Gaming Building Gaming PC

[pmk010]

Hi. I'm currently building a gaming PC. Have a budget of around £780 £680 . I haven't bought the parts but am still deciding which graphics card I want. I'm not a serious gamer but like a good graphics card capable of playing the latest games. Below is my choice of parts. As you can see I haven't chosen a graphics card. Anyone have any good ideas for one? Is there anything I can improve? Any cheaper prices?

Motherboard - £76.98 - Asus P8Z68-V LX S1155

Case and Power Supply - £44 - GALAXY BLACK ATX PC CASE + 750W PSU + CLEAR WINDOW

Processor - £159.99 - Intel Core i5 2500K Unlocked Retail CPU 1155 Socket

Hardrive - £93.84 - NEW SAMSUNG SPINPOINT ECOGREEN F4EG 2TB SATA HARD

RAM - £71 - Corsair 16GB (4x4GB) DDR3 1600MHz Vengeance Blue Memory Kit CL9 (9-9-9-24) 1.5V

Optical Drive - £12.99 - Samsung SH-222BB 22x DVD±RW DL & RAM SATA Optical Drive - OEM Black

Mouse - £26.99 - Gigabyte GM-M6980 Pro-laser Gaming Mouse

Keyboard - £29.99 - Gigabyte Force K3 Keyboard

Monitor - £79.85 - 21.5" WIDESCREEN TFT LCD Flat Screen PC Monitor Black



Total: £627.72

 

[Foxi4]

HDD - Replace with a Caviar Black drive of a similar tier, you'll thank me later for the stability.
CPU - Go for an i7 while you're at it, you seem to have some leftover $$$ to spare. Not a necessity though.

As far as the Gfx card is concerned, everything depends on whether you're more of an ATi/AMD or an NVidia guy. I'd just watch some benchmarks and see what's the best choice based on a ratio of quality/price.

 

[pmk010]

I made a mistake I have a budget of £680 so won't go with i7. I will need to save up some more cash to get a decent graphics card. I will have a look into Caviar Black drives.

Thanks

 

[qlum]

go for 8gb of ram instead of 16 normal use you won't use more than 8 gb making it pointless to spend more money on it.
A 750w psu is not needed here you would be much better of with a 600w.
Judging from the price the case is some most likely very bad unknown brand case, same with the gpu so I would advice you to maybe spend a bit more money but at least get a known brand for the gpu and case as this may have you running into trouble later on.
For example cheap no brand psu's are often totally different wattages than they claim to be and they use some very cheap parts which may not last very long. While nobrand cases may just be to poorly ventilated for the hardware resulting in overheating of your parts of extra notice because the fans need to work a lot harder.
If you wait with buying a gpu until you have the money you should know that you cannot really game on the thing before you do.
You should know that judging from the cpu your gpu is at least going to be a gtx560ti (I am not saying you should go nvidea but thats just the point where you should go with a i5 2500k) and if you are not planning to buy at least that in gpu power and if you are not going to plan on emulating the ps2 or the wii your cpu would be a bit overkill compared to the gpu.

 

[Originality]

Be specific in your needs. By non-serious gamer, do you mean you only play emulated games and starcraft, or are you also trying to play games like Skyrim and Deus Ex?

Also where are you shopping? The same £600 system from Scan can cost me £450 from central London. Answer in as much detail as you can and I can find you a good UK sourced build... When I get home from work.

 

[pmk010]

Be specific in your needs. By non-serious gamer, do you mean you only play emulated games and starcraft, or are you also trying to play games like Skyrim and Deus Ex?

Also where are you shopping? The same £600 system from Scan can cost me £450 from central London. Answer in as much detail as you can and I can find you a good UK sourced build... When I get home from work.

I am looking to play games like skyrim, not at high resolution but with no lag and good amount of frames per second.

I am shopping online at a few different places: Ebay, Dabs.co.uk, Ebuyer, Scan and Amazon. There maybe one or two more. I can't check because I am not using my PC.

