First time builder, will this work? (£500 gaming PC)

[steffaaan]

Hello all,

I've been looking at the very useful information on this website and have come up with a build that I hope will work. I would be grateful if you could look it over. Any suggestions / input would be great!

Approximate Purchase Date: Next few weeks

Budget Range: £450 - £500

System Usage: Some gaming (Minecraft, Sims 3, Portal 2), some CAD, word processing, internet etc.

Are you buying a monitor: No

Do you need to buy OS: No

Preferred Website(s) for Parts: amazon.co.uk, or uk based

Location: Wales, UK

Parts Preferences: none

Overclocking: No

SLI or Crossfire: No

Your Monitor Resolution: 1440*900

Additional Comments:

Why Are You Upgrading: 6 year old laptop driving me nuts!


Here's what I've come up with:

http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/p/1Ce09



Cheers!

 

[CraigN]

I don't see anything wrong with that build. Should be good to go for light gaming + all your other needs.

 

[kulmnar]

This build will probably not work. The motherboard you have picked is not compatible with the CPU out-of-the-box. The motherboard will probably need a bios update in order to work with the 6300 cpu. See the CPU support list of Asrock (http://www.asrock.com/mb/AMD/970%20Extreme4/?cat=CPU), it shows that you need bios version 2.10 for the 6300 cpu however the motherboard can ship with bios version as low as 1.20.

 

[steffaaan]

Which motherboard would you suggest? I was hoping for something under £100. Do you think it's worth spending more than that to make it slightly more future proof?

Cheers

 

[CraigN]

This build will probably not work. The motherboard you have picked is not compatible with the CPU out-of-the-box. The motherboard will probably need a bios update in order to work with the 6300 cpu. See the CPU support list of Asrock (http://www.asrock.com/mb/AMD/970%20Extreme4/?cat=CPU), it shows that you need bios version 2.10 for the 6300 cpu however the motherboard can ship with bios version as low as 1.20.

Good catch. I didn't notice that. You might be able to switch to the ASUS 990FX or 990X board for just a little bit more, both *should* (Correct me if I'm wrong kulmnar) support the Vishera CPU out of the box. I'm not sure if there's a better offering from Gigabyte or MSI in that price range that's immediately compatible.

 

[kulmnar]

Which motherboard would you suggest? I was hoping for something under £100. Do you think it's worth spending more than that to make it slightly more future proof?

Cheers

This is the difficult part, there are no AM3+ motherboards that are guaranteed to support Piledriver CPUs out-of-the-box (the 6300 is a Piledriver cpu). Since Piledriver has been out awhile, the motherboard that you get may support it out-of-the-box. If it doesn't, you will need a cheap Athlon II X2 or X3 cpu to plug in to the motherboard in order to update the BIOS, and then take out the cheap CPU and add the 6300 and build your system. Here's the cheapest Athlon II AM3 cpu I could find from the vendor that you are buying your 6300 from: http://www.aria.co.uk/SuperSpecials/Other+products/AMD+Athlon+II+X3+450+3.20GHz+%28Socket+AM3%29+Processor+-+Retail+?productId=41578

 

[steffaaan]

Thanks both. In that case, kulmnar, do you think it would be more cost effective to use a different cpu? What about a build with a i5-3570 for example? The reason I chose the fx 6300 is that it has pretty good reviews and is well received. It is also cheap!

 

[kulmnar]

Thanks both. In that case, kulmnar, do you think it would be more cost effective to use a different cpu? What about a build with a i5-3570 for example? The reason I chose the fx 6300 is that it has pretty good reviews and is well received. It is also cheap!

I recommend an i5-3570k with the following motherboard without needing to update the bios because it supports that CPU out of the box based on Gigabyte's CPU support list:
http://www.aria.co.uk/Products/Components/Motherboards/Intel+Socket/Socket+1155+-+Intel+Z77/GIGABYTE+GA-Z77-D3H+Intel+Z77+%28Socket+1155%29+ATX+Motherboard+?productId=49019

Note that there are cheaper motherboards that support the i5-3570k CPU out of the box, but I recommend getting the i5-3570k with the motherboard above to avoid headaches.

 

[kulmnar]

I also noticed you are buying a GT640 for a video card. That card is weak and is not even considered an entry level gaming card. Get at least a GTX 660 if you want to buy an Nvidia card or at least an HD7850 if you want to buy an AMD card.

 

[steffaaan]

Thanks kulmnar. I obviously need a re-think! Back to the drawing board.