Gaming PC on a budget.

[Kathryne]

I am currently looking for a computer which can actualy run modern games. My current computer is a hand me down which is hopeless (to give you an idea, it doesnt run any post 2000 games, and takes 20minuites to load a 10min youtube video.)
The problem is, i'm limited to a budget of 400 british pounds.
I turn to you tech-heads in desperation, I know an average amount about computers, and i'm reluctent to attempt to build one myself.
I can salvage my monitor so that needn't be included in the budget, as with the keyboard.
So that leaves an entire computer + mouse and cheap speakes if posible, all for under £400.

I'd realy apriciate some guidance as to what i should choose.

edit: unfortinatly, it will also need an OS. =[

[Ulti]

Go with what CAT-THE-FIFTH here.

Scroll further down and take the 4770 graphics card instead of the 4730.

Mouse and speakers can just be picked in addition accordingly to what you like I guess, different people like different mouse types and speaker setups.

Including a W7 copy will mean that the system is slightly over the budget though.

EDIT: Copied and posted it.

CPU: AMD Phenom II X2 545+ - £64.80
Motherboard: MSI 770-C45 - £48.17
RAM: 4GB Crucial Ballistix DDR3 1333Mhz CL6 1.8V - £60.00
PSU: OCZ StealthXStream 500W - £48.07
Case: CM Elite 330 - £24.99
HDD: Samsung F3 500GB - £37.82
DVD Drive: Sony +-RW - £16.69
Graphics: HD4770 - £69.98
OS: Windows 7 Home Premium - £69.75

Total: £447.26 (Including all delivery charges - Ebuyer and Dabs are free but Scan has 6.99 shipping fee)

You could save around £5 if you check the today only page on Scan for the Samsung F3 and the AMD Phenom II 545+ here.

£50 over your budget and no mouse and speaker though.

[Champman99]

OK this was the best I can do (32p over?!), If you went for a non gaming mouse then you could maybe do £5 for the mouse and £10 for speakers. You could also save £20 by getting 2GB of RAM but I think the 4GB is worth it.

EDIT! Theres a mistake here, I accidently clicked on the 4650 instead of 4670. There are a variety of 4670's available for £50! That's what should be included.



The Windows obviously is the kicker, Bit-tech have a nice well rounded £400 system but thats £400 with no O/S

http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/buy...rdware+Feed%29

[Kathryne]

I realy Can't express my gratitude properly, you've made things alot simpler for me.
Thankyou!

[Champman99]

Just replying to further alert attention to the mistake I made in my build, the 4670 should be included not the 4650 in graphics card terms. 'twas a misclick!

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/152940 for example

[Kathryne]

You've made me a very happy bunny.
I'll edit my original post ina min.

edit: i'm sure i can scrape together 32p somehow =p.

[Ulti]

The 4670 isn't so good for gaming though, if you were here a few days earlier you could have got a 4770 for £55.35 which is miles better than the 4670 but it's out of stock for now. You could save £5 if you go for the OCZ StealthXStream 400W which is essentially the same as the Corsair but with slightly less connectors.

If you could somehow save £50 more and change to the spec I linked it'll be a BIG performance upgrade over the spec Champman listed.

EDIT: But then I guess any computer will be faster than your current pc.

[Kathryne]

The 4670 isn't so good for gaming though, if you were here a few days earlier you could have got a 4770 for £55.35 which is miles better than the 4670 but it's out of stock for now. You could save £5 if you go for the OCZ StealthXStream 400W which is essentially the same as the Corsair but with slightly less connectors.

If you could somehow save £50 more and change to the spec I linked it'll be a BIG performance upgrade over the spec Champman listed.

EDIT: But then I guess any computer will be faster than your current pc.

Hell my calculator has more power than my current PC.

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

This is what I would look at getting:

Athlon II X2 240~ £44

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/168971

MSI 785G motherboard~ £51

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/173978

Alternatively get the MSI 770 although it is not new.

4GB DDR3~ £60

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/166996

HD4730 512MB ~ £54

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/177396

OCZ 400W ~ £35

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/152505

Windows 7 OEM ~ £70

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/173791...roduct_reviews

Coolermaster Elite 330~ £25

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/127584

WD 320GB Caviar Blue ~ £32

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/124734

SATA DVD rewriter~ £16

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/170014

Logitech RX1500 laser mouse ~ £12

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/145247

This should be within your budget.

Edit!!

You may need to get this adaptor too:

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/124029

[Kathryne]

Would you reccomend getting a second hand case? Is the coolermaster elite 330 particualy good value / quality, everyone seems to reccomend it.

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

The Coolermaster is one of the cheapest decent cases out there and also it comes with a single cooling fan too.

[Kathryne]

The Coolermaster is one of the cheapest decent cases out there and also it comes with a single cooling fan too.

I see, thanks for the help.

[Champman99]

Yeah, for me I only really recommend the Coolmermaster when it's a build thats very budget limited, The Antec 300 and various others are a step up in terms of quality and cooling, but £40 vs £25 is a big difference when dealing with this sort of build.

Similarly some of the hard drives offer pretty terrible value when compared to something like a 500GB Samsung F3, but those small savings all add up to keep the build on budget.

In terms of the 4670 I don't think its a bad gaming card at all given its price. Its another one where it doesnt necessarily offer the best value. Sometimes you need to spend more to get better value, but I tried to make sure it came in on budget, hence the 4670. I've found in real world performance little between my 4670 and 8800GT so I think saying it's "not a card for gaming" is a bit unfair.

Usually my rule for a gaming build is spend at least twice on the GPU as on the CPU. But I couldn't really recommend a build that didnt have a dual core CPU, and an £80 GPU put me over budget

You might be able to save some money on Windows 7, while I would always recommend buying from a reputable store ideally, alot of people took up the pre-order £39,99 offer as kind of speculators, hoping to sell on when release came and the price went up. So you might be able to find a copy for £50-60 which would save you some cash.

[Ulti]

Well it also does depend on the resolution I guess but the 4670 is rather weak when it comes to gaming. But hell I had a low profile (crippled) 8600GT and I gamed and 4670 is better than an 8600GT so unfair to say it's not a gaming card but it's fair to say that it's not exactly £50 well spent.

Maybe if the OP is real lucky then Ebuyer will get another stock of 4770s but seeing as they only went out of stock this week I guess it's highly unlikely. It's also likely go up even more in price when they restock I'm guessing.

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

Why is everyone ignoring the HD4730?? I know it is a bit heavy with regards to power consumption but it absolutely destroys an HD4670 for gaming:

http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Sapphire/HD_4730

[Champman99]

My 4670 is giving me angry looks from inside my open case! I was always a bit dismissive of the 4730 purely because I thought it was pretty crazy 4670 could be bus powered and yet the 4730 needed two power connectors - a bit of a tall order for low end PSU's.

The Moose is usually right though, so the 4730 could well be the way to go!

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/177396 does seem good value for 640 shaders!