Gaming build for £650

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Hi guys,

I've been asked by a friend to throw together a gaming build for £650-£675, as it's been a couple of years since my last upgrade I thought I'd get your advice!

He doesn't plan to overclock for now, and only needs the tower - No O/S, monitor etc.

Here's what we were looking at so far:

YOUR BASKET
1 x Powercolor Radeon R9 270X DEVIL 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £161.99
1 x AMD Piledriver FX-8 Eight Core 8350 Black Edition 4.00GHz (Socket AM3+) Processor - Retail £139.99
1 x Asus M5A97 EVO R2.0 AMD 970 (Socket AM3+) DDR3 Motherboard £74.99
1 x TeamGroup Vulcan GOLD 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-17100C11 2133MHz Dual Channel Kit (TLYD38G2133HC11ADC01) £67.99
1 x SuperFlower Golden Green HX 550W "80 Plus Gold" Power Supply - Black £59.99
1 x Kingston 120GB SSDNow V300 Drive SATA 6Gb/s 3 2.5" (7mm height) Solid State Hard Drive - (SV300S37A/120G) £59.99
1 x Seagate Barracuda 7200RPM 1TB SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache - OEM (ST1000DM003) HDD £43.99
1 x Zalman Z3-Plus Midi-Tower - Black £39.95
Total : £658.48 (includes shipping : £8.00).



Any advice/opinions would be greatly appreciated!

Cheers :)
 
 
YOUR BASKET
1 x MSI Geforce GTX 770 Gaming Edition 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £233.99
1 x AMD Piledriver FX-8 Eight Core 8320 Black Edition 3.50GHz (Socket AM3+) Processor - Retail £109.99
1 x Asus M5A97 EVO R2.0 AMD 970 (Socket AM3+) DDR3 Motherboard £74.99
1 x Toshiba SSD HDTS212EZSTA 9.5mm 128GB Solid State Hard Drive - Retail £65.99
1 x Avexir Core Red Series 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Memory Kit (AVD3U16000904G-2CIR) £49.99
1 x SuperFlower Amazon 550W "80 Plus Bronze" Power Supply £49.99
1 x Western Digital Caviar Blue 500GB SATA 6Gb/s 16MB Cache - OEM (WD5000AAKX) HDD £37.99
1 x BitFenix Comrade Midi-Tower - Black £29.99
1 x Raijintek Themis Direct Contact CPU Cooler £17.99
Total : £685.01 (includes shipping : £11.75).



Better GPU for not much over budget.

If you choose to go with AMD be aware that firstly there is utterly no point in spending extra for the 8350 over the 8320. It's a few Mhz difference and will be unnoticeable. Secondly, even if you aren't overclocking you'll want to invest in a third party cooler as the stock one is stupidly loud
 
As above, the 8320 is the way to go,

This would be my choice:

YOUR BASKET
1 x Powercolor Radeon R9 270X DEVIL 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £161.99
1 x AMD Piledriver FX-8 Eight Core 8320 Black Edition 3.50GHz (Socket AM3+) Processor - Retail £109.99
1 x Asus M5A97 EVO R2.0 AMD 970 (Socket AM3+) DDR3 Motherboard £74.99
1 x Toshiba SSD HDTS212EZSTA 9.5mm 128GB Solid State Hard Drive - Retail £65.99
1 x Avexir Core Red Series 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Memory Kit (AVD3U16000904G-2CIR) £49.99
1 x SuperFlower Amazon 550W "80 Plus Bronze" Power Supply £49.99
1 x Seagate Barracuda 7200RPM 1TB SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache - OEM (ST1000DM003) HDD £43.99
1 x NZXT Source 210 Elite Midi Tower Case - Black £39.95
1 x Raijintek Themis Direct Contact CPU Cooler £17.99
Total : £629.87 (includes shipping : £12.50).

