Budget build with wierd buying locations and multiple builds...

computers_are_freaky

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Aug 11, 2015
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Ok, hi guys, I am looking to build a PC for Christmas and have therefore done my research and asked around. I need a build for about £323 or 438 euros (this may go up another £30-40 euros, depending how much I earn before black Friday). This is because I live in Italy, but am going back to England for the holidays. I have seen that prices vary quite a lot at times on some products, but both ways, so some things are a lot cheaper in Italy, some are cheaper in England.
I can bring anything back with me in my suitcase, except for the PC case. Just to be clear, the budget I showed before is a total, so not both, only one or the other.

Parts I "MIGHT" be able to get from friends, used of course, but not too long:
GTX 770 (unlikely) [used for almost three years now]
FX 4300 (almost certain) [used for barely a year]
motherboard friend is using for overclocking the FX 4300 (maybe) [used for barely a year]
old banged up case from school that me and my friends are going to be modding (almost certain)
1 Tb hard drive 7200Rpm (not sure yet)

The case is terrible, but with some dremel cutting, some rubber used for the edges of car doors, some paint and a lot of cleaning fluid, it should come out great.

I haven't asked about the hard drive yet

I might have to buy the gtx, but I'm not sure if he will upgrade to a gtx 970 yet.

The motherboard depends on what CPU he is upgrading to.

Anyway, I was planning on going with:
Athlon X4 860K (if I can't get his CPU)
GTX 950 (if the gtx 770 is a no go and I can't get the CPU) otherwise a GTX 960 G1 GAMING
HYPER X 1866 Mhz RAM
XFX 550W 80+ GOLD power supply

I want to overclock a LOT to compete with my friend (it's a sort of game for us, who can get the best benchmark scores and highest overclocks), so any pieces you recommend must allow massive overclocking on CPU and GPU, I'm not really bothered about RAM, I only game and do light school work, so 1866Mhz is fine.

I would prefer it if a stock cooler could be included.

I want to buy all my pieces on black Friday, be they in England or Italy, and have them sent to my family so I can pick them up.

Please post some suggestions as far as price, where to buy and when to buy because that is more important to me right now, as long as price/performance is good.

Thank you all so much for helping me and sitting through my insanely long description.
 
Depending on the game, a overclocked G3258 is an inexpensive winner.
Strategy games, sims, mmo types typically are cpu limited and depend on a single fast master thread.
Fast action shooters are more graphics limited.

Here is a direct comparison with a X4-860K:
http://www.techspot.com/review/1017-best-budget-gaming-cpu/

The stock intel cooler may get noisy, but will do the job if your modded case has decent intake airflow.
You are likely to run out of tolerance for safe voltage levels before you run out of thermal headroom.
The range of expected overclocks is in the range of 25% to 40%, depending on your luck in getting a good chip.
 
I have come across these things as well, but I am an amature youtuber, and my dual core (core 2 Duo) I am using now slightly overclocked just isn't cutting it. I can't even run a decent game, let alone a game and recording software and skype...
I have just started playing robocraft and am trying to record, but my god, it's impossible. (I use a laptop right now)
Just a secondary note, I have a licensed windows 8.1 Pro flash drive/boot drive (whatever the term may be)
 


Very interesting article, and I openly admit that the g3258 is the clear winner at gaming, but a lot of those games has MSAA turned on (I won't have it turned on, I personally see very little benefit compared to the fps gain)
and anyway, if anyone owns both these CPUs and reads this thread (unlikely) then please test a few games with both, and running a skype group call and OBS recording in 1080p also. I know this is a lot to ask, but it would be a huge help. Thanks.