My sub-£500 gaming rig

OverClocodile · 25 Sep 2011 at 12:21

How does this look to everyone?

OcUK GeForce GTX 560 1024MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card - £128
Intel Core i3-2100 3.10GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor - £95
Cooler Master GX 550W '80 Plus' Power Supply - £55
MSI H61M-E33 Intel H61 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard **B3 REVISION** - £47
Antec 100 One Hundred Ultimate Gaming Case - Black - £47
Hitachi Deskstar 7K1000.C 1TB SATA-II 32MB Cache - £40
Kingston HyperX Blu 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit - £27
Samsung SH-S222AB/BEBE 22x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - £18

Total incl. VAT & shipping: £472

I've obviously skimped a bit on the motherboard, but I'm not planning to overclock so should this be a problem? Otherwise how does it look?

mickyflinn · 25 Sep 2011 at 12:31

Looks good to go, but spend the rest of your budget on a z based motherboard that will give you sata 3 and usb 3

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MB-346-GI&groupid=701&catid=5&subcat=1990

Marine-RX179 · 25 Sep 2011 at 12:34

Wouldn't recommend getting the GTX560, as it is pretty much just a GTX460 clocked at 822MHz instead of 675MHz. If you don't mind going AMD, 6870 is a good option around that price range (£130), as it is faster and with two games instead of one.

As for PSU, I would get this instead:
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CA-117-AN&groupid=701&catid=123&subcat=1088

Jony27 · 25 Sep 2011 at 12:44

mickyflinn said:
Looks good to go, but spend the rest of your budget on a z based motherboard that will give you sata 3 and usb 3

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MB-346-GI&groupid=701&catid=5&subcat=1990

dont need a Z68 board to have SATA3/USB3

this H67 has both.
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MB-172-MS&groupid=701&catid=5&subcat=1907

and iirc, that HDD has a high fail rate, so i would stick with Samsung F3 or Seagate Barracuda 7200.12

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=HD-248-SE&groupid=701&catid=14&subcat=1279

go with the PSU and GPU recommended by Marine if you can, however this PSU is another option, plenty enough for your spec
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CA-003-LA&groupid=701&catid=123&subcat=2057

OverClocodile · 25 Sep 2011 at 12:56

Nice one thanks everyone. Is 550W not enough for the PSU, or is it a question of quality? Also no problem swapping out the other components, I'm not fussy! thanks for the advice.

Jony27 · 25 Sep 2011 at 12:58

its the quality, CoolerMaster's GX range of PSUs dont get the warmest of welcomes here.

OverClocodile · 25 Sep 2011 at 13:03

Ah ok. Good to know. Ok I'm going to order, and I'll post pics of unpacking and building later in the week

OverClocodile · 25 Sep 2011 at 13:09

Total with revisions: £494

Jamiman · 25 Sep 2011 at 13:18

The Hitachi deskstar is fine. They used to be terrible, but recently i've found them to be superior to other HDD's

Jony27 · 25 Sep 2011 at 13:27

your good to go, good luck and have fun with the build

OverClocodile · 25 Sep 2011 at 13:39

Ah one thing, just checking the motherboard and it says will only support DDR3 1133/1066 (presumably this is a typo and it means 1333). Will it run the memory @ 1600mhz?

Jony27 · 25 Sep 2011 at 13:48

yup, typo, always check the manufacturers website
http://eu.msi.com/product/mb/H67MA-E35--B3-.html#/?div=Basic

and it will take 1600MHz RAM but it will only run at 1333MHz

OverClocodile · 25 Sep 2011 at 13:53

Order placed. Very excited people. I'll be back with build porno on Tuesday if it arrives on time.

OverClocodile · 25 Sep 2011 at 13:54

And thank you all for the advice. This is my first build so bit of an amateur.

gwobbles · 25 Sep 2011 at 15:02

good luck, im excited for you

new builds always make me tingle LOL!

mickyflinn · 25 Sep 2011 at 16:03

Jony27 said:
dont need a Z68 board to have SATA3/USB3

True

The Z68 board will allow the user to uprade to a 2500k and overclock in the future for.

Jony27 · 25 Sep 2011 at 16:10

I've obviously skimped a bit on the motherboard, but I'm not planning to overclock so should this be a problem? Otherwise how does it look?

the OP still has the upgrade path to the non-k i5 and i7 if he ever decides he needs more grunt.

OverClocodile · 26 Sep 2011 at 20:01

Hmm order not dispatched. I hope they have all the components in stock - does it normally take two days to process?

yashiro · 26 Sep 2011 at 20:09

Weekends don't count.