Trying to piece together a budget build PC

[salty mud]

Firstly, I'll have a budget of around £500 for this PC. I'm informed by a good friend that this is more than enough money to build a PC that can easily play the games of today on high levels. That is my aim: to play games of today well, and a computer that will last for a while into the future also.

I'm going to build this myself (I say myself, I'm actually relying on my friend to help me with the building; he's the one with the know-how) and as such I realise that a lot can go wrong in terms of buying components. I have a rough idea of things that need to be bought, the vitals so-to-speak: case, power pack, processor, motherboard, graphics card, RAM, DVD drive, keyboard... I have a good monitor so that is going to slash a good deal off my budget, hopefully allowing me to buy better components.

The internals of a computer I have very little knowledge about. I know certain motherboards are incompatible with certain cards, and only certain mix-and-matches will work. Is this quite strict, or are there only a few "combinations" to be aware of?

My friend recommended a Nvidea GeForce GTX 560Ti. He said this was a high end card last year, and is half the price now of what it was.

Here is a rough idea of what I'd like my PC to have:

~3GHz dual core processer
4/5GB RAM
Nvidea GeForce GTX 560Ti.

Any tips or recommendations you can give me? Could I make my PC even better for the money? And is building a PC really that difficult?

 

[Cutlass]

Building it really isn't very difficult. If possible you can save a few bucks if you get a used case. You can check around a bit to see if anyone is getting rid of an old non working PC. Keyboards and mice, maybe the power supply, and DVD drive can maybe be found that way.

 

[salty mud]

Mouse and monitor I'm fine for. I'm also hoping to sell off some spare parts of my current PC to help fund my new one.

 

[illram]

AMD is cheaper than Intel if you're on a budget. Not sure how you feel about AMD. I've always bought intel myself, but I think if I went budget for my next one I would go AMD.

Toms has a budget build guide for a ~$500 gaming rig based around an athlon X3 and a 6770, and last night I did some tinkering with my own budget build and came up with something similar but with an X4. Not easy to find a quad core intel chip for $99!

The main things you need to match are your CPU, mobo, and your RAM. For instance the AMD X4 CPU I put in my fictitious cart last night was a "socket AM3" type CPU, which means I needed to choose a socket AM3 mobo. On Newegg this is all very easy to do with their sorting options. Or if you bought, say, an old Intel dual core, you would get a "LGA 775" mobo. Then whatever mobo you get will take specific RAM, such as DDR3, and then all you need to do is go find that type of RAM and make sure it will operate at the timings the board specifies. (For instance, if you buy DDR3 1600 RAM, but your mobo only runs 1333, it will clock the RAM down I believe.)

That's it really. Here is my build that I put together last night. Nothing special.

1

G.SKILL Ripjaws Series 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Desktop Memory Model F3-12800CL9D-4GBRL

G.SKILL Ripjaws Series 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Desktop Memory
Item #:N82E16820231277
Return Policy: Memory Standard Return Policy
$32.99
1

XFX HD-677X-ZNLC Radeon HD 6770 1GB 128-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.1 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFireX Support Video Card

XFX Radeon HD 6770 HD-677X-ZNLC Video Card
Item #:N82E16814150540
Return Policy: VGA Standard Return Policy
$119.99
1

BIOSTAR A870U3 AM3 AMD 870 SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX AMD Motherboard

BIOSTAR A870U3 ATX AMD Motherboard
Item #:N82E16813138318
Return Policy: Standard Return Policy
$84.99
$69.99
1

AMD Athlon II X4 640 Propus 3.0GHz Socket AM3 95W Quad-Core Desktop Processor ADX640WFGMBOX

AMD Athlon II X4 640 3.0GHz Socket AM3 95W Quad-Core Desktop Processor
Item #:N82E16819103871
Return Policy: CPU Replacement Only Return Policy
$99.99
1

LIAN LI Lancool PC-K56 Black 0.8 mm SECC, Plastic + Mesh ATX Mid Tower Computer Case

LIAN LI Lancool PC-K56 Black Computer Case
Item #:N82E16811112235
Return Policy: Standard Return Policy
$79.99
$59.99
1

Rosewill Stallion Series RD500-2DB 500W ATX12V Power Supply

Rosewill Stallion Series RD500-2DB 500W Power Supply
Item #:N82E16817182044
Return Policy: Standard Return Policy
$59.99
$39.99
1

Western Digital Caviar Blue WD5000AAKS 500GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive

Western Digital Caviar Blue 500GB 3.5" SATA 3.0Gb/s Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive
Item #:N82E16822136073
Return Policy: Standard Return Policy
$49.99
1

LITE-ON DVD Burner - Bulk Black SATA Model iHAS124-04

LITE-ON DVD Burner - Bulk Black SATA Model iHAS124-04
Item #:N82E16827106289
Return Policy: Standard Return Policy
$18.99
1

Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 64-bit

Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 64-bit
Item #:N82E16832116986
Return Policy: Software Standard Return Policy
$99.99
Grand Total: $591.91

 

[MobBoss]

I second the recommendation to go to Tomshardware.com and check out their PC budget building series. That will give you a good base of what to expect.

