Where can I cut costs on this gaming PC build?

LFC CONNAUGHTON

I'm thinking of getting a gaming PC for Christmas. The build here seems decent enough but I'd like to cut some costs as its a bit too expensive. What are some alternative parts to cut costs? All parts from Amazon.

PSU: 600w Corsair Modular 80+: £53.38
CPU: Intel i5-3570k: £161.98
MoBo: Asus P8Z77-V LX Motherboard: £58.34
GPU: Asus AMD Radeon R9 270X DirectCU II Top 4GB GDDR5 Graphics Card: £172.98
RAM: Corsair CMZ8GX3M2A1600C9 Vengeance 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 1600 Mhz CL9 XMP Performance Desktop Memory Kit Black: £65.53
Case: Zalman Z9 Plus Midi Tower Case - Black: £44.99
Monitor: BenQ GL2450HM 24-inch Widescreen LED Multimedia Monitor: £113.99
HDD: WD - 2TB Desktop SATA Hard Drive - OEM - Green: £59.98

Mouse: Logitech G502 Proteus Core: £53.92
Keyboard: Corsair CH-9000043-UK Raptor K30: £39.99

ED E

You could pick up an old monitor for free/cheap if you looked hard enough and get a cheapo keyboard and mouse to start yourself off.

bevan619

Pick up a cheap monitor on adverts. Get a cheap keyboard and mouse too then save for the ones you want.

LFC CONNAUGHTON

ED E wrote: »

You could pick up an old monitor for free/cheap if you looked hard enough and get a cheapo keyboard and mouse to start yourself off.

Would need a new monitor as I'm going to hook my Xbox 360 to it as well by HDMI. As for the mouse and keyboard, I would like entry level gaming ones, any recommendations?

LFC CONNAUGHTON

bevan619 wrote: »

Pick up a cheap monitor on adverts. Get a cheap keyboard and mouse too then save for the ones you want.

Do you know if there is much of a difference between any old mouse and a gaming mouse for a beginner gamer?

Lu Tze

GPU seems expensive for what it is, would have thought you could a 280x for that (or close to).

Are you intending to overclock? If not you could drop to a cheaper non-overclockable i5. Its also a socket 1155 cpu and board which arent the latest, but it may not matter.

Do you have any special requirements for the board? there may be cheaper out there that suit your needs.

The ram also seems a tad expensive , and the mouse though i guess thats a matter of personel preference. You can get a decent mouse for about €30.

Try doing a similar build on hardwareversand through the discount site and see what you total cost is at. Also, whats your budget?

walshyp

Paying way over the odds for the graphics card. Can get a 280 for cheaper.
You are buying an old generation processor? 1150 is the new socket. Are you planning on overclocking?
Mouse and keyboard seem excessive. How much in euros is this coming to?

LFC CONNAUGHTON

Lu Tze wrote: »

GPU seems expensive for what it is, would have thought you could a 280x for that (or close to).

Are you intending to overclock? If not you could drop to a cheaper non-overclockable i5. Its also a socket 1155 cpu and board which arent the latest, but it may not matter.

Do you have any special requirements for the board? there may be cheaper out there that suit your needs.

The ram also seems a tad expensive , and the mouse though i guess thats a matter of personel preference. You can get a decent mouse for about €30.

Try doing a similar build on hardwareversand through the discount site and see what you total cost is at. Also, whats your budget?

The GPU is expensive as its the 4gb not the 2gb. Should I get the same model by Sapphire instead? Its a good bit cheaper is there much difference?

Not intending to overclock just yet but would like to have the option. If the non- overclockable is a good bit cheaper though I would consider it. Do you know which model I should be looking at so?

Nothing needed for the board just a basic board that is fairly reliable.

RAM is the cheapest 8gb from a decent brand I can find on Amazon.

Mouse is just a mid level gaming mouse, probably won't bother with that or the keyboard yet, do they make much of a difference while gaming?

