New Build Recommendations

demoneye

demoneye

demoneye

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Joined
15 Aug 2008
Posts
45
I sold my last gaming PC about 10 years ago and now due to illness find myself having more spare time. I want to start playing again but I'm a little out of touch on things like GPUs and MB chipsets. I don't want to go the console route, as any real gamer knows it's got to be mouse and keyboard. :cool:

I'm looking to build a new machine for about £600 - I'm happy to build from parts or one of the prebuilt systems available from OcUK. I know it's not a great deal of money, but that's about all I can afford - I may be able to push to £700 if really needed...

Who's going to step up and help out an old skool gamer...
 
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I'm sure you can buy many rigs from OcUK as well as receive many other build suggestions based on "OcUK components" only.
But in case of low budget I think there's a conflict between love to the shop you'd like to buy all parts with, and a theoretical overall performance of rig built from other sources (and other than new condition). I mean in such case the best (IMO) way is to buy a mix of used (and/or B-Grade) parts together with new ones as best bang for a buck.

New components might be case and power supply, B-Grade might be graphic card (and motherboard, if you like some warranty), used might be motherboard, RAM, hard disk (by a cost of SSD, to maximize gaming performance) and CPU. If you want some serious attitude, buy new SSD, or HDD (or refurbished by manufacturer). Depending of luck @Ebay (rich source of used components) you might get some decent CPU cooler, and save some money instead of buying new one or B-Grade.

Example of such build (some elements moved to another category) might look like:

NEW
Case 41 pounds
https://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CA-044-ZA&groupid=2362&catid=736
PSU 650W 58 pounds
https://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CA-037-SF&groupid=701&catid=123&subcat=2463
memo 8GB 40 pounds
https://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MY-132-CR&groupid=701&catid=8&subcat=1517
SSD 120GB 50 poinds
https://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=HD-190-SA&groupid=701&catid=2104&subcat=1427
HDD - depending of storage space needed, 45 pounds for 1TB, brand is personal choice as everyone has different luck to different brands (badblocks and other faults, lol)
optical BR drive 35 pounds
https://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CD-083-PO&groupid=701&catid=10&subcat=314

B-GRADE GFX 240 pounds
https://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=BG-834-AS&groupid=595&catid=683

USED
some P67/Z68/Z77 motherboard upto 40 pounds (or B-Grade seen here for 42)
i5-2500K + BeQuiet freezer I see now for 61.30 (!) at Ebay, but cannot give a link, free speech welcome ;-)

Total: 610,30
Plus some soundcard and eventually speakers, if you want more crisp sound = 700 pounds budget fulfilled.
 
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YOUR BASKET
1 x MSI Radeon R9 280X Gaming Edition OC 3072MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £169.99
1 x Intel Core i3-4150 3.50GHz (Haswell) Socket LGA1150 Processor - Retail £97.99
1 x Microsoft Windows 8.1 64-Bit DVD - OEM (WN7-00614) £79.99
1 x Samsung 250GB 850 EVO SSD 2.5" SATA 6Gbps 32 Layer 3D V-NAND Solid State Drive (MZ-75E250B/EU) £79.99
1 x SuperFlower FX 550W '80 Plus Bronze' Power Supply - Black £49.99
1 x Crucial Ballistix Sport 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (BLS2CP4G3D1609DS1S00CEU) £39.95
1 x Gigabyte H81M-S2H Intel H81 (Socket 1150) DDR3 Micro ATX Motherboard £38.99
1 x Cougar MX200 Midi-Tower Gaming Case - Black £23.99
1 x LG 24x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM GH24NSC0.AUAA15B £13.99
Total : £604.48 (includes shipping : £8.00 Ex.VAT).




Could spend more on an i5 and a nicer case, or HDD if you need more storage straightaway.
 
Asus GeForce GTX 960 DirectCU2 OC Strix 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £169.99
Intel Core i3-4170 3.70GHz (Haswell) Socket LGA1150 Processor - Retail £104.99
Microsoft Windows 8.1 64-Bit DVD - OEM (WN7-00614) £79.99
2x TeamGroup Elite Black 16GB (2x8GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C11 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (TPKD316G1600HC11DC01) £147.98
ASRock H97M Pro4 Intel H97 (Socket 1150) DDR3 Micro ATX Motherboard £68.99
SuperFlower FX 550W '80 Plus Bronze' Power Supply - Black £49.99
Western Digital Caviar Green 1TB SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache - OEM (WD10EZRX) **SINGLE PLATTER** HDD £44.99
Cougar MX200 Midi-Tower Gaming Case - Black £23.99
LG 24x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM GH24NSC0.AUAA15B £13.99

Total = £704.90

Any comments?
 
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demoneye said:
Asus GeForce GTX 960 DirectCU2 OC Strix 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £169.99
Intel Core i3-4170 3.70GHz (Haswell) Socket LGA1150 Processor - Retail £104.99
Microsoft Windows 8.1 64-Bit DVD - OEM (WN7-00614) £79.99
2x TeamGroup Elite Black 16GB (2x8GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C11 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (TPKD316G1600HC11DC01) £147.98
ASRock H97M Pro4 Intel H97 (Socket 1150) DDR3 Micro ATX Motherboard £68.99
SuperFlower FX 550W '80 Plus Bronze' Power Supply - Black £49.99
Western Digital Caviar Green 1TB SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache - OEM (WD10EZRX) **SINGLE PLATTER** HDD £44.99
Cougar MX200 Midi-Tower Gaming Case - Black £23.99
LG 24x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM GH24NSC0.AUAA15B £13.99

Total = £704.90

Any comments?
Click to expand...

There's 32GB of RAM there. I'd take at least 16GB out and add a 250GB SSD.

Z97 tends to be the better choice as far as motherboard. And that case will fit ATX motherboards. But if you've seen a feature you like on that H97 micro-ATX, then cool.
 
I want 32gb for render engine use (mental ray / iray). Only real impact SDD will have is quick Windows response and game loading/level changes. I will take the drive up to a black caviar instead though.

The motherboard was chosen because it had a toslink digital opitical audio out - I've got an old 5.1 amp this will plug into.
 
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