Recommend me a gaming build you geniuses (£400-£600)

rory12 · 18 Nov 2009 at 23:49

Alright Ive been wanting to get a new system for a long time but haven't had the money. Some good fortune has come my way and I've got a little bit to play with. I'm a bit of a noob when it comes to all this, hence why I'm asking you guys for your advice

I'll just post my current system here if theres any chance of upgrading it (which I highly doubt) oh and don't laugh please I've had it for a good while

Some sort of Win Power? 500watt power supply (yeah I've never heard of them either)
Foxconn 6150M2MA-KRS2H motherboard
AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual Core Processor 5200+ 2.61 GHz
Corsair Value Select VS2GB667D2 2GB of ram
ATI Raedon HD 4650
Hitachi HDT721010SLA360 1TB Hard drive
SAMSUNG HD501LJ 500gb Hard Drive
Monitor is 19" and the resolution is 1440 by 900

Anyway yeah thats that, ideally I was looking to build a new system though and keep my 2 hard drives and monitor (and I also wouldn't need speakers, mouse, keyboard or OS)

I was looking at the i5 and Phenom x2 955 processors and they looked pretty nifty. (Would I notice a big difference with these compared to my current processor?)
Would like a 5770 if possible too.
I would also like to be able to overclock my processor too eventually (I will figure out how to do this one day!)

That's all I really want, I don't really know much about the other hardware like the RAM, CPU cooler and motherboard.

Can you guys recommend me a build (keeping in mind what I said above) that is in my budget range?

All help is welcome and very much appreciated!

Thanks guys.

sastusbulbas · 19 Nov 2009 at 00:06

If I was spending up to £600 I would be looking at a complete new build with either AMD AM3 or Intel i5.

But that may infringe upon graphics budget and such!

I am sure a budget Intel E3200, E5200 or E6300 Oc'd with a discounted P45 Intel 775 motherboard would give superb results and leave more budget for the graphics card, and overclocked budget CPU's with a better card such as a 5850 may be better than a decent CPU with a cheaper card such as the 5770? Failing that an AM3 board with a more basic CPU which can be upgraded later to a top end Phenom II.

Edit, This months Custom PC (January 2010 issue) magazine has a budget game PC article with an MSI mobo and AMD processor, it looks a pretty reasonable spec for the money.

rory12 · 19 Nov 2009 at 05:09

Thanks for the advice, I will keep it in mind.

However I was just playing about and I came up with this which I thought was pretty good. Could anyone tell me if this actually is a good deal and everything is compatible with each other? Or if you could come up with something better?

Thanks

*EDIT*

I've been playing around and I came up with this which is like 25 quid cheaper aswell

Looks pretty good i'd say.

Actually trade out that ram for this OCZ Obsidian 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 Dual Channel (OCZ3OB1600LV4GK)

The one in the pic is ddr2 and thats dd3, but to be honest I don't really know what the difference is, I presume DDR3 is a lot faster though!

bhavv · 19 Nov 2009 at 07:14

I think there is currently an offer on a case plus a 500 watt PSU for £80 over in the cases sub forum that you might want to consider.

Currently on my phone so cant post the link sorry.

SfnX · 19 Nov 2009 at 09:10

yes a nice little setup, plus the case with the psu deal should be fine i guess however considering its only 500w that might be an off balance, a 300 with a 550+ psu would be gr8

rory12 · 19 Nov 2009 at 09:35

bhavv said:
I think there is currently an offer on a case plus a 500 watt PSU for £80 over in the cases sub forum that you might want to consider.

Currently on my phone so cant post the link sorry.

Thanks for the replies

Is this is mate?

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CA-191-CM

Does anyone know what that case and power supply are like?

Oh and since that gigabyte motherboard is out of stock, I have decided to change that to a p55-gd65 which I'm happy about as it comes with that OC Genie and it will be a good starting point for me overclocking

*EDIT* Ive read some reviews on that case, some saying its not big enough and the heat does build up inside it, so I think im just gonna go for that antec 300 one which seems to have really good reviews.