£800 Casual gaming pc?

v3sp

v3sp

v3sp

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13 Jan 2014
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Hey guys, got a friend who is wanting to update his PC rig, he wants to casually play things like World of Warcraft and Battlefield 4.

He isnt bothered so much about SSD's or fancy lights or anything just a PC that can run these games well.

Any help would be great.
 
Do we need to include an OS, peripherals, and/or monitor in the budget? Here's a spec assuming we don't.

YOUR BASKET
1 x MSI Radeon R9 280X Gaming Edition OC 3072MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £245.99
1 x Intel Core i5-4670K 3.40GHz (Haswell) Socket LGA1150 Processor - Retail £173.99
1 x Gigabyte Z87-HD3 Intel Z87 (Socket 1150) DDR3 ATX Motherboard £95.99
1 x SuperFlower Golden Green HX 550W "80 Plus Gold" Power Supply - Black £59.99
1 x TeamGroup Vulcan ORANGE 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-19200C11 2400MHz Dual Channel Kit (TLAD38G2400HC11CDC01) £55.99
1 x Antec 300 Three Hundred Ultimate Gaming Case - Black £49.99
1 x Seagate Barracuda 7200RPM 1TB SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache - OEM (ST1000DM003) HDD £43.99
1 x Raijintek EreBoss High Performance CPU Cooler £26.99
1 x LiteOn IHAS124-14 24x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £14.99
Total : £782.90 (includes shipping : £12.50).



He really should be bothered about SSDs. They're the best thing since sliced bread!

YOUR BASKET
1 x Samsung 120GB SSD 840 EVO SATA 6Gb/s Basic - (MZ-7TE120BW) £79.99
Total : £87.73 (includes shipping : £6.45).

 
+1 to the point about SSD's.

Going back to a system with mechanical HDD's would be like living a nightmare!

I <3 my 256GB 830. :)
 
Any chance we could include an OS and SSD and keep it under £800? he really cant push his budget any more than £800 mabye lower the GPU to a slightly cheaper one?
 
I would also like to add that the Antec 300 is an awful case that makes a half decent chair. Don't even consider it. :p

Well, for the price it is awful. It is well constructed, but it is just horrible to work with and utterly featureless... And sounds like a hoover.

Note how almost all of the good reviews are from before it got "re-introduced"

YOUR BASKET
1 x MSI Radeon R9 280X Gaming Edition LE 3072MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £221.99
1 x Intel Core i5-4670K 3.40GHz (Haswell) Socket LGA1150 Processor - OEM £167.99
1 x MSI Z87-G43 Intel Z87 (Socket 1150) DDR3 ATX Motherboard - FREE Alpenfohn Civetta Cooler!! £86.99
1 x Samsung 120GB SSD 840 EVO SATA 6Gb/s Basic - (MZ-7TE120BW) £79.99
1 x BitFenix Ronin Tower Case - Black £69.95
1 x Avexir Core Blue Series 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Memory Kit (AVD3U16000904G-2CW) - Blue Light £59.99
1 x SuperFlower Golden Green HX 550W "80 Plus Gold" Power Supply - Black £59.99
1 x Seagate Barracuda 7200RPM 1TB SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache - OEM (ST1000DM003) HDD £43.99
Total : £800.47 (includes shipping : £8.00).



Includes SSD, motherboard is cheaper and (according to reviews) on par with the D3HP which is essentially the model above the board suggested above, board comes with a free Alpenfohn Civetta CPU cooler, blue & black motherboard paired with blue & black illuminated RAM, one of the best PSU's in its class, a nice case with plenty of features to behold, and while the GPU may be red and black in colour, when it is in the PC all you will see is black and silver heatpipes. :)

If he doesn't mind the lack of colour co-ordination, the RAM suggested above is better.
 
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acme15 said:
I would also like to add that the Antec 300 is an awful case that makes a half decent chair. Don't even consider it. :p

Well, for the price it is awful. It is well constructed, but it is just horrible to work with and utterly featureless... And sounds like a hoover.

Note how almost all of the good reviews are from before it got "re-introduced"
Click to expand...

Wasn't it reintroduced as the 302?
 
Fulax said:
Wasn't it reintroduced as the 302?
Click to expand...

It was, sorry, I meant before OcUK re-introduced the 300.

I have no idea why they bothered since the whole point of the 302 was that it was an improvement over the 300 in many ways due to customer feedback. :p

I suppose it is £10 less, but there was a time when they had them priced up almost the same hehe.

I remember having a mini rant about how stupid it was. Ahhh memories. :rolleyes:
 
the SSD mania can get a bit much sometimes :P for a gaming rig if you're compromising on GPU to fit in pretty much any other component you're doing it wrong imo, i know they are fashionable but ffs, gaming is about framerates people!! not about load times, im getting an SSD in my new rig because i don't have to skimp on anything else, but if the price of the SSD puts you up a tier in GPU; it should be no contest for the serious gamer.

note: my opinions are highly skewed, as i game a lot: im not stuck with a wife, 2 kids and a day job with 30 minutes to play per day, as such; if my PC is turned on (which it usually is), then it's probably running a game! (where an SSD is less than useless :P, especially when it means you have a lesser GPU, it's like.. negative usefulness)

edit: don't get me wrong, SSD's are awesome, but it depends on what the rig is being used for, particularly if all it EVER does is play games and browse the internet
 
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Unless of course, you count the drastically reduced game/level loading times for any games installed on the SSD. :rolleyes:

Also as a counter argument, there is no way I'd spend £800 on a PC and have it slow to start up and clunky to use because I decided not to get an SSD.

