PC upgrade for Extreme Gaming Suggestions

Hussain Ali

Honorable
Sep 10, 2013
87
0
10,660
Approximate Purchase Date: Within next two weeks

Budget Range: Up to £600

System Usage from Most to Least Important: Extreme Gaming (Mostly) and watching movies

Are you buying a monitor: No

Parts to Upgrade: CPU, GPU, Motherboard (may need to for the CPU upgrade) and possibly PSU in case higher wattage needed. Current Parts listed right at the bottom :)

Do you need to buy OS: No

Preferred Website(s) for Parts: dabs, ebuyer, overclockers and Amazon. Other websites are welcome.

Location: UK

Parts Preferences: -------

Overclocking: Yes

SLI or Crossfire: No

Monitor Resolution: 1920x1080

Additional Comments: Please could you list all parts through 'pcpartpicker' for convenience.

And Most Importantly, Why Are You Upgrading: Preparing system for upcoming 'hardware crushing games'.

Current Specifications:

http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/p/NnP2zy

Thank you!
 
Solution
Re-using old parts makes as huge difference, as I mentioned in my first post.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i5-4460 3.2GHz Quad-Core Processor (£143.99 @ Amazon UK)
Motherboard: ASRock H97M PRO4 Micro ATX LGA1150 Motherboard (£66.17 @ Amazon UK)
Memory: A-Data XPG V1.0 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1866 Memory (Purchased For £0.00)
Storage: Seagate Barracuda 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive (Purchased For £0.00)
Video Card: MSI GeForce GTX 970 4GB Video Card (£259.99 @ Novatech)
Case: Zalman Z9 ATX Mid Tower Case (Purchased For £0.00)
Power Supply: Antec TruePower Classic 650W...
Something like this.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: AMD FX-8320 3.5GHz 8-Core Processor (£110.22 @ Amazon UK)
Motherboard: ASRock 970 Extreme3 R2.0 ATX AM3+ Motherboard (£61.16 @ Scan.co.uk)
Memory: Kingston Fury Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1866 Memory (£56.12 @ Amazon UK)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive (£34.45 @ Aria PC)
Video Card: MSI Radeon R9 280 3GB TWIN FROZR Video Card (£149.99 @ Amazon UK)
Case: Corsair SPEC-03 Red ATX Mid Tower Case (£45.80 @ Aria PC)
Power Supply: Antec TruePower Classic 650W 80+ Gold Certified ATX Power Supply (£59.98 @ Amazon UK)
Optical Drive: Samsung SH-224DB/BEBE DVD/CD Writer (£10.50 @ CCL Computers)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 8.1 (OEM) (64-bit) (£74.20 @ Amazon UK)
Total: £602.42
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-02-16 01:15 GMT+0000

If a completely new system, otherwise, you can use your existing HDD and ODD, case and memory. THEN you can get a GREAT GPU with the saved money.
 


Wouldn't an Intel CPU be better for extreme gaming?
 
Compare to this:

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i5-4690K 3.5GHz Quad-Core Processor (£181.00 @ Amazon UK)
Motherboard: ASRock Z97M Pro4 Micro ATX LGA1150 Motherboard (£80.36 @ Scan.co.uk)
Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws X Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1866 Memory (£54.98 @ Novatech)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive (£34.45 @ Aria PC)
Video Card: MSI Radeon R9 280 3GB TWIN FROZR Video Card (£149.99 @ Amazon UK)
Case: Corsair SPEC-03 Red ATX Mid Tower Case (£45.80 @ Aria PC)
Power Supply: Antec TruePower Classic 650W 80+ Gold Certified ATX Power Supply (£59.98 @ Amazon UK)
Optical Drive: Samsung SH-224DB/BEBE DVD/CD Writer (£10.50 @ CCL Computers)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 8.1 (OEM) (64-bit) (£74.20 @ Amazon UK)
Total: £691.26
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-02-16 20:01 GMT+0000

Extreme gaming means overclocked CPU and good GPU. The FX8350 is capable of fully driving the GPU and the motherboard will provide moderate overclocking.

Your budget needs to be more.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i5-4460 3.2GHz Quad-Core Processor (£143.99 @ Amazon UK)
Motherboard: ASRock H97M PRO4 Micro ATX LGA1150 Motherboard (£66.17 @ Amazon UK)
Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws X Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1866 Memory (£54.98 @ Novatech)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive (£34.45 @ Aria PC)
Video Card: MSI Radeon R9 280 3GB TWIN FROZR Video Card (£149.99 @ Amazon UK)
Case: Corsair SPEC-03 Red ATX Mid Tower Case (£45.80 @ Aria PC)
Power Supply: Antec TruePower Classic 650W 80+ Gold Certified ATX Power Supply (£59.98 @ Amazon UK)
Optical Drive: Samsung SH-224DB/BEBE DVD/CD Writer (£10.50 @ CCL Computers)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 8.1 (OEM) (64-bit) (£74.20 @ Amazon UK)
Total: £640.06
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-02-16 20:06 GMT+0000

Even a lower-end Intel CPU still busts your budget.
 


I already have a few parts: ram, storage, case, optical drive and OS. I wouldn't need to change them would I? Current system: http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/p/FX48Jx
 
Re-using old parts makes as huge difference, as I mentioned in my first post.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i5-4460 3.2GHz Quad-Core Processor (£143.99 @ Amazon UK)
Motherboard: ASRock H97M PRO4 Micro ATX LGA1150 Motherboard (£66.17 @ Amazon UK)
Memory: A-Data XPG V1.0 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1866 Memory (Purchased For £0.00)
Storage: Seagate Barracuda 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive (Purchased For £0.00)
Video Card: MSI GeForce GTX 970 4GB Video Card (£259.99 @ Novatech)
Case: Zalman Z9 ATX Mid Tower Case (Purchased For £0.00)
Power Supply: Antec TruePower Classic 650W 80+ Gold Certified ATX Power Supply (£59.98 @ Amazon UK)
Optical Drive: Samsung SH-224DB/BEBE DVD/CD Writer (£0.00)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 8.1 (OEM) (64-bit) (£74.20 @ Amazon UK)
Total: £604.33
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-02-16 20:24 GMT+0000

With this build, the PSU could be reduced to a 520W and that would get us under six hundred.
 
Solution


Thank you!
 

That's debatable... an AMD will hold up just fine. "Extreme gaming" is all personal opinion.
 


Certainly is. That was about the best you can do for 600 pounds and the FX8320 would have served well, although I would have hoped to be able to tune to a FX8350 and a slightly better motherboard.