My Budget PC Build. (Yeah right...)

Hi all.

So, after getting frustrated with the speed of my current PC, I've decided to bite the bullet and build my own gaming PC. The thing is, I am a Apprentice Electronics Engineer on £3.70 an hour, so I didn't really want to spend anything over £500.

I wanted about 8GB of Ram, a quad core processor, and a SSD drive.

A friend of mine (and a user of these forums, Sumo098) helped me devise a rough list of components that I wanted, based on my wants/needs.


I can see this going easily over £600...


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Updated 30/08/2013


Build Complete!

• Corsair 300R - £62
• ASRock Z77 Extreme4 - £103
• Seagate Barricuda 1TB - £49
• Kingston 60GB SSD - £49
• Intel Core i5-3470 3.2Ghz - £151
• Corsair CX750M - £80
• Asus GTX 670 GPU - £214
• Corsair Vengeance 8GB 1866MHZ RAM - £67
  
  Total: £776

BUILD DIARY

Arrival of the Case - Corsair 300R

Motherboard fitted - ASRock Z77 Extreme 4. Is it normal to think a motherboard looks sexy?

CPU Installation... More PCornography.

Power Supply bought and installed. Cable routing looking neat...

Graphics Card in! Ram ordered. Almost there!





Budget build... Yeah right...

So, case came yesterday..

DQ incoming with novatech fanboyism!...

http://www.novatech.co.uk/products/motherboardbundles/mbb-33308a.html

or

http://www.novatech.co.uk/products/motherboardbundles/mbb-35708b.html

Then you just need hard and optical drives and a graphics card.

Motherboard is already purchased and screwed in as on 10 minutes ago unfortunatly.

I am going i5 though I think.

http://www.ebuyer.com/387256-core-i5-3470-3-20ghz-6mb-lga-1155-box-bx80637i53470

Those a good cases. I have built a couple machines now with them. 👍 The only downside I have had with it is when you try to mount a radiator on the inside of the top grill. They could have moved the motherboard mounts just an inch lower and made the case that much more compatible. As it is, top mount radiators with fans in the case is about all you can do, which isn't bad, but it takes away the "stealth" appeal. With the hose knock outs on the back, they are clearly thinking of the enthusiast needing to run hose through the case. Anyways, it's a nice case with decent air flow design and good wire management if you take your time.

Well this is my 1st build, and although my dad has good knowledge of PC hardware, (and he writes software for a living) he hasn't built a PC in a good 10 years or so.

Going to be fun learning.

Edit: Motherboard is in! It's a ASRock Z77 Extreme4.

(Bought here: http://www.ebuyer.com/398379-asrock...a-dvi-hdmi-7-1-channel-audio-atx-z77-extreme4 )

Hi guys.

Was saving up for my CPU, but came across these...

http://www.ebuyer.com/412325-kingston-60gb-ssdnow-v-200-ssd-svp200s37a-60g

http://www.ebuyer.com/241715-wd-500gb-blue-desktop-drive-wd5000aakx

60 GB SSD for my OS / iRacing

500GB for everything else.

For > £100.

That is a pretty good value.

Very good value for todays prices!!

Are you sure you don't want to get this one instead as a storage drive?

djinline

Are you sure you don't want to get this one instead as a storage drive?

Click to expand...

You posted this just before I bought.

Thanks mate, I'm getting that instead.

DaxCobra

You posted this just before I bought.

Thanks mate, I'm getting that instead.

Click to expand...

No problem mate, Seagate 7200.14 hard drives are said to be quite fast and as you can see it has superior value.

djinline

No problem mate, Seagate 7200.14 hard drives are said to be quite fast and as you can see it has superior value.

Click to expand...

I have one and it's awesome. Well, I have a Seagate 2TB 7200rpm Barracuda, not sure if that's the same one... Only £70 when all others of the same size and speed were over £100.

Thanks guys.

Glad I made the thread.

So this is mainly for iRacing? I have a HD 7850 too, but with a i5-2500k. Max everything and locked at 130fps on iRacing. So yeh, it works well

Edit.

Point no longer relevant.


------------------------

HDD and SSD have arrived and are plugged in.

