~£650 first build for gaming

Lienna

Lienna

Lienna

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12 Oct 2012
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Hi everyone, I've been working off a laptop for a while now but I think it's time to settle down with a desktop. I have an OS, a mouse and a Tv I'll use for a screen (only temporary untill I can afford a proper monitor) but otherwise I'll need all the bits (case, keyboard, etc). I'll be mainly using the PC for gaming, and a small amount of video editing.

I had a little look around here and put together a rough idea though it's a bit over budget and I don't know enough about componants to be confident, any chance people could give it a lookover and give any recomendations/suggest a new build.

This will be my first PC build from sctratch, however I have 2 guys living with me who have some practice in it willing to help me, though I do want to check that componants come with all the wires needed?

YOUR BASKET
1 x EVGA GeForce GTX 660 Superclocked 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card (02G-P4-2662-KR) £179.99
1 x Intel Core i5-3570K 3.40GHz (Ivybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor (77W) - Retail £167.99
1 x Gigabyte Z77-D3H Intel Z77 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £80.99
1 x Seagate Barracuda 7200RPM 1TB SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache - OEM (ST1000DM003) £58.99
1 x Corsair Builder Series CX 500W V2 '80 Plus Bronze' Power Supply (CP-9020047-UK) £49.99
1 x GeIL EVO Leggera 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (GEL38GB1600C9DC) £35.99
1 x Xigmatek Asgard Pro Gaming Case - Black £34.99
1 x Cooler Master Hyper 412S CPU Cooler (Socket LGA 2011/1366/1156/1155/775/FM1/AM3+/AM3/AM2+/AM2) £28.99
1 x Cherry Black CyMotion Expert (USB/PS2) Keyboard - Black £19.99
1 x OcUK 22x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £17.99
Total : £690.90 (includes shipping : £12.50).

 
YOUR BASKET
1 x MSI GeForce GTX 660 OC Twin Frozr 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £173.99
1 x Intel Core i5-3570K 3.40GHz (Ivybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor (77W) - Retail £167.99
1 x Gigabyte Z77-D3H Intel Z77 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £80.99
1 x Seagate Barracuda 7200RPM 1TB SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache - OEM (ST1000DM003) £58.99
1 x Corsair Enthusiast Series TX550M High Performance 550W '80 Plus Bronze' Modular Power Supply (CP-9020001-UK) £54.98
1 x Zalman Z9 Plus Tower Case with Fan Controller - Black £42.95
1 x Cooler Master Hyper 612S CPU Cooler (Socket LGA1366/1156/1155/775/AM3/AM2+/AM2) £32.99
1 x Kingston HyperX Genesis Grey 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (KHX1600C9D3X2K2/8GX) £25.99
1 x Cherry Black CyMotion Expert (USB/PS2) Keyboard - Black £19.99
1 x LG GH24NS90 24x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £14.59
Total : £688.45 (includes shipping : £12.50).



PSU is modular so you dont have a mess of cables in the case, improves looks and airflow. The case has 4 120mm fans, digital temp display, fan controller, cable management including an extension for the mobos aux power lead. Everything you need is supplied, sata cables will come with the mobo. Only possible issue is that you might need to update the BIOS on that mobo to use the GPU......it's very easy and the mobo has a backup BIOS so it's not as risky as it sounds.

Hope this helps, any questions feel free to ask
 
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If i had 650 to spend this is what I would get. :D But you could swap the ati for nvidia in this list and it would be just as good.

YOUR BASKET
1 x MSI HD 7850 Twin Frozr III OC 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Cards w/ Nexuiz & Sleeping Dogs PC Games £169.99
1 x Intel Core i5-2500K 3.30GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor - Retail £161.99
1 x Gigabyte Z77-D3H Intel Z77 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £80.99
1 x SanDisk Extreme SSD 120GB 2.5" SATA 6Gb/s Solid State Hard Drive - (SDSSDX-120G-G25) £79.99
1 x Corsair Enthusiast Series TX550M High Performance 550W '80 Plus Bronze' Modular Power Supply (CP-9020001-UK) £54.98
1 x Corsair XMS3 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-16000C9 2000MHz Dual Channel Kit (CMX8GX3M2A2000C9) £49.99
1 x Zalman Z9 Plus Tower Case with Fan Controller - Black £42.95
1 x Zalman CNPS8900 Quiet Heatsink & Fan (Socket 1155/1156/1366/775/FM1/AM3+/AM3/AM2+/AM2) £29.99
Total : £685.87 (includes shipping : £12.50).



To be honest I would probably end up spending more on a motherboard. Like this one and buying a large drive as secondary a few months later.

1 x Gigabyte Z77X-UD5H Intel Z77 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £173.99
 
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Above spec is worst spec in thread.

+1 for Hono's ifn you cant go over £650 then you could get a cheaper case or go for a 7850.
 
groen said:
If i had 650 to spend this is what I would get. :D But you could swap the ati for nvidia in this list and it would be just as good.

YOUR BASKET
1 x MSI HD 7850 Twin Frozr III OC 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Cards w/ Nexuiz & Sleeping Dogs PC Games £169.99
1 x Intel Core i5-2500K 3.30GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor - Retail £161.99
1 x Gigabyte Z77-D3H Intel Z77 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £80.99
1 x SanDisk Extreme SSD 120GB 2.5" SATA 6Gb/s Solid State Hard Drive - (SDSSDX-120G-G25) £79.99
1 x Corsair Enthusiast Series TX550M High Performance 550W '80 Plus Bronze' Modular Power Supply (CP-9020001-UK) £54.98
1 x Corsair XMS3 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-16000C9 2000MHz Dual Channel Kit (CMX8GX3M2A2000C9) £49.99
1 x Zalman Z9 Plus Tower Case with Fan Controller - Black £42.95
1 x Zalman CNPS8900 Quiet Heatsink & Fan (Socket 1155/1156/1366/775/FM1/AM3+/AM3/AM2+/AM2) £29.99
Total : £685.87 (includes shipping : £12.50).



