Spec me a gaming PC £450

[Red_Stafford]

Hi all, my friend is looking for a PC he has £450 to spend and he will be using it for downloading, watching films and gaming he already has a LCD TV in his room so HDMi connectivity would be needed, he has been looking at PCs off the shelf but I have told him it would be better for me to custom build one, so guys n girls with your help this is what we are hoping to achieve, also can you advise the cheapest shops to look at buying the parts from.

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[lehtv]

Sticky: NOTICE - PC builders, when asking for input on YOUR projects Please Tell us...

1-Gaming, movies - can you elaborate on what sort of games he plays
2-£450
3-UK
5-?
6-None? No keyboard and mouse?
7-Probably stock?
8-1080p
9-ASAP?
X-Probably need Windows?

 

[Red_Stafford]

Soz but I'm on my phone so can't look at page the same time as posting, UK, 1080p, he has he's own keyboard mouse etc, he will want good graphics but I don't suppose he requires the best just the best he can afford for £450

 

[Lonyo]

Ebuyer, Amazon, Scan, Overclockers, Aria etc.

Something like i3 3220, HD7850 and some RAM and HDD and a case.
An H61 motherboard should be enough, or B75 if you want a more recent chipset, but it's also more expensive. You can get Asus/MSI/Gigabyte H61 motherboards for around £40 for an mATX board, and there's probably not much need for anything more than that if it's for fairly basic use.

The HD7850 is better value than any NV cards in a similar price point in the UK.

 

[mfenn]

Soz but I'm on my phone so can't look at page the same time as posting, UK, 1080p, he has he's own keyboard mouse etc, he will want good graphics but I don't suppose he requires the best just the best he can afford for £450

Do you need a Windows license? That will make a huge difference in the overall build at this budget.

 

[Red_Stafford]

Do you need a Windows license? That will make a huge difference in the overall build at this budget.

Not he has that already

 

[mfenn]

OK, here's a build:

i3 3220 £90
ASUS P8B75-M LX £44
Corsair DDR3 1600 8GB £37
XFX 7850 £139
Seagate 1TB £55
Lite-ON DVD Burner £13
Corsair 430CX £35
Cooler Master Elite 334U £36
Total: £449

This will do most games at 1080p pretty well. You will have to turn down the details in some of the most intensive ones though.

 

[Red_Stafford]

OK, here's a build:

i3 3220 £90
ASUS P8B75-M LX £44
Corsair DDR3 1600 8GB £37
XFX 7850 £139
Seagate 1TB £55
Lite-ON DVD Burner £13
Corsair 430CX £35
Cooler Master Elite 334U £36
Total: £449

This will do most games at 1080p pretty well. You will have to turn down the details in some of the most intensive ones though.

Cheers, I will take a look but sounds good, how much extra would i5 cost

 

[Sleepingforest]

Looks like it's at least £50 more (inc VAT) on scan.co.uk.

 

[mfenn]

Looks like it's at least £50 more (inc VAT) on scan.co.uk.

:thumbsup: Yep. You could keep everything else in the build the same.

That being said, if I had an extra 50 quid to spend on the rig, I wouldn't put it in the CPU. I'd rather get a faster GPU like the 7870 or GTX 660.

 

[Red_Stafford]

Ok guys he might be willing to spend a little more as he has been looking at this one http://www.envizage.com/products/co...er--32gb-ram-3tb-hdd--dvd--ati-radeon-hd.html

What's your thoughts on the above, would it be better to build one for him or is that a good offer?

 

[Torn Mind]

Ok guys he might be willing to spend a little more as he has been looking at this one http://www.envizage.com/products/computers-gaming-amd-based/pc---[amd1387]--amd-fx8150-eight-core-gaming-computer--32gb-ram-3tb-hdd--dvd--ati-radeon-hd.html

What's your thoughts on the above, would it be better to build one for him or is that a good offer?

That computer is for someone who likes to run a lot of apps at the same time, watch a little HD video, and do very light gaming, not for serious gaming.

FX-8150 is the 1st generation Bulldozer. Not good in demanding games because games do not use that many "cores"(the correct term is modules). Not to mention each individual module is slower than their i5 counterpart.
RAM is 1333 Mhz and 32 GB will totally not be filled. You can get away with 8 or 16 GB no problem.
Graphics cards SUCKS. The 6450 is a card for low-power, light usage like HTPCs. It will pay to be educated about the nomenclature of GPUs.

http://www.videocardcomparisons.com/reviews/ati-radeon-naming-scheme-explained/

The current series nomenclature begins with the HD prefix followed by the series generation as the first digit and the next three digits signifying the rank and quality of the card. The higher the numbers the better. For example, the Radeon HD 7990 is the current top end card while the Radeon HD 7750 is a mid range solution.
This can seem confusing at first but to put it is easily broken down into easier to understand and more specific terms. For example, the three digits ending from 000-390 represent the lowest performance graphics card. These are generally integrated video cards used in OEM or business only systems. The next step up is the 400-590 range which are primarily aimed at the budget oriented consumer.

