£350 budget build

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abdurrahmaan

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Hi,

I want to build a gaming pc that will run games at good framerates at decent settings. My budget is £350 pounds. I will say that I want an nzxt s340 case

Thanks :)
 
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plywrlw

plywrlw

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For such a small budget you can't afford a good gaming PC and a premium case. This is the absolute best PC I could put together on that budget

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: AMD Athlon X4 860K 3.7GHz Quad-Core Processor (£49.98 @ Aria PC)
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-F2A88XM-DS2 Micro ATX FM2+ Motherboard (£42.22 @ CCL Computers)
Memory: Kingston Savage 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1866 Memory (£37.62 @ Ebuyer)
Storage: Seagate Barracuda 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive (£36.95 @ Scan.co.uk)
Video Card: XFX Radeon R9 380 2GB Double Dissipation Video Card (£144.99 @ Ebuyer)
Case: Thermaltake Versa H22 ATX Mid Tower Case (£26.70 @ CCL Computers)
Power Supply: XFX TS 550W 80+ Gold Certified ATX Power Supply (£37.99 @ Amazon UK)
Total: £376.45
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-09-13 21:11 BST+0100

You could cut down to an R9 270X or R9 370 or GTX 950 to bring the budget to £350. If you need Windows in this budget then the GPU will have to be greatly reduced.

Exactly what games are you interested in playing?
 
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abdurrahmaan

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I already have a copy of windows.

I will probably be playing games like bf4, crysis, assassins creed etc (high/ medium games)
I might also be doing some editing
 
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sora

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+1; This is probably the best you could do for around 370 quids!
 
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turbopiki

turbopiki

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PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Pentium G3258 3.2GHz Dual-Core Processor (£51.51 @ Dabs)
Motherboard: MSI H81M-P33 Micro ATX LGA1150 Motherboard (£31.71 @ Ebuyer)
Memory: GeIL Enhance CORSA 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1333 Memory (£25.44 @ Amazon UK)
Storage: Seagate Barracuda 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive (£29.94 @ Aria PC)
Video Card: Gigabyte GeForce GTX 960 2GB Video Card (£139.99 @ Amazon UK)
Case: Zalman Z3 Plus ATX Mid Tower Case (£32.99 @ Novatech)
Power Supply: XFX TS 550W 80+ Gold Certified ATX Power Supply (£37.99 @ Amazon UK)
Total: £349.57
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-09-14 06:36 BST+0100

g3258 beat x4 860k in every game - http://www.techspot.com/review/1017-best-budget-gaming-cpu/
gtx 960 performs about the same as r9 380 but in most games GTX 960 is better for a few FPS and also GTX 960 uses less power - http://www.techspot.com/review/1019-radeon-r9-390x-390-380/
best budget case, you get 5 pre-installed case fans
 
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plywrlw

plywrlw

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Unfortunately, many newer games don't easily play on the G3258 as they don't officially support dual-core CPU's. This is probably only going to become a more prominent issue in the future.

If you have any plans to upgrade to an i3 or i5 in the future however, the G3258 would make a good short-term solution.

The Zalman Z3 comes with three fans, one at the front and two at the top. It's a nice enough case, just pick one that you like the look of that can accommodate decent graphics card length, has space behind the motherboard for cable routing and good airflow. You might want pick one with front USB 3.0 connectivity if this is likely to be important to you (if so, also make sure that the motherboard has headers for USB 3.0).

The GTX 960 does consume less power but either runs OK on an XFX 550W, at £139 it's a good price and I probably would have chosen it had I spotted it. This 960 with 4GB of RAM might be worth the extra cash if you can afford it http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/part/gigabyte-video-card-gvn960oc4gd
 
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turbopiki

turbopiki

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Yes, Far Cry 4 wouldnt start with 2 core CPU, but now i know there is one program that allows you to play it and it runs fine, my friend has a budget build with g3258 OC and he gets same FPS as me with i5. also there is no upgrade path for x4 860k is the best CPU for fm2+ socket, everyone was saying how games will use 4 cores soon already 5 years ago and it still didnt happen most games dont use more than 2 cores, but if this happens and the programs that will let you play that games with 2 core CPU wont be coming out, he can simply just upgrade to better 1150 socket CPU.

it was a typo i meant 4, yes Z3 comes with 3 fans (1x front, 1x top, 1x rear) but the build i linked has Z3 PLUS which come with 4 fans (1x front 2x top 1x back)

Yes i know that 550w is more than enough for r9 380, i just meant that he could save some money on a power bill because gtx 960 uses less power. i know i should of said that straight away
 
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plywrlw

plywrlw

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The Z3 plus comes with three fans. I know. I have one. Here it is on Zalman's own website with three pre-installed fans http://www.zalman.com/global/product/Product_Read.php?Idx=821

You can have five, it comes with three.

The main issue (apart from having to download and install "fixes" to get around the dual-core) with the G3258 is that whilst it gets good average framerates, it suffers from frame latency issues in many games. Like I said, it's a good stopgap if the OP has plans to upgrade to a better processor but if this is it for their build then I'd stick with the quad-core 860K.

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/digitalfoundry-2014-pentium-g3258-review

Finally, an important question hasn't been asked; OP are you going to overclock?
 
