Gaming rig around £300 - any recommendations?

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mossi

mossi

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Feb 27, 2013
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I'm trying to build a gaming rig for a friend around £300 or just over.

He doesn't need everything to be replaced but we're currently getting the following:
-AMD FX-4300 3.8GHz Socket AM3+ 8MB Cache Retail Boxed Processor
-Sapphire PULSE Radeon RX 560 4GB GDDR5 Graphics Card
-HyperX FURY 8 GB (2 x 4 GB) DDR3 1866 MHz CL10 DIMM Memory Module Kit - Black
-Corsair CP-9020049-UK VS Series ATX/EPS 80 PLUS Power Supply Unit, 450 W
-ASUS AMD AM3+ 760G 2*DDR3 8*USB2.0 GBE LAN Micro-ATX MOTHERBOARD

This takes to about £315 between ebuyer and amazon.

He'll be doing some casual FPS gaming and other on a 1680x1050p monitor. He's not too fussed about framerates and whatnot but he wants something decent.

Do you have any recommendations as to anything else that might be more value for money?

Or for example is it worth to spend another £12 (seeing as we're already over budget) and get the FX-6300 instead? Or can we downgrade to 4Gbs DDR3 (it'll be windows 10 most likely)

Any ideas/recommendations would be appreciated!
 
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Don't go with FX, it's really outdated and doesn't perform very good.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel - Pentium G4560 3.5GHz Dual-Core Processor (£57.54 @ Aria PC)
Motherboard: MSI - B250M PRO-VH Micro ATX LGA1151 Motherboard (£51.98 @ CCL Computers)
Memory: Kingston - FURY 4GB (1 x 4GB) DDR4-2666 Memory (£35.99 @ Ebuyer)
Storage: Western Digital - Caviar Blue 500GB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive (£31.99 @ AWD-IT)
Video Card: PowerColor - Radeon RX 550 2GB Red Dragon Video Card (£78.66 @ Ebuyer)
Case: Rosewill - FBM-X1 MicroATX Mini Tower Case (£19.71 @ Amazon UK)
Power Supply: Corsair - CXM (2015) 450W 80+ Bronze Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply (£51.49 @ Novatech)
Total: £327.36
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2018-01-23 13:19 GMT+0000

CPU Difference.
http://cpu.userbenchmark.com/Compare/Intel-Pentium-G4560-vs-AMD-FX-4300/3892vs2879
GPU Difference.
http://gpu.userbenchmark.com/Compare/AMD-RX-560-vs-AMD-RX-550/3926vs3925

Windows 10 ISO.
https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-download/windows10

If you can, go with a single DDR4 8gb stick.
 
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First, keep the 8GB. Windows 10 typically requires 2-3 GB to run normally.

Also, did you check if the PSU have enough wattage to support all the hardware? Some cards recommend at least 500W. I found an 850W corsair PSU at Best Buy so you might look there if you need one with more power.

You shouldn't need to upgrade the processor for any FPS games.

What FPS games are going to be played? Some can be more intensive on the video card than others.

 
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Thank you for that, I wasn't aware that the Pentium G4560 is so powerful. That certainly puts a different spin on things.
I'll explore options on it or just go with the CPU+mobo combo.

In terms of 8GBs DDR3 (and maybe I'm stuck in the middle ages a bit) isn't it better if it's a matched pair for a dual channel configuration or is that now a thing of the past?

He's ok for SSD+HDD+case etc so we're not getting them unless it's absolutely necessary.
He only needs what I listed above.

 
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I see, it is better to run memory in dual channel but since the motherboard I selected has only two slots I figured going with a single stick will be better for upgrades.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel - Pentium G4560 3.5GHz Dual-Core Processor (£57.54 @ Aria PC)
Motherboard: MSI - B250M PRO-VH Micro ATX LGA1151 Motherboard (£51.98 @ CCL Computers)
Memory: Crucial - 8GB (1 x 8GB) DDR4-2400 Memory (£60.17 @ Amazon UK)
Video Card: PowerColor - Radeon RX 550 2GB Red Dragon Video Card (£78.66 @ Ebuyer)
Power Supply: Corsair - CXM (2015) 450W 80+ Bronze Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply (£51.49 @ Novatech)
Total: £299.84
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2018-01-23 13:37 GMT+0000
 
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BF4 I think he wants to play and similar stuff.
In terms of PSU I'm pretty sure that's enough.
It's the only field that I'm 100% sure it'll work ok. It's not so much the wattage it needs rather than the actual amperage that the card needs and the CPUs are getting less and less power hungry. I did consider the 350W one but for £3 extra on Amazon it's a no-brainer to get the 450watts.
Plus I'm a Corsair fanboy 😀
 
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@ wildcard,m I agree Fx 4300 isn't very good, but offering him a dual core that isn't much better in power is confusing me.
vsjAvwI.png


but that said, I have not found any "300 quid " gaming system even though the I3-8100 would be a much better replacement. (costs less then the Ryzen 3 1200)
 
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What about the graphics card?
Isn't the RX560 better or not worth the extra money to see a decent performance vs value ratio?
 
