First build £600 budget

TomC · Sep 19, 2014

Will be used for gaming mostly, want to be able to play like BF4 / Elite Dangerous (when it's out) / Assassin's Creed BF (my current PC can't really handle it lol) / Star Citizen (.. when it's out).

Hey so here is the build I came up with (not much research but just looking at other recommendations & to fit my budget)

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i5-4460 3.2GHz Quad-Core Processor (£128.34 @ Aria PC)
Motherboard: MSI Z97 PC MATE ATX LGA1150 Motherboard (£61.08 @ Ebuyer)
Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws X Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory (£63.05 @ Ebuyer)
Storage: Samsung 840 EVO 250GB 2.5" Solid State Drive (£79.99 @ Amazon UK)
Video Card: XFX Radeon R9 280 3GB Black Edition Double Dissipation Video Card (£158.81 @ More Computers)
Case: Thermaltake Chaser A31 ATX Mid Tower Case (£58.70 @ Amazon UK)
Power Supply: Corsair CX 500W 80+ Bronze Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply (£45.73 @ Amazon UK)
Total: £595.70
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-09-19 20:18 BST+0100

Any recommended changes to this? What real difference is there between the 4690 & 4460? Price difference isn't huge but idk am I going to notice any difference here? From past experience it is usually the GPU that is the bottleneck in the system not the CPU but maybe that has changed idk. I noticed most builds are recommending AMD graphics not Nvidia now, why is this? Are they just over all much better right now?

Other than this what else would I need to buy? Excluding CD drive / monitors / hard drives / peripherals. I guess just thermal compound & cables? What cables specifically will I need to build this?

Also can I use the Windows 7 key from my current desktop or am I going to have to buy another key?

Cheers

jasonite · Sep 19, 2014

To answer your last q's first: here's where you can see the differences (which are small) between the 4690 & 4460: http://ark.intel.com/compare/80810,77769,80817

Other than the components you mentioned you shouldn't have to buy anything. What you've ordered should have all the cables you need.

As for your build, you have some options. Right now you have a good build, and all your components should work together without a problem. I will pose some questions for you:

Can you live with 250gb total storage space? An SSD is a great idea for reducing load times, but that isn't the highest priority if you fill it all up quickly because you don't have any other storage space. If it is enough for you, then great, but typically I recommend a 1 tb standard HDD rather than only an SSD--and it's cheaper.

Your CPU is fine but one thing I recommend is to get a cheaper CPU in order to spend more money on your GPU, as that will be shouldering most of the load. The i3-4330 for example is actually clocked higher, performs very well and will save you money. It has two cores but can run four threads thanks to its technology, and most games can't use more than about two threads anyway.

Here's my build for you, just a couple of tweaks:

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i3-4330 3.5GHz Dual-Core Processor (£89.99 @ Aria PC)
Motherboard: MSI Z97 PC MATE ATX LGA1150 Motherboard (£61.08 @ Ebuyer)
Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws X Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory (£63.05 @ Ebuyer)
Storage: Western Digital BLACK SERIES 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive (£53.94 @ Aria PC)
Video Card: MSI Radeon R9 280X 3GB TWIN FROZR Video Card (£222.34 @ Scan.co.uk)
Case: Thermaltake Chaser A31 ATX Mid Tower Case (£58.70 @ Amazon UK)
Power Supply: Corsair CX 500W 80+ Bronze Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply (£45.73 @ Amazon UK)
Total: £594.83
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-09-19 21:11 BST+0100

Saving money in some areas you are able to step up to a better graphics card and have a higher performing system. I recommend at least an R9 280X or GTX 770 if you want to play games like BF4 and Assassin's Creed. Nvidia is just great, but the 280X is slightly cheaper and has 1 more gb of Vram. It is slightly slower performing overall but not enough to make a difference, it's a better value overall. Hope this helps

J

TomC · Sep 19, 2014

jasonite :

OK so there isn't much difference. Just a few technologies that don't seem to matter to me & slightly faster speed.

What about cooling compound for the CPU? Do modern CPUs not need it? I have around 3 TB of hard drives already, I would want to have 4 plugged in permanently as well as the SSD (so 5 slots), what cables will I need for that? I could reuse the ones I'm currently using I suppose although they're really old & dusty. I also have a 500W Antec Earthwatts PSU but I figured it's a good idea to buy a new one since again this one is really really dusty (my current PC has huge heat problems (CPU permanently 100C even when browsing the web), always has, so my case is open & I haven't cleaned it in ages). But perhaps I don't, maybe they're easy to clean I don't know really.

Regarding the CPU this is what I was getting at wrt bottlenecking your system. But the recommended builds always use pretty powerful CPUs (ie their CPU/GPU are in a similar range), there must be a reason for this? I guess what you're trying to say is that the i3 is similar in power for games, so where does the i5 really shine, where do you need those extra cores? What about AMD processors, they are often recommended for lower end systems...

Thanks for the response.

EDIT: Going by this I'm not even going to notice much of a difference in CPU? I'm using a Phenom X4 955 black edition at the moment. Although my CPU has notoriously bad problems with heating iirc.

jasonite · Sep 19, 2014

Okay if you have HDD's already then the SSD is the perfect solution for gaming. Typically you need to worry about cooling compounds and aftermarket heatsink/fan solutions if you're overclocking. However if your current CPU is running at 100 c most of the time there is something wrong. Typically I don't recommend more than 79 c sustained temps (under heavy load), though the 80's are doable. I'd really look into either more exhaust fans on your case or better air flow, and de-dust the thing. Then again it might not matter if you're getting a new system, but your new CPU will not have heating problems if you are not overclocking.

