Advice on buying a new PC for around £400

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Duplicity2

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Jun 18, 2011
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Hi there
I'm looking for advice on what to buy for about £400. I occasionally use my PC for games & I use it for entertainment (films & tv) everyday. I can get away with the monitor, network adaptor & DVD RW I already have so they aren't included in the budget.
Any ideas on what I can get for such a low price? I am in the UK & have been looking at configuration sites like pcspecialist, overclockers & chillblast.
I wanted to get a gigabyte mobo with intel CPU using socket Z97 & GeForce graphics, also SSD/HDD but can't afford it. I'm told that it's not worth spending more than £400 as it'll be obsolete in a couple of years anyway (my brother's advice).
If anyone has any ideas on what would be value for money for what I want, I would be grateful.
Cheers!
 
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tiny voices
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probably best way to spend is to use http://uk.partpicker.com to buy the parts yourself and put them together. you wont get a good gaming pc for 400 euro from these sites.


PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: AMD Athlon X4 750K 3.4GHz Quad-Core Processor (£53.70 @ Scan.co.uk)
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-F2A88XM-HD3 Micro ATX FM2+ Motherboard (£44.57 @ Ebuyer)
Memory: Kingston 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1333 Memory (£52.99 @ Amazon UK)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive (£38.70 @ Aria PC)
Video Card: Asus GeForce GTX 750 Ti 2GB Video Card (£109.99 @ Amazon UK)
Case: NZXT Source 210 (Black) ATX Mid Tower Case (£30.25 @ Scan.co.uk)
Power Supply: Silverstone Strider Essential 400W 80+ Certified ATX Power Supply (£34.08 @ Scan.co.uk)
Total: £364.28
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available


40 euros left for some leeway
 
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Get the Pentium G3258. it has better architecture than AMD. Also, search ''Pentium G3258 review' and you'll find a review that pits the G3258 against the Athlon X4 750K.
 
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wow thank you, that was really fast and even better than I was expecting. Never built a PC before but it doesn't scare me. I just get a bit lost with all the options & if they will go together so it's really helpful that you've put them together for me. Thanks!

BTW - the Pentium G3258 isn't compatible with the mobo selected in part picker by iceblitzed. lol perfect example of what keeps confusing me!
 
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I have taken both your advice (iceblitzed & zeyuanfu) and put together some parts on PCPartpicker. Of course the price has gone up to £500 as I got greedy! If you wouldn't mind having a look & giving me your opinion? Here's what I picked:

CPU Intel Pentium G3258 3.2GHz Dual-Core Processor £43.19
CPU Cooler Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO 82.9 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler £24.25
Motherboard Gigabyte GA-Z97MX-Gaming 5 Micro ATX LGA1150 Motherboard £111.56
Memory Kingston 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-2133 Memory £76.50
Storage Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive £38.70
Video Card Asus GeForce GTX 750 Ti 2GB Video Card £109.99
Case SHARKOON MA-M1000 MicroATX Mid Tower Case £29.99
Power Supply Silverstone Strider Essential 400W 80+ Certified ATX Power Supply £34.08 Operating System Microsoft Windows 7 Professional SP1 (OEM) (64-bit) £36.00
Total: £504.26
 
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Nono. You have to get a different mobo. That was understated... If you want, I could post my first build to give you a reference.
 
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NOOO!!! Don't get a Micro ATX mobo! That is SLI and Crossfire's worst nightmare (according to me). Get the Gaming 5 ATX mobo. Also, don't get a CPU cooler. Get by with the stock cooler and save money.
BTW, lose the case. It's money spent for almost nothing. Here's my first build:http://pcpartpicker.com/user/zeyuanfu.fu/saved/h7snTW
 
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THere is nothing wrong with CF/SLI on an Matx board. I did it for a year with two gtx570s (some of the hottest running gPUs ever made) and I never had problems.

Also, why would he not get a cooler? The WHOLE POINT of that Pentium and the Z97 motherboard is for overclocking. Not overclocking on that board with that CPU is an ENORMOUS waste of money.

Also, DO NOT get a Corsair Cx PSU. They are barely average quality and we strongly recommend against them here.
 
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This is horrible advice. For a gaming PC, you would NEVER want to play in integrated graphics. The Pentium has the lowest Intel HD graphics you can buy and barely gets 30fps in minecraft. Most games will be unplayable. The whole point of the Pentium is to save money for a BETTER GPU.
 
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Well, some mATX boards only have one PCI-E x16 slot, and that effectively prevents SLI and Crossfire. Some may have two, but I just don't like checking them all out. Also, you can overclock a few hundred MHz with the stock cooler, but disregard what I said about losing the cooler (I'm kinda poor so I think of everything I can do to save money).
 
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Well, you save only about 30-50$ over an i3...
I would lose the GPU, though. I only play Minecraft.
 
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Obviously no one is going to but a board that doesn't fully support CF/SLI and try to do it. That was not my point at all.

That Pentium is BUILT for overclocking and is the best overclocking CPU ever made by Intel since the i5 2500k. With a decent cooler, you can go up an entire 1.2ghz effectively adding 30% to the power of the CPU in games that utilize the CPU.
 
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Even Minecraft barely averages 30fps on the Pentium graphics. Again the Pentium is designed to be used WITH a GPU, not without one at all. With the i3 (comes with 4400 graphics) you could easily lock at 60fps in minecraft. Getting the Pentium for minecraft is exactly the OPPOSITE of what you want to do.
 
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It doesn't even beat the Core i7-4790K?
 
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What are you talking about? the i7 is a $350 CPU and the Pentium is a cheap-o CPU. They are not even in the same realm.

The Pentium starts at 3.2 and can go all the way to 5.0 with proper cooling. This is an increase of 1.8ghz. The 4970k starts at 4.0 and can only get to 5.2, which is only 1.2ghz. The
Pentium is a MUCH better overclocker.
 
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lol thanks! Very sound advice. I have taken it & changed the mobo, gotten rid of the case (I can use the one I have) & gotten rid of cooler (is the stock cooler what comes with CPU?) & GPU (I assume I can get one later if I want to upgrade?). Total is now £359 which makes me happy :)

CPU Intel Pentium G3258 3.2GHz Dual-Core £43.19
Motherboard Gigabyte GA-Z97X-GAMING 7 ATX LGA1150 £130.76
Memory Kingston 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-2133 £76.50
Storage Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM £38.70
Power Supply Silverstone 400W ATX12V £34.08
Operating System Microsoft Windows 7 Professional SP1 (OEM) (64-bit) £36.00
 
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NONONO don't lose the GPU! Well, depends on what games you will play.
 
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With no GPU, this is playing exactly ZERO games.
 
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Oh...
 
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Except Minecraft:)
 
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Yeah it is almost as good as the i5 2500k, which is still king of modern day overclocking.
 
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NO, I just explained this. The junk iGPU on the Pentium barely gets 28-30fps in minecraft and it is jumpy. That is NOT good at all. Buying a Pentium and no GPU for minecraft is a HORRIBLE mistake.
 
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