£700 Gaming Build!

YdLeet

YdLeet

YdLeet

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25 Aug 2011
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Hi,

The title of the thread is pretty self explanatory. I'm looking to play Battlefield 3, Crysis 2 etc. etc.

Since this is my first build I need some help on what parts I should pick for this build, while sticking to my £650-£700 budget. I don't want to spend any extra money on things I won't exactly need, so the lower the price, the better. :)

Also, I'd preferably want the system to be pretty future proof so I can upgrade it maybe a year or 2 down the line.

If I've missed out anything please ask..

Thanks A LOT in advance :D
 
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YOUR BASKET
1 x Sapphire ATI Radeon HD 6950 "Dual Fan Edition" 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card with FREE DIRT3 Game £209.99
1 x Intel Core i5-2500K 3.30GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor - Retail £159.98
1 x MSI P67A-GD53 Intel P67 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard ** B3 REVISION ** £107.99
1 x OCZ ZS Series 650W '80 Plus Bronze' Power Supply £55.99
1 x Kingston HyperX Genesis Grey 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (KHX1600C9D3X2K2/8GX) £53.99
1 x BitFenix Shinobi Gaming Case - Black £47.99
1 x Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 500GB SATA 6Gb/s 16MB Cache - OEM (ST3500413AS) £30.98
1 x LG GH22NS70 22x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £16.99
Total : £706.82 (includes shipping : £19.10).



:) One example. Core components, with any graphics card you can afford.
 
olivier renault said:
YOUR BASKET
1 x Sapphire ATI Radeon HD 6950 "Dual Fan Edition" 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card with FREE DIRT3 Game £209.99
1 x Intel Core i5-2500K 3.30GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor - Retail £159.98
1 x MSI P67A-GD53 Intel P67 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard ** B3 REVISION ** £107.99
1 x OCZ ZS Series 650W '80 Plus Bronze' Power Supply £55.99
1 x Kingston HyperX Genesis Grey 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (KHX1600C9D3X2K2/8GX) £53.99
1 x BitFenix Shinobi Gaming Case - Black £47.99
1 x Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 500GB SATA 6Gb/s 16MB Cache - OEM (ST3500413AS) £30.98
1 x LG GH22NS70 22x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £16.99
Total : £706.82 (includes shipping : £19.10).



:) One example. Core components, with any graphics card you can afford.
Click to expand...

Thanks mate, I think I will definitely be going with that CPU. But there is still so much to choose from for all the other components :/

Do I really need 8GB of RAM?
 
do you need an os, mointor, keyboard/mouse?

I would say asus motherboard over msi.

remember DON'T skimp with the psu, going for a cheap one can end up costing you in the long run with the psu going pop and taking the rest of the pc with it.

for a little bit more this tho only till next wednesday when the price goes back to £75
 
Build 1 (the expensive option)

v7r2b4.jpg


Build 2 (the cheap option)

2qbb32w.jpg


I personally would prefer the first option albeit slightly over budget.

I see the PSU being very important and is something you would probably want to replace last due to it being connected to everything inside the pc. Having more power will also give you more overclocking and headroom for future gpu upgrades.

The 4gb ram I think is suffice although they are cheap and you can acquire 8gb for about 20 quid more, but for gaming purposes I don't think it is necessary (it's not like you are benching or video editing etc).

Motherboard I would not want to cut down too much on because you would want to have the best possible features without going overboard on price. Like the PSU, it would be a hassle to remove and replace as everything is connected to it.

The graphics card I opted for something more powerful, but if you like, you can cut down on it and go for the 6850 instead and perhaps add another one at a later date and make it crossfire, better still, sell it and replace it with something new. I think it is the best bang for buck for a little under £114.

I chose the retail version of the cpu for the free fan, however, I would expect you to add a better fan at a later date to improve the cooling and to provide you with the option to overclock higher.
 
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fowler002 said:
do you need an os, mointor, keyboard/mouse?

I would say asus motherboard over msi.

remember DON'T skimp with the psu, going for a cheap one can end up costing you in the long run with the psu going pop and taking the rest of the pc with it.

for a little bit more this tho only till next wednesday when the price goes back to £75
Click to expand...

I already have a monitor and OS.

Thanks for the info!
 
Looking at the builds above and considering I want to overclock what is the minimum power PSU I should be looking to get, 750W?
 
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25unpc7.jpg


What do you guys think of this one I put together? Really stretching my budget here though. Maybe downgrade the Mobo to an MSI one?
 
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YdLeet said:
Looking at the builds above and considering I want to overclock what is the minimum power PSU I should be looking to get, 750W?
Click to expand...

650W really. Nothing goes above 450W at full tilt. You need more for SLI / XFire, but 650 is nice and comfy (for a 580). Anything below and you can cut down a fair bit. Overclocking add a bit more on the PSU but not massively (50-80 watts).
 
YdLeet said:
Thanks for that mate. What about the GTX 560 ti instead of the HD 6950? Does the HD 6950 perform better?
Click to expand...

They about on par. If I would have to choose, I would go for a 6950 2GB, or a 560ti 1GB. Depends on the games, but the 6950 is slightly faster in games not biased towards Nvidia. 2GB ram is a nice thing to have, if you play proper PC games and not console ports. It's a bit OTT at the moment but who knows what the future brings. I would suspect Rage will really love a lot of Vram :)
 
YdLeet said:
25unpc7.jpg


What do you guys think of this one I put together? Really stretching my budget here though. Maybe downgrade the Mobo to an MSI one?
Click to expand...

