£300~ Budget gaming PC. Advice please

[windymiller]

I have an OS and all general peripherals so they don't need to be included in the end price.

CPU - Intel Pentium G2020 Socket 1155 Dual Core Processor £46
http://www.scan.co.uk/products/3intel-pentium-g2020-s-1155-ivy-bridge-dual-core-29ghz-5-gt-s-dmi-3mb-smart-cache-29x-core-ratio-55w

MOBO - MSI H77MA-G43 Intel H77 Socket 1155 Motherboard £58
http://www.scan.co.uk/products/msi-h77ma-g43-intel-h77-s-1155-ddr3-sata-iii-6gb-s-sata-raid-pcie-30-(x16)-d-sub-dvi-d-micro-atx

Memory - Corsair Memory XMS3 4GB DDR3 1333 Mhz CAS 9 Dual Channel Desktop £19
http://www.scan.co.uk/products/4gb-corsair-ddr3-xms3-pc3-10666-(1333)-non-ecc-unbuffered-cas-9-9-9-24-150v

HDD - 1.5TB Seagate Barracuda 7200.11 Hard Drive - HDD £54
http://www.scan.co.uk/products/15tb-seagate-st31500341as-barracuda-720011-sata-3gb-s-7200-rpm-32mb-cache-8ms-ncq

GPU - Gigabyte GeForce GTX 650 Overclocked NVIDIA Graphics Card - 1GB £86
http://www.scan.co.uk/products/1gb-gigabyte-gtx-650-overclocked-28nm-pcie-30-(x16)-5000mhz-gpu-1110mhz-cores-384-dvi-hdmi

Case and PSU - Novatech Galaxy III Case With 500w PSU. £33
http://www.novatech.co.uk/products/components/cases/cases/galaxy3.html

£319.94

I thought that the HDD and CPU were absolute bargains, so that's why i haven't gone for different parts. I want to upgrade to an i5 in the future which is why i'm building low end intel instead of a good AMD system.
I'm not too sure about the motherboard, but i chose H77 because i thought this would nicely compliment the i5 in the future. Also, i'm a fan of Novatech hardware so i trust their PSU's.

Generally i'll be using it for RTS' like Starcraft etc, and games like DOTA and some FPS'.
The main use would be programs like Photoshop, autodesk and solidworks so maybe more RAM would help?

Some assistance on this would be great
Many thanks

 

[michxymi]

BitFenix Merc Alpha Midi Tower Chassis - Black


AsRock FM2A75 PRO4 Motherboard (Socket FM2, AMD A75 FCH, DDR3, S-ATA 600, ATX, PCI Express 2.0, 7.1 Channel HD Audio, Supports THX TruStudio)

Kingston Technology KHX16C9B1BK2/4 HyperX Series 4GB 1600MHz DDR3 CL9 DIMM Memory Module Kit - Black

AMD Athlon II X4 750K CPU - (Black) (Quad Core, 3.40GHz, 4MB, 100W, Socket FM2, AMD PowerNow! Technology)

Thermaltake Hamburg 530W

XFX ATI Radeon HD 6870 HD-687A-ZHFC Graphics Card 1 GB PCI-e GDDR5 Memory DVI HDMI 1 GPU

Western Digital Caviar Blue 500GB SATAIII 6Gb/s 16MB Cache 3.5 inch Internal Hard Drive OEM

SUM 380$. That's the least you can get for the usage you want Quad Core CPU, along with full featured motherboard with lots of expansion slots plus upgradeable to the newest APUs that come with +40% GPU perfomance! RAM and HDD are pretty basic and I would definetily grab another set of 4GB and an SSD later

 

[windymiller]

Thanks for the reply!

I was really looking to build an intel system though and was mainly looking for advice on the parts list i already have

 

[Rammy]

Looks pretty solid overall given your plan. I think that perhaps £300 is a bit ambitious. Your listed total is actually £297 and not £319.94, is something missing?

I would suggest changing the GTX650 for a HD7770. Pretty similar prices and the HD7770 is generally the better card.

I'd try and go a bit cheaper on the motherboard, you only need something basic. B75 motherboards start at £43 or so.