To be honest I would probably end up spending more on a motherboard. Like this one and buying a large drive as secondary a few months later.

1 x Gigabyte Z77X-UD5H Intel Z77 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £173.99
Click to expand...

sandybridge instead of Ivybridge?

No keyboard or optical drive and the RAM is overkill for this socket. The Nvidia GPUs add cuda support which will help her video encoding software I'm sure. Quicksync also boosts video encoding by using the IGP (integrated graphics). IB has a better IGP, uses less power and does more clock for clock than SB......get the newer tech ;)

An SSD can be added later, it's an easy enough upgrade to do

Bacon? said:
Above spec is worst spec in thread.

+1 for Hono's ifn you cant go over £650 then you could get a cheaper case or go for a 7850.
Click to expand...

"~" means around or approx fella ;) My spec is just a little cheaper than what she was willing to pay which was more than £650. CUDA is going to be useful so I'd stick with the 660 over the 7850 as it's the better GPU anyway (comparison)
 
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Leave out the CPU cooler, fit the OEM one and spend the extra cash on a better PSU
The heart of any system ;)

The i5 3570K is plenty fast enough as it is, you may even get a small overclock on the stock cooler to say 4.0 GHz
 
honosuseri said:
"~" means around or approx fella ;) My spec is just a little cheaper than what she was willing to pay which was more than £650. CUDA is going to be useful so I'd stick with the 660 over the 7850 as it's the better GPU anyway (comparison)
Click to expand...

They are roughly equal anyway once both are overclocked but the CUDA is a plus for the Nvidia I will agree.

I'm useless on the little < > ~ signs anyway :p

Btw Ghost case is on its way ;)
 
Bacon? said:
They are roughly equal anyway once both are overclocked but the CUDA is a plus for the Nvidia I will agree.

I'm useless on the little < > ~ signs anyway :p

Btw Ghost case is on its way ;)
Click to expand...

Yes I noticed on the thread. Nice of you to make out some of my ideas for reviewing the case were your own.....sense the tone ;)
 
Will the OP be able to run any game at ultra with a £650 PC ?
How many years before they can't run anything at ultra, if it can run things at ultra that is ?
I would wait till I have £900 or more saved up myself.
I see many people with these £500 - £700 builds and I think to myself , you can hardly build a decent gaming PC for that ?
Or can you ? because 5 or 6 years ago £650 wouldn't go to far , but then again I was stuck with store bought PC's then.
 
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Bacon? said:
You mean "idea" I nearly said "Hono suggested" and I can edit it if you like :)
Click to expand...

I dont want to drag this thread off topic, I just think it's polite to give credit to people or thank them accordingly. I noticed no-one else is giving you any tips or suggestions.

Any who, back on topic. The Z9 is a great starters case as you get soooo much with it for the price. I can't believe you were going to sell it on. It's begging to be stripped down and have it's extras transplanted into the new case. The P4/8 extension to route behind the mobo tray has to be worth nearly £10 itself, nevermind the four 120mm fans. I'm pretty sure that digital temp display and fan controller could be raided too.
 
Im interested in knowing how that was back on topic xD

But yeh I'll put a little side note beside it lol.

When i say sell the case I mean just the chassis. The fans, extension, controller etc will eb stripped out and put in the ghost. :) Unless you want them :D
Cheers for the suggestion though, cant wait to get my hands on it!

Back on topic:

@99

The OP should be able to play games at least high with the suggested spec. GPU's are the most frequently updates parts of a PC and I wouldn't be surprised if it needed updating in 2 - 3 years time.
 
It's back on topic because you suggested a cheaper case than the Z9 which I think is a mistake (i explained why) and switching to AMDs 7850 which for this brief I also think is wrong.
 
I've just put a budget build together:

MSi P67A GD65 (B3) (B-grade) £45
Intel i3 2120 £77
MSi GTX 660Ti £263 (now £239.99)

One of the reasons I built it was to see how well a 'budget' PC would perform
The answer is very well.

You don't have to spend much to get a gaming PC and the beauty of a build like mine is that you can add an i5 or i7 CPU later, either Sandy or Ivy bridge.
I can also add a second 660 Ti for some serious performance.
 
Thanks to those who helped :), I'll look over the builds properly when I have a little more time

99Androidguy777 said:
Will the OP be able to run any game at ultra with a £650 PC ?
How many years before they can't run anything at ultra, if it can run things at ultra that is ?
Click to expand...

The thing is at the moment I'm running a laptop which plays modern games on minimum graphics with a framerate that makes playing anything competitively impossible. I'm not looking for ultra really, I'm looking for the ability to play modern games in a way that they look good (even if not their best) and are playable.
 
Lienna said:
Thanks to those who helped :), I'll look over the builds properly when I have a little more time



The thing is at the moment I'm running a laptop which plays modern games on minimum graphics with a framerate that makes playing anything competitively impossible. I'm not looking for ultra really, I'm looking for the ability to play modern games in a way that they look good (even if not their best) and are playable.
Click to expand...

You are welcome :)

There are daily offers as well as weekly offers which change on the wednesday. I think my spec is pretty good but I'm biased lol When the offers change on wednesday it will most likely need rebalancing. Gives you a good idea of what you can get for your money though :D
 
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