 

[mfenn]

Ok guys he might be willing to spend a little more as he has been looking at this one http://www.envizage.com/products/computers-gaming-amd-based/pc---[amd1387]--amd-fx8150-eight-core-gaming-computer--32gb-ram-3tb-hdd--dvd--ati-radeon-hd.html

What's your thoughts on the above, would it be better to build one for him or is that a good offer?

The person who decided to call that machine a "gaming computer" should be taken out back and shot. When evaluating a gaming computer, the first place to look is at the graphics card.

Taking into account current platforms and your friend's budget, reject any machine that doesn't have one of the following graphics cards:

7850
7870
7950
7970
GTX 660
GTX 660 Ti
GTX 670
GTX 680

 

[Sleepingforest]

hi, guys, have you ever heard this website? they give me a coupon, can be 80% off. is it true? can you help me make sure? you see: spam link removed

I think it's safe to say this guy is a bot. 11 posts, all of which are basically 2 copy/pasted chunks of text with dodgy links.

 

[Red_Stafford]

You pretty much have the same appinion as me I think they are just using cheap branded hardware and trying to impress customers with big numbers on the ram and hdd... So if he stretched to just over £500 what would u guys suggest

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[Red_Stafford]

So what do u guys think based on a reviewed price of £500-£550

 

[mfenn]

So what do u guys think based on a reviewed price of £500-£550

I would take the build I posted above and replace the CPU and GPU with these parts:

i5 3470 £148
7870 £171

 

[Red_Stafford]

I would take the build I posted above and replace the CPU and GPU with these parts:

i5 3470 £148
7870 £171

OK cheers, so the same mb and also will the psu be okay with the extra power of the graphics card..... I was also thinking would it be better to have a ssd instead of the hdd as his boot up drive and then when he needs to add more space add a 2nd drive I was just thinking of boot up speeds and performance speeds of the ssd over the hdd as the main boot up drive or would the 1tb hdd be fine

 

[lehtv]

Well, a CX430 doesn't have the necessary connectors for a 7870. Would need to use adapters... if you want to avoid that, get a 500W unit like CX500 or XFX 550w.

 

[mfenn]

OK cheers, so the same mb and also will the psu be okay with the extra power of the graphics card..... I was also thinking would it be better to have a ssd instead of the hdd as his boot up drive and then when he needs to add more space add a 2nd drive I was just thinking of boot up speeds and performance speeds of the ssd over the hdd as the main boot up drive or would the 1tb hdd be fine

I wouldn't go for an SSD on this budget. You need to focus on the CPU and GPU.

Well, a CX430 doesn't have the necessary connectors for a 7870. Would need to use adapters... if you want to avoid that, get a 500W unit like CX500 or XFX 550w.

That's true, but it does have plenty of actual power available.

 

[Red_Stafford]

So do you guys prefer the 7870 over the GTX660 I've been reading a lot of people preferring the 660 do to all the options that can be enabled in games room improve the graphics

 

[mfenn]

So do you guys prefer the 7870 over the GTX660 I've been reading a lot of people preferring the 660 do to all the options that can be enabled in games room improve the graphics[/QUOTE]

I'm not sure what that means.

Anyway, the GTX 660 and 7870 are pretty much on par, with the GTX 660 being slightly faster (~5%) on average. However, the GTX 660 is roughly 20 pounds more than the 7870, which puts it over your budget.

 

[lehtv]

Anyway, the GTX 660 and 7870 are pretty much on par, with the GTX 660 being slightly faster (~5%) on average. However, the GTX 660 is roughly 20 pounds more than the 7870, which puts it over your budget.

With the improved drivers, the 7870 is actually faster. And probably more overclockable on average

 

[Puppies04]

You might be able to squeeze an unlocked I5 if you wait for a decent "no brainer" deal at scan. They have one on this weekend but it has a 2TB HDD which is pushing the price up a bit.

 

[Red_Stafford]

You might be able to squeeze an unlocked I5 if you wait for a decent "no brainer" deal at scan. They have one on this weekend but it has a 2TB HDD which is pushing the price up a bit.

What u mean by unlocked, overclockable?