c.£250 Budget Gaming Build

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Callum1991

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May 14, 2013
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Afternoon All,

I'm new to the forums so first of can I apologise if i've posted in the wrong area/manner etc.

I'm looking to throw together a very cheap gaming rig. I'm not looking for anything too exciting, i just want to be able to play a couple of (as far as I am aware) non-too graphically intensive games like SWTOR, Skyrim CoD and planetside.

Ideally i'd like to be able to play the above on the best settings possible but cost is my ultimate constraint. I've filled out the new build template as below to hopefully save you guys some time;

Approximate Purchase Date: Within a month or two

Budget Range: c.£250

System Usage from Most to Least Important: Purely to run half a dozen games.

Are you buying a monitor: Yes but not in the £250. This is the one i'm looking at;
http://www.ebuyer.com/349753-samsung-s22b150n-21-5-led-vga-monitor-ls22b150ns-en



Parts to Upgrade: Everything in the box, Mouse/KB, Speakers etc I have.

Do you need to buy OS: No


Preferred Website(s) for Parts: Ebuyer or anything UK focused i guess.

Location: Leeds/Derby United Kingdom

Parts Preferences: None, although from what I read an AMD build is likely to be the cheapest option.

Overclocking: Maybe - I'm not against the idea, but i've no knowledge in the area.

SLI or Crossfire: I'm afraid I dont know what this means!

Your Monitor Resolution: 1920x1080

Additional Comments: I am wondering whether or not building this PC would be the best option. Would I be better off buying a cheap PC with an intergrated GPU and stickinging a mid-range GPU in there afterwards. e.g.;

http://www.ebuyer.com/407538-zoostorm-desktop-pc-7873-1076


Also my dad gave me an old Nvidia GeForce 8800 GTS but I've no idea where this stacks up with todays cards.

And Most Importantly, Why Are You Upgrading: Just moving away from the console.


Really appreciate the help guys, i've got a (very) limited ammount of knowledge in the area but for the most part i'd consider myself a noob.
 
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SamGriffiths

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Dec 12, 2012
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Hey, this build is good since you're on a really limited budget, SLI/Crossfire means having 2 or more graphics cards and at your price range you've going to be having 0 graphics cards =P You might have to drop down to 720p on some games but it's still going to look better than a console.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: AMD A8-3870K 3.0GHz Quad-Core Processor (£69.99 @ Ebuyer)
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-A55M-DS2 Micro ATX FM1 Motherboard (£42.23 @ Aria PC)
Memory: Corsair Vengeance 4GB (1 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory (£28.66 @ Dabs)
Storage: Seagate Barracuda 250GB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive (£39.99 @ Dabs)
Case: Fractal Design Core 1000 MicroATX Mini Tower Case (£28.99 @ Dabs)
Power Supply: Corsair Builder 430W 80 PLUS Certified ATX12V Power Supply (£37.72 @ Aria PC)
Total: £247.58
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2013-05-14 16:31 BST+0100)

And if it turns out to be a bit slow you can Crossfire the on-board graphics with this card for £50 http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/part/asus-video-card-eah6670dis1gd5, even with out that is build gets 55 fps in Crysis @ 1680x1050 (no filters), in Civ 5 1680x1050 30 fps and StarCraft II 1680x1050 62 fps, but with it you should be able to run most games at high fps. And you could also buy another stick of the same RAM later on down the line to give you 8gb of very good RAM that even people building PCs for £1500 would still use.

For parts I'd recommend Dabs.com I've had good experiences with them, and they will also combine shipping so if you buy everything from there it all shows up in one box.
 
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Callum1991

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May 14, 2013
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Just out of curiosity, how much do you think I would have to spend to play something like SWTOR on 1920x1080 on ultra and get 40-60 fps?

I've found myself looking at HD 7750 GPUs and maybe putting that with an AMD Athlon II 270 3.4ghz dual core. Would that work? This is where i have no idea how things pair.
 
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SamGriffiths

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Dec 12, 2012
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All CPUs will work with all GPUs, maybe not well and maybe there's 1 or 2 that wont but in general they all work together, that build that I posted with the added HD 6670 will be very fast, there isn't benchmarks for SWTOR but if it can play Crysis @ 1680x1050 (no filters) with out the GPU then it will be fine, and the good thing about getting the HD 6670 is that you can crossfire it with the APU (CPU with integrated GPU) so you will get very good speeds.
 
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Callum1991

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May 14, 2013
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Ahhh thank you, on that basis I might put it off and maybe save another 70 odd quid so I can look at an actual graphics card and maybe 2 4gb sticks instead of 2 2's.

Ebuyer has the A8 5600K 3.6GHz going for £74, would that be worth considering for an extra £4? Sounds like I might be better off with the 6670 over the 7750 too.
 
