my first gaming pc build £600 budget could use some advice

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Andy1992

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Feb 13, 2015
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Hi guys I've never built my own PC before but I'm interested in possibly building one for Gaming. My budget is around £600, 650 at absolute max with OS since I still need a moniter a chair and a mouse and keyboard.

I was wondering if some of you guys here could give me some build ideas for my budget? i'm thinking of getting a intel cpu maybe i5 coz I want to play Day Z, which I heard Intel is better for CPU intensive games like that and I don't want it to be unplayable if I got a AMD one. I'd also like a good value and powerful enough GPU I heard R9 280 is pretty good and my build to be upgradeable to add an extra gpu etc in the future if need be.

Basically I'm hoping to get a PC that can play most/all AAA titles on quite high settings if possible and good enough cpu for games like day z.
 
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i suggest go with fx8350(which is good enough for any game) and add the money you save on the cpu to get an r9 280x to play on high settings in most games.
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Andy1992

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Feb 13, 2015
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Sorry man I can't quote you on my phone are both those CPU's and GPU's overclockable? I'm not sure I'm after overclocking yet since i don't know how to but it would be handy to know if I decide to.
 
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Andy1992

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Feb 13, 2015
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Thanks that would be appreciated sintruder. Only thing is I keep hearing the AMD cpu really struggles in Dayz which worries me since I really want to play that game.

and thanks for the link folded I'll check it out!
 
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Sintruder

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i did some research and yes amd CPUs are weak on this game since it almost only uses cpu power, so for this game i would go with an intel cpu, but for the long run i would invest more money on the graphics card as almost all games use that more than the cpu plus directx 12 is coming out which will greatly improve cpu usage on games.
 
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Andy1992

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Yeah I've been looking at different GPU's trying to find a good one in my budget. I have heard talk about direct x12 but I'm not sure what it does would it make amd more playable on cpu intensive games or something?
 
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Sintruder

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yes directx 12 is meant to improve cpu usage so both amd and intel will benefit, but the weaker CPUs will see the greatest improvement in games.
 
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Andy1992

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That's handy to know. I'm still saving money up so i'll keep an eye out for when that update drops and maybe I can get an AMD CPU and put more money into the graphics card, that's what I'd prefer to do and definitely would do if there CPU could run DayZ well I really want to play that.
 
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logainofhades

logainofhades

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If you can in any way swing it, I would go with this.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i5-4440 3.1GHz Quad-Core Processor (£134.97 @ YoYoTech)
Motherboard: ASRock H81M-DGS R2.0 Micro ATX LGA1150 Motherboard (£35.03 @ Amazon UK)
Memory: Kingston Fury Black Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory (£50.98 @ Amazon UK)
Storage: Seagate Barracuda 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive (£37.99 @ Aria PC)
Video Card: Zotac GeForce GTX 970 4GB Video Card (£258.95 @ Amazon UK)
Case: Fractal Design Core 1000 MicroATX Mini Tower Case (£19.97 @ Scan.co.uk)
Power Supply: EVGA 500W 80+ Certified ATX Power Supply (£33.59 @ Aria PC)
Optical Drive: Lite-On iHAS124-14 DVD/CD Writer (£9.98 @ Amazon UK)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 8.1 (OEM) (64-bit) (£74.20 @ Amazon UK)
Total: £655.66
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-02-17 20:31 GMT+0000


This is just a bit under max, but still pretty powerful.
PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i5-4440 3.1GHz Quad-Core Processor (£134.97 @ YoYoTech)
Motherboard: ASRock H81M-DGS R2.0 Micro ATX LGA1150 Motherboard (£35.03 @ Amazon UK)
Memory: Kingston Fury Black Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory (£50.98 @ Amazon UK)
Storage: Seagate Barracuda 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive (£37.99 @ Aria PC)
Video Card: MSI Radeon R9 290 4GB TWIN FROZR Video Card (£224.99 @ Novatech)
Case: Fractal Design Core 1000 MicroATX Mini Tower Case (£19.97 @ Scan.co.uk)
Power Supply: Antec High Current Gamer 750W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply (£58.57 @ Scan.co.uk)
Optical Drive: Lite-On iHAS124-14 DVD/CD Writer (£9.98 @ Amazon UK)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 8.1 (OEM) (64-bit) (£74.20 @ Amazon UK)
Total: £646.68
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-02-17 20:34 GMT+0000

