Budget Gaming PC for £500 / $725/ €670

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mattwilkinson

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Jan 11, 2016
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Okay, so I've been thinking for a long time about building the rest of my PC since my GPU has been lying around for ages, however I'm hit with a budget of around £500.

I need a base PC with all the parts, excluding the GPU and PSU.

I already have a Sapphire Radeon HD 7870 graphics card and a Corsair CX750 power supply which I do not wish to replace. I also have monitors and the peripherals sorted. Note also that I am not too bothered about an SSD - I will get this at a later date.

I would like to run games such as Arma 3, GTA V and the recent Total Wars on high settings with enjoyable frames (preferably above 60fps).

Again, strictly no more than £500 if possible.

Thanks for any advice and recommendations. :)

 
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mattwilkinson

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Edited original post. The graphics card can run these games on the settings I would like, I just need the rest of the PC build around them. Sorry for the lack of explanation, this is my first post so I don't know what information you need.
 
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Outlander_04

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PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i5-6500 3.2GHz Quad-Core Processor (£161.98 @ CCL Computers)
CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO 82.9 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler (£24.89 @ Aria PC)
Motherboard: ASRock Z170 Pro4 ATX LGA1151 Motherboard (£91.28 @ CCL Computers)
Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws V Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR4-2400 Memory (£42.94 @ More Computers)
Storage: Crucial BX200 240GB 2.5" Solid State Drive (£53.99 @ Amazon UK)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive (£38.97 @ Amazon UK)
Case: Antec Three Hundred Two ATX Mid Tower Case (£56.22 @ Amazon UK)
Optical Drive: Lite-On iHDS118-04 DVD/CD Drive (£10.45 @ CCL Computers)
Total: £480.72
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2016-01-11 22:27 GMT+0000

You could also upgrade the board to the Asrock Extreme4 .
 
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Barty1884

Barty1884

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Apr 16, 2015
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lodders build (with a few changes. Primarilly: new storage, a Z97 board) would be a slightly cheaper option.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i5-4690K 3.5GHz Quad-Core Processor (£178.01 @ Amazon UK)
Motherboard: ASRock Z97 PRO3 ATX LGA1150 Motherboard (£74.58 @ Dabs)
Memory: Kingston HyperX Fury Red 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1866 Memory (£33.54 @ More Computers)
Storage: Samsung 850 EVO-Series 250GB 2.5" Solid State Drive (£58.74 @ Aria PC)
Storage: Seagate Barracuda 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive (£35.98 @ CCL Computers)
Case: NZXT S340 (Black) ATX Mid Tower Case (£58.60 @ Aria PC)
Total: £439.45
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2016-01-11 22:48 GMT+0000

Or a mix & match of this and the one Outlander posted. (the Crucial SSD is cheaper, the case is marginally cheaper)

That would put you around 430quid.

No idea if an OS is required, as it's not mentioned by you or included in a build yet....so that may well impact your budget.
 
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Barty1884

Barty1884

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I'd respectably disagree with you here Outlander.

A GPU, PSU are all "core components" and will be able to be moved forward.

A motherboard, as much as it can accommodate an increased CPU, I don't believe too many people do it. Considering we're all suggesting an i5 for the OP, I doubt they'd upgrade to an i7 anytime soon. By the time an upgrade became a consideration, there would likely be a new platform anyway.

CPU, the 'flip' of the above. Upgrading, do many people actually move the CPU forward?

RAM - fair comment. RAM is one of the cheapest elements of a build though, so I wouldn't personally put too much weight on this element.

While I agree building with a mind for the future is a good idea, I think a 400quid investment to see the OP through a couple of years would be fine. Gives time to save up for a better performing rig from scratch in a couple of years time.
 
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lodders

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The Z97 board is not necessary, you can get a good H81 board for about £45
According to this review, Gigabyte H81 HD3 and Asrock H81 M were both good enough to run an i7 .
http://uk.hardware.info/reviews/5949/9/intel-h81-chipset-motherboards-test-8-budget-motherboards-put-to-the-test-vrm-test
And you can overclock an i5 on the gigabyte one.....

Suggest you buy all your components from the same place, that way you only have to deal with one vendor if you have a problem with your new PC. When I last looked, Amazon uk had very competitive prices.

