Building a Gaming PC, £500 Budget, What's the best I can get?

[Laith]

If you want to go a little more expensive here is a 457 pound build. This will provide you a smooth gaming experience which will run most games at high settings i believe. Laith225 - Saved Part Lists - PCPartPicker

 

[Mokate]

I'll still have a look as my budget now is around 700-800 pounds so I want something better than the 350-500 builds as I want this computer mainly for gaming and for college work for the next 3-4 years. Anyway thanks for the builds I saved them all so I can pick the perfect one with my budget.



I was thinking the last build you send me looks pretty decent but I would rather have an Intel CPU which would mean I would need a different motherboard ?

 

[ignatzatsonic]

700 to 800 pounds is roughly 1100 to 1250 US dollars.

For that, I'd certainly think you could get an Intel i5 processor of some type.

Yes, you would need a motherboard specifically for Intel processors.

Something like this in US dollars:

Processor 200 for an Intel i5

Motherboard 130

8 GB RAM: 60

Case: 80

Power supply 75 (don't get a cheap one)

Cooler: use the stock Intel cooler if possible, otherwise spend maybe 35 on another one

Video card: 300, maybe more

Hard drive: 50 to 150 depending on size needed.

SSD if it can fit in your budget; 128 to 240 GB: 70 to 100

Fans and thermal paste 50

That should be a pretty good machine for gaming and general purposes. Maybe you can't buy at those prices, but it gives you an idea of the proportions.

 

[Mokate]

Okay thanks. I tried to get my own build on this website and this is what I got:
Intel Core i5-4690K, MSI GeForce GTX 970, Corsair 200R - System Build - PCPartPicker


What should I change guys? I still got like 150 dollars in that budget left.

 

[Boozad]

Processor (CPU)
Intel® Core™i5 Quad Core Processor i5-4690 (3.5GHz) 6MB Cache
Case
InWIN 703 MID TOWER GAMING CASE (BLACK/RED)
Motherboard
ASUS® Z97-E: ATX, USB3.0, SATA 6GB/S, SLi, XFIRE
Memory (RAM)
8GB KINGSTON DUAL-DDR3 1600MHz (1 x 8GB)
Graphics Card
4GB NVIDIA GEFORCE GTX 970 - 2 DVI, 1 HDMI, 1 DP - 3D Vision Ready
1st Hard Disk
120GB KINGSTON V300 SSD, SATA 6 Gb (450MB/R, 450MB/W)
2nd Hard Disk
500GB WD BLACK WD5003AZEX, SATA 6 Gb/s, 64MB CACHE (7200rpm)
1st DVD/BLU-RAY Drive
24x DUAL LAYER DVD WRITER ±R/±RW/RAM
Power Supply
CORSAIR 650W CS SERIES™ MODULAR 80 PLUS® GOLD, ULTRA QUIET (£69)
Processor Cooling
Super Quiet Titan DragonFly Heatpipe Intel CPU Cooler (£19)
Thermal Paste
STANDARD THERMAL PASTE FOR SUFFICIENT COOLING
Sound Card
ONBOARD 6 CHANNEL (5.1) HIGH DEF AUDIO (AS STANDARD)
Wireless/Wired Networking
10/100/1000 GIGABIT LAN PORT (Wi-Fi NOT INCLUDED)
USB Options
MIN. 2 x USB 3.0 & 4 x USB 2.0 PORTS @ BACK PANEL + MIN. 2 FRONT PORTS
Power Cable
1 x 1 Metre UK Power Cable (Kettle Lead)
Operating System
NO OPERATING SYSTEM REQUIRED
Windows 10 Upgrade
FREE Upgrade to Windows 10 with all Windows 7 & Windows 8.1 Purchases*
Office Software
NO OFFICE SOFTWARE
Anti-Virus
NO ANTI-VIRUS SOFTWARE
Warranty
3 Year Silver Warranty (1 Year Collect & Return, 1 Year Parts, 3 Year Labour) (£5)
Delivery
STANDARD INSURED DELIVERY TO UK MAINLAND (MON-FRI)
Build Time
Standard Build - Approximately 8 to 10 working days
Quantity
1

Price: £839.00 including VAT and delivery.

Unique URL to re-configure: PCSPECIALIST - Top Spec Custom PCs & Laptops Built to Order

 

[ThrashZone]

That's a nice build Gav

Personally I would not get a AsRock board stick with ASUS

 

[Boozad]

It is indeed for that price Mike, plenty of scope for upgrades too.

