System - £500-£650

Fraser4 · 22 Apr 2014 at 15:27

Hi guys,

I'm looking for a system in the £500-£650 range, possibly ranging to £700 for a system & OS - I have no spares I can use & mouse, keyboard, monitor, I have. Although I'll be using my TV as a monitor which I imagine will have pretty awful res.

Now, I know you'll all be wondering what is this guy talking about, gaming for such a small amount. Well - let me explain.. I am going back into WoW.. Again I know.. My life.... :eek:

Lol.

Anyway, I'd prefer to have a prebuild, just very unsure with what components to include - but I'm not afraid to build my own, I have in the past. Just been a while. Also I'm far from mediocre when it comes to cable management and all the tidiness.

If you could help, I would really appreciate it!

EDIT: I have read a couple more posts and realised I should be a little more specific to try and help.

I am thinking more cores for the cpu hungry game that WoW is right? mid, mid-high gpu as I want to play it on high, or even ultra as I like it to look pretty. But I don't want to end up with any screen tears or lagging, especially during any raid content.

I'm thinking SSD for operating & HDD for everything else? There will literally be this & then a few other steam games, no bigger than 10gb a pop I'd say - so 500gb will probably be fine but to be honest, budget permitting - you guys advise!

Thanks!

Fulax · 22 Apr 2014 at 16:09

Do you want to be able to overclock your CPU?

Fraser4 · 22 Apr 2014 at 16:23

I'm not big on overclocking- never done it & unsure whether I'd really need it, would I? I wouldn't say no to further performance though?

Fulax · 22 Apr 2014 at 16:35

Normally at this range you'd be looking for an AMD build, but WoW is more interested in your CPU's per-core performance rather than how many cores it has, and for that you want Intel. Intel's CPUs are more expensive as it is, and an overclockable build would require an even more expensive CPU, a more expensive motherboard, and an aftermarket cooler.

Locked build:

YOUR BASKET
1 x Powercolor Radeon R9 270X "PowerBank" 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £149.99
1 x Intel Core i5-4440 3.10GHz (Haswell) Socket LGA1150 Processor - Retail £131.99
1 x Microsoft Windows 8.1 64-Bit DVD - OEM (WN7-00614) £74.99
1 x Gigabyte H87-HD3 Intel H87 (Socket 1150) DDR3 ATX Motherboard £71.99
1 x Samsung 120GB SSD 840 EVO SATA 6Gb/s Basic - (MZ-7TE120BW) £67.99
1 x TeamGroup Vulcan RED 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (TLD38G1600HC9DC01) £49.99
1 x Corsair Carbide 200R Compact ATX Case - Black (CC-9011023-WW) £47.99
1 x Seagate Barracuda 7200RPM 1TB SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache - OEM (ST1000DM003) HDD £43.99
1 x NZXT Hale Power 90+ 550W '80 Plus Gold' Power Supply £39.95
Total : £700.28 (includes shipping : £17.85).

Fraser4 · 22 Apr 2014 at 16:52

Ok looks good. Any of the base builds that OCUK supply would fit this build nicely? As I'd prefer to get it done and ready so I can plug&play effectively. As I say, I'm interested in gaming & building but I'm certainly not looking to make my dream machine nor mess around building one if you catch my drift. Bravo to anyone that consistently wants to build their own though

tamzzy · 22 Apr 2014 at 19:19

YOUR BASKET
1 x Sapphire Radeon R9 270X Boost OC 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Card £149.99
1 x Intel Core i5-4440 3.10GHz (Haswell) Socket LGA1150 Processor - Retail £131.99
1 x Microsoft Windows 8.1 64-Bit DVD - OEM (WN7-00614) £74.99
1 x Seagate SSHD 7200RPM 3.5" 1TB SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache - OEM (ST1000DX001) SSHD Hybrid Drive £59.99
1 x TeamGroup Vulcan GOLD 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-19200C11 2400MHz Dual Channel Kit (TLYD38G2400HC11CDC01) £53.99
1 x NZXT Hale Power 90+ 550W '80 Plus Gold' Power Supply £39.95
1 x Asus H81M-E Intel H81 (Socket 1150) DDR3 Micro ATX Motherboard £37.99
1 x CM Storm Devastator Gaming Bundle - USB Keyboard & Mouse £29.99
1 x Zalman T2 Plus Mini-Tower USB 3.0 - Black £19.99
1 x LG GH24NSB0 24x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £14.99
Total : £627.95 (includes shipping : £11.75).

matx build
no overclocking potential though
specced a sshd instead of a ssd+hdd combo - you'll get 70% of the performance compared to a ssd+hdd combo though =)

Fraser4 · 22 Apr 2014 at 19:54

These builds look great to be honest! Forgot to mention I'd probably prefer Win 7 - although I haven't actually used Win 8 all that much I just prefer the lay out of the typical Windows. How about you???

Fulax · 22 Apr 2014 at 22:02

The best I can do from the pre-built selection with an OS and an SSD is an FX6300 and 270X build - and that's only under budget because it is on This Week Only offer.

Windows 8 is fine once you get used to it.