PC Build £500

Shiny · Post by **Shiny** » Thu Nov 20, 2014 12:43 pm

Ok chaps, i know there are a few pc geeks here, so wouldn't mind a thumbs up or down.

Building a pc for my lad, will be used for gaming, surfing and the odd bit of homework. £500 budget, which i have already exceeded, looking at this - http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/p/WWLZGX

Did originally have this GPU http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/part/evga-vi ... 2gp43751kr but by the looks of things on GPUboss the the R9 270x is better and not much more money.

Abuse my ignorance with your knowledge....

Confused · Post by **Confused** » Thu Nov 20, 2014 1:09 pm

I'd personally avoid the AMD processors - they're just not as good as Intel at the moment.

I'd look at something like this:

YOUR BASKET
1 x MSI Radeon R9 280 Gaming 3072MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £149.99
1 x Microsoft Windows 8.1 64-Bit DVD - OEM (WN7-00614) £77.99
1 x MSI H97M-G43 Intel H97 (Socket 1150) Micro ATX Motherboard £64.99
1 x TeamGroup Elite Black 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C11 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (TPKD38G1600HC11DC01) £59.99
1 x Kingston HyperX Fury 120GB 2.5" SATA 6Gbps Solid State Drive (SHFS37A/120G) £54.98
1 x Intel Pentium K Anniversary G3258 Socket LGA1150 Processor - Retail £49.99
1 x Corsair Builder Series CX 430W V2 '80 Plus Bronze' Power Supply (CP-9020046-UK) £34.99
1 x Cooler Master Elite 344 Micro ATX Case - Black/Blue £32.99
Total : £540.91 (includes shipping : £12.50).

You could add another £20 and get double the space on the SSD. Don't even consider building a new computer nowadays without an SSD! You don't need an optical drive - no one uses them, and every game can be downloaded over the internet from Steam or Origin or GOG.

I've also given you the next step up in graphics card. You don't really need a modular power supply (though add £5 for one), and 430W will be plenty for this.

Shiny · Post by **Shiny** » Thu Nov 20, 2014 1:37 pm

Cheers.

Is there nothing on my list that is any good then? lol.

What about fans etc and a HDD? Will still need a HDD.

We do have a lot of stuff on disc, but i guess I could always use the old optical drive in his old pc?

Post by **indigolemon** » Thu Nov 20, 2014 2:06 pm

Not to be picky, but adding a Windoze DVD to his list then telling him not to buy an optical drive is rather cruel

Shiny · Post by **Shiny** » Thu Nov 20, 2014 2:35 pm

Lol, true, i also have MS Office on CD, and he will want to rip his CD's to MP3, so an optical drive is definitely a must.

Confused · Post by **Confused** » Thu Nov 20, 2014 3:15 pm

Meh, you can download the Windows 8.1 installer to USB.

Add a tenner for this then

(or re-use an old one if it is SATA)

Memory/power supply/case is all personal preferences, and are all interchangeable anyway. Your extra fans/CPU cooler aren't really needed over what comes with the CPU/case for running at stock, you're spending money on these things rather than better components.

If you didn't want to overclock, you could get a slightly cheaper motherboard. But given how well that Pentium Anniversary CPU will overclock... it's free performance!