There are many cases on Amazon for under £30 which will do the job very well - just look for one with good reviews. So far I have never been disappointed
 
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Outlander_04

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A gpu is likely to be the upgrade you would make in two years time to improve gaming performance .

A CPU swap is possible to the post skylake generation if there is a performance improvement .

Adding RAM will not be worthwhile in a years time if it is DDR3 . Just as it is impossible to find DDR2 now .

The only one of those that is possible with Haswell would be to change the graphics card


 
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Barty1884

Barty1884

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Not gonna beat this to death and derail the topic, but I wanted to respond to this.

Agreed that a GPU upgrade would be the most likely upgrade.

The CPU upgrade is a good point. I didn't appreciate the roadmap for Skylake stretches longer than normal (Q4 '15 for Skylake, Q2/3 '16 Kaby Lake and Q2/3 '17 for Cannonlake). That's a 2 year window, opposed to a rough 14months we've seen with Sandy Bridge & Haswell. That being said, I'd be curious to know how many 'average' users upgrade their CPU in a single microarchitectural 'cycle'.

I was suggesting RAM has historically been "moveable" but going Haswell now will remove that option. But, considering how cheap RAM is, when the OP did upgrade next, DDR4 would be a necessary purchase.

I'd totally disagree with the sentiment it's impossible to find DDR2 nowadays. DDR3 will still be available for a long time yet, and I would expect it to be priced roughly comparable to how DDR2 is today. 2x2GB was essentially "mid-range" for DDR2, comparable with 2x4GB DDR3. Considering 2x2GB DDR2 can still be bought for under 40quid, I would expect that to be similar to how 2x4GB DDR3 will be priced in a comparable timeframe. Not as cheap as when the market was flooded with it, but still more than affordable.

Anyway, back on topic.

While Outlander makes a valid argument for Skylake build making the most sense for moving forward, a Haswell build (IMHO) is still a viable option.

@lodders - The intent was never to have the ability to OC on any "H" chipsets. Hence I recommended the Z97 board to accommodate the 4690k. Doesn't make much sense to have the unlocked chip & a less accommodating motherboard. If the OP was interested in going your route, I'd suggest they drop the unlocked CPU. Pair something like the i5-4460 with an "H" board.
 
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Victorion

Victorion

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Here´s my suggestion:

CX series PSU are not meant for gaming pc. If temps go higher than 30c, capacitors will be prone to fail - something you do not want. So I included a better PSU for you.

Overall I agree with an upgrade for your videocard, but it´s not a bad card. It will run most newer games in high settings without everything maxed. If you OC the videocard, it will perform fine for a while.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i5-6600 3.3GHz Quad-Core Processor (£155.00 @ Amazon UK)
CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO 82.9 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler (£24.89 @ Aria PC)
Motherboard: ASRock Z170M Pro4S Micro ATX LGA1151 Motherboard (£78.45 @ Amazon UK)
Memory: Corsair Vengeance LPX 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR4-2133 Memory (£41.99 @ Aria PC)
Storage: Sandisk Ultra II 240GB 2.5" Solid State Drive (£54.99 @ Amazon UK)
Storage: Seagate Barracuda 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive (£32.94 @ Aria PC)
Case: Zalman ZM-T4 MicroATX Mini Tower Case (£20.02 @ CCL Computers)
Power Supply: Antec TruePower Classic 650W 80+ Gold Certified ATX Power Supply (£66.98 @ CCL Computers)
Total: £475.26
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2016-01-12 16:00 GMT+0000
 
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lodders

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I know that H81 was not originally intended for overclocking, but some H81 boards were designed to run a fast i7 without overheating the VRM power supply.
Once H81 boards were made capable of overclocking pentiums, they could overclock anything.
An i5 running 4.2Ghz is less load on a motherboard than an i7 running at 4Ghz
So for a mild overclock of an i5, you only need a good H81 mobo, saving you £25
 
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Victorion

Victorion

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Only reason there would be less load on H81 chipsets is because they are limited in voltage control among other things - Z-series mobos have more/full control.
Another thing is that Z-series mobos generally have a better power delivery, that means a more better oc.
The price difference isn´t really worth it, if you want overclocking - get a z-series mobo, decent PSU and enough cooling.
 
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