£550 Gaming Build

GazD · 18 Sep 2012 at 15:20

A friend has asked me to price him up a PC. I can remember how to put them together but the tech has somewhat advanced since I last built one so I have no idea what's good and what isn't. He needs a just a base unit, no OS is required. Go OcUK!

TIA

dunn2010 · 18 Sep 2012 at 15:35

YOUR BASKET
1 x MSI HD 7850 Power Edition Twin Frozr IV OC 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card w/ Nexuiz, Sleeping Dogs & Dirt Showdown PC Games £179.99
1 x Intel Core i3-3220 3.30GHz (Ivybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor (77W) - Retail £95.99
1 x Gigabyte Z77-D3H Intel Z77 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £84.98
1 x OCZ ZS Series 550W '80 Plus Bronze' Power Supply £49.99
1 x Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 500GB SATA 6Gb/s 16MB Cache - OEM (ST500DM002) £49.99
1 x Xigmatek Asgard Pro Gaming Case - Black £34.99
1 x GeIL Black Dragon 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C11 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (GD38GB1600C11DC) £31.99
1 x Samsung SH-S222BB/BEBE 22x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £13.99
Total : £556.92 (includes shipping : £12.50).

LukieBoy007 · 18 Sep 2012 at 15:48

The above post looks good, but you could get this graphics card instead of the one above (same card, just different cooler and brand) to save £30:
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-052-HS

dunn2010 · 18 Sep 2012 at 16:03

LukieBoy007 said:
The above post looks good, but you could get this graphics card instead of the one above (same card, just different cooler and brand) to save £30:
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-052-HS

can do above, then could get a tb hard drive if he likes plenty of hdd space.

PowerPie5000 · 18 Sep 2012 at 16:22

The 'Xigmatek Asgard Pro' case has enough room and good airflow, but the build quality stinks! I built my girlfriends PC into one of these and this is what i found:

1. It's flimsy all round (most cases are at this price point to be fair though).

2. Some of the mobo stand-offs needed pliers to screw in properly due to crap/incomplete threading with the mobo tray screw holes.

3. The screw holes have sharp bits of metal sticking out round the edges on the rear side of the mobo tray (be careful when routing PSU cables around these!).

4. It was quite difficult to properly line up the motherboard with the screw holes and the i/o shield.

5. The USB3 internal connector is surprisingly loose... One hard knock and it will fall out of the mobo header!

6. No dust filter for the huge (and very open) fan grill on top of the case!

... I would personally spend a little extra and get a better quality case. I even remember the original Asgard case being better than this.