Budget PC - General use + some gaming

[Samwood]

My friends looking to build a PC on a budget. Here is what I've come up with so far:



The idea is to use the built in 7660D for the mean time, then when more funds become available add-in something along the lines of a HD 7750/7770.

However, I'm wondering if it would be better to advise my friend to save a little more and upgrade the CPU to a i3-3225 or i5-3570k. These both have the intel 4000 GPU, so console-like gaming will be achievable in the short term before a dedicated card is bought. Including the additional cost of a Z77 chipset MB, upgrading to a 3570k would cost about another £100, raising the total build cost to £500 (and £600 with a HD 7770).

So which is the most cost effective choice? Are the improvements to the AMD A-series enough to move a budget gamer away from the Intel?

Thanks
Sam

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

Are you going to cover the postage for him from Scan or is he ordering separately?? Does he already have Windows 7??

Edit!!

If you drop the SSD and get a smaller hard drive you can get a faster gaming build.



I have tried to keep as close to £400 as possible.

[scaryjim]

A-series APU and faster memory: 2133MHz preferably. You'll have to do a little fiddling in the BIOS to persuade it to run at that speed but all the reviews that have tested with faster memory have shown it lapping it up. I believe Hexus got around 20% extra out of 2133MHz RAM + overclocking the IGP to 1000MHz, compared to 1600MHz RAM and stock IGP. I certainly wouldn't bother with the i3 if you're going anywhere near IGP gaming, it's not in the same league. CPU performance between the 5800K and the i3 is pretty similar, except in single-threaded benchmarks where the i3 pulls ahead: but the 5800K is more than powerful enough for day to day tasks anyway.

I'd definitely go with the 5800k, have a little tweak to get the best graphical performance out of it, then consider the discrete GPU if your friend isn't happy with the 5800k's gaming performance - after all, if they're a relatively casual gamer they might well be happy with the performance of the 5800k (my step-son is happy playing Skyrim at 1080p on an A6-3670k, after all!).

Also, don't forget that socket FM2 has an upgrade path (unlike s1155), and the next gen APUs should theoretically get a much bigger CPU boost than Bulldozer - Piledriver. Plus upgrading from Trinity to Kaveri will simultaneously upgrade both CPU and GPU - an all in one upgrade, as it were

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

The thing is the OP has not made it clear whether their friend wants a full blown gaming system or a general purpose system. AFAIK,SR will also be on AM3+ too,so a Phenom II X4 955BE and an HD7850 1GB would be a decent gaming system for around £400 to £450.

However,for a general purpose system,with the possibility of some gaming,an A10-5800K,is not far behind a Core i3 2100(might be around the same overall) for most games,and the IGP is far better. So,an A10 would be a nicer choice,plus you can go with bigger hard drives and an SSD.

[scaryjim]

Thread title says "general use + some gaming", which I'm taking to mean gaming isn't the key use.

Thing with the A10 is it gives the option of gaming straight away, without the cost of the discrete card, at a very similar price to the other CPUs under consideration. Thing is no other CPU can provide the gaming potential of the A10. So if you go for the A10 and tweak the memory and IGP, you might find gaming performance is good enough without spending money on a discrete card, and even if it's not you're not really losing anything compared to the other processor options at the same price. It's a bit of a win-win.

Of course, another key consideration is what monitor is going to be used? If it's lower res than 1080p than I'd've thought A10 is a no-brainer