Make me a gaming rig for £500!

[Philib]

Hi there guys, ok so the title is a little misleading so I will explain.

A guy asked me today if I could make him a rig for £500. I said I probably could but when I got thinking my mind was scrambled with all the possibility's.

So I put the challenge to you guys. I will need EVERYTHING apart from peripherals and windows.

Thought this would be a good one for you.

Cheers.

 

[SavageCupcake]

What kind of games is he expecting to play? if he needs a monitor to then it's about 400 quid for the actual pc. For that he really wont get an amazing pc (bf3 on high etc) but it might be able to play some less demanding games.

 

[Philib]

No just the tower.

 

[seumasbeathan]

Corsair 300r
Corsair CX600
i3 3220
Random H77 board
8gb Corsair Vengeance
HD 7870

 

[Josh Weston]

My take - a few little edits from what Seumas offered

 

[seumasbeathan]

^Ah a hard drive, knew I was missing something :L

 

[Josh Weston]

I always do that
Configure a great build for really cheap, get ready to take a screenshot, double check everything and proceed to die a little inside.
I would however tell your friend to increase his budget by another £50, which would allow for 60GB SSD for the OS and a few select programs to be placed.

 

[CPMFW]

nice budget setup... i like it
well done josh

ssd for os would be good

 

[sheroo]

Its amazing what you can get for 500 notes these days, not even worth going down the AMD route if you can get a system like that.
Nice setup.

 

[us11csalyer]

219.99 i5-2500k
089.99 MSI Z68A-G43
038.99 corsair xms3 8gb (2x4) ddr3 1333
109.99 corsair tx750 v2
089.99 WD Black 500GB 7200RPM sata3
548.95 before tax

Yes I am missing case and video card; however, I'd find a cheap used case and put whatever gpu I could in there.

 

[tristan]

219.99 i5-2500k
089.99 MSI Z68A-G43
038.99 corsair xms3 8gb (2x4) ddr3 1333
109.99 corsair tx750 v2
089.99 WD Black 500GB 7200RPM sata3
548.95 before tax

Yes I am missing case and video card; however, I'd find a cheap used case and put whatever gpu I could in there.

for gaming the gpu is the largest performance factor and you're already 50 over budget without any gpu.
josh's build looks good though.

 

[us11csalyer]

Sorry, I forgot to put that my total is in usd. around 423 in euro.

 

[Josh Weston]

Unfortunately, such conversions do not work well, as you across the pond can get things a damn site cheaper than us.
For a budget constrained rig such as this, a 2500k is not needed. Nor is a 750w power supply.

 

[us11csalyer]

Unfortunately, such conversions do not work well, as you across the pond can get things a damn site cheaper than us.
For a budget constrained rig such as this, a 2500k is not needed. Nor is a 750w power supply.

My idea behind the i5 and the PSU is that it'll last him longer than an i3. He would probably be good for the next two years aside from gpu upgrades. One thing I learned is that going lower end on cpu and psu usually makes it more costly in the long run.

 

[Josh Weston]

Parts are getting more and more efficient - you can run a 680SLI rig off of a 650w PSU these days
Most games only ever take advantage of two cores, so the i3 shall be alright for now. It's not ideal, but it is the best you can do with the budget constraints set by the OP.
For under £500 (he'll be able to get the shipping deducted) this system shall be able to play absolutely anything at extremely good frames.
GPUs have a far higher play in gaming performance than the CPU.

 

[ruairi.C]

you can run a 680SLI rig off of a 650w PSU these days

people keep saying this with 670's and sometimes 680s but can you link me a video or something of someone actually running these setups off 650w. I mean some people try and add it up in theory but I want to see something real life of this pl0x?

 

[us11csalyer]

people keep saying this with 670's and sometimes 680s but can you link me a video or something of someone actually running these setups off 650w. I mean some people try and add it up in theory but I want to see something real life of this pl0x?

Quality 650w will do, but for me I rather not push any psu past 75% usage. This is why I would go at lease 750w. I had a bfg 550w psu last for over 4 years before I sold it and I would like to think it lasted so long because it rarely hit 70% usage.

 

[ruairi.C]

Quality 650w will do

I think you missed the point of my post? people keep saying this but I just want to see someone do it

 

[seumasbeathan]

They will do it easily, I have run a 5870 and a 5850 off of a CX600 before and that was fine, Infact I even tried two 5850's off of a 550w OCZ psu and that was fine

 

[Josh Weston]

Should speak for itself.