay, well here's some stuff from "both camps"

AMD 8320

YOUR BASKET
1 x AMD Piledriver FX-8 Eight Core 8320 Black Edition 3.50GHz (Socket AM3+) Processor - Retail £109.99
1 x MSI AMD ATI Radeon 7950 Twin FrozR BE 3072MB PCI-Express Graphics Card **REFURB 90 DAY WARRANTY** (R7950 TF 3GD5/BE) £95.99
1 x Asus M5A97 EVO R2.0 AMD 970 (Socket AM3+) DDR3 Motherboard £74.99
1 x Avexir Core Red Series 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C11 1600MHz Dual Channel Memory Kit (AVD3U16001104G-2IR) - Red Light £59.99
1 x SuperFlower Golden Green HX 550W "80 Plus Gold" Power Supply - Black £59.99
1 x Western Digital Caviar Green 1TB SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache - OEM (WD10EZRX) **SINGLE PLATTER** HDD £43.49
1 x BitFenix Neos ATX Tower Black/Black £29.99
1 x Raijintek Aidos Direct Contact CPU Cooler - Black £14.99
1 x Asus 24x DVD±RW DRW-24F1ST SATA ReWriter - Black (Retail) £13.99
Total : £530.34 (includes shipping : £22.45).



Intel i5 4440

YOUR BASKET
1 x Intel Core i5-4440 3.10GHz (Haswell) Socket LGA1150 Processor - Retail £142.99
1 x MSI AMD ATI Radeon 7950 Twin FrozR BE 3072MB PCI-Express Graphics Card **REFURB 90 DAY WARRANTY** (R7950 TF 3GD5/BE) £95.99
1 x MSI Z97 PC Mate Intel Z97 (Socket 1150) DDR3 ATX Motherboard £64.99
1 x Kingston HyperX Savage Red 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-19200C11 2400MHz Dual Channel Kit (HX324C11SRK2/8) £62.99
1 x SuperFlower Golden Green HX 550W "80 Plus Gold" Power Supply - Black £59.99
1 x Western Digital Caviar Green 1TB SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache - OEM (WD10EZRX) **SINGLE PLATTER** HDD £43.49
1 x BitFenix Neos ATX Tower Black/Black £29.99
1 x Asus 24x DVD±RW DRW-24F1ST SATA ReWriter - Black (Retail) £13.99
Total : £534.94 (includes shipping : £17.10).




Gigabyte Z97P-D3 is out of stock hence this motherboard

Free shipping on both baskets before the end of the year - http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?t=18630207

Intel build has a better upgrade path, the motherboard will take an i7 in the future happily
However on the AMD build you can overclock the CPU (8320) to 4Ghz + probably with that cooler

Both have excellent value HD 7950s which are equivalent to the current AMD-gen R9 280.
 
Last edited:
Shivy011 said:
Okay, well here's some stuff from "both camps"

AMD 8320

YOUR BASKET
1 x AMD Piledriver FX-8 Eight Core 8320 Black Edition 3.50GHz (Socket AM3+) Processor - Retail £109.99
1 x MSI AMD ATI Radeon 7950 Twin FrozR BE 3072MB PCI-Express Graphics Card **REFURB 90 DAY WARRANTY** (R7950 TF 3GD5/BE) £95.99
1 x Asus M5A97 EVO R2.0 AMD 970 (Socket AM3+) DDR3 Motherboard £74.99
1 x Avexir Core Red Series 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C11 1600MHz Dual Channel Memory Kit (AVD3U16001104G-2IR) - Red Light £59.99
1 x SuperFlower Golden Green HX 550W "80 Plus Gold" Power Supply - Black £59.99
1 x Western Digital Caviar Green 1TB SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache - OEM (WD10EZRX) **SINGLE PLATTER** HDD £43.49
1 x BitFenix Neos ATX Tower Black/Black £29.99
1 x Raijintek Aidos Direct Contact CPU Cooler - Black £14.99
1 x Asus 24x DVD±RW DRW-24F1ST SATA ReWriter - Black (Retail) £13.99
Total : £530.34 (includes shipping : £22.45).



