Building Budget Gaming PC - AMD or Intel

[koushick92]

Hi all,

I'm building my own pc for the very first time so I'm pretty much a "noob" at this whole thing. I'm struggling at getting my head round some stuff. I realise that "intel vs amd" is an age-old debate but please read on.

Ok so let me show you a few builds that I'm thinking of:


BUILD ONE
Benchmarks: http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/p/2eThM/benchmarks/

CPU: AMD FX-6300 3.5GHz 6-Core Processor (£83.54 @ Ebuyer)
Motherboard: Asus M5A78L-M/USB3 Micro ATX AM3+ Motherboard (£47.99 @ Aria PC)
Memory: Corsair 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1333 Memory (£58.00 @ Scan.co.uk)
Storage: Hitachi Ultrastar 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive (£41.40 @ Aria PC)
Video Card: XFX Radeon HD 7870 2GB Video Card (£136.97 @ Dabs)
Wireless Network Adapter: Asus PCE-N15 802.11b/g/n PCI-Express x1 Wi-Fi Adapter (£15.55 @ Amazon UK)
Case: Cooler Master Force 500 ATX Mid Tower Case (£32.87 @ Scan.co.uk)
Power Supply: Fractal Design Integra R2 650W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply (£54.95 @ Novatech)
Total: £471.27
Estimated wattage:359W

I've done as much research as I can and I put together this build on www.pcpartpicker.com/uk

So the AMD FX-6300 CPU is great for value and has 6 cores with good speed. Although I'm building a budget PC, I'm trying to keep in mind that I want this PC to be able to play so called "next-gen" games without having to put a big hole in my wallet. I realise the term "next-gen" is normally used for consoles but I hope you guys understand what I'm trying to get at. I want it to be able to play games such as Battlefield 4, AC4 etc...

I've been told that games only use 2 cores. But with the arrival of more demanding games, is this still true? Or is this AMD 6 core processor too much? (I'm using this pc soley for gaming).

Also what do you guys think of the graphics card I chose? I realise that video card will bear the brunt while I'm playing games.


BUILD TWO
Benchmarks: http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/p/2eSPm/benchmarks/

CPU: AMD Phenom II X4 965 Black 3.4GHz Quad-Core Processor (£69.99 @ Maplin Electronics)
Motherboard: Asus M5A78L-M/USB3 Micro ATX AM3+ Motherboard (£47.99 @ Aria PC)
Memory: Corsair 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1333 Memory (£58.00 @ Scan.co.uk)
Storage: Hitachi Ultrastar 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive (£41.40 @ Aria PC)
Video Card: XFX Radeon HD 7870 2GB Video Card (£136.97 @ Dabs)
Wireless Network Adapter: Asus PCE-N15 802.11b/g/n PCI-Express x1 Wi-Fi Adapter (£15.55 @ Amazon UK)
Case: Cooler Master Force 500 ATX Mid Tower Case (£32.87 @ Scan.co.uk)
Power Supply: Fractal Design Integra R2 650W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply (£54.95 @ Novatech)
Total: £457.72
Estimated Wattage: 389W

Ok so for this one I chose AMD Phenom II X4 Black CPU because it's cheaper bringing the overall cost of my build down to £457.72. It's Quad-Core as opposed to 6 core from the above build. Am I making a mistake here?


BUILD THREE
Benchmarks: http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/p/2cCb6/benchmarks/

CPU: Intel Core i5-3570K 3.4GHz Quad-Core Processor (£163.19 @ Aria PC)
Motherboard: ASRock Z77 Extreme4 ATX LGA1155 Motherboard (£94.04 @ Dabs)
Memory: Corsair 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1333 Memory (£58.00 @ Scan.co.uk)
Storage: Hitachi Ultrastar 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive (£41.40 @ Aria PC)
Video Card: XFX Radeon HD 7870 2GB Video Card (£136.97 @ Dabs)
Wireless Network Adapter: Asus PCE-N15 802.11b/g/n PCI-Express x1 Wi-Fi Adapter (£15.55 @ Amazon UK)
Case: Zalman Z11 ATX Mid Tower Case (£44.98 @ Ebuyer)
Power Supply: Corsair Builder 750W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply (£65.99 @ Dabs)
Total: £620.12
Estimated Wattage: 351W

Finally, this is my friend's suggested build. According to him, this is the best budget gaming PC i can build, whilst taking into account the "next-gen" games. He suggests an Intel Core i5 which is a much more expensive processor. My friend told me that the new games that are being developed will be based on Intel's Haswell technology and therefore I should invest in an i5 processor rather than AMD.

