£470 light gaming build

[JuanB]

My friend wants me to build him a pc, he has a budget of £470.

Approximate Purchase Date: Next couple of weeks.

Budget Range: £450-470

System Usage from Most to Least Important: Light gaming (minecraft, team fortress 2), everyday pc usage (surfing the web, microsoft office etc)

Parts Not Required: Speakers, keyboard

Preferred Website(s) for Parts: eBuyer, Aria Pc, Amazon, Ebay, any other recommendations would be fine

Country: UK

Parts Preferences: anything well known, don't mind if it's Intel or AMD.

Overclocking: No

SLI or Crossfire: No

Monitor Resolution: 1440x900 - 1920x1080 could be anything in that range, depends on the budget.

Additional Comments: Its needs to have everything including a monitor and a wireless mouse. A good graphics card too like the HD 6770 and if possible even HD 6850. Not too fussy. As long as the processor and GPU can run a game at a decent FPS.

This is a tough challenge so i haven't decided fully what parts to buy any help would be appreciated

-Juan.

 

[jmsellars1]

Do you need an OS?
How much storage does he need?

EDIT: So long as you don't need the OS, you can get a 1080P monitor and the HD 6850 in this budget.

Intel Pentium G840 (Matches an AMD FX-4100 in games.)
4GB (2x2GB) Mushkin Silverline
Gigabyte GA-H61M-S2PV
PowerColor AMD Radeon HD 6850
500GB Seagate Barracuda 7200.12
450W XFX Core Edition
Fractal Design Core 1000
Samsung DVD Burner
Gigabyte ECO500 Wireless Laser Gaming Mouse
Samsung 22" S22A200B Widescreen LED DVI Monitor

Total - £467.06 on www.aria.co.uk

 

[JuanB]

he does need an OS but i came up with this, thanks for your input it really helped

Intel Pentium G840
Gigabyte GA-H61MA-D3V GEN3 Intel H61
Asus ATI Radeon 6770
LiteOn iHAS124 24x DVD±RW
Xigmatek Asgard Black Midi Tower
500GB Seagate Barracuda 3.5" SATA III
Corsair 4GB DDR3 1333MHz
450W XFX Core Edition
Windows 7 Home Premium
Samsung S19A100NS
Mouse - 3 button(s) - wireless - 2.4 GHz

£475.42

are these parts good? is there any cheap parts i could get?

 

[metal orient]

he does need an OS but i came up with this, thanks for your input it really helped

Intel Pentium G840
Gigabyte GA-H61MA-D3V GEN3 Intel H61
Asus ATI Radeon 6770
LiteOn iHAS124 24x DVD±RW
Xigmatek Asgard Black Midi Tower
500GB Seagate Barracuda 3.5" SATA III
Corsair 4GB DDR3 1333MHz
450W XFX Core Edition
Windows 7 Home Premium
Samsung S19A100NS
Mouse - 3 button(s) - wireless - 2.4 GHz

£475.42

are these parts good? is there any cheap parts i could get?

That's pretty much all i can as well, i would change the mobo to the asrock H61 VS and save a few quid, and get a wired mouse.

 

[jmsellars1]

That looks pretty good.

 

[JuanB]

That's pretty much all i can as well, i would change the mobo to the asrock H61 VS and save a few quid, and get a wired mouse.

but then i would have to change the Harddrive to a sata II which is more expensive than a sata III.

 

[jmsellars1]

You can use a SATA III drive on a SATA II motherboard, it is backwards compatible and won't make the slightest bit of difference with a standard mechanical hard drive.

 

[JuanB]

is the asRock H61M-VS a good motherboard? it says the size is 8.9x6.8 will the standoffs in the case be compatible with this board?

 

[mattatcomputer]

Here is my recommended build:

i3 2120 95 pounds ( quite alot faster than G840):
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Intel-Sandybridge-Quad-Core-Processor-Warranty/dp/B004FA8NXM/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1330457232&sr=8-1

Case+ PSU bundle: 50 pounds
http://www.ebuyer.com/220863-coole [...] 30-kkpl-gp

RAM ( Corsair 4GB) 21 pounds
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Corsair-TW3X4G1333C9A-XMS3-DDR3-Memory/dp/B002D11C6U/ref=sr_1_2?s=computers&ie=UTF8&qid=1330457304&sr=1-2

Windows 7: 70 pounds

HDD: 57 pounds
http://www.ebuyer.com/272943-seagate-250gb-3-5-sata-iii-6gb-s-barracuda-hard-drive-7200rpm-16mb-cache-st250dm000?utm_source=google&utm_medium=products

Optical drive:12 pounds
http://www.ebuyer.com/129233-samsung-sh-d163c-16x-dvd-rom-sata-optical-drive-oem-black-sh-d163c-bebe

Your monitor : 70 pounds

Mobo: 45 pounds
http://www.aria.co.uk/Products/Components/Motherboards/Intel+1155+H61+(B3)/Gigabyte+GA-H61MA-D3V+GEN3+Intel+H61+(REV+B3)+Socket+1155+DDR3+PCI-
Express+Motherboard+?productId=48248&source=googleps

GPU: Hd 6670
http://www.scan.co.uk/products/1gb-sapphire-hd-6670-ultimate-1600mhz-gddr3-gpu-800mhz-480-cores-dl-dvi-dport-hdmi-passive-

490 pounds bit over your budget but far more beastly

 

[jmsellars1]

That would actually give less performance in games, most games rely heavily on the graphics card.

