£500 budget system not sure if possible.

[raktorn]

Ok ever since my friends found out i was building my own rig they seem to think im a foutnain of techy knowledge. one of them has decided hes going to build his own rig. he wants to run 3 monitors nad the usage is mainly games but not high end ones. total war rome, football manager and similar sorts of games.
He already has the screens and OS so he needs a build that is about £500. he doesnt need a massive HDD as he has multiple portable ones.

I believe the screens are 17" each and not full HD.

websites dont matter aslong as they are UK and brands just need to be trusted ones.

forgot to add he wont be overclocking and im not sure about crossfire/sli but its unlikely

thanks for any advice you may give

 

[falaki]

Here
http://www.ebuyer.com/349022-intel-core-i5-3450-3-1ghz-socket-1155-6mb-cache-retail-boxed-processor-bx80637i53450 i5-3450
Asus 7850
500GB HDD
8gb ddr3 1333mhz ram
Gigabyte ga-h61ma d3vHe doesnt need oc or xfire so this mobo will be ok for his needs
Just Choose case and psu with the £100 left

 

[metal orient]

From aria.co.uk:

ARIANET StealthX Black Midi Tower Chassis #47034
550W OCZ ZS Series 80PLUS Bronze Power Supply #45457
8GB Mushkin Enhanced Silverline #996770 (2x4GB) 1333 (PC3-10666) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM CAS 9-9-9-24 1.5V #41882
500GB Western Digital Caviar Blue WD5000AAKX 3.5" SATA III Hard Drive #43780
LG 24x Internal DVDRW GH24NS90 SATA Black Bare with m-Disk Support #49545
MSI Twin FrozR III Radeon HD 7850 OC 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card #49689
Intel Core i3-2100 3.10GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor - Retail #43839
GIGABYTE GA-H61MA-D3V GEN3 Intel H61 (REV B3) Socket 1155 DDR3

Total price (P&P and VAT): £499.66

I agree with falaki that he is unlikely to want to overclock so an H61 will be fine for him, he gets a substantial GPU in the 7850 which for the games he plays is a little overkill but will have enough grunt for ages and a decent cpu. The case is a little horrid but the trade off is better components.

 

[falaki]

you dont need spend that much on the psu a 500w corsair will do i have seen an ocz 500w corexstream whech is only £36 i dont know if it is any good but i should be ok

 

[falaki]

go for the i5 it increases fps by about 10 fps

 

[metal orient]

£46 is not too much for a PSU

While the i5 will increase framerates it also comes at a £56 premium.

 

[falaki]

do the build above you will have £100 left and ocz are not the best psu manufacture also if you DO choose to go then ie choose pentium g860 or g840 they offer similar performance for gaming

 

[metal orient]

Rakthorn I apologise for this bickering but it really is to try and get the best for you.

1st It's only £50 left over for case and psu with your build...

2nd OCZ's ZS 550W is a fine model and gets a 9 from jonnyguru:
http://www.jonnyguru.com/modules.php?name=NDReviews&op=Story4&reid=248

3rd There's no guarantee the ivy bridge processor will work with the H61 board as i'm not sure it will get the bios upgrade.

4th A pentium does offer incredible value for £70 but I would have thought on the more CPU heavy games like total war the extra grunt would be worth the £20.
A review of sub £160 CPU's
http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/gaming-fx-pentium-apu-benchmark,review-32368.html

I do wonder though if the recommendation for a 7850 is overkill as a 6870 is perhaps a better bet (when paired with a quad core i5).
Also i have just realised i have no idea what connections your friends monitors have and is important for GPU recommendation.
But as an example:

using the same components as i suggested above but change the processor to an i5 2300:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B004FA8NR8/ref=ox_sc_act_title_4?ie=UTF8&m=A3P5ROKL5A1OLE
RAM to 8GB 1600MHz:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B006YG94Y2/ref=ox_sc_act_title_3?ie=UTF8&m=A3P5ROKL5A1OLE
Graphics card to a 6870:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B004R7MTPQ/ref=ox_sc_act_title_1?ie=UTF8&m=A3P5ROKL5A1OLE

The 2 shopping baskets now come to:£491.14

 

[falaki]

dont lose that 7850 even though is over kill it offers AMAZING bang for buck there is a guaranty on the ivy bridge it says in the gigabyte support list decrease your ram.aLSO THE HDD I CHOSE IS SLIGHTLY SLOWER BUT NOT NOTICIBLY