Was using amazon for ease of use will look for same parts on hardwarevrsand now.

LFC CONNAUGHTON

Lu Tze wrote: »

Also, whats your budget?

I don't have an exact budget at the moment. Would be hoping to get money for Christmas for this and spend a bit of my savings so its all depending on how much I get. I'm just planning well in advance.

walshyp

LFC CONNAUGHTON wrote: »

I don't have an exact budget at the moment. Would be hoping to get money for Christmas for this and spend a bit of my savings so its all depending on how much I get. I'm just planning well in advance.

4GB of vram is just a marketing ploy. a 270x will not be able to use 4gb of memory. Better off to coming back closer to Christmas. Most people on here use hardwareversand as its the cheapest for parts.

If no immediate plans on overclocking then I probably would just go for the for the below

600w power supply
8gb of ram
i5- 4440
1150 H81 motherboard for around 50 euro
280x graphics card.
128gb ssd
wd blue 1 TB

LFC CONNAUGHTON

PSU: 600w Corsair Modular 80+: £53.38
CPU: Intel Core i5 4430: £134.98
MoBo: ASUS H87-PLUS ATX: £69.90
GPU: Sapphire R9 270X 4GB: £149.99
RAM: Crucial BLS8G3D1609ES2LX0CEU 8GB 1600MHz: £56.83
Case: Zalman Z9 Plus Midi Tower Case - Black: £44.99
Monitor: BenQ GL2450HM 24-inch Widescreen LED Multimedia Monitor: £113.99
HDD: WD - 2TB Desktop SATA Hard Drive - OEM - Green: £59.98

Mouse: Logitech B110: £7
Keyboard: Microsoft Wired Keyboard 200: £6.96

£698

.G.

Check your prices on multiple websites too. Tot up the totals for each website and go with the cheapest. buying from more than one probably won't make sense when you factor in delivery charges. I found Scan to be similar in cost to Hardwareversand too when I looked.

Oh and don't buy from Dabs.ie!

bevan619

superg wrote: »

Oh and don't buy from Dabs.ie!

Not my thread but curious, why should he not buy from there? Never used it myself.

walshyp

Get a 280 over the 270

Occono

walshyp wrote: »

4GB of vram is just a marketing ploy. a 270x will not be able to use 4gb of memory. Better off to coming back closer to Christmas. Most people on here use hardwareversand as its the cheapest for parts.

If no immediate plans on overclocking then I probably would just go for the for the below

600w power supply
8gb of ram
i5- 4440
1150 H81 motherboard for around 50 euro
280x graphics card.
128gb ssd
wd blue 1 TB

One thing about a cheap H81 motherboard: needs a BIOS update to use Haswell Refresh CPUs.

BloodBath

Occono wrote: »

One thing about a cheap H81 motherboard: needs a BIOS update to use Haswell Refresh CPUs.

Not necessarily, if it's new stock it should have the newer BIOS. I've used the newer chips in cheap H81 boards without a hitch.

Kencollins

A word of warning about the WD Green series drives, I have had two people bring me a failed drive in the last few weeks. It seems that they are super sensitive to any kind of ripple or surges.

The problem seems to be with the spool chip on the underside of the PCB. It is overheating and failing rendering the drive useless.

I only managed to repair one of the drives, and that involved desoldering the chip, then resoldering the 128 legs of the new chip.

I am now very reluctant to recommend the WD Green series to anybody unless it is going into a RAID storage device.

Have a look at the seagate barracuda 2tb instead.

.G.

bevan619 wrote: »

Not my thread but curious, why should he not buy from there? Never used it myself.

Bad recent experience with them. Even when they were giving me stuff for free they couldn't do it right! Plenty of bad write ups about them online if you look.

Hank Scorpio

Wouldn't recommend the g502 mouse, I've used logitech since I started gaming a long time ago but the mouse felt very heavy and awkward compared to other previous ones, I wasn't able to use it in twitch fps games, too heavy and clunky. I'd go with with the g400s