For your SSD you'll just need a SATA cable, which should come with your new motherboard or power supply. Talking about power supplies, 500 is typically fine if you're just running a single GPU, but if you have several HDD's I don't feel really comfortable with less than 600W. Here are my recommended changes:

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i3-4330 3.5GHz Dual-Core Processor (£89.99 @ Aria PC)
Motherboard: MSI Z97 PC MATE ATX LGA1150 Motherboard (£61.08 @ Ebuyer)
Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws X Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory (£63.05 @ Ebuyer)
Storage: Samsung 840 EVO 250GB 2.5" Solid State Drive (£79.99 @ Amazon UK)
Video Card: MSI Radeon R9 280X 3GB TWIN FROZR Video Card (£222.34 @ Scan.co.uk)
Case: Thermaltake Chaser A31 ATX Mid Tower Case (£58.70 @ Amazon UK)
Power Supply: Antec High Current Gamer 620W 80+ Bronze Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply (£68.05 @ Amazon UK)
Total: £643.20
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-09-19 22:03 BST+0100

Hope that helps. As far as the i5's, I currently have one but they don't come into their own IMO until you get to the 4690 series, particularly the 'K' version because it can be very overclocked. Ultimately four cores are better than two, but per core performance is more important for gaming and you need to have the money to afford the better i5's.

P.S. Don't feel bad about saving some money if you want to go with the 280 instead of the 280X. You only need that if you plan on running high-demand games with ultra settings.

J

TomC · Sep 19, 2014

Haha yea my current CPU is really messed up. I've been meaning to replace it all for a while just haven't had the money to do so. That's why I haven't really bothered to try fix the problems. It has a lot of issues with crashing as well but yea, doesn't matter when I'm replacing it anyho.

I really don't want to have heating issues, I've had to deal with a noisy ass CPU fan & high temps for years. My PC is nicknamed the "aircraft carrier" because of the noise... I can actually hear it through my headphones while watching movies. Hopefully that shouldn't be the case this time around.

You're spot on with the i3 by the way, more recommendations should mention this. The review here was very enlightening (most benchmarks use software for CPUs that mean absolutely nothing to me) http://www.hardcoreware.net/intel-core-i3-4340-review/

So...

All the parts come with everything they need. So literally all I need is what you've listed above. How many SATA cables will come with the mobo, enough for the HDDs I have (will be 5 total, although my case may only fit 3 depending on if the GPU can fit, but that's fine)?

With regards to the GPU what is the difference between the different "brands". For instance the one you linked is branded as MSI however you can get cheaper options for instance XFX at £189 http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/part/xfx-video-card-r9280xtdbd . The MSI one has only a single DVI port too or? I need 2 DVI ports since I use 2 monitors.

Callum0800 · Sep 19, 2014

I think the R9 graphics cards have alot of problems, recently got one and had to RMA it straight away because of artifacts, id get an nvidia card

Callum0800 · Sep 19, 2014

PCPartPicker part list: http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/p/BKxjvK
Price breakdown by merchant: http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/p/BKxjvK/by_merchant/

CPU: Intel Core i5-4460 3.2GHz Quad-Core Processor (£128.34 @ Aria PC)
Motherboard: ASRock H97 PRO4 ATX LGA1150 Motherboard (£67.01 @ More Computers)
Memory: Kingston Fury White Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1866 Memory (£59.98 @ Amazon UK)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive (£37.50 @ Aria PC)
Video Card: Asus GeForce GTX 770 2GB DirectCU II Video Card (£217.99 @ Amazon UK)
Case: Corsair 200R ATX Mid Tower Case (£44.75 @ Aria PC)
Power Supply: XFX 650W 80+ Bronze Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply (£60.16 @ More Computers)
Total: £615.73
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-09-19 23:38 BST+0100

I'd get that then get an SSD when you have the money as it's not really worth buying for gaming performance alone

jasonite · Sep 19, 2014

You should be able to use your own key to reinstall Windows as long as it's not an OEM that you bought. Even then give it a try and see if it works. If it doesn't, then you probably will have to buy. If you are really worried about having heating issues you can keep the Cooler Master Hyper 212 Evo or the Xigmatek Dark Knight II SD1283 in the back of your mind, it's an inexpensive cpu cooler that can help. The Dark Knight in particular is excellent, but again you probably shouldn't need it.

Typically they come with the PSU I believe, and if they don't have five just grab one of them and go down to your local PC component store like Best Buy and tell them this is what you need to buy.

Brands of GPU are typically derived from the reputation they've earned over the years. I typically only buy Asus, EVGA, MSI or Sapphire, but there really shouldn't be anything wrong with other brands as well. If you need two DVI's for your monitor by all means get one that comes with two.

Search

First build £600 budget

TomC

Distinguished

Callum0800

jasonite

Distinguished

TomC

Distinguished

jasonite

Distinguished

TomC

Distinguished

Callum0800

Honorable

Callum0800

Honorable

jasonite

Distinguished

TRENDING THREADS

Latest posts

Moderators online

Share this page