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Help, Gaming PC £400 ($650)

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Last response: in Systems
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Hey, so I'm looking to build a budget PC that can run modern games smoothly i filled out a form, ask any questions if its not very clear. Thanks.


Approximate Purchase Date: I want to have all the parts ordered by the 25th January.

Budget Range: £400 after shipping (I don’t mind going a bit over if it’s worth the money.)

System Usage from Most to Least Important: Gaming, Watching Movies, Word Documents, Minor Photoshop stuff for School and Possibly University work.

Are you buying a monitor: No

Do you need to buy OS: Yes

Preferred Website(s) for Parts: Scan.co.uk, amazon.co.uk

Location: United Kingdom - Midlands

Parts Preferences: I have no preference I've read a couple of posts and all seem to recommend Intel processors particularly i3 and i5 but whatever gives the best performance is fine.

Overclocking: Maybe

SLI or Crossfire: No (Don’t know what it is, feel free to explain :p )

Your Monitor Resolution: 1600x900

Additional Comments: I’m not bothered about what the case looks looks like, just if it runs the games I want to play smoothly. (Battlefield 3, Skyrim, Minecraft) I’m not expecting it to run these games on ultra-setting.

More about : gaming 400 650

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Here's one I made earlier!

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: AMD FX-6300 3.5GHz 6-Core Processor (£100.36 @ Scan.co.uk)
Motherboard: ASRock 960GM/U3S3 FX Micro ATX AM3+ Motherboard (£43.23 @ Amazon UK)
Memory: Corsair Vengeance 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory (£34.50 @ Amazon UK)
Storage: Seagate Barracuda 500GB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive (£40.78 @ Scan.co.uk)
Video Card: Asus Radeon HD 7770 GHz Edition 1GB Video Card (£106.97 @ Amazon UK)
Case: Cooler Master Elite 335 Upgraded ATX Mid Tower Case (£32.87 @ Scan.co.uk)
Power Supply: XFX 450W 80 PLUS Bronze Certified ATX12V / EPS12V Power Supply (£41.99 @ Amazon UK)
Optical Drive: Lite-On iHAS124-04 DVD/CD Writer (£12.98 @ Scan.co.uk)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 (OEM) (64-bit) (£71.64 @ Scan.co.uk)
Total: £485.32


Bit over budget sorry but gives you something to base things against.

I know you wanted Intel, but I would take this over an i3 setup any day :)  Mainly because it can be overclocked!

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You should get around 50 FPS on BF3 and Skyrim at high settings (not on ultra). Never played Minecraft myself but I can't see it being anywhere near as demanding as those 2 games, so no problems.

Should last you 2-3 years before you start considering upgrading. Depends what games you are playing, at what settings and how fast they advance. Also on your opinion of smooth gameplay. For example some people don't mind 30-35FPS while others would consider it unplayable.

Should also mention your monitor. Because it has a relatively low resolution it puts less strain on the graphics. If you changed to something 1920x1080 or higher you might start getting performance problems. Just something to keep in mind.

If you are worried about 'future-proofing' it might be worth considering a better GPU such as the HD 7850. This would also require a stronger PSU but fortunately XFX also do a 550W version for only £7 more - http://www.scan.co.uk/products/550w-xfx-pro-series-core...

So you are looking at around £40 extra for those upgrades. Not essential today but you might be wanting for them in a few years time. Up to you...
Homebuilt system Authority

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: Intel Core i3-3220 3.3GHz Dual-Core Processor (£83.99 @ Aria PC)
Motherboard: ASRock B75M Micro ATX LGA1155 Motherboard (£52.99 @ Overclockers.co.uk)
Memory: Mushkin Blackline 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory (£35.30 @ Amazon UK)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 500GB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive (£42.50 @ Aria PC)
Video Card: EVGA GeForce GTX 650 Ti 1GB Video Card (£119.58 @ Scan.co.uk)
Case: Cooler Master Elite 430 ATX Mid Tower Case (£38.99 @ Dabs)
Power Supply: Corsair Builder 500W 80 PLUS Certified ATX12V Power Supply (£43.36 @ Ebuyer)
Optical Drive: Lite-On iHAS124-04 DVD/CD Writer (£12.98 @ Scan.co.uk)
Total: £429.69
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2013-01-14 20:58 GMT+0000)

I would do this. The gtx 650ti is decently better than the 7770. With the upgrade in budget, you might even be able to swing a 7850.

thanks for the reply's, i definitely like the look of the first build and i might go with that and keep the upgrades in mind, saying that i always used to think 30 fps was really good xD

I've just realized i might be able to salvage the optical drive from this computer so that knocks £12 off my build.
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