Gaming Machine for £700 to about £750?

[Mister K]

I am rather awful when it comes to budget building so I keep going about £100 to £200 over the budget.

Anyway primary purpose of course gaming. The games that are going to be played are GTA V, WoW, CS:GO and ideally ''futureproofed'' for next 2 years.

Budget: £700 to £750
Needed: SSD, HDD, Side window/Media tower ideally/top exhaust/front intake/bottom PSU
Not Needed: Windows, Monitor, Peripherals
Color Scheme: Green but it's mostly irrelevant

Thanks in advance, I really need to learn how to build on the budget. I usually have problem with finding the ideal motherboard/PSU, plenty of junk out there :3

- - - Updated - - -

Is it possible to add 970+4650k or better to wait for 960?

[Fierae]

https://www.aria.co.uk/WishList/q3gFd2dg1l2-zpHJSTU1rA,,

How's that one?

You can use that as a base and swap bits out as needed!

[Mister K]

How does 750Ti compare in games like Battlefield 4 and or Far Cry 4? In terms of the PSU and MOBO, not familiar with the PSU brand, is it reliable? I've heard that Gigabyte mobos have been pretