• £400 Budget but decent Gaming Build Suggestions - i5/i7 ?
    11 replies, posted
Okay so here are my current specs, last time I went for a Dell PC, huge mistake even though it was relevantly cheap (£320) AMD Athlon X2 5600+ 2.8ghz 4GB Ram DDR2 ATI Radeon 4670 1GB not sure of the other specs. 320GB HDD I have never built my own PC fully from scratch before, I am fairly confident in doing it - all besides applying thermal paste/installing the CPU. £400 is my budget, preferably an i5 or an i7 (pushing it for the budget) - OR AMD Equivalent if you guys decide that is better for gaming A better GPU cheap enough case 1TB Hard Drive (MAYBE) small SSD drive too for the OS. Don't need an OS, already got a retail copy of W7 Home Premium DVD Drive/writer Alright motherboard Intergrated sound is not a problem Alright PSU [B]Additional: £200 or less budget [/B]22" LED Monitor with 8,000:1 contrast ratio or more (that's what my current TV has, rather my monitor is 20" and has only 800:1 contrast ration) [B]UK Links/Prices are required please[/B]
Considering your low budget, check if your motherboard is am3 compatible, if it is, then you should get a 955 and a good gpu, the 955 will go for about 120 bucks, leaving you with enough money for a 560ti, despite the slow DDR2 ram, it will last you for at least two, or even three more years, maxing out pretty much all current games. I personally don't think that it will be worth it investing in an i5 at your current budget, as you will be spending at least 3/4 of your budget on the cpu, ram and mobo, and also considering how much new hardware is currently released. [editline]6th October 2011[/editline] Actually, i didn't realize how much more the pound is then the dollar. A 955 and a 560ti will if to just convert it to pounds, about 250, which is a bit more then half of your budget. I'd actually still get an am3 build even if your motherboard isn't compatible, you can get quite decent preformance out of lower amounts of money, and if it is mainly to play games on, then it will be more value for the dosh. But then again, the i5 2500k is only roughly 40 pounds more, someone might be able to build you some decent i5 build too.
I'll do a check on my motherboard. I really wanna get rid of this PC for good if possible, maybe take the RAM if it's too expensive to buy new.
Thing is that if you are upgrading to an i5 that is worth spending money on at this time, then you will be throwing both the motherboard and ram away. Although DDR3 is dirt cheap anyhow, so that wouldn't be an issue, other then having 4 gigabytes of expensive DDR2 ram with no use. Also, what PSU do you have. Wattage and brand.
[QUOTE=naos;32655173]Thing is that if you are upgrading to an i5 that is worth spending money on at this time, then you will be throwing both the motherboard and ram away. Although DDR3 is dirt cheap anyhow, so that wouldn't be an issue, other then having 4 gigabytes of expensive DDR2 ram with no use. Also, what PSU do you have. Wattage and brand.[/QUOTE] I have barely any knowledge of my PC since it is pre-built and a Dell. Yes, you can troll me as much as you like for having a dell, but it was a present and had an 8600GT at the time, which 3-4 years ago weren't all that bad (now upgraded to 4870 1GB). Without sounding too childish, I'm 17 in January but I'll likely be receiving a present for christmas which I will have a sort of hint towards what I want, given. I can either choose to upgrade my 20" 1680x1050 800:1 contrast Acer Monitor (16:10) 59Hz to: 21.5" 1920x1080 100Million:1 contrast ratio 60Hz OR Attempt to upgrade my PC which would probably be pointless doing as I am 90% sure the motherboard along with everything else in my PC is outdated as fuck. So the only other option would be to build a PC from scratch, preferably cheap (<£400) and be much better than my current PC? Which option do you guys would be better? And if option 2 is the case, has anyone got any build suggestions? [url]http://scan.co.uk[/url] ?
[QUOTE=YWNJack;32652733] [/B]22" LED Monitor with 8,000:1 contrast ratio or more (that's what my current TV has, rather my monitor is 20" and has only 800:1 contrast ration)[/QUOTE] Uh no TN panel display does 8000:1. Not even close. You're thinking of the dynamic contrast ratio which means absolutely nothing unless you only view your display when it's turned off. In fact IPS displays also only do 1000:1, even the $1500 Dell U3011.
The motherboard isn't what gives you the game preformance per se, if it does support a 955, then thats an obvious choice considering that you merely have £400 to spend on. An SSD is out of the question, an i5 with a compatible motherboard is about £230 of your budget, leaving you with 170 dollars for a gpu, ram, psu AND case, whereoff all that if to not count the gpu will go for £100.
