£500 Gaming PC

[AdvWar]

Planning on building a £500 gaming and general uses PC, with a relatively powerful processor. Right now, I am going slightly over budget:



Any suggestions/comments?

Thanks

[Jasp]

Scrap the cooler as you really are not gonna need it with a 940be processor as the stock free one is a heatpipe design and is excellent if you don't plan on overclocking. As a active user of the hexus forum as well you qualify for free scan shipping so thats another tenner saved. http://forums.hexus.net/scan-care-he...tup-guide.html

My personal worry is that 500w extreme PSU and personally i wouldn't trust a bundled PSU to run a setup i'd spent money on. Reading a quick review as well its only got 1 PCI-E connector while a 260 needs 2.

From a personal point of view i'd scrap the 260 and go with a 4870 1gb as it can be picked up for exactly the same price, i'd downgrade the case to something like a antec 300 or CM 690 and spend what i'd just saved on getting a decent PSU.

[Vimeous]

Generally it's a tidy build although I'm somewhat surprised you've not opted for a core 2 duo if only to OC once the warranty runs out or you buy games in need of more go later.

So far I've built 3 machines using the CM590, my main rig and two rendering machines for a friend. Both the render machines are using the 500W bundle as it's bonkers good vfm at £80.

It's a very easy case to build into and is better built with better cooling than the Antec 300 IMHO. Sadly the CM690 is £62 meaning you'd need to find a reliable PSU for £18 which is unrealistic. Besides that I prefer the hard-drive arrangement in the CM590 as I reckon it cools better.

However Jasp has a point about the PSU.
My own CM590 has a 650W Corsair TX so if you could fit it into your budget I suggest a Corsair 550W VX as a good minimum. In fact looking at the XFX site they suggest a minimum of a 630W PSU for the GT260. I'd suggest that puts the gfx/psu/case combination out of your budget.
The XFX HD 4870 XXX 1Gb only needs 420W but again 2x 6pin power.


If you want to keep the core of the system you list I suggest swapping the gfx to a XFX HD 4850 XXX 512Mb at £86.22 as it only requires a 450W/1x 6-pin.
You'll keep most of the graphics performance and come in on budget!
(the XFX GTS 250 Core 512Mb at £96.89 would be another good choice 400W/1x 6-pin)


If you want to keep the better gfx then I'd go for the Antec 300 case, Corsair 550W VX PSU and XFX HD 4870 XXX 1Gb because of its lower power requirement. The problem is the case and PSU add another £30 to your already over inflated budget.
To get back on track you'd be swapping the CPU for an Athlon II X2 250 which is still 3GHz but much slower than the 940 black.


Right now I'd say you need to downgrade the gfx slightly or risk going alot over budget.

BTW don't forget scan do Nero for £2 if you've not already got decent cheap burning software.
Also remember you'll need a 64-bit OS to make the most of the 4Gb RAM. Maybe wait until after 15th July and see if the Vista Premium with Windows 7 upgrade drop to £50 as has been suggested recently?
Fun fun fun!

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

I agree with the advice from Jasp.

This is what I would get:

Gigabyte MA770-UD3 ~£63

http://www.scan.co.uk/TodayOnly/Index.aspx

4gb PC2-8500 RAM ~ £34

http://www.scan.co.uk/TodayOnly/Index.aspx

1TB Samsung HD103UJ Spinpoint F1 ~ £62

http://www.scan.co.uk/TodayOnly/Index.aspx

AMD Phenom II X4 940 Black Edition ~ £131

http://www.scan.co.uk/TodayOnly/Index.aspx

SATA DVD rewriter ~ £16

http://www.scan.co.uk/TodayOnly/Index.aspx

1GB XFX HD 4870 XXX ~£113

http://www.scan.co.uk/TodayOnly/Index.aspx

550w Corsair VX Series PSU ~ £65

http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/550w-...anty-see-specs

A VX450W will also do the job.

Coolermaster RC-330 Elite case ~ £29

http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/Coole...Scan-Exclusive

The total comes to £514.21 if you use the free postage from Scan.

Drop the graphics card down to an HD4870 512mb if you want to stay under £500:

http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/512MB...VI-I-HDTV-HDCP

[Hawker1986]

I agree with CAT above, but I would say that rig wont need a 550W PSU get the corsair VX450 instead and save £10, also you will need a 120mm fan for the front of the case, get the cheapest silent akasa one, its like £4.5.

Hawker

[Cheapy]

If you get a 450W power supply get the Corsair 450W HX instead as it same price and modular

[AdvWar]

Some very good advice here, but I thought I would give you some more insight into why I picked some of these components:

The Akasa Nero is there for both overclocking, and the fact that it is supposedly more quiet than stock.

GTX 260 was picked as it is quieter, slightly faster and more overclockable than the HD4870.

I accept your point on the power supply, I didn't realise that the GTX 260 required 2 power connectors. With this in mind, what would be the cheapest adequate power supply you would recommend for this system? I am tempted towards the Arctic Cooling 550, which has received some very good reviews, is cheap, modular, and relatively powerful at 500W.

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

Arctic Cooling are just another cheap PSU brand. Go with something decent from a company like Corsair since you are using a high end graphics card which needs a good quality PSU. The modular HX450 is also a good recommendation although I am uncertain which one has the better specs.

[AdvWar]

Ok, taken advice on board, and come up with this:



EDIT: With free postage total comes to £541. Does this seem like the best mix of general performance, gaming performance, quality of components and quietness for my budget?

[wellswells]

I just signed up for this forum because i stumbled across this post

You're going for almost an identical setup as myself! However, I getting the XFX ATI HD 4890 XT.

Its currently £140 on overclockers - I can't post the link because i'm a n00b here. But check it out.

I'm holding off at the moment because I was unsure what PSU/mobo combination to go for. Cat's recommendations always seem to go down well on here and so I might follow his advice and go for the combo you have been recommended here.

I read somewhere that the 4890 needed more power from the PSU though... just reading up on this now, unless someone here can answer that question

[wellswells]

In fact. Looking at your setup, I'm going to go with the same case and the MA770 motherboard. Spend less on the mobo and put that money in a slightly smarter case.

I'm pretty certain the MA770 with the 450HX will handle my radeon 4890xt.

My current pc is dying as I speak...

[dfour]

I have a 940 black overclocked with the standard cooler and I find that there is not much persuading me to buy a better cooler. Idle at 30 and usually stays under 40 when gaming.

Nice rig. Save teh money from the cooler and buy the XFX 4890 instead for £140

http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/1GB-X...DTV-HDCP-Ready

[Vimeous]

I note that you've decided to stick with the graphics which I can understand.
However XFX recommend a minimum of a 630W PSU to stably run the card (http://www.xfxforce.com/en-us/produc...es/260GTX.aspx) which your budget cannot support.

By the same token the 4890 requires 500W and the 4870 450W.

You don't need modular as while it's nice and tidy (and will improve airflow) a more powerful PSU with captive cables is more likely to give the power you need. Besides cable ties are cheap.
Of course it does depend on how much £500 is really a barrier!


Just out of interest. As you plan to OC what made you choose the 940 over the E8400? Was it price or something else as I've read the E8400 OC's much better on air?

[staffsMike]

That's just Nvidia playing it safe considering the many naff PSU's out there. It's more than capable of powering that card. With that said you will need to use a molex to 6pin adapter as it has only gone one and you need two I believe. Also I would buy the ATi card as mentioned anyway