Building a computer for roughly £250 which can play Battlefield 3 - Hardware & Software

So my friend really does not want to spend money on a computer so he gave me a budget of £250, I can go slightly over it. He already has the HDD, Monitor, keyboard and mouse. He wants to be able to play BF3 Multiplayer mostly obviously not at high settings though. So far I've come up with this and I'm wondering if I could do any better. [URL="http://www.ebuyer.com/product/265748"]Case: Casecom CM-431[/URL] [B]£13.00[/B] [URL="http://www.ebuyer.com/product/398377"]Motherboard: Asrock H77M[/URL] [B]£58.08[/B] [URL="http://www.ebuyer.com/product/393554"]CPU: Intel Core i3 3220[/URL] [B]£91.67[/B] [URL="http://www.ebuyer.com/product/434600"]GPU: PowerColor HD 7750 1GB[/URL] [B]£59.99[/B] [URL="http://www.ebuyer.com/product/394408"]RAM: Corsair 4GB DDR3 1600MHz[/URL] [B]£28.00[/B] [URL="http://www.ebuyer.com/product/278493"]PSU: Antec VP 350W PSU[/URL] [B]£29.85[/B] [B]Total: £280.59[/B] Of course if I can get it cheaper from some other shop that would be grand.

That's not that great of a build, but you aren't getting anything too good for 280 pounds. If I were you, I would get a Haswell processor (looks like it would be the 4570 that would fit in your price range) and use the integrated HD 4600 graphics until you can afford a [U]good[/U] graphics card (maybe a 650 ti boost). You'll have lower framerates for a while, but then you can buy something that will run smooth in almost all games, and you'll have a great processor to go with it. I also recommend you use pcpartpicker.com which will give you the cheapest local place you can buy parts.

Ok I've come up with a new one. [URL="http://www.ebuyer.com/product/265748"]Case: Casecom CM-431[/URL] [B]£13.00[/B] [URL="http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B00D1E9FKI/ref=ox_sc_act_title_1?ie=UTF8&psc=1&smid=A3P5ROKL5A1OLE"]Motherboard: Asus B85M-G[/URL] [B]£58.89[/B] [URL="http://www.ebuyer.com/product/467627"]CPU: Inte Core i5 4570S[/URL] [B]£151.13[/B] [URL="http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B008CP5QR2/ref=ox_sc_act_title_2?ie=UTF8&psc=1&smid=A3P5ROKL5A1OLE"]RAM: Kingston 4GB DDR3 1600MHz[/URL] [B]£23.86[/B] [URL="http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B009RMP14M/ref=ox_sc_act_title_3?ie=UTF8&psc=1&smid=A3P5ROKL5A1OLE"]PSU: Corsair Builder Series CX 430 Watt[/URL] [B]£35.43[/B] [B]Total: £282.31[/B] That also includes shipping which is £0

[QUOTE=Sivics;41962474]Ok I've come up with a new one. [URL="http://www.ebuyer.com/product/265748"]Case: Casecom CM-431[/URL] [B]£13.00[/B] [URL="http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B00D1E9FKI/ref=ox_sc_act_title_1?ie=UTF8&psc=1&smid=A3P5ROKL5A1OLE"]Motherboard: Asus B85M-G[/URL] [B]£58.89[/B] [URL="http://www.ebuyer.com/product/467627"]CPU: Inte Core i5 4570S[/URL] [B]£151.13[/B] [URL="http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B008CP5QR2/ref=ox_sc_act_title_2?ie=UTF8&psc=1&smid=A3P5ROKL5A1OLE"]RAM: Kingston 4GB DDR3 1600MHz[/URL] [B]£23.86[/B] [URL="http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B009RMP14M/ref=ox_sc_act_title_3?ie=UTF8&psc=1&smid=A3P5ROKL5A1OLE"]PSU: Corsair Builder Series CX 430 Watt[/URL] [B]£35.43[/B] [B]Total: £282.31[/B] That also includes shipping which is £0[/QUOTE] Don't get the S version of that processor. It's slower than the regular and merely saves power with a TDP of 65W which is why it's more expensive.

[QUOTE=flayne;41963761]Don't get the S version of that processor. It's slower than the regular and merely saves power with a TDP of 65W which is why it's more expensive.[/QUOTE] I went for that one because it was cheaper actually. What about a build with i3 3220 and Radeon 7770, do you think that would be any good?

Here. The A10-5800K AMD APU, for £89.71, does this: [video=youtube;1FMbGz2fUzw]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1FMbGz2fUzw[/video] No additional graphics card. Those are the built in APU's performance. Just buy a motherboard with an FM2 socket and make sure you have at [B]least[/B] 4 GB of RAM. This overclocks to 4.2 GHz, and it's a MUST buy for budget builds. Here's a video comparing it to the i3 3220 and it's almost unrealistic how perfectly the A10-5800K is, especially for it's price (not overclocked, either). [video=youtube;JcA9W1xb0Cs]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JcA9W1xb0Cs[/video] If you took the i3 and bought a GPU with it, it could probably out perform the A10 (I don't think so but some people would argue), but the price of the i3 ALONE is more than the entire price of the CPU and GPU that the A10-5800K offers, and without even being overclocked it can do some impressive stuff. In case those videos weren't enough, here's some Arma II DayZ footage. [video=youtube;w7A54rS9ap8]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w7A54rS9ap8[/video] Oh, and, for the price of the i3 with a good GPU, you can crossfire a GPU with the A10-5800K and get even better graphical performance. In my opinion, the A10-5800K is the best processor for it's price.

[QUOTE=Inevitibility;41967106]Here. The A10-5800K AMD APU, for £89.71, does this: No additional graphics card. Those are the built in APU's performance. Just buy a motherboard with an FM2 socket and make sure you have at [B]least[/B] 4 GB of RAM. This overclocks to 4.2 GHz, and it's a MUST buy for budget builds. Here's a video comparing it to the i3 3220 and it's almost unrealistic how perfectly the A10-5800K is, especially for it's price (not overclocked, either). [video=youtube;JcA9W1xb0Cs]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JcA9W1xb0Cs[/video] If you took the i3 and bought a GPU with it, it could probably out perform the A10 (I don't think so but some people would argue), but the price of the i3 ALONE is more than the entire price of the CPU and GPU that the A10-5800K offers, and without even being overclocked it can do some impressive stuff. In case those videos weren't enough, here's some Arma II DayZ footage. Oh, and, for the price of the i3 with a good GPU, you can crossfire a GPU with the A10-5800K and get even better graphical performance. In my opinion, the A10-5800K is the best processor for it's price.[/QUOTE] You can actually clock them further if you have a good cooler. With a closed loop system you can push 4.6ghz easy. I can push 5ghz if I want to really up the voltage.

[QUOTE=StonedPenguin;41968355]You can actually clock them further if you have a good cooler. With a closed loop system you can push 4.6ghz easy. I can push 5ghz if I want to really up the voltage.[/QUOTE] That's what I heard. There are some really good fan coolers on NewEgg, and they do provide water coolers too if you want to overclock it all the way to 5GHz. An overclock to 4.4GHz will destroy any i3 in benchmarks, or so I've heard. I do not favor either Intel or AMD, but I DO favor this processor over the i3. Price, power, you just can't go wrong. This fits into PC's that you can build for under $300