£500 Gaming PC

[TheFallen]

Hey guys. I am looking at building a gaming PC for a friend but wanted to get some advice from here seeing as you know much more than I do about everything.

The budget is £500 max, but this doesn't include a monitor, OS, or any other peripherals.

I have come up with a rough idea of what I think will be good but if you can point out any possible problems or potential upgrades then I would greatly appreciate it.

CPU: AMD FX-6300 3.5GHz 6-Core Processor
£84.65

Mobo: MSI 970A-G46 ATX AM3+ Motherboard
£58.94

RAM: Mushkin Blackline 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory
£38.20

HDD: Hitachi Ultrastar 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive
£35.99

GPU: Sapphire Radeon HD 7950 3GB Video Card
£198.98

PSU: Corsair CX 500W 80 PLUS Bronze Certified ATX12V Power Supply
£49.57

Case: Cooler Master K280 ATX Mid Tower Case
£32.99

DVD: Lite-On iHAS124-04 DVD/CD Writer
£13.15

Total: £512.47

The only other change I was thinking of making would be adding an SSD to boost the boot time of the OS but it is difficult to fit into the budget without making sacrifices elsewhere.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

EDIT: Just noticed RAM is out of stock so will look for another one and edit ASAP

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

Get this motherboard:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/M5A97-R2-0-M...words=asus+970

The MSI motherboards have weaker VRM setups than the equivalent Asus,Gigabyte or Biostar motherboards.

The motherboard in the link is usually closer to 70 quid at most retailers.

If you are looking to overclock a decent amount I would look at the following motherboard:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/M5A97-EVO-R2...words=asus+evo

I would get this PSU:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/OCZ-OCZ-ZS55...words=xfx+550w

The XFX PRO 550W would be the other PSU I would look at.

Both are better build than the Corsair CX 500W.

Alternate cases:

http://www.ebuyer.com/239238-casecom...an-k5-9388blue
http://www.amazon.co.uk/BitFenix-Mer...rds=merc+alpha

Both can take long graphics card.

The Hitachi HDD is secondhand,so I would look at getting a new HDD for around 10 quid more.

You can get better HD7950 3GB cards for less,and at around 200 quid the one you are looking at is nearly HD7970 3GB or R9 280X 3GB level pricing.

If you want to save some money,and get near HD7950 3GB level performance,I would look at the HD7870LE:

http://www.hotukdeals.com/deals/vtx3...amazon-1686875
http://www.hotukdeals.com/deals/xfx-...livery-1681968

The cards are noisy and do run a bit hot,but have very good performance for the price. The VTX3D one is meant to be better IIRC. However,with the money saved you could get an FX8320,and a enthusiast orientated motherboard.

[shaithis]

Can't argue with that for the money at all, pretty much identical to what I would have specced for the same budget. I would personally go with Corsair RAM as it's cheap and seems to work in everything without issues, although I am sure the Mushkin and Crucial stuff is just as good.

Might just be worth waiting a week or two to see what happens to GPU prices...

[TheFallen]

CPU: AMD FX-6300 3.5GHz 6-Core Processor
£84.65

Mobo: Asus M5A97 R2.0
£59

RAM: Crucial BLS2CP4G3D1609DS1S00CEU Sport 8GB Kit
£59.99

HDD: Seagate 7200.14 1TB
£45.32

GPU: VTX3D AMD Radeon HD 7870 Tahiti LE
£152

PSU: OCZ OCZ-ZS550W-UK 550W
£41.90

Case: BitFenix Merc Alpha Midi Tower
£32.90

DVD: Lite-On iHAS124-04 DVD/CD Writer
£13.15

Total: £488.91

How does this look now?

Still not sure on the graphics card. Is it worth spending a little bit extra on a HD 7970 or perhaps a R280X?

[herulach]

CPU: AMD FX-6300 3.5GHz 6-Core Processor
£84.65

Mobo: Asus M5A97 R2.0
£59

RAM: Crucial BLS2CP4G3D1609DS1S00CEU Sport 8GB Kit
£59.99

HDD: Seagate 7200.14 1TB
£45.32

GPU: VTX3D AMD Radeon HD 7870 Tahiti LE
£152

PSU: OCZ OCZ-ZS550W-UK 550W
£41.90

Case: BitFenix Merc Alpha Midi Tower
£32.90

DVD: Lite-On iHAS124-04 DVD/CD Writer
£13.15

Total: £488.91

How does this look now?

Still not sure on the graphics card. Is it worth spending a little bit extra on a HD 7970 or perhaps a R280X?

Yes, even though I think you mean 7950, but still yes. Bin the DVD drive if you have to,

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

The HD7870LE has gone up in price. I would probably look at an HD7950 for a few quid more TBH.

I will have a look later on for you for any good deals.

[DanceswithUnix]

The hard drive comes with a 1 year warranty. That says to me that even Seagate don't trust it.

An extra fiver gets you twice that: http://www.ebuyer.com/393482-wd-1tb-...drive-wd10ezex

Only decent warranty I know of atm is WD Black, they are fast drives as well but you pay for them: http://www.ebuyer.com/193712-wd-1tb-...ive-wd1002faex