 
YOUR BASKET
1 x Gigabyte GeForce GTX 770 WindForce 3x OC 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card (GV-N770OC-2GD) £259.99
1 x Intel Core i5-4670K 3.40GHz (Haswell) Socket LGA1150 Processor - Retail £179.99
1 x Gigabyte Z87-D3HP Intel Z87 (Socket 1150) DDR3 ATX Motherboard £89.99
1 x Corsair Vengeance Pro Silver 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Memory Kit (CMY8GX3M2A1600C9) £79.99
1 x Samsung 120GB SSD 840 EVO SATA 6Gb/s Basic - (MZ-7TE120BW) £71.99
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
1 x Zalman Z3 Midi-Tower - Black £34.99
Total : £830.52 (includes shipping : £8.00).







First time I've done this :p it's £150 overbudget but worth it, will save your friend more than that in the long run as you won't have to get a new mobo/cpu. The alternate to a 4670k is not going to last long into the new generation. You'd be doing him a favor convincing him to spend a little more.

If he doesn't budge on his budget, he could try this

YOUR BASKET
1 x Intel Core i5-4670K 3.40GHz (Haswell) Socket LGA1150 Processor - Retail £179.99
1 x Sapphire Radeon R9 270 "BF4 Edition" 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £139.99
1 x Gigabyte Z87-D3HP Intel Z87 (Socket 1150) DDR3 ATX Motherboard £89.99
1 x Corsair Vengeance Pro Silver 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Memory Kit (CMY8GX3M2A1600C9) £79.99
1 x Samsung 120GB SSD 840 EVO SATA 6Gb/s Basic - (MZ-7TE120BW) £71.99
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
1 x Zalman Z3 Midi-Tower - Black £34.99
Total : £710.52 (includes shipping : £8.00).





The 270 is a weaker card and much noisier though, he could sell or keep BF4 and you'd near enough have your £675 budget.
 
Last edited:
Omaeka said:
YOUR BASKET
1 x Gigabyte GeForce GTX 770 WindForce 3x OC 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card (GV-N770OC-2GD) £259.99
1 x Intel Core i5-4670K 3.40GHz (Haswell) Socket LGA1150 Processor - OEM £169.99
1 x Gigabyte Z87-D3HP Intel Z87 (Socket 1150) DDR3 ATX Motherboard £89.99
1 x Corsair Vengeance Pro Silver 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Memory Kit (CMY8GX3M2A1600C9) £79.99
1 x Samsung 120GB SSD 840 EVO SATA 6Gb/s Basic - (MZ-7TE120BW) £71.99
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
1 x Zalman Z3 Midi-Tower - Black £34.99
Total : £820.52 (includes shipping : £8.00).





First time I've done this :p it's £130 overbudget but worth it, will save your friend more than that in the long run as you won't have to get a new mobo/cpu. The alternate to a 4670k is not going to last long into the new generation. You'd be doing him a favor convincing him to spend a little more.

If he doesn't budge on his budget, he could try this

YOUR BASKET
1 x Intel Core i5-4670K 3.40GHz (Haswell) Socket LGA1150 Processor - OEM £169.99
1 x Sapphire Radeon R9 270 "BF4 Edition" 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £139.99
1 x Gigabyte Z87-D3HP Intel Z87 (Socket 1150) DDR3 ATX Motherboard £89.99
1 x Corsair Vengeance Pro Silver 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Memory Kit (CMY8GX3M2A1600C9) £79.99
1 x Samsung 120GB SSD 840 EVO SATA 6Gb/s Basic - (MZ-7TE120BW) £71.99
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
1 x Zalman Z3 Midi-Tower - Black £34.99
Total : £700.52 (includes shipping : £8.00).




The 270 is a weaker card and much noisier though, he could sell or keep BF4 and you'd have your £675 budget.
Click to expand...

Quick! Add in a CPU cooler too! You've specced an OEM CPU :D
 
Hi folks,

Sorry for the late reply. Thank you all for your help, we're gonna go AMD with a combination of the changes you suggested.

Special thanks to ExRayTed for the cooler recommendation - noise is a concern, would have been a bit disappointing to start up the new PC for the first time and have it sound like a hairdryer!

Cheers
 
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