My first gaming rig and budgeting issues

Greeva · 19 Mar 2012 at 16:43

Hi guys I am going to be building my first ever rig, I have a setup I have been looking at, but I was wondering if I could replace a few things to hit my budget of £800, without sacrificing too much performance.

I want to be able to play Tribes: Ascend, Guild Wars 2 and Diablo 3 on decent settings.

Proto-build;

AOC E2795VH 27" LED BLACK moniter
Intel core i5 - 2500k 3.30 GHz
Asus Geforce GTX 550Ti 1024 MB
Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 1TBD SATA
Gigabyte 268AP-D3 Intel 268
Cooler Master Silent pro modular 600W power supply
Cooler Master CM-690 II lite Dominator case
LG BH10LS38 10x Blu ray - RW
Plantronices Gamecom 777 Headset
TT eSport challenger keyboard
Kingston Hyperx Genesis 8GB (2x4GB) RAM

I would appreciate any help in dropping to my £800 budget, also this is my first ever attempt at building a rig so if I made some stupid mistakes please let me know lol

Thank you

Lemin · 19 Mar 2012 at 17:56

550Ti 1024 MB will not be a good gamer on a 27" monitor.

Lemin · 19 Mar 2012 at 18:08

YOUR BASKET
1 x Intel Core i5-2500K 3.30GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor - Retail £175.99
1 x Sapphire HD 6850 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £139.99
1 x Gigabyte Z68AP-D3 Intel Z68 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard REV 1 £84.98
1 x Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 500GB SATA 6Gb/s 16MB Cache - OEM (ST500DM002) £61.99
1 x XFX Pro 550W Core Edition '80 Plus Bronze' Power Supply £52.99
1 x Cooler Master Elite 430 Windowed Case - Black £39.98
1 x Kingston HyperX Genesis Grey 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (KHX1600C9D3X2K2/8GX) £35.99
1 x Gelid Tranquillo CPU Cooler (Socket 754/939/940/AM2/AM2+/AM3/LGA775/LGA1155/LGA1156/LGA1366) £25.99
1 x Sony Optiarc AD-7280S 24x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £15.98
Total : £648.90 (includes shipping : £12.50).

honosuseri · 19 Mar 2012 at 18:08

When are you planning to buy?

Like lemin said the 550ti is garbage your are infact better off with a 460 they OC very well too. The 7800 GPUs should be available at the end of the month.

http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/541?vs=542

Feel free to change the search criteria, the 7850 is what you should be aiming for ideally with its 2GB of VRAM

I like the Zalman Z9 case for budget gaming builds. 4 fans, a fan controller with digital temp display and cable management....thats a lot to ask from a budget case.....your CM case only has two fans so expect higher temps when OC'ing the i5K

Liam123 · 19 Mar 2012 at 18:12

no point waiting for the 7800s looks like there pricing over £200 with there performance

Greeva · 19 Mar 2012 at 18:53

Thanks for the response!!

When it comes to GPUs what advantages does the sapphire have? I only ask because "Buy nvidia" was all I heard from people I have asked before.

numatic.nathan · 19 Mar 2012 at 18:54

Lemin said:
YOUR BASKET
1 x Intel Core i5-2500K 3.30GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor - Retail £175.99
1 x Sapphire HD 6850 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £139.99
1 x Gigabyte Z68AP-D3 Intel Z68 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard REV 1 £84.98
1 x Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 500GB SATA 6Gb/s 16MB Cache - OEM (ST500DM002) £61.99
1 x XFX Pro 550W Core Edition '80 Plus Bronze' Power Supply £52.99
1 x Cooler Master Elite 430 Windowed Case - Black £39.98
1 x Kingston HyperX Genesis Grey 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (KHX1600C9D3X2K2/8GX) £35.99
1 x Gelid Tranquillo CPU Cooler (Socket 754/939/940/AM2/AM2+/AM3/LGA775/LGA1155/LGA1156/LGA1366) £25.99
1 x Sony Optiarc AD-7280S 24x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £15.98
Total : £648.90 (includes shipping : £12.50).

That 6850 is way too expensive!

