Finished guys! Tell me what you think!

[SaintCharlie]

Okay, so after many new threads and many helpful people advising me, I think I am finally finished. So, here it is guys. My budget is £400 and I "THINK" that this is good.
I just need any last opinions and comments.

I plan to run games like BattleField 3, DiRT 3, Dishounered and so on.

Thanks guys.

Build: http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/p/KLUe

P.S
If you can upgrade the case while keeping the same price that would be great!
Both Ascetically or actually computer like.

 

[Traciatim]

Looks like a pretty nice small budget rig. My kids machine is a 965BE and I've been a little disappointed in it's performance in many games, but the kids and the significant other like having the second machine and really don't care about the performance. We play games like Rift, Planetside 2, Sims 3, Dungeon Defenders, Mount and Blade: Warband, Dirt 2(don't have 3 yet), Need For Speed . . . so a pretty broad range. Personally I would have gone with an 1155 based Pentium so it would be upgradable to an i5 at some point, but it would be really hard to get both motherboard and CPU for that price.

 

[blazorthon]

Going with a weaker CPU so that an expensive upgrade to an i5 is a little less expensive later on doesn't make much sense to me. It's much more affordable to get the CPU you want first and upgrade graphics as time goes on. Phenom II x4 965 beats even the best Pentiums (which are, as you implied, more expensive) in almost every modern game.

 

[Uther39]

Sapphire 11201-17-20G AMD Radeon HD 7770 1GB GDDR5 GHZ Graphics Card (HDMI, DVI-I, Mini DisplayPort, PCI Express 3.0, 128-Bit, AMD CrossFireX Multi-GPU Technology) - SAPPHIRE
£79.38
http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B009YTT5RW/ref=ox_sc_act_title_1?ie=UTF8&psc=1&smid=A3P5ROKL5A1OLE

Samsung 24x SATA Retail DVD Writer with 3 Bezels - Samsung
£14.98
http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B009DF373A/ref=ox_sc_act_title_2?ie=UTF8&psc=1&smid=A3P5ROKL5A1OLE

Zalman ZM500-GS 500W ATX Power Supply (Active PFC, 12v v2.3, Two-Forward Switching Circuit Design, Ultra Quiet 120mm Fan) - Zalman
£35.99
http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B0076WGOJ6/ref=ox_sc_act_title_3?ie=UTF8&psc=1&smid=A3P5ROKL5A1OLE

Zalman Z9 Plus Midi Tower Case - Black (ATX, M-ATX, 7 Expansion Slots, Supports Bottom PSU Installation, Upto 7 System Fans, Tool Free HDD Installation) - Zalman
£44.99
http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B004FPQL0E/ref=ox_sc_act_title_4?ie=UTF8&psc=1&smid=A3P5ROKL5A1OLE

Western Digital Caviar Blue 500GB SATAIII 6Gb/s 16MB Cache 3.5 inch Internal Hard Drive OEM - Western Digital
£43.99
http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B00461G3MS/ref=gno_cart_title_5?ie=UTF8&psc=1&smid=A3P5ROKL5A1OLE

Gigabyte GA-970A-UD3 SKT-AM3+ Motherboard (Rev 1.0) - Gigabyte
£74.67
http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B005504QAA/ref=ox_sc_act_title_6?ie=UTF8&psc=1&smid=A3P5ROKL5A1OLE

Patriot PVI38G160C9K 8GB (2x 4GB) Intel Extreme Masters Dual Memory Module Kit - Patriot
£36.23
http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B008MF3R82/ref=ox_sc_act_title_7?ie=UTF8&psc=1&smid=A3P5ROKL5A1OLE

AMD HDZ965FBGMBOX Phenom II X4 965 - 3.4 Ghz AM3 Black Edition CPU, Retail Packaged - AMD
£73.30
http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B002SRQ214/ref=ox_sc_act_title_8?ie=UTF8&psc=1&smid=A3P5ROKL5A1OLE

Total including delivery = £403

Which is about what you would have paid anyway with the delivery charges on your list, with my set up it includes a better Case and PSU plus a much better AM3+ mobo that is able to support all the FX chips including PileDriver which leaves you a clear upgrade path.

 

[Traciatim]

Going with a weaker CPU so that an expensive upgrade to an i5 is a little less expensive later on doesn't make much sense to me. It's much more affordable to get the CPU you want first and upgrade graphics as time goes on. Phenom II x4 965 beats even the best Pentiums (which are, as you implied, more expensive) in almost every modern game.

Yeah, but in a year or two you can throw a 3570k or 3770k in to a z75 or cheap z77 board if you get a P860. http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/102?vs=404 . . . According to that the P850 matches or beats the 965BE in pretty much every game they test, which would be just slightly better for the 860. Since the 860 is only 47.94 on that parts picker website the original build was from, that leaves some room to get a Z75 or Z77 cheap board, and will also allow for things like SRT (Z77) in the future for snappy application loading, where as for gaming there is really not a great upgrade path on AM3 since the 965BE is near about as fast as it gets.

