New Build Parts Advice :)

[Guest]

Approximate Purchase Date: June/July

Budget Range: £400/$650 before shipping

System Usage from Most to Least Important: Gaming

Are you buying a monitor: No

Do you need to buy OS: No

Preferred Website(s) for Parts: Amazon UK or eBuyer

Location: England

Parts Preferences: None

Overclocking: Maybe

SLI or Crossfire: No

And Most Importantly, Why Are You Upgrading: I try to play on my laptop, which barely runs Half Life :S

Thanks!

 

[ehanger]

i3 3220 - $120
radeon 7870 - $220
1155 motherboard - $60
8GB ram - $30
decent psu - $60
case - $40
optical - $15
1TB hardrive / 128GB ssd your choice - $100

Total before shipping: $645, with combos could go lower

 

[wanderer11]

For that price skip the ssd. I would look at a phenom x4 965 for your budget too and a 7850 will be fine. Are you going to build this yourself?

 

[Guest]

For that price skip the ssd. I would look at a phenom x4 965 for your budget too and a 7850 will be fine. Are you going to build this yourself?

Yeah, thats what I was thinking and yes this will be my first build. I am 15 years old

 

[wanderer11]

Try this:
Phenom x4 965
7850
970 mobo
2x4GB ddr3
haf 912
xfx 550W
any odd you want
500GB caviar blue
windows 7 64 bit
I'm sure it is over your budget, but you really won't get much for $650. I'm sure you need peripherals too.

 

[tiny voices]

http://pcpartpicker.com/uk/p/pYdy

I would do this. Basically same thing I have and I love it.

 

[wanderer11]

I like tiny voices' build, but would opt for a 7850.

 

[edogawa]

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: AMD FX-4170 4.2GHz Quad-Core Processor (£91.91 @ Amazon UK)
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-78LMT-S2 Micro ATX AM3+ Motherboard
Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Black 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive (£74.86 @ Amazon UK)
Video Card: Asus GeForce GTX 660 2GB Video Card (£185.99 @ Overclockers.co.uk)
Case: Cooler Master HAF 912 Plus ATX Mid Tower Case (£64.69 @ Scan.co.uk)
Power Supply: SeaSonic G 550W 80 PLUS Gold Certified ATX12V / EPS12V Power Supply
Optical Drive: LG GH24NS90 DVD/CD Writer (£13.98 @ Novatech)
Total: £431.43
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2012-11-28 18:38 GMT+0000)

 

[ehanger]

I would go with the i3 for the following reasons: faster in most games than the phII, and the lga 1155 socket will allow for upgrades to the i5/i7 if necessary in the future.

 

[slatanek]

AsRock B75 Pro3-M (good audio codec, SATA3, USB3, PCIE3 with IvyBridge; NO OC though) £56

http://www.amazon.co.uk/ASRock-B75-Motherboard-Instant-Charger/dp/B007RQ0HSA

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

i5 3470 (i3 3220 would be ok, but i5 is more future proof - 4 physical cores) £146.98

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Intel-I5-3470-Processor-3-20GHZ-Socket/dp/B0083U94CO/ref=sr_1_1? s=computers&ie=UTF8&qid=1354129745&sr=1-1

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Sapphire HD7850 2GB GDDR5 (good cooling, good GPU OC) £155.00

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Sapphire-11200-07-20G-Graphics-HD7850-GDDR5/dp/B008HV63NM/ref=sr_1_4?s=computers&ie=UTF8&qid=1354129866&sr=1-4

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Corsair TX550M (very good PSU, detachable cables for beter airflow) £56.38

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Corsair-TX550M-Enthusiast-Series-Modular/dp/B005DGEMKK/ref=sr_1_1?s=computers&ie=UTF8&qid=1354130191&sr=1-1

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Fractal Design Core 1000 (good small case, very good airflow, but only 3 HDD bays) £34.28

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Fractal-Design-Core-Series-Micro/dp/B004ZH18G4/ref=sr_1_1?s=computers&ie=UTF8&qid=1354130255&sr=1-1

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Corsair Vengance LowProfile 8GB 1600MHz 9-9-9-24 (low profile memory, more room for airflow) £32.47

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Corsair-CML8GX3M2A1600C9-Vengeance-1600MHz-Memory/dp/B00569K7LM/ref=sr_1_3?s=computers&ie=UTF8&qid=1354130420&sr=1-3

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

WesternDigital Caviar Black 1TB 7200RPM (good drive) £74.86

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Western-Digital-WD1002FAEX-Caviar-Internal/dp/B0036Q7MV0/ref=sr_1_8?s=computers&ie=UTF8&qid=1354130549&sr=1-8

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

TOTAL: £556

you can go with i3 3220 to save about £60


In general I wouldn't go with AMD CPU. They lack in performance compared to Intel and AMD's efficiency is waaaaay of.
Intel's B75 chipset is a good cheap option if you don't plan to OC the CPU (the same performance as Z77). GPU and RAM OC is still possible though.
I have the above components so I know what I'm talking about. My PC runs cool and silent - CPU max temp during 4x 100% load is around 70°C, GPU max temp during 100% load is around 69°C (fan is set to 40% so its completely silent). The only thing I hear is the main fan which is only audible if your room is silent.

good luck!