Feronix
New member
With PC building there is that awkward middle segment between low-end and high-end rigs, ranging from roughly 500 to 700 pounds. What does a pre-built PC like that get you in a shop?
Well, at PCWorld £500 gets you an FX 4100 with an R7 250, while £700 buys you an i5 4460 with a GTX 745. Not very impressive to say at the least. Let's see if we can do better. I've decided to go for the middle budget-wise, thus £600 while trying to get a build together that will out-perform PCWorld's 700 quid system. And I've succeeded.
For a build with this budget, there really is no way around AMD's offerings so if you want to go for the more fully-blown, upgradable Intel platform you will probably have to spend around £50 more on an i5 4460, although you might save some money on the motherboard. With the system in this thread, you can get away with a video card upgrade, but CPU upgrades are out of the question.
First of all we're going with one of AMD's 'newest' CPUs. 8 Cores clocked at 3.2GHz, turboing up to 4GHz, all while costing only £100. We can consider the AMD FX-8320E as nothing but a steal. It's basically a cherry-picked 8320, so they're a bit dated, but that makes them cheap and you seriously can not get a better performing chip at that price-point. Especially now games are starting to make use of the extra cores it offer with the octa-core consoles around.
Overclock3D Review
Alternatives:
AMD FX-8350: This chip is a little faster but also a solid 30 quid more expensive and thus would've pushed us over budget too much in this case. Also, if you're spending that money you might as well go Intel.
Intel Core i5 4460: This 4th generation Intel Core i5 is locked, so you cannot overclock it but it's still a very solid performer with 4 cores at 3.2GHz, boosting up to 3.4GHz. Granted you get half the cores than you do with the AMD chips, Intel cores perform a lot better than AMD ones, so keep that in mind.
---------------------------
With the 8 core AMD CPUs it really isn't a good idea to stick with the stock cooler. It won't perform that well and will be very, very loud. So we're picking up the good old Cooler Master Hyper 212 Evo to cool the CPU. It will keep the build cooler, quieter and allow for some overclocking if you want.
Overclock3D Review
Alternatives:
BeQuiet! Pure Rock: The Pure Rock is a very similar heatsink to the Hyper 212 Evo, but includes a BeQuiet! fan which is arguably better. They cost around the same, but unfortunately this cheaper BeQuiet heatsink isn't all black like its bigger brothers are.
---------------------------
To accompany the CPU I'm going with 8GB of RAM, which I think is the sweetspot for gaming now, even though most games themselves barely use more than 4GBs of system memory, the OS itself and some background applications will always hog resources, so more it better as long as you don't go overboard and waste money where it's not needed.
In this case you'll also want Low Profile memory so you can be certain it will fit under the CPU cooler comfortably. The Corsair Vengeance 2x4GB LP Black clocked at 1600MHz with 9-9-9-24 timings will serve us greatly, and allow you to add an additional 8GB later down the line.
Alternative:
Corsair Vengeance 2x4GB LP Red: It's essentially the same RAM, but with red heatspreaders. Both will fit the build and colour scheme perefctly but when I put it together the red ones were just a little more expensive.
---------------------------
All of the above would be useless without a motherboard to put it in. As the 'high-end' CPU still draws a fair bit of power, it's not the best idea to pair it up with a cheap motherboard. The budget allowed for a fairly decent one even.
With two USB3 ports at the back, and an internal header, Realtek ALC1150 audio on-board, and a beautiful red colour scheme, the full ATX MSI 970 Gaming is a great motherboard. It features a nice PCI-E layout, with support for CrossfireX and SLI, and even then you'll have a free 1x slot left at the top for additional cards.
It also has 6 Sata ports which are all Sata III, which is nice for SSDs.
Alternatives:
Asus M5A99X EVO Rev 2.0: This board by Asus is £20 more expensive and a very, very solid board. Probably the best price/performance you can get for the FX-8xxx series. It would however ruin the perfect black and red colour scheme that we've got going so far.
---------------------------
A case that fits this build very well is made by Corsair. Featuring front USB3, an all black interior with cable management options, a massive window, agressive looks and a front-mounted red LED fan. The Corsair Carbide Spec 01 is a full ATX cause that offers all these features at an affordable price point and even allows for some upgrades, like SLI and AIO watercoolers.
Overclock3D Review
Alternatives:
Cooler Master K280: This case is a bit cheaper, but the internals are not as good as the Corsair's. The drive mounting system screams budget case, the cable management options are not that great and it doesn't feature a window. It still gives you gaming looks with a red LED fan at a lower price point though.
