< £550 Gaming PC

[quotidian]

I would like to get a gaming pc for around £550, some of my thoughts on the different parts:

CPU: Probably would want an I5 K model as if I don't I'll probably regret it.

Cooler: Hoping I could get something for about the difference in the retail - oem prices as apparently the stock cooler isn't great.

Case: Doesn't have to look awesome, I just want something that has good airflow and cooling properties as where the pc will sit is quite close to a radiator (which isn't on that often except in the winter if its really cold) However the radiator would be on the exhaust side of the case so the intake air should still be at a reasonable ambient temp.

Motherboard: would preferably like it to have Sli or crossfire support (depending on what gpu I get now) so I have the option of expanding it later

HDD / SSD: Not sure if I could get an SSD and HDD in with my budget although those momentus hybrid drives look interesting.

GPU: I'm not that concerned about being able to max out every game as I would prefer to go a few settings down yet be able to achieve a good smooth FPS rate.

Thanks
Al

 

[tamzzy]

YOUR BASKET
1 x Intel Core i5-3570K 3.40GHz (Ivybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor (77W) - OEM £169.99
1 x MSI HD 6850 OC 1024MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £83.99
1 x Gigabyte Z77-D3H Intel Z77 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £82.99
1 x Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 1TB SATA 6Gb/s 32MB Cache - OEM (ST31000524AS) £66.98
1 x Cooler Master Silent Pro Modular 500W '80 Plus Bronze' Power Supply £43.98
1 x Adata XPG Gaming v1.0 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (AX3U1600GC4G9-2G) £38.99
1 x Xigmatek Asgard Pro Gaming Case - Black £31.98
1 x Thermalright True Spirit 120 CPU Cooler (Socket LGA775/1155/1156/AM2/AM3/FM1) £24.98
1 x Samsung SH-S222BB/BEBE 22x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £16.99
Total : £574.98 (includes shipping : £11.75).



for 550 quid u gotta make some tradeoffs im guessing
no sli (board doesnt support, although it does xfire)
graphics card is decent, but not the latest gen
not gonna get a ssd+hdd on this budget, 1tb should be sufficient?
psu would suffice for a 1 graphics card system

if you do want to run dual graphics card in the future, u'll need to upgrade the psu (and motherboard if you're going sli)

 

[quotidian]

Actually it turns out I will need a copy of Windows as well unless I could use the Windows 8 previews / Linux until the full version is released?

 

[Clav]

Your games wouldn't work too well on linux though

 

[quotidian]

Your games wouldn't work too well on linux though

I haven't got many pc games as I have been gaming on PS3 for the last couple of years, pretty much the only pc games i have are Minecraft, conflict desert storm and one of the old splinter cell games.

My laptop wasn't able to run pc games but now I want to get a decent pc so I can start and play pc games as most of my friends are on pc now instead of PS3

 

[tamzzy]

YOUR BASKET
1 x Intel Core i3-2120 3.30GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor - Retail £95.99
1 x MSI HD 6850 "Dual Fan Edition" 1024MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £83.99
1 x Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 64-Bit - OEM (GFC-02050) £83.99
1 x Gigabyte Z77-DS3H Intel Z77 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £75.98
1 x Seagate Barracuda 7200RPM 1TB SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache - OEM (ST1000DM003) £65.99
1 x OCZ ZS Series 550W '80 Plus Bronze' Power Supply £49.99
1 x Xigmatek Asgard Pro Gaming Case - Black £34.99
1 x GeIL Dragon 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C11 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (GD38GB1600C11DC) £33.59
1 x OcUK 22x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £12.98
Total : £552.49 (includes shipping : £12.50).



no overclocking on the cpu though, you'll need an i5k but your budget is a bit too low to add that without compromising other parts
but the i3 2120 is no slouch either

 

[firegalley246]

YOUR BASKET
1 x Intel Core i3-2120 3.30GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor - Retail £95.99
1 x MSI HD 6850 "Dual Fan Edition" 1024MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £83.99
1 x Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 64-Bit - OEM (GFC-02050) £83.99
1 x Gigabyte Z77-DS3H Intel Z77 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £75.98
1 x Seagate Barracuda 7200RPM 1TB SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache - OEM (ST1000DM003) £65.99
1 x OCZ ZS Series 550W '80 Plus Bronze' Power Supply £49.99
1 x Xigmatek Asgard Pro Gaming Case - Black £34.99
1 x GeIL Dragon 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C11 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (GD38GB1600C11DC) £33.59
1 x OcUK 22x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £12.98
Total : £552.49 (includes shipping : £12.50).



no overclocking on the cpu though, you'll need an i5k but your budget is a bit too low to add that without compromising other parts
but the i3 2120 is no slouch either

Sorry to hijack this thread, but tamzzy I was just about to post a thread asking about an almost identical build to what you listed for quotidian (except with the D3H instead of the D3SH motherboard). Would it be fine for playing skyrim at high settings on a 1080p monitor? The benchmarks say it should be fine, but I was wondering if you had any real world experience to back this up.

