£700 gaming PC Builds?

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Luca91

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Feb 15, 2013
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Approximate Purchase Date: 10/02/2014
Budget Range: £700-1000 after delivery/VAT, more emphasis on "value for money"

System Usage from Most to Least Important: Gaming (High-end stuff, should be fully prepared to handle games such as Star Citizen on fairly high settings etc), multi-tasking alot! Browsing and watching videos, possibility of being used for video editing in future - all with music playing in background.

Are you buying a monitor: No

Do you need to buy OS: Yes, ideally want to stick with Wins 7

Preferred Website(s) for Parts: None.

Location: City, State/Region, Country - UK, Bedfordshire

Parts Preferences: None

Overclocking: If it adds value for money - yes.

SLI or Crossfire: No

Your Monitor Resolution: 1920:1080 (27'')

Additional Comments: A PC that isn't too loud would be very ideal, although not entirely necessary. USB3 support would be a huge bonus!
HD storage isn't a major worry as I have an external HD, 300GB would be perfectly fine.

And Most Importantly, Why Are You Upgrading: Never upgraded my PC last time I asked on here (last year) my PC is finally on its last legs so it's time to upgrade!

Thank you :)
 
Solution
Rammy
For ~£700, you are probably looking at something like this
PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: Intel Core i5-4430 3.0GHz Quad-Core Processor (£127.99 @ Aria PC)
Motherboard: ASRock B85 Pro4 ATX LGA1150 Motherboard (£54.88 @ Amazon UK)
Memory: Patriot Viper 3 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory (£59.99 @ Amazon UK)
Storage: Seagate Barracuda 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive (£39.98 @ Aria PC)
Video Card: Gigabyte Radeon R9 280X 3GB Video Card (£223.66 @ Amazon UK)
Case: BitFenix Shinobi ATX Mid Tower Case (£49.99 @ Amazon UK)
Power Supply: XFX 550W 80+ Bronze...
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vmN

vmN

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Oct 27, 2013
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PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: Intel Core i7-4770K 3.5GHz Quad-Core Processor (£239.94 @ Scan.co.uk)
CPU Cooler: Noctua NH-D14 65.0 CFM CPU Cooler (£65.46 @ Scan.co.uk)
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-Z87X-UD4H ATX LGA1150 Motherboard (£134.00 @ Amazon UK)
Memory: G.Skill Ares Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-2133 Memory (£72.66 @ Amazon UK)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive (£42.43 @ CCL Computers)
Video Card: Gigabyte Radeon R9 280X 3GB Video Card (£223.66 @ Amazon UK)
Case: Fractal Design Define R4 w/Window (Black Pearl) ATX Mid Tower Case (£79.99 @ Amazon UK)
Power Supply: XFX 650W 80+ Bronze Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply (£70.56 @ CCL Computers)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 (OEM) (64-bit) (£69.66 @ CCL Computers)
Total: £998.36
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-02-07 11:58 GMT+0000)
 
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vmN

vmN

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i5-4670k instead of 4770k
r9 290 instead of r9 280x

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: Intel Core i5-4670K 3.4GHz Quad-Core Processor (£166.79 @ Aria PC)
CPU Cooler: Noctua NH-D14 65.0 CFM CPU Cooler (£65.46 @ Scan.co.uk)
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-Z87X-UD4H ATX LGA1150 Motherboard (£134.00 @ Amazon UK)
Memory: G.Skill Ares Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-2133 Memory (£72.66 @ Amazon UK)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive (£42.43 @ CCL Computers)
Video Card: XFX Radeon R9 290 4GB Video Card (£307.00 @ Aria PC)
Case: Fractal Design Define R4 w/Window (Black Pearl) ATX Mid Tower Case (£79.99 @ Amazon UK)
Power Supply: XFX 650W 80+ Bronze Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply (£70.56 @ CCL Computers)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 (OEM) (64-bit) (£69.66 @ CCL Computers)
Total: £1008.55
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-02-07 13:03 GMT+0000)
 
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vmN

vmN

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Oct 27, 2013
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Both will be able to max out most games in ultra.
The second build might be stronger at gaming as it have a stronger GPU.(will not be notice in the beginning)
Where option 1 is better for multitasking.(will be noticed)
 
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Rammy

Rammy

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Sep 3, 2012
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There is kinda an upper limit to how much it makes sense to spend, as spending much over say £200 on graphics isn't really great value for money, even if it does give the best gaming performance, as it's likely a cheaper card will suffice.
Also, I don't really think that overclocking builds are ever likely to offer the best value for money. If you are running really CPU intensive tasks, then any performance you can extract from this is going to really be useful, but on a gaming focused system it's quite a lot of outlay (at least £100 over a comparable non-overclocking system).
With that in mind, it's relatively straightforward to target nearer to the lower end of your budget window if you want.
 
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Luca91

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Feb 15, 2013
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Thanks for explaining that to me Rammy, are there any builds you'd suggest then at the lower end of my budget?

 
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Rammy

Rammy

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Sep 3, 2012
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For ~£700, you are probably looking at something like this
PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: Intel Core i5-4430 3.0GHz Quad-Core Processor (£127.99 @ Aria PC)
Motherboard: ASRock B85 Pro4 ATX LGA1150 Motherboard (£54.88 @ Amazon UK)
Memory: Patriot Viper 3 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory (£59.99 @ Amazon UK)
Storage: Seagate Barracuda 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive (£39.98 @ Aria PC)
Video Card: Gigabyte Radeon R9 280X 3GB Video Card (£223.66 @ Amazon UK)
Case: BitFenix Shinobi ATX Mid Tower Case (£49.99 @ Amazon UK)
Power Supply: XFX 550W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply (£45.00 @ Aria PC)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 (OEM) (64-bit) (£69.66 @ CCL Computers)
Total: £671.15
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-02-07 15:00 GMT+0000)
Obviously you can scale up most of the components as required, things like a modular PSU, an SSD, fancy case, that type of thing.
You could also argue for downgrading the graphics card to something like a GTX760, which is actually perfectly competent at 1080P, and will max the majority of games. Given you have a healthy budget, and are looking towards future games, the 280X/GTX770 niche is perhaps more appropriate.
 
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Luca91

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Feb 15, 2013
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Thanks Rammy, all seems good - would not the Intel Core i5-3470 for an extra £5 be a worthwhile swap for the i5-4430?
 
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Rammy

Rammy

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Not really. Most i5s at stock speeds are going to offer fairly similar performance. They vary in clock speed and turbo speed, but it's pretty small increments.
The 3000 series are on the older 1155 socket, which is basically defunct (though you can still buy CPUs and motherboards). The 4000 series isn't really any more expensive (it's a few pounds at most) but gives you some minor improvements, and some more options going forwards with regards to upgrades.
Now I look at it, the 4430 probably isn't the one to get. It's the cheapest Haswell i5, but the 4440 is less than £1 more, and its a tiny bit faster. It's worth a pound.
 
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Luca91

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Feb 15, 2013
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Thanks Rammy, I'm going to go with your build, will purchase the 4440, and the Fractal Design Define R4 case for it too!
 
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