 

[ignatzatsonic]

Okay thanks. I tried to get my own build on this website and this is what I got:
Intel Core i5-4690K, MSI GeForce GTX 970, Corsair 200R - System Build - PCPartPicker


What should I change guys? I still got like 150 dollars in that budget left.

You picked an i5 4690K processor and a motherboard with an H97 chipset.

That's not a good combination.

The K model processor means it can be overclocked.

But the H97 chipset means you have very little overclocking potential.

So--you should either switch to a non overclocking non-K processor like the 4690 OR switch to a motherboard with a Z97 chipset---which DOES allow overclocking.

Why the network adapter?

You have 2 tubes of thermal paste listed.

Nothing wrong with 16 GB of RAM, but 8 is fine for most purposes, including gaming. If you can afford 16, fine. If your budget gets tight, you can cut it back to 8.

 

[Laith]

Seems pretty good to me expect for those things that ignatzatsonic said. Also dosen't the CPU come with a bit of thermal paste? Also why do you did you get a DVD reader? You can just use USB...

 

[ThrashZone]

Incase cd/dvd reader burners are cheaper
And do just as much basic stuff.
Might even do more if installing at boot.

 

[Laith]

Hmm, you have a point there, ThrashZone.

 

[ThrashZone]

usb installs are a pain in the ass in a uefi bios world
Disks are as easy as 1-2-3

He can always get a external card reader/ disk burner later

 

[Laith]

Well, i personally use USB to make bootable drives etc. Disks are easy as 1-2-3 yes, but it isn't flash storage meaning that if you write something it will always be there no matter what even if you format the DVD/CD.

 

[Mokate]

Guys the links you gave me I couldn't order it from that webstie soo I found a new website and these are the only build I could make from my budget


Intel i5
https://i.gyazo.com/e76c729030df3b939d632d4ee134753d.png

Intel i7
https://i.gyazo.com/3e13cf4138829db41c14eca81a97bf8c.png


I don't know should I get the Intel I7 and pay extra 50 pounds or I5? What do you think guys? I'm planning to order the PC tomorrow.

 

[ThrashZone]

Looks good to me I'd go with the i7
Although again I'd go for a ASUS board personally.
Possibly or a MSI.

 

[Boozad]

Guys the links you gave me I couldn't order it from that webstie

You couldn't order from PC Specialist?

 

[ignatzatsonic]

Neither one of those builds you linked to has any hard drives or prices, so you aren't telling us the whole story.

The 4790K will give you very little advantage over the 4690K in gaming and probably costs 60 or 80 pounds more.

You would probably enjoy the system more if you used that 60 or 80 pounds to put an SSD in the machine rather than a 4790K.

For gaming purposes, you'd probably be better off with a 4690K and a more powerful video card than with a 4790K and a GTX 960.

The 4790K has a tendency to run hot when used with the stock Intel cooler, particularly in a gaming situation.

Slow down.

For all we know, you have a mediocre case and a mediocre power supply. Some Corsair power supplies are OK and some aren't.

Is this the case:

CiT Neptune Black Midi Tower Gaming Case - - CP-626 BLUE - CCL Computers

Is that the ONLY vendor available to you?

Slow down.

 

[Laith]

The Corsair PSU's that should NOT be taken ever is the CX series. Avoid those as much as possible. As ignatzatsonic said it is best to have a GTX 960 with 4690K. As said if you are gonna overclock buy an cooler.

 

[ThrashZone]

psu can easily be upgraded later if it's a modular one so can the gpu,
Case well he must of liked it otherwise he would not of chosen it ?

So just make sure the power supply is a modular one incase it fails within the 3-5 year warrantee.
gpu's are well outdated after 2 years it's "use an old one or fork out 600.us for a newer 980".

I see no reason to not go for the i7 this is a new build
Anything else can be upgraded later.

Get a better cpu cooler if that's the only issue with the i7

 

[Mokate]

Guys the links you gave me I couldn't order it from that webstie

You couldn't order from PC Specialist?

No because they don't send out builds to Northern Ireland :/

Guys I ordered the PC but I got a better PSU with it Corsair CX 750W (Modular) as that's the only one they had and got a better CPU cooler with advanced liquid cooling. I'm planning to upgrade it withing a years time whenever I'll have a higher budget.