Drop the cooler as it's barely above the stock one, and get a retail CPU. Then get a cooler later, Overclocking can wait really. The case is nice but that is an area you can save a bit.

Get the HyperX memory. Good sticks (I have the grey 8GB ones), and good prices.

If you can, stick with the mobo. If you can't get the MSI-P67A-GD53

That should bring you to £700.

That PSU will take a 6950 / 560ti / 570 easily. I would get something a lil bit better for a 580. maybe.

review.

PSU database.


The components I'd go for (case subject to personal preference).

YOUR BASKET
1 x HIS ATI Radeon HD 6950 IceQ X Turbo 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card with FREE Dirt3 & Deus Ex PC Games £199.99
1 x Intel Core i5-2500K 3.30GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor - Retail £159.98
1 x Asus P8Z68-V Intel Z68 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £131.99
1 x Cooler Master HAF 912 Plus Case - Black £69.98
1 x OCZ ZS Series 650W '80 Plus Bronze' Power Supply £55.99
1 x Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 500GB SATA 6Gb/s 16MB Cache - OEM (ST3500413AS) £30.98
1 x Kingston HyperX Blu 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (KHX1600C9AD3B1K2/4G) £19.99
1 x LG GH22NS70 22x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £16.99
Total : £708.83 (includes shipping : £19.10).

 
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olivier renault said:
Drop the cooler as it's barely above the stock one, and get a retail CPU. Then get a cooler later, Overclocking can wait really. The case is nice but that is an area you can save a bit.

Get the HyperX memory. Good sticks (I have the grey 8GB ones), and good prices.

If you can, stick with the mobo. If you can't get the MSI-P67A-GD53

That should bring you to £700.
Click to expand...

I'm obsessed with that case so really don't want to drop it lol. Also, I guess I may as well spend the extra money on the ASUS mobo since I want the build to be as future proof as possible.

Hmm, I'd rather get everything in the build the first time rather than having to take the mobo out and replace the cooler, or did you say this because a good OC'ing cooler would be to expensive for my budget atm?

Finally, the PSU is good enough for OC'ing right (OC'ing the GPU and CPU)? Or should I really be looking to get a better one for better future proofing maybe (without breaking the bank ofc :P)?

Edit: I like the look of that build you just put together! :D
 
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You don't have to take out the stuff out of the case to replace the CPU cooler. The motherboard tray has a cut out at the back for the cooler backplate installation (whatever cooler that may be).

The Asus is just better quality overall. The MSI has a little flaw where the front case headers sit underneath the second PCIE slot, which makes it awkward (or impossible?) if you decide to Xfire 6950's later. The MSI offers 3 years UK warranty, always nice.

If you take a good cooler (£30 budget), you will need to compromise, most likely the motherboard as you want that case. Or bite the bullet and spend for a cooler. IMO, that's £30 you can spend elsewhere. A cooler can be changed relatively easily. Get a cooler for Xmas or something :)

The PSU is good enough for CPU and GPU OC. With a retail cooler, I would stick with stock speed for a while though. Maybe 3.8-4GHz, but a good cooler will get you to at least 4.4GHz.

BTW, the PSU won't be good enough for XFire. But you can always replace it. If you want a good SLI PSU, the Lepa (enermax subsidiary) B-750 will xfire 6950's, probably the OCZ 750W as well, although needs confirming if it has 4 PCIE connectors. The OCZ is Sirtec build, good OEM PSU builder. The Lepa is also Sirtec, and modular.

MSI GD53 review.

Asus P8Z68-V review.

Both boards are solid SLI / XFire boards. The Asus imo has better VRMs for overclocking and better layout.
 
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olivier renault said:
You don't have to take out the stuff out of the case to replace the CPU cooler. The motherboard tray has a cut out at the back for the cooler backplate installation (whatever cooler that may be).

The Asus is just better quality overall. The MSI has a little flaw where the front case headers sit underneath the second PCIE slot, which makes it awkward (or impossible?) if you decide to Xfire 6950's later. The MSI offers 3 years UK warranty, always nice.

If you take a good cooler (£30 budget), you will need to compromise, most likely the motherboard as you want that case. Or bite the bullet and spend for a cooler. IMO, that's £30 you can spend elsewhere. A cooler can be changed relatively easily. Get a cooler for Xmas or something :)

The PSU is good enough for CPU and GPU OC. With a retail cooler, I would stick with stock speed for a while though. Maybe 3.8-4GHz, but a good cooler will get you to at least 4.4GHz.

BTW, the PSU won't be good enough for XFire. But you can always replace it. If you want a good SLI PSU, the Lepa (enermax subsidiary) B-750 will xfire 6950's, probably the OCZ 750W as well, although needs confirming if it has 4 PCIE connectors. The OCZ is Sirtec build, good OEM PSU builder. The Lepa is also Sirtec, and modular.
Click to expand...

Sounds great, I'll stick it out with the retail cooler and get a new one for Christmas :P

Also, I doubt I'll ever be running SLI or Xfire, so that means the PSU is perfectly fine then I guess.

Will the fact that the PSU is not modular effect me in anyway? :confused:

Thanks a lot!
 
YdLeet said:
Sounds great, I'll stick it out with the retail cooler and get a new one for Christmas :P

Also, I doubt I'll ever be running SLI or Xfire, so that means the PSU is perfectly fine then I guess.

Will the fact that the PSU is not modular effect me in anyway? :confused:

Thanks a lot!
Click to expand...

Urmm it will effect your cooling if the cables aren't tied properly.
 
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