I have't looked at any place but the internet. This is because I am only 11 and haven't got the time to go out to London looking for things I need in Central London.

If there is any more detail you need to know just ask.

---

 

[olleb]

Buy a amd graphics card from their 6000 series, the prices on adm's 6000 series decreases because they have launched their new 7000 series.

i would tell you to look at theese cards Radeon HD 6770, Radeon HD 6850, Radeon HD 6870 and if you want a great card but not the bes tRadeon HD 6950.

 

[Deleted_171835]

HDD - Replace with a Caviar Black drive of a similar tier, you'll thank me later for the stability.
CPU - Go for an i7 while you're at it, you seem to have some leftover $$$ to spare. Not a necessity though.

As far as the Gfx card is concerned, everything depends on whether you're more of an ATi/AMD or an NVidia guy. I'd just watch some benchmarks and see what's the best choice based on a ratio of quality/price.

I think he's fine with the i5-2500k. Doesn't make sense to get an i7-2600k when there is practically no difference except for hyperthreading (which most games don't even use).

 

[olleb]

HDD - Replace with a Caviar Black drive of a similar tier, you'll thank me later for the stability.
CPU - Go for an i7 while you're at it, you seem to have some leftover $$$ to spare. Not a necessity though.

As far as the Gfx card is concerned, everything depends on whether you're more of an ATi/AMD or an NVidia guy. I'd just watch some benchmarks and see what's the best choice based on a ratio of quality/price.

I think he's fine with the i5-2500k. Doesn't make sense to get an i7-2600k when there is practically no difference except for hyperthreading (which most games don't even use).

if acekard2i2000 will use the computer to render stuff, buy a i7 2600k, if not stick with the 2500k, its a great CPU.

 

[pmk010]

HDD - Replace with a Caviar Black drive of a similar tier, you'll thank me later for the stability.
CPU - Go for an i7 while you're at it, you seem to have some leftover $$$ to spare. Not a necessity though.

As far as the Gfx card is concerned, everything depends on whether you're more of an ATi/AMD or an NVidia guy. I'd just watch some benchmarks and see what's the best choice based on a ratio of quality/price.

I think he's fine with the i5-2500k. Doesn't make sense to get an i7-2600k when there is practically no difference except for hyperthreading (which most games don't even use).

if acekard2i2000 will use the computer to render stuff, buy a i7 2600k, if not stick with the 2500k, its a great CPU.

I won't be rendering anything and buying i7 would make me go over my budget.

---

 

[Originality]

Ok, there are a few points that need to be made. Firstly, by being 11, you will not be able to appreciate half the information provided here (such as the significance of the K in 2500K) which means that you'll be looking for good stock performance.
Your only interests are in gaming and (I'm presuming here) school work. That means you won't be doing any big editing projects or big number crunching projects, so you do not need the best processor available. You are also only looking for good gaming performance (by aiming for Skyrim) so most of your budget should be pumped into the graphics card. Also you should not be going for a Z68 motherboard, you should be going for a H61 motherboard because you do not need any of the overclocking or drive/GPU virtualizing technology.

By playing around on the lambda-tek.com computer builder, I made the following build:

Spoiler

CPU: Intel Core i3 2100 (£75)
MoBo: MSI H61M-P21 (£33)
RAM: Corsair XMS3 8GB 1333Mhz (£32)
Graphics: MSI nVidia N560GTX-Ti Twin Frozr II/OC (£146)
Case: Antec 200 v2 (£37)
PSU: CoolerMaster Silent Pro 600W Modular (£70)
HDD: WD 1TB (can't tell which one) (£100)
DVD: Samsung DVDRW (£10)
Monitor: Samsung 21.5" (£72)

All prices exclude VAT and Shipping, i.e. you can get them cheaper from other sites such as Scan, Dabs, Overclockers and eBuyer.

So now that I have an idea of what you can get with your price range, I can make more specific suggestions.

