Gaming PC - £700 Budget, what should i get?

[tmcd35]

Don't get me wrong, in an ideal build it'd be i5 all the way, but at £700 you have to make compromises and decisions, and for a build-once-never-upgrade I'd rather spend on the GPU. That said, if you do want to be able to upgrade in 4-5 years, it's a lot easier getting a new GPU than a new CPU, so in that regard a solid foundation of i5 will stand you in better stead. You gotta make your choice (and I gotta do some work at some point, seriously)

 

100% agree. Since this is a complete new build, as discussed in a previous post, you've got to factor in the hidden extras - about £150-£200 worth (unless you want to save £80 or so and go Linux). This means your PC build is nearer £500-550. Spending £150 on a CPU isn't going to leave much for everything else, unless you up the budget.

 

I'm tempted to go on eBuyer and post my idea of a rig for this budget - but I too have to do some work today/this week.

[3s-gtech]

FM2 has a decent upgrade path as yet to FM2+ - AMD have usually been a little better than Intel on this (forgetting FM1!). The AM2 line has been good - AM2, AM2+, AM3, AM3+. Across those four sockets it was possible to take CPUs backwards and forwards across the generations. Intel have been much tighter with that - look at the number of incompatible sockets released since Nehalem (plus the fact that LGA775 was a fussy beast).

 

AMD cannot compete on raw power against Intel - but look at some price/performance reviews of the kit and you'll see that it stacks up just fine against it's true competitors (Pentiums, usually). For gaming duties there will be a frame rate drop, but the GPU is far more important to this (as has been said). Good discussion though.

[sonofsanta]

This may be relevant... http://www.edugeek.net/forums/our-advertisers/128274-verypc-webshop-now-open-2.html#post1096044

 

Could always get the base PC from there and add in a GPU/beefier PSU, though VeryPC will probably just do you the whole thing if you ask. Could be a good saving, not yet had a quote from them to know how deep the edu discount is.

[Pyroman]

Thanks guys, like i said it's not purely a gaming rig but i see where you're coming from, for the other tasks i'm going to do the AMD CPU would probably be just fine. And there i was all happy i'd made a choice! Back to the drawing board! Also i don't mind not including an OS in the budget, i can stretch to get a copy of windows so call it a £700 PC + OS cost. I've also got a crappy old VGA monitor and a TV with HDMI which i know isn't ideal but it'll do till i save up a bit so call it £700 for the actual rig + £OS + £nice monitor. I've got a few keyboards and mice kicking about at home and an old SATA DVD Writer.

[Pyroman]

This may be relevant... http://www.edugeek.net/forums/our-advertisers/128274-verypc-webshop-now-open-2.html#post1096044

 

Could always get the base PC from there and add in a GPU/beefier PSU, though VeryPC will probably just do you the whole thing if you ask. Could be a good saving, not yet had a quote from them to know how deep the edu discount is.

 

I'll have to get in touch when i finally get an idea for a final rig, they're just down the road from me.

[3s-gtech]

Use the extra from the cost of the OS on the GPU, you know it makes sense

[Arthur]

Saying "get i5 because the FM2 platform has no upgrade path" is a bit disingenous though

The FX CPUs are AM3+. Nothing to do with FM2.

[sonofsanta]

The FX CPUs are AM3+. Nothing to do with FM2.

 

Er, yeah. What he said.

 

Point still stands

 

/not getting enough sleep, not paying enough attention

[tmcd35]

Thanks guys, like i said it's not purely a gaming rig but i see where you're coming from, for the other tasks i'm going to do the AMD CPU would probably be just fine. And there i was all happy i'd made a choice! Back to the drawing board! Also i don't mind not including an OS in the budget, i can stretch to get a copy of windows so call it a £700 PC + OS cost. I've also got a crappy old VGA monitor and a TV with HDMI which i know isn't ideal but it'll do till i save up a bit so call it £700 for the actual rig + £OS + £nice monitor. I've got a few keyboards and mice kicking about at home and an old SATA DVD Writer.

