Low-end gaming rig

Olorin

Olorin

Olorin

Associate
Joined
19 Jan 2007
Posts
7
Hi all,

My laptop died last week, it's unfixable and passed its guarantee period.
I'm interested in a new desktop budget gaming rig, which will be
a) able to play 2014-2015 games, mainly RGPs and strategy (not very interested in FPSs),
b) upgraded in roughly 18 months (future budget not an issue). I have no problem sacrificing current performance for greater potential.

My current budget is £400-£500, including only CPU, GPU, heatsink, motherboard, memory, case and PSU.

Cheers
 
Well for now AMD will have to do but in future without a budget Intel will be the way to go so you can sell the AMD CPU+Motherboard when you decide to upgrade.

YOUR BASKET
1 x VTX3D Radeon R9 280 3072MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £189.95
1 x AMD Piledriver FX-6 Six Core 6300 Black Edition 3.50GHz (Socket AM3+) Processor - Retail £83.99
1 x SuperFlower Golden Green HX 550W "80 Plus Gold" Power Supply - Black £55.99
1 x Asus M5A97 LE R2.0 AMD 970 (Socket AM3+) DDR3 Motherboard £55.99
1 x TeamGroup Vulcan RED 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (TLD38G1600HC9DC01) £55.99
1 x Zalman Z3-Plus Midi-Tower - Black £39.95
1 x Raijintek Themis Direct Contact CPU Cooler £19.99
Total : £511.45 (includes shipping : £8.00).

 
dacads said:
Well for now AMD will have to do but in future without a budget Intel will be the way to go so you can sell the AMD CPU+Motherboard when you decide to upgrade.

YOUR BASKET
1 x VTX3D Radeon R9 280 3072MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £189.95
1 x AMD Piledriver FX-6 Six Core 6300 Black Edition 3.50GHz (Socket AM3+) Processor - Retail £83.99
1 x SuperFlower Golden Green HX 550W "80 Plus Gold" Power Supply - Black £55.99
1 x Asus M5A97 LE R2.0 AMD 970 (Socket AM3+) DDR3 Motherboard £55.99
1 x TeamGroup Vulcan RED 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (TLD38G1600HC9DC01) £55.99
1 x Zalman Z3-Plus Midi-Tower - Black £39.95
1 x Raijintek Themis Direct Contact CPU Cooler £19.99
Total : £511.45 (includes shipping : £8.00).

Click to expand...

No VRM heatsinks n that board so probably not the best board to combine with a FX.

This one has VRM heatsinks - http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MB-457-GI&groupid=701&catid=1903&subcat=2046
 
 
Avenged7Fold said:
I going second hand an option?

Due to the choice of game type, i would highly recommend going intel. A second hand 2500k and mobo would be ideal.
Click to expand...

I will try to search local market for used parts, if only to have a second, cheaper option.

Thanks for your replies guys, but I was hoping for a budget under 500 quid. No worries though, replacing the 280 for the 270X would do that.
 
Olorin said:
I will try to search local market for used parts, if only to have a second, cheaper option.

Thanks for your replies guys, but I was hoping for a budget under 500 quid. No worries though, replacing the 280 for the 270X would do that.
Click to expand...

YOUR BASKET
1 x Sapphire Radeon R9 280 Dual-X 3072MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £193.99
1 x AMD Piledriver FX-6 Six Core 6300 Black Edition 3.50GHz (Socket AM3+) Processor - Retail £83.99
1 x Crucial Ballistix Sport 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (BLS2CP4G3D1609DS1S00CEU) £53.99
1 x Gigabyte 970A-DS3P AMD 970A (Socket AM3+) DDR3 Motherboard £50.99
1 x SuperFlower Amazon 450W "80 Plus Bronze" Power Supply £39.95
1 x Xigmatek Asgard Pro Gaming Case - Black £32.99
1 x Raijintek Themis Direct Contact CPU Cooler £19.99
Total : £489.98 (includes shipping : £11.75).



sub 500 quid with a 280
 
If you can afford to squeeze in a fiver for i5 system - ;)

You don't need a 3rd party CPU Cooler for over-clocking as it makes a little difference for gaming but you can always upgrade it later. :)

Your basket
Sapphire Radeon R9 280 Dual-X 3072MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £193.99
Intel Core i5-4430 3.00GHz (Haswell) Socket LGA1150 Processor - Retail £131.99
Crucial Ballistix Sport 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit £53.99
SuperFlower Amazon 450W "80 Plus Bronze" Power Supply £39.95
Asus H81M-K Intel H81 (Socket 1150) DDR3 Micro ATX Motherboard £37.99
Black Xigmatek Asgard Pro Gaming Case - Black £32.99

Shipping : £11.75
Total : £505.00
 
Last edited:
Here is my spin on it.

YOUR BASKET
1 x Intel Core i5-4670 3.40GHz (Haswell) Socket LGA1150 Processor - Retail £157.99
1 x Sapphire Radeon R9 270 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card (11220-00-20G) £134.99
1 x SuperFlower Golden Green HX 650W "80 Plus Gold" Power Supply - Black £67.99
1 x Crucial Ballistix Sport 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (BLS2CP4G3D1609DS1S00CEU) £53.99
1 x MSI H81M-E33 Intel H81 (Socket 1150) DDR3 Micro ATX Motherboard £34.99
1 x Zalman Z1 Midi-Tower USB 3.0 - Black £30.95
Total : £490.50 (includes shipping : £8.00).



Or cheap and cheerful.

YOUR BASKET
1 x VTX3D Radeon R9 280 3072MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £189.95
1 x Intel Core i5-4440 3.10GHz (Haswell) Socket LGA1150 Processor - Retail £131.99
1 x Crucial Ballistix Sport 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (BLS2CP4G3D1609DS1S00CEU) £53.99
1 x EVGA 600W 80 Plus Bronze Power Supply (100-B1-0600-KR) £49.99
1 x MSI H81M-E33 Intel H81 (Socket 1150) DDR3 Micro ATX Motherboard £34.99
1 x Zalman T1 Plus Mini-Tower USB 3.0 - Black £19.99
Total : £490.50 (includes shipping : £8.00).

 
 
This might surprise you, I have found this review about Pentium G3220 which is a budget CPU for around £40 yet is very close to i7-4770K CPU just by a couple of FPS or so, with both using GTX 750 GPU card.

Scroll down to bottom to see the results: http://hexus.net/tech/reviews/cpu/68797-intel-pentium-g3220-22nm-haswell/?page=7

It seems there is very little benefit by going for much higher CPU but you can always upgrade when newer Intel CPU comes out later so you can save a lot by going for i3 or G3220 instead. :)
 
It is a surprise indeed, but I think an overclocked FX-6300 is the way to go for now. The way I see it, in 18-24 months I will be looking for the Skylake processors, which means I 'll have to sell any components I buy now. So, here is my basket ( couldn't resist going overbudget):

YOUR BASKET
1 x Sapphire Radeon R9 280 Dual-X 3072MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £193.99
1 x AMD Piledriver FX-6 Six Core 6300 Black Edition 3.50GHz (Socket AM3+) Processor - Retail £83.99
1 x Crucial Ballistix Sport 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (BLS2CP4G3D1609DS1S00CEU) £53.99
1 x Gigabyte 970A-DS3P AMD 970A (Socket AM3+) DDR3 Motherboard £50.99
1 x SuperFlower Amazon 450W "80 Plus Bronze" Power Supply £39.95
1 x Xigmatek Asgard Pro Gaming Case - Black £32.99
1 x Raijintek Themis Direct Contact CPU Cooler £19.99
Total : £489.98 (includes shipping : £11.75).

 
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