£40 more and you can get a 480!

honosuseri · 19 Mar 2012 at 19:02

Liam123 said:
no point waiting for the 7800s looks like there pricing over £200 with there performance

Course there is! It's not long to wait really is it. I can't guarantee that he could afford the 7850 but we dont know if their release will have an effect on the other cards...such as the 6950 2GB cards that are £200ish at the mo.

Nothing worse than buying kit and see it drop in price almost over night

Greeva · 19 Mar 2012 at 19:06

I won't be buying for a couple of months yet, I am just trying to get my budget figured out

honosuseri · 19 Mar 2012 at 19:09

Liam123 said:
no point waiting for the 7800s looks like there pricing over £200 with there performance

The pre-order prices are now up on the site....i only just noticed. The 7850 is just under £200

http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/510?vs=549

jamesfreddie · 19 Mar 2012 at 19:16

YOUR BASKET
1 x OcUK HD 6850 1024MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £94.99
1 x Intel Core i3-2120 3.30GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor - Retail £93.59
1 x Gigabyte Z68AP-D3 Intel Z68 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard REV 1 £84.98
1 x Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 500GB SATA 6Gb/s 16MB Cache - OEM (ST500DM002) £61.99
1 x XFX Pro 550W Core Edition '80 Plus Bronze' Power Supply £52.99
1 x BitFenix Merc Beta Gaming Case - Black £31.99
1 x Crucial Ballistix Sport 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (BLS2CP4G3D1609DS1S00CEU) £31.19
1 x Sony Optiarc AD-7280S 24x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £15.98
Total : £482.71 (includes shipping : £12.50).

YOUR BASKET
1 x EVGA GeForce GTX 480 1536MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card (015-P3-1480-KR) £179.99
1 x Intel Core i3-2120 3.30GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor - Retail £93.59
1 x Gigabyte Z68AP-D3 Intel Z68 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard REV 1 £84.98
1 x XFX Pro 650W Core Edition '80 Plus Bronze' Power Supply £64.99
1 x Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 500GB SATA 6Gb/s 16MB Cache - OEM (ST500DM002) £61.99
1 x BitFenix Merc Beta Gaming Case - Black £31.99
1 x Crucial Ballistix Sport 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (BLS2CP4G3D1609DS1S00CEU) £31.19
1 x Sony Optiarc AD-7280S 24x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £15.98
Total : £579.71 (includes shipping : £12.50).

YOUR BASKET
1 x Intel Core i5-2500K 3.30GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor - Retail £175.99
1 x XFX HD 6870 1024MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £131.99
1 x Gigabyte Z68AP-D3 Intel Z68 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard REV 1 £84.98
1 x XFX Pro 650W Core Edition '80 Plus Bronze' Power Supply £64.99
1 x Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 500GB SATA 6Gb/s 16MB Cache - OEM (ST500DM002) £61.99
1 x BitFenix Merc Beta Gaming Case - Black £31.99
1 x Crucial Ballistix Sport 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (BLS2CP4G3D1609DS1S00CEU) £31.19
1 x Corsair A50 High-Performance CPU Cooler (Socket AM2/AM3/LGA775/LGA1155/LGA1156/LGA1366) £21.98
1 x Sony Optiarc AD-7280S 24x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £15.98
Total : £637.60 (includes shipping : £13.75).

Greeva · 19 Mar 2012 at 19:18

That would bring the rig up to over a grand, hmmm

honosuseri · 19 Mar 2012 at 19:31

Greeva said:
I won't be buying for a couple of months yet, I am just trying to get my budget figured out

The site does weekly offers so come wednesday our spec's will change as the offers change on the wednesday.....nevermind in 2 months time.

It's nice to see what you can get for your money now and then compare that later when you do buy. The new nvidia GPUs could well make an appearance by the time you are ready to buy.

In short spec'ing you now is kind of pointless buddy. I did include the anandtech link in a previous post so you can compare GPUs and try and find something you like to your budget

Greeva · 19 Mar 2012 at 19:45

Yeah it was more of a see what kinda power I can get for my money, sorta question. I just don't want to end up with something I can't even run wow on lmao

Greeva · 19 Mar 2012 at 19:46

Thanks a lot for your input guys