Budget Gaming build

[Gallarian]

Hey guys,

Just got a message from a friend who wants to build his girlfriend a gaming/music production PC this Christmas, on a pretty tight budget. I know my way around mid-high end systems, but I've not much experience in the budget area, so thought Id post on here for some different opinions.

Details:

- Budget: £400-450
- Components NOT needed: GPU (already got a GTX 680), OS, Monitor, KB+M
- Uses: Gaming (GTA:V, League of Legends, Total War, City builders etc) and Music Production


My original advice was to stick with Haswell, as Skylake and the Z170 platform is still pretty pricey and she won't need M.2 support, but now the lower-end chips are out, is Skylake an option?

Cheers guys,
Joe

 

[timeconsumer]

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i5-4460 3.2GHz Quad-Core Processor (£134.92 @ Amazon UK)
Motherboard: MSI H97 PC MATE ATX LGA1150 Motherboard (£61.66 @ Amazon UK)
Memory: Kingston HyperX Fury Blue 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1866 Memory (£33.48 @ Amazon UK)
Storage: Samsung 850 EVO-Series 250GB 2.5" Solid State Drive (£58.60 @ Amazon UK)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive (£39.82 @ CCL Computers)
Case: NZXT S340 (White) ATX Mid Tower Case (£54.72 @ CCL Computers)
Power Supply: XFX 550W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply (£51.36 @ CCL Computers)
Total: £434.56
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-11-28 17:01 GMT+0000

You can also scrap the SSD and get a Xeon 1231v3.

 

[Archaic59]

Skylake option-

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i5-6500 3.2GHz Quad-Core Processor (£158.99 @ Ebuyer)
Motherboard: ASRock H170 Pro4 ATX LGA1151 Motherboard (£86.96 @ More Computers)
Memory: Corsair Vengeance LPX 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR4-2133 Memory (£41.94 @ Aria PC)
Storage: Seagate Barracuda 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive (£29.99 @ Aria PC)
Case: Cooler Master N300 ATX Mid Tower Case (£33.06 @ Amazon UK)
Power Supply: XFX XTR 550W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply (£65.92 @ More Computers)
Optical Drive: Samsung SH-224DB/BEBE DVD/CD Writer (£9.00 @ CCL Computers)
Total: £425.86
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-11-28 17:02 GMT+0000

 

[Dark Lord of Tech]

i5 \ SSD \ Phanteks Case \ XFX Gold 650W.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i5-6400 2.7GHz Quad-Core Processor (£138.98 @ Aria PC)
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-H170M-D3H Micro ATX LGA1151 Motherboard (£76.98 @ Aria PC)
Memory: Kingston HyperX Fury Black 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR4-2133 Memory (£41.70 @ More Computers)
Storage: Samsung 850 EVO-Series 120GB 2.5" Solid State Drive (£43.96 @ Amazon UK)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive (£39.82 @ CCL Computers)
Case: Phanteks Enthoo Pro M ATX Mid Tower Case (£50.54 @ Aria PC)
Power Supply: XFX TS 650W 80+ Gold Certified ATX Power Supply (£58.26 @ CCL Computers)
Total: £450.24
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-11-28 17:03 GMT+0000