Which build for gaming/recording on a budget would you choose? Bang for buck!

Vindaloovians

Honorable
Dec 6, 2013
189
0
10,690
Link your own builds if you think that's wisest. I have £365, but if I don't get a GOOD QUALITY monitor and use my 1080p tv for a while that budget gets pushed up to £485. The builds will go in range from cheapest to most expensive.

I'd like a bit of cash for games but I already have 2x500gb drives, windows 8 and 4gb of ddr3 ram, so ignore that.

PLEASE USE SCAN AS THE ONLY MERCHANT AS I CAN ONLY BUY FROM THERE!

With Monitor:

#1: http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/p/DXCH8d
#2 http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/p/VKCH8d
#3: http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/p/mpvyqs
#4: http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/p/Nr2JmG (Best upgrade path to broadwell)
#5: http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/p/cLvXYJ (2nd best upgrade path to broadwell!)

Without monitor:

#1: http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/p/9NJcRB
#2: http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/p/TYpCFT (Broadwell ready)
#3: http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/p/L4XDkL

I know it's hard to read, sorry but budget really matters to me :)
 
Solution
Since you plan on recording your gameplay, I would go with this. You will benefit from an i7 class CPU.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Xeon E3-1230 V3 3.3GHz Quad-Core Processor (£176.39 @ Aria PC)
Motherboard: MSI H97M-E35 Micro ATX LGA1150 Motherboard (£55.16 @ Scan.co.uk)
Memory: Patriot Signature 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory (£52.98 @ Amazon UK)
Video Card: Sapphire Radeon R9 270X 2GB Dual-X Video Card (£120.00 @ Amazon UK)
Case: Cooler Master N200 MicroATX Mid Tower Case (£31.44 @ Aria PC)
Power Supply: XFX ProSeries 450W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply (£34.99 @ Aria PC)...
I looked at some components in your builds, now I'm confuses so I'm just going to ask a few questions.

The "without a monitor" configurations are higher-priced but does not include a monitor?

As long as you get a Z97- motherboard, your upgrade to broadwell is equally good for any Intel CPU supported. I personally think that Pentium-G is mostly a toy for people wanting to play and to see how hard they can overclock it. Without overclocking it's not really a great performer.

Until people benchmark it, we won't be really sure where it fits in relative to the i3-series. Even when benchmark results come in, they'll be distorted by the overclock benchmarks. :)

A few components are listed at a different online store - Aria?
 

Vindaloovians

Honorable
Dec 6, 2013
189
0
10,690


The without monitor ones are more expensive as I'm using my TV so I have more money to use :)
 

logainofhades

Titan
Moderator
Since you plan on recording your gameplay, I would go with this. You will benefit from an i7 class CPU.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Xeon E3-1230 V3 3.3GHz Quad-Core Processor (£176.39 @ Aria PC)
Motherboard: MSI H97M-E35 Micro ATX LGA1150 Motherboard (£55.16 @ Scan.co.uk)
Memory: Patriot Signature 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory (£52.98 @ Amazon UK)
Video Card: Sapphire Radeon R9 270X 2GB Dual-X Video Card (£120.00 @ Amazon UK)
Case: Cooler Master N200 MicroATX Mid Tower Case (£31.44 @ Aria PC)
Power Supply: XFX ProSeries 450W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply (£34.99 @ Aria PC)
Total: £470.96
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
 
Solution

+1, the Xeon would render videos quite a bit faster than an i5 or an AMD processor.