Build Advice £450 to spend on a new CPU, motherboard, case, RAM and cooler.

At the moment I already have a 6870 and a hard drive, any suggestions for what I should buy for the rest of it?

My resolution is 1920x1080 and I use my computer purely for gaming. I don't really mind where the parts are from just so long as they are from a reputable seller in the UK.


Thanks

 

Ive gone cheap on the case, but I believe many use it and hopefully the below will give you an idea of what you can achieve with £450ish (ok slightly over budget!)

I have based it against my rig in my sig which I am extremely happy with and was put together from research and advise from the BT forums.



The prices are based against ebuyer (for ease) so i suggest some saving could be made with shopping around and/or component swapping. Im sure others will have ideas to help you out.

You don't mentioned a PSU - do you ned one? If not what you go already?

 

I already have a HX650 as a PSU, so that should be fine. That seems about right, but the Sabertooth seems like it might be a bit excessive for my needs. And perhaps a cheap air cooler over the H60 might be a bit better.

 

Yeah I thought those 2 as identified above would be possibilities for saving some money. I just tried to future proof mysef as much as possible at the time of buying and as I am interested in overclocking the motherboard and cooler seemed to fit the bill.

There are many cheaper air coolers, and Z77 motherboards as low as £80, just depends what inputs/outputs etc... you want.

 

If you don't mind M-ATX boards. The Gene is good. Truth be told you could save quite a bit of cash if you say settled for a slightly cheaper motherboard.

 

Asus Z77 boards are good, but which one is best for you depends on what "bells an whistles" you want. Sabertooth is super quality, and looks good, but the best value ?? Cooler choice depends on what, if any, overclocking you want.

 

you can save about £80 by changing your motherboard away from ` top of the bleeding line`

 

Hense my comments regarding an opportunity to reduce cost with a different motherboard. I don't think there is anything wrong though with suggesting 'top of the bleeding line' components as close to budget as possible

 

http://pcpartpicker.com/uk/p/ejFR


PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: Intel Core i5-3570K 3.4GHz Quad-Core Processor (£177.66 @ CCL Computers)
Motherboard: ASRock Z77 Pro4 ATX LGA1155 Motherboard (£93.98 @ Dabs)
Memory: Corsair Vengeance 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory (£29.99 @ Scan.co.uk)
Storage: Samsung 830 Series 128GB 2.5" Solid State Disk (£77.98 @ Dabs)
Case: Antec DF-10 ATX Mid Tower Case (£54.99 @ Amazon UK)
Optical Drive: Lite-On iHOS104-06 Blu-Ray/DVD/CD Drive (£41.52 @ Amazon UK)
Total: £476.12
(Prices include shipping and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2012-08-10 22:23 BST+0100)

 

This is pretty good and get the Coolermaster Hyper 212 EVO for the cooler. Its only £26 on Amazon. You can just get a standard DVD drive to save money for £13.

 

Would this be okay?
http://pcpartpicker.com/uk/p/en8G

I choose that motherboard because it seems to overclock fairly well, and it supports Crossfire and SLI better than some of the cheaper motherboards. I probably won't be doing multi-gpu anytime soon, but it's nice to have the option.

I'm not really sure about the cooler, but according to reviews it has decent performance and it's quiet. The case is one of the only cases that I like the look of that aren't really expensive (650D, 600T...).

 

reason i chose the ssd is ,once you gone ssd you wont go back

 

I've heard SSD's are pretty cool, but I'm not going to add one just yet Maybe whenever I buy a new GPU next year.

 

the instantness especially in gaming (anything that requires loading in game for example)

 

Everything you need in a board is here:-
http://www.google.co.uk/products/ca...a=X&ei=La8nULzSOIeo0AWcjYDwCg&ved=0CGAQ8wIwAg

Recent Custom PC Approved award winner. No bells whistles or fripperies.

 

I was looking at that board, but I was worried that it might not be very reliable.

EDIT: After reading some reviews, that board actually looks like a pretty good choice. It still overclocks like more expensive boards, which is good.

 

Okay, I think this is the final build.

http://pcpartpicker.com/uk/p/ex3x

+
AMD 6870
Corsair HX650
Asus Xonar DG
Old Samsung 500GB Hard drive

So, is that everything I need for a functional computer?

 

i would still recommend getting an ssd - samsung 830 / crucial m4

 

The thing is, I can't really afford an SSD without going over £450. I will still buy one later however.

 

You're maybe going to need an optical drive. Shouldnt be much more than a tenner for a decent DVD-RW though. And you havent mentioned an operating system yet.

And don't worry about an SSD right now, save it for later. That way, when you can get one, it'll feel like getting a new pc all over! Twice as nice.

And that pcpartpicker is great but dont foget to check scans today only page. the phantom 410 in white is only £72 today so if youre buying soon, i'd at least get that ASAP.