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How much value do you put towards User PC Benchmarks?
For example:
http://cpu.userbenchmark.com/Compare/Intel-Pentium-G4560-vs-AMD-FX-4300/3892vs2879

According to this it's 33% better or so
But is that in actual gaming performance only 14% faster.. albeit around the same price.

If I were to replace it with said I3 it shows a bigger improvement.
http://cpu.userbenchmark.com/Compare/Intel-Core-i3-8100-vs-AMD-FX-4300/3942vs2879

Then again in this case the question becomes, is it worth to spend that much money on a CPU provided he won't be playing anything CPU intensive like strategy games? Will the I3 drive the RX560 so much better than the G4560 or the FX4300/6300?

I know I'm being very pedantic but I did promise him around £300 for said parts and the easiest thing to do is to spend more 😀

ps. he won't be using it for anything else more intensive than games so even the G4560 will be that much more powerful than his current CPU (an older AMD one - cant remember which one exactly)
 
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The G4560 may only be a dual core but it does have 4 threads, at that resolution the CPU is more then enough for games such as BF4. As for the RX 560 if he can afford it then go for it as it does perform a bit better.

I agree the 1200 or 8100 would be better however I was trying to stay within budget and the Coffeelake budget boards aren't out yet.
 
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I’m just going to give you my two cents...
I personally use a Pentium G4560 with a gtx 1050 (regular) as an all around system (web browsing, some gaming, etc) I played rocket league with 8 gb of ram at an uncapped 150ish FPS (even though the monitor only hits 60). Some first person shooter games (such as CS:GO) do pretty good too. Anything that can be graphically intense it did struggle on though, and don’t try to multitask too much at once. Although I can take 2 or 3 programs at once (assuming I’m not gaming)
 
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I agree that a G4560 would likely be the best option here. It might only be dual-core, but it has Hyperthreading to help it handle four threads more effectively. It would definitely be faster than the FX processor, especially in cases where one or two threads require more performance than the others, which is often the case in many games. And of course, if they ever want to upgrade for better gaming performance, there's a good selection of faster CPUs that use the same motherboard as the G4560, while the FX line of processors is outdated, and a lot more limited in terms of performance upgrades.

While the i3-8100 might have more physical cores that can help performance in more heavily multithreaded games, its biggest problem is that Intel still hasn't released lower-end motherboard chipsets to go with it yet, so the only motherboards available now are all relatively expensive enthusiast models with some features that won't even benefit that CPU.

As for the PSU, a 450 watt model should be far more than enough. The G4560 has only a 54 watt TDP and an RX 550 only draws around 50 watts under load. Even with the other components, such a system wouldn't likely ever be drawing much more than about 150 watts from the PSU. The RX 560 uses around 100 watts under load, so again, with that setup, you probably still wouldn't ever see power draw much over 200 watts from the PSU. A 450 watt PSU would likely be a good fit for that, and should also have room to spare for upgrades in the future.
 
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Where can you find an i3-8100 for less than a Ryzen 1200? At least here in the US, the i3-8100 currently costs around $130, and its motherboards start around $100 after mail-in rebate, while the Ryzen 1200 costs around $100, and overclocking capable motherboards for it can be found for around $60. So, a CPU and mobo for the i3-8100 together starts around $230, while the same for the Ryzen 1200 starts around $160. The i3 setup might be a little faster when performance is not limited by the graphics card, but it currently costs close to 50% more, not less, and is arguably not worth it at all for a build on a tight budget. Even the Ryzen 1200 might be stretching the budget a bit much for this build, though it might be another option worth looking at.

As I mentioned though, without a graphics card that can push these CPUs to their limits, the performance differences between them will likely be fairly minor in most games. That money would probably be better put toward the graphics card, since an RX 550, or a similarly performing GT 1030, is less than ideal for a gaming-focused build, even at a lower-resolution like 1680x1050. Something around the performance of an RX 560 or GTX 1050 would be a much better fit, unless the budget really doesn't allow for it.

Of course, it's also worth mentioning that cryptocurrency mining has made a mess of GPU prices recently, and practically all mid-range to high-end graphics cards cost way more than they should right now. The RX 560 and GTX 1050 are at the edge of the range of cards really getting caught up in this, but if you can find one for a not-too-inflated price, it might be worth getting over the lower-end options.
 
