Spec me a £500 Gaming PC

fronomore

fronomore

fronomore

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Hi using the advice I was giving on here I bought my Gaming PC a little while ago and it has been great. With this in my friend has decided that he would like to also build a PC. He has a budget of £500 but already has a monitor, keyboard, mouse and a retail version of windows seven. Another one of my friends has offered him a HD7870 for £130. If he were to buy this it would be included in the £500 budget. My questions are:

1. Would this Graphics card suit the budget?
2. What other components would go well with this?
3. What spec would give him the best value for money?

To finish up I think he may be willing to stretch too about £550 but that would be the top limit. The main Games he would be playing are Battlefield 3, Assassins creed, Metro and League of Legends. Any help would be appreciated.
Many Thanks
 
YOUR BASKET
1 x VTX3D HD 7870 Black Boost Edition 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £155.99
1 x Intel Core i3-3220 3.30GHz (Ivybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor (77W) - Retail £92.99
1 x Seagate Barracuda 7200RPM 1TB SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache - OEM (ST1000DM003) HDD £51.95
1 x Corsair Builder Series CX 500W V2 '80 Plus Bronze' Power Supply (CP-9020047-UK) £49.99
1 x TeamGroup Elite Black 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C11 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (TED38GM1600HC11DC01) £47.99
1 x Gigabyte Z68AP-D3 Intel Z68 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £45.95
1 x Xigmatek Asgard Pro Gaming Case - Black £32.99
1 x OcUK 20x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £14.99
Total : £507.83 (includes shipping : £12.50).



This has the 7870LE which is a Tahiti core. They aren't really 7870s at all being related to the 7950, OC it and you are trading blows with a stock 7950. Seeing as the LE is priced so close to 7850/7870s you'd be silly to ignore it ;)

The Z68 mobo will allow him to upgrade to an i5K and have the option to overclock it for greater performance gains. Hope this helps, I look forward to seeing what you settle on :)
 
YOUR BASKET
1 x VTX3D HD 7870 Black Boost Edition 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £155.99
1 x AMD Piledriver FX-6 Six Core 6300 Black Edition 3.50GHz (Socket AM3+) Processor - Retail £89.99
1 x MSI 990XA-GD55 AMD 990X Chipset (Socket AM3+) DDR3 Motherboard £79.99
1 x TeamGroup Xtreem LV 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-19200C10 2400MHz Dual Channel Memory Kit (TXD38G2400HC10QDC01) £59.99
1 x Seagate Barracuda 7200RPM 1TB SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache - OEM (ST1000DM003) HDD £51.95
1 x Thermaltake Smart 530W '80 Plus' Power Supply £49.99
1 x Xigmatek Asgard Pro Gaming Case - Black £32.99
1 x OcUK 20x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £14.99
Total : £549.97 (includes shipping : £11.75).




1. Yes, but depending on the model he may be better off with the LE edition in this spec, especially if the 7870 is non-LE and used.
2. See above for a rough idea.
3. I think AMD build may suit his budget better.
 
 
Potty27 said:
We posted at the same time :D

Intel vs AMD it seems, GPU ect is mostly the same.
Click to expand...

Not by OCuks watch ;)

I'm a bit bored of the intel vs AMD debate now. You two boys are more open to the AM3+ socket than me.

Yes the 6300 is a little better but you boys are over budget a lot more. Nobody really wants the 6300, it's the 8320 to aim for. The 8320 is the rival to the i5K but it's sucking more juice at stock than the i5K when it's OC'd. Intel has an IGP which they make clever use of with quicksync to help with video encoding.

I'm well aware of AMD releasing Steamroller in the future but I'm not buying into it. The i3 is good enough and he can cop a 2nd hand i5K later on when he wants more grunt.
 
You're the one making it AMD vs Intel, hono.

The FX would perform better for games like these, it has nothing to do with Intel vs AMD. And saying this is overbudget and suggesting he upgrade to an i5 later isn't really an argument.
 
teppic said:
You're the one making it AMD vs Intel, hono.

The FX would perform better for games like these, it has nothing to do with Intel vs AMD. And saying this is overbudget and suggesting he upgrade to an i5 later isn't really an argument.
Click to expand...

Potty27 said:
Intel vs AMD it seems, GPU ect is mostly the same.
Click to expand...

Am I now?

