£500 Gaming Build Need Advice

king21200 · Mar 18, 2012

Hi i have had my Dell 560MT for about 3 years now and i finally want to build my own PC.
Can you tell me what would be worth changing to get the most cost effective pricing so that the build will last long, allow for overclocking and whether or not SLI/CrossFire is worth it? Thanks guys!

This is my first build.

DETAILS:

Approximate Purchase Date: Within a month.

Budget Range: £500 (Can go a bit over)

System Usage from Most to Least Important: Gaming

Parts Not Required: Keyboard, Mouse, Monitor, Speakers,

Preferred Website(s) for Parts: Any UK website, ive been using amazon.co.uk to get the prices for the build.

Country: United Kingdom

Parts Preferences: Intel CPU

Overclocking: Yes

SLI or Crossfire: Maybe - depends on what my budget can give me for the most effective price.

Monitor Resolution: 1600x900

Additional Comments: Not bothered about looks or anything - i want the best preformance for the money!

WHAT PARTS I HAVE SELECTED ALREADY

Intel i5-2400 3.1GHz

Asus P8H61-M LE/USB3 Motherboard

Corsair CMX8GX3M2A1333C9 XMS3 8GB

Asus 1GB Radeon HD 6850

Corsair CMPSU-600CXV2UK

Cooler Master Storm Mid Tower Scout Case

Seagate ST500DM002 500GB

Samsung 22x SATA RW

Windows 7 OEM

Price: £590 Amazon

Plasmid · Mar 18, 2012

Your motherboard's chipset does allow overclocking however your cpu does not. The cpu's multiplier is locked. If you want to overclock get a core i5 2500k. I'd also recommend getting a better case that allows cable management, cooler master 335 has very little cable management, although this is up to you.

king21200 · Mar 18, 2012

Thanks for the advice, i changed the main post, adding the i5, which has pushed the price to £515 (still fine).

Can someone tell me if my PSU and RAM is too much and un needed (will 4gb and 500w do the job?)? - any recommendations on the RAM and PSU?

Which case would you recommend which would have enough space for improvements? im finding it hard to find any reviews/recommendations of pc cases!

Unrecognised · Mar 18, 2012

A certified 500W PSU Should be fine. For RAM, I'd stick with 8GB, but up to you.

Plasmid · Mar 18, 2012

Psu is fine if you plan to do have a crossfire setup in the future. If you are going to stick with one hd 6850 then get a 500 watt certified as person above said. As for the ram I strongly recommend staying with 8gb. I have 8gb of ram and I use about 2.5 gb when not gaming and up to 6 gb when gaming.

As for the case I'd recommend taking a look at this, it has great review score.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Storm-Mid-Tower-Scout-Case/dp/B0027YSEBE/ref=sr_1_1?s=computers&ie=UTF8&qid=1332079625&sr=1-1

You can watch a review of the case here

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vsw9wMikp_8

Have a nice day

BTW WTH stuff is expensive in the uk

but at least you have free healthcare

metal orient · Mar 18, 2012

If you don't overclock you would get even better price performance. SLI/CFX are also best avoided especially at your resolution. Also some sites you should check out:

Aria.co.uk (my favourite)
scan.co.uk
ebuyer.com

These 3 are generally the cheapest, reliable stores that are in the UK. Aria tends to be the cheapest overall.

Yoyoman2000 · Mar 18, 2012

What games are you going to be playing? Because if you were to play very demanding games like bf3 or metro 2033, you would probably be best off getting a H61 MB, i5 2320, and a 6870 or 560ti (6950 1gb if you could afford it). This setup would NOT allow CPU overclocking but you should get better performance in GPU demanding games. It really does depend on what games you plan to play and what settings you are willing to play on.