CPU: As above, you do not need the most powerful CPU, you just need one that runs well. CustomPC Magazine recommend AMD A8-3870K Black Edition (£103 from aria.co.uk) but I prefer Intel so I'd recommend the cheapest Core i3 available (even though Ivy Bridge is coming out soon), which would be the Intel Core i3-2100 (£87.39 from aria). Either will work perfectly fine for you and you will not notice any difference based on your needs (gaming). That said, the A8 does have a better integrated graphics APU which will probably be able to run all your games by itself whilst you save up for a real graphics card.
Motherboard: This mostly depends on the CPU. With the A8, CPC recommend Gigabyte GA-A75M-UD2H (£72 from Scan), where as I'd go for any H61 MoBo (like this £50 one from eBuyer).

RAM: CPC say 4GB Crucial Ballistix (£24 from overclockers), but since RAM is cheap I say get 8GB (£35 from eBuyer).
Case: Antec 100 (£40 from lanbda-tek) all the way. I love Antec cases because of how great they are at cooling. If you can afford more money towards the case, get a SilverStone Raven RV03 (£99 from Scan) which rotates the MoBo 90 degrees, so all the rear panel connectors are actually on the top.
Power: CPC recommend Thermaltake SP-530PCWEU (£53 from Scan). Personally I like to have at least 600W (or 650W) to be safe for future upgrades, but all of that comes at a cost. Then again, I've got a 1.2kW PSU in my rig (due to a time when I tested multi-GPU builds) so that'll last me a loooooong time. The most important 2 rules for power supplies: NEVER get non-branded - always get well known brands, and get MORE than you need (if the PSU isn't strong enough, it'll strain, which means unstable voltages, which means components may fry). The best brands are Antec, Corsair, Enermax and Tagan. CoolerMaster, OCZ, Thermaltake and such are alright too.

Graphics: The simple rule is, the more you spend, the better it is (and generally, the longer into the future it'll last until you need to upgrade again). Don't get any lower than a HD 5770 (AMD) or GTX 550 (nVidia). I personally went from a HD 4870 to a GTX 560 Ti (Twin Frozr II/OC edition), although my brother will still use his HD 4870X2 for another year or 2. Again, if you get the A8 CPU, the graphics included in that mean you don't have to buy a new graphics card straight away and can save up for a better card like the HD 6970 or 7870, or GTX 570. This one I won't give any specific links or suggestions for, just the above advice.
HDD: Note, HDD prices doubled and tripled recently due to the floods (used to cost £35 for 1TB, now it's £70-100) and this will not come back down any time soon (2 years). The advice is as follows: fast boot drive, big storage drive. The boot drive is the most important one because the slower it is (like the 2TB Seagate drive in the first post), the slower Windows and everything else gets. Get a Western Digital Caviar Blue or Black (Black is better), and get something between 500GB and 1TB. That should keep you going for a long time, and when you run out, you can get a 2TB WD Caviar Green for around £120. As an alternative, you can get a Samsung Spinpoint F3 1TB. Also stay away from Seagate - they may be cheap, but they tend to die within a year.
SSD: You don't need one. Moving on.
DVD: Get the cheapest one on the internet. You probably won't even use it after the first day since USB is so much more convenient. And internet.
Cooling: Optional. Getting one means a cooler and quieter PC. Not getting one saves you £15-35. I typically recommend the Arctic Freezer Pro 7 (or 13) for those on a budget (£15-19, depending on which one you get). All CPUs come with a basic (and noisy) cooling heatsink/fan anyway, so this really is optional.

Monitor/Keyboard/Mouse: I'll leave that to you. The monitor is important, but that depends on your budget. The keyboard and mouse are not important, but they are cheap anyway.
Operating System: I recommend buying a copy of Windows 7 (or obtaining a copy through your school). You could also pirate it, or just get the Windows 8 trial. It's up to you.