Intel i5 4440

YOUR BASKET
1 x Intel Core i5-4440 3.10GHz (Haswell) Socket LGA1150 Processor - Retail £142.99
1 x MSI AMD ATI Radeon 7950 Twin FrozR BE 3072MB PCI-Express Graphics Card **REFURB 90 DAY WARRANTY** (R7950 TF 3GD5/BE) £95.99
1 x MSI Z97 PC Mate Intel Z97 (Socket 1150) DDR3 ATX Motherboard £64.99
1 x Kingston HyperX Savage Red 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-19200C11 2400MHz Dual Channel Kit (HX324C11SRK2/8) £62.99
1 x SuperFlower Golden Green HX 550W "80 Plus Gold" Power Supply - Black £59.99
1 x Western Digital Caviar Green 1TB SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache - OEM (WD10EZRX) **SINGLE PLATTER** HDD £43.49
1 x BitFenix Neos ATX Tower Black/Black £29.99
1 x Asus 24x DVD±RW DRW-24F1ST SATA ReWriter - Black (Retail) £13.99
Total : £534.94 (includes shipping : £17.10).




Gigabyte Z97P-D3 is out of stock hence this motherboard

Free shipping on both baskets before the end of the year - http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?t=18630207
Click to expand...


I forgot to mention I already have a DVD drive for a tower. Sorry about that. I'm also not a fan of BitPheonix cases. I like a lot of the fractal design cases. Fractal Design Define Mini Case is very nice and very minimalistic. I try to swerve away from refurb products now after a problem with a different PC component supplier. The product was sold as a refurb and came to me as broken instead.
 
Last edited:
Hmm, the Mini is quite expensive is it not? About £60? Also, it's micro ATX which means no AMD, there are no decent FX AMD boards that are microATX

This refurb has a 90 day guarantee from OcUK so if it doesn't work, just return it :) It's such great value, you'd have to pay about £50 more for the same item brand new!! Your choice in the end though, I'd 100% take the punt on the refurb 7950 as it's such great value
 
I've noticed it's harder to find a mATX AMD motherboard that has a lot of features. The motherboard is important because I do want to upgrade in the future. HDD's aren't a problem because I have three 500GB HDD's in a box upstairs. I'll use those in the build in order to save some money on HDD's. I forgot to mention this in my first post because I've just woke up. Now I've had my morning coffee, I'm awake :D
 
Nothing like coffee :D
Okay, well the reason behind the mATX AMD boards are there are no good one's, let alone one's with good features - none of them will supoort the high end 8320 etc without thermal throttling due to poor VRMs etc

Here's an attempt taking into account no HDDs and £60 case and mATX (your HDDs are SATA right, not IDE?)

YOUR BASKET
1 x Intel Core i5-4440 3.10GHz (Haswell) Socket LGA1150 Processor - Retail £142.99
1 x MSI AMD ATI Radeon 7950 Twin FrozR BE 3072MB PCI-Express Graphics Card **REFURB 90 DAY WARRANTY** (R7950 TF 3GD5/BE) £95.99
1 x Gigabyte Z97M-DS3H Intel Z97 (Socket 1150) DDR3 Micro ATX Motherboard £68.99
1 x Kingston HyperX Savage Red 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-19200C11 2400MHz Dual Channel Kit (HX324C11SRK2/8) £62.99
1 x SuperFlower Golden Green HX 550W "80 Plus Gold" Power Supply - Black £59.99
Total : £440.54 (includes shipping : £8.00).



