£300 Budget Gaming PC

[Lfluxx]

Hey, i'm asking on behalf of a friend and just want to get a rough idea of what to get.

Approximate Purchase Date: Asap

Budget Range: (e.g.: 600-800) £300

System Usage from Most to Least Important: Gaming, surfing the net, movies.

Parts Not Required: Keyboard, Mouse, Gpu, HDD, OS

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

Country: England

Parts Preferences: None

Overclocking: Maybe if BE/K

SLI or Crossfire: Nope

Monitor Resolution: 1920x1080 is the target, don't mind turning down.

Additional Comments: I've donated some old stuff as he has such a low budget and HDD's are so expensive. However i gave him a 5570 until he has enough money to upgrade to a better card, so although the GPU isn't in the budget could you build it as if a more powerful card is installed? say a 6870 or something.

Thanks!

 

[jmsellars1]

I was thinking an A8 might be a good idea but then again that wouldn't really improve on the HD 5570. An i3-2100 is going to be your best bet. I'd grab one of those with 4GB of RAM and a cheap H61 board. Get those with a decent PSU like a CX-500 and a cheapish case like a CM Elite 430 and you should be set.

As for the hard drive, see if you have one spare somewhere. If you don't, I'm actually from the UK and was thinking of selling one of my drives. I have a Seagate Barracuda 500GB drive which has seen about 2-3 months of light/moderate use. Since they're selling for £90-100+ now I thought I'd sell it for 50 quid. Give me a shout if you're interested.

 

[Lfluxx]

I was thinking an A8 might be a good idea but then again that wouldn't really improve on the HD 5570. An i3-2100 is going to be your best bet. I'd grab one of those with 4GB of RAM and a cheap H61 board. Get those with a decent PSU like a CX-500 and a cheapish case like a CM Elite 430 and you should be set.

As for the hard drive, see if you have one spare somewhere. If you don't, I'm actually from the UK and was thinking of selling one of my drives. I have a Seagate Barracuda 500GB drive which has seen about 2-3 months of light/moderate use. Since they're selling for £90-100+ now I thought I'd sell it for 50 quid. Give me a shout if you're interested.

Hey,

Thanks for the offer but i think the HDD is sorted as i've given him an old 120gb one and he got 2 80gb ones from work, which should do for a few months until hopefully the prices drop a tad. As for the 2100 are there any gains over going for a true quad? With a H61 mobo i wouldn't be able to OC at all would i? When i was looking into stuff for him i realised it was basically a 955 vs 2100 with the 2100 winning at stock but would an OC'D phenom be better? Thanks for the offer and help.

 

[yummerzzz]

I made you a build with a HD 5770 and Phenom II 960T for £309.

This means you don't have to sue the HD 5570, sell it for £10 to cover the costs.
The HDD is a Samsung Spinoint F4 320Gb.

https://www.aria.co.uk/WishList/4RsCwXsgJz4irNmfbiBJKg,,

EDIT : The 960T also has an extremely high chance co unlock to a 6 core processor, giving you even ore performance.

EDIT 2 : It seems I forgot a CD drive, is there nay way he could salvage his old one from his current rig?

 

[Lfluxx]

I made you a build with a HD 5770 and Phenom II 960T for £309.

This means you don't have to sue the HD 5570, sell it for £10 to cover the costs.
The HDD is a Samsung Spinoint F4 320Gb.

https://www.aria.co.uk/WishList/4RsCwXsgJz4irNmfbiBJKg,,

EDIT : The 960T also has an extremely high chance co unlock to a 6 core processor, giving you even ore performance.

EDIT 2 : It seems I forgot a CD drive, is there nay way he could salvage his old one from his current rig?

Wow man im speechless.. You've done the impossible XD

As for the dvd drive, no but the HDD isnt exactly a must so i could drop the HDD and get this board http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MB-466-AS&groupid=701&catid=1903&subcat=1481 if thats any good? it has a core unlocker which i don't think the one you linked did. but again, thats amazing . Thanks

 

[Lfluxx]

just saw it does have the unlocker, seems too good to be true..

