Spec me a £450-500 PC

[timmyt]

Hello, looking to build a new PC mainly for office work but also some light gaming. Flight Sims, COD:MW/MW2 @ 1400x900. Price needs to include OS. Already have Mouse and Keyboard also have a case. Im way out of the loop so any help would be great. Thanks.

 

[Danny75]

Hi, which case is it? And how much storage do you need right now?

 

[timmyt]

It is a Antec 300. Nothing special but does the job plus its going to be hidden away. 500GB is more than enough. Only have a few games installed and the rest is mostly work documents.

 

[Andreas.96]

Assuming you don't need a monitor I'd suggest something like this:

YOUR BASKET
1 x MSI Radeon R9 280 Gaming 3072MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £149.99
1 x Microsoft Windows 8.1 64-Bit DVD - OEM (WN7-00614) £77.99
1 x Gigabyte Z97P-D3 Intel Z97 (Socket 1150) DDR3 ATX Motherboard £62.99
1 x Intel Pentium K Anniversary G3258 Socket LGA1150 Processor - Retail £55.99
1 x SuperFlower Golden Green HX 550W "80 Plus Gold" Power Supply - Black £52.99
1 x Kingston 120GB SSDNow V300 Drive SATA 6Gb/s 3 2.5" (7mm height) Solid State Hard Drive - (SV300S37A/120G) £49.99
1 x TeamGroup Vulcan RED 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-19200C11 2400MHz Dual Channel Kit (TLRED38G2400HC11CDC01) £44.99
1 x Toshiba (7K1000.D) 1TB SATA 6GB/s 32MB Cache - OEM (DT01ACA100) HDD £41.99
1 x Raijintek Themis Black Heatpipe CPU Cooler PWM - 120mm £19.99
Total : £566.51 (includes shipping : £8.00).



Although it's over your budget if you could squeeze out the extra £60 you'd definitely feel the benefit of having the SSD for the OS and your regularly used programs, you could then use the HDD for games and other files etc.
Overclocking the CPU will help massively and there's always the potential to upgrade to an i5 further down the line

 

[mrbazmondo]

Increase the SSD to 256G otherwise you're regret it like the guy on the other thread.

 

[Danny75]

You have a few options. Andreas has already suggested the Pentium-K/Z97 route so I won't do another but I would not buy the Kingston V300 SSD unless it was a lot cheaper ( http://www.anandtech.com/show/7763/an-update-to-kingston-ssdnow-v300-a-switch-to-slower-micron-nand ).

For 1400x900 gaming you won't need an R9 280 either. A 750 Ti/R9 270 would be more than enough and bring that spec closer to budget.

Other than that it's a good spec, imo, especially if upgrading to an i5 in future is an option.

Otherwise, I'd go the i3/750Ti route (the i3 has 4 threads so it will reduce the possibility of graphics stutter and also help with multitasking):

YOUR BASKET
1 x MSI GeForce GTX 750Ti OC 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card (N750Ti-2GD5/OCV1) £99.95
1 x Intel Core i3-4160 3.60GHz (Haswell) Socket LGA1150 Processor - Retail £95.99
1 x Crucial BX100 250GB SSD SATA 6Gbps 7mm Solid State Drive (CT250BX100SSD1) £79.99
1 x Microsoft Windows 8.1 64-Bit DVD - OEM (WN7-00614) £77.99
1 x Gigabyte B85M-DS3H Intel B85 (Socket 1150) DDR3 Micro ATX Motherboard £53.99
1 x SuperFlower Golden Green HX 550W "80 Plus Gold" Power Supply - Black £52.99
1 x TeamGroup Vulcan RED 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (TLRED38G1600HC9DC01) £44.99
Total : £515.48 (includes shipping : £8.00).




250GB SSD to begin with, or 120GB SSD and 1TB HDD (there's not much price difference between 500GB and 1TB):

YOUR BASKET
1 x MSI GeForce GTX 750Ti OC 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card (N750Ti-2GD5/OCV1) £99.95
1 x Intel Core i3-4160 3.60GHz (Haswell) Socket LGA1150 Processor - Retail £95.99
1 x Microsoft Windows 8.1 64-Bit DVD - OEM (WN7-00614) £77.99
1 x Gigabyte B85M-DS3H Intel B85 (Socket 1150) DDR3 Micro ATX Motherboard £53.99
1 x SuperFlower Golden Green HX 550W "80 Plus Gold" Power Supply - Black £52.99
1 x TeamGroup Vulcan RED 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (TLRED38G1600HC9DC01) £44.99
1 x SK Hynix 128GB SSD SH910A SATA 6Gb/s Solid State Drive (HFS128G32MNB-2201A) £44.99
1 x Seagate Barracuda 1TB 7200RPM SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache - OEM (ST1000DM003) HDD £42.95
Total : £523.43 (includes shipping : £8.00).



You can still upgrade the CPU to i5/i7 but there won't be overclocking with the B85 board.

The PSU is overspecced to allow for more powerful GPU upgrades.

You can also go the AMD route but AM3+ would be best for this budget and it's a fairly old platform with nothing new coming for it.

You'd need to check with OcUK that the motherboard has been manufactured fairly recently and already has a BIOS version that will run the i3-4160. Otherwise it would require a BIOS update first with a compatible chip. The i3-4130 would be compatible for sure but it's no longer listed on the website. Even the H97 and Z97 boards aren't guaranteed to run the i3-4160 without a BIOS update as it came out in Q3 2014, after the first release of the Series 9 boards. So make sure to ask if you go that route.

To sum up: Pentium-K/Z97 if you'll be upgrading sooner rather than later. i3/B85 if you won't be upgrading any time soon and aren't bothered about overclocking. That's my take on it, as I'd rather have a non-overclockable four-thread chip than an overclockable two-thread chip, IF that's what I'd be using for several years.

 

[AtaRo]

Asus H81M-K Intel Core i5 DIY Micro ATX Motherboard, CPU & RAM Bundle
7950 Twin FrozR BE 3072MB REFURB
Crucial BX100 250GB
Microsoft Windows 8.1 64-Bit
Toshiba (7K1000.D) 1TB
EVGA 500W 80 Plus Power Supply

 

[Xyger]

I think 128GB SSD is fine so long as you have a sufficient data drive.

 

[implosiveturnip]

For 1400x900 you shouldn't even need the 750ti. Get the 750 or an r7 250.

 

[timmyt]

Thanks for the suggestion. £500 was the very top end of the budget. But looking at what you guys have posted I'll be able to spec one out at the price. Thanks again.