That's just my 2 pence.

king21200 · Mar 18, 2012

metal orient :

Did he type this wrong? :S

Thanks for the help everyone, im probably going to stick with the 600W PSU to allow for upgrades later (CrossFire).
I will get the CM storm scout case.
I have looked at what Yoyoman2000 said, and i could downgrade my MB because i wont fill the current one with all of these things, but i wish to overclock and have the option to crossfire (Gonna be my first build so i kind want the motherboard to last the longest in the sense that i can add/upgrade whats already there). I wont be playing the high demanding games like you mentioned, plus my screen resoultion is pretty low

.

Can someone tell me what kind of GHz i could overclock the i5 2500k to, and if i will need a better heatsink/ more fans with or even without overclocking?

Also i took a look at Aria.co.uk , scan.co.uk and ebuyer.com, some offer better prices than amazon some dont. Is it better to order all from one website? or to order seperately to get the best prices from each website? Also has anyone got any other suggestions of component selling websites? (I want newegg.co.uk!!!)

Thanks, big help guys!

FinneousPJ · Mar 18, 2012

king21200 :

No. Overclocking isn't very good for maximum price / performance on the Intel side nowadays. You have to buy a more expensive motherboard and CPU to enable overclocking; this on top of the usual heatsinks and fans.

metal orient · Mar 18, 2012

Nope, a H61 board and say an i5 2300 is significantly cheaper and provides pretty much all the performance you're realistically going to need.

king21200 · Mar 18, 2012

Thanks for the advice, ive downgraded the CPU and MB. Price is currently £510 which i am happy with (Price from amazon :O).

Now any suggestions about where to buy from in the UK?

metal orient · Mar 18, 2012

Do you need a DVDRW?

king21200 · Mar 18, 2012

metal orient :

Thanks for reminder, i added DVDRW to the post and Win 7 OEM.

Anyone know a website with better prices than amazon? Thanks!!

metal orient · Mar 18, 2012

i'd buy from overclockers in the UK, best prices http://www.adsfasgsgsf.com/fs/images/rainbowsmile.gif

You're joking right?

Anyone know a website with better prices than amazon? Thanks!!

www.Aria.co.uk
scan.co.uk
ebuyer.com

king21200 · Mar 18, 2012

i'd buy from overclockers in the UK, best prices http://www.adsfasgsgsf.com/fs/images/rainbowsmile.gif

was about £610 on there, seems like amazon uk is who i am going to buy from. thanks anyway!

king21200 · Mar 18, 2012

metal orient :

Aria gave me the best price, didnt have the MB or Case, but they were still more expensive than amazon :s

metal orient · Mar 18, 2012

king21200 :

I got it £50 cheaper, i'll post the build in a sec.

king21200 · Mar 18, 2012

metal orient :

thank you very much!

mvee18 · Mar 18, 2012

king21200 :

You will probably need to get an aftermarket heatsink. Try the Hyper 212 EVO or 212+, they're pretty good. Probably around 4.5 GHz+; really depends on your heatsink.

king21200 · Mar 18, 2012

mvee18 :

Thank you, useful information if i ever upgrade to a i5 2500k, but im gonna go for the i5 2400

metal orient · Mar 18, 2012

king21200 · Mar 18, 2012

Thank you!

Cant help but notice the RAM is 1600, and the MB takes 1337?
Or does this not matter?

metal orient · Mar 18, 2012

Yeah, i guess you could drop down to 1333, would save a few quid. But the memory will down clock to that speed so should be fine.

Use this:
https://www.aria.co.uk/Products/Components/Memory/DDR3/Dual+Channel+1333MHz/8GB+Mushkin+Enhanced+Silverline+%23996770+%282x4GB%29+1333+%28PC3-10666%29+240-Pin+DDR3+SDRAM+CAS+9-9-9-24+1.5V+?productId=41882

Total cost changes to £555.36

king21200 · Mar 18, 2012

Thanks very much, im probably gonna go with that because its more in my budget.
Once again thank you everyone!

metal orient · Mar 18, 2012

Good luck and tell us how it goes.

£500 Gaming Build Need Advice

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