Budget Gaming PC

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18 Oct 2012
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665
Hey all,
I just wanted to get a second opinion about this build I will be doing for a friend this summer. I just wanted to ask if everything fits, is compatible and will work well. He basically has nothing atm so a PC, OS, KB, Mouse and Monitor is included. His max budget for the PC is around £600 + the other parts. He mainly wants to game on it and do college work as well.

YOUR BASKET
1 x Sapphire Radeon R9 270X Boost OC 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Card £149.99
1 x Dell Studio S2240L 22" IPS Widescreen LED Monitor - Black £119.99
1 x Microsoft Windows 8.1 64-Bit DVD - OEM (WN7-00614) £74.99
1 x Corsair XMS3 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (CMX8GX3M2A1600C9) £61.99
1 x Gigabyte F2A88XM-D3H AMD A88X Chipset (Socket FM2+) DDR3 Micro ATX Motherboard £56.99
1 x AMD Athlon X4 750K Black Edition 3.40GHz (Socket FM2) Trinity Quad Core Processor (AD750KWOHJBOX) £55.99
1 x Kingston 120GB SSDNow V300 Drive SATA 6Gb/s 3 2.5" (7mm height) Solid State Hard Drive - (SV300S37A/120G) £52.99
1 x Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache WD10EZEX - OEM ** Single Platter ** HDD £50.99
1 x EVGA 600W 80 Plus Bronze Power Supply (100-B1-0600-KR) £49.99
1 x Corsair Carbide Series SPEC-03 Mid Tower Gaming Case (CC-9011052-WW) £45.95
1 x Gigabyte Force K7 Stealth Gaming Keyboard £34.99
1 x Silverstone Argon SST-AR01 CPU Cooler - 120mm £25.99
1 x Gigabyte M6900 3200DPI Gaming Mouse £16.99
1 x Samsung SH-224DB/BEBE 24x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £11.99
1 x Akasa "Vegas" Blue LED strip light - 60cm £8.99
2 x Enermax T.B.Silence UCTB12 120mm Fan £6.98 (£13.96)
Total : £849.28 (includes shipping : £13.75).




Thanks

JCX50
 
For that amount of money I would reccomend an intel build. You could also save cash by not getting fancy kit, like the LEDS.
 
YOUR BASKET
1 x MSI Z97 Gaming 5 Intel Core i5 DIY ATX Motherboard Upgrade Kit £329.93
1 x MSI Radeon R9 270X Gaming Edition OC 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £149.99
1 x Dell Studio S2240L 22" IPS Widescreen LED Monitor - Black £119.99
1 x Microsoft Windows 8.1 64-Bit DVD - OEM (WN7-00614) £74.99
1 x Crucial MX100 256GB SATA 2.5” 7mm SSD + 9.5mm Adapter (CT256MX100SSD1) £74.99
1 x SuperFlower Golden Green HX 550W "80 Plus Gold" Power Supply - Black £49.99
1 x Zalman Z3-Plus Midi-Tower - Black £39.95
1 x CM Storm Devastator Gaming Bundle - USB Keyboard & Mouse £26.99
1 x Samsung SH-224DB/BEBE 24x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £11.99
Total : £893.80 (includes shipping : £12.50).




For £43 it would be worth it, as you move to a far more powerful CPU (i5-4670K) and better motherboard and 2133MHz memory. A good CPU can be important in some games.

A CPU cooler will be added to the motherboard bundle, Gibbo (from OcUK) said.

Case brings 4 fans already, no need for extra.

The MSI Gaming 270X is faster than the Sapphire Boost.

256GB SSD to begin with. He could add a mechanical drive later on if he needs more storage.


But if you can't go above budget:

YOUR BASKET
1 x Intel Core i5-4690 3.50GHz (Haswell) Socket LGA1150 Processor - Retail £161.99
1 x MSI Radeon R9 270X Gaming Edition OC 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £149.99
1 x Dell Studio S2240L 22" IPS Widescreen LED Monitor - Black £119.99
1 x Crucial MX100 256GB SATA 2.5” 7mm SSD + 9.5mm Adapter (CT256MX100SSD1) £74.99
1 x Microsoft Windows 8.1 64-Bit DVD - OEM (WN7-00614) £74.99
1 x Gigabyte Z97P-D3 Intel Z97 (Socket 1150) DDR3 ATX Motherboard £69.95
1 x TeamGroup Vulcan ORANGE 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-19200C11 2400MHz Dual Channel Kit (TLAD38G2400HC11CDC01) £55.99
1 x SuperFlower Golden Green HX 550W "80 Plus Gold" Power Supply - Black £49.99
1 x Zalman Z3-Plus Midi-Tower - Black £39.95
1 x CM Storm Devastator Gaming Bundle - USB Keyboard & Mouse £26.99
1 x Samsung SH-224DB/BEBE 24x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £11.99
Total : £851.80 (includes shipping : £12.50).