 

It always helps having some of the odd bits laying around, more for the RAM/GPU. I actually did, had 5 minutes and thought what the hell. Quiet suprised what you can get for your money. Prices have come down a bit since the last time I tried this 6 months or so ago. Take a gander at this and tell me what you think...

 

 

£698.78 all in! If it was me, with a little extra cash to throw at it, I'd double the RAM and look at the R9-270X cards. Pushing the boat out a R9-280X would be good. Should be able to SLI the GPU with the APU for a little extra boost as well.

[3s-gtech]

Bulldozer cored APU, last gen mid-range GPU, last gen motherboard, slow RAM, and no dedicated SSD? Are you mad?!

 

Seriously though, that's a 2012 spec PC.

 

Richmond (Enhanced Piledriver) APU, R9 card, A88X chipset with FM2+, at least DDR3 1600 if not 1866MHz, and a proper SSD should slot into that spec.

[CHR1S]

Ebay

 

i5 2500k = approx £130

Maximus IV GENE-Z £80

8Gb DDR3 1066 approx = £30

AMD 7970 GFX Card - approx £260

Antec 300 Case - better than ebay Antec 300 Three Hundred Ultimate Gaming Case - Black [0-761345-08300-3] £43

Corsair Builder Series CX 430w Modular '80 Plus Bronze' Power Supply Corsair Builder Series 80+ Bronze CMPSU-430CXV2UK 430W Power Supply (PSU) - CP-9020046-UK - Scan.co.uk - better than ebay £36

Samsung 250Gb Evo 840 SSD - SAMSUNG 840 EVO MZ-7TE250 - SSD 250 GB - £113.90 (possible £106.72 inc cashback) @Pixmania BEFORE 10am 3rd Dec. Delivered - Hot UK Deals £106.72

 

Very Similar to my setup, slightly older, but has zero issues playing any game right now.

Chop and change to customise and you can get some great deals, especially if you can buy/build over a period of time when different deals pop up.

 

All for approx £687.72

Edited December 4, 2013 by CHR1S

[tmcd35]

Bulldozer cored APU, last gen mid-range GPU, last gen motherboard, slow RAM, and no dedicated SSD? Are you mad?!

 

Seriously though, that's a 2012 spec PC.

 

Richmond (Enhanced Piledriver) APU, R9 card, A88X chipset with FM2+, at least DDR3 1600 if not 1866MHz, and a proper SSD should slot into that spec.

 

Lol, keeping to a budget. Interesting how the latest spec's cost a bit more. Seriously though - would the difference be that noticable? (not played on a PC in a long time) - few millseconds here and there?

 

SSD, mmm - I hope you meant with a standard second drive for capacity? A 120Gb SSD is the same price as that SSHD, same again for a regular drive for decent storage capacity? Dread to think of the cost of a 500Gb SSD. No, I think the SSHD is the better option

[3s-gtech]

Yeah, I'd stick a 500GB/1TB spinner in for the Steam library - that's a cheeky omission from my spec. The differences between the specs would be fairly pronounced all in, plus the feature list drops. APUs are strongly affected by memory speed (more so when using the on-die GPU), most review site tests have shown that 1600MHz is the sweet spot for price/performance but 1866MHz has dropped in price since.

[sonofsanta]

Of course I ended up having a look. Without monitor, OS, keyboard or mouse, coming to £698.60 based on a look down eBuyer (you could shop around for components and save, eBuyer is just the easiest to browse through IMO):

 

CPU - A8-5600K - 67.49 - AMD A8 5600K Black Edition 3.6GHz Socket FM2 4MB L2.. | Ebuyer.com

Mobo - Asrock FM2A75 Pro4 - 53.58 - Asrock FM2A75 Pro4 A75 Socket FM2 VGA DVI HDMI 7.1.. | Ebuyer.com

RAM - 2 x 4GB Crucial 1600MHz - 56.36 - Crucial 8GB kit (4GBx2) DDR3 1600 MT/s (PC3-12800) CL9.. | Ebuyer.com