CPU ordered: http://www.ebuyer.com/387256-core-i5-3470-3-20ghz-6mb-lga-1155-box-bx80637i53470


Ram and GPU next...

http://www.ebuyer.com/443929-kingston-8gb-ddr3-1866mhz-xmp-10th-anniversary-series-khx18c9x3k2-8x


http://www.ebuyer.com/387344-asus-a...5-pcie-3-0-1xdvi-d-1xdvi-i-hd7870-dc2-2gd5-v2

Processor came today...


Installed it as soon as it arrived.

How are you liking the motherboard? Ends up we both bought the same one. 👍

Mine should be arriving on Tuesday...

TB

How are you liking the motherboard? Ends up we both bought the same one. 👍

Mine should be arriving on Tuesday...

Click to expand...

I like it, great for the price!

I've heard good things about it.

Nice! 👍

So a quick update...

It's been a while since I have done anything to my PC because of recent changes in my life. (New Girlfriend, passed driving test etc)

I finally got round to buying a PSU for it, a Corsair CX750M so I thought I would take a couple of pictures and have a round up of the specs so far and whats left to do...

So here goes.






So!

What we have so far...

Corsair 300R £62
ASRock Z77 Extreme4 - £103
Seagate Barricuda 1TB - £49
Kingston 60GB SSD - £49
Intel Core i5-3470 3.2Ghz - £151
Corsair CX750M - £80

Total so far: £494


Parts still to get (Not final decision) :

Ram: Corsair Vengeance 8GB 2133MHz DDR3 Red Heatspreader - £58.00

GPU: Asus HD 7870 DirectCU II 2GB GDDR5 Dual DVI HDMI DisplayPort PCI-E Graphics Card - £198.00


Or

Sapphire HD 7870 GHZ OC Edition 2GB GDDR5 Dual DVI HDMI DisplayPort PCI-E Graphics Card With FREE Never Settle Reloaded download coupon - £175.00

Estimated Total Build Price: £750

Budget build... Yeah right...

I plan on purchasing this tonight.

http://www.ebuyer.com/370292-asus-g...2-2gb-ddr5-90-c1cs30-s0uay0bz-gtx670-dc2-2gd5

Check these out, looks like you could get the GTX 670 for much less.

djinline

Check these out, looks like you could get the GTX 670 for much less.

Click to expand...

Already looked into it, thought that the 760 would be a better all round GPU to be honest.

http://www.ebuyer.com/520541-asus-g...-dvi-hdmi-displayport-pci-e-gtx760-dc2oc-2gd5

Ordered now anyway.

Just RAM to purchase now!! Getting excited.


Edit:

Corsair 300R £62
ASRock Z77 Extreme4 - £103
Seagate Barricuda 1TB - £49
Kingston 60GB SSD - £49
Intel Core i5-3470 3.2Ghz - £151
Corsair CX750M - £80
Asus GTX 670 - £214

Total: £708

Parts still to get: RAM

GPU Installed...









And this is ordered!!!


So far....

Corsair 300R £62
ASRock Z77 Extreme4 - £103
Seagate Barricuda 1TB - £49
Kingston 60GB SSD - £49
Intel Core i5-3470 3.2Ghz - £151
Corsair CX750M - £80
Asus GTX 670 - £214
Corsair Vengeance 8GB 1866MHZ RAM - £67

Total: £776



Budget my arse.

Our builds look very similar

Currently still undecided between a Sapphire 7950 and an MSI TF GTX 760. Both perform nearly exactly the same, but all those free games with the ATI bundle...

Let me know how your card performs! 👍

Bram Turismo

Our builds look very similar

Currently still undecided between a Sapphire 7950 and an MSI TF GTX 760. Both perform nearly exactly the same, but all those free games with the ATI bundle...

Let me know how your card performs! 👍

Click to expand...

Well I am hitting 350FPS in WoW on Ultra and Splinter Cell Blacklist is soooo smooth too. (Never actually checked the framerate.)

Currently installing iRacing.

Nice "budget" build!

Looking good though and glad it's performing for ya!

Pako

Nice "budget" build!

Looking good though and glad it's performing for ya!

Click to expand...

It's fantastic.

I installed iRacing, during races I was pulling a constant 250 FPS on ultra.

That will do me.