I want to know if he's talking s#!t out his backside or if he's telling the truth. Also what do you guys think about the power supply I chose for each build? How much watts does it take to play games on the highest settings? Is my PSU that I chosen enough for that? (I'm going to use my HDTV as my monitor).

I appreciate that this is a very long post. I've been wanting to build my own gaming PC for over a year now. And I want to be sure that I get this right the first time. Please vote which build I should go for and give explanation as to why below.

Thanks reading this up and untill now!

 

[Avro Arrow]

I would say that build #1 is your best bet. It will give you EXACTLY the same gaming experience as build #3. Build #2 is almost the same price as build #1 in price the Phenom II X4 is completely outclassed performance-wise by the FX-6300. Your hunch was correct so you had it right the first time. If you wanted to get better gaming performance than build #1, you'd be looking at upgrading the video card, not the CPU.

*winks and points to all his badges*

 

[JOOK-D]

Yeah I'd say build #1 too. I wouldn't be able to justify the slight performance increase to build #3, and build #2 is just a downgrade. I don't know where you friend got the "developing for haswell" from, I'd be interested to see his source.

*winks and points to all his badges too*

 

[CTurbo]

Build 1 is my pick.

Build 3 is better but kinda redefines the term "budget"


The fact is, build 1 has 90% of the performance of build 3 for 60% of the cost.

 

[JOOK-D]

BTW for build 1 I'd get a better motherboard. Go for: ASUS M5A97 R2.0, ASUS M5A99X, GIGABYTE GA-970A-UD3, GA-990FXA-UD3. They would be my recommendations, the more expensive ones will be better for overclocking but you can get a decent one out of all of them. Also they may have support for dual graphics cards (crossfire/sli) if you're interested in that at some point. Not to mention they have more features and stability. You could chuck in a £25 CM Hyper 212 EVO CPU cooler to keep it cool too.

 

[PepitoTV]

If these are the only options then build 1, now, if you're willing to pay those £620, then you can get better builds than the number one. It's just upgrading the GPU instead of the CPU and you will have a much more capable gaming system.

So the question that arises is, what is really your budget?

EDIT: as it appears to be a trend... *winks and point at his badges*

 

[koushick92]

If these are the only options then build 1, now, if you're willing to pay those £620, then you can get better builds than the number one. It's just upgrading the GPU instead of the CPU and you will have a much more capable gaming system.

So the question that arises is, what is really your budget?

EDIT: as it appears to be a trend... *winks and point at his badges*

It's around £400-£500 roughly. I know it's quite a constraint but it's the hand i'm dealt with I'm afraid

 

[Deleted member 217926]

"Winks and points at Moderator status" Gaming the badges will get you banned

 

[logainofhades]

If you are willing to spend as much as build 3, go with build one and get a faster GPU.

 

[PepitoTV]

Ok, for £500 I came up with this:

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: AMD FX-6300 3.5GHz 6-Core Processor (£83.54 @ Ebuyer)
Motherboard: Asus M5A97 R2.0 ATX AM3+ Motherboard (£59.00 @ Amazon UK)
Memory: Corsair Vengeance 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory (£59.99 @ Scan.co.uk)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive (£45.46 @ Scan.co.uk)
Video Card: XFX Radeon HD 7870 XT 2GB Video Card (£143.99 @ Aria PC)
Wireless Network Adapter: Asus PCE-N10 802.11b/g/n PCI-Express x1 Wi-Fi Adapter (£14.92 @ CCL Computers)
Case: Corsair 200R ATX Mid Tower Case (£47.98 @ Amazon UK)
Power Supply: Corsair CX 500W 80+ Bronze Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply (£47.67 @ Amazon UK)
Total: £502.55
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2013-12-04 20:15 GMT+0000)

The main difference is that I found a great deal on the 7870XT which is basically a 7950 with 2GB of VRAM, for 1080p and lower resolutions it will behave just like a 7950, great, underrated card.

 

[JOOK-D]

"Winks and points at Moderator status" Gaming the badges will get you banned

Darn. :lol:

Remember koushick92 that you will need to factor in the price of a copy of Windows too, unless you have one handy. But yes, I'd still say Build #1.

 

[koushick92]

Ok, for £500 I came up with this:

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: AMD FX-6300 3.5GHz 6-Core Processor (£83.54 @ Ebuyer)
Motherboard: Asus M5A97 R2.0 ATX AM3+ Motherboard (£59.00 @ Amazon UK)
Memory: Corsair Vengeance 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory (£59.99 @ Scan.co.uk)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive (£45.46 @ Scan.co.uk)
Video Card: XFX Radeon HD 7870 XT 2GB Video Card (£143.99 @ Aria PC)
Wireless Network Adapter: Asus PCE-N10 802.11b/g/n PCI-Express x1 Wi-Fi Adapter (£14.92 @ CCL Computers)
Case: Corsair 200R ATX Mid Tower Case (£47.98 @ Amazon UK)
Power Supply: Corsair CX 500W 80+ Bronze Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply (£47.67 @ Amazon UK)
Total: £502.55
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2013-12-04 20:15 GMT+0000)

The main difference is that I found a great deal on the 7870XT which is basically a 7950 with 2GB of VRAM, for 1080p and lower resolutions it will behave just like a 7950, great, underrated card.