GPU - Sapphire R9 280X - 231.75 - Sapphire R9 280X DUAL-X OC 3GB GDDR5 Dual DVI HDMI.. | Ebuyer.com

SSD - Samsung 840 EVO 120GB - 76.98 - Samsung 120GB SSD 840 EVO - SSD only | Ebuyer.com

HDD - Seagate 1TB - 44 - Seagate 1TB Barracuda 3.5" SATA-III Hard Drive.. | Ebuyer.com

PSU - Corsair CS650M - 71.98 - Corsair CS650M Modular 650W ATX PSU | Ebuyer.com

Case - Fractal Design R4 - 75.65 - Fractal Design Define R4 Silent Black Pearl Case | Ebuyer.com

Controller - USB 360 - 20.81 - Microsoft Xbox 360 Common Controller WinXP USB Port CD | Ebuyer.com

 

Motherboard is only FM2, not FM2+, so no CPU upgrade; that's because there are no reasonably priced A88X ATX boards about. There are decent mATX A88X boards but they only have two RAM slots, and I figure you're more likely to add in extra RAM as an upgrade than you are to swap CPU.

 

A8-5600K is ample for gaming according to AnandTech, and I'm inclined to take them at their thoroughly-researched word.

 

Sapphire R9 280X GPU is a monster and will more than last you through the coming years. It's about 60-100% more capable than the 7850, so I'm quite chuffed I squeezed it in the build (that comparison is with the 7970, which was rebadged to the R9 280X. Exact same GPU).

 

SSD is good and ample for OS, 1TB HDD is loads for games/photos/music.

 

PSU is 80+ gold and fully modular, and powerful enough for this system even after it's aged a few years. Friends don't let friends buy shoddy PSUs.

 

I've pushed the boat out on the case a bit, as a good case is a luxury and an investment; the R4 really is quiet and well built. If you want to save money, do it here - the Coolermasters are about as cheap as you want to go (£30ish) although the Antec One looks good as well (£40ish).

 

360 controller is probably the best controller ever made, and works with almost everything. You absolutely want one for PC gaming these days, some games just ain't right on KB+M (e.g. driving games, Super Meat Boy).

 

That's where I'd pitch it for £700 without OS or monitor, anyway. I shall now get on with some of the work they're paying me for.

Edited December 5, 2013 by sonofsanta

[SHimmer45]

surely if you are using a discrete card an athlon FM2 is a better bet?

[3s-gtech]

Yup. Should be cooler running too. In which case AMD Athlon X4 760k Black Edition Socket FM2 4MB Cache.. | Ebuyer.com is the best bet. Edited December 5, 2013 by 3s-gtech

[sonofsanta]

For the sake of £7, onboard graphics is a useful fallback/diagnostic when something goes wrong, IME although you do get a 200MHz boost with the Athlon, which doesn't hurt. FM2 seems the way to go anyway, cheaper all round than AM3+ and FX chips.

 

I'd also like to say that I hate hate hate this stupid modules/cores nonsense that makes spec sheets on components sites such a PITA to read.

[3s-gtech]

True, there's not much in it really. The 760k is based on Richland so it is a slightly newer arch, but very comparable otherwise. The modules thing is just how they're designed and built - they really should simplify it down a bit for comparison purposes - the 760k contains two modules but four cores.

[sonofsanta]

The terminology they use is misleading IMHO - an AMD module is comparable to a hyper-threaded Intel core, but AMD count based on the weaker cores that are essentially hardware Intel hyperthreads, so they seem to have twice as much true parallelism as they really do. I know what's going on (at a high level) inside the chip, but I always think "£60 for a quad core? Awesome!" when really it's a hardware-hyper-threaded dual core. Still better value than the equivalent i3, though.

 

What I really want are the Athlon/Phenom II X4s. They were true quad cores at a great price, a proper modern version of those would be perfect for this sort of build.

Edited December 5, 2013 by sonofsanta