£800 to spend on a gaming pc

Mcweaponx · Jul 24, 2014

Hi, found this template on another post and was hoping for some advice on making the best PC. I haven't built one before so I'm looking for some detailed advice on components. Thanks in advance!

Approximate Purchase Date: this month

Budget Range: around £800

System Usage from Most to Least Important: (autocad, gaming, photoshop, surfing the internet,

Are you buying a monitor: No

Do you need to buy OS: Yes
Please note that if you're using an OEM license of Windows, you will need a new one when buying a new motherboard.

Preferred Website(s) for Parts: no preference but must ship to uk

Location: Manchester, uk

Parts Preferences: by brand or type best "bang for buck" at current time

Overclocking: ?

SLI or Crossfire: ?

Additional Comments: I need a new PC to run autocad and games on, I would like to run games on high visual settings. I have to put autocad first as I need to use this PC for work but I would like a very good gaming PC as well.

And Most Importantly, Why Are You Upgrading: it's my first PC build, I recently stripped my laptop and put it back together(it still works) and feel confident I could build a desktop so hopefully I can achieve a better computer for the money than a prebuilt one.

xTempered · Jul 24, 2014

Best I could do.

http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/p/KwwfnQ

garl6 · Jul 24, 2014

xTempered :

+1. To OP, the NZXT H440 has no slots for optical drives, so if you really really want one, you have to look for a different case.

Byte70 · Jul 24, 2014

I would recommend this build. I originally thought you said Australia for some reason (my brain froze, haha) so that's why its on an AU site, but I think everything ships to UK, so you should have no problem.

The build is basically optimized for gaming and video editing and should work perfectly for what you need. I wrote a description about everything you want. If you translate USD to Pounds its around 750 pounds, so right in your budget.

Xeon E3-1230 is essentially an i7 without integrated graphics. A cooler isn't necessary but a nice aftermarket cooler would lower temps and noise.

MicroATX H97 motherboard with every option you should need. I went with a microATX form factor to keep costs as low as possible when paired with a lower cost/good Silverstone microATX case.

16GB RAM as recommended for editing. Adding more ram would further contribute your video editing.

Excellent EVO SSD will improve both load and boot times
1TB for storage needs

GTX 760 will provide great 1080P performance. My friend has one in his ITX PC and he has no trouble maxing out any games. He averages 40-50 FPS on even the most graphically intensive titles with FXAA.

CX 500W will provide sufficient power to this build. It is semi-modular which allows you to use only the cables you will need for your build.

xTempered · Jul 24, 2014

Byte70 :

I would recommend this build. I originally thought you said Australia for some reason (my brain froze, haha) so that's why its on an AU site, but I think everything ships to UK, so you should have no problem.

The build is basically optimized for gaming and video editing and should work perfectly for what you need. I wrote a description about everything you want. If you translate USD to Pounds its around 750 pounds, so right in your budget.

Xeon E3-1230 is essentially an i7 without integrated graphics. A cooler isn't necessary but a nice aftermarket cooler would lower temps and noise.

MicroATX H97 motherboard with every option you should need. I went with a microATX form factor to keep costs as low as possible when paired with a lower cost/good Silverstone microATX case.

16GB RAM as recommended for editing. Adding more ram would further contribute your video editing.

Excellent EVO SSD will improve both load and boot times
1TB for storage needs

GTX 760 will provide great 1080P performance. My friend has one in his ITX PC and he has no trouble maxing out any games. He averages 40-50 FPS on even the most graphically intensive titles with FXAA.

CX 500W will provide sufficient power to this build. It is semi-modular which allows you to use only the cables you will need for your build.

Holy Jebus thats a terrifying PSU to pair with any of the other high end components. The amount of money burnt from the possibility of that tier 3 PSU dying and frying everything with it makes my heart stop

Byte70 · Jul 24, 2014

xTempered :

Byte70 :

Holy Jebus thats a terrifying PSU to pair with any of the other high end components. The amount of money burnt from the possibility of that tier 3 PSU dying and frying everything with it makes my heart stop

LOL I guess I should change PCUs then, huh?

