Full HD gaming rig [budget]

[Arturas1988]

Hello guys,

I am building a new gaming rig to run/max out current and upcoming 2013 year games in Full HD. I am willing to spend up to 450£ . It is my first rig so I believe someone can help in choosing the right components


The components I have:

* Monitor - I have 32" LG 3D TV (32LW450U) . I think this TV is ok for gaming , but Im not sure if I am gonna to experience any input lag or delays

* Case - i have Antec 900. Bought it for 15£ .


The components I want to buy:

* CPU - I saw some i5 760s on ebay for about 50£ . I think its a nice CPU for gaming as its not gonna bottleneck in any current or upcoming games ( i guess ). I know i5 2500k is the best one in terms of money/performance but its pricey.

* GPU - I presume Nvidia Gtx 660 ti or gtx 670 should be enought for maxing out games on my 3D TV. Not sure if there are any cheaper GPUs with the same level of performance. I guess it will cost about 250£ .

* Motherboard - The one that will go with my selected CPU. I think its possible to get one for 60£ (I also prefer a cheap used one) .

* PSU - 550W should be enough. A good one probably will cost about 60£

* RAM - I have seen some cheap Kingstom DDR3 RAM 6 GB for 30£

* HDD - Will buy a cheap one from ebay. Like WD 300GB or 500GB SATA 7200 for 30£

I am not planning to upgrade this rig. Will use it for a while and then gonna sell. Any advice on building this CHEAP budged gaming rig? Looking forward to hear from You.

 

[FinneousPJ]

I can't recommend buying used ones so here's a build with all new parts

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: Intel Core i3-3220 3.3GHz Dual-Core Processor (£89.88 @ CCL Computers)
Motherboard: MSI B75MA-E33 Micro ATX LGA1155 Motherboard (£42.90 @ Scan.co.uk)
Memory: Corsair 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory (£28.93 @ Scan.co.uk)
Storage: Seagate Barracuda 500GB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive (£39.99 @ Ebuyer)
Video Card: XFX Radeon HD 7870 2GB Video Card (£174.94 @ Scan.co.uk)
Case: Fractal Design Core 1000 MicroATX Mini Tower Case (£32.38 @ Scan.co.uk)
Power Supply: XFX ProSeries 450W 80 PLUS Bronze Certified ATX12V / EPS12V Power Supply (£35.00 @ Ebuyer)
Optical Drive: Lite-On iHAS124-04 DVD/CD Writer (£12.92 @ Scan.co.uk)
Total: £456.94
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2012-12-07 15:40 GMT+0000)

 

[Arturas1988]

Thank you for your offer, but I am Nvidia fan so i prefer Nvidia GPU

 

[woflz]

Thank you for your offer, but I am Nvidia fan so i prefer Nvidia GPU

For the money you're paying that GPU will smoke any Nvidia card at that price point

 

[Arturas1988]

Hi Wofiz,

Ok, if its as good as you say I might go with it even I am more about Nvidia... Anyway I am on very limited budget so I shouldn't care about brands. What do you think about CPU? Should I go with i5 or is there any better ones in term of price/performance?

 

[stickmansam]

^ Hmm going Nvidia will be more expensive for about the same level of performance.
The 7870 offers really similar performance on the most part to the 660ti but is 40 pounds cheaper. All my friends and I have been using AMD cards for this generation 7850's and 7970's and the only problems we've had was changing drivers from Nvidia to AMD (Not an issue since you're doing a new build).

Heres Finn's build without the case and using a 660
http://pcpartpicker.com/uk/p/rp6k

Using a 660ti goes about 16 over budget
http://pcpartpicker.com/uk/p/rp7g

Using an i5 cpu instead of the i3 along with the 660
http://pcpartpicker.com/uk/p/rp8f

Stronger i5 but its now over budget by about 20
http://pcpartpicker.com/uk/p/rp8S

FX6300 (Performs between i3 and and the i5) and a higher end motherboard that supports SLI and 660
http://pcpartpicker.com/uk/p/rpfa

Tried to fit a FX6300 and a 660ti 16 over budget
http://pcpartpicker.com/uk/p/rpgT

Here is a FX6300 with a 7870 and the same high end motherboard from before
http://pcpartpicker.com/uk/p/rpk5



There is no way to fit a 7870 or 660ti into the budget with an i5 (unless you cut the optical drive)

Credit goes to Finn for making the original build

 

[Arturas1988]

