Budget Gaming PC Challenge!

arleas

arleas

arleas

Associate
Joined
21 Jul 2012
Posts
5
Hi,

I'm trying to build a gaming PC for £550(!) including a 20" or greater monitor. No OS is required, but it's been a bit of a challenge for myself.

I've been stuck deciding between an AMD 965 BE or an Intel G620 with the potential to upgrade it later.

Overclocking and other solutions to maximise performance (as long as they're relatively stable) are totally acceptable.
 
 
YOUR BASKET
1 x Samsung S23A350H 23" Widescreen LED Monitor - Glossy Black £101.99
1 x MSI HD 6850 "Dual Fan Edition" 1024MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £83.99
1 x SanDisk Extreme SSD 120GB 2.5" SATA 6Gb/s Solid State Hard Drive - (SDSSDX-120G-G25) £77.99
1 x Intel Pentium G840 2.80GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor - Retail £53.99
1 x Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 500GB SATA 6Gb/s 16MB Cache - OEM (ST500DM002) £52.99
1 x Gigabyte H61MA-D3V Intel H61 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £47.99
1 x GeIL Dragon 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C11 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (GD38GB1600C11DC) £33.59
1 x OCZ CoreXtreme 500w '80 Plus' Power Supply £32.99
1 x BitFenix Merc Alpha Gaming Case - Black £29.99
1 x OcUK 22x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £12.98
Total : £551.40 (includes shipping : £19.10).



ssd included, but the upgrade path for this build is a bit hazier, cuz its using the h61 chipset, any future upgrades need to be a full overhaul. and to keep to budget, i've used a sandisk extreme (even though my preference would be the sammy 830)
 
only because i dont have much experience with their latest offerings, so im not used to speccing them
and most benchmarks rate them as not so good.
but of course, if someone who is familiar with amd would do you a spec, that would be cool too
 
YOUR BASKET
1 x Samsung S23A350H 23" Widescreen LED Monitor - Glossy Black £101.99
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 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 ASRock H61M-GS Intel H61 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Micro Motherboard £38.99
1 x TeamGroup Elite 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C11 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (TED38192M1600HC11DC) £32.99
1 x BitFenix Merc Alpha Gaming Case - Black £29.99
1 x Gelid Tranquillo CPU Cooler (Socket 754/939/940/AM2/AM2+/AM3/LGA775/LGA1155/LGA1156/LGA1366) £25.99
1 x OcUK 22x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £12.98
Total : £548.81 (includes shipping : £19.10).



Included the cooler since the stock Intel one is loud :(.
 
Going to be controversial here, IMO with tight budget gaming builds it is always worth putting the initial budget aside for a month or two and getting more capable hardware that will last longer before needing upgraded

Not everyone manages finances like that I know, but just putting it out there
 
YOUR BASKET
1 x Samsung S23A350H 23" Widescreen LED Monitor - Glossy Black £101.99
1 x Intel Core i3-2120 3.30GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor - Retail £95.99
1 x **B Grade** MSI HD 6850 OC 1024MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £83.99
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 ASRock H61M-GS Intel H61 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Micro Motherboard £38.99
1 x TeamGroup Elite 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C11 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (TED38192M1600HC11DC) £32.99
1 x BitFenix Merc Alpha Gaming Case - Black £29.99
1 x Gelid Tranquillo CPU Cooler (Socket 754/939/940/AM2/AM2+/AM3/LGA775/LGA1155/LGA1156/LGA1366) £25.99
1 x OcUK 22x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £12.98
Total : £548.81 (includes shipping : £19.10).



B grade GPU, all it means is it's a card that's been refunded but is still perfectly working. It may not come with any accessories such as a crossfire bridge.

This 6850 is the one where you can create a custom fan profile with MSI AfterBurner, so it can stay quieter when gaming.
 
d_brennen said:
Going to be controversial here, IMO with tight budget gaming builds it is always worth putting the initial budget aside for a month or two and getting more capable hardware that will last longer before needing upgraded

Not everyone manages finances like that I know, but just putting it out there
Click to expand...

This might be a good idea. How would BF3 run on one of the PCs listed here?
 
1680x1050 on an i3-2100 3.1ghz and HD6850 @ 825/1150:

Medium Settings:
Min: 48
Max: 62
Avg: 58


High Settings:
Min: 41
Max: 60
Avg: 47

GPU usage: 99% the entire time.
if you have 700 quid on the rig itself...now that's when the fun starts, and the jump in performance is usually a pretty big one
 
850 quid on a mid-high end spec, this is what i would be saving up for tbh, the 550quid rig is good, but this...this is miles better

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 Samsung S23A350H 23" Widescreen LED Monitor - Glossy Black £101.99
1 x Samsung 128GB SSD 830 Desktop Series SATA 6Gb/s KIT with Norton Ghost - (MZ-7PC128D/EU) £84.98
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 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 : £851.59 (includes shipping : £20.10).

 
With the rebates available on FX series CPUs, are they worth looking at? A 8120 is around £110, while the 6100 is £98. Gaming videos on YouTube look pretty good! Thought about pairing one up with a 7770 to keep noise down and lower the PSU required.
 
They're fine CPUs in their own right, Intel is just better at everything you'd use a CPU for day to day though, hence why the FX series isn't very popular here. I'd take a 6850 over 7770 every day, especially at 1080
 
YOUR BASKET
1 x AMD Bulldozer FX-8 Eight Core 8120 Black Edition 3.10Ghz (Socket AM3+) Processor - Retail with FREE Dirt Showdown PC Game **£20 Cashback** £129.95
1 x Samsung S23A350H 23" Widescreen LED Monitor - Glossy Black £101.99
1 x MSI HD 6850 "Dual Fan Edition" 1024MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £83.99
1 x Asus M5A97 AMD 970 (Socket AM3+) DDR3 Motherboard ** FREE NEXUIZ GAME ** £81.98
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 TeamGroup Elite 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C11 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (TED38192M1600HC11DC) £32.99
1 x BitFenix Merc Alpha Gaming Case - Black £29.99
1 x OcUK 22x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £12.98
Total : £599.77 (includes shipping : £19.10).




About £20 over budget if you consider the £20 cash back from the AMD processor.

Oh and 2 free games ! :D
 
arleas said:
With the rebates available on FX series CPUs, are they worth looking at? A 8120 is around £110, while the 6100 is £98. Gaming videos on YouTube look pretty good! Thought about pairing one up with a 7770 to keep noise down and lower the PSU required.
Click to expand...

AMD consumes more power and runs hotter and is not competitive really. Intel rules the roost, if you want to up the budget then let us know. You already have had some very good intel builds suggested.... Do you need a mouse and keyboard as well? Have you considered running the rig through your HDTV (if you have one). Saving the cost of a monitor can help give us more cash towards the GPU ;)
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom