£500 Gaming PC help.

[Dooms]

Hey guys...

Been quite a while since I've posted on Hexus (been travelling the last few years) but now its time to settle down and get a new computer but being out of the loop so long I have no idea where to start and wondering if you lot could help spec up a machine.

I have a limit of around £500 (thank you taxman!) to spend on a base system next weekend... only a few things to keep in mind

Case - Smaller rather than larger, doesn't have to be shiny.
Windows - Need a copy of windows 7 (home prem?)
Keyboard - Something basic, plenty of nice £10-20 ones around.
CD/DVD - cheap & cheerful - might just reuse my 5 year old Pioneer DVD-RW.
Will need a wifi card
Running on a 24" Dell Ultrasharp 1920x1200

Don't need: Mouse, Monitor.

Don't have anything like spare sata cables, heat paste, etc kicking about any more if it's still like that these days!!

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

I would look at the following parts:

Coolermaster Elite 340 ~ £27

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

520W Seasonic M12II-520 ~ £70

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

AMD Athlon II X3 450 ~ £58

http://www.scan.co.uk/products/amd-a...mhz-95w-retail

ASROCK M3A785GMH/128M ~ £57

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/179183

4GB 1600MHZ DDR3 ~ £56

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

Samsung F3 1TB ~ £41

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

HD5750 512MB ~ £76

http://www.scan.co.uk/products/512mb...-dvi-i-hdmi-dp

Edimax EW-7711Uan ~ £11

http://www.scan.co.uk/products/edima...3dbi-high-gain

Windows 7 Home Premium 64bit OEM Operating System ~ £72

http://www.scan.co.uk/products/micro...tem-single-oem

Logitech Media Keyboard 600 Wired ~ £16

http://www.scan.co.uk/products/logit...sb-11-20-black

2X120MM Case Fan ~ £8

http://www.scan.co.uk/products/120mm...aster-case-fan

Sony AD-5260S-0B SATA DVD rewriter ~ £13

http://www.scan.co.uk/products/sony-...sata-black-oem

The total comes to around £505.

You can get free Scan postage:

http://forums.hexus.net/scan-care-he...-delivery.html

If you don't mind some more cable mess you could get the following PSU:

http://www.novatech.co.uk/novatech/p...U-400CXUK.html

You can get cashback on Novatech purchases from TopCashBack and Quidco.

With the money saved you could get an HD5770 1GB:

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/189741

There is also a single slot version of the card available too:

http://www.scan.co.uk/products/1gb-x...-dvi-i-mini-dp

The GTX460 768MB is a faster card than an HD5770 1GB but consumes significantly more power.

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

It seems you can get the RAM cheaper on Ebuyer:

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/239260

[Pob255]

CAT there's no coolermaster elite 340 on today only, I think you meant the elite 330 which is a better case anyway

Also got the Xclio / Meridian Technology Nighthawk Extreme on today only for £24.66 which is reasonable
review here http://www.pureoverclock.com/article925.html
Although this is the extreme version which I think is black interia and a temperature probe built in
The down side is the steel used to make the panels is a bit thin at 0.6mm, and lots of blue led light which you personally might not like.

Also as this is is going to have a sepearte graphics card for gaming I'd go with the MSI 870-C45 motherboard instead of the ASRock one
http://www.ebuyer.com/product/241003

EDIT:ignore that, I was getting model numbers mixed up, the 340 is the mATX case, so you'd want the ASRock mATX motherboard to go with it.
the elite 330 or nighthawk would be good choises if you go for an ATX mid tower system along with the 870-C45 motherboard, it will be slightly bigger in overall size, but not massive.

If you want a solid basic keyboard then the Logitech Deluxe 250 is great and only £6.44
http://www.scan.co.uk/products/logit...oard-usb-black

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

CAT there's no coolermaster elite 340 on today only, I think you meant the elite 330 which is a better case anyway

Yes,it is!

I only went with a mATX build since the OP wants a smaller system. They seem to have a Shuttle SFF PC ATM too.

A full ATX system would have better cooling no doubt and better expansion possibilities.

[Pob255]

see my EDIT you post to quickly

[Dooms]

Cheers guys. Will be buying next week I think so thanks for the input.

reason for smaller case is I travel alot, while I might not take my PC with me I still have to move it to storage etc.. but then if I'm lugging around a 24" monitor the size of the base system doesn't make too much difference

[Dooms]

What about if i wanted to get a mobo that supports x-fire or SLI? Quick and easy upgrade further down the line?