Build Advice Trying to build a budget gaming rig for £500, any suggestions?

Hi Guys,

A friend of mine has asked me to spec a pc for 500 quid, sticking to a budget isnt really my strong point so i was looking for some help, the budget is 500 with a bit of wiggle room if i can convince his wife to let him spend it.

Budget: £500 - 550
Main uses of intended build: Gaming
Parts required: Everything (fresh build) Case, Mobo, PSU, RAM, HDD/SSD, Graphics, CPU Cooler, Optical drive. Speakers.
Previous build information: N/A will not be harvested
Monitor resolution: Unknown (will update when im back from the office and have spoken to my mate)
Storage requirements: Lets aim for 1TB but i'll confirm again tonight)
Will you be overclocking: no
Any motherboard requirements: Ivy bridge would be nice but not required considering the budget
Extra information about desired system: I dont think speakers are required but i will check with my friend and will update later on.

Note*: I have already looked at the buyers guide but it looks out of date

As an aside easily installed fans and a case with room to work in would be a bonus as im going to use this rig to teach my mate how to put a pc together and basic cable tidying skills, again ease isnt everything i can do any difficult fan mounts ect myself if need be.

Cheers in advance
Pub

 

I would have suggested the Bit Tech market place but your post count isnt high enough yet

 

Have a gander at this for a build.

http://www.scan.co.uk/savedbasket/9d09719f30c3406c885e0e853588135b

 

Cheers Mr Bungle that all looks solid, my friend has now told me he does indeed need speakers, i might crowbar some in but any thoughts?

 

Depends on budget really.

For 20 or so quid a 2.1 set from Creative or Logitech are all going to be of a muchness.

 

Depending on the games he wants to play, maybe an AMD-setup will be just as good, allthough I'd allways recommend to go with intel myself. You can save some good money with AMD tho and opt for a more powerful GPU.

 

to be honest i plan on getting it close to the 500 quid mark but ordering it through work to get the VAT off so we can justify it to his wife so with the current build we have around 80 quid we could possibly play with should i really need to.

but really 2.1 should be plenty for what he wants

 

In terms of the games, his main concern at the minute is a closed beta he is due to be on in june and needs to update his rig to run it top end. however he cant give me much details as he is under an NDA so im assuming the GTX 650 in the build above is plenty powerful enough.

Personally my last 4 builds have all been intel so i am a bit out of the loop when it comes to AMD in the current generation of games, how do they stack up with the intel equivalents?

 

Something like this if you were to go the amd route. It is £515 and that excludes speakers and an optical drive but has 8gb of ram and a 7850, but no ssd due to budget. Depending on how much you could stretch on budget a 64gb ssd could be used for his OS and maybe a game or two.

http://www.scan.co.uk/savedbasket/db93c6e10b144951a2bacc3036a70fee

 

Unfortunately I don't have an account at scan, so I can't save the basket...

Here's a picture tho... incl 2.1 speakers for £550 incl VAT and £441 excl VAT.



For playing games in 1080p this setup should be enough to play all current games in decent game-settings, and the 7850 is sure more powerful than the GTX650ti. There's a difference between AMD and intel CPUs for sure, especially when talking about single-threaded performance. However, most people won't really notice any difference, especially when we're talking about casual gaming or playing MMOs.

 

If we are talking about a 500 budget being used the APU is slower in all regards.

A £300 or so budget fair enough but £500 is enough for a proper gaming system.

The 7850 is not faster than a 650 Ti Boost either.

 

My recent experience has put me off ati cards to be honest i just find nvidia easier to play with and more reliable,.

isn't 8GB of ram somewhat overkill for this budget, i find my rig doesn't need anywhere near the 8GB I'm running unless I'm being stupid about what I'm running.

So overall at the £500 level you'd think Intel is a no brainer?

 

Erm, yeah...

http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/549?vs=680

http://www.videocardbenchmark.net/high_end_gpus.html

The AMD 7850OC in this pricerange is better then the nVidia-cards, but for the CPU intel will sure be more powerful then an AMD. However, with the money saved by going with an AMD CPU you can throw in the soundsystem and a little bit more RAM (8 instead of 4GB).

As I understand it, we're talking tight budget here and try to squeeze in as much as possible, while keeping it powerful enough to play current games in 1080p and decent settings.

 

Hey just as an other option a 660 is not much more:

http://www.scan.co.uk/products/2gb-...-1006mhz-boost-1072mhz-cores-960-dport-dl-dvi

8GB is not really needed for gaming no.

 

You do know that a 650 ti and a 650ti Boost are very different~?

 

Also you can get free shipping by looking here, http://forums.bit-tech.net/showthread.php?t=186923
Might only be a few £'s but it all adds up

 

And you know, that in my list I have a 7850 OC, which is clocked more than 100MHz faster, right?

 

Boost isn't just a overclock.

Annnnyway lol

 

Look at the list from videocardbenchmark, where the 7850 sits 200 points above the 650ti Boost.

 

Thanks for the heads up on the shipping Psyance buy scan game me free shipping for working on their stall at a show in london last year.