Thoughts on budget gaming rig

[JIm_606_409]

Hi all,

I'm about to build my first gaming rig and thought it might be good to get a few outside opinions. I'm on a tight budget (£300) but hoping to build something powerful enough to play Indy games and Skyrim on medium settings.

The rig is planned to be under the tv (47" 1080p HD) for Steam Big Picture with a wired 360 controller.

What I have planned so far is.

Intel Pentium Dual core G870 3.1ghz
4Gb RAM
XFX AMD Radeon 6670 2GB
500GB HDD

Along with a micro-ATX case, motherboard and Win 7/8 I've managed to get all this for £298.

Any thoughts? Hoping this will last me 12 months, then upgrade to an i5/7!

Thanks all.

[wing0zero]

It's not bad i guess but the CPU is not so good and the GPU will struggle with Skyrim at 1080p but Indi game no problem, but for a little more you can have a PC over twice the power 3x more probably in GPU power.

ASRock AMD A55 FCH (Hudson D2) FM2 Motherboard[www.scan.co.uk]

AMD Athlon II X4 750K 3.4Ghz Black Edition Quad Core Processor FM2[www.scan.co.uk]

1GB XFX Radeon HD 7850 DD Core Edition[www.scan.co.uk] - nice card

4GB Corsair DDR3 Vengeance Low Profile Jet Black, 1600Mhz, CAS 9, 1.5V[www.scan.co.uk]

500GB Seagate Barracuda[www.scan.co.uk]

500W Corsair Builder Series, 80 PLUS Bronze[www.scan.co.uk]

Ace Ecco 250 Black Micro-ATX Case with Sound Proofing[www.scan.co.uk]

About £380 for that but will play any game you want with good settings (Skyrim at max), take a look at the difference between HD 6670 vs HD 7850[www.anandtech.com] it blows it away and your much better off with a Quad over a Dual core, personally i would hold on save 80 quid and have a pretty good rig.

[bloodraven43]

dual core??? are you insane? go to newegg.com get a quad cord..i5/i7.... nvidia card ...8gb of ram and a decent mobo should run you around 800 bucks...dual core wont run anything but old games...dont buy an amd or ati...there slow and suck...intel is much better these days and nvidia cards rock

[Leon]

What bloodraven said, Dual Core is outdated.

[sv]

he has 300 to spend..

[JIm_606_409]

Thanks for the replies.

As INfAMOUS said, my budget is £300 and whilst I have a little flex it has to cover the cost of a Win 7/8 license. I've tried to beg/borrow one, but with no luck, so I am going to have to stick to a dual core.

I have an Xbox, so I don't need it to play top retail games. It's main use will be Indy games I can't play on the Xbox and some strategy games (FTL, Sins etc...). I really only mention Skyrim as I would like to play around with the mods in the steam workshop. Honestly though playing at medium settings is fine for me, especially coming from Xbox it will still be a step up!

Hopefully the Dual core at 3.1Ghz and the AMD 6670 will be enough to handle this?

If this can last me 12 months then I can put a bit extra towards some upgrades instead of buying the new Xbox/playstation.

[ActFolant]

It starts with just Indie games and Skyrim with mods. but then you'll get a "Aw what the hell, I'll buy it on PC."

It -will- happen.

It's not in your budget now, but you will be a lot better off trying to save that little bit extra and getting a better rig.

Then you can download the Skyrim HD packs and be all like "Awwwww yeah son" admiring everything before you stab it in the face.

[wing0zero]

Originally posted by slovenlyjimmy:

Hopefully the Dual core at 3.1Ghz and the AMD 6670 will be enough to handle this?

Not sure with Skyrim if a Dual is enough probably is but i know that GPU is weaker than an old GTX260 so not sure how well you will do at 1080p might have to go low on some settings, my only other worry for you is if you do upgrade down the line you will have to replace most parts due to poor motherboard and PSU, new CPU and GPU might mean new Mobo and PSU then you might aswell do RAM so you need a new full build before you know it.

[JIm_606_409]

One of the reasons, I am having to compromise on the GPU is that I've made sure the motherboard will comfortably support 3rd gen i7 and to have a decent 500w PSU, giving me an easy upgrade path.

I'd had a few people warn me of the AMD quad core, which is why I went for the dual core Pentium on my budget. Might take another look though, as I could probably squeeze it into budget. Only concern would be the upgrade path to an i7 at some point?

I agree, that I'll start wanting new games for PC once I start, but hoping I can hold out for 12-18 months with the Xbox and then spend what I would have on the 720 on a i7 and higher end GPU.

Also the setup will be pure gaming, nothing else installed except Steam and Games, hoping that the lack of normal use bloating pc software will give me a small boost in efficiency.

Thanks for all the responses, been really useful.

[wing0zero]

AMD are ok Intel are better for sure though i use Intel but to be honest i dont think you will need an i7 maybe an i5 but just for games AMD are more than good enough and offer such good value bang/buck leaving more to spend on a GPU.

Nice to see you thought of upgrades with Mobo and PSU just make sure PSU is a good brand never go cheap on PSU's, Seasonic, Corsair or Antec if you can XFX or Coolermaster Silent Pro if you want a bit cheaper.

[[☥] - CJ -]

For 300 thats a decent enough starter system, down the road it can be upgraded if needed.
it should last till you can afford a proper rig.

[Pocahawtness]

What you are doing there is buying a system that it completely out of date and simply would not be worth upgrading at a later date.
You would be far better buying a better CPU with a motherboard that has onboard graphics. then buying a graphics card later, when you can afford it, and buying more ram. That way you don't have to scrap your CPU and motherboard.

[[☥] - CJ -]

Hes planning on buying a better system later on.

Its decent enough for what it is and should be good enough until then.

[learntocounter.com]

Originally posted by bloodraven43:

dual core??? are you insane? go to newegg.com get a quad cord..i5/i7.... nvidia card ...8gb of ram and a decent mobo should run you around 800 bucks...dual core wont run anything but old games...dont buy an amd or ati...there slow and suck...intel is much better these days and nvidia cards rock

Soo many things wrong with this.
1. Processor has very little impact on gaming.
2. He is not insane by spending more on gpu than cpu.
3. i3i5i7 don't mean a thing. Please specify model eg 2500k
4. 8Gb ram will have no performance increase from 4Gb
5. Learn your sh** before telling people they need to spend more money to be cool.

[learntocounter.com]

Originally posted by - CJ - DSS:

For 300 thats a decent enough starter system, down the road it can be upgraded if needed.
it should last till you can afford a proper rig.

+1

[learntocounter.com]

http://www.hardware-revolution.com/mainstream-htpc-sff-gaming-pc-september-2011/
Might help