Gaming pc build for £500

[IceFighter]

I'm building a pc and I don't know whether these parts are good to run games at medium at 900p or 1080p. Here are the parts.

CPU AMD Athlon X4 760K

GPU Asus Radeon R7 250X

CPU Cooler Cooler Master Hyper TX3 Evo

MotherBoard ASRock FM2A85X Extreme4 ATX

RAM Corsair 4GB

Storage Hitachi Travelstar 1TB 2.5"

Case Cooler Master K380

PSU Cooler Master 500W ATX

Optical Drive Asus DRW-24F1ST

Operating system Windows 7 Professional (64 bit)

Case Fans Akasa AK-FN058 (and the Akasa AK-FN059)

Keyboard A4Tech G800V

Mouse Cooler Master CM Storm Xornet

The total is £486.23 (around $830) and I do have thermal compound.

[Bonebreaker777]

http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/p/pFrCFT

This build is close to your price (actually below yours but no FANs included), but it has a hexa-core FX CPU (instead of quadcore-APU), 8GB of RAM (instead of 4GB) and a lot beefier GPU. The case is maybe different but it is down to personal taste, I tried to choose something cheap and the motherboard has coolers on the power circuits.

Maybe other forum members will suggest something else.

[IceFighter]

I have another build (around £30 more expensive) thing is I have a way more expensive graphics card but it comes with a free game (battlefield 4)

[IceFighter]

Here's the link: http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/p/pYYBhM

[J-Pandit]

Here's the link: http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/p/pYYBhM

I don't know if the CPU will hold it back, but the 270x will easily play pretty much any game at high, and most on ultra (my friend claims he can play BF4 at 1080p on Ultra with his, but he hasn't checked the FPS).

[Bonebreaker777]

I don't know if the CPU will hold it back, but the 270x will easily play pretty much any game at high, and most on ultra (my friend claims he can play BF4 at 1080p on Ultra with his, but he hasn't checked the FPS).

Well, the CPU is hexa-core and allows good OC if paired with the right motherboard, so highly unlikely it will hold the GPU back.

[IceFighter]

New build. More expensive. http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/p/d2R3mG

[DanceswithUnix]

New build. More expensive. http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/p/d2R3mG

Glad to see you upped the motherboard. Putting a hex core on one of those low end 760G chipset motherboards would worry me.

My usual recommendation is the Asus M5A97 Evo R2 which adds about £15, but that model has a really good VRM on it so if you have any intention of overclocking or ever upgrading to an FX 8350 then it could be worth it: http://www.amazon.co.uk/M5A97-EVO-R2.../dp/B008RPZ5H8

In fact looking at the supported CPUs list for the MSI motherboard, the 8350 is missing which seems rather suspicious given it is still a 125W part.

[thg32]

If you don't mind buying used you could pick up a R9 280X from ebay for around £150.

[Bonebreaker777]

Glad to see you upped the motherboard. Putting a hex core on one of those low end 760G chipset motherboards would worry me.

My usual recommendation is the Asus M5A97 Evo R2 which adds about £15, but that model has a really good VRM on it so if you have any intention of overclocking or ever upgrading to an FX 8350 then it could be worth it: http://www.amazon.co.uk/M5A97-EVO-R2.../dp/B008RPZ5H8

In fact looking at the supported CPUs list for the MSI motherboard, the 8350 is missing which seems rather suspicious given it is still a 125W part.

Agree on the suggestion to obtain a proper VRM equipped mono for the CPU.

The choice of using second hand parts is down to the buyer,not everybody is comfortable with it.

[KeyboardDemon]

Personally I would stay clear away from buying a used Radeon R series GPU as these have been very popular with bitcoin miners and nothing kills an R series GPU faster than bitcoin mining.

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

I think the secondhand cards will still have years of life left,as many of the Bitcoin miners actually made sure the cards were undervolted to reduce power consumption,memory downclocked,and the cards were running cool(they tended to be kept clean) and remember most people were using the highest end AMD cards for mining meaning they have oversized voltage regulation and other parts designed for overclocking. Remember,any downtime on the cards would mean money lost,so it actually paid for them to keep their cards in good condition. Also, with the built in throttling mechanisms with the newer R9 series,the cards cannot really be pushed too far thermally.