One HDD bay must be removed to support this graphics card. This'll take an i7 in the future (upgrade path) and will also take a new GPU happily

What are your feelings now on the GPU? A similar NEW setup would look like this;

YOUR BASKET
1 x Sapphire Radeon R9 280 Dual-X 3072MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £145.99
1 x Intel Core i5-4440 3.10GHz (Haswell) Socket LGA1150 Processor - Retail £142.99
1 x Gigabyte Z97M-DS3H Intel Z97 (Socket 1150) DDR3 Micro ATX Motherboard £68.99
1 x Kingston HyperX Savage Red 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-19200C11 2400MHz Dual Channel Kit (HX324C11SRK2/8) £62.99
1 x SuperFlower Golden Green HX 550W "80 Plus Gold" Power Supply - Black £59.99
Total : £490.55 (includes shipping : £8.00).

 
Shivy011 said:
Nothing like coffee :D
Okay, well the reason behind the mATX AMD boards are there are no good one's, let alone one's with good features - none of them will supoort the high end 8320 etc without thermal throttling due to poor VRMs etc

Here's an attempt taking into account no HDDs and £60 case and mATX (your HDDs are SATA right, not IDE?)

YOUR BASKET
1 x Intel Core i5-4440 3.10GHz (Haswell) Socket LGA1150 Processor - Retail £142.99
1 x MSI AMD ATI Radeon 7950 Twin FrozR BE 3072MB PCI-Express Graphics Card **REFURB 90 DAY WARRANTY** (R7950 TF 3GD5/BE) £95.99
1 x Gigabyte Z97M-DS3H Intel Z97 (Socket 1150) DDR3 Micro ATX Motherboard £68.99
1 x Kingston HyperX Savage Red 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-19200C11 2400MHz Dual Channel Kit (HX324C11SRK2/8) £62.99
1 x SuperFlower Golden Green HX 550W "80 Plus Gold" Power Supply - Black £59.99
Total : £440.54 (includes shipping : £8.00).



One HDD bay must be removed to support this graphics card. This'll take an i7 in the future (upgrade path) and will also take a new GPU happily

What are your feelings now on the GPU? A similar NEW setup would look like this;

YOUR BASKET
1 x Sapphire Radeon R9 280 Dual-X 3072MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £145.99
1 x Intel Core i5-4440 3.10GHz (Haswell) Socket LGA1150 Processor - Retail £142.99
1 x Gigabyte Z97M-DS3H Intel Z97 (Socket 1150) DDR3 Micro ATX Motherboard £68.99
1 x Kingston HyperX Savage Red 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-19200C11 2400MHz Dual Channel Kit (HX324C11SRK2/8) £62.99
1 x SuperFlower Golden Green HX 550W "80 Plus Gold" Power Supply - Black £59.99
Total : £490.55 (includes shipping : £8.00).

Click to expand...


All of my HDD's are SATA, yes. Would I be better off going with AMD in regards to it being the best bang for my buck?
 
BennettWHU said:
All of my HDD's are SATA, yes. Would I be better off going with AMD in regards to it being the best bang for my buck?
Click to expand...

Well the i5 is no slouch, and will probably beat the 8320 in most applications, however again for micro ATX there's no option other than Intel. Intel also has a superior upgrade path, going from the i5 to possibly and overclockable i5 or an i7 which you said you would want to do one day (upgrade). However, the 8320 is overclockable out of the box. Overall, as a person/opinion I'd go for the Intel, but overall it's your decision. Both are excellent choices :)
 
Does OCUK send the bundle already built or do they just send you the components as they come when bought off the shelves? I don't like the thought of a pre-built bundle being shipped.
 
That's pre-built, there's a similar version here as seperate components
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=bu-010-as
however i'd go for a z97 board something like i suggested as they do have more features and overclocking capabilities too, therefore a better upgrade path

turbo boost is effectively the cpu turning the clock speed up by itself for short bursts when it is under stress, it's generally just for one core and not for all of the cores, hence it's not as good as overclocking. overclocking, the frequency is set for all of the cores not just one as it does not overclock for short periods of time, but is always at the clock speed you have set. however

- you can't overclock much/at all on h81 motherboards
- you can't overclock non-k intel cpus. an example of an overclockable one is the i5 4690k (notice the k :) )

http://www.intel.com/content/www/us...ology/turbo-boost/turbo-boost-technology.html
 
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