Silverstone PS11: This case is exactly the same as the Corsair Spec cases, as they come from the same OEM. The price however, is slightly higher by 2 points but the looks are more understated and professional looking. It also has a blue intake fan instead of red. Might be a great fit if you pick up the alternative Asus motherboard mentioned earlier.
Zalman Z11 Red: With agressive looks, a smoked window and the best out-of the box air cooling out of all these options and red or blue LED options available this case would be a great purchase. It is however a tenner more than the other cases and doesn't allow for a 240mm AIO like the Corsair and Silverstone do.
---------------------------
With this budget, we had to save a little on the power supply that can go into this build, but 600 Watts should be more than plenty, and even though it's not the highest quality unit Corsair offer, the CX600m is still a semi-modular Corsair unit with that great warranty, even if you still don't have to worry about that
Alternatives:
Cooler Master V550: The Cooler Master VS series are very solid PSUs and will definitely serve you greatly. It is also semi-modular and is rated 50 Watss lower than the Corsair, but it is an 80+ Gold unit.
---------------------------
The component that you've all been waiting for, this being a gaming build, would probably be the graphics card. The 280x and even the 280 were a little out of the budget, but I refused to bump down to a 270x. Then I found the MSI R9 285 Gaming 2GB, being a slightly slower 280 with 2GB of RAM instead of 3. 2GB is still enough for most tripple A titles on 1080p though, and if you're getting a £600 PC, I honestly don't expect you to purchase an equally expensive high-res monitor to go with it.
The black and red card fits the colour scheme perfectly, and can be put in CrossfireX in the motherboard, so you can pick up another later. If you plan on doing this though, you might want to consider getting the 3GB 280/280x as VRAM doesn't stack up in CrossfireX. A bigger PSU won't be a luxury either.
Either way, for only £130 this card is the best you can buy and fits the rest of our components perfectly. If you overclock it a bit, you might get near-280x performance too.
Alternatives:
AMD Radeon R9 280: This card offers pretty similar performance to the 285 but offers the additional 1GB of extra VRAM in case you plan to play those titles that could really use it (Shadow of Mordor and such) or adding another card in the future.
AMD Radeon R9 280x: Is the most expensive card out of these, but also simply the fastest. Nothing more and nothing less. This card also comes with 3GB VRAM.
---------------------------
Next up; Drives! A 128GB SSD is nothing spectacular but plenty for your OS, drivers, apps like Steam and Skype and a couple of your favourite games (unless they're the 40GB ones!). And if you have the chance, ALWAYS go for an SSD.
Crucial are probably the best price/performance SSDs on the market now, and also very, very reliable. Being one of the cheapest while offering performance up there with the Samsung drives, the Crucial MX100 128GB is a really good choice for this build.
Overclock3D Review (albeit the 512GB version)
Alternatives:
Crucial BX100: These drives are slightly slower, although still much faster than any mechanical drive and are also supposed to be even cheaper than the MX100. You might be able to bump it up to 256GB with this drive, which I certainly would recommend with the sizes games are becoming these days.
---------------------------
With only an SSD you can't really get around, especially such a small one, so we're tossing in a mechanical drive too. Offering you 1TB of storage at 7200RPM, the WD Caviar Blue is one of the better price/performance drives out there and Western Digital have also made a name for themselves producing some of the most reliable drives out there.
Total cost:
£606,05 (Prices may vary on place and time of purchase)
Additional components
TP-Link WDN-4800 WiFi card. While WiFi really isn't recommended for a gaming rig, if you HAVE to use it, you might as well get a really good one. The WDN4800 is that card and will fit in the PCI-E 1x slot at the top of the board, even if you add another graphics card, or between the two cards.
Asus Xonar DGX/DG. Even though the on-board sound it pretty good, if you're after better sound quality without breaking the bank, the DGX is probably the card that you're looking for. Asus are known for their top quality sound cards and the DG/DGX are the cheapest in this range. The DGX will fit in any PCI-E 1x slot and the DG goes into legacy PCI slots. Do keep in mind you will end up with slightly higher latency though.
Samsung SH-224DB. Here on Overclock3D, most of us agree that optical drives are a thing of the past - me included. That is also why this wasn't included with the main components and the budget of this build. However, if you feel like you need one, whether it is for installing games via discs, watching movies on DVD or uploading your legally purchased CDs to your PC; this DVD burner is one of the cheapest that you can buy while being.... the same as any other DVD burner in the £10-20 price range!