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SamGriffiths

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Yeah I would get the A8 5600K if you can get it cheap and Crossfire it with the Asus Radeon HD 6670 and then that ram I posted is 1x4gb so you can just get the 2 stick pack in low profile since you're build would be mATX, in other words small, the LP would be better. But you would need a different motherboard.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: AMD A8-5600K 3.6GHz Quad-Core Processor (£68.99 @ Aria PC)
Motherboard: Asus F2A55-M LE Micro ATX FM2 Motherboard (£49.36 @ Ebuyer)
Memory: Corsair Vengeance 4GB (1 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory (£28.66 @ Dabs)
Storage: Seagate Barracuda 250GB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive (£39.99 @ Dabs)
Video Card: Asus Radeon HD 6670 1GB Video Card (£56.92 @ Dabs)
Case: Fractal Design Core 1000 MicroATX Mini Tower Case (£28.99 @ Dabs)
Power Supply: Corsair Builder 430W 80 PLUS Certified ATX12V Power Supply (£37.72 @ Aria PC)
Total: £310.63
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2013-05-15 14:19 BST+0100)

In fact I did some looking around and with the A8-5600k and a HD 6670 you can play most if not all modern games, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=25czz71HwbU.
 
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Callum1991

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May 14, 2013
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Ahhh I'm getting my head around this now, 8GB in two sticks to make the most of the dual channel. A75 Chipset MOBO so I can use 6 GB SATA III HDD (I've no idea which is better out of 2.5" and 3.5" but there are some cheap (c.£45), big (500GB-1TB), reasonably quick (7200RPM) HDD's out there in 3.5).

HD6670 to crossfire with the integrated HD7560D GPU.

RE the GPU, I've got a choice of an Asus 810MHz or a Sapphire 800 MHz, any general consensus on quality? Also will i need a LP graphics card aswell as memory?

And then just the PSU and we're laughing?
 
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SamGriffiths

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You've pretty much got it, a 2.5" drive are normally SSDs (faster) but you're paying less for your hole PC than a good SSD would cost so I think that's out of the question =P, I've picked out a bigger HDD for you, (It's the same one but twice as much storage for the same price), that ASUS is quite low profile anyway, and the there isn't much different between the Sapphire and the ASUS, the ASUS is slightly faster and a bit cheaper so I would go with that.

So I've changed to the 8gb of RAM and change to the 500GB HDD. What you could do is buy everything but the GPU and run your PC for a bit, if it's not fast enough then buy the HD 6670, you might save your self some money.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: AMD A8-5600K 3.6GHz Quad-Core Processor (£68.99 @ Aria PC)
Motherboard: Asus F2A55-M LE Micro ATX FM2 Motherboard (£49.36 @ Ebuyer)
Memory: Corsair Vengeance 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory (£56.98 @ Dabs)
Storage: Seagate Barracuda 500GB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive (£38.89 @ Aria PC)
Video Card: Asus Radeon HD 6670 1GB Video Card (£56.92 @ Dabs)
Case: Fractal Design Core 1000 MicroATX Mini Tower Case (£28.99 @ Dabs)
Power Supply: Corsair Builder 430W 80 PLUS Certified ATX12V Power Supply (£37.72 @ Aria PC)
Total: £337.85
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2013-05-15 14:55 BST+0100)
 
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Callum1991

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May 14, 2013
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Okay, that sounds ideal!

I've just spent a couple of hours shopping around and i've managed to hit £346.66 after adding a DVD Drive;

AMD A8-5600K 3.6GHz - Ebuyer @ £74.06 (I'm sticking with Ebuyer over Aria purely for the free postage and the free copy of SimCity)
ASRock FM2A75M-DGS - Amazon @ £46.95 (Marginally cheaper with a slightly better chipset? Apparently it has some jazzy auto-OCing feature i'm sure i'll give a wide berth)
Corsair Vengeance 8GB (2x4GB) 160MHz CL9 DDR3 Low Profile - Dabs @ £51.99
WD 500GB Caviar Green 7200RPM SATA III 64MB Cache HDD - Ebuyer @ £44.99 (Again just trying to keep everything free delivery plus I have to say I have a slight preference for WD)
ASUS Radeon HD 6670 810 MHz 1GB video card - Dabs @ £55.99
Corsair 430W CXM Builder Modular 80 Plus Bronze PSU - Ebuyer @ £39.99 (Spent the extra quid for the modular PSU to keep it nice and tidy in there)

Then 13 quid on a cheap DVDWR, and 20 quid on a case.

I'm confident that's not going to blow up when I put it together and turn it on! Thanks so much for your help, I'll be sure to offer some closure and let you know how it all went.

All the best,

Callum
 
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SamGriffiths

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Dec 12, 2012
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Yeah that Motherboard is good, I wouldn't go for a WD Green, try to get a Blue, the Blue's read and right is faster but it draws a tiny bit more power. If you really want cheap shipping you could buy everything at dabs, they combine shipping so you could get all of it for like £2 shipping, just a thought.
 
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Callum1991

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May 14, 2013
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Took your advice and went 1TB blue for £3 more,which was £2 cheaper than the 500 tbh.

Sorry to come back to you again but now i'm lookin at the AMD website which gives a FSB for the A8 at 1866, should i up the RAM speed to keep pace?
 
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SamGriffiths

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If you want, most people would agree that it's not really worth it but if you can find Corsair Vengeance LP @ 1886 for almost the same price then go for it.
 
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