Building a (budget) Gaming PC

[DC9990]

Hey guys, after many years of console gaming I've finally got fed up of just having a PS3 & Laptop for internet stuff.
I'm wanting to build a PC (& sell my laptop) so I can play more games on the PC instead of playing them on PS3 & get into online racing sims like RFactor.
I'm hoping I can keep it under £500. After reading some of your suggestions I now have this as a basic outline.
It comes to about £550 ish (depending on which GPU & CPU I choose)

Intel i5 750 or AMD Phenom II X6 1055T or X4 970 Black Edition
Asus P7P55D (for i5) Asus M4A89GTD PRO (for AMD)
Radeon HD6850 1GB or GeForce GTX460 1GB
Corsair 4/8GB Ram (or Kingston)
WD Caviar Blue 500GB
LG DVDRW
Cooling Master PSU 650w~
& Random case

Oh I dont need any resolution over 1080 really, I'm going to be using my Samsung LE40C750 tv as a monitor!

I was wondering what people thought of that as a set up or if you guys have any suggestions.
Thanks in advance!

 

[Solid Lifters]

https://www.gtplanet.net/forum/forumdisplay.php?s=&daysprune=&f=64

You put this thread in the wrong section. Above is the correct one. You should move it there and you'll get better support.

 

[kikie]

Hey guys, after many years of console gaming I've finally got fed up of just having a PS3 & Laptop for internet stuff.
I'm wanting to build a PC (& sell my laptop) so I can play more games on the PC instead of playing them on PS3 & get into online racing sims like RFactor.
I'm hoping I can keep it under £500 but up to now this is the basic idea I've got (which ends up at like £600~)

Intel i5 750
Asus P7P55D or Gigabyte GA-P55-US3L
Radeon HD5750 1GB or GeForce GTX460 1GB
Corsair 4GB Ram
WD Caviar Blue 500GB
LG DVDRW
Cooling Master PSU 650w
& Random case

Oh I dont need any resolution over 1080 really, I'm going to be using my Samsung LE40C750 tv as a monitor!

I was wondering what people thought of that as a set up or if you guys have any suggestions.
Thanks in advance!

Solid Lifters is right.


Don't get a Gigabyte get an Asus motherboard.

 

[DC9990]

Thanks guys for the advice, I've now moved to a more appropriate section.

 

[ROAD_DOGG33J]

The 460 is way better than the 5750. It fits somewhere a little under the 5850 in terms of performance. The new 6850 and 6870 should probably be good too.

 

[DQuaN]

Where are you getting your parts from? I do all my builds with novatech. They have some good motherboard bundles that save you money and make the build easier.

This for example would be a good starting point. Having looked at it though. It seems that all their i5 bundles are Micro ATX.

 

[nick09]

You could consider AMD if you want a budget computer. The low level X6 is at a good price for such a processor.

 

[LJ]

If you want to keep the price down go AMD, you can build a decent system with a 5770, 4GB Ram etc all branded parts for under £400

 

[DC9990]

Where are you getting your parts from? I do all my builds with novatech. They have some good motherboard bundles that save you money and make the build easier.

This for example would be a good starting point. Having looked at it though. It seems that all their i5 bundles are Micro ATX.

I've been looking on http://www.cclonline.com as it seemed to be the cheapest online.
The only motherboard bundles I've seen actually cost more than if I got the parts seperately.

If you want to keep the price down go AMD, you can build a decent system with a 5770, 4GB Ram etc all branded parts for under £400

Under £400?! Which AMD CPU is that using? I got a price of about £650~ with an Intel i5 750 (@ £150~) so maybe the other parts of my build are costing me too much.

You could consider AMD if you want a budget computer. The low level X6 is at a good price for such a processor.

The lowest X6 is the same price as the i5 750 but I'm a bit unsure about AMD as everyone I know that is really into computers etc (even my mate who's a computer tech) says to stay away from AMD CPUs. They seem to have a bad reputation.

By the way I really appretiate the help you guys are giving me 👍

 

[ROAD_DOGG33J]

The lowest X6 is the same price as the i5 750 but I'm a bit unsure about AMD as everyone I know that is really into computers etc (even my mate who's a computer tech) says to stay away from AMD CPUs. They seem to have a bad reputation.

I think the i5 750 will give you the best bang for your buck, especially for gaming. It can hold it's own even against the higher X6s.

 

[Submerged]

I'm a bit unsure about AMD as everyone I know that is really into computers etc (even my mate who's a computer tech) says to stay away from AMD CPUs. They seem to have a bad reputation.

They do not really have a bad reputation. But for high-end gaming and premium computing, when you need super fast processing power, Intel is generally seen as the way forward.

AMD tends to be better at the lower, more budget-conscious end of the market, which is where you are sort of looking. With AMD, you will get cheaper motherboard costs due to AMD generally keeping their processor chips more or less on the same processor chip slots (Forgot the name) of AM2 and AM3 slots. Intels uses quite a few different chip slots and the prices for those motherboards can be higher, for a good quality one.

