Hey guys I need some help and my friend said this forum is the best on the net for tech advice. This will be my first build and I think I'm close to settling on the components. My budget is around £400 and that is for the Motherboard, CPU, GPU, RAM and a PSU. I'm not too keen on overclocking or crossfire as gathering the extra components like another GPU and a better PSU would take it out of my budget, but I have done my best to fit it into my budget and that is build #1. Build #2 I think may be more powerful than build #1 but may lack the longevity that build #1 has. My monitor is 22 a inch and I think its native resolution is 1680 x 1050 Here are the builds: Build #1 Motherboard - GA-Z68P-DS3 - £72 i5 2500k - £168 HD 6850 - £107 Crucial 2x4 8GB 1600mhz - £30 Corsair 600W - £54 Total: £431 not including the cooler I may need and maybe a GPU upgrade. Build #2 MSI H61MA-E35 - £52 i5 2500(non K) - £154 HD 6870 - £127 Corsair 2x4 8GB 1333mhz - £30 Corsair 500W - £45 Total: £408 Personally I prefer build #2 as it is cheaper and looks as powerful, but I would love to hear any input. Thoughts?
If you're not going to overclock then there isn't much point getting a 'K' CPU - I don't think - so the money is better directed into upgrading the graphics card, which is always going to produce results when it comes to gaming.
if you are not overclocking, grab the i5-2310 instead...i'd still grab a z68 board to give you an easy upgrade path to ivybridge...then, shell out whatever you can on a better gpu...but for most games at 1080 or less that 6870 will be a good card...
I'd say get the K CPU the option is always there for later so it is a good investment, then you can just spent 30-40 on a good Air cooler and overclock it. I have the motherboard in build one and it works fine, I haven't tried OCing yet so I'm not much help there. Have a look on Scan's "today only" deals and you may be able to shave some money off some of the parts
Thanks, and would a H61 motherboard be fine for build #2? I know the limitations with the RAM, but as they(H61) are cheap all I need is something to hold everything together for now, would that do the job?
For a budget build you can't go wrong with the i3 2100. It may be a dual core but will be fine for what you need, and can be found for just under £100 Also, do you not need a case?
In the future with a k version you have the option of overclocking and by taking advantage of this you can delay the need to upgrade the mobo and cpu.
IMO every gaming build should have an overclocked CPU. I've noticed that all the games I play run significantly faster with the CPU at 4.7GHz.
But how is he going to fit that in a build of £400 when that takes up more than a third of the budget?
All depends where the emphasis should lie with gaming. Normally a balance is the forward option but for titles such as FSX, its 90% CPU dependent, whereas others such as Skyrim, Batman etc more GPU but for a generalised good set up, my 2 cents worth is the following: 2nd hand i5 2600k + 550ti, both overclock extremely well, perhaps get a rampage board or something dependent on budget.
Yes I think I must clarify. My budget is quite restricted, the upper limit is around £420 for a Motherboard, CPU, GPU, RAM and PSU. I will be playing games like Arma so that is why I really wanted to keep an i5 2500. If you guys want you could change a few components around and come up with a different build, just aslong as it stays within that budget. Sorry for late replys, I have to wait for my posts to be approved so I am reading them all
If you don't need it urgently search online for the best deals, Scan have a today only which can knock a few quid off each item and they all appear regularly on it. If you go for the best of both builds it comes to about £450, the extra £50 spent can give your system an extra year if you do overclock later on.
The cpu is more than a third which ever way he goes I5, the extra £13 will most likely be retained in resale value or in delaying an upgrade. The non K chips are really not aimed at any one who is capable of building their own PC.
You should get a better GPU whenever possible. And try to stick with a quad core. However, you could save a few quid and get an i3 2100 until Ivy Bridge comes you, and go with the 6870 of GTX 560 ti.
at that budget I would go AMD. £62.97 Asus M5A97, ATX LN40540 £73.40 AMD FX 4100 Black Edition, Retail LN41793 £32.16 8GB (2x4GB) Corsair DDR3 Vengeance Jet Black LP,, CAS 9-9-9-24, XMP, 1.5V LN39754 £161.24 1GB Gigabyte HD 6950 OC, PCI-E 2.1 (x16), GPU 870MHz, 1408Cores, LN39256 Total £405.31 Not sure if MoBo is good for OC though.
Thanks guys, I will mainly be playing Arma, at least for now, so I think the CPU should be the anchor of the build? And if I can't afford build #1, do you think #2 is good for the money? Thanks for the build suggestion MSHunter, I did initially intend to build a AMD based build but then I read the Tomshardware Dec 2011 $600 build and based my current build #1 and #2 off of that. But now I'll reconsider AMD.
