Budget Gaming PC - First Time Build

[Icipher]

Hey guys, I have never built a PC before so have come here for some help. I got some extra cash for Xmas and Birthday and fancy treating myself...

Basically I would like to spend about £500, I don't require a mouse, keyboard, Operating System (Free through Uni FTW!). I have an extra £100 Amazon voucher aswell on top of the £500, I was going to use that on a monitor.

I would like to be able to play WoW on high settings, and would like to actually be able to play some newer games. Maybe Skyrim / Battlefield, that sort of thing (Not necessarily on full graphics setting, but at least look / run nice). Would also like to play Guild Wars 2 when it comes out, and Diablo 3. I don't really do any modelling or such, I do some programming but nothing intense.

My mum has an old desktop in her attic that I can use to steal the Disk Drive from (Assuming that a 6ish year old PCs disk drive would work?). I am in the UK so require UK sites.

I have made a sample build using a template from another forum with some substitutes in here: http://pcpartpicker.com/uk/p/3ynj

It is a bit over my preferred budget, but am willing the spend that little bit more if it makes a big difference..

I would be buying the parts in about a week and half.

Thanks for any input...

 

[geofelt]

The parts list looks good with one exception:
The XFX 450w power supply may not be enough for a 6870. Amd recomends 500w:
http://www.amd.com/US/PRODUCTS/DESKTOP/GRAPHICS/AMD-RADEON-HD-6000/HD-6870/Pages/amd-radeon-hd-6870-overview.aspx#3
Stick with a 500w psu from xfx, Antec, Corsair, Seasonic, or PC P&C.

Check the size of the old case, perhaps you can use it .

If the old hard drive is sata, you can use it. If it is IDE, probably not.

 

[Icipher]

The parts list looks good with one exception:
The XFX 450w power supply may not be enough for a 6870. Amd recomends 500w:
http://www.amd.com/US/PRODUCTS/DESKTOP/GRAPHICS/AMD-RADEON-HD-6000/HD-6870/Pages/amd-radeon-hd-6870-overview.aspx#3
Stick with a 500w psu from xfx, Antec, Corsair, Seasonic, or PC P&C.

Check the size of the old case, perhaps you can use it .

If the old hard drive is sata, you can use it. If it is IDE, probably not.

Thanks for the info. Say I changed the PSU to this http://www.ebuyer.com/278634-corsair-500w-cx-v2-psu-cmpsu-500cxv2uk, would this build be able to fufill my needs do you reckon? Also would this be all I need, or would it require extra cooling or anything? (I really have no idea about building machines)

I don't think the old case would be suitable, however I was thinking on taking the HDD from my mum's old PC anyway, and using it alongside this one, but will have to check to see what's actually in that old machine.

Thanks alot.

 

[azeem40]

You can use an IDE to SATA converter.

 

[kinggraves]

Are you going to overclock?

If not, you can go with an i5 2400, which is about the same as a 2500k at stock speeds.

 

[geofelt]

The Corsair 500w is also a fine psu and will do the job.

The 2500K paired with the P67 motherboard you picked will allow great overclocking. Stick with that.
Even if you can get a IDE drive to work, they are usually of lower capacity and lower performance than any modern sata drive.

Considering the current state of high hard drive prices, consider buying a SSD instead. You should be able to find a 60-80gb drive which will be enough for the os and a handful of games. When hard drive prices return to normal, you can then get what you need for expansion. It will be one of the best performance buys you can make for a pc.

 

[Icipher]

Say I got a 80gb SSD, and just used one of my external drives for files, would this work?

That sounds tempting as I've heard lots of good things about SSDs.

 

[geofelt]

Say I got a 80gb SSD, and just used one of my external drives for files, would this work?

That sounds tempting as I've heard lots of good things about SSDs.

I like that idea.

If you will do lots of work on the external drives that might be usb attached, they will be slow.
But, 80gb will hold quite a bit if you do not hole video files which are huge.
I would look for Intel, Samsung, or crucial in that order for reliability.

 

[Icipher]

I think I will do that. It adds another £50 over my budget, but since I will save money on the HDD for buying later when the shortage is not so bad, and that I wanted an SSD anyway, it seems like a good idea.

Is this one a good choice http://www.scan.co.uk/products/120gb-intel-ssdsa2cw120g310-320-series-25-sata-3gb-s-mlc-flash-read-270mb-s-write-130mb-s-oem ?

 

[Icipher]

Looking at this http://pcpartpicker.com/uk/p/3yL5 for the final build. Will buy it next week so it arrives just after my exams. If anyone has anything to add between now and then, to help me out at all it would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks guys.

 

[geofelt]

I think I will do that. It adds another £50 over my budget, but since I will save money on the HDD for buying later when the shortage is not so bad, and that I wanted an SSD anyway, it seems like a good idea.

Is this one a good choice http://www.scan.co.uk/products/120gb-intel-ssdsa2cw120g310-320-series-25-sata-3gb-s-mlc-flash-read-270mb-s-write-130mb-s-oem ?

Perfect.