Budget Gaming PC

[fbutler6]

Hi guys! I'm new to this forum and would appreciate the help, I'm looking to build a budget gaming pc to run the likes of Skyrim, Far Cry 3 etc. at high settings in the region of 50-60fps (as long as its better than my Xbox 360)

CPU - intel pentium G840 2.8 GHz
GPU - Gigabyte GTX 650 1GB GDDR5
Motherboard - MSI H61M-P31
PSU- Casecom 500w 12cm fan
RAM- 4GB Kingston 1333MHz

Opinions on this set up? Bearing in mind its my 1st and I'm not very knowledgeable in the gaming PC field, will the CPU bottleneck the GPU?

 

[Neuspeed]

1st.. What's your budget?

 

[fbutler6]

1st.. What's your budget?

Realistically £300 and these parts are thankfully well under that

 

[Neuspeed]

You may consider going with an AMD system. The Athlon II X4 640 and Phenom II X4 965 are the best gaming CPUs in the below $100 category.

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/gaming-cpu-review-overclock,3106-2.html

 

[fbutler6]

And would they perform well with the GTX 650? (Sorry for all the questions I just want the best intro to PC gaming I can)

 

[Nebby]

Yes AMD will run fine with the gtx 650. You will see an increase in performance compared to the intel.

 

[fbutler6]

Thank you Nebby, could I ask how would it give better performance? I only ask so I know more in the future

 

[Neuspeed]

As the article points out, the new game titles are able to utilize more than two cores, making the Athlon II X4 and Phenom II X4 a more attractive processor for budget gaming. Performance can be subjective. Given that you have a budget of 300, you have less options to pick from.

 

[Neuspeed]

As far as the video cards go, have you considered the HD 7770 or the HD 7850? The GTX 650ti sits in between them @:

HD 7770 - ~$115
GTX 650 ti - ~$140
HD 7850 - ~$165

 

[Nebby]

Here is a graph from toms..

http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/gaming-processor-frame-rate-performance,review-32628-9.html

It comes down to being a dual core and higher. the pentium is dual core. More and more programs/games are using more threads and a higher core can will help with threading. I'm not very knowledgeable on UK currency or shops but I would recommend a fx-4300 vishera core or better. Or you can buy an I3 with hyperthreading. Any of these will do you wonders. I would only go with pentium if I had to or found one laying on the ground =)
the I3 is dual core but it has hyperthreading which gives it 2 fake cores makes it a pretend quadcore. It all comes down the price and personal desires.

 

[fbutler6]

And would you say the HD 7770 would be equal to the GTX 650? On a few forums the agreement was the GTX 650 was the best I was going to get in my budget

 

[Nebby]

From what I have been told on the forums the 7770 beats the 650 and its the same price for either one here in the states.

 

[Nebby]

If your a little straped for cash and plan on upgrading later you could always go APU route as well. It wont play a all games on high but it plays a lot and you can upgrade gpu later