I'm not very literate in these computer parts. Can you please tell me what you said means (lol?). How much better is the 7870XT when compared to the XFX Radeon HD 7870 that I chose in Build 1? I also noticed that you picked a 500W power supply. Isn't that too low? Shouldn't I get a higher power supply if I decide to play games on the highest settings?

I'm considering to stretch my budget out to £550 to accommodate for a better motherboard/graphics card or power supply.

Thanks for going out your way to make a build for me!

 

[JOOK-D]

The 7870XT has basically 90% of the performance of a 7950, its very good.
500W should be enough for the build.

I'll say it again, you'll need to factor in the cost of a copy of windows.

 

[Welshstig]

This one is much better than all of them:

PCPartPicker part list: http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/p/2f38p
Price breakdown by merchant: http://uk.pcpartpickhttp://pcpartpicker.com/p/2f2V2er.com/p/2f38p/by_merchant/
Benchmarks: http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/p/2f38p/benchmarks/

CPU: AMD FX-8320 3.5GHz 8-Core Processor (£113.20 @ Amazon UK)
Motherboard: Asus M5A97 R2.0 ATX AM3+ Motherboard (£59.00 @ Amazon UK)
Memory: Kingston XMP Blu Red Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory (£49.73 @ Amazon UK)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive (£45.46 @ Scan.co.uk)
Video Card: MSI Radeon R9 280X 3GB Video Card (£227.46 @ Dabs)
Case: Zalman Z5 ATX Mid Tower Case (£33.06 @ Scan.co.uk)
Power Supply: Fractal Design Integra R2 750W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply (£63.44 @ Dabs)
Total: £591.35
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2013-12-04 21:59 GMT+0000)

 

[koushick92]

The 7870XT has basically 90% of the performance of a 7950, its very good.
500W should be enough for the build.

I'll say it again, you'll need to factor in the cost of a copy of windows.

Yes but what I was saying that I chose the XFX Radeon HD 7870 whereas the gentleman above chose the 7870XT. So which is better between those two? You're using the 7950 as a comparrison to guy who has no idea in what context you're talking about. I do not know how good the 7950 is anyway.

And yes, I already have a copy of windows 7 that I will be able to use.

 

[logainofhades]

7950 > 7870 XT > 7870.

 

[JOOK-D]

^

 

[17seconds]

Hate to say it, but you 'might' need to factor in the cost of MS Office as well. Sort of comes in handy when you want to open up a Word document.

 

[JOOK-D]

Hate to say it, but you 'might' need to factor in the cost of MS Office as well. Sort of comes in handy when you want to open up a Word document.

Apache OpenOffice is a good solution for this.

 

[koushick92]

Yep i'll be using OpenOffice. Thanks for the advice guys. I'll take on everything you've suggested and will come back with an amended build and see what you guys think.

 

[koushick92]

Right guys. Thanks for sticking with me for this long. Here's my new build.

BUILD FOUR
PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: AMD FX-6300 3.5GHz 6-Core Processor (£83.54 @ Ebuyer)
CPU Cooler: Gelid Solutions CC-Siberian-01 51.9 CFM CPU Cooler (£4.91 @ Amazon UK)
Thermal Compound: StarTech Metal Oxide 15g Thermal Paste (£3.50 @ Ebuyer)
Motherboard: Asus M5A97 EVO R2.0 ATX AM3+ Motherboard (£78.00 @ Dabs)
Memory: Corsair 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1333 Memory (£60.00 @ Amazon UK)
Storage: Hitachi Ultrastar 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive (£41.40 @ Aria PC)
Video Card: XFX Radeon HD 7870 XT 2GB Video Card (£143.99 @ Aria PC)
Wireless Network Adapter: Asus PCE-N15 802.11b/g/n PCI-Express x1 Wi-Fi Adapter (£15.65 @ Amazon UK)
Case: Cooler Master Force 500 ATX Mid Tower Case (£35.50 @ CCL Computers)
Case Fan: Cooler Master R4-L2R-20AC-GP 69.0 CFM 120mm Fan (£4.99 @ Novatech)
Power Supply: Fractal Design Integra R2 650W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply (£54.95 @ Novatech)
Keyboard: Gigabyte GK-KM6150 Wired Standard Keyboard w/Optical Mouse (£8.40 @ Aria PC)
Total: £534.83
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2013-12-05 22:45 GMT+0000)
ESTIMATED WATTAGE: 394W


Ok, so here I've taken on a few your suggestions. I have chosen the 7870XT. JOOK-D, you suggested getting a different motherboard. One of which was the ASUS M5A97 R2.0;

Can you please confirm that I chose the right one? I have also picked a few more items such as a keyboard which comes with a mouse.