Also, there isn't a huge difference between the G840 and i3-2120. The difference is 500Mhz and hyperthreading, HT won't actually make any difference in games. Doesn't seem worth almost double the price, especially at this budget.

 

[JuanB]

yeh, that graphics card is not as good as the 6770 or the 6850 if i manage to fit it in the budget. So, would the motherboard fit in the case or does it have to be 9.6x9.6 ?

 

[mattatcomputer]

Yes ok fine was juust trying to provide alternative thoughts. OP- One thing that you could take away from the build i proposed is the case + PSU which will save you around 25 pounds then you can spend the rest on obtaining a more powerful GPU.

 

[mattatcomputer]

That would actually give less performance in games, most games rely heavily on the graphics card.

Also, there isn't a huge difference between the G840 and i3-2120. The difference is 500Mhz and hyperthreading, HT won't actually make any difference in games. Doesn't seem worth almost double the price, especially at this budget.

And there is about a 7-10 FPS difference in games between the processors across a broad range. Plus it is faster by quite a way at general computing tasks.

 

[JuanB]

Is 450w enough for this build? Also is there anything I can get cheaper? It's amazing what you can do with £470!

 

[mattatcomputer]

Is 450w enough for this build? Also is there anything I can get cheaper? It's amazing what you can do with £470!

Why dont you go with the case + PSU i selected. 500W and Coolermaster - more than adequate. Then spend the money left over on getting a better GPU

 

[JuanB]

What about this one?
http://www.scan.co.uk/products/coolermaster-elite-334u-black-midi-tower-case-with-cm-460w-elite-psu

 

[jmsellars1]

The XFX PSU is much higher quality than the Coolermaster one, I'm sure the Coolermaster one is of acceptable quality but I'd get the XFX one personally.

 

[mattatcomputer]

The XFX PSU is much higher quality than the Coolermaster one, I'm sure the Coolermaster one is of acceptable quality but I'd get the XFX one personally.

Yeah I don't know enough about coolers but always regarded coolermaster as a decent brand. I guess if you say that one is superior its up to OP to decide between cost and quality of PSU. However, would the quality not be slightly overkill as it is not powering a very high wattage GPU nor processor. I dont know though

 

[jmsellars1]

If it was an office or home machine using a cheaper PSU is viable but for a gaming build I would always get a quality one. The reason being that it's going to be under load a lot of the time, a lesser PSU may not cope well with the stress. Also, £34 is a bargain for that PSU. (That's how much it is at Aria atm.)

 

[jmsellars1]

If it was an office or home machine using a cheaper PSU is viable but for a gaming build I would always get a quality one. The reason being that it's going to be under load a lot of the time, a lesser PSU may not cope well with the stress. Also, £34 is a bargain for that PSU. (That's how much it is at Aria atm.)

 

[metal orient]

You really want to avoid Coolermaster PSU's that are in the low end of the market and the "Elite" is no different:
http://www.hardwaresecrets.com/article/Cooler-Master-Elite-Power-460-W-Power-Supply-Review/1005/9

The Asrock H61 VS is mATX size so should fit the standoffs.

 

[mattatcomputer]

You really want to avoid Coolermaster PSU's that are in the low end of the market and the "Elite" is no different:
http://www.hardwaresecrets.com/article/Cooler-Master-Elite-Power-460-W-Power-Supply-Review/1005/9

The Asrock H61 VS is mATX size so should fit the standoffs.

Hang on! You have the wrong PSU here is the correct one: http://www.hardwaresecrets.com/article/Cooler-Master-eXtreme-Power-Plus-500-W-Power-Supply-Review/728/10

 

[metal orient]

Hang on! You have the wrong PSU here is the correct one: http://www.hardwaresecrets.com/article/Cooler-Master-eXtreme-Power-Plus-500-W-Power-Supply-Review/728/10

They don't recommend it though do they, and it's still outside of ATX specifications for ripple and noise on the 12V lines.

 

[mattatcomputer]

They don't recommend it though do they, and it's still outside of ATX specifications for ripple and noise on the 12V lines.

For budget builds they say it is a reasonable optipon

 

[jmsellars1]

For a budget office build that won't be under much stress maybe. A gaming build will be under heavy load for hours at a time.

PS. Sorry for the double post earlier