450£ Budget PC

[Kiria91]

Hello there guys.

I'm sick and tired of my laptop perfomance, and don't want to buy a new one. So instead I decided to build a budget PC which probably be as twice as fast a laptop for the same price. I decided to buy from ebuyer.com and amazon.co.uk, prices at overclockers.co.uk are higher.

So let's start. I have configured the following:

Mobo: MSI H77MA-G43(micro ATX) 59.12£
CPU: Intel i3-3220 89.90£
RAM: Kingston KHX1600C9D3K2/8G 41.72£
HDD: Seagate 500GB 6gb/s 43.07£
GPU: MSI HD7770 89.99£
Optical drive: Samsung SH-118AB 11.06£
Case: Cooler Master Elite 344 USB 3.0 32.99£
PSU: Corsair 430W Modular 38.53£
CPU Cooler: Cooler Master TX3 Evo 18.91£
Case Fan: Cooler Master 80mm blue 5.50£

Total: 430.78£

My main goal is to play source Games(CS:GO and TF2), Need for Speed World, League of Legends, World of Tanks preferably at smooth fps(~60) and newly released games(like Dead Space 3, oncoming GTAV and Crysis3) at least at medium settings. I planning to get a 1440 990 monitor or even a 1366 768. Any suggestion on the build? I was thinking of a faster and more reliable WD Black but it's much more expensive. Also I was thinking of a HD7850, but the cheapest I can get is 131.99£. Waiting for your opinion, cheers.

 

[djangoringo]

You don't need the cooler nor the fan, i'd get the 7850 with free games.

 

[Kiria91]

The case has only one standard 12cm fan for intake, I need another for exhaust. Since I won't be able to overclock the i3 3220, maybe I shouldn't get the cooler then. The CPU cooler would save me 20£, I need 20£ more then for 7850. From which cheaper components I could withdraw the english queen?

 

[djangoringo]

Try to find a cheaper b75 motherboard, like this one : http://www.novatech.co.uk/products/components/motherboards/intel1155b75chipset/b75ma-e33.html
This is the card : http://www.novatech.co.uk/products/components/amdradeongraphicscards/amdhd7850series/fx-785a-znfc.html

It has free shipping.

 

[cutebeans]

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: AMD FX-6300 3.5GHz 6-Core Processor (£96.95 @ Aria PC)
Motherboard: ASRock 960GM/U3S3 FX Micro ATX AM3+ Motherboard (£43.23 @ Amazon UK)
Memory: Corsair Vengeance 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory (£41.51 @ Amazon UK)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 500GB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive (£42.12 @ CCL Computers)
Video Card: Asus Radeon HD 7850 1GB Video Card (£139.63 @ Dabs)
Case: BitFenix Merc Alpha (Black) ATX Mid Tower Case (£29.99 @ Aria PC)
Power Supply: Corsair Builder 430W 80 PLUS Certified ATX12V Power Supply (£34.98 @ Overclockers.co.uk)
Optical Drive: Lite-On iHAS124-04 DVD/CD Writer (£12.98 @ Scan.co.uk)
Total: £441.39
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2013-02-07 00:40 GMT+0000)

Better in the long run bro.

 

[Kiria91]

Oh, nice. You found a cheaper 7850. What are the disadvantages of B75 in comparison with H77?

 

[djangoringo]

The b75 doesn't have ssd caching, and has less sata/usb3.0 ports, i don't know if your going to need it.

 

[Kiria91]

And it looks ugly, lol. No I won't need the SSD caching, I just need 1 sata 6gb/s port thats all, and one simple sata for DVD drive. I checked the specs, it's ok. So B75 is the next cheapest chipset after H77 or not?