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abdurrahmaan

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probably not
 
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plywrlw

plywrlw

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Ha! Sorry my bad! I'd forgotten that I'd moved the rear one into the front so now it's got 2x front and 2x top as my GPU has a blower cooler and it works best that way.

Sorry! Doh!
 
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abdurrahmaan

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PCPartPicker part list: http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/p/CCPs3C
Price breakdown by merchant: http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/p/CCPs3C/by_merchant/

CPU: AMD Athlon X4 860K 3.7GHz Quad-Core Processor (£49.98 @ Aria PC)
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-F2A88XM-DS2 Micro ATX FM2+ Motherboard (£42.22 @ CCL Computers)
Memory: Crucial 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory (£33.39 @ Amazon UK)
Storage: Seagate Barracuda 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive (£36.95 @ Scan.co.uk)
Video Card: EVGA GeForce GTX 750 Ti 2GB Superclocked Video Card (£97.87 @ Scan.co.uk)
Case: Zalman Z3 Plus ATX Mid Tower Case (£32.99 @ Novatech)
Power Supply: XFX TS 550W 80+ Gold Certified ATX Power Supply (£37.99 @ Amazon UK)
Total: £331.39
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-09-14 13:30 BST+0100

What do u think about this build?

 
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plywrlw

plywrlw

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This is a good step-up from the GTX 750ti and is only £25 more http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/part/evga-video-card-02gp42951kr

I'm afraid the £29 Seagate Barracuda was a "Superspecial" deal and has sold out. It's about £35 normally. If you don't need 1TB then this Hitachi is a good price http://www.aria.co.uk/Products/Storage/Hard+Drives/3.5+Inch+SATA+Drives/640GB+-+1TB/750GB+HGST+Ultrastar+A7K1000++7200RPM+SATA+3Gbps+3.5-inch+Hard+Drive+-+CLEAN+PULL+?productId=64457&source=pcpartpicker

It's technically a refurb but hasn't actually been used, they've just taken it out of a new PC I think.
 
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turbopiki

turbopiki

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Even if you dont OC g3258 it beats x4 860k so i dont see a reason why someone wouldnt go with g3258, right now i dont know of 1 game you cant play with 2 cores, if you couldnt at the start you can now all games have fixes, and the best thing you can upgrade to i5 later
 
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turbopiki

turbopiki

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i gave you the best performing build you can get for 350, but if you dont want 2 core cpu without hyperthreading, which i dont know why since most games still use only 2 cores and the ones that want 4 you get fix 1 month after release of the game and then you can play it no problem, if you go with x4 860k you will need to change motherboard and CPU when CPU wont perfrom any more x4 860k is the best CPU you can get on FM2+ Socket, but with g3258 and 1150 motherboard you can just get better CPU. Anyway here is the build if you dont want 2 core CPU without hyperthreading

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i3-4160 3.6GHz Dual-Core Processor (£84.95 @ Ebuyer)
Motherboard: MSI H81M-P33 Micro ATX LGA1150 Motherboard (£31.71 @ Ebuyer)
Memory: GeIL Enhance CORSA 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1333 Memory (£24.54 @ Amazon UK)
Storage: Seagate Barracuda 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive (£29.94 @ Aria PC)
Video Card: Palit GeForce GTX 750 Ti 2GB StormX OC Video Card (£85.67 @ Ebuyer)
Case: Zalman Z3 Plus ATX Mid Tower Case (£32.99 @ Novatech)
Power Supply: XFX TS 550W 80+ Gold Certified ATX Power Supply (£37.99 @ Amazon UK)
Total: £327.79
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-09-15 06:58 BST+0100
 
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plywrlw

plywrlw

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Anything made for DirectX 12 is going to use all the threads a CPU has and I think there will be a definite advantage to having four cores/threads for new games. Unless the Windows the OP already has is XP or Vista they will be able to get Windows 10 for free and therefore DX12.

There are lots of current games that will use more than two threads. Granted, many of them will hammer the first two threads the most and they aren't all very well designed to spread the workload over four or more threads.

The OP clearly stated that they intend to do editing which generally benefits from more threads.

Like I've said every time, only go for the 860K if there's no future plans to get an i5 or i3 in a few years' time.

Saying that, socket 1150 (the Pentium's) is essentially dead too now. The new Skylake cpu's won't work on one so the OP will be likely having to source their cpu upgrade from Ebay. Maybe by that time they'll want to just upgrade to DDR4/Socket 1151?

It really depends how long the OP plans to use the PC in its current configuration?

No point cheaping out on slow RAM, super-basic motherboard and weak graphics card just to get an i3. This is probably the baseline i3 build I'd want myself.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i3-4160 3.6GHz Dual-Core Processor (£84.95 @ Ebuyer)
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-B85M-D2V Micro ATX LGA1150 Motherboard (£40.50 @ CCL Computers)
Memory: Kingston Savage 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory (£35.63 @ Ebuyer)
Storage: Hitachi Ultrastar 750GB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive (£25.99 @ Aria PC)
Video Card: Gigabyte Radeon R7 370 2GB WINDFORCE 2X Video Card (£116.80 @ Ebuyer)
Case: Thermaltake Versa H22 ATX Mid Tower Case (£26.70 @ CCL Computers)
Power Supply: XFX TS 550W 80+ Gold Certified ATX Power Supply (£37.99 @ Amazon UK)
Total: £368.56
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-09-15 09:08 BST+0100
 
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