 

[quotidian]

YOUR BASKET
1 x Intel Core i3-2120 3.30GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor - Retail £95.99
1 x MSI HD 6850 "Dual Fan Edition" 1024MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £83.99
1 x Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 64-Bit - OEM (GFC-02050) £83.99
1 x Gigabyte Z77-DS3H Intel Z77 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £75.98
1 x Seagate Barracuda 7200RPM 1TB SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache - OEM (ST1000DM003) £65.99
1 x OCZ ZS Series 550W '80 Plus Bronze' Power Supply £49.99
1 x Xigmatek Asgard Pro Gaming Case - Black £34.99
1 x GeIL Dragon 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C11 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (GD38GB1600C11DC) £33.59
1 x OcUK 22x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £12.98
Total : £552.49 (includes shipping : £12.50).



no overclocking on the cpu though, you'll need an i5k but your budget is a bit too low to add that without compromising other parts
but the i3 2120 is no slouch either

How much more would I need to spend to get a 2500k / 3570k without cutting down on the rest of the build too much?

 

[tamzzy]

YOUR BASKET
1 x Intel Core i5-3570K 3.40GHz (Ivybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor (77W) - OEM £167.99
1 x Intel Core i3-2120 3.30GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor - Retail £95.99
Total : £273.58 (includes shipping : £8.00).



bout 70-75ish quid and a cooler, which is about another 25 quid


YOUR BASKET
1 x Thermalright True Spirit 120 CPU Cooler (Socket LGA775/1155/1156/AM2/AM3/FM1) £24.98
Total : £28.90 (includes shipping : £3.26).

 

[quotidian]

(Couldn't figure out the fancy yellow links and prices thing)

So I should really be looking to put my budget up to around 600 or just axe windows at the minute and possibly use XP (I definitely have an XP disk and code somewhere) until Windows 8 comes out and then just get Windows 8 to say buying 2 versions of windows.

 

[tamzzy]

you can use windows 8 preview for free
http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows-8/download/

if you want to put off purchasing the os till later

 

[tamzzy]

i5k spec sans os and dropped the hdd to 500gb to bring it right on budget +/- few quid

YOUR BASKET
1 x Intel Core i5-3570K 3.40GHz (Ivybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor (77W) - OEM £167.99
1 x MSI HD 6850 "Dual Fan Edition" 1024MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £83.99
1 x Gigabyte Z77-DS3H Intel Z77 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £75.98
1 x Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 500GB SATA 6Gb/s 16MB Cache - OEM (ST500DM002) £52.99
1 x OCZ ZS Series 550W '80 Plus Bronze' Power Supply £49.99
1 x Xigmatek Asgard Pro Gaming Case - Black £34.99
1 x GeIL Dragon 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C11 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (GD38GB1600C11DC) £33.59
1 x Thermalright True Spirit 120 CPU Cooler (Socket LGA775/1155/1156/AM2/AM3/FM1) £24.98
1 x OcUK 22x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £12.98
Total : £552.49 (includes shipping : £12.50).

 

[quotidian]

Thanks, I'm thinking about maybe increasing my budget to £600, however as much as I would like to save up a bit more so I could buy the whole system in one go I'm going to have buy as much as I can now and add parts later, my parents would go nuts if they thought I spent £700 + on a pc.

I would like to have got an SSD but I guess that can wait a while

Also is there much difference between the 6950 and 7850 or should I get the 6950 with a better psu?


YOUR BASKET
1 x HIS HD 7850 IceQ X 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card (H785QN2G2M) w/ Nexuiz & Dirt Showdown PC Games £179.99
1 x Intel Core i5-3570K 3.40GHz (Ivybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor (77W) - OEM £167.99
1 x Gigabyte Z77-DS3H Intel Z77 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £75.98
1 x Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 500GB SATA 6Gb/s 16MB Cache - OEM (ST500DM002) £52.99
1 x Patriot Viper Xtreme 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C8 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (PXD38G1600LLK) £39.95
1 x Cooler Master Elite Power 500W Power Supply £32.99
1 x BitFenix Merc Alpha Gaming Case - Black £29.99
1 x Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro Rev 2 CPU Cooler (Socket 939/AM2/AM3/775/1155/1156/1366) £15.59
Total : £609.56 (includes shipping : £11.75).

 

[tamzzy]

YOUR BASKET
1 x HIS HD 7850 IceQ X 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card (H785QN2G2M) w/ Nexuiz & Dirt Showdown PC Games £179.99
1 x Intel Core i5-3570K 3.40GHz (Ivybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor (77W) - OEM £167.99
1 x Gigabyte Z77-D3H Intel Z77 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £82.99
1 x Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 500GB SATA 6Gb/s 16MB Cache - OEM (ST500DM002) £52.99
1 x XFX Pro 450W Core Edition '80 Plus Bronze' Power Supply £41.99
1 x Xigmatek Asgard Pro Gaming Case - Black £34.99
1 x GeIL Dragon 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C11 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (GD38GB1600C11DC) £33.59
1 x Thermalright True Spirit 120 CPU Cooler (Socket LGA775/1155/1156/AM2/AM3/FM1) £24.98
1 x OcUK 22x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £12.98
Total : £646.60 (includes shipping : £11.75).




this is the minimum i'd recommend tbh, short of dropping the graphics card to a 6-series
i know its 50 quid overbudget
the d3h is better than the ds3h cuz the d3h has lucid virtu mvp whereas the ds3h doesnt (also missing some extra ports on the ds3h compared to the d3h)
i got cheaper ram instead, but its just as good (to reduce cost) and you wouldnt want high profile ram cuz it interferes with the heatsink
better case (imo)
waaaay better heatsink
and better psu
drop the optical drive if you dont need