 

[Kiria91]

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: AMD FX-6300 3.5GHz 6-Core Processor (£96.95 @ Aria PC)
Motherboard: ASRock 960GM/U3S3 FX Micro ATX AM3+ Motherboard (£43.23 @ Amazon UK)
Memory: Corsair Vengeance 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory (£41.51 @ Amazon UK)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 500GB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive (£42.12 @ CCL Computers)
Video Card: Asus Radeon HD 7850 1GB Video Card (£139.63 @ Dabs)
Case: BitFenix Merc Alpha (Black) ATX Mid Tower Case (£29.99 @ Aria PC)
Power Supply: Corsair Builder 430W 80 PLUS Certified ATX12V Power Supply (£34.98 @ Overclockers.co.uk)
Optical Drive: Lite-On iHAS124-04 DVD/CD Writer (£12.98 @ Scan.co.uk)
Total: £441.39
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2013-02-07 00:40 GMT+0000)

Better in the long run bro.

I was looking at the Bitfenix Alpha/Beta cases, but they don't have a front USB 3.0. I prefer a modular PSU, as long as the case does not have any cable management, modular makes things more convenient inside. Also, why WD blue? I heard it's one of the slowest. And I am not a fan of AMD cpu's. Could you remake it with Intel cpu, modular psu and case with forn usb 3.0. I'd appreciate that. P.S. Are corsairs better than kingston? Only because of the larger heatsink or what?

 

[djangoringo]

And it looks ugly, lol. No I won't need the SSD caching, I just need 1 sata 6gb/s port thats all, and one simple sata for DVD drive. I checked the specs, it's ok. So B75 is the next cheapest chipset after H77 or not?

Yes, the b75 is the lowest chipset for the ivybridge.
If you can consider other parts other than amazon or ebuyer, there's this : http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/p/BU8M
And it fits with h77.
The xfx is not modular, but it's a better psu, it was made by seasonic, the case has a front usb 3.0, you can ditch it and stay with your current.
So if you want to change any part, feel free to do it.

 

[Kiria91]

Yes, the b75 is the lowest chipset for the ivybridge.
If you can consider other parts other than amazon or ebuyer, there's this : http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/p/BU8M
And it fits with h77.
The xfx is not modular, but it's a better psu, it was made by seasonic, the case has a front usb 3.0, you can ditch it and stay with your current.
So if you want to change any part, feel free to do it.

So I did some better price research. I only changed the PSU like u said to go for the XFX, indeed it's better, I have read some reviews. So for the same price I was able to squeeze the cheapest HD7850 on the market. BTW, is 450W enough for 7850? I am concerned about the shipping costs. I know ebuyer is free, but don't know about scan, aria and novatech. Maybe you know? Here is the complete list.

 

[djangoringo]

A 450W psu will do for the 7850, specially the xfx.
I think scan co uk has delivery charges.
Novatech hasn't.
Pcpartpicker doesn't show it, but it has shipping costs in some uk shops, novatech has free delivery, amazon uk, ebuyer.
But it's just 5£ for everything, so just add another 5£ for all the parts in scan co uk.
Here's the card from novatech : http://www.novatech.co.uk/products/components/amdradeongraphicscards/amdhd7850series/fx-785a-znfc.html

 

[Kiria91]

A 450W psu will do for the 7850, specially the xfx.
I think scan co uk has delivery charges.
Novatech hasn't.
Pcpartpicker doesn't show it, but it has shipping costs in some uk shops, novatech has free delivery, amazon uk, ebuyer.
But it's just 5£ for everything, so just add another 5£ for all the parts in scan co uk.
Here's the card from novatech : http://www.novatech.co.uk/products/components/amdradeongraphicscards/amdhd7850series/fx-785a-znfc.html

For instance, if I would raise the bar to 500£, what would be my options? I guess a i5-3330? And a more powerful PSU, XFX 550W?
That would be 490£, and a CPU cooler like I wanted. What do u think?

 

[Kiria91]

Ah, it does not have hyper threading, I guess that's not an option then.

 

[djangoringo]

You can buy the xfx 550w if you want to, but 450W is plenty for the i3+7850 and the other stuff.
In my opinion if you can afford the i5, get it, it will not improve the performance with a 7850, but you'll have a quad core cpu.
Or get a 7870 as the card.