It decreases app load times, OS load time, it drastically increases system responsiveness and transfer speeds etc. HDD's are one big bottleneck and SSD's are becoming more and more mainstream because of that fact.
 
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acme15 said:
Unless of course, you count the drastically reduced game/level loading times for any games installed on the SSD. :rolleyes:
Click to expand...

who on earth would count that compared to better performance?? sometimes i think the world has gone mad! also that's so much faffing, i like to have 600GB of games installed at any one time at least usually :p
 
Tohrazer said:
who on earth would count that compared to better performance?? sometimes i think the world has gone mad!
Click to expand...

I think you've gone mad. :D

All that waiting for things to load has clearly made you agitated ;)

Besides, the SSD is only £80.
 
Last edited:
acme15 said:
I think you've gone mad. :D

All that waiting for things to load has clearly made you agitated ;)
Click to expand...

you can laugh, but if it means you get to quickly load.. and experience Medium settings or 25 FPS, who is the joke on really? :p not everyone is fortunate enough to afford a good GPU and an SSD, and for someone who intends to game a lot, you should pick the GPU (of course, that's only in my opinion) :)
 
The spec has a 280X in it mate ;) nobody is going to be experiencing 25fps in medium settings.

A 780 or 290 with a non ref cooler is the next step up and will take it over budget even without the SSD.

And if the SSD were out of the equation I'd put the money into the motherboard and a better CPU cooler anyway.

If you want to make the argument about power when gaming being everything, then I may as well use a 160GB green drive, a B85 motherboard, a cheap basic 80+ PSU, then grab a 780TI on offer and build in a box right? ;)
 
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acme15 said:
The spec has a 280X in it mate ;) nobody is going to be experiencing 25fps in medium settings.

A 780 or 290 with a non ref cooler is the next step up and will take it over budget even without the SSD.

And if the SSD were out of the equation I'd put the money into the motherboard and a better CPU cooler anyway.
Click to expand...

didn't the OP want an OS included? and i wasn't purely referencing this thread (naturally, the 280x is a very capable gpu), but i've seen threads where people requested gaming PC spec at £600 and everyone is still insisting an SSD is a necessity :( even at the expense of no HDD, i can't imagine trying to manage a PC these days with only 120gb of space!

edit: also the medium settings and 25 fps thing was sort of a joke, in the same way you don't actually have time to go make a cup of tea whilst waiting for a HDD to load your game :P
 
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I can make a coffee before my GF's PC loads with a HDD whilst mine has loaded into Battlefield 4 and I'm waiting for others to spawn. I wish I was joking, SSD's are beyond phenominal.

Plus OP wants to play BF4 and WoW both would see massive performance boosts from an SSD stopping the long load times, plus a 270/270X can pump out Ultra on BF4, so no worries about a 280X at all.
 
Intel Core i5-4670K 3.40GHz (Haswell) Socket LGA1150 Processor - OEM Intel Core i5-4670K 3.40GHz (Haswell) Socket LGA1150 Processor - OEM £167.99
(£139.99) £167.99
(£139.99)
Gigabyte Radeon R9 270X WindForce 3X OC 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card with BattleField 4 PC Game Included Gigabyte Radeon R9 270X WindForce 3X OC 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card with BattleField 4 PC Game Included £149.99
(£124.99) £149.99
(£124.99)
MSI Z87-G43 Intel Z87 (Socket 1150) DDR3 ATX Motherboard - FREE Alpenfohn Civetta Cooler!! MSI Z87-G43 Intel Z87 (Socket 1150) DDR3 ATX Motherboard - FREE Alpenfohn Civetta Cooler!! £86.99
(£72.49) £86.99
(£72.49)
Samsung 120GB SSD 840 EVO SATA 6Gb/s Basic - (MZ-7TE120BW) Samsung 120GB SSD 840 EVO SATA 6Gb/s Basic - (MZ-7TE120BW) £79.99
(£66.66) £79.99
(£66.66)
Microsoft Windows 8.1 64-Bit DVD - OEM (WN7-00614) Microsoft Windows 8.1 64-Bit DVD - OEM (WN7-00614) £69.95
(£58.29) £69.95
(£58.29)
TeamGroup Vulcan RED 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-17100C11 2133MHz Dual Channel Kit (TLD38G2133HC11ADC01) TeamGroup Vulcan RED 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-17100C11 2133MHz Dual Channel Kit (TLD38G2133HC11ADC01) £69.95
(£58.29) £69.95
(£58.29)
BitFenix Shinobi USB3.0 Gaming Windowed Case - Black BitFenix Shinobi USB3.0 Gaming Windowed Case - Black £59.99
(£49.99) £59.99
(£49.99)
SuperFlower Golden Green HX 550W "80 Plus Gold" Power Supply - Black SuperFlower Golden Green HX 550W "80 Plus Gold" Power Supply - Black £59.99
(£49.99) £59.99
(£49.99)
Seagate Barracuda 7200RPM 1TB SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache - OEM (ST1000DM003) HDD Seagate Barracuda 7200RPM 1TB SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache - OEM (ST1000DM003) HDD £43.99
(£36.66) £43.99
(£36.66)
Sub Total : £657.35
Shipping cost assumes delivery to UK Mainland with:
DPD Next Day Parcel (Mon-Fri)
(This can be changed during checkout) Shipping : £11.75
VAT is being charged at 20.00% VAT : £133.82
Total : £802.92

My attempt :D
Sorry, I use Firefox :p
 
Idk how others feel but after using a SSD anything without it is just so frustrating, to the point that I might not even play games on it hhaha.
 
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