Low Budget gaming pc

[robertfeakin]

Hi, i have a few general questions with regards to building my own system, i have the case and have recently got my hands on a zotac gtx 285 for fairly cheap, i know its not the best way to do it but i'm gonna build the system around it, its going to mainly be used to play games, such as crysis, call of duty, skyrim and guild wars 2. At the moment i'm not overly sure what processor and motherboard to go with, as im on a budget and trying to build for less than £300 - £400, i'm thinking either Gigabyte GA-970A-DS3 Motherboard with an AMD fx 4100 black edition or Phenom II 965 Black Quad Core or my second option is a Gigabyte GA-B75-D3V Intel B75 Socket 1155 Motherboard with Intel CPU Core i3 2120 Sandy Bridge Dual Core Processor all of these are roughly the same price with the i3 being slightly more expensive, i will also probably overclock the processor, the links for all of these are below.

AMD -
http://www.scan.co.uk/products/amd-phenom-ii-x4-965-black-edition-s-am3-34ghz-8mb-cache-125w-retail

http://www.scan.co.uk/products/10-cashback-amd-fx-4100-black-edition-orochi-core-s-am3plus-36ghz-8mb-total-cache-ht-3200mhz-95w-ret

http://www.scan.co.uk/products/gigabyte-ga-970a-ds3-amd-970-s-am3plus-ddr3-sata-iii-6gb-s-sata-raid-pcie-20-%28x16%29-atx

or

http://www.scan.co.uk/products/gigabyte-ga-b75-d3v-intel-b75-s-1155-ddr3-sata-iii-6gb-s-pcie-30-%28x16%29-d-sub-%28vga%29-dvi-d-micro-atx

http://www.scan.co.uk/products/intel-core-i3-2120-s1155-33ghz-5gt-s-hd2000-igp-850mhz-3mb-cache-core-r-33x-65w-retail

i am open to any other suggestions just trying to get motherboard and processor together for around £150 - £200 thanks

 

[orionite]

Hi Robert,
how about this:

i5 2300: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Intel-Processor-Socket-Sandy-Bridge/dp/B005JBPR9O/ref=sr_1_8?ie=UTF8&qid=1336421920&sr=8-8 for £130

AsRock Motherboard: http://www.amazon.co.uk/H61M-VS-Micro-ATX-Motherboard-Onboard-ASRock/dp/B004S9JXPW/ref=sr_1_4?m=A3P5ROKL5A1OLE&s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1336422347&sr=1-4 for £38

I don't think you're going to have all that much fun overclocking the i3. I don't think you will see much gain, i.e. effort >> benefit

 

[robertfeakin]

ok thanks, im willing to stretch it a bit, is the i5 3570k worth it ? or maybe the i5 2500k ?

http://www.scan.co.uk/products/29-4intel-core-i5-3570k-s-1155-ivy-bridge-quad-core-34ghz-5-gt-s-dmi-650mhz-gpu-6mb-smart-cache-34x-

 

[orionite]

ok thanks, im willing to stretch it a bit, is the i5 3570k worth it ? or maybe the i5 2500k ?

http://www.scan.co.uk/products/29-4intel-core-i5-3570k-s-1155-ivy-bridge-quad-core-34ghz-5-gt-s-dmi-650mhz-gpu-6mb-smart-cache-34x-

If you want to overclock (check some motherboard reviews for the one you want) the i5 k-series is the way to go. Great head room and can be overclocked significantly with air cooling. For example the Coolermaster Hyper 212+ or Evo are great and cheap.

The other i5's can not be overclocked to my knowledge. Personally, I have an i5 2500k with the 212+ and it easily reached 4GHz with temps still in the 50-60.

 

[robertfeakin]

If you want to overclock (check some motherboard reviews for the one you want) the i5 k-series is the way to go. Great head room and can be overclocked significantly with air cooling. For example the Coolermaster Hyper 212+ or Evo are great and cheap.

The other i5's can not be overclocked to my knowledge. Personally, I have an i5 2500k with the 212+ and it easily reached 4GHz with temps still in the 50-60.

ok ye i was reading my pcgamer magazine and they recommended an i5k was the best at the moment, what confuses me is the choice of motherboard, i know i need socket 1155 but on the scan website (i live near it thats why i keep mentioning it) it has ones such as b75, h61, z77 etc and some with -mATX next to them what do these mean ?

thanks,

 

[orionite]

They are different chipsets for the same socket (1155) board. mATX stands micro ATX and it is a smaller form factor. Should mount normally in most small to medium cases.

If you are not that much of a techie (and there's no shame in that! ) maybe you should just save the few quid and forget about overclocking. It's not going to give you much noticable benefit and it makes the hardware choices a bit trickier. Maybe have a look at some other discussions about machines in the same price range. Some good info there. Or check out the TH System builder Marathons with some background info regarding the choices made.
http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/overclock-benchmark-build-a-pc,review-32409.html