~£700 gaming build

[Gilderien]

Already have all peripherals, so this is going to be just the tower.

Processor: Intel Core i5 3570K £179.94 from Scan
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-Z77-D3H £80.12 from Scan
Graphics Card: Powercolour R7870 Myst PCS+ £180.42 from Ebuyer
RAM: Crucial Ballistix 8GB (2x4GB) 1600MHz £34.98 from Ebuyer
Case: CoolerMaster CM690 II £68.82 from Ebuyer
HDD: 1TB Seagate Barracuda £50.52 from Scan
Power Supply: XFX 550W core £45.06 from Scan
CD Drive: Samsung SH-224BB £14.88 from Ebuyer
CPU cooler: Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO £25.45 from Scan
Wireless Card: TP-Link TL-WDN4800 £31.49 from Ebuyer

Total: £711.68 (And it was going so well, down to £630 and everything!)

[sod16]

Hello Gilderien,

CPU: intel i5 quad core (140-180) Scan
GPU: STOCK XFX HD7870 (160) Scan <Stock is bang for buck
RAM: 8gb DDR3 (£40) Scan
PSU: CX600 (£53) Yup, good choice.
HDD: 1TB (£50) Scan
DVD: Don't need one, get a USB stick or dropbox
CPU Cooler: Not too sure (32)
Case: Up to you. (65)
Mobo: Gigabyte GA-Z77-D3H £80, nice and easy..

That is 620 (Cheap i5)
or 660 (better i5 k varient)
You still have room for a better graphic card and, sorry I didn't put in the wireless card. I always recommend a huge Ethernet cable (£2 on Amazon)

(If you opt for a cheap quad i5 with no OC in mind, get a b75) Otherwise Z77. Do not over spend on your motherboard, I've done it twice and it is not worth it.

[sod16]

Sorry 2x post

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

The OP should get free postage from Scan on orders over £24 once they get 20 posts:

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

Also,Aria is overpriced for the HD7870LE/HD7870XT as once you include postage,those extra games are not worth it,as you can buy them off Ebay anyway.

I would also try to get an SSD into the build,if possible. With a number of online games,the SSD really does seem to help with not only loading times,but can reduce stuttering if certain things needs to be read off the disc during the game. I have PS2 for instance on my SSD.

If you are playing any online games,use a cable,as the latency will be better.

AMD Build







The parts are from Amazon,Ebuyer and Scan respectively.

The total comes to £674.30 with free Scan postage and excluding Ebuyer cashback.

Intel Build







The parts are from Amazon,Ebuyer and Scan respectively.

The total comes to £663.25 with free Scan postage and excluding Ebuyer cashback.


Alternate AMD Build







The parts are from Amazon,Ebuyer and Scan respectively.

The total comes to £689.88 with free Scan postage and excluding Ebuyer cashback.

The first AMD system has an SSD and the Intel system does not. The second AMD system also lacks an SSD,but has a better CPU cooler than the first two and has one of the best HD7950 3GB cards. There are cheaper ones,but the Gigabyte has a good warranty and a very good cooler too.

The motherboards in all three builds cannot do symmetrical Crossfire.

I would avoid the CX600W as it is overpriced for what it is,and uses cheaper components. The XFX PSU is made by Seasonic and uses decent components.

You can Nectar points from Amazon purchases BTW. Also,you can get cashback on Ebuyer purchases:

http://www.topcashback.co.uk/ebuyer/

[DanceswithUnix]

I have used Homeplug-AV 500Mbit/sec powerline ethernet adaptors for playing games for some time now. Bit more expensive than WiFi to start with (as you have to buy two) but works better than WiFi for me when a long ethernet cable just isn't practical (like across the hall and up the stairs).

[Gilderien]

Sod - Without a DVD drive, how do you propose I install windows?
Besides, supposing somebody gives me a CD of something? xD

I unfortunately can't really use a cable (Unless I can persuade parents to get a port installed in my room), and the router etc is right next to the TV etc, which leaves no spare sockets to use a powerline adapter, which is why I had the wireless card.

I chose that particular motherboard because I would be considering running crossfire later, and I also chose the 600W PSU in case I decided to upgrade gfx slightly.

Oh, and that's ~£140 worth of game with that £200 gfx card

Basically, the fact I'm currently forced to use wireless means I need a wireless card.. Although I might look into Moose's first suggestion some more, as that does still add room for one, as well as bolting an SSD onto the original build! Even if it does mean less freebie games, but tbh, I've got more than enough games on steam to be getting on with.

[Mehta23]

You can use a tool called wintobootic (I think) which will move any files to a flash drive and make it bookable. :-D then you just plug it in and from the bios select boot from usb.

[sod16]

http://www.microsoftstore.com/store/...usbdvd_dwnTool

Works with windows 8 and 7.
I Still recommend an i5 build. The key is to fiddle around and to see what you NEED 100% and don't need. See if there is alternatives, and shop around. Post around some more. If you look at the Z77 they do Xfire. Btw, dual graphic cards are somewhat annoying. Just read about it and see if it is for you.
.
Don't let the games be the only incentive, remember they get old and boring pretty fast. Think to your self why they would offer them to begin with and not just knock off £140.