So instead of a new £400 machine in 2 years you can just buy some older/used parts for £100 and extend the machine life out to 4 years.

 

[SaintCharlie]

This is all very nice guys, but can you answer MY question?

Is it good?

Can you upgrade the case?

 

[Traciatim]

This is all very nice guys, but can you answer MY question?

Is it good?

Can you upgrade the case?

Good as in . . . ?

It's a fine budget gaming rig. Case shopping is far more personal preference, personally I kind of like simple designs like the Sonata III/IV. You have one of the cheapest cases you can get on the parts picker site, and you can go on and click to sort the list by price and look at them.

 

[ittimjones]

Well balanced budget build!

Doubt you'll get very high frame rates on any game, but it looks very good as far as price-to-performance ratio.

 

[spentshells]

WHOA WHOA WHOA

Friend you need a better motherboard, read some reviews and find something in your range. having a BE chip with a low end motherboard will cost you overclocking overhead. if you can not overclock it the performance is going to be just good enough. I do not know to much about AMD boards, i have been out of the market too long. but an extra 10-15 bucks could mean another 600mhz

 

[SaintCharlie]

WHOA WHOA WHOA

Friend you need a better motherboard, read some reviews and find something in your range. having a BE chip with a low end motherboard will cost you overclocking overhead. if you can not overclock it the performance is going to be just good enough. I do not know to much about AMD boards, i have been out of the market too long. but an extra 10-15 bucks could mean another 600mhz

Do you have any suggestions?

 

[Uther39]

This is all very nice guys, but can you answer MY question?

Is it good?

Can you upgrade the case?

Ive already answered you, buddy you need the better mobo i specified.

 

[SaintCharlie]

This is all very nice guys, but can you answer MY question?

Is it good?

Can you upgrade the case?

Do you have any other mobos I can use? My price range is really from 30 to 50.

Ive already answered you, buddy you need the better mobo i specified.

 

[SaintCharlie]

Do you think my psu can handle the graphics card?

 

[Uther39]

Do you think my psu can handle the graphics card?

You really did not read my post did you ?

 

[SaintCharlie]

Do you think my psu can handle the graphics card?

You really did not read my post did you ?

Well actually, I did.

I just didn't really agree with it.
And I just asked if my PSU could handle my specs.
Nothing to do with your specs.

 

[blazorthon]

Going with a weaker CPU so that an expensive upgrade to an i5 is a little less expensive later on doesn't make much sense to me. It's much more affordable to get the CPU you want first and upgrade graphics as time goes on. Phenom II x4 965 beats even the best Pentiums (which are, as you implied, more expensive) in almost every modern game.

Yeah, but in a year or two you can throw a 3570k or 3770k in to a z75 or cheap z77 board if you get a P860. http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/102?vs=404 . . . According to that the P850 matches or beats the 965BE in pretty much every game they test, which would be just slightly better for the 860. Since the 860 is only 47.94 on that parts picker website the original build was from, that leaves some room to get a Z75 or Z77 cheap board, and will also allow for things like SRT (Z77) in the future for snappy application loading, where as for gaming there is really not a great upgrade path on AM3 since the 965BE is near about as fast as it gets.

So instead of a new £400 machine in 2 years you can just buy some older/used parts for £100 and extend the machine life out to 4 years.

Most of the current DX11 games greatly favor the Phenom II x4 CPUs over Pentiums. They also favor Intel's i3s and AMD's FX CPUs over Pentiums.

Furthermore, my main point was that since Intel's CPUs don't really get cheaper once their platform is not the newest anymore (such as the LGA 1155 platform will soon be with the LGA 1150 platform around the corner), if you want an i5, it's best to get it to start off with and get a cheaper graphics card that you can upgrade later since graphics cards, unlike Intel's CPUs from previous platforms, almost always get cheaper.

Even if you disagree with me about what CPU is better (Tom's has already proven that I'm right with tests that aren't greatly outdated anyway and most other sites, including even Anand, agree with me if you look at more up to date tests than their crappy bench tool), this point still stands.

Why pay $200 for an i5 later when you can do that now and save money on the graphics both now and later instead of waste money on a CPU that won't even perform on-par with a newer, similarly priced CPU?

 

[Traciatim]

Going with a weaker CPU so that an expensive upgrade to an i5 is a little less expensive later on doesn't make much sense to me. It's much more affordable to get the CPU you want first and upgrade graphics as time goes on. Phenom II x4 965 beats even the best Pentiums (which are, as you implied, more expensive) in almost every modern game.