( couldn't edit the post :l )

 

[yummerzzz]

If you remove the HDD I suggest you get a CPU cooler such as the CoolerMaster Hyper TX3 for £15, I have this myself, and it is quiet and fantastic.

And a better PSU for OCing with that cooler and future upgrades like the Corsair CX500V2 500W 80Plus PSU

The motherboard does have a core unlocking feature, Ic hecked it when I amde the build just to make sure, Source : http://www.gigabyte.us/products/product-page.aspx?pid=3922

 

[Lfluxx]

If you remove the HDD I suggest you get a CPU cooler such as the CoolerMaster Hyper TX3 for £15, I have this myself, and it is quiet and fantastic.

And a better PSU for OCing with that cooler and future upgrades like the Corsair CX500V2 500W 80Plus PSU

The motherboard does have a core unlocking feature, Ic hecked it when I amde the build just to make sure, Source : http://www.gigabyte.us/products/product-page.aspx?pid=3922

Seems like a good idea, also the 5770 is quite old now with the 7xxx series coming out would it be better to just leave the GFX a little while? he will probs get more money around xmas so would a 5770 be a long term investment? That would free up £110 which could be spent on the cooler/psu and other stuff. A Month with a 120gb HDD and a 5570 can't be that bad surely.

 

[yummerzzz]

Ah, but when you sell the HD 5770 after he saves £120 and sells it for £50 his next GPU will be much cheaper.

 

[Lfluxx]

Ah, but when you sell the HD 5770 after he saves £120 and sells it for £50 his next GPU will be much cheaper.

Ahhh ok then Cheers for your help. Pretty much got it sorted now, Thanks!

 

[jmsellars1]

Hey,

Thanks for the offer but i think the HDD is sorted as i've given him an old 120gb one and he got 2 80gb ones from work, which should do for a few months until hopefully the prices drop a tad. As for the 2100 are there any gains over going for a true quad? With a H61 mobo i wouldn't be able to OC at all would i? When i was looking into stuff for him i realised it was basically a 955 vs 2100 with the 2100 winning at stock but would an OC'D phenom be better? Thanks for the offer and help.[/quotemsg

EDIT: Stupid quote button -_-

Yeah an overclocked Phenom would be a bit better than an i3 but by the time you have a decent motherboard and cooler it actually costs more and uses like 3x the power while running hotter.

Also the 6 core idea is nice but wouldn't actually help in games, just look at the 1100T. An i3-2100 will still beat that in games until you overclock it.

I'd go with this tbh:

i3-2100 - £89.87
MSI H61M-P23 - £40
Kingston (2x2GB) 1600MHz HyperX Blu - £16
Fractal Design Core 1000 - £27.14
500W OCZ ModXStream Pro Modular PSU - £46.79

£219.79 Total

That gives you a nice quality case, RAM and PSU which leaves it ready for a nice GPU like the HD 6870 when your friend has a bit more cash. The HD 5570 should be fine until then to be honest.

 

[cutebeans]

I like that Fractar Design Core 1000. Yeah, seeing jmsellars build is pretty good.

 

[yummerzzz]

The HD 5570 really isn't going to give you acceptable performance even at lowest settings at 1080p.

You can swap out for the i3-2100 build if you like, but a lot of game are getting much more CPU dependent and the 960T when unlocked and overclocked will give you great performance in multi-threaded and CPU hungry game.

 

[jmsellars1]

Even in CPU dependant games the Phenom isn't going to be much better and it's going to cost more as well as being hotter etc.

The Phenom is still viable though obviously, just pointing out that taking everything into account it's not really any better than the i3. If you don't mind the cost/effort of overclocking then you will get slightly better performance.

 

[cutebeans]

Just save more money and add at least another 200 pounds there.