Shneiky · Jul 24, 2014

Best bang for buck? Here it is:

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i7-4790K 4.0GHz Quad-Core Processor (£227.94 @ Aria PC)
CPU Cooler: Phanteks PH-TC12DX_BK 68.5 CFM CPU Cooler (£38.54 @ Scan.co.uk)
Motherboard: Asus Z97M-PLUS Micro ATX LGA1150 Motherboard (£94.91 @ Ebuyer)
Memory: Kingston Black 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory (£56.08 @ Amazon UK)
Storage: Seagate Barracuda 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive (£36.00 @ Aria PC)
Video Card: Asus GeForce GTX 770 2GB DirectCU II Video Card (£238.52 @ Scan.co.uk)
Case: Corsair SPEC-03 Red ATX Mid Tower Case (£45.81 @ Amazon UK)
Power Supply: be quiet! 530W 80+ Bronze Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply (£48.64 @ Scan.co.uk)
Optical Drive: LG GH24NSB0 DVD/CD Writer (£14.89 @ Amazon UK)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 7 Professional SP1 (OEM) (64-bit) (£35.99 @ Amazon UK)
Total: £837.32
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-07-25 01:14 BST+0100

I know it is a bit off budget, does not have SSD and etc, but this is as far as you go with performance for 800 quid. Sure, your windows will load a bit slower and stuff, but the trade of is a GTX 770 - which will push meshes out of millions and millions of polygons inside any 3D package viewport. The 4GHz out of the box I7 should do anything you throw at it. Unless you render hyper realistic previz. Cheers

byza · Jul 24, 2014

@ Byte70, just select the UK from the drop-down menu top left on pcpartspicker. It keeps all the parts you selected but searches the selected country's stores. Shipping from Aus would be pointless and more expensive.

@ XTempered, tier 3 PSU's aren't hazards, so much as they aren't good for overclocking or gaming builds. Personally i still wouldn't get one as a tier 1 or 2 is usually not much more expensive, but in builds that aren't going to be pushing it, they are fine.

@ Shneiky, you might be pushing it trying to fit that Phanteks cooler in a Corsair Spec-03. You'd be better off going with a 200R or 300R.

@ OP, I'd be leaning towards a Xeon build. It's going to give you the some of the benefits of an i7, but for around the price of an i5 so you can put that money into other areas. It's not the best for either application, but it's good enough for both.

Shneiky · Jul 24, 2014

Both the Phanteks and the SPEC-03 are 157 mm rated. Though the SPEC-03 has at least 1 cm extra space.

byza · Jul 24, 2014

Shneiky :

Ok, I didn't check the sizes, but I know the Spec series don't fit a lot of coolers.

xTempered · Jul 24, 2014

Never said they were Hazardous. They simply have a tendency to die out under load which in turn can fry the whole build. Suggesting a build can be fried does not mean i'm saying your house can burn down.

Byte70 · Jul 24, 2014

byza :

Hey thanks man. Here is the updated build. also, to the @ OP reply, I actually chose Xeon in my build because of these reasons. byza really knows what he's saying haha.

Also to xTempered, this PSU should be fine.

byza · Jul 24, 2014

xTempered :

I meant hazardous in any sense. Under heavy load they can be risky, but the build that Byte70 suggested wasn't going to put it under heavy load so it would be fine. I agree that he should get a better PSU than the CX, but it's more because his budget can easily accommodate a better PSU and I just don't like CX's.

byza · Jul 24, 2014

If you want to overclock than Shneiky's build is the way to go, although you might want to upgrade the PSU, it's in the tier 3 we've been discussing.
http://www.tomshardware.com/answers/id-1804779/power-supply-unit-tier-list.html

If you're not looking to overclock i'd go for something like this
PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Xeon E3-1230 V3 3.3GHz Quad-Core Processor (£175.00 @ Aria PC)
Motherboard: ASRock H97M PRO4 Micro ATX LGA1150 Motherboard (£64.28 @ More Computers)
Memory: Kingston Black 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR3-1600 Memory (£98.51 @ Amazon UK)
Storage: Western Digital BLACK SERIES 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive (£55.00 @ Amazon UK)
Video Card: XFX Radeon R9 280X 3GB Double Dissipation Video Card (£189.94 @ Scan.co.uk)
Case: Corsair 200R ATX Mid Tower Case (£44.99 @ Amazon UK)
Power Supply: XFX 650W 80+ Bronze Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply (£60.06 @ CCL Computers)
Optical Drive: LG GH24NSB0 DVD/CD Writer (£14.89 @ Amazon UK)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 7 Professional SP1 (OEM) (64-bit) (£34.99 @ Amazon UK)
Total: £737.66
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-07-25 02:26 BST+0100

From there you can either decide to save some money, get an aftermarket cooler to make it a bit quieter, upgrade to an i7-4790 if you want more CPU power for heavy CAD use or add an SSD for faster boot and load times.

