Budget games PC for about about £600?

[Ex-User (19928)]

Howdie,

A friend has asked me to build them a gaming PC for about £500-600. I'm not looking to overclock but rather just get some decent components with a bit of scope for upgrading.

I was looking on www.overclockers.co.uk just because they've always been good to me, but is there a better website for just mail order components?

So far I've come up with

Intel i3 2120 3.3Ghz
Asus P8H77-V LE Intel H77
Crucial Ballistix Elite 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-16000C9 2000MHz Dual Channel
EVGA GeForce GTX 550Ti 2048MB
Corsair bundle (midi tower case, H60 cooler & 650W psu)

That lot comes to £580 on Overclockers and imo would be a pretty neat system although accesories will obviously push it over 600.

Any comments/better setups?

 

[Goodj]

I'm well out of touch with this kind of thing but when I used t orbuild towers I'd buy through DABS

Spec seems decent enough, is there an AMD alternative, might be a bit cheaper or you get faster for the same money

 

[Ex-User (19928)]

I've no idea what's what on AMD, I suppose I could just spend about the same money and hope for the best. I know you can get the six core processor from AMD for just over 100 notes, anyone got any recommendations surrounding them?

And is it best to pair Intel with nVidia and AMD with AMD or does the CPU/GPU combo not really matter as long as the individual components are good.

 

[Cookie]

Combo doesn't tend to matter

http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/buyers-guide/2012/05/18/pc-hardware-buyer-s-guide-may-2012/1

Bit-Tech do a good guide on what's worth buying at the mo.

 

[Ex-User (19928)]

Nice - thanks for the link. Built pretty much the same system by the looks of things. Just having a look at reviews for the GTX550 vs 6870 and the Radeon s***s on the nVidia... That said I'm just looking at direct comparison reviews and the 550 card I linked above is 2gb while I can only find 1gb 6870s...

Bare in mind the computer will only be running 1 monitor, most likely at 1920x1080.

 

[Saner]

Get an i5 if you can, will make a difference in the long term.

 

[Ex-User (19928)]

Well an i5 is about £50-£60 more than the i3 in question, is it really worth doing that considering we're not too bothered if it can't run BF3 on ultra.

 

[Saner]

Thats why I mentioned long term, if you want something that will be okay for about 3-9 months the i3 will be fine.

 

[James28]

i3 is dual core i5 is quad iirc.
Not that that really helps lol.

 

[Ex-User (19928)]

And purchased.

1TB Caviar Green SATA 6Gb/s 64MB 3.5" Hard Drive	£71.98	1	£71.98
Windows Home Premium 7 SP1 64-bit EN 1pk OEI OEM DVD	£69.99	1	£69.99
LiteOn 24x Int. DVDRW Black SATA + S/W	£13.99	1	£13.99
Deathadder Re-Spawn Gaming Mouse	£44.98	1	£44.98
SideWinder X4 - Keyboard - USB	£36.52	1	£36.52
Goliathus Alpha Speed Fragged Gaming Surface	£16.99	1	£16.99
S1155 Intel Z68 DDR3 ATX	£71.98	1	£71.98
Core i3-2120 3.30GHz S1155 3MB	£90.99	1	£90.99
8GB (2 x 4GB) NB Vengeance DDR3 1600MHz SO-DIMM CL9	£39.99	1	£39.99
ATI Radeon HD 6870 900MHz 1GB PCI-Express DVI HDMI + 2 x mDP	£139.99	1	£139.99
550W ZT Series Fully-Modular Power Supply	£54.99	1	£54.99
Three Hundred Case Black	£39.99	1	£39.99
Freezer 7 Pro Rev.2 CPU Cooler	£14.98	1	£14.98

Total - £ 620.

He's holding off on a dedicated monitor and going to use his TV for the moment (while I convince him to get the Dell 27" IPS panel).

 

[Ex-User (19928)]

One thing I forgot to check is whether everything there will include cables etc necessary....

All I can think of that might not be in there is SATA cables for the HDD? That would be included with the mobo surely?

 

[Gareth]

Yes, usually included with the motherboard.

 

[conneh]

Will play any game for sure, but i probably would of changed a few things about to squeeze in an 2500k/3570k.

 

[Ex-User (19928)]

Like what? :S

 

[conneh]

Over priced keyboard and mouse plus gaming surface!

Some of the best gaming mouses ever produced were a fiver!

Could of purchased things like that a later date

 

[Ex-User (19928)]

Mmmm. Not sure I agree on that one mate.

It's not that paying for it is an issue, where do you stop if you start spending an extra 60 quid on a better processor?

As far as the mouse/keyboard etc, those are the things you'll always need, and always use. Whether you're using all 4 of those cores in BF3, or watching Youtube. Best place to spend a bit extra imo since they'll never need upgrading.

 

[Jamie16v]

Interesting read, i'm planning a build soon. I think i'll go for the same apart from Mouse/Keyboard at a later date.

 

[MikeoftheQuays]

Looks pretty good to me. Tho personally I'd have shaved some money off the mouse, mouse pad and CPU cooler and spent it either on the CPU or GPU.

 

[Munson]

Decent. You don't necessarily need a multi-core, number crunching CPU for running games anyway. Obviously more is always better, but on a budget, it's about balance.

 

[Ex-User (19928)]

Finished building this last night, if you look where I listed the order I'd selected notebook memory ffs

The company took it back and my buddy ordered 16gb instead which would fit with the cooler in place so that needed moving aswell, managed to get a bit of thermal paste on the bottom of the processor while cleaning it to boot! All clean now though and up and running. Put 3D mark 2011 on there and ran the extreme test and the computer got X1390 which I thought was pretty decent for the overall cost.

Really impressed with the graphics card to be honest, it ran all benchmarks almost silently unlike my 460GTX Hawk which sounds like a hoover when the fans go above 70%. The case is also worth mentioning, for a budget case at £40 it looks and feels solid. Has 2x case fans with speed switches that make a bit of ambeint noise on the high setting, but seem to move quite a lot of air so should keep everything running nice and cool.

All it needs imo is an SSD for the OS and a Xonar sound card, but it's certainly fit for purpose.

 

[conneh]

Just purchased another system for myself and it came to less than £600.

i5 3570k, P77 Extreme 4, 8GB Corsair XMS3. It can be done for under £600!