[QUOTE=garrynohome;32832172]Uh no TN panel display does 8000:1. Not even close. You're thinking of the dynamic contrast ratio which means absolutely nothing unless you only view your display when it's turned off. In fact IPS displays also only do 1000:1, even the $1500 Dell U3011.[/QUOTE] found out it's 30:000:1 [url]http://www.electrical-deals.co.uk/samsung-le22b350-22-hd-ready-lcd-with-freeview-and-hdmi.html[/url] [editline]17th October 2011[/editline] Oh and: [img]http://i.imgur.com/bnu0A.png[/img] [editline]18th October 2011[/editline] In all honesty, I'd love to be able to upgrade my pc as well as being able to buy this monitor: [URL="http://www.scan.co.uk/products/215-acer-s220hqlrbd-led-black-full-hd-monitor-dvi-vga-1920x1080-100m1-250cd-m2-5ms-black"]http://www.scan.co.uk/products/215-acer-s220hqlrbd-led-black-full-hd-monitor-dvi-vga-1920x1080-100m1-250cd-m2-5ms-black b[/URL]ut looking over the internet briefly, I sort gathered that my motherboard is crap and would probably not run my dreams of ever having a 560TI, Core i5 and DDR3 ram, especially cause of my budget
contrast ratios are all BS
[QUOTE=Shadaez;32853969]contrast ratios are all BS[/QUOTE] Okay, scratch that. I have pretty much summed up that my motherboard is shite and can't really handle an i5 and a 560ti Would someone be able to build me a value PC (£400-£450) on [url]http://scan.co.uk[/url] Cheap case Capable motherboard 4GB DDR3 Ram 560ti or equal? Intel Core i5 (quad core varient) (no less than 2.9ghz)
[QUOTE=YWNJack;32865359]Okay, scratch that. I have pretty much summed up that my motherboard is shite and can't really handle an i5 and a 560ti Would someone be able to build me a value PC (£400-£450) on [url]http://scan.co.uk[/url] Cheap case Capable motherboard 4GB DDR3 Ram 560ti or equal? Intel Core i5 (quad core varient) (no less than 2.9ghz)[/QUOTE] [url]http://www.scan.co.uk/products/antec-two-hundred-value-gaming-case-hot-swap-sata-hdd-bay-inc-10-drive-bays-140mmplus120mm-fans-w-o-[/url] [url]http://www.scan.co.uk/products/msi-h67ms-e23-(b3)-lga1155-upto-16gb-ddr3-memory-dviplusvga-out-sata6g[/url] [url]http://www.scan.co.uk/products/intel-core-i5-2400-s1155-sdy-bridge-quad-31ghz-hd2000-igp-850mhz-6mb-cache-95w-retail[/url] [url]http://www.scan.co.uk/products/4gb-(2x2gb)-corsair-ddr3-xms3-classic-pc3-10666-(1333)-non-ecc-unbuffered-cas-9-9-9-24-150v[/url] [url]http://www.scan.co.uk/products/1gb-asus-gtx-560ti-direct-cu-ii-top-40nm-4200mhz-gddr5-gpu-900mhz-shader-1800mhz-384-cores-mhdmi-fre[/url] Comes to £423 including VAT. The problem I have is that there's no room for upgrading like SLI and the CPU can't really be overclocked. You should get a second opinion from someone else here about the motherboard. I can't guarantee the quality of the motherboard and there may be better options.
[QUOTE=garrynohome;32865561][url]http://www.scan.co.uk/products/antec-two-hundred-value-gaming-case-hot-swap-sata-hdd-bay-inc-10-drive-bays-140mmplus120mm-fans-w-o-[/url] [url]http://www.scan.co.uk/products/msi-h67ms-e23-(b3)-lga1155-upto-16gb-ddr3-memory-dviplusvga-out-sata6g[/url] [url]http://www.scan.co.uk/products/intel-core-i5-2400-s1155-sdy-bridge-quad-31ghz-hd2000-igp-850mhz-6mb-cache-95w-retail[/url] [url]http://www.scan.co.uk/products/4gb-(2x2gb)-corsair-ddr3-xms3-classic-pc3-10666-(1333)-non-ecc-unbuffered-cas-9-9-9-24-150v[/url] [url]http://www.scan.co.uk/products/1gb-asus-gtx-560ti-direct-cu-ii-top-40nm-4200mhz-gddr5-gpu-900mhz-shader-1800mhz-384-cores-mhdmi-fre[/url] Comes to £423 including VAT. The problem I have is that there's no room for upgrading like SLI and the CPU can't really be overclocked. You should get a second opinion from someone else here about the motherboard. I can't guarantee the quality of the motherboard and there may be better options.[/QUOTE] Also need a PSU too? Thanks for the extremely helpful post though
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