My First Build - A Gaming PC

TheGameNerd · 1 Nov 2011 at 08:13

Hello.
ATM I have a **** PC. Single core, 1.5gb of RAM, you get the picture. What I need is a gaming PC capable of running new games on med-high setting. I also need to be able to screen record games with little lag. Here's my bare bone list.

CPU: Quad core, 2.7ghz+
Graphics Card: I already have one from my dads PC, ATI Radeon HD 4870.
RAM: 4gb +
HDD: 350gb+
Case: One with a see through part

Power Supply: ?

Yeh. Can you guys please give me a list of components from that list please? My budget is £350

Thanks!

Hyburnate · 1 Nov 2011 at 08:27

i5 2500k
6970/6950
4gb Corsair XMS3
160GB Samsung
BitFenix Shinobi or Zalman Z9
Corsair TV 650W

Think that might be over not sure. You need a motherboard too.

Marine-RX179 · 1 Nov 2011 at 09:09

The question is...what resolution is the monitor you will be gaming on? Cause the 4870 will struggle in modern games at 1920x1080 res.

The £350 is a tight budget for the things you listed. Realistically you will be looking at a build around the i3 2100. While it is only a dual-core CPU, it's gaming performance is on par with some of the older higher clocked Quad-core CPUs such as overclocked Core2Quad or Phenom II X4 (980BE at 3.7GHz). You can see the benchmark here:
http://techreport.com/articles.x/20873/2

Unless you got a faster graphic card than a GTX580, a i3 2100 wouldn't be much slower than the i5 2500K.

Doomedspeed · 1 Nov 2011 at 09:18

Hyburnate said:
i5 2500k
6970/6950
4gb Corsair XMS3
160GB Samsung
BitFenix Shinobi or Zalman Z9
Corsair TV 650W

Think that might be over not sure. You need a motherboard too.

I think thats quite a bit over £350.

The 4870 should be fine playing most modern games on med/high.

As your on a budget the AMD route seems best for you.

AMD Phenom II X4 Quad Core 955 £86
Asus M5A78L-M/USB3 AMD 760G £50
Zalman Z9 £50
Corsair Builder Series CX 500W £52
G.Skill RipJaw 4GB (2x2GB) £24
LiteOn IHAS124-19 24x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter £18

Hard drive. Today only so act fast. If not you may need to wait or look at 320GB drives and below.

Western Digital Caviar Green 1TB £72

Total: £352

Marine-RX179 · 1 Nov 2011 at 09:41

Here's a i3 2100 according to parts you listed:

You could drop the HDD down to a Samsugn 320GB and save £30, but personally I don't think it's worth losing 680GB of space for it. Also, I would avoid the Western Digital Green 1TB at around £70, as while it is lots of space for the money, it is a 5,400rpm drive not 7,200rpm drive, so it is slower and not ideal to use as operating drive. Most PC users would only get a 5,400rpm drive as storage drive, if they already got a 7,200rpm or SSD as their primary drive.

And no...DO NOT go down the AMD path, as the Phenom II X4 955BE at stock speed is slower than the i3 2100 in games, double the power consumption at load (65W TDP vs 125W TDP) and higher temp due to the higher power consumption. Also, the upgrade path is looking VERY grim for the AMD side at the moment, as their new flagship CPU Bulldozer not only far from competing with Intel's SandyBridge, it is in fact slower than its predecessor the Phenom II series, and at a higher power consumption. Also, budget AM3+ board with old and dated chipset such as the 760G would offer poor performance if used with new AMD CPU Bulldozer or CPU that's gonna be release in the future.

For the i3 2100 build I quoted, it has a decent board with a Z68 chipset, which will allow you to upgrade to K series CPU such as the SandyBridge i5 2500K/i7 2600K/i7 2700K in the future, which you will be able to overclock.

Doomedspeed · 1 Nov 2011 at 09:46

Marine-RX179 said:
Here's a i3 2100 parts according to your list:

You could drop the HDD down to a Samsugn 320GB and save £30, but personally I don't think it's worth losing 680GB of space for it. Also, I would avoid the Western Digital Green 1TB at around £70, as while it is lots of space for the money, it is a 5,400rpm drive not 7,200rpm drive, so it is slower and not ideal to use as operating drive. Most PC users would only get a 5,400rpm drive as storage drive, if they already got a 7,200rpm or SSD as their primary drive.

