Under £400 gaming PC.

[BoonMonkey]

Hey guys,

My brother wants to make a gaming PC, but he doesn't want to spend more than £400 (Limited, I know)

I've made a mock up of what I think will be best, but any suggestions or improvements are welcome.

Note: I've chosen this PSU based on only using 1 low powered graphics card and him not wanting a modular PSU.

RAM and GFX card aren't needed as he will be using my old ones.

 

[mp260767]

looks ok, couple of things tho.

unless he's likely to have the budget to get another hard drive in the future, might be better to get something like a 500gb hard drive rather than the ssd.

if hes not likely to upgrade the processor to a "K" (overclockable) ivybridge in the near future you could save some money going for an h61 mobo.

psu wise it will be fine if he has no plans to upgrade the graphics card, otherwise might be better looking to get a 600w version to save having to replace it in the future.

 

[BoonMonkey]

looks ok, couple of things tho.

unless he's likely to have the budget to get another hard drive in the future, might be better to get something like a 500gb hard drive rather than the ssd.

if hes not likely to upgrade the processor to a "K" (overclockable) ivybridge in the near future you could save some money going for an h61 mobo.

psu wise it will be fine if he has no plans to upgrade the graphics card, otherwise might be better looking to get a 600w version to save having to replace it in the future.

He doesn't intend on overclocking, he is happy with the stock rate.

Also, he will likely upgrade the hard drive at a later date, he gets his money weekly so if he wants an upgrade he will probably get one cheapish. I'll ask him if he wants to swap to a H61 instead of a Z68.

Thanks for the reply

 

[mp260767]

np .

if he wants to stick with the z68 then look at the cheapish z77 boards as there the latest and support the new ivybridge processors.

cost about £10 more, but no real point getting the z68 over the z77.

 

[BoonMonkey]

np .

if he wants to stick with the z68 then look at the cheapish z77 boards as there the latest and support the new ivybridge processors.

cost about £10 more, but no real point getting the z68 over the z77.

Brilliant! Thanks a lot, I'll let him know that if he wants the Z68 he may as well pay en extra tenner for Z77.

 

[honosuseri]

YOUR BASKET
1 x Intel Core i5-3570K 3.40GHz (Ivybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor (77W) - OEM £167.99
1 x Samsung 128GB SSD 830 Notebook/Apple Series SATA 6Gb/s KIT with Norton Ghost - (MZ-7PC128N/EU) £89.99
1 x Gigabyte Z77-DS3H Intel Z77 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £74.99
1 x OCZ ZS Series 550W '80 Plus Bronze' Power Supply £49.99
1 x Zalman Z9 Plus Tower Case with Fan Controller - Black £44.99
1 x Alpenföhn Matterhorn Pure Edition CPU Cooler (Socket LGA2011/1366/1155/1156/775/ AMD AM3/AM3+/AM2/AM2+/FM1) £26.39
Total : £454.33 (includes shipping : FREE).



over £400 but worth the cash. Obviously you can drop to the i3 2120 and lose the heatsink. The reduced price of the OEM CPU basically pays for that excellent cooler on offer

I would go with the Z9 as it's packed full of kit. Four 120mm fans, fan controller, digital temp display, cable managment with included P4/8 lead. Don't you still need to add fans to that Bitfenix case?