Anyway, I hope this helps. The CPC budget build (with the A8) cost around £500, including Windows 7 at £110 (Amazon). Try and only get parts from one or two places (e.g. Scan or eBuyer) in order to reduce the shipping costs. Also when everything arrives, give yourself plenty of space and time (and ideally, help from adults or experienced friends) to build it. It's not hard, so as long as you are careful you should not have any problems (heck, if you were in London I could even build it for you... I've been doing that all last month). I've spent long enough on this post, so if you have any further questions, that's what the forums are for

EDIT: Swapped the 3TB drive for a 2TB drive, because I forget if H61 is able to break the 2.3TB limit for HDDs.

 

[olleb]

Originality wrote good stuff!

well written! +1

but i think he still does not need a amd graphics card from the 7000 series because everyone is over pricing them because its a new series.

i would go for the following if i had a budget....
CPU: intel i5 2300, a quad core cpu still with great potential. i would not recomend a buldoozer cpu from AMD.
Motherboard: Asrock P67 Pro 3 REV B3.
Ram: 8 Gigabytes of ram, 4 gigabytes of ram if the wallet screams at me, but not less than 4.
case: i would go for a cheap case, cooler master elite 310 is cheap and pretty good looking.
psu: a branded psu @ around 600w.
GPU: Radeon HD 6870.
Harddrive: i would go for a seagate or a western digital harddrive that is operating @7200rpm (rounds per minute) 500Gigabytes would due.
Operating system: buy a copy of windows 7 Home Premium 64 bit or Windows 7 Professional. ****ALWAYS KEEP AWAY FROM STARTER EDITION!**** i dont think a normal person can buy it though...


i felt a little pressure when writing this... ^^

 

[Originality]

They're overpriced because of the new technology, not just because it's a new series. Unfortunately they are currently underperforming, and the 7770 can't even match up to a cheaper 6850. Supposedly future driver releases will unlock the potential hidden in the new technology... but at least for now, we're not seeing it. Everybody is now waiting for Kepler (GTX 6 series) to come out to dominate the graphics market once again (especially the GTX 660, since the 460 and 560 achieved the perfect balance between performance and value).

Btw, when quoting a large post.... try and snip it down

EDIT: @CCNaru, I've heard a lot of things, but importantly it'll take 2 years to recover all the damage caused (factories and warehouses). Refilling the lost stock won't take long (Q4) thanks to factories in other houses, but the economy for electronics will take longer to stabilise than that. Also that's without taking into account the natural development of HDDs in the first place (new techniques makes manufacturing them easier/cheaper and that brings the prices down). Either way, if you're building a computer in the short term (say, in the next few months) then these prices will still be sticking around.

Also, it's a lil harder to get bundle deals in the UK than the US (famously newegg). They do exist, but it's harder to come by. That's why I go to computer fairs in central London - I know a few people who own stands there and I know how to get them to cut prices up to 40% for me.

 

[olleb]

ill try that, i lost my edit with some advice on it when i accidently closed the webpage... -.-


updated my post above....

 

[CCNaru]

2 years? I've heard it'll be about Q3-4 of 2012 for the HD prices to go back down again...

also some tips are buy in bundles - not premade but buying bundles will save you a few bucks as well. I use GTX 550 (bought for like $140 Feb last year) and it runs everything new on ultra settings.

 

[olleb]

2 years? I've heard it'll be about Q3-4 of 2012 for the HD prices to go back down again...

also some tips are buy in bundles - not premade but buying bundles will save you a few bucks as well. I use GTX 550 (bought for like $140 Feb last year) and it runs everything new on ultra settings.

the prices is going down, slowly, very slowly. but it is important to look around when buying a harddrive, some stores still have very expencive prices...

 

[TheDreamLord]

Good on ya for building a pc. On dabs.ie, there is an extremely cheap gamers bundle with a mobo, amd bulldozer 3.3ghz 6 core and 4gb ram. As for the graphics card, I'm getting a 560 nvidea( not a 560ti) good luck with your build mate