Gaming PC for roughly €650?

Whistlingmilk

1. What is your budget? Roughly around 650

2. What will be the main purpose of the computer? Gaming mainly, planning on playing SWTOR but might as well get as good a machine as I can as I'll be trying more demanding games too.

3. Do you need a copy of Windows? Nope

4. Can you use any parts from an old computer? Nope

5. Do you need a monitor? Nope

5b. If no, what resolution is your current monitor and do you plan to upgrade in the near future? 1920x1080

6. Do you need any of these peripherals? A wireless card

7. Are you willing to try overclocking? Yes

8. How can you pay? Any way, I assume

9. When are you purchasing? As soon as possible!

Just got a bit of airgead for my birthday so i give building a gaming pc a go! I've seen other threads but they seem to include monitors etc. that I don't need, I naturally just want to make sure I get the best bang for my buck! Many thanks if you help

Serephucus

Do you have any hard drives lying around that you could use? At €650, a new one would take a chunk out of the budget. Assuming you've got a hard drive:

Item|Price
Total build cost: €478.74 + €30 shipping
ASRock Z68 Extreme4 Gen3, Sockel 1155, ATX|€157.99
Super-Flower Amazon 80Plus 550W|€51.04
BitFenix Merc Alpha|€31.61
Samsung SH-222AB bare schwarz SATA|€15.41
8GB-Kit A-Data Value PC3-1333 CL9|€33.20
Intel Core i5-2500K Box, LGA1155|€189.49


This leaves you with enough room to get a 6870, or hopefully a 7870/7770 when they arrive next week. We're right on the edge of a generational jump in graphics cards at the moment, so a week or so would make a world of difference to the build.

Whistlingmilk

Serephucus wrote: »

Do you have any hard drives lying around that you could use? At €650, a new one would take a chunk out of the budget. Assuming you've got a hard drive:

Item|Price
Total build cost: €478.74 + €30 shipping
ASRock Z68 Extreme4 Gen3, Sockel 1155, ATX|€157.99
Super-Flower Amazon 80Plus 550W|€51.04
BitFenix Merc Alpha|€31.61
Samsung SH-222AB bare schwarz SATA|€15.41
8GB-Kit A-Data Value PC3-1333 CL9|€33.20
Intel Core i5-2500K Box, LGA1155|€189.49


This leaves you with enough room to get a 6870, or hopefully a 7870/7770 when they arrive next week. We're right on the edge of a generational jump in graphics cards at the moment, so a week or so would make a world of difference to the build.

I have a laptop with a big hard drive I'm not sure if that's compatible with a desktop? Probly is. I was thinking about maybe a small SSD though but obviously I can't get everything I want! Thanks for the tip, I'll keep an eye out for them cards then.

Serephucus

A 64GB SSD would set you back about €90, so .... I've just realised I specced you the wrong motherboard. So you've got another €60 to play with! Here's the revised build with the different motherboard (it's just one with a couple of overclocking features removed - you can still overclock with this board, don't worry) and a 64GB SSD added.

Item|Price
Total build cost: €502.89 + €30 shipping
Super-Flower Amazon 80Plus 550W|€51.04
BitFenix Merc Alpha|€31.61
Samsung SH-222AB bare schwarz SATA|€15.41
8GB-Kit A-Data Value PC3-1333 CL9|€33.20
Intel Core i5-2500K Box, LGA1155|€189.49
ASRock Z68 Pro3 Gen3, Sockel 1155, ATX|€91.85
Crucial M4 64GB SSD 6,4cm (2,5")|€90.29


I'd suggest, if you could save another €50, that extra would go a long way in the graphics card department.

Whistlingmilk

Serephucus wrote: »

A 64GB SSD would set you back about €90, so .... I've just realised I specced you the wrong motherboard. So you've got another €60 to play with! Here's the revised build with the different motherboard (it's just one with a couple of overclocking features removed - you can still overclock with this board, don't worry) and a 64GB SSD added.

Item|Price
Total build cost: €502.89 + €30 shipping
Super-Flower Amazon 80Plus 550W|€51.04
BitFenix Merc Alpha|€31.61
Samsung SH-222AB bare schwarz SATA|€15.41
8GB-Kit A-Data Value PC3-1333 CL9|€33.20
Intel Core i5-2500K Box, LGA1155|€189.49
ASRock Z68 Pro3 Gen3, Sockel 1155, ATX|€91.85
Crucial M4 64GB SSD 6,4cm (2,5")|€90.29


I'd suggest, if you could save another €50, that extra would go a long way in the graphics card department.

The extra €50 shouldn't be much of a problem seeing as I'm waiting now for the new graphics cards, this wait will be the death of me. I just realised there that I might be able to use a vat number on dabs4work.ie, I was just looking around at similar parts it seems to come out a little cheaper.

Serephucus

I think you can get VAT back from HWVS, but you'll have to check on that yourself (I've no idea how that works. )

Whistlingmilk

I was thinking about doing a dual GPU setup down the line, but after changing things about the cost of the different motherboard and PSU that I'd need to be able to do that seems to go out of my budget.

I guess I'll be ordering the above build with a 6870 tomorrow so, when the banks are open again.

Whistlingmilk

Okay, a bit over budget but I'm thinkin of this build and take the hard drive from my old laptop.

Item|Price
Total build cost: €680.46 + €30 shipping
Intel Core i5-2500K Box, LGA1155|€191.82
Crucial M4 64GB SSD 6,4cm (2,5")|€90.29
8GB-Kit A-Data Value PC3-1333 CL9|€34.54
BitFenix Merc Alpha|€32.18
Sapphire HD6870 1G GDDR5 PCI-E DL-DVI-I+SL-DVI-D / HDMI / DP|€143.89
DIGITUS Wireless 150N USB 2.0 adapter, 150Mbps (DN-7045)|€5.31
ASRock Z68 Extreme3 Gen3, Sockel 1155, ATX|€114.23
Super-Flower Amazon 80Plus 650W|€68.20

Serephucus

Is this for a future Crossfire build? You could get the 550W PSU and still be fine. Everything else looks good though.

Edit: Actually, for €12 more, you could get a gold-rated PSU. It would run quieter, and handle more than the bronze rated one. It's this one, if you're interested:

http://www2.hardwareversand.de/articledetail.jsp?aid=38006&agid=1629

Whistlingmilk

Serephucus wrote: »

Is this for a future Crossfire build? You could get the 550W PSU and still be fine. Everything else looks good though.

Edit: Actually, for €12 more, you could get a gold-rated PSU. It would run quieter, and handle more than the bronze rated one. It's this one, if you're interested:

http://www2.hardwareversand.de/articledetail.jsp?aid=38006&agid=1629

Yeah planning on maybe a future 6870 crossfire down the line as opposed to upgrading the single card. Wasn't sure about the 550W, I'll stick with that so.

Was just wondering, would it be best to downgrade to a lesser processor/motherboard and use that extra money to upgrade the graphics card or is this the right way to go about it?

Serephucus

For a more balanced rig, yes. Given the fact that you're thinking about CF though, I'd stick with the 2500K. When you take into account overclocking, you shouldn't need a CPU upgrade for at the very least, three years. Odds are you'll upgrade your GPUs again within that time, so you might as well get a good CPU now and have it last.