Bitfenix Spectre. If you want to purchase additional fans for your case, the easiest you can do is spend a few pounds on the manufacturer's fans that also come with your case. If however, you are looking for quality fans for a low price, you can pick up the 120mm Bitfenix Spectre in white or black for around £6 each. If you spend 50 pence more, you can get them with green, orange, red, blue or white LEDs too!
Operating Systems
Windows 8.1. For a gaming rig, there is no way around Windows, and with mainstream support for Windows 7 ending soon, there really isn't any reason not to go with the better performing Windows 8.1 OS. You'll also get a free upgrade to Windows 10, or at least that's what Microsoft promised!
Steam OS. If you don't want to drop the full price on a Windows license, you can choose to install Steam OS on your machine for free. This Operating System is based on Linux, so there aren't too many games for the OS itself, but you can stream any game from your Windows PC straight to your TV via Steam In-Home Streaming.
More information here: http://store.steampowered.com/steamos
Accessories
Xbox 360 Controller for Windows. If you want to control your games from the couch, you might want to pick up a wireless xbox 360 style controller that works with most games. If you have the money, you can also get the Xbox One controller, which will work with Windows natively. Comes in black and white.
Rapoo V100 Gaming Combo This set containing of mouse and (membrane) keyboard will fit the black and red colours perfectly. The set is also very good value for money. This is probably one of the most complete sets you can buy, with a nice optical gaming mouse, keyboard with wrist rest and 16 million colour backlight and media keys.
http://www.rapoo.com/ProductShow.aspx?PID=c8vpAir0lAc=
Wavemaster MX3+ These speakers run you around £50 on Amazon and come with a subwoofer and a desk volume knob with integrated headphone out jack, and microphone in jack. The sound quality they offer is amazing for the money, I'm speaking of personal experience. I've never recommended anyone these speakers and have them regret it.
http://www.wavemaster.eu/en/speaker/c/p/a/s/cat/mx-3.html
Tips & Tricks
Install Windows from a USB
This is much faster than from any disc. You can find a guide here.
Start8
Start8 will add the regular old start button and -menu from Windows 7 back into Windows 8 and 8.1. You'll also be able to boot straight to the desktop, completely avoiding the entire Metro interface. Download here
Ninite.com
www.ninite.com lets you select all the software the (free) software that you like to install and download it as a single installer package. This way you'll only have to download and install one file, rather than many seperate ones.
SSD maintenance
Please have a look at our thread on SSD maintenance by member Wraithguard:
http://forum.overclock3d.net/showthread.php?t=67884
Well, at PCWorld £500 gets you an FX 4100 with an R7 250, while £700 buys you an i5 4460 with a GTX 745. Not very impressive to say at the least. Let's see if we can do better. I've decided to go for the middle budget-wise, thus £600 while trying to get a build together that will out-perform PCWorld's 700 quid system. And I've succeeded.
For a build with this budget, there really is no way around AMD's offerings so if you want to go for the more fully-blown, upgradable Intel platform you will probably have to spend around £50 more on an i5 4460, although you might save some money on the motherboard. With the system in this thread, you can get away with a video card upgrade, but CPU upgrades are out of the question.
First of all we're going with one of AMD's 'newest' CPUs. 8 Cores clocked at 3.2GHz, turboing up to 4GHz, all while costing only £100. We can consider the AMD FX-8320E as nothing but a steal. It's basically a cherry-picked 8320, so they're a bit dated, but that makes them cheap and you seriously can not get a better performing chip at that price-point. Especially now games are starting to make use of the extra cores it offer with the octa-core consoles around.
Overclock3D Review
Alternatives:
AMD FX-8350: This chip is a little faster but also a solid 30 quid more expensive and thus would've pushed us over budget too much in this case. Also, if you're spending that money you might as well go Intel.
Intel Core i5 4460: This 4th generation Intel Core i5 is locked, so you cannot overclock it but it's still a very solid performer with 4 cores at 3.2GHz, boosting up to 3.4GHz. Granted you get half the cores than you do with the AMD chips, Intel cores perform a lot better than AMD ones, so keep that in mind.
---------------------------
With the 8 core AMD CPUs it really isn't a good idea to stick with the stock cooler. It won't perform that well and will be very, very loud. So we're picking up the good old Cooler Master Hyper 212 Evo to cool the CPU. It will keep the build cooler, quieter and allow for some overclocking if you want.
Overclock3D Review
Alternatives:
BeQuiet! Pure Rock: The Pure Rock is a very similar heatsink to the Hyper 212 Evo, but includes a BeQuiet! fan which is arguably better. They cost around the same, but unfortunately this cheaper BeQuiet heatsink isn't all black like its bigger brothers are.