Yeah, but in a year or two you can throw a 3570k or 3770k in to a z75 or cheap z77 board if you get a P860. http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/102?vs=404 . . . According to that the P850 matches or beats the 965BE in pretty much every game they test, which would be just slightly better for the 860. Since the 860 is only 47.94 on that parts picker website the original build was from, that leaves some room to get a Z75 or Z77 cheap board, and will also allow for things like SRT (Z77) in the future for snappy application loading, where as for gaming there is really not a great upgrade path on AM3 since the 965BE is near about as fast as it gets.

So instead of a new £400 machine in 2 years you can just buy some older/used parts for £100 and extend the machine life out to 4 years.

Most of the current DX11 games greatly favor the Phenom II x4 CPUs over Pentiums. They also favor Intel's i3s and AMD's FX CPUs over Pentiums.

Furthermore, my main point was that since Intel's CPUs don't really get cheaper once their platform is not the newest anymore (such as the LGA 1155 platform will soon be with the LGA 1150 platform around the corner), if you want an i5, it's best to get it to start off with and get a cheaper graphics card that you can upgrade later since graphics cards, unlike Intel's CPUs from previous platforms, almost always get cheaper.

Even if you disagree with me about what CPU is better (Tom's has already proven that I'm right with tests that aren't greatly outdated anyway and most other sites, including even Anand, agree with me if you look at more up to date tests than their crappy bench tool), this point still stands.

Why pay $200 for an i5 later when you can do that now and save money on the graphics both now and later instead of waste money on a CPU that won't even perform on-par with a newer, similarly priced CPU?

Mostly because the budget doesn't allow for an i5 with any form of good gaming video card, so your choice is suffer greatly now to have mild benefits later, vs suffer a little bit now to have mild benefits later.

Are you sure Intel CPU's don't lose value? Cause I checked E-bay and I'm pretty sure i5 750's didn't launch at 75-90 bucks.

 

[blazorthon]

Going with a weaker CPU so that an expensive upgrade to an i5 is a little less expensive later on doesn't make much sense to me. It's much more affordable to get the CPU you want first and upgrade graphics as time goes on. Phenom II x4 965 beats even the best Pentiums (which are, as you implied, more expensive) in almost every modern game.

Yeah, but in a year or two you can throw a 3570k or 3770k in to a z75 or cheap z77 board if you get a P860. http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/102?vs=404 . . . According to that the P850 matches or beats the 965BE in pretty much every game they test, which would be just slightly better for the 860. Since the 860 is only 47.94 on that parts picker website the original build was from, that leaves some room to get a Z75 or Z77 cheap board, and will also allow for things like SRT (Z77) in the future for snappy application loading, where as for gaming there is really not a great upgrade path on AM3 since the 965BE is near about as fast as it gets.

So instead of a new £400 machine in 2 years you can just buy some older/used parts for £100 and extend the machine life out to 4 years.

Most of the current DX11 games greatly favor the Phenom II x4 CPUs over Pentiums. They also favor Intel's i3s and AMD's FX CPUs over Pentiums.

Furthermore, my main point was that since Intel's CPUs don't really get cheaper once their platform is not the newest anymore (such as the LGA 1155 platform will soon be with the LGA 1150 platform around the corner), if you want an i5, it's best to get it to start off with and get a cheaper graphics card that you can upgrade later since graphics cards, unlike Intel's CPUs from previous platforms, almost always get cheaper.

Even if you disagree with me about what CPU is better (Tom's has already proven that I'm right with tests that aren't greatly outdated anyway and most other sites, including even Anand, agree with me if you look at more up to date tests than their crappy bench tool), this point still stands.

Why pay $200 for an i5 later when you can do that now and save money on the graphics both now and later instead of waste money on a CPU that won't even perform on-par with a newer, similarly priced CPU?

Mostly because the budget doesn't allow for an i5 with any form of good gaming video card, so your choice is suffer greatly now to have mild benefits later, vs suffer a little bit now to have mild benefits later.

Are you sure Intel CPU's don't lose value? Cause I checked E-bay and I'm pretty sure i5 750's didn't launch at 75-90 bucks.

I think that the choice is better thought of as get an i3 now with a good graphics card and don't bother upgrading the CPU until the next platform if you go with Intel or go AMD and just upgrade to the best AM3+ compatible CPU a few years down the road since it'll probably beat an LGA 1155 i5 anyway. Furthermore, it was stated that an i5 with a Radeon 7850 was an option, wasn't it? That's a decent graphics card for an i5 since it can max out texture quality in most games at 1080p with excellent performance and at least play at high or medium in the most intensive games such as Crysis 3.

