Advice needed on building a new system

[bez007]

hi guys,

new to the forum so please be gentle, i'll be classed as the village idiot as my knowledge of computers is very basic, which is in fact why i'm here for your help!

i'm looking to build a gaming computer, it does'nt have to be a world beater and infact my budget wont allow it, it just needs to be able to play all the games on the market, no need for everything to me maxed out, just playable.



Approximate Purchase Date: hoping to buy parts over a couple of months


Budget Range: £350 - £550 ($550 - $850)


System Usage from Most to Least Important: just games


Parts Not Required: Mouse, Keyboard, Monitor


Preferred Website(s) for Parts: only site i've looked at is www.ebuyer.com, but open to others if required


Country of Origin: England


Parts Preferences: i think AMD are looking like being best for my budget


Overclocking: no


SLI or Crossfire: maybe


Monitor Resolution: 1080p


Additional Comments: no need for any bling, dont want it to sound like a rocket ship 😉


i know it's pretty vague but any help would be appreciated

thanks in advance

dave!

 

[AdrianPerry]

A few UK sites well worth checking out:

www.scan.co.uk (especially their "Today Only" deals)
www.ebuyer.co.uk
www.dabs.co.uk
www.novatech.co.uk
www.overclockers.co.uk
www.amazon.co.uk
www.aria.co.uk

--------

Here's a build I did for a friend a few days ago that fits your budget:


Gigabyte GA-Z68A-D3-B3 MoBo £75
i5-2500k £160
Corsair Memory XMS3 Classic 4GB DDR3 1600 MHz £23
Coolermaster Hyper TX3 CPU Cooler £15
Corsair Builder Series 500W Power Supply £45
MSI 1GB GeForce GTX 560 Ti £177
Samsung Spinpoint F3 500GB £31 (1TB version is £43)

£526 (with 500GB HDD without case)
Could easily fit all these parts in under £500 buying from "Today Only" offers.


Using Today Only offers from SCAN (25/9/11):

Gigabyte GA-Z68A-D3-B3 MoBo £68
i5-2500k £153
Corsair Memory XMS3 Classic 4GB DDR3 1600 MHz £22
Coolermaster Hyper TX3 CPU Cooler £15
Corsair Builder Series 500W Power Supply £45
Gigabyte GeForce GTX 560 Ti OC £167
Seagete 500Gb Barracuda Hard Drive £28

£498 (without case)

 

[bez007]

thanks for the quick reply adrian

with the above mentioned systems does this leave any room for future upgrades or is it a case of you get what you pay for?

 

[Motopsychojdn]

Theres room there to upgrade,
more ram as you can afford it, new processor as Intel release (Hopefully on the 1155 socket for you)
and the graphics card, although if you are happy with 'playable' settings, that build will take you 4 years down the road at least,
Moto

 

[bez007]

hi again

thanks for the replies, just a quick question are those prices inclusive of vat because i keep getting higher prices than those stated.

thanks for your time

 

[Motopsychojdn]

those prices will be whatever was the price at Adrians time of looking, you can use amazon to try and best price things,
but I find it doesn't always work so I usually just trawl through my list of sites, in addition to the ones listed, Pixmania often have a deal or two on,
Moto

 

[rvilkman]

Do you have win7 for OS or does that have to be included in the price as well?

 

[rvilkman]

CPU: Phenom II x4 965 £93.99 ( with deus ex coupon )
Mobo: Asus M5A97 PRO 970 AM3+ £79.79
Memory: G-Skill 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 1600mhz Ripjaws Memory Kit CL9 (9-9-9-24) 1.5V £23.85
GPU: HIS HD 6870 1GB £133.36
Case: Antec 300 £49.98
PSU: Corsair CX500 V2 £44.60
DVD: Lite-on 24x writer £13.98
HDD: WD Blue 1TB £47.80 ( or Samsung Spinpoint F3 1TB where available, wasn't at dabs for some reason )
OS: Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit OEM £70.97

Total: £558.32 ( prices from www.dabs.com )

For £39.99 you can get 2x4GB memory, so that might be worth splurging an extra £16
Otherwise it should be ok.

 

[AdrianPerry]

The build i listed was pretty much designed to be you get what you pay for. However there's still room for upgrades, and a little expansion. More RAM can be added, 4GB ram modules can be used instead of 2GB allowing for up to 16GB of RAM to be used (4x4GB sticks). The graphics card can obviously be upgraded to anything you like, GTX 580/590 (providing you upgrade the PSU as well). The only real limiting factor of the build is that its not an SLI ready motherboard.

If you wish to leave yourself more upgrade potential you need to look for an SLI ready motherboard (price jumps up to about £115 - ASRock Extreme3 Gen3) - This board also has PCI 3.0 support (which the new Intel IvyBridge processors will support).

PSU would also require 750w or more in order to add a second GTX 560Ti.

 

[AdrianPerry]

CPU: Phenom II x4 965 £93.99 ( with deus ex coupon )
Mobo: Asus M5A97 PRO 970 AM3+ £79.79
Memory: G-Skill 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 1600mhz Ripjaws Memory Kit CL9 (9-9-9-24) 1.5V £23.85
GPU: HIS HD 6870 1GB £133.36
Case: Antec 300 £49.98
PSU: Corsair CX500 V2 £44.60
DVD: Lite-on 24x writer £13.98
HDD: WD Blue 1TB £47.80 ( or Samsung Spinpoint F3 1TB where available, wasn't at dabs for some reason )
OS: Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit OEM £70.97

Total: £558.32 ( prices from www.dabs.com )

For £39.99 you can get 2x4GB memory, so that might be worth splurging an extra £16
Otherwise it should be ok.

Nice build, but for the price, it's got no chance of out performing an i5-2500k with a GTX 560Ti?

http://www.hwcompare.com/8890/geforce-gtx-560-ti-vs-radeon-hd-6870/

 

[rvilkman]

Well obviously it doesn't, there was no question of that, but it has the OS as well and it's still a quite valid build for the price.
And really it's quite interesting how much of a difference being able to spend an extra £100 makes.

 

[AdrianPerry]

And really it's quite interesting how much of a difference being able to spend an extra £100 makes.

True Usually the difference between the next CPU and GPU bracket up or even the difference between 4/8GB of RAM and a build with or without an SSD.