I think you can build a gaming PC for that amount of money, but i'm not sure about it playing games at 'high' levels. I guess it depends on what you regard as 'high level'.

Anyway, part of the problem of building a budget PC like that is while it may run current games right now, its not going to for very long. Myself, I am not an AMD fan. Never have been, and the one time I built myself an AMD system, I didnt really like it. Some people swear by it tho.

But taking a look at the parts Illram lists out for you, I can tell you right now you will be wanting to upgrade some of those in fairly short time. Of particular concern would be the video card. While the Radeon 6770 is a decent enough card, its also about 4/5 generations back of the current cutting edge, and I would say your video card is the one place you dont really want to cut costs on if your planning on gaming. Consider that for about 50 bucks more you can get a Radeon 6870 which is a very good card for its money - it has the same performance as the Geforce 560 ti (if not better) and is a bit cheaper.

Another place you typically dont want to cut corners in is your power supply - often something a lot of people take for granted. Do some research on this, because a good power supply is worth spending just a bit more for where your dollars are concerned.

I would actully recommend spending a bit more and grabbing a Intel CPU Core i5-2500k (about 200 bucks) and a budget mobo from a good name brand company (Asus/Gigabyte/MSI) that meets your needs as opposed to having a ton of bells/whistles.

In the long run, I think you would be better served by spending just a bit more, but getting a higher quality system that will last a bit longer between needed upgrades. Also, consider spreading out the purchases over a period of time as opposed to all at once so you can get what you really want as opposed to being limited to current cash on hand.

EDIT: Just as an aside, this is what Toms hardware has for its June 2011 $500 budget PC:

CPU Intel Core i3-2100 $125
CPU Cooler Intel boxed heatsink/fan $0
Motherboard ASRock H61M-VS $60
RAM Crucial 4 GB (2 x 2 GB) DDR3-1333 CT2KIT25664BA1339 $40
Graphics Sapphire 100315L Radeon HD 6850 1 GB $170
Hard Drive Seagate Barracuda ST3500413AS 500 GB, SATA 6Gb/s $40
Case Xigmatek Asgard II B/S CPC-T45UE-U01 $30
Power Antec EarthWatts Green EA380D 380 W $40
Optical Asus 24X DVD Burner SATA Model DRW-24B1ST/BLK/B/AS $21
Total Price
$526

This setup gives this kind of performance: http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/diy-gaming-pc,2970-8.html

And fwiw, since June, I know you can now get a Radeon HD 6870 for that price or even less now.

 

[illram]

Interesting,the Tom's I linked is from August, why did they downgrade?

My only issue with spending tons of money on video cards is they all go out of date so fast. I usually find that there is a sweet spot in the video card market around just recently out of date card models that will last you for a few years. I don't know about how big of an upgrade the 68 vs the 67 AMD is, Mobby may be correct that one will last much longer than the other but I would look into that and make sure that $50 is actually buying you that much more time.

Or if you are a real cheap-skate like me, a year out of date. Heck I just bought a 5570 a month ago for $50 and I am running most games at decent frame rates and speeds, I'm not a stickler for the latest and greatest. I'm one of those "use it til it breaks" types. I'm still playing games on an E6600 build. When it comes to PC gaming trying to stay on top of stuff just gets too expensive.

 

[MobBoss]

Illram, the basic rule of thumb for video card upgrades is if your upgrade is at least 3 hierarchies above the one you are currently using, its probably a worthwhile upgrade. I use this chart from Toms to keep track of that: http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/gaming-performance-radeon-geforce,2997-7.html

For example, my PC currently has a Geforce 8800 GTS 512 in it. I've had that for about 4 years now, and even today it still performs pretty well at lower graphics settings with me tweaking a few things like AA/AAS and shadows. So my card is roughly 9 tiers back from todays best card available. That means that a good upgrade for me would be at least tier 6 or higher. Considering that a Radeon HD 6870 is a teir 5 card for only about 160 bucks I could get a significant boost to my graphics capability for not much money.

My personal sweet spot tends to be at the 80% to 85% performance of the best card available. That card will usually end up in the $170 to $250 price range and will usually last you a good 4 to 5 years, IF you keep your drivers updated and set your card up for performance more than quality. If you insist on gaming at the highest resolutions possible with full AA/AAS for the full eye candy experience, then yeah, you will need to be continually updating your video card. But if you get a balance of performance vs graphic quality, game at a bit lower res, and then tweak settings to give you an acceptable gaming experience, a good video card can last you a number of years.

Also, Illram it may depend on what kind of games you play too. Some games just arent as graphic card intense as others. Newer games with really good 3d effects (explosions, splatter, terrain, shadows, water effects) will require a pretty modern vid card to get the best out of.