---------------------------
To accompany the CPU I'm going with 8GB of RAM, which I think is the sweetspot for gaming now, even though most games themselves barely use more than 4GBs of system memory, the OS itself and some background applications will always hog resources, so more it better as long as you don't go overboard and waste money where it's not needed.
In this case you'll also want Low Profile memory so you can be certain it will fit under the CPU cooler comfortably. The Corsair Vengeance 2x4GB LP Black clocked at 1600MHz with 9-9-9-24 timings will serve us greatly, and allow you to add an additional 8GB later down the line.
Alternative:
Corsair Vengeance 2x4GB LP Red: It's essentially the same RAM, but with red heatspreaders. Both will fit the build and colour scheme perefctly but when I put it together the red ones were just a little more expensive.
---------------------------
All of the above would be useless without a motherboard to put it in. As the 'high-end' CPU still draws a fair bit of power, it's not the best idea to pair it up with a cheap motherboard. The budget allowed for a fairly decent one even.
With two USB3 ports at the back, and an internal header, Realtek ALC1150 audio on-board, and a beautiful red colour scheme, the full ATX MSI 970 Gaming is a great motherboard. It features a nice PCI-E layout, with support for CrossfireX and SLI, and even then you'll have a free 1x slot left at the top for additional cards.
It also has 6 Sata ports which are all Sata III, which is nice for SSDs.
Alternatives:
Asus M5A99X EVO Rev 2.0: This board by Asus is £20 more expensive and a very, very solid board. Probably the best price/performance you can get for the FX-8xxx series. It would however ruin the perfect black and red colour scheme that we've got going so far.
---------------------------
A case that fits this build very well is made by Corsair. Featuring front USB3, an all black interior with cable management options, a massive window, agressive looks and a front-mounted red LED fan. The Corsair Carbide Spec 01 is a full ATX cause that offers all these features at an affordable price point and even allows for some upgrades, like SLI and AIO watercoolers.
Overclock3D Review
Alternatives:
Cooler Master K280: This case is a bit cheaper, but the internals are not as good as the Corsair's. The drive mounting system screams budget case, the cable management options are not that great and it doesn't feature a window. It still gives you gaming looks with a red LED fan at a lower price point though.
Silverstone PS11: This case is exactly the same as the Corsair Spec cases, as they come from the same OEM. The price however, is slightly higher by 2 points but the looks are more understated and professional looking. It also has a blue intake fan instead of red. Might be a great fit if you pick up the alternative Asus motherboard mentioned earlier.
Zalman Z11 Red: With agressive looks, a smoked window and the best out-of the box air cooling out of all these options and red or blue LED options available this case would be a great purchase. It is however a tenner more than the other cases and doesn't allow for a 240mm AIO like the Corsair and Silverstone do.
---------------------------
With this budget, we had to save a little on the power supply that can go into this build, but 600 Watts should be more than plenty, and even though it's not the highest quality unit Corsair offer, the CX600m is still a semi-modular Corsair unit with that great warranty, even if you still don't have to worry about that
Alternatives:
Cooler Master V550: The Cooler Master VS series are very solid PSUs and will definitely serve you greatly. It is also semi-modular and is rated 50 Watss lower than the Corsair, but it is an 80+ Gold unit.
---------------------------
The component that you've all been waiting for, this being a gaming build, would probably be the graphics card. The 280x and even the 280 were a little out of the budget, but I refused to bump down to a 270x. Then I found the MSI R9 285 Gaming 2GB, being a slightly slower 280 with 2GB of RAM instead of 3. 2GB is still enough for most tripple A titles on 1080p though, and if you're getting a £600 PC, I honestly don't expect you to purchase an equally expensive high-res monitor to go with it.
The black and red card fits the colour scheme perfectly, and can be put in CrossfireX in the motherboard, so you can pick up another later. If you plan on doing this though, you might want to consider getting the 3GB 280/280x as VRAM doesn't stack up in CrossfireX. A bigger PSU won't be a luxury either.
Either way, for only £130 this card is the best you can buy and fits the rest of our components perfectly. If you overclock it a bit, you might get near-280x performance too.
Alternatives:
AMD Radeon R9 280: This card offers pretty similar performance to the 285 but offers the additional 1GB of extra VRAM in case you plan to play those titles that could really use it (Shadow of Mordor and such) or adding another card in the future.
AMD Radeon R9 280x: Is the most expensive card out of these, but also simply the fastest. Nothing more and nothing less. This card also comes with 3GB VRAM.
---------------------------
Next up; Drives! A 128GB SSD is nothing spectacular but plenty for your OS, drivers, apps like Steam and Skype and a couple of your favourite games (unless they're the 40GB ones!). And if you have the chance, ALWAYS go for an SSD.