I have also chosen an CPU cooler. Now I am not sure if the AMD FX-6300 comes with a stock cooler. If it turns out that the FX-6300 does indeed have one, should I buy the Gelid Solutions CPU Cooler as well and use both in my system? Or am I being stupid and doing too much?

Also I chose a pretty cheap case fan from cooler master. On pcpartpicker it said that case fan compatibility checks were not supported. I have no idea if this is compatible. If you guys have any suggestions on this, then please tell and keep it mind i need cheap as possible.

It just occurred to me that I did not choose a DVD drive. Is it possible to install windows 7 from a usb stick?

Thank you all!

 

[logainofhades]

FX 6300 will come with its own cooler. I would suggest getting at least a coolermaster TX3 for it though.

 

[JOOK-D]

Right guys. Thanks for sticking with me for this long. Here's my new build.

BUILD FOUR
PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: AMD FX-6300 3.5GHz 6-Core Processor (£83.54 @ Ebuyer)
CPU Cooler: Gelid Solutions CC-Siberian-01 51.9 CFM CPU Cooler (£4.91 @ Amazon UK)
Thermal Compound: StarTech Metal Oxide 15g Thermal Paste (£3.50 @ Ebuyer)
Motherboard: Asus M5A97 EVO R2.0 ATX AM3+ Motherboard (£78.00 @ Dabs)
Memory: Corsair 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1333 Memory (£60.00 @ Amazon UK)
Storage: Hitachi Ultrastar 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive (£41.40 @ Aria PC)
Video Card: XFX Radeon HD 7870 XT 2GB Video Card (£143.99 @ Aria PC)
Wireless Network Adapter: Asus PCE-N15 802.11b/g/n PCI-Express x1 Wi-Fi Adapter (£15.65 @ Amazon UK)
Case: Cooler Master Force 500 ATX Mid Tower Case (£35.50 @ CCL Computers)
Case Fan: Cooler Master R4-L2R-20AC-GP 69.0 CFM 120mm Fan (£4.99 @ Novatech)
Power Supply: Fractal Design Integra R2 650W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply (£54.95 @ Novatech)
Keyboard: Gigabyte GK-KM6150 Wired Standard Keyboard w/Optical Mouse (£8.40 @ Aria PC)
Total: £534.83
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2013-12-05 22:45 GMT+0000)
ESTIMATED WATTAGE: 394W


Ok, so here I've taken on a few your suggestions. I have chosen the 7870XT. JOOK-D, you suggested getting a different motherboard. One of which was the ASUS M5A97 R2.0;

Can you please confirm that I chose the right one? I have also picked a few more items such as a keyboard which comes with a mouse.

I have also chosen an CPU cooler. Now I am not sure if the AMD FX-6300 comes with a stock cooler. If it turns out that the FX-6300 does indeed have one, should I buy the Gelid Solutions CPU Cooler as well and use both in my system? Or am I being stupid and doing too much?

Also I chose a pretty cheap case fan from cooler master. On pcpartpicker it said that case fan compatibility checks were not supported. I have no idea if this is compatible. If you guys have any suggestions on this, then please tell and keep it mind i need cheap as possible.

It just occurred to me that I did not choose a DVD drive. Is it possible to install windows 7 from a usb stick?

Thank you all!

The motherboard is fine, just more expensive than the regular M5A97 R2.0. The only real differences I see are that it has 2 more Sata 6gb/s and apparently handles up to 140W CPUs.

Honestly, that cooler probably performs basically the same as the stock cooler so it's probably unnecessary. Yes a stock cooler comes with it.

As for the case fans, basically every case has places for 120mm fans so you should be good.

I believe its possible to install from a usb stick.

 

[PepitoTV]

It's in fact possible to install Windows from an USB drive, but is not just copying the contents of the DVD into it, you need another computer and download a tool (the name escapes me right now) from Microsoft that will help you create a bootable USB drive from an ISO created from your copy of Windows.

I agree on the cooler, as that one provides little to no upgrade over the stock fan.

Other than that, I approve of this build

 

[JOOK-D]

^Could be powerISO. Not sure though, maybe they have an official thing.