 

[salty mud]

So by your logic MobBoss, I am going up 4 tiers, as I also have an 8800GT. A bloody fantastic card.

 

[MobBoss]

So by your logic MobBoss, I am going up 4 tiers, as I also have an 8800GT. A bloody fantastic card.

Yeah, I have gotten really good value out of my 8800 GTS 512 and will actually be kind of sad to see it go eventually. Down thru the years, its probably lasted longer than any other video card i've ever had, so thats saying something.

 

[GoodGame]

Just a thought, price the power consumption of your build. Components are rapidly increasing in power consumption these days. It's not such a big deal with the CPU since the tradeoff is lower net consumption for higher bursts of consumption, but there's a big difference in video cards these days. You might actually be pretty happy with a $100 budget card (I just jumped up about 7 tiers from a 8600 GT to a 450 GTS) with moderate increase in power consumption and very satisfactory jump in gaming performance. Card price wasn't the reason why I didn't go higher, but the killowatts per hour cost bothered me more.

 

[MobBoss]

Why would your energy consumption bother you more?

 

[salty mud]

Because more energy consumption = higher energy bills?

 

[GoodGame]

That's my concern, especially since I'm not playing games that are particularly bleeding edge in graphics, and most of the games scale in graphics settings very well (e.g. MMOs like World of Tanks) in which I care more about having a decent FPS. I see no reason to pay more for the card or the energy costs if I don't really need the extra eye-candy.


Back to the OP, I agree that the GTX 560-Ti is a pretty nice card. I was actually considering buying the similar GTX 550-Ti (the MSI model with "Cyclone" heat sink was turning me on), but I opted to conserve a little more with the GTS 450 since there wasn't a huge performance difference (though some).

edit: forgot the "not"

 

[salty mud]

Perhaps I should mention that, as a benchmark, I'm using games such as Shogun 2: Total War. My current PC can easily handle games like Portal 2, Left 4 Dead, Fallout and S.T.A.L.K.E.R, but more intensive games such as Shogun is what lets it down. Perhaps I should also say that I am still on XP, and I can only manage DX9. Obviously my new PC will have Windows 7 as an OS (which I can get legally off my friend, for free. ) How much effect will the leap to DX11 make?

 

[Zelig]

Perhaps I should mention that, as a benchmark, I'm using games such as Shogun 2: Total War. My current PC can easily handle games like Portal 2, Left 4 Dead, Fallout and S.T.A.L.K.E.R, but more intensive games such as Shogun is what lets it down. Perhaps I should also say that I am still on XP, and I can only manage DX9. Obviously my new PC will have Windows 7 as an OS (which I can get legally off my friend, for free. ) How much effect will the leap to DX11 make?

Basically none, the upgrade to DX11 from DX9 is the last reason you should upgrade from WinXP to Win7.

 

[illram]

If power consumption is a concern, Intel's new Sandy Bridge I3's are 65W and run cool. (They even have a 35W i3 and a 65W quad-core i5! Crazy, although they are more expensive and the 35W runs about 600Mhz slower.) Overall Intel's new chips are much more energy efficient than AMD's current offerings. I think AMD's all range between 95 and 125W.

An i3 2100, such as the one Mobboss pointed out, paired with a mid to high end video card (so basically, Mobboss' build or thereabouts) would not suck as much juice as a comparable but maybe cheaper AMD system. If you were picky about your fans and your case you could probably even make it nice and quiet.

 

[mdwh]

From a practical point of view when it comes to building (since you say you're new to this), personally I find AMD processors *much* easier to fit to motherboards than Intel (the former just go in with two clips, one on each side; Intel chips are positioned on four huge legs, which you have to force through four holes in the motherboard, making sure they all go in properly, pushing with enough force to get them in, but not too much that it breaks the motherboard...)

 

[innonimatu]

A budget PC would be about £300, so your budget should be more than enough. AMD is indeed cheaper, and will leave you more to spend on other components.

Whatever you do, don't try to save on the power supply. You won't need a very powerful one, but do get a reliable brand/model. Check this site and its forums.

 

[salty mud]

Ok, I'm leaning towards AMD for a processor then at your recommendations. As long as it won't have a large negative impact on my games, that is.

I know not to scrimp on power. To be honest, I'm amazed my PC right now is still running. From memory, I think my PC had a maximum of 350W and it can run modern games on a 8800GT quite well indeed!

 

[illram]

Check out anandtech's bench charts, e.g. here is the i3 2100 vs. the Athlon X4 640. If going with AMD, you may be better off spending a bit more to get the Phenom line (950 and above), which when paired with applicable mobos will still usually wind up cheaper than an i3 + an LGA 1155 mobo, with mostly imperceptible differences in frame rates, plus you get four cores in case future games are made to take more advantage of extra cores. (And the CPU itself is still cheaper than the i3.)

If you're price comparing to Intel builds, ignore LGA 1156 for Intel builds--it is a dead line. Look at LGA 1155 instead.