Best light gaming/work small(ish) PC for £250 (minus GPU)

caveman178355 · Jun 12, 2015

Hi, a friend of mine asked me to build him a PC and he has £250 to spend, what is the best light gaming/work small(ish) pc i can get. I have some idea but wanted to see what you guys thought so i posted this. He has a gpu (gtx 650) and would like it quite small (not mini itx though) also I will get the parts from the UK so prices from there please (cause i live here/there).

turbopiki · Jun 12, 2015

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: AMD Athlon X4 860K 3.7GHz Quad-Core Processor (£55.03 @ Scan.co.uk)
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-F2A88XM-D3H Micro ATX FM2+ Motherboard (£47.94 @ Amazon UK)
Memory: Corsair Vengeance LP 8GB (1 x 8GB) DDR3-1600 Memory (£41.58 @ Ebuyer)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive (£39.99 @ Amazon UK)
Case: Cooler Master N200 MicroATX Mid Tower Case (£30.37 @ Amazon UK)
Power Supply: XFX ProSeries 450W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply (£36.88 @ More Computers)
Total: £251.79
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-06-12 17:58 BST+0100

yeskay · Jun 12, 2015

caveman178355 :

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Pentium G3258 3.2GHz Dual-Core Processor (£48.87 @ Amazon UK)
CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO 82.9 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler (£24.97 @ Amazon UK)
Motherboard: MSI H81M-P33 Micro ATX LGA1150 Motherboard (£30.23 @ Ebuyer)
Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws X Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory (£47.99 @ Aria PC)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive (£39.99 @ Amazon UK)
Case: Cooler Master N200 MicroATX Mid Tower Case (£30.37 @ Amazon UK)
Power Supply: XFX ProSeries 450W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply (£36.88 @ More Computers)
Total: £259.30
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-06-12 18:31 BST+0100

Notes:

- All major motherboard manufacturers had already officially confirmed that the Intel Pentium G3258 can be overclocked on H81/97/B85 motherboards after updating the BIOS.
- Watch this - Intel Pentium G3258 + MSI H81M-P33 Overclocking Guide - The Simple Way

Cheers!

caveman178355 · Jun 12, 2015

yeskay :

caveman178355 :

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Pentium G3258 3.2GHz Dual-Core Processor (£48.87 @ Amazon UK)
CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO 82.9 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler (£24.97 @ Amazon UK)
Motherboard: MSI H81M-P33 Micro ATX LGA1150 Motherboard (£30.23 @ Ebuyer)
Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws X Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory (£47.99 @ Aria PC)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive (£39.99 @ Amazon UK)
Case: Cooler Master N200 MicroATX Mid Tower Case (£30.37 @ Amazon UK)
Power Supply: XFX ProSeries 450W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply (£36.88 @ More Computers)
Total: £259.30
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-06-12 18:31 BST+0100

Notes:

- All major motherboard manufacturers had already officially confirmed that the Intel Pentium G3258 can be overclocked on H81/97/B85 motherboards after updating the BIOS.
- Watch this - Intel Pentium G3258 + MSI H81M-P33 Overclocking Guide - The Simple Way

Cheers!

I thought about a Pentium but dual core that i have to overclock or quad that is at 4ghz stock (FX 4300)

turbopiki · Jun 12, 2015

X4 860K is better than FX-4300

yeskay · Jun 12, 2015

caveman178355 :

Intel dual core are stronger cores. AMD has 4 weaker cores. The G3258 will literally destroy that AMD FX4300. More cores with higher clocks doesn't always mean its better.

Forget the FX 4300, the G3258 even with stock cooler can be overclocked up to 4.6Ghz (its stock speed is 3.2Ghz). A overclocked G3258 is a budget gaming beast that even competes with Intel i3 and only some 10-15 FPS short of i5 4690K. See this G3258 Gaming Benchmark - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0LDM43_cKn0

For extreme budget gaming Intel G3258 with amazing overclocking room that too on budget boards is simply the best. If you want, can even use the default CPU cooler that comes with G3258 like they show in that benchmark, which is a solid one. You can avoid the third party CPU cooler I suggested and bring the price down further.

turbopiki · Jun 12, 2015

Yes you can OC ti to 4.6Ght with good Z97 chipset motherboard dont try it with h81 chipset it doesnt have enough power phases

ryanbuckz99 · Jun 12, 2015

yeskay :

caveman178355 :

Intel dual core are stronger cores. AMD has 4 weaker cores. The G3258 will literally destroy that AMD FX4300. More cores with higher clocks doesn't always mean its better.

Forget the FX 4300, the G3258 even with stock cooler can be overclocked up to 4.6Ghz (its stock speed is 3.2Ghz). A overclocked G3258 is a budget gaming beast that even competes with Intel i3 and only some 10-15 FPS short of i5 4690K. See this G3258 Gaming Benchmark - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0LDM43_cKn0

For extreme budget gaming Intel G3258 with amazing overclocking room that too on budget boards is simply the best. If you want, can even use the default CPU cooler that comes with G3258 like they show in that benchmark, which is a solid one. You can avoid the third party CPU cooler I suggested and bring the price down further.

the G3258 is the best way to go but i heard that it has one small drawback and that is the fact that its a duel core so games like Gta 5 and FarCry 4 wont run on it. i would say wait it out and save the extra £80-£100 and get the i5 4440 or i5 4460 they are alot better than any amd or Pentium.

sora · Jun 12, 2015

ryanbuckz99 :

yeskay :

caveman178355 :

Intel dual core are stronger cores. AMD has 4 weaker cores. The G3258 will literally destroy that AMD FX4300. More cores with higher clocks doesn't always mean its better.

Forget the FX 4300, the G3258 even with stock cooler can be overclocked up to 4.6Ghz (its stock speed is 3.2Ghz). A overclocked G3258 is a budget gaming beast that even competes with Intel i3 and only some 10-15 FPS short of i5 4690K. See this G3258 Gaming Benchmark - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0LDM43_cKn0

For extreme budget gaming Intel G3258 with amazing overclocking room that too on budget boards is simply the best. If you want, can even use the default CPU cooler that comes with G3258 like they show in that benchmark, which is a solid one. You can avoid the third party CPU cooler I suggested and bring the price down further.

the G3258 is the best way to go but i heard that it has one small drawback and that is the fact that its a duel core so games like Gta 5 and FarCry 4 wont run on it. i would say wait it out and save the extra £80-£100 and get the i5 4440 or i5 4460 they are alot better than any amd or Pentium.

The G3258 is still great for the price! I would personally go with an i3 though.

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