[jimborae]

I unfortunately can't really use a cable (Unless I can persuade parents to get a port installed in my room), and the router etc is right next to the TV etc, which leaves no spare sockets to use a powerline adapter, which is why I had the wireless card.

Cant you use a non surge protected 4 or 6 plug extention lead in the socket by the TV, I've used them with PowerLine Adapators many times with no issues. Or better still get a pass through Home AV PowerLine Adapator? Bit more expensive but problem solved and way better than wireless especially for online gaming!

[Gilderien]

sod - I should probably update that list.. I've switched out the gfx for another 7870 =p And for the i5.. It's tempting, but the fact it's £170+ is kinda steering me away. Oh, and I've decided against crossfire.. If I need better gfx in future I'll probably go with a straight upgrade.

Cant you use a non surge protected 4 or 6 plug extention lead in the socket by the TV, I've used them with PowerLine Adapators many times with no issues. Or better still get a pass through Home AV PowerLine Adapator? Bit more expensive but problem solved and way better than wireless especially for online gaming!

Already one there, I'm afraid. D:
And that's one I've not heart of, what's the difference between that and standard powerline?

[jimborae]

sod - I should probably update that list.. I've switched out the gfx for another 7870 =p And for the i5.. It's tempting, but the fact it's £170+ is kinda steering me away. Oh, and I've decided against crossfire.. If I need better gfx in future I'll probably go with a straight upgrade.



Already one there, I'm afraid. D:
And that's one I've not heart of, what's the difference between that and standard powerline?

Then just plug an extention lead into the existing extension lead

Passthrough homeplug is a homeplug which you can plug things into. :
http://uk.tp-link.com/products/detai...el=TL-PA551KIT

[sod16]

sod - I should probably update that list.. I've switched out the gfx for another 7870 =p And for the i5.. It's tempting, but the fact it's £170+ is kinda steering me away. Oh, and I've decided against crossfire.. If I need better gfx in future I'll probably go with a straight upgrade.



Already one there, I'm afraid. D:
And that's one I've not heart of, what's the difference between that and standard powerline?

Scan.co.uk HD7870 reference card (not much worst then factory OC ones) are £167, and dual fan XFX one for 177.
both factory clock but one has an extra fan.
I always get a system, do one small upgrade, then change it so +1

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

sod - I should probably update that list.. I've switched out the gfx for another 7870 =p And for the i5.. It's tempting, but the fact it's £170+ is kinda steering me away. Oh, and I've decided against crossfire.. If I need better gfx in future I'll probably go with a straight upgrade.

The 970 also does Crossfire too. However,what you will find is that like with the cheaper Z77 based motherboards they only do PCI-E 16X/4X Crossfire,NOT PCI-E 8X/8X.

Also,the HD7870 you listed is a normal HD7870. The Myst card is a Tahiti based HD7870. It is the fastest card under £200 AFAIK:

http://hexus.net/tech/reviews/graphi...ture-2/?page=4

It outguns both the HD7870 and pre-overclocked GTX660 cards.

A few other things:
1.)The EVO cooler is cheaper from Scan(look at my list)
2.)The Asus M5A99X Evo R2.0 is £91.99 from Amazon(check all the listed prices to see the Amazon price)
3.)You might need to get a bigger PSU if you want Crossfire,ie,get a 650W one with 4 PCI-E power connectors
4.)If you don't want to go Crossfire/SLI,the 970 EVO will do the job with an FX6300
5.)The 300R can support very long cards. The CM case is limited to 12" cards or thereabouts

I would still go for this RAM:

http://www.ebuyer.com/342352-crucial...d1609ds1s00ceu

Its £5 cheaper and is 1.5V RAM unlike the 1.65V Kingston DIMMs.

[Gilderien]

jimborae - Ah, right.. I'll have to take a look into that then!

sod - not bad, but I'll probably go for the tahiti card Cat suggested.

Cat - Oh, right.. Didn't notice that difference in GFX. My bad. Thanks for the other advice btw, shifted some stuff around.. Although the 550W PSU is staying for now, as I probably won't go for crossfire in the future. Also going for the mobo from Scan rather than amazon. Even though Scan is slightly more expensive, I just tend to shy away from buying things from amazon.

[Mehta23]

After their RTB period is finished, scan won't help you if you had a problem.
If you contacted Amazon however, I'm sure they'd be happy to help.

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

Dabs has the Asus M5A97 EVO R2.0:

http://www.dabs.com/products/asus-m5...m_content=Q200

Dabs has the Asus M5A99X EVO R2.0 cheaper than other retailers:

http://www.dabs.com/products/asus-m5...%20asus&src=16

Make sure you get the R2.0 versions.

The only thing with the Tahiti based HD7870,it can be slightly noisier when gaming.