Mcweaponx · Jul 25, 2014

Thanks for your responses. I've found a copy of window 7 ultimate 64bit so no longer need operating system. I tend to run quite a few program's at once eg autocad, Photoshop, browser, anti virus etc so is this a case of the more cores the better? I would like a SSHD to improve boot time and I'm looking to spend the whole budget. Would anyone change anything with this additional info?

Again thank you for the quick responses!

Shneiky · Jul 25, 2014

Well you have 3 options in the end:

I. More CAD oriented.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i7-4790K 4.0GHz Quad-Core Processor (£236.34 @ Aria PC)
CPU Cooler: Phanteks PH-TC12DX_BK 68.5 CFM CPU Cooler (£38.54 @ Scan.co.uk)
Motherboard: Asus Z97M-PLUS Micro ATX LGA1150 Motherboard (£94.91 @ Ebuyer)
Memory: Kingston Black 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR3-1600 Memory (£98.51 @ Amazon UK)
Storage: Seagate Barracuda 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive (£36.00 @ Aria PC)
Video Card: Asus GeForce GTX 760 2GB DirectCU II Video Card (£179.69 @ CCL Computers)
Case: Corsair SPEC-03 Red ATX Mid Tower Case (£45.81 @ Amazon UK)
Power Supply: be quiet! 530W 80+ Bronze Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply (£48.64 @ Scan.co.uk)
Optical Drive: LG GH24NSB0 DVD/CD Writer (£14.89 @ Amazon UK)
Total: £793.33
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-07-25 12:44 BST+0100

II. More gaming oriented

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i7-4790K 4.0GHz Quad-Core Processor (£236.34 @ Aria PC)
CPU Cooler: Phanteks PH-TC12DX_BK 68.5 CFM CPU Cooler (£38.54 @ Scan.co.uk)
Motherboard: Asus Z97M-PLUS Micro ATX LGA1150 Motherboard (£94.91 @ Ebuyer)
Memory: Kingston Black 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory (£56.08 @ Amazon UK)
Storage: Seagate Barracuda 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive (£36.00 @ Aria PC)
Video Card: MSI GeForce GTX 770 2GB TWIN FROZR Video Card (£227.72 @ Scan.co.uk)
Case: Corsair SPEC-03 Red ATX Mid Tower Case (£45.81 @ Amazon UK)
Power Supply: be quiet! 530W 80+ Bronze Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply (£48.64 @ Scan.co.uk)
Optical Drive: LG GH24NSB0 DVD/CD Writer (£14.89 @ Amazon UK)
Total: £798.93
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-07-25 12:46 BST+0100

III. Ultimate - 900 pounds

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i7-4790K 4.0GHz Quad-Core Processor (£236.34 @ Aria PC)
CPU Cooler: Phanteks PH-TC12DX_BK 68.5 CFM CPU Cooler (£38.54 @ Scan.co.uk)
Motherboard: Asus Z97M-PLUS Micro ATX LGA1150 Motherboard (£94.91 @ Ebuyer)
Memory: Kingston Black 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR3-1600 Memory (£98.51 @ Amazon UK)
Storage: Samsung 840 EVO 120GB 2.5" Solid State Drive (£56.34 @ Aria PC)
Storage: Seagate Barracuda 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive (£36.00 @ Aria PC)
Video Card: Asus GeForce GTX 770 2GB DirectCU II Video Card (£238.49 @ Amazon UK)
Case: Corsair SPEC-03 Red ATX Mid Tower Case (£45.81 @ Amazon UK)
Power Supply: be quiet! 530W 80+ Bronze Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply (£48.64 @ Scan.co.uk)
Optical Drive: LG GH24NSB0 DVD/CD Writer (£14.89 @ Amazon UK)
Total: £908.47
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-07-25 12:41 BST+0100

Everything. GTX 770, 4 GHz I7, SSD and HDD, 16 GBs of RAM. The extra 100 really matter here.

The SSHD is not worth it the extra price. It is convenient for laptops where you have the place for only 1 drive, but it makes absolutely no sense in a desktop. That money is way better spend towards an SSD and an HDD. A hybrid SSHD costs 55 quid. A normal HHD is 36 and an SSD is 56. Those 20 are really wasted, since they don't give the significant improvement that you pay for. You can still get an 64 GB SSD for around 30 quid instead of 120 GB for 56 if you wish. Hope this help.

Mcweaponx · Jul 25, 2014

Thanks Shneiky, think I'll go for the ultimate build! I'm away for a week then I'll be ordering the parts. I'll post the finished build when I'm done.

sora · Jul 26, 2014

Mcweaponx :

Those three builds are pretty great. Where are you headed off to? Have fun!

£800 to spend on a gaming pc

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