To build or to Buy - £800 Gaming Pc

[mookey87]

Hi all,

For too long now I've lagged behind playing the latest games with my friends so its time for an upgrade.

At my disposal I have £800 and a very small ammount of PC upgrading experience - I've change ram & graphics cards but thats about it.

My query is should I buy from Overclockers (or similar) a rig or order the parts and give it a go myself - the dangerous phrase 'How Hard Can It Be?' spring to mind....

I'm not entirely savvy on what I NEED but heres a possible vague wishlist:

- i7 Processor
- 2GB+ Nividea Card
- 250 GB SSD primary
- 1 TB HD secondary
- 16 GB RAM

I'd be looking to run the latest FPS on top settings and then Witcher 3 during my non multiplayer time on top settings if possible.

Relative newbie to PC hardware so any advise or feedback would be gratefully recieved.

Thanks!

 

[9dal39]

I haven't built in a long time and ive just had stulid spec me a £1500 monster that im gonna have a crack at building myself its all about confidence and taking your time not having to rush, im sure stulid will be along in a while to give you a spec hes a hero for builds round here, but my advice on the build would be go for it man! I am and theres plenty of self help around the internet or here too!

 

[gradyhawks]

£800

I'd be looking to run the latest FPS on top settings and then Witcher 3 during my non multiplayer time on top settings if possible.

Going to need more £ for that! Build your self as that will save you cash. +£80 and drop to i5. Could save £25 by going 8gb ram. Save £10-15 by going 650w PSU.

YOUR BASKET
1 x Gigabyte Z97X-SLI - Devils Canyon Core i5 4690K Bundle **£12 Saving** £277.98
1 x Palit GeForce GTX 970 4096MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £245.99
1 x Samsung 250GB 850 EVO SSD 2.5" SATA 6Gbps 32 Layer 3D V-NAND Solid State Drive (MZ-75E250B/EU) £89.99
1 x SuperFlower Leadex GOLD 750W Fully Modular "80 Plus Gold" Power Supply - White £89.99
1 x TeamGroup Elite Black 16GB (2x8GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C11 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (TPKD316G1600HC11DC01) £65.99
1 x Phanteks Enthoo Pro M Midi Tower Case with Window - Titanium Green £59.99
1 x Seagate Barracuda 2TB 7200RPM SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache - OEM (ST2000DM001) HDD £58.99
Total : £902.41 (includes shipping : £11.25 Ex.VAT).

 

[badbiddy]

Can't see you getting an NVidia card capable of running latest and greatest games on highest settings in a total build budget of £800.

I'd suggest either buying used CPU/MOBO (further you go back, the more you'll save). Or opt for i5 if all you're doing is playing games.

Additionally you don't need an SSD for playing games.

 

[Samwise.Gamgee]

Hi Mookey,

There is an abundance of PC build videos and guides out there, In my opinion your first one is always going to be the hardest one but there is loads of help out there. If you have a friend who has built a PC before as well this can be really useful.

In regards to your build £800 is definitely a good budget and you are always going to get more value for money if you build it yourself!

- i5 4690k (£170)
- 8GB Ram (£32)
- MSI Z97 PC Mate (£65)
- GTX 970 4GB Various Brands (£240)
- Corsair CX 600W PSU (£55 - £60)
- 500GB BX 100 SSD (£130)
- Corsair Carbide 200R (£50)
- Gelid Tranquillo Rev.3 (£26)
- 1TB Toshiba 7200RPM (£38)
- CD/DVD Drive (Rob one!)

Total Price: £811 (This is a rough price guide using various outlets)

So to give a brief summary of the PC parts included:

i5 4690k, i7 Processors are just not needed unless you are going to be doing an heavy amount of compression or encoding. an i5 4690k is on par with the i7 for gaming performance within a margin of about 1 - 2 FPS and is £100 cheaper!

8GB Ram is fine for now and can always be upgraded to 16GB latter if needed, most games only use an average of 2GB -3GB.

Motherboard is fairly standard with the latest chipset, but please note does not allow for NVIDA SLI. (Multiple Graphics Cards)

GTX 970 the most important part of a gaming build. The GTX 970 is a solid choice of graphics card with great performance and great value for money.

Corsair 600W PSU is a pretty standard affair, but fine for a single 970 and an i5 Processor, won't really be good enough for heavy overclocking though.

500GB BX SSD, SSD's have come down so much in price recently you can just about squeeze for a 500GB in your budget. Plus if you're anything like me you will fill it fast.

Corsair carbide 200R, I like this case as it's plain and simple but has decent airflow and is nice and easy to work in. To be honest though most cases are pretty decent above the £50 bracket and are very looks dependant choice wise.

Gelid Tranquillo Rev.3 a nice little CPU cooler with all round good performance with a nice price Tag, not much to say.

1TB Toshiba 7200RPM, does what it says on the tin.

Please note everything said above is all down to personal opinion, but this is what I would go for with your budget.

Hope this helps!

 

[mookey87]

Thank you! All very helpful thoughts.

I've eye'd up my old PC for a 1TB hardrive and a CD/DVD drive so I've put this shopping list together:

• i7 - 4790k 4.0GHz (£253)
  I dont know if I need this from your feedback but I hope to run dual monitors in the future to replace my imac when it finaly falls over - thought this may help with dual screening games and movies
• Gelid Tranquillo Rev.3 Fan (£26)
• Gigabyte GA-Z97P-D3 ATX LGA1150 Motherboard (£56)
• Corsair Vengeance Pro 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR3-1866 Memory (£80)
• Crucial BX100 250GB 2.5" Solid State Drive (£64)
• Zotac GeForce GTX 970 4GB Video Card (£238)
• BitFenix Neos Black ATX Mid Tower Case (£28)
• Super Flower Golden Green HX 550W 80+ Gold Certified ATX Power Supply (£57)

Comes in at £802 + delivery.

I think that should work... final thoughts anyone or any advise before I get stuck into a world of how to videos?