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Well this is what I found, the difference is 20 quid mate. between the 8100 and the 1200 in total price, and only 10 quid between cpus themselves

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel - Core i3-8100 3.6GHz Quad-Core Processor (£94.79 @ Aria PC)
Motherboard: Gigabyte - Z370P D3 ATX LGA1151 Motherboard (£92.97 @ Box Limited)
Memory: Crucial - Ballistix Sport LT 8GB (1 x 8GB) DDR4-2666 Memory (£84.13 @ BT Shop)
Total: £271.89
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2018-01-23 15:20 GMT+0000

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: AMD - Ryzen 3 1200 3.1GHz Quad-Core Processor (£83.99 @ Aria PC)
Motherboard: Asus - TUF B350M-PLUS GAMING Micro ATX AM4 Motherboard (£84.99 @ AWD-IT)
Memory: Crucial - Sport LT 8GB (1 x 8GB) DDR4-2400 Memory (£82.96 @ Aria PC)
Total: £251.94
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2018-01-23 15:21 GMT+0000
 
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Pentium G4560 and B250 mobo, just built one for a pal with that in it, albeit budget was £450, but I put a GTX1050Ti in it. Anything slower than the G4560 probably isn't going to have the guts for it. And go for the CX series PSU, the VS ones aren't good. If you can stretch to an i3-8100 as suggested above that would be quality, but if you're then only putting and RX550 or similar in with it's probably wasted anyway and I'd be surprised if you can manage that with £300 if you need a new PSU...
 
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I think that's what he's after too. When you say graphically intense what you mean? would BF4 fall into that category? Unfortunately I haven't caught up with games like that but I would assume it's possibly graphically intense.
 
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My actual choice was for RX 560 (not 550 that has been quoted above). I did consider the 1050ti but it seemed a bit over the budget whereas the RX560 seemed to slightly outperform the 1050(plain) with a slightly lower price.

When you say the VS ones aren't that good what exactly do you mean? It won't be a heavily used gaming rig but more of a casual one and in any case I don't think the PSU is going to struggle with any CPU/GPU choice nor does he care too much about fan noises etc.

I did originally go for the FX-6300 watching older reviews (from Tek Syndicate I believe) that they were pitting it against the i7s of its time and it was performing admirably.
 
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In terms of motherboards, and if we're talking about a casual user that will not overclock, is it worth spending any extra money on a motherboard? is there that much of a noticeable difference from one chipset to another in terms of gaming performance?

ie can i get something cheaper than the B250 intel chipset? for example Intel H110

 
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Well for BF4 even if you have a high end system I would recommend all settings on Low, AA off & Mesh Quality on Ultra for distant targets. Doing this will keep all the extra distracting stuff off so you can focus more on the competitive part. This also keeps FPS high so if you have a high refresh monitor such as 144hz you should be able to utilize it, BF4 caps the FPS at 200.
 
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I think "graphically intense" would not be the most accurate way to describe games that can be demanding on the CPU. Most visual effects rely more on graphics card performance than on CPU performance. You can turn graphics options down to improve performance, but that can only improve performance so far when the CPU is the limiting factor. Games like Battlefield and PUBG can be demanding on the CPU due to the large number of players in the game at once, and the relatively large, open battlefield. It's possible at times to end up with dozens of players together in the same area, and for each one the CPU needs to calculate things like movement physics, bullet trajectories and in general predict where things should be to reduce the effects of latency in multiplayer games, and things like that can impact performance as well.

By the way, Battlefield 4 is over four years old now. Battlefield 1 is the latest installment, and has been out for a little over a year. If you're not keeping track of game releases, the naming may seem illogical, but Battlefield 1 is named as such due to it taking place during World War 1. The first Battlefield game was actually called Battlefield 1942, so there wasn't actually a "Battlefield 1" until this one. : P


From what I've gathered, the GTX 1050 and RX 560 tend to trade blows, with each being faster in different games. The RX 560 tends to perform faster in certain newer, more demanding games, while the 1050 is often a bit faster in other games. Either one would probably be a reasonable choice within this price range.

There are actually multiple versions of the RX 560 though, which can complicate things a bit. To start, both cards with 2GB and 4GB of VRAM are available. At the resolutions these cards are built for though, the vast majority of today's games won't see any performance benefit from the version with more VRAM, so the 2GB version is probably enough. The second differentiating factor might be a bit less obvious though, and that is that AMD started releasing a slightly lower-cost version of the RX 560 with only 896 shader units available, as opposed to the 1024 units in the original version. I haven't seen any detailed benchmarks comparing the 896 shader version with the 1024 shader version, but it will likely perform a bit slower, closer to what the RX 460 did, and in most cases a bit behind the GTX 1050. Again, that version might still offer a decent value depending on the price though, and any of these cards would be a fair amount faster than the RX 550 some were suggesting.


Honestly, I think you could probably get away with a lower-end, name-brand PSU in a budget build like this. A higher-end PSU can often provide more stable voltages, and perhaps be less prone to damaging other components in the event of a failure, but in general probably won't make that much of a difference unless you are pushing them hard. I would just make sure to stay away from the ultra-cheap, off-brand PSUs.
 
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Got a link for that?
I don't think he'll go for 2nd hand parts plus he wants me to show him how to build it
 
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