For overclocking on a budget...there is a Pentuim G5-series (will come back with the correct numbers) that is very overclockable. Likewise with most of AMD chips although they do not overclock as easily as certain Intel chips (i5-750 and i7-920/930's).

Basically, you may need to give slightly more detailed expectations for your system requirements. You don't want to game too much (sticking it on a 1080p resolution?), just use it for browsing, internet entertainments and high-def films?

 

[Azuremen]

The lowest X6 is the same price as the i5 750 but I'm a bit unsure about AMD as everyone I know that is really into computers etc (even my mate who's a computer tech) says to stay away from AMD CPUs. They seem to have a bad reputation.

By the way I really appretiate the help you guys are giving me 👍

I've been using AMD CPUs for a decade now, I've had no issues thus far. There is an old AMD CPU from 1999 sitting on my desk, which still works.

That aside, to build my current system, it would run around $500 USD I'd say. Running a Phenom II X3, 4gigs of DDR3, ASrock mobo, HD5770, OCZ 600W PSU, Rosewill case, and some random HDDs. The Mobo, CPU and RAM were the best bang for the buck in my opinion.

 

[DC9990]

Basically, you may need to give slightly more detailed expectations for your system requirements. You don't want to game too much (sticking it on a 1080p resolution?), just use it for browsing, internet entertainments and high-def films?

I will be using it mostly for gaming but will use it as a day to day PC aswell.
I'll be playing games like Fallout NV, Iracing or Rfactor (not sure yet) & strategy games aswell as probably some other FPS/RPG type games.
It will be on 1080p as I already have a Samsung LE40C750 & I dont want to really buy another monitor when I can just use that as a monitor xD

 

[CommanderShepar]

I prefer AMD now since the upgrade path is less painful and AMD boards usually have a lot of features that are standard compared to Intel boards. However, you can't overlook the raw performance of the Intel processors. I would suggest getting a BIG CPU cooler as the stock ones are just pathetic. I don't know UK stores but don't go spending nearly near 80 pounds for it. Find something cheap, big surface area, and a lot of fins. Some CPU coolers are so big that you can only use 2 slots of RAM. AMD boards have brackets installed so that you can always put a bigger cooler, but Intel boards require you to install the bracket before you install the motherboard.

Also, take apart the GPU card and replace the thermal paste on that. You'll see temperature drops of 5-7C.

Got to keep your rig running cool before it overheats and explodes!

 

[Casio]

The 460 is way better than the 5750. It fits somewhere a little under the 5850 in terms of performance. The new 6850 and 6870 should probably be good too.

This.

460 is better 80% of the time against the 5770 (Which it kinda competes with), but is slightly more expensive.

However, the 6850 is equivalent to the old 5850 but much cheaper. If I was building right now I'd go the 6850 and i5-750. Probably not much between the 6850 and 460, however the 6850 gets my nod due to much less power draw and heat.

 

[Sharky.]

I'll be playing games like Fallout NV, Iracing or Rfactor (not sure yet) & strategy games aswell as probably some other FPS/RPG type games.
It will be on 1080p as I already have a Samsung LE40C750 & I dont want to really buy another monitor when I can just use that as a monitor xD

My rig runs Fallout on ultra @ 1920x1080 at 40+ fps 95% of the time, and rFactor maxed out at the same resolution gets 30+ with 20 cars visible. F1 2010 runs at high/max at around 40+, it handles Mass Effect 1 & 2 without breaking into a sweat, Empire and Napoleon Total War get around 35 overall and Half-Life 2 and Oblivion on max don't even stress it.

System specs in signature, scores 16000 3DMarks iirc - although that was with the CPU running at 2.72, not the 3.04 I have it at now.

 

[GT3mich]

The 6850 is card to get.
http://www.novatech.co.uk/novatech/...ds/atihd6800series/sapphire/11180-00-40r.html
Well worth the extra £38.
http://www.novatech.co.uk/novatech/...ds/atihd5700series/sapphire/11163-02-20r.html

 

[LJ]

Under £400?! Which AMD CPU is that using? I got a price of about £650~ with an Intel i5 750 (@ £150~) so maybe the other parts of my build are costing me too much.

450 but you can get a Phenom 955 if you use slightly cheaper RAm.
Core i5 760 with 5770 or even GTX460 768mb xcan be done for £500

You can get the i5 760 from Aria at the moment for £135.

The cheapest places for parts across the board in the UK are Scan and Aria if you are going to price up a full system

 

[Shokz]

From looking at those two links all i can say is Novatec is rather overpriced The HD5770 should be <£100 and the HD6850 should be <£140. You should probably go with the GTX460 1GB (at around £150) since the well priced HD6850s (£130) have for some reason disappeared from the market... An overclocked GTX460 1GB should perform as well as a HD6870.