I'd put the extra money into either 2*4Gb 1600Mhz ram or 1*4Gb 1600Mhz ram. Ideally you want two sticks so it runs in dual channel mode. If you are planning on buying more ram later then 1*4 is fine, but there's not much sense going for 1333, it's not much cheaper.

The HDD link is dead, so I just subbed in a 1Gb.

The case+PSU combo is junk, but I'm sure you are aware of this and trying to wring the budget. I know it's not very helpful to try to push you to spend more, but you can get a quality entry level PSU for around £35 (I recommend the XFX Core 450, unless you can find a Corsair CX430 for a lot cheaper) and match that with a basic case for £30 or so.
It'll push your budget to ~£350 which I appreciate is a substantial hike, but I think you'll be in a lot better shape overall.

Here's roughly how that would look
PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: Intel Pentium G2020 2.9GHz Dual-Core Processor (£44.00 @ Ebuyer)
Motherboard: MSI B75MA-E33 Micro ATX LGA1155 Motherboard (£42.47 @ Aria PC)
Memory: Corsair XMS3 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory (£32.99 @ Amazon UK)
Storage: Seagate Barracuda 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive (£50.00 @ Ebuyer)
Video Card: MSI Radeon HD 7770 GHz Edition 1GB Video Card (£88.30 @ Amazon UK)
Case: Xigmatek ASGARD PRO (Black) ATX Mid Tower Case (£33.62 @ Dabs)
Power Supply: XFX ProSeries 450W 80 PLUS Bronze Certified ATX12V / EPS12V Power Supply (£34.99 @ Aria PC)
Total: £326.37
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2013-02-28 15:55 GMT+0000)

 

[windymiller]

Ah i'd missed out a lite scribe dvd drive for £13 and then i assume postage was £10 was i got the overall price from the scan checkout.

I'm annoyed about that HDD i thought it was an amazing deal when i found it this morning! It was probably a mistake which is why it's no longer on the website.

From the little knowledge i have of motherboards i thought that a H77 would be better for the future in case i decided to game more. I'm perfectly happy with the cheaper alternative though if there is no real difference.

Overall i really appreciate your help! It's been really useful

 

[Rammy]

There are various advantages to the different chipsets, complicated further by the fact that every manufacturer makes multiple boards using the same chipset which add or remove features to hit price points.

Assuming your plan is just to head for a basic i5 at some point, and you are going to use it "out of the box" then it doesn't really matter which chipset you use. It's worth looking into anything that you specifically need. Low budget motherboards will be stripped right down so there won't be an abundance of Sata or USB ports, but enough to get the job done.
Dropping to a B75 looses you a few things, but they tend to be things like SSD caching and PCIe 3.0 lane splitting, which you aren't going to make use of.

Be careful with HDDs, the only 1.5TB Barracuda I could see was a Barracuda Green (though there is a normal 1.5TB version too) which is low speed/low power and not really suitable for a boot drive. The same applies to WD Caviar Green range, fine as a secondary storage drive but not very good for running things.

 

[al10677]

well, that case is actually £50.81 and that PSU is £43.33 (inc VAT and delivery)
Bringing the total price to:

£343.05 not £326.37....

 

[Rammy]

It'll push your budget to ~£350 which I appreciate is a substantial hike, but I think you'll be in a lot better shape overall.

well, that case is actually £50.81 and that PSU is £43.33 (inc VAT and delivery)
Bringing the total price to:

£343.05 not £326.37....

The PSU is ~£40 with delivery, though nowhere appears to have stock right now.
The case I suggested is ~£34, and that isn't in stock either, but there's lot of others in the same bracket too, I just picked it out as it's solid, cheap, and has USB3.0.
And I said ~£350.

 

[windymiller]

Well i think i'll stick to that motherboard in that case then.

The case i've decided to go for is this,
http://www.novatech.co.uk/products/components/cases/cases/7350041080565.html
The Fractal Core 1000 at £25. Although i realise it doesn't have a USB 3.0 point which is abit annoying.

As for PSU i found a Corsair 430 here for £38~ with delivery
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Corsair-Builder-Series-Bronze-Supply/dp/B009RMP14M/ref=sr_1_cc_2?s=aps&ie=UTF8&qid=1362075034&sr=1-2-catcorr

Also i will include a LiteOn drive for £13. Although i might have one of these floating around back home.