Closer to the price of 600, this is my pick.
PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i5-4440 3.1GHz Quad-Core Processor (£134.97 @ YoYoTech)
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-B85M-DS3H Micro ATX LGA1150 Motherboard (£49.36 @ CCL Computers)
Memory: Kingston Fury Black Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory (£50.98 @ Amazon UK)
Storage: Seagate Barracuda 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive (£37.99 @ Aria PC)
Video Card: MSI Radeon R9 280X 3GB TWIN FROZR Video Card (£175.54 @ Scan.co.uk)
Case: Thermaltake Versa H22 ATX Mid Tower Case (£26.57 @ CCL Computers)
Power Supply: EVGA 600B 600W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply (£49.76 @ Amazon UK)
Optical Drive: Lite-On iHAS124-14 DVD/CD Writer (£9.98 @ Amazon UK)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 8.1 (OEM) (64-bit) (£74.20 @ Amazon UK)
Total: £609.35
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-02-17 20:45 GMT+0000
 
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Andy1992

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Feb 13, 2015
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They're both great builds! Thanks for taking the time to do that for me I could get the extra for the 1st one since it has windows if the extra performance would be worth the money?

Also I'm clueless when it comes to motherboards is that one good and do both builds have a good upgrade path?
 
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logainofhades

logainofhades

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Apr 27, 2009
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By the time you really have to upgrade an i5 rig, it will be time for a new rig anyway. Broadwell won't be much of a performance increase over current Haswell setups, and Skylake will be an all new socket. You could go with an i7, or Xeon 1231v3, if you needed the multithreaded support, but that is about it. They are both budget boards, but motherboards do not determine how much gaming performance you will get. They just have to work. Only real exceptions are boards that allow for Crossfire/SLI. For single card setups, an H81/B85 board really isn't going to perform any different than a Z97 rig with the same CPU and GPU. The biggest limitation is ram support. H81 boards only have 2 ram slots. If you think you will want 16gb, go with a single 8gb stick.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i5-4440 3.1GHz Quad-Core Processor (£134.97 @ YoYoTech)
Motherboard: ASRock H81M-DGS R2.0 Micro ATX LGA1150 Motherboard (£35.03 @ Amazon UK)
Memory: Kingston Fury Series 8GB (1 x 8GB) DDR3-1600 Memory (£51.27 @ Amazon UK)
Storage: Seagate Barracuda 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive (£37.99 @ Aria PC)
Video Card: Zotac GeForce GTX 970 4GB Video Card (£258.95 @ Amazon UK)
Case: Fractal Design Core 1000 MicroATX Mini Tower Case (£19.97 @ Scan.co.uk)
Power Supply: EVGA 500W 80+ Certified ATX Power Supply (£33.59 @ Aria PC)
Optical Drive: Lite-On iHAS124-14 DVD/CD Writer (£9.98 @ Amazon UK)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 8.1 (OEM) (64-bit) (£74.43 @ Amazon UK)
Total: £656.18
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-02-18 19:51 GMT+0000
 
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Andy1992

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Feb 13, 2015
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Thanks for the info I don't think I'll need 16gb of ram from what I heard 8gb is great for gamers. That's a great build though I didn't think a 970 would be available just outside my budget. Is the difference between 970 and 280x significant?

I'm a little nervous about building a pc myself lol so had a look at some pre builts incase I chickened out but the cheapest I found a build with similar specs was about £760 unfortunately.
 
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