There's a difference between launch price for a non-used CPU, the price of a non-used CPU by the time it gets replaced by a new platform, and then the price of a used CPU after it's been replaced by a new platform. Launch prices aren't important because the price can drop from launch pricing. It simply doesn't drop much (for a new/non-used unit) after it's platform has been replaced. For example, a new CPU from the LGA 1156 or LGA 1366 sockets is still around the same place as it was around the time of Sandy's launch or a little afterwards.

A used CPU can still go down in price, but even that is limited. For example, going on Ebay, I find the Core 2 Quads around top tier for LGA 775 at $160 or so and up whether they're used or not. They most certainly can't keep pace with the similarly priced LGA 1155 i5s at that price nor even with the LGA 1156/LGA 1366 i7s around their higher priced units. Low tier models for an interface (such as a Core 2 Quad Q6600, 8300, or an i5-750) can still go down in price because pretty much nobody wants them; that isn't likely to happen to the LGA 1155 i5s, especially multiplier unlocked models, because they'll still be around top tier for their platform later on.

 

[spentshells]

Going with a weaker CPU so that an expensive upgrade to an i5 is a little less expensive later on doesn't make much sense to me. It's much more affordable to get the CPU you want first and upgrade graphics as time goes on. Phenom II x4 965 beats even the best Pentiums (which are, as you implied, more expensive) in almost every modern game.

Yeah, but in a year or two you can throw a 3570k or 3770k in to a z75 or cheap z77 board if you get a P860. http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/102?vs=404 . . . According to that the P850 matches or beats the 965BE in pretty much every game they test, which would be just slightly better for the 860. Since the 860 is only 47.94 on that parts picker website the original build was from, that leaves some room to get a Z75 or Z77 cheap board, and will also allow for things like SRT (Z77) in the future for snappy application loading, where as for gaming there is really not a great upgrade path on AM3 since the 965BE is near about as fast as it gets.

So instead of a new £400 machine in 2 years you can just buy some older/used parts for £100 and extend the machine life out to 4 years.

Most of the current DX11 games greatly favor the Phenom II x4 CPUs over Pentiums. They also favor Intel's i3s and AMD's FX CPUs over Pentiums.

Furthermore, my main point was that since Intel's CPUs don't really get cheaper once their platform is not the newest anymore (such as the LGA 1155 platform will soon be with the LGA 1150 platform around the corner), if you want an i5, it's best to get it to start off with and get a cheaper graphics card that you can upgrade later since graphics cards, unlike Intel's CPUs from previous platforms, almost always get cheaper.

Even if you disagree with me about what CPU is better (Tom's has already proven that I'm right with tests that aren't greatly outdated anyway and most other sites, including even Anand, agree with me if you look at more up to date tests than their crappy bench tool), this point still stands.

Why pay $200 for an i5 later when you can do that now and save money on the graphics both now and later instead of waste money on a CPU that won't even perform on-par with a newer, similarly priced CPU?

Mostly because the budget doesn't allow for an i5 with any form of good gaming video card, so your choice is suffer greatly now to have mild benefits later, vs suffer a little bit now to have mild benefits later.

Are you sure Intel CPU's don't lose value? Cause I checked E-bay and I'm pretty sure i5 750's didn't launch at 75-90 bucks.

I think that the choice is better thought of as get an i3 now with a good graphics card and don't bother upgrading the CPU until the next platform if you go with Intel or go AMD and just upgrade to the best AM3+ compatible CPU a few years down the road since it'll probably beat an LGA 1155 i5 anyway. Furthermore, it was stated that an i5 with a Radeon 7850 was an option, wasn't it? That's a decent graphics card for an i5 since it can max out texture quality in most games at 1080p with excellent performance and at least play at high or medium in the most intensive games such as Crysis 3.

There's a difference between launch price for a non-used CPU, the price of a non-used CPU by the time it gets replaced by a new platform, and then the price of a used CPU after it's been replaced by a new platform. Launch prices aren't important because the price can drop from launch pricing. It simply doesn't drop much (for a new/non-used unit) after it's platform has been replaced. For example, a new CPU from the LGA 1156 or LGA 1366 sockets is still around the same place as it was around the time of Sandy's launch or a little afterwards.

A used CPU can still go down in price, but even that is limited. For example, going on Ebay, I find the Core 2 Quads around top tier for LGA 775 at $160 or so and up whether they're used or not. They most certainly can't keep pace with the similarly priced LGA 1155 i5s at that price nor even with the LGA 1156/LGA 1366 i7s around their higher priced units. Low tier models for an interface (such as a Core 2 Quad Q6600, 8300, or an i5-750) can still go down in price because pretty much nobody wants them; that isn't likely to happen to the LGA 1155 i5s, especially multiplier unlocked models, because they'll still be around top tier for their platform later on.

This makes sense. A low end ivy i5 at 3.0 ghz is about 150 in canada and a h61 can be found as low as 40. Maybe look into that.