£650 bitfenix prodigy build

[Columbo1more]

Approximate Purchase Date: this week

Budget Range: £600 - £650

System Usage Gaming

Are you buying a monitor: no

Do you need to buy OS: Yes

Preferred Website(s) for Parts: (e.g.: ebuyer, amazon.co.uk, any uk site really

Location: Northern Ireland

Parts Preferences: 7870 if possible

Overclocking: No

SLI or Crossfire:No

Your Monitor Resolution: 1920x1080

making this as a gift, they really want the prodigy case so if you could include this in the price, that would be great

 

[imomun]

Please do not create multi thread

http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/answers/id-1628655/600-gaming.html

This has been answered waiting for you to pick a solution. Thanks

 

[Columbo1more]

Please do not create multi thread

http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/answers/id-1628655/600-gaming.html

This has been answered waiting for you to pick a solution. Thanks

sorry, i thought i would be better starting a new thread, as i now have increased the budget and changed my mind on parts, as i want to use this pordigy case, and after your suggestion i now want to use 7870

 

[Rammy]

This is obviously a bit over, but I reckon there is quite a jump in performance between this price and say £50 lower.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: Intel Core i5-3470 3.2GHz Quad-Core Processor (£146.34 @ Aria PC)
Motherboard: ASRock H77M-ITX Mini ITX LGA1155 Motherboard (£79.19 @ Amazon UK)
Memory: Patriot Intel Extreme Master, Limited Ed 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory (£36.23 @ Amazon UK)
Storage: Seagate Barracuda 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive (£50.00 @ Ebuyer)
Video Card: Club 3D Radeon HD 7870 XT 2GB Video Card (£171.62 @ Amazon UK)
Case: BitFenix Prodigy (Orange) Mini ITX Tower Case (£62.27 @ Amazon UK)
Power Supply: XFX 550W 80 PLUS Bronze Certified ATX12V / EPS12V Power Supply (£48.17 @ Aria PC)
Optical Drive: Lite-On iHAS124-04 DVD/CD Writer (£11.79 @ Amazon UK)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 (OEM) (64-bit) (£68.04 @ CCL Computers)
Total: £673.65
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2013-03-20 22:38 GMT+0000)

Went with the orange Prodigy because I think it looks awesome, but I have a black one myself.

For gaming on an ITX system you don't have a huge amount of options when it comes to CPUs. AMD only really make APUs for ITX, and using one of those with the intention of having a bespoke card doesn't make a huge amount of sense. Conversely, you can use any current gen Intel CPU, but with the way games are progressing you probably are going to want a quad core, and for that you need an i5. Cheapest i5 will effectively be the 3350P, but I stuck in a 3470 as it is a bit faster clock speed and also has better out of the box turbo mode. The difference is £7.

Graphics wise, you specified a HD7870, but personally I don't see why anyone in the UK would buy one right now. HD7870s start at around £165 but for £172 you can have a HD7870XT which is really just a lightly crippled HD7950. The GTX660 is a solid option because of it's compact size and better power use, but right now it's too expensive relative to the HD7870 and not as good overall.

If you need/want wireless, swap the motherboard for the Gigabyte GA-H77N-WIFI, it's around the same price.

 

[Columbo1more]

This is obviously a bit over, but I reckon there is quite a jump in performance between this price and say £50 lower.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: Intel Core i5-3470 3.2GHz Quad-Core Processor (£146.34 @ Aria PC)
Motherboard: ASRock H77M-ITX Mini ITX LGA1155 Motherboard (£79.19 @ Amazon UK)
Memory: Patriot Intel Extreme Master, Limited Ed 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory (£36.23 @ Amazon UK)
Storage: Seagate Barracuda 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive (£50.00 @ Ebuyer)
Video Card: Club 3D Radeon HD 7870 XT 2GB Video Card (£171.62 @ Amazon UK)
Case: BitFenix Prodigy (Orange) Mini ITX Tower Case (£62.27 @ Amazon UK)
Power Supply: XFX 550W 80 PLUS Bronze Certified ATX12V / EPS12V Power Supply (£48.17 @ Aria PC)
Optical Drive: Lite-On iHAS124-04 DVD/CD Writer (£11.79 @ Amazon UK)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 (OEM) (64-bit) (£68.04 @ CCL Computers)
Total: £673.65
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2013-03-20 22:38 GMT+0000)

Went with the orange Prodigy because I think it looks awesome, but I have a black one myself.

For gaming on an ITX system you don't have a huge amount of options when it comes to CPUs. AMD only really make APUs for ITX, and using one of those with the intention of having a bespoke card doesn't make a huge amount of sense. Conversely, you can use any current gen Intel CPU, but with the way games are progressing you probably are going to want a quad core, and for that you need an i5. Cheapest i5 will effectively be the 3350P, but I stuck in a 3470 as it is a bit faster clock speed and also has better out of the box turbo mode. The difference is £7.

Graphics wise, you specified a HD7870, but personally I don't see why anyone in the UK would buy one right now. HD7870s start at around £165 but for £172 you can have a HD7870XT which is really just a lightly crippled HD7950. The GTX660 is a solid option because of it's compact size and better power use, but right now it's too expensive relative to the HD7870 and not as good overall.

If you need/want wireless, swap the motherboard for the Gigabyte GA-H77N-WIFI, it's around the same price.

Hey thanks for the response, i really like the look of this build, i thin i might go ahead and use this. i just wanted to check, is this is everything i need, like if i buy these parts i be able to build and play it staright from these parts. Its my first build and i just wanted to check. Oh and i think i will go with the orange myself, it looks awesome

 

[Rammy]

Yeah that's everything you need. It's not a million miles away from what I use myself, but I took the hit and put a small SSD in for my OS. It's kinda cool to boot in a few seconds, though it doesn't really make sense from a budgetary perspective.

Like I said above, there are ways to shave some cash off the build, but if you can afford it then that's definitely a good spot to aim for. If you really do need to try and stay strict (which makes total sense), the HD7850 2Gb is still a perfectly serviceable 1080P gaming card and it'll save you around £30, but for that price I'd be highly tempted by the HD7870XT.

It's not the easiest case in the world to work on. By choosing most mid range+ graphics cards you immediately have to throw away the top drive cage, but you retain the bottom one, so you have slots for 2 HDDs and 4 SSDs (not that I know anyone who uses 4 SSDs). The "front panel" on the side panel is a bit awkward to wire if you want front audio (for headphones/mic) as the audio cable is quite short.
Also, because of the shape/size of the box, I found it has to sit on the desk next to me which meant I retooled it a little for noise, replacing some fans and the intel stock cooler. On the floor it has a tendency to be easily knocked due to the curved bottom shape (especially on carpet).
Lots of niggles to be honest, but I'm guessing 99% of the people buying this case aren't really buying it for practicality, they are buying it because it looks awesome and a bit different.