And no...DO NOT go down the AMD path, as the Phenom II X4 955BE at stock speed is slower than the i3 2100 in games, double the power consumption at load (65W TDP vs 125W TDP) and higher temp due to the higher power consumption. Also, the upgrade path is looking VERY grim for the AMD side at the moment, as their new flagship CPU Bulldozer not only far from competing with Intel's SandyBridge, it is in fact slower than its predecessor the Phenom II series, and at a higher power consumption. Also, budget AM3+ board with old and dated chipset such as the 760G would offer poor performance if used with new AMD CPU Bulldozer or CPU that's gonna be release in the future.

For the i3 2100 build I quoted, it has a decent board with a Z68 chipset, which will allow you to upgrade to K series CPU such as the SandyBridge i5 2500K/i7 2600K/i7 2700K, which you will be able to overclock.

Actually, I agree. I just didn't think it;d be possible to squeeze a decent sandybridge build out for £350.

This is the best spec by far, for your uses.

Si105 · 1 Nov 2011 at 09:47

Could just get a cooler and overclock your current cpu, and get a better graphics card.

Marine-RX179 · 1 Nov 2011 at 09:51

Si105 said:
Could just get a cooler and overclock your current cpu, and get a better graphics card.

OP got a SINGLE CORE CPU...which is probably around 8 years old or more.

TheGameNerd · 1 Nov 2011 at 17:05

Marine-RX179 said:
Here's a i3 2100 according to parts you listed:

You could drop the HDD down to a Samsugn 320GB and save £30, but personally I don't think it's worth losing 680GB of space for it. Also, I would avoid the Western Digital Green 1TB at around £70, as while it is lots of space for the money, it is a 5,400rpm drive not 7,200rpm drive, so it is slower and not ideal to use as operating drive. Most PC users would only get a 5,400rpm drive as storage drive, if they already got a 7,200rpm or SSD as their primary drive.

And no...DO NOT go down the AMD path, as the Phenom II X4 955BE at stock speed is slower than the i3 2100 in games, double the power consumption at load (65W TDP vs 125W TDP) and higher temp due to the higher power consumption. Also, the upgrade path is looking VERY grim for the AMD side at the moment, as their new flagship CPU Bulldozer not only far from competing with Intel's SandyBridge, it is in fact slower than its predecessor the Phenom II series, and at a higher power consumption. Also, budget AM3+ board with old and dated chipset such as the 760G would offer poor performance if used with new AMD CPU Bulldozer or CPU that's gonna be release in the future.

For the i3 2100 build I quoted, it has a decent board with a Z68 chipset, which will allow you to upgrade to K series CPU such as the SandyBridge i5 2500K/i7 2600K/i7 2700K in the future, which you will be able to overclock.

Nice list

So the i3 2100 is faster than the Phenom X4 955 in games, but is it faster than it if I was screen recording games, which will be a main use of the system as well as gaming itself? Also it will be a long time (or maybe never!) until I get a new CPU as I am tight on money

My only concern is that the total come to £405, which will probs be to much to afford

Is the AMD really that bad?

And BTW, I am not buying components 2day, but maybe over the next few weeks

I just want to be prepared for the day I build this thing and finally can open a program without waiting 5 minutes for the window to pop up (Literally)!

TheGameNerd · 1 Nov 2011 at 17:18

Doomedspeed said:
I think thats quite a bit over £350.

The 4870 should be fine playing most modern games on med/high.

As your on a budget the AMD route seems best for you.

AMD Phenom II X4 Quad Core 955 £86
Asus M5A78L-M/USB3 AMD 760G £50
Zalman Z9 £50
Corsair Builder Series CX 500W £52
G.Skill RipJaw 4GB (2x2GB) £24
LiteOn IHAS124-19 24x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter £18

Hard drive. Today only so act fast. If not you may need to wait or look at 320GB drives and below.

Western Digital Caviar Green 1TB £72

Total: £352

These specs are on my budget and I really like the case better than the Intel one

I haven't chosen which one yet, but if anyone could help me here I'd appreciate it.

Intel:

Likes

Faster CPU
Better Socket

Dislikes

Case is ugly and the AMD one looks waaaay better.
£55 over budget - too expensive for a £5 a week teen

AMD

Likes

'Quad Core' CPU
Case looks good and has extra features (Temp indicator)
Right on budget

A lot of fans included

Dislikes

CPU is slower?
Worse Socket