There are also quite a few GTX750TI cards that were bought for mining too,and I would be more worried about them at times,since they are budget cards,with the associated cost cutting.

What you don't get with a secondhand cards is usually a warranty if something goes wrong and the only cards I have had issues funnily enough are a pair of Nvidia ones. The first was a 6800LE AGP which was affected by the capacitor damage many of these cards had at the factories when RoHS solder was introduced and my 8800GTS 512MB which went bang. OTH,my 8500GT,X1900GT,HD4830 and HD5850 lasted years way past their usefulness for me,and most of them I overclocked massively and had running in thermally challenged SFF PC cases,ie,they ran hotter than normal and the fans were usually run at higher RPMs I set manually to keep them cool,especially when gaming.

However,since there is no guarantee on any secondhand CPU or GPU unless you buy from a shop,I cannot say with a clear conscience for the OP to do so,be it an AMD or Nvidia card. You can always get the runt of the litter and be out of pocket.

[Heloooo]

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: AMD FX-6300 3.5GHz 6-Core Processor (£70.20 @ Aria PC) < I feel this will be good enough for most games these days as most games dont use more than 4 cores. It is also future proof as when games do start to use 5 or 6 cores then this cpu will still be able to provide.
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-970A-UD3P ATX AM3+ Motherboard (£63.25 @ Amazon UK)
Memory: Crucial Ballistix Smart Tracer 4GB (1 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory (£29.99 @ Amazon UK)< 8gbs are the maximum required these days for gaming unless your going to be doing video editing and live streaming etc.
Memory: Crucial Ballistix Smart Tracer 4GB (1 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory (£29.99 @ Amazon UK)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive (£38.70 @ Aria PC) < 1tb should be enough for a few months but when you run out you can always add another 1tb drive!
Video Card: Sapphire Radeon R9 270X 2GB Dual-X Video Card (£127.00 @ Amazon UK) < The r9 270x is powerfull enough to play most games on 1080p however if you have some extra money then the r9 280x should be able to handle most games at 1080p ultra settings.
Case: Corsair SPEC-01 RED ATX Mid Tower Case (£37.99 @ Aria PC)< I believe this is the best budget case.
Power Supply: XFX 550W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply (£44.11 @ CCL Computers) < Great power supply and its 80+ bronze , 550 w should be enough.
Optical Drive: Lite-On iHAS124-14 DVD/CD Writer (£11.09 @ Aria PC)< optional
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 7 Professional SP1 (OEM) (64-bit) (£54.00 @ Amazon UK)
Total: £506.32

[IceFighter]

I've managed to get more money and I can spend £570


PCPartPicker part list: http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/p/spZn8d
Price breakdown by merchant: http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/p/spZn8d/by_merchant/

CPU: AMD FX-8320 3.5GHz 8-Core Processor (£100.69 @ Amazon UK)
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-970A-UD3P ATX AM3+ Motherboard (£63.26 @ Amazon UK)
Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws X Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-2133 Memory (£58.53 @ Ebuyer)
Storage: Seagate Barracuda 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive (£36.00 @ Aria PC)
Video Card: MSI Radeon R9 280 3GB TWIN FROZR Video Card (£159.59 @ Overclockers.co.uk)
Case: Thermaltake Commander MS/I Snow Edition (White/Black) ATX Mid Tower Case (£34.76 @ Scan.co.uk)
Power Supply: XFX ProSeries 450W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply (£34.99 @ Aria PC)
Optical Drive: Lite-On iHAS124-04 DVD/CD Writer (£11.74 @ CCL Computers)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 7 Professional SP1 (OEM) (64-bit) (£36.00 @ Amazon UK)
Keyboard: Zalman ZM-K400G Wired Gaming Keyboard (£16.48 @ Scan.co.uk)
Mouse: Cooler Master Recon Wired Optical Mouse (£19.98 @ Ebuyer)
Total: £572.02
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available

[Bonebreaker777]

I've managed to get more money and I can spend £570

PCPartPicker part list: http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/p/spZn8d
Price breakdown by merchant: http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/p/spZn8d/by_merchant/

Looks like a quite capable machine. Good luck with the purchase and build. Too bad you couldn't squeeze a SSD in.

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

I would try and get the 550W version of the XFX TBH.