Mid Range Gaming Build

ManofHorse

ManofHorse

ManofHorse

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Joined
21 Jan 2012
Posts
33
Hi all,

Helping a friend spec a PC. Will be used for browsing, media playback, the usual. And gaming...

Trying to be budget concious and aiming at £600 but doesn't seem too realistic ;-)

There is some desire to go for a compact mini ITX build. It's not essential, but if it can be done without too many compromises then that would be good.

To that end, spec below. Have gone bottom of the range Haswell. Is that a better plan than an Ivy Bridge? Figure it's best to avoid buying a 'dead' socket - would be great to swap the current processor out in 18-24 months as a reasonable upgrade.

Similar with the gfx card, should be fine for now, but can be upgraded after a year or so.

OS is already sorted so no need to worry about that

Any feedback welcome,

Thanks

YOUR BASKET
1 x Intel Core i5-4430 3.00GHz (Haswell) Socket LGA1150 Processor - Retail £149.99
1 x Samsung 250GB SSD 840 SATA 6Gb/s Basic - (MZ-7TD250BW) £137.99
1 x MSI HD 7790 OC 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card with FREE GAMES £99.95
1 x ASRock B85M-ITX Intel B85 (Socket 1150) DDR3 ITX Motherboard £71.99
1 x Silverstone Sugo SG02B-F Case - Black (SST-SG02B-F USB 3.0) £59.99
1 x Crucial Ballistix Sport 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (BLS2CP4G3D1609DS1S00CEU) £53.99
1 x Seasonic S12II 430W '80 Plus Bronze' Power Supply £49.99
Total : £637.98 (includes shipping : £11.75).

 
I went for Haswell for my next build, for the same reason. Although you can bet anything that Intel and motherboard companies will devise a sneaky plot to "encourage" you to upgrade mobo at the same time as you upgrade the processor (DDR4 memory perhaps, which is in the works for some time in the near future). Still, if the talk is true, there will be at least one more batch of new processors for the 1150 socket. There's rumours (leaks from Intel sources) that processors will be soldered into motherboards from then on. Don't know if this is true. Would be a sad day. There was a time when you could upgrade processors like 3-4 times on the same mobo. And things seem to be heading to no upgrades at all.

Anyway, your build looks good imo for that budget range, although I wonder if you could make do with a Samsung 120GB EVO SSD instead and get an even better gfx card to begin with, with the difference (about £50). Like you say, you plan on upgrading the card later on, so if you don't want an even better card just now, then cool.

I'm kind of doing the reverse in that sense. I expect SSD prices to keep dropping, so I went for a 120GB for now, rather than spend more on a 250GB, when perhaps in a year or two's time, a 500GB will be more affordable than it is now.

Hope you find a nice mini ITX case that will suit your build. This Bitfenix looks cool and it matches the mobo in your basket - http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CA-089-BX&groupid=2362&catid=2279
 
 
Thanks guys, much appreciated.

Youve done well to make it work £600 :)

TBH, the budget can be pushed, it looks to me like the difference between the total package for £600 vs £700 is pretty large. Things like HDDs, let alone B grade Seagates, will not do!

That Haswell we have both picked is decent then? Nothing I need to watch out for?

Interested in your ram choice, can see it's faster but will we notice the difference?

With some tweaks, I think we could maybe get the build with the 7870, haswell and 250gb SSD for £700 perhaps, that might work nicely.

Mini ITX may be too much of a struggle tbh...
 
Just a quick bump to see if anyone has any other thoughts?

As mentioned, i think a budget of £700 will probably see me right for an mATX build with haswell and a 250gb ssd. Should be good for 18 months+ I guess.

Keen to confirm I shouldn't be looking at AMD? Have seen AMD CPUs recommended in a few £600-£700 threads on here

Cheers,
 
amd mid range offerings do provide more bang-for-buck over intel's. mainly because the allow overclocking, so you get more value out of it.

eg:
YOUR BASKET
1 x MSI HD 7870 Black Knight 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card (R7870-2GD5T) with FREE GAMES £149.99
1 x Plextor M5S 256GB Solid State Drive - (PX-256M5S) £139.99
1 x AMD Piledriver FX-6 Six Core 6300 Black Edition 3.50GHz (Socket AM3+) Processor - Retail £89.99
1 x Gigabyte 970A-UD3 AMD 970A (Socket AM3+) DDR3 Motherboard £86.99
1 x Seasonic S12II 520W '80 Plus Bronze' Power Supply £59.99
1 x Crucial Ballistix Sport 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (BLS2CP4G3D1609DS1S00CEU) £53.99
1 x Xigmatek Asgard Pro Gaming Case - Black £32.99
1 x Cooler Master Hyper 212 Evo CPU Cooler £26.99
1 x LG GH24NSB0 24x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £17.99
Total : £673.90 (includes shipping : £12.50).

 
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