Budget gaming PC under £500

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jkarateking

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Jun 5, 2014
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I am looking to build or buy a budget gaming PC for under or around £500 (preferably under). I would like it to be able to play these games on these settings at 1080p (or 900p if not possible at 1080p):

- Skyrim (30fps at medium settings)
- Mount and blade: warband (30fps at medium settings)
- Garry's Mod (30fps at high settings)
- Counter Strike: GO (Medium Settings)
- Medieval 2 Total War (High settings)
- Empire Total War (medium settings)

I would like a skylake i5 processor but other than that I don't mind any other parts. I have a keyboard, mouse and monitor already.

Thanks guys
 
Solution
RCFProd
You have quite low demands for a budget of 500 quid. You can actually play at 1080p high/ultra settings above 30 fps with the following setup:

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i5-6500 3.2GHz Quad-Core Processor (£164.28 @ Aria PC)
Motherboard: ASRock B150M Pro4S Micro ATX LGA1151 Motherboard (£58.23 @ Amazon UK)
Memory: Kingston FURY 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR4-2400 Memory (£28.99 @ Amazon UK)
Storage: Seagate Barracuda 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive (£37.98 @ Novatech)
Video Card: Asus GeForce GTX 950 2GB Video Card (£114.99 @ Amazon UK)
Case: Corsair Carbide Series 88R MicroATX Mid Tower...
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lodders

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Nov 2, 2015
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An i5 processor is a very good idea because your PC will last many years longer than one based on an i3 or AMD processor.
Unfortunately it is going to cost you more like £600

But in the long term, you won't regret it

IMHO the best value for money is:-
i5 4460 with Stock cooler.
Gigabyte H81 HD3
8Gb Crucial Ballistix memory 1600Mhz CL9
Nvidia GTX 950 graphics card
Seasonic 520W power supply
Cheap Case
HDD
 
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D

dangus

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Oct 8, 2015
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shooting low on fps for £500...you can get a pc these days that will kill most of those games at much higher fps in that price range. try starting with a skylake i3 platform and maybe like a gtx 950. the less you spend on the "less important" stuff...the more you can boost your fps. so try finding a cheaper case, you don't need the fastest ddr4 RAM if you are planning on running a dedicated GPU, don't need a lot of fans, no fancy heatsink/cooler if you're not going to be overclocking (not advised at that price point). i would highly suggest finding space within your budget to acquire an ssd if you can (even a 120/128gb) and adding a larger hard drive in later or re-using an older hard drive. you should be able to build a pc without the cost of peripherals to totally run those games you play...
 
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dangus

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Oct 8, 2015
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this guy ^^^ has the same idea i do. and make sure not to cheap out on the power supply. a seasonic or something comparable is a good choice regardless of your budget.

unfortunately he's also correct ( in my opinion) that you would also have to raise your budget a bit to get a balanced gaming rig with a core i5. you dont really want to buy an i5 and leave yourself with less money to buy a decent GPU. the GPU *generally* should be 1/3 of your budget which puts you in the gtx 950/amd r7 370 price range. a gtx 960/ r9 380 would also be a nice boost for slightly more money-bill dollar pounds.
 
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RCFProd

RCFProd

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Dec 8, 2013
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You have quite low demands for a budget of 500 quid. You can actually play at 1080p high/ultra settings above 30 fps with the following setup:

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i5-6500 3.2GHz Quad-Core Processor (£164.28 @ Aria PC)
Motherboard: ASRock B150M Pro4S Micro ATX LGA1151 Motherboard (£58.23 @ Amazon UK)
Memory: Kingston FURY 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR4-2400 Memory (£28.99 @ Amazon UK)
Storage: Seagate Barracuda 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive (£37.98 @ Novatech)
Video Card: Asus GeForce GTX 950 2GB Video Card (£114.99 @ Amazon UK)
Case: Corsair Carbide Series 88R MicroATX Mid Tower Case (£41.57 @ Amazon UK)
Power Supply: XFX 550W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply (£53.40 @ Amazon UK)
Total: £499.44
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2016-05-21 17:13 BST+0100

Even better R9 380 (ATX) alternative:

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i5-6400 2.7GHz Quad-Core Processor (£147.99 @ Ebuyer)
Motherboard: Asus H110-PLUS ATX LGA1151 Motherboard (£58.79 @ Amazon UK)
Memory: Kingston FURY 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR4-2400 Memory (£28.99 @ Amazon UK)
Storage: Seagate Barracuda 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive (£37.98 @ Novatech)
Video Card: MSI Radeon R9 380 2GB Video Card (£137.65 @ Amazon UK)
Case: Aerocool Aero-500 ATX Mid Tower Case (£37.70 @ Kustom PCs)
Power Supply: XFX 550W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply (£53.40 @ Amazon UK)
Total: £502.50
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2016-05-21 17:17 BST+0100
 
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D

dangus

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Oct 8, 2015
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yeah!!! ^^^ this guy ^^^ is killing it. im not very fluent in dollars to pounds conversion but both those builds will be exceptional for all the games you listed. +1

i still can't not recommend an SSD over a HDD. but thats just cause i hate using a computer without an SSD these days. both are top systems though
 
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J

jkarateking

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Jun 5, 2014
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Thanks, sounds great :D

You helped alot
 
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Icaraeus

Icaraeus

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Oct 9, 2013
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You won't notice a difference between Intel i5 6400 and i5 6500. Both are modern Intel i5s (very powerful processors -- orders of magnitudes more capable than the already decently capable processors inside the PS4 and Xbox), and they both boost over 3ghz.
 
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Rabmac

Rabmac

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Nov 29, 2015
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My build I listed below gives you the best performance (i5-6400 and R9 380 4GB), has the best case and a tier 1 PSU and if you goto playasia for GPU and CPU you will be on budget..

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i5-6400 2.7GHz Quad-Core Processor (£147.99 @ Ebuyer)
Motherboard: Asus H110-PLUS ATX LGA1151 Motherboard (£58.79 @ Amazon UK)
Memory: Corsair Vengeance LPX 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR4-2400 Memory (£30.23 @ Ebuyer)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive (£39.98 @ Amazon UK)
Video Card: PowerColor Radeon R9 380 4GB PCS+ Video Card (£164.42 @ Amazon UK)
Case: Zalman Z11 NEO ATX Mid Tower Case (£39.99 @ Amazon UK)
Power Supply: Super Flower Golden Green HX 550W 80+ Gold Certified ATX Power Supply (£57.12 @ CCL Computers)
Total: £538.52
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2016-05-21 18:08 BST+0100

 
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dangus

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what does that last sentence even mean? go to playasia for GPU and CPU and you'll be on a budget? huh?
 
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RCFProd

RCFProd

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Dec 8, 2013
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Super Flower Golden Green HX isn't Tier 1 though, and I'm sure it isn't 100% Japanese Caps . Other than that, your build is bound to be better as the budget is also higher. 540 quid which is 8% above the OP's budget.

And let's remind ourselves that this isn't a battle for ''who makes the best build''. We are looking for what's most ideal for OP.
 
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Rabmac

Rabmac

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Nov 29, 2015
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Playasia.com is a website that sells computer components (not listed on PCPartPicker). I usually find you can make significant savings buying your CPU and GPU from them.

 
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