The discussion was bound to come up after that post. I've said the 6300 is a little better but I also pointed out that both setups ideally would need the CPU upgrading down the line. Key point is the 7870LE GPU is really a must for longevity.

I spec what I would do with my cash, I'd prefer to be on an intel setup. You guys are more open to the AM3+ socket, that's fair enough
 
The 6300 is fine for these. In games that use 4 cores it will perform as well as the better 8350 running at the same clocks. An i3 isn't competent to run some recent games at all, and you can pretty much guarantee it won't run BF4.

This is simply looking at the budget and what would perform best in the circumstances, not the shape of the socket or who makes the chip.
 
honosuseri said:
Not by OCuks watch ;)
Click to expand...

Close enough for me not to see yours before I hit send :p

honosuseri said:
I'm a bit bored of the intel vs AMD debate now. You two boys are more open to the AM3+ socket than me.
Click to expand...

Not really a Intel vs AMD debate overall, just comes down to what suits each OP better in our opinion. I currently use Intel, but upgraded from AMD, have been quite happy with both brands.

honosuseri said:
Nobody really wants the 6300, it's the 8320 to aim for.
Click to expand...

Bit like saying nobody really wants an i3, they want an i5k ;)

Like teppic says with this OP it was the choice of games that led me to recommend AMD.
 
Potty27 said:
Actually I never mentioned a debate, I was meaning for the OP to decide between spec's, as most the rest was the same.
Click to expand...

Just how it goes mate. He will want to know why I went with the i3 and you guys used the 6300 and which is better. Infact I would have bet you two would have popped in and spec'd AMD. Nothing wrong with pointing out all the options :)

My concern is that because you went over budget more (£500 was in the title) he would be tempted into buying the 2nd hand 7870 to lower the overall cost. Unless his mate is selling a 7870LE (which is doubtful) I think that would be a mistake myself.

I had an easier time with the budget thanks to the Z68 mobo. Frankly it's an absolute bargain for the price.
 
Last edited:
honosuseri said:
Just how it goes mate. He will want to know why I went with the i3 and you guys used the 6300 and which is better. Infact I would have bet you two would have popped in and spec'd AMD. Nothing wrong with pointing out all the options :)

My concern is that because you went over budget more he would be tempted into buying the 2nd hand 7870 to lower the overall cost. Unless his mate is selling a 7870LE (which is doubtful) I think that would be a mistake myself.

I had an easier time with the budget thanks to the Z68 mobo. Frankly it's an absolute bargain for the price.
Click to expand...

Agree with all :)

Overall most spec's I see on here are good, but it's down to the OP to decide what they feel suits them better.

Pro's and con's to each.

Your i3 build would probably suit me better personally, but I'm more incline to play something like WoW than BF3.
 
I'd recommend an i3 for WoW too. Overall the FX-6300 is a great base as long as it's not for games that only use one core - like WoW. On the other hand some newer games require 4 cores to be playable, so it's the opposite end of the spectrum.
 
The LE is limited edition. The 7870 LE has the same GPU as the 7950, which is in the next range up from the 'real' 7870. You'd expect a good 10-20% extra performance on the stock clocks.

The card he's being offered is very good, but the 7870 LE is only £155 including three games.
 
So would you recommend the LE 7870 over the one that is being offered from my friend? would the performance be greater? This is from a completely unbiased point of view, is it worth the extra £25?
 
Also where does it say that it comes with 3 games? forgive me for asking but I cannot for the life of me see it on the product display
 
I'd say that 10-20% extra performance is worth £25. Here's a review of the card:

http://www.kitguru.net/components/graphic-cards/zardon/vtx3d-hd7870-black-review-tahiti-le/

"We feel this release will cause a problem for current AMD sales. Who would want a plain ‘Pitcairn’ based HD7870 now? Who in fact would be willing to spend £260+ on a HD7950? An AMD gamer will be saving a minimum of £70-£80 to get equivalent HD7950 performance."

(I don't actually agree with that, as the 7950 has some advantages)

ocuk gives you these games with all 7870s:

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=XX-001-AM&groupid=701&catid=56&subcat=411
 
Assuming it's a used card £130 is not a very attractive price in my opinion. He could probably get one cheaper on "the bay". The new LE edition on here makes more sense, unless the friend selling the 7870 is willing to negotiate on the price.
 
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