Thanks for help sam! I just checked reviews and it seems gtx 660 ti is better than 7870 , yes, amd is cheaper but the thing is I had some ATIs driver related problems in the past, so I am kinda confused :/ Anyway , i think i will give a try 7870 because of nice price. What about used pc components? Is worth to save like 30 % ? I am used to second hand stuff coz i"v never been a very rich man, hahah

 

[stickmansam]

Used parts are okay if they are cheap and you can find out what condition they were used in and say a 30 day warranty thing from the seller.
You find the latest review with the newest drivers here

http://www.techspot.com/review/603-best-graphics-cards/

The cards trade blows but in the end the 660ti is 9% faster (beware margin of error (this applies to all cards, same test runs with same hardware will give slightly different results) but it costs 20-25% more. The 7950 cost the same as the 660ti but is approx 2% faster (again margin of error) [the 7950 boost cost the same as a 7950 since it is merely a free bios update] This means that the 7950 boost is about 12% faster [extrapolated from 10% faster than the 7950 reg] than the 660ti while costing the same. This makes the 7950 Boost a better buy than a 660ti. (you may have to buy a regular 7950 and update the bios yourself)

http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/AMD/HD_7950_Boost_BIOS_Upgrade/

Bear in mind the price frames they have at the end are not reflective of real life pricing. Pricing cannot be divided accurately into different parts. rather it is a continuum at each every individual price point.

EDIT:Corrected comments about the 7950 boost

 

[Arturas1988]

I really appreciate your help StickMan. Will try to find a cheap 7870 . It seems I am fine with the GPU. Any suggestions regards CPU and PSU ? Would a 1st gen i5 be enough for gaming? Would a 450W Seasonic PSU be enough for my rig? (ati 7870, i5 1st gen up to 3.5Ghz...) I am sorry if some of my questions doesnt make sense, Im just trying to build my first and really CHEAP FULL HD GAMING RIG )

 

[stickmansam]

The FX6300 is probably a rough counterpart to a i5 around 3.0 if that is any indication for the price you are looking for in an i5.

EDIT: Remember that not all chips can overclock as high as 3.5. I expect 3.0 to be easy and 3.5 50/50 and higher than that is sheer luck

 

[Arturas1988]

I have received an offer to buy i5 760+Foxconn MB+8GB RAM 1333 for 139£. The bundle is 2 months old in in perfect working order. I dunno about prices much, so is it a good deal guys?

 

[stickmansam]

It seems it is only $10 cheaper than an i3 + board + ram but it should perform as good as the i3 in lightly threaded apps and better in games that do 4 threads. It can also be overclocked but I don't think the Foxconn MB is very reliable and probably won't let you overclock. Ask the seller if the board can overclock and what conditions was the system running at.

 

[Arturas1988]

Hello guys, building in progress. Have everything except GPU and PSU (cpu - i5 760 , not planning to OC, ) . GPU gonna be gtx 570 or gtx 660/ti. Is a quality Corsair or Seasonic PSU 450W enough for my system?

 

[stickmansam]

If you only have the 450w I would stick with a 660/660ti
The 570 is going to be too power hungry

 

[Arturas1988]

Have met the guy who was selling his "gtx 570" for 100£. It seems it was just 8800gtx, lol. He was either confused or scammer. Anyway, I gave him 10£ with intention to sell a card on ebay. Another story is an offer to buy XFX 6970 2GB for 110£. What do you think guys, is it worth? The main aim is to play big title games on very high / max settings up to full HD while trying to save money

 

[stickmansam]

http://pcpartpicker.com/uk/part/xfx-video-card-fx785acnjc

http://pcpartpicker.com/uk/part/xfx-video-card-fx785aznfc

http://pcpartpicker.com/uk/part/msi-video-card-n660tf2gd5oc

I think the 6970 would perform decently at very high settings in 1080p.
I would put its performance somewhere between the 7850 and 660. Those would cost about 130-150 pounds. You do save some cash but there's always a risk if you can stress test the card before buying it. Also, some vendors will have free games bundled with the 7850 and 660

 

[Arturas1988]

I have really bad experience with my first built already Motherboard somehow got burned ( 1 small component near USB pins...) . Motherboard no more fire ups. It was running with no video before I have inserted GPU. After insertion I heard 1 long and loud continues beep. Tried to put RAM in other socket but beep sound stayed while GPU (XFX 6970) was inserted. And later on I noticed that burned spot. MB is dead now. Is there any chance that CPU RAM and GPU are still ok? I do not have other motherboard to test it.. ://

 

[stickmansam]

which mb, cpu, ram and psu did you end up getting?