First Build, Mid-Range Gaming PC

martineatworld

1. What is your budget? €600-€800, the lower the better, although whatever in that range gives me the best bang for my buck.

2. What will be the main purpose of the computer? Gaming (FM2013, Indie games, Stalker, Skyrim, Divinity 2) and streaming from a media drive

3. Do you need a copy of Windows? Yup, I'm a student though if that makes a difference.

4. Can you use any parts from an old computer? Unfortunately not.

5. Do you need a monitor? Yes

5a. If yes, what size do you need. 22' to 24'

6. Do you need any of these peripherals? Wireless Card + Speakers needed

7. Are you willing to try overclocking? Yes, but I'd rather not.

8. How can you pay? Anyway. Paypal, Bank Transfer, Laser, Credit card etc

9. When are you purchasing? Next fortnight if possible

Haven't built a PC before but reasonably confident I could manage it along with an FAQ. Would like an SSD if possible although that might be hard to fit in with a monitor for that budget.

Thanks in advance for the help...!

Gumbi

Building a computer from scratch, including an OS, monitor and peripherals on that budget is going to be tight. I'd ask around and see if you can pick up spare speakers, a keyboard, even a mouse from friends. This allows you some spare cash for the meat of your system. I'm running a fairly specced machine (and having today placed an order for a very nice CPU/RAM upgrade), but I am using speakers from a Windows 95 system my mom bought at least 12 years ago!

When I built my system using Boards over years ago, I got a HDD and keyboard from a friend.

If you can squeeze these in, an SSD (which is definitely a sweet thing to have) will probably be possible.

BTW, I have a spare USB wireless key which I could give to you if you were nearby, or you could pay 55c for postage?

areyawell

Item Price
ASRock H77 Pro4/MVP, Sockel 1155, ATX €77.69
Intel Core i3-3220 Box, LGA1155 €105.07
Sapphire Radeon HD 7850, 1GB GDDR5, lite retail €169.98
WD Caviar Blue 500GB SATA 3 6Gb/s €51.88
LG GH24NS bare schwarz €18.38
BitFenix Merc Alpha €31.87
Super-Flower Amazon 80Plus 450W €42.35
8GB Corsair ValueSelect PC3-10667U CL9-9-9-24 €30.60
BenQ G2255 €105.00
Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium 64-Bit (SB-Version) €82.88
ASUS PCE-N10 wireless card €9.90
Delivery €18.99
Total €744.59

Can pick up a cheap keyboard, mouse and speakers from Argos.

Can obviously go cheaper with the build if you want but will play all games maxed out at 1080P resolution

Gumbi

areyawell wrote: »

Item Price
ASRock H77 Pro4/MVP, Sockel 1155, ATX €77.69
Intel Core i3-3220 Box, LGA1155 €105.07
Sapphire Radeon HD 7850, 1GB GDDR5, lite retail €169.98
WD Caviar Blue 500GB SATA 3 6Gb/s €51.88
LG GH24NS bare schwarz €18.38
BitFenix Merc Alpha €31.87
Super-Flower Amazon 80Plus 450W €42.35
8GB Corsair ValueSelect PC3-10667U CL9-9-9-24 €30.60
BenQ G2255 €105.00
Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium 64-Bit (SB-Version) €82.88
ASUS PCE-N10 wireless card €9.90
Delivery €18.99
Total €744.59

Can pick up a cheap keyboard, mouse and speakers from Argos.

Can obviously go cheaper with the build if you want but will play all games maxed out at 1080P resolution

This looks good. It will be slightly over budget taking keyboard, mouse and speakers into account, though.

But yeah, squeezing in an SSD isn't going to be possible as it stands.

martineatworld

Thanks for the help so far....!

I've a KB and mouse already and I probably can pick up speakers somewhere so you can ignore their cost.

I think I might be able to get my hands on a hard drive also, so that can further knock down the price.

I'll also be able to get Windows elsewhere so that doesn't have to come from the budget either.

What areas should I improve with this saved money?

tuxy

Get an i5 cpu with the extra money.

areyawell

ASRock H77 Pro4/MVP, Sockel 1155, ATX €77.69
Intel Core i5-3550 €186.32
Sapphire Radeon HD 7850, 1GB GDDR5, lite retail €169.98
LG GH24NS bare schwarz €18.38
BitFenix Merc Alpha €31.87
Super-Flower Amazon 80Plus 450W €42.35
8GB Corsair ValueSelect PC3-10667U CL9-9-9-24 €30.60
BenQ G2255 €105.00
ASUS PCE-N10 wireless card €9.90
Delivery €18.99
Total €691.05

Updated i3 to an i5 - Probably could stick in an SSD and a better graphics card for an extra 100 if you wanted. That processor is top of the range and graphics card is perfect for 1080P gaming.

TerrorFirmer

For the sake of less than a tenner, also worth going for a 2GB 7850.

tuxy

I would save a tenner and get this.

http://lb.hardwareversand.de/1024+MB/63523/HIS+HD+7850+GDDR5+1024MB+DVI+HDMI+2xMini+DP.article

Not much point having 2gb on the 7850

TerrorFirmer

It doesn't benefit it the majority of the time in a serious way, but I'd still go with it if he plans holding onto it for the near future.

Gumbi

Has anyone an explanation for the fact that the 2GB version seemed to be ever so slightly slower in some games?

Eboggles

Gumbi wrote: »

Has anyone an explanation for the fact that the 2GB version seemed to be ever so slightly slower in some games?

I'd say it's just the margin of error, after all no two cards are going to be exactly the same.

There's no way you could tell the difference between 50fps and 49fps, so I wouldn't worry about it.

Gumbi

Eboggles wrote: »

I'd say it's just the margin of error, after all no two cards are going to be exactly the same.

There's no way you could tell the difference between 50fps and 49fps, so I wouldn't worry about it.

Fair enough. I just saw the pattern in the 2 gig version being slower instead of the margin being random.