Non-overclockable CPU but still very decent.
 
After spending a while with my buddy @SinkDemon. We have come up with this.

YOUR BASKET
1 x Gigabyte Radeon R9 270 OC 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £129.95
1 x Dell Studio S2240L 22" IPS Widescreen LED Monitor - Black £119.99
1 x Microsoft Windows 8.1 64-Bit DVD - OEM (WN7-00614) £74.99
1 x AMD Athlon X4 750K Black Edition 3.40GHz (Socket FM2) Trinity Quad Core Processor (AD750KWOHJBOX) £55.99
1 x Gigabyte F2A88XM-HD3 AMD A88X (Socket FM2+) DDR3 Micro ATX Motherboard £49.99
1 x TeamGroup Elite Black 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C11 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (TED38GM1600HC11DC01) £49.99
1 x SuperFlower Golden Green HX 550W "80 Plus Gold" Power Supply - Black £49.99
1 x Corsair Carbide Series SPEC-03 Mid Tower Gaming Case (CC-9011052-WW) £45.95
1 x Seagate Barracuda 7200RPM 1TB SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache - OEM (ST1000DM003) HDD £42.98
1 x CM Storm Devastator Gaming Bundle - USB Keyboard & Mouse £29.99
1 x Asus PCE-N15 300Mbps 802.11B/G/N Wireless PCI-E Network Adapter £16.99
1 x Raijintek Aidos Direct Contact CPU Cooler £14.99
1 x OcUK 22x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £10.99
1 x Symantec Norton Internet Security 2014 - Single License (1 PC) £9.95
1 x Akasa "Vegas" Red LED strip light - 60cm £8.99
2 x Thermalright X-Silent 120 120mm Case Fan £6.98 (£13.96)
1 x Speedlink Mousepad Basic - Black £2.99
1 x Bitspower cable tie set 20 pieces 120mm UV Red £2.99
1 x OcUK Value 1mtr HDMI Male - Male Cable(CDLHD-301) £2.59
2 x Cubitek Black Cobra Series 3-Pin to 2x 3-Pin Fan Adapter - 30cm £1.49 (£2.98)
Total : £753.73 (includes shipping : £13.75).

 
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With all the stuff he appears to need (or want) I'd scrap the SSD and get a SSHD hybrid if he really needs 1TB of storage straightaway. Cause otherwise the build will end up with only £185 spent on the CPU and GPU, out of £800...

YOUR BASKET
1 x Asus H81M-K Intel Core i5 DIY Micro ATX Motherboard Upgrade Kit £209.98
1 x **B Grade** Gigabyte GeForce GTX 760 WindForce 3x OC Rev2 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card * (GX-118-GI) £139.99
1 x Dell Studio S2240L 22" IPS Widescreen LED Monitor - Black £119.99
1 x Microsoft Windows 8.1 64-Bit DVD - OEM (WN7-00614) £74.99
1 x Seagate SSHD 7200RPM 3.5" 1TB SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache - OEM (ST1000DX001) SSHD Hybrid Drive £59.99
1 x SuperFlower Golden Green HX 550W "80 Plus Gold" Power Supply - Black £49.99
1 x Corsair Carbide Series SPEC-03 Mid Tower Gaming Case (CC-9011052-WW) £45.95
1 x CM Storm Devastator Gaming Bundle - USB Keyboard & Mouse £26.99
1 x TP-Link AV200+ Multi-Streaming Powerline Starter Kit with AC Pass Through (TL-PA251KIT) £24.98
1 x OcUK 22x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £10.99
1 x Corsair Air Series AF120 1500RPM LED Red Quiet Edition (CO-9050015-RLED) £8.99
1 x Akasa "Vegas" Red LED strip light - 60cm £8.99
1 x OcUK Value 1mtr HDMI Male - Male Cable(CDLHD-301) £2.59
1 x OcUK Value SATA-II 45cm Red Data Cable (NLRB-302LOCK) £1.8
Total : £803.90 (includes shipping : £14.75).



i5 build for £800. B-Grade GPU (GTX 760) that is two levels above the R9 270 (270 < 270X < 760). More oomph.

Could be improved if he didn't want fancy bits but at least new games will be more playable.

And if he needs adapters for fans, get him one for 3-pin, either 7v or 12v:

YOUR BASKET
1 x BitFenix Alchemy Molex to 3pin x3 Fan adaptor 7V 20cm - Red £4.99
1 x BitFenix Alchemy Molex to 3pin x3 Fan adaptor 12V 20cm - Red £4.99

 
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The V300 has had a reduction in the quality of FLASH chips used so its performance isnt as advertised anymore.
 
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