Crucial are probably the best price/performance SSDs on the market now, and also very, very reliable. Being one of the cheapest while offering performance up there with the Samsung drives, the Crucial MX100 128GB is a really good choice for this build.
Overclock3D Review (albeit the 512GB version)
Alternatives:
Crucial BX100: These drives are slightly slower, although still much faster than any mechanical drive and are also supposed to be even cheaper than the MX100. You might be able to bump it up to 256GB with this drive, which I certainly would recommend with the sizes games are becoming these days.
---------------------------
With only an SSD you can't really get around, especially such a small one, so we're tossing in a mechanical drive too. Offering you 1TB of storage at 7200RPM, the WD Caviar Blue is one of the better price/performance drives out there and Western Digital have also made a name for themselves producing some of the most reliable drives out there.
Total cost:
£606,05 (Prices may vary on place and time of purchase)
Additional components
TP-Link WDN-4800 WiFi card. While WiFi really isn't recommended for a gaming rig, if you HAVE to use it, you might as well get a really good one. The WDN4800 is that card and will fit in the PCI-E 1x slot at the top of the board, even if you add another graphics card, or between the two cards.
Asus Xonar DGX/DG. Even though the on-board sound it pretty good, if you're after better sound quality without breaking the bank, the DGX is probably the card that you're looking for. Asus are known for their top quality sound cards and the DG/DGX are the cheapest in this range. The DGX will fit in any PCI-E 1x slot and the DG goes into legacy PCI slots. Do keep in mind you will end up with slightly higher latency though.
Samsung SH-224DB. Here on Overclock3D, most of us agree that optical drives are a thing of the past - me included. That is also why this wasn't included with the main components and the budget of this build. However, if you feel like you need one, whether it is for installing games via discs, watching movies on DVD or uploading your legally purchased CDs to your PC; this DVD burner is one of the cheapest that you can buy while being.... the same as any other DVD burner in the £10-20 price range!
Bitfenix Spectre. If you want to purchase additional fans for your case, the easiest you can do is spend a few pounds on the manufacturer's fans that also come with your case. If however, you are looking for quality fans for a low price, you can pick up the 120mm Bitfenix Spectre in white or black for around £6 each. If you spend 50 pence more, you can get them with green, orange, red, blue or white LEDs too!
Operating Systems
Windows 8.1. For a gaming rig, there is no way around Windows, and with mainstream support for Windows 7 ending soon, there really isn't any reason not to go with the better performing Windows 8.1 OS. You'll also get a free upgrade to Windows 10, or at least that's what Microsoft promised!
Steam OS. If you don't want to drop the full price on a Windows license, you can choose to install Steam OS on your machine for free. This Operating System is based on Linux, so there aren't too many games for the OS itself, but you can stream any game from your Windows PC straight to your TV via Steam In-Home Streaming.
More information here: http://store.steampowered.com/steamos
Accessories
Xbox 360 Controller for Windows. If you want to control your games from the couch, you might want to pick up a wireless xbox 360 style controller that works with most games. If you have the money, you can also get the Xbox One controller, which will work with Windows natively. Comes in black and white.
Rapoo V100 Gaming Combo This set containing of mouse and (membrane) keyboard will fit the black and red colours perfectly. The set is also very good value for money. This is probably one of the most complete sets you can buy, with a nice optical gaming mouse, keyboard with wrist rest and 16 million colour backlight and media keys.
http://www.rapoo.com/ProductShow.aspx?PID=c8vpAir0lAc=
Wavemaster MX3+ These speakers run you around £50 on Amazon and come with a subwoofer and a desk volume knob with integrated headphone out jack, and microphone in jack. The sound quality they offer is amazing for the money, I'm speaking of personal experience. I've never recommended anyone these speakers and have them regret it.
http://www.wavemaster.eu/en/speaker/c/p/a/s/cat/mx-3.html
Tips & Tricks
Install Windows from a USB
This is much faster than from any disc. You can find a guide here.
Start8
Start8 will add the regular old start button and -menu from Windows 7 back into Windows 8 and 8.1. You'll also be able to boot straight to the desktop, completely avoiding the entire Metro interface. Download here
Ninite.com
www.ninite.com lets you select all the software the (free) software that you like to install and download it as a single installer package. This way you'll only have to download and install one file, rather than many seperate ones.
SSD maintenance
Please have a look at our thread on SSD maintenance by member Wraithguard:
http://forum.overclock3d.net/showthread.php?t=67884
