Building a gaming PC for £700

Mark4_4

Mark4_4

Member
Hey, I am looking to build a gaming PC for up to £700 but I'm not sure where to start. Could I get a recommended build for the price.
 
C4C

C4C

Well-Known Member
Shlouski said:
No OS

http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/list/HhKdHN
Click to expand...

Great build, but I see some places to make changes and save some money.

First, the no OS issue. OEM Win10 key for 23 GBP on Kinguin :: https://www.kinguin.net/dk/category/19429/windows-10-professional-oem-key/

- CPU cooler could be swapped with a cheaper one if not overclocking.
- 1TB drive for games and other media unless it's added later
- Semi modular PSU cause the case is tight

700 GBP includes OS http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/list/Mk7gBP

Just a thought but cheaper aftermarket GPU that can overclock very well (Nitro+ RX 470)
 
Shlouski

Shlouski

VIP Member
C4C said:
Great build, but I see some places to make changes and save some money.

First, the no OS issue. OEM Win10 key for 23 GBP on Kinguin :: https://www.kinguin.net/dk/category/19429/windows-10-professional-oem-key/

- CPU cooler could be swapped with a cheaper one if not overclocking.
- 1TB drive for games and other media unless it's added later
- Semi modular PSU cause the case is tight

700 GBP includes OS http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/list/Mk7gBP

Just a thought but cheaper aftermarket GPU that can overclock very well (Nitro+ RX 470)
Click to expand...

That's a nice price for Windows 10.

True, if he's not overclocking then I guess he could save some money and just go for the none K version and he wouldn't need a z170 motherboard as well, so he could get a cheaper one, but really its not so much of a saving and he would be giving up the possibility of some nice performance gains, I'm sure we could help him to do some overclocking, but I do understand some prefer not too, which is ok :(

Personally I prefer Gigabyte or Asus to MSI, but each to their own.

I would suggest he went for the SSD first and then later adding another drive if needed, this would prevent him having to mess around re-install windows and all his programs or having to moving them on to the SSD, because if you have an SSD you really want your OS booting of it and not your HDD. He could buy the SSD now then simply add a HDD later to use as storage or to run program that he feels don't need to load as fast, up to him.
 
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Mark4_4

Mark4_4

Member
Thanks for the replies, I'm pretty impressed with what I'm getting for my money so far!
As for the overclocking I'd like to avoid it really.
An SSD is preferred especially since I don't think I'd need a ton of memory, 240gb should be enough for me to be honest. If I need more I can upgrade at a later date.

Also for comparison could I get a build for around £600 budget? Thinking about lowering the budget a little.
 
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Shlouski

Shlouski

VIP Member
Mark4_4 said:
Thanks for the replies, I'm pretty impressed with what I'm getting for my money so far!
As for the overclocking I'd like to avoid it really.
An SSD is preferred especially since I don't think I'd need a ton of memory, 240gb should be enough for me to be honest. If I need more I can upgrade at a later date.

Also for comparison could I get a build for around £600 budget? Thinking about lowering the budget a little.
Click to expand...

If you go down to 600 then you are really going to need to sacrifice something:

1. Slower CPU
2. Slower GPU
3. A motherboard that doesn't support USB3.1 and USB-C, these ports maybe nice to have in the future, USB-C should become the new standard.

There is really not much money to be saved on the Case, PSU, RAM or SSD

SSD = 57
500GB HDD = 34

Even slow SSD's will give you a much better experience over a HDD, would you want to lose that for 23 pounds?

You could half your RAM to 8GB instead of 16GB and save 26 pounds. I personally don't do much more than browsing and gaming, but somehow I still get through the best part of 8GB of RAM, so I would go for 16GB, but you could go for 8GB now and then upgrade another 8GB later if needed.

You can save 5 or 6 pounds on a cheaper smaller case, but only if you get a MATX motherboard.

Don't compromise on the PSU, you will want between 500 to 600 watts if you are going to put a big GPU in there and its important you get a reliable one.

Now if you really needed to get down to 600 pounds then personally I would go for 8GB of RAM and go for a cheaper GPU. GPU upgrades can be easily added over the years to improve your graphics performance as a CPU like the i5-6600 should be able to cope with GPU's many years into the future.
 
Mark4_4

Mark4_4

Member
C4C said:
Got this one down to £589 with OS : http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/list/r88wgL

i5-6600 + Basic MSI mobo
8GB 2400MHz RAM
Kingston 240GB SSD (really happy with the one I have)
PowerColor RX 460 Red Dragon (easy to overclock if desired)
Case + Semi-modular PSU + OS
Click to expand...

That looks great, would that graphics card support 2 monitors? Since I have 2 monitors atm.

Shlouski said:
If you go down to 600 then you are really going to need to sacrifice something:

1. Slower CPU
2. Slower GPU
3. A motherboard that doesn't support USB3.1 and USB-C, these ports maybe nice to have in the future, USB-C should become the new standard.

There is really not much money to be saved on the Case, PSU, RAM or SSD

SSD = 57
500GB HDD = 34

Even slow SSD's will give you a much better experience over a HDD, would you want to lose that for 23 pounds?

You could half your RAM to 8GB instead of 16GB and save 26 pounds. I personally don't do much more than browsing and gaming, but somehow I still get through the best part of 8GB of RAM, so I would go for 16GB, but you could go for 8GB now and then upgrade another 8GB later if needed.

You can save 5 or 6 pounds on a cheaper smaller case, but only if you get a MATX motherboard.

Don't compromise on the PSU, you will want between 500 to 600 watts if you are going to put a big GPU in there and its important you get a reliable one.

Now if you really needed to get down to 600 pounds then personally I would go for 8GB of RAM and go for a cheaper GPU. GPU upgrades can be easily added over the years to improve your graphics performance as a CPU like the i5-6600 should be able to cope with GPU's many years into the future.
Click to expand...

That's really useful info thanks alot, I'll bare that all in mind.
 
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C4C

C4C

Well-Known Member
Mark4_4 said:
That looks great, would that graphics card support 2 monitors? Since I have 2 monitors atm.
Click to expand...

The RX 460 has one DVI-D, one HDMI, and one display port.

The issue with the RX 460 is that it'll only be able to do 1080p gaming at mid-high settings. The RX 470 which costs almost double can almost do max settings comfortably.

The plus side is that the CPU is a strong one for the price, and will allow you to upgrade the GPU when you want!
 
Mark4_4

Mark4_4

Member
C4C said:
The RX 460 has one DVI-D, one HDMI, and one display port.

The issue with the RX 460 is that it'll only be able to do 1080p gaming at mid-high settings. The RX 470 which costs almost double can almost do max settings comfortably.

The plus side is that the CPU is a strong one for the price, and will allow you to upgrade the GPU when you want!
Click to expand...

http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/product/sgbkcf/asus-video-card-gtx950oc2gd5 is this a worthwhile upgrade for the build?
 
Intel_man

Intel_man

VIP Member
Right now, in the order of increasing performance, the cards to buy are
  1. RX 460
  2. RX 470
  3. Gtx 1060 6gb
  4. Gtx 1070
  5. Gtx 1080
You can pretty much ignore everything else that slots in between as the prices and/or business practises for those models aren't worth it.
 
Mark4_4

Mark4_4

Member
ah okay then, thank you so much for the help this build looks great. Other than thermal paste, peripherals and monitor is there anything else I need?
 
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