Your Views On My Budget Gaming PC £400

[winter zombie]

Hi All

i have been asked to build a gaming pc for my nephew for xmas
i have a budget of £400-420

he has a monitor/keyboard ect on his current pc

he plays a lot of day z and mine craft so this system has to be up to the task

his current pc is quite poor and he plays day z on a low setting and he still only get about 10-14fps its almost unplayable

so this is what i have picked but what do you think ?
any advise is welcome but i need to stick to the budget, any this week only specials or B Grade options please state the full price because this system will not be brought for a few weeks yet.

Sapphire Radeon R9 270 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £116
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-339-SP&groupid=701&catid=56&subcat=1982

AMD Piledriver FX-6 Six Core 6300 Black Edition 3.50GHz (Socket AM3+) Processor £80
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CP-338-AM

Kingston HyperX Fury Blue 4GB (1x4GB) DDR3 PC3-10666C9 1333MHz Single Channel Kit £32
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MY-163-KS&groupid=701&catid=8&subcat=1180

Seagate Barracuda 7200RPM 1TB SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache - OEM £40
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=HD-257-SE&groupid=701&catid=14&subcat=1279

BitFenix Neos ATX Tower Black/Gold Window £34
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CA-180-BX&groupid=2362&catid=1850

Corsair Builder Series CX 430W V2 '80 Plus Bronze' Power Supply £35
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CA-059-CS&groupid=701&catid=123

LG GH24NSB0 24x DVD±RW SATA ReWrite £14
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CD-090-LG&groupid=701&catid=10

The only thing i need to pick is the motherboard and i have around £50-60 but i don't know what to pick ?!?!?

i look forward to your views, thanks

 

[ShivP]

DayZ is heavily CPU intensive, so I recommend Intel

YOUR BASKET
1 x **B Grade** Sapphire Radeon R9 270X Boost OC 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Card £89.99
1 x TeamGroup Vulcan RED 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-17100C11 2133MHz Dual Channel Kit (TLRED38G2133HC11ADC01) £65.99
1 x Gigabyte Z97P-D3 Intel Z97 (Socket 1150) DDR3 ATX Motherboard £61.99
1 x SuperFlower Golden Green HX 550W "80 Plus Gold" Power Supply - Black £49.99
1 x Intel Pentium K Anniversary G3258 Socket LGA1150 Processor - Retail £49.99
1 x Raijintek Agos Midi Tower - Black £39.95
1 x Seagate Barracuda 7200RPM 1TB SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache - OEM (ST1000DM003) HDD £39.95
1 x Raijintek Aidos Direct Contact CPU Cooler £14.99
1 x LG GH24NSB0 24x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £13.99
Total : £436.43 (includes shipping : £8.00).



Free shipping - http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?t=18630207

Better GPU (an overclocked 270 in effect), more powerful (single thread at least) CPU - make sure you overclock it, better PSU, more RAM etc

 

[scoomby]

Hi All

i have been asked to build a gaming pc for my nephew for xmas
i have a budget of £400-420

he has a monitor/keyboard ect on his current pc

he plays a lot of day z and mine craft so this system has to be up to the task

his current pc is quite poor and he plays day z on a low setting and he still only get about 10-14fps its almost unplayable

so this is what i have picked but what do you think ?
any advise is welcome but i need to stick to the budget, any this week only specials or B Grade options please state the full price because this system will not be brought for a few weeks yet.

Sapphire Radeon R9 270 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £116
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-339-SP&groupid=701&catid=56&subcat=1982

AMD Piledriver FX-6 Six Core 6300 Black Edition 3.50GHz (Socket AM3+) Processor £80
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CP-338-AM

Kingston HyperX Fury Blue 4GB (1x4GB) DDR3 PC3-10666C9 1333MHz Single Channel Kit £32
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MY-163-KS&groupid=701&catid=8&subcat=1180

Seagate Barracuda 7200RPM 1TB SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache - OEM £40
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=HD-257-SE&groupid=701&catid=14&subcat=1279

BitFenix Neos ATX Tower Black/Gold Window £34
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CA-180-BX&groupid=2362&catid=1850

Corsair Builder Series CX 430W V2 '80 Plus Bronze' Power Supply £35
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CA-059-CS&groupid=701&catid=123

LG GH24NSB0 24x DVD±RW SATA ReWrite £14
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CD-090-LG&groupid=701&catid=10

The only thing i need to pick is the motherboard and i have around £50-60 but i don't know what to pick ?!?!?

i look forward to your views, thanks

Hi there

If it's purely for games, then I would go for the fastest graphics card you can get for the money and I recommend upping the ram to 8GB. I also recommend having an SSD for the boot drive or get instead a hybrid 1TB hard drive (about £60). The hybrid drives work very well for the money.

I just built a gaming machine for my brother-in-law based on the following motherboard and CPU combo:
+ Intel Pentium G3258 (very overclockable)
+ Asus H81M-PLUS

And I put in my old Radeon 7950 and it flies

Regards

Steve

 

[winter zombie]

thanks for that, im not looking for a cpu to overclock just at stock speed. and i went with only 4 gig of ram because it just fits into the budget. and i also didn't add a cpu aftermarket cooler because i was planning on using the one that came with the processor.

but your choice looks good, any other options guys ??

 

[scoomby]

Damn. Double post!

 

[scoomby]

thanks for that, im not looking for a cpu to overclock just at stock speed. and i went with only 4 gig of ram because it just fits into the budget. and i also didn't add a cpu aftermarket cooler because i was planning on using the one that came with the processor.

but your choice looks good, any other options guys ??

I would save the £15 and just use the stock Intel cooler. It's good enough. Put the extra money towards a hybrid 1TB hard drive instead. It really does make a big difference and is worth the extra £20 over a standard 1TB hard drive.

Regards

Steve

 

[ShivP]

Both the Intel CPUs and that 6300 will gain massively from overclocking. I wouldnt touch AMD now as there are no upgrade paths on am3+. At least with this pentium you can put in an i3/5/7 or broad well CPU when they are released.

 

[scoomby]

If you must go for a cheap motherboard, then go for an Asus H81M-HD3 as this one has PCI Express 3.0. The one I mentioned earlier is limited to PCI Express 2.0 although it probably will not make that much difference.

Regards

Steve

 

[winter zombie]

Both the Intel CPUs and that 6300 will gain massively from overclocking. I wouldnt touch AMD now as there are no upgrade paths on am3+. At least with this pentium you can put in an i3/5/7 or broad well CPU when they are released.

so what does everybody else think ? do i go for the more Powerful AMD Piledriver FX-6 Six Core 6300 Black Edition 3.50GHz OR ntel Core i3-4130 3.40GHz (Haswell) Socket LGA1150 and pay the extra £10. will the extra core's on the AMD be better for gaming ???

thanks again

 

[ShivP]

I personally think hybrid drives are pointless, as there's not a massive boost over a standard drive and the money spent could be used for a standard ssd which are much faster

As for the CPU, my opinion on it is that the 6300 is pretty similar to an i3 in most games. Yes, in multi threaded games the 6300 will beat it but in single/dual threaded apps the i3 will destroy it, like the pentium

Once you get that 6300 you won't be able to upgrade, as the socket is pretty much dead. With the pentium or i3 you can slot an i7 in the motherboard in the future which will give decent boosts

Also if you go for the 6300 please get a decent aftermarket cooler as the stock one sounds like a jet and those AMD CPUs in particular are hot

 

[winter zombie]

I personally think hybrid drives are pointless, as there's not a massive boost over a standard drive and the money spent could be used for a standard ssd which are much faster

As for the CPU, my opinion on it is that the 6300 is pretty similar to an i3 in most games. Yes, in multi threaded games the 6300 will beat it but in single/dual threaded apps the i3 will destroy it, like the pentium

Once you get that 6300 you won't be able to upgrade, as the socket is pretty much dead. With the pentium or i3 you can slot an i7 in the motherboard in the future which will give decent boosts

Also if you go for the 6300 please get a decent aftermarket cooler as the stock one sounds like a jet and those AMD CPUs in particular are hot

thank you i will remember that

 

[scoomby]

thank you i will remember that

Shivy011 says that he thinks that the hybrid drives are pointless. I agree with that to a certain extent, but when you are building a computer for someone who just wants to play games and doesn't understand computers (e.g. my brother-in-law!), a hybrid drive is a good choice. It means they get a performance boost without the hassle of managing 2 or more drives. I never build any new PCs with just a standard hard drive anymore. It must have a separate SSD (preferable) or a hybrid drive as a minimum.

Have you decided on a final build yet?

Regards

Steve

 

[ShivP]

I suppose they are OK, but simply not really worth the extra over a standard 2TB hdd. You're effectively halving the storage and gaining only a slight boost. The £20 saved by getting a standard 1tb HDD can be saved to get an ssd in the near future

Also once you move the file locations on an ssd/HDD combo there's not much to manage all the documents etc can be moved to the HDD then everything saves there from then onwards
Tis where our opinions differ

 

[scoomby]

I suppose they are OK, but simply not really worth the extra over a standard 2TB hdd. You're effectively halving the storage and gaining only a slight boost. The £20 saved by getting a standard 1tb HDD can be saved to get an ssd in the near future

Also once you move the file locations on an ssd/HDD combo there's not much to manage all the documents etc can be moved to the HDD then everything saves there from then onwards
Tis where our opinions differ

All I can say is, you haven't met my brother-in-law lol

 

[tamzzy]

as someone who has used a solo hdd, a hybrid sshd and ssd+hdd combo (of course at different times), i can say that a hybrid sshd is well worth the extra
especially if your nephew is only going to load the os and just a few programmes. the speed boost is noticeable compared to a bog standard hdd.

this would be my 2p:

YOUR BASKET
1 x Powercolor Radeon R9 270 TurboDUO 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £109.99
1 x Intel Core i3-4130 3.40GHz (Haswell) Socket LGA1150 Processor - Retail £89.99
1 x Seagate SSHD ST500LM000 500GB 2.5" SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache - OEM £49.99
1 x Asus H81M-K Intel H81 (Socket 1150) DDR3 Micro ATX Motherboard £37.99
1 x Corsair Builder Series CX 430W V2 '80 Plus Bronze' Power Supply (CP-9020046-UK) £34.99
2 x TeamGroup Elite 4GB (1x4GB) DDR3 PC3-10666C9 1333MHz Single Channel Module (TED34GM1333C901) £26.99 (£53.98)
1 x Zalman T3 Micro -ATX Case USB 3.0 - Black £20.99
1 x Pioneer 24x Internal DVR-221LBK DVD Rewriter - OEM £13.49
Total : £421.01 (includes shipping : £8.00).



imo don't worry about the overclocking. if this rig is for your nephew, save the hassle and get a non-oc build
the i3 non-oc is just as good/slightly better than an oc-ed pentium AE