Micro ATX Budget Gaming, £655 with future OC'ing and upgrades

[Syrupdoom]

I have been searching and comparing for a few days putting together a budget micro ATX build that will run nearly all games with high settings or medium on some! but with room for overclocking and upgrading the GPU in the near future which is why I chose the i5 2500k and low profile ram to add a CPU cooler. Any advice or ways to make this build cheaper are welcome!

I have tried my best to check these parts are compatible but if someone with better knowledge could confirm it would be greatly appreciated!

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£47.04
AeroCool QS-202 Compact Series Computer Case Mini Tower Micro-ATX
http://www.scan.co.uk/products/aerocool-qs-202-compact-series-black-performance-micro-atx-mini-tower-case-w-o-psu

£168.18
Intel i5 2500k
http://www.scan.co.uk/products/intel-core-i5-2500k-unlocked-s1155-sandy-bridge-quad-33ghz-hd3000-igp-850mhz-6mb-cache-95w-retail

£87.32
Asus P8Z77-M, Intel Z77, S 1155, DDR3, SATA III - 6Gb/s, PCIe 3.0 (x16), D-Sub (VGA)/ DVI-D/ HDMI, Micro ATX
http://www.scan.co.uk/products/asus-p8z77-m-intel-z77-s-1155-ddr3-sata-iii-6gb-s-pcie-30-(x16)-d-sub-(vga)-dvi-d-hdmi-micro-atx

£84.95
MSI HD 6850 OC 1GB
http://www.scan.co.uk/products/1gb-msi-hd-6850-oc-4400mhz-gddr5-gpu-820mhz-960-stream-processors-2x-dvi-hdmi-dp

£58.32
600W PSU, Corsair Gaming Series GS600 80% Eff', 80 PLUS, SLI/CrossFire, EPS 12V, Quiet Fan, ATX v2.3
http://www.scan.co.uk/products/600w-psu-corsair-gaming-series-gs600-cmpsu-600guk-80-eff-80-plus-sli-crossfire-eps-12v-quiet-fan-atx

£40.56
8GB Corsair DDR3 Vengeance Jet Black Low Profile, PC3-12800 (1600), Non-ECC, CAS 9-9-9-24, XMP, 1.5V
http://www.scan.co.uk/products/8gb-(2x4gb)-corsair-ddr3-vengeance-jet-black-lp-pc3-12800-(1600)-non-ecc-cas-9-9-9-24-xmp-15v

£68.52
1TB Seagate ST1000DM003 Barracuda 7200.14 SATA 6Gb/s 7200rpm 64mb Cache 8ms NCQ OEM
http://www.scan.co.uk/products/1tb-seagate-st1000dm003-barracuda-720014-sata-6gb-s-7200rpm-64mb-cache-8ms-ncq-oem

£71.64
Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium 64 Bit SP1, Operating System, Single, - OEM
http://www.scan.co.uk/products/microsoft-windows-7-home-premium-64-bit-sp1-operating-system-single-oem

£29.00
And include a DVD RW & 2 Fans
http://www.scan.co.uk/products/sony-ad-5280s-0b-24x-dvdr-12xdvddl-dvdplusrw-x8-rwx6-sata-black-oem
http://www.scan.co.uk/products/120mm-coolermaster-sickleflow-blue-led-quiet-case-fan
http://www.scan.co.uk/products/140mm-antec-two-cool-blue-manual-2-speed-switch-case-fan

Bringing the total cost to around about £655

 

[GeForce6]

To improve:

i5 3570k
AsRock Z77 Pro4-M/Extreme4-M have more SATA III/II ports
Corsair Tx650
Get a better GPU, I don't know much about AMD cards, only nVidia, but you can't run games on high with an £85 GPU, maybe on medium at best.

 

[dudewitbow]

To improve:

i5 3570k
AsRock Z77 Pro4-M/Extreme4-M have more SATA III/II ports
Corsair Tx650
Get a better GPU, I don't know much about AMD cards, only nVidia, but you can't run games on high with an £85 GPU, maybe on medium at best.

I disagree with the change to the cpu. the 2500k preforms just about the same as a 3570k at a lower cost. a 600w psu is more than enough to power the build and 650w is extremely unnecessary. As for the gpu, I wouldnt know the prices as much, but the 6850 has one of the best price to performance ratios, but I think in this build, a better gpu can be obtained.

 

[GeForce6]

I disagree with the change to the cpu. the 2500k preforms just about the same as a 3570k at a lower cost. a 600w psu is more than enough to power the build and 650w is extremely unnecessary. As for the gpu, I wouldnt know the prices as much, but the 6850 has one of the best price to performance ratios, but I think in this build, a better gpu can be obtained.

3570k has PCI-E 3.0 which new GPUs use
Corsair 600W PSU is a GS series which is quite cheap, the TX series are decent builds
It's £85, I wouldn't expect to play games on their high settings at £85

 

[dudewitbow]

but hes on a budget, you dont simply tell him to upgrade anything without taking something out of another part. of coruse paying more for a product yeilds a better result. its finding the sweetspot for performance/cost is what is important when a budget line is almost anchored.

 

[GeForce6]

whoa, whoa, whoa, grandpa, take it easy. is you shift key broken by the way, nice grammar.

 

[metal orient]

^ obvious troll is obvious

 

[metal orient]

I assume given you have specified a microATX build you are not willing to have an ATX case.

I put this together for you:

From aria.co.uk

Intel Core i5-2500K 3.30GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155 Unlocked Processor - Retail
MICROSOFT Windows Home Premium 7 SP1 64-bit EN 1pk - OEM [GFC-02050]
LG GH22NS70 22x DVD±RW with DL & RAM SATA Optical Drive - OEM Black
1TB Seagate Barracuda ST1000DM003 3.5" SATA III Hard Drive
550W OCZ ZS Series 80PLUS Bronze Power Supply #45457 £ 41.66 £ 41.6
Corsair Vengeance Low Profile 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (CML8GX3M2A1600C9)

From Dabs.com

Gigabyte Z77M-D3H S1155 Intel Z77 DDR3 mATX
Quicklinx:800ZWS00 | Mfr#: GA-Z77M-D3H
In stock £79.99 £79.99

Fractal Design Core 1000 Mid-Tower Case
Quicklinx:7TMLWS00 | Mfr#: FD-CA-CORE-1000-BL
In stock £29.98 £29.98

Zotac GeForce GTX 560 Ti 822MHz 1GB PCI-Express HDMI
Quicklinx:7SDHWS00 | Mfr#: ZT-50306-10M
In stock £146.98 £146.98

Arctic Cooling F9 PWM Case Fan
Quicklinx:7H0KWS00 | Mfr#: AFACO-090P0-GBA01
Usually shipped in 3 days £2.98 £2.98

Total price:
Aria £397.90
Dabs £261.61

Final total with VAT and P&P: £658.51 pushes the budget a little bit but you get a GTX 560 Ti.

 

[Syrupdoom]

Thanks for the input, yeah I read the 6850 performs above its price range.

But this build above looks great actually pretty much the same but with a better GPU I think I might be ordering this! Will that case cope with the heat of overclocking with additional cooling?

 

[metal orient]

I think it would cope well enough here are a few reviews:

http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Fractal_Design/Core_1000/1.html
http://www.anandtech.com/show/5736/fractal-design-core-1000-how-little-is-too-little/5

an actual users view:
http://www.overclock.net/t/1142758/fractal-design-core-1000-i5-2500k-560-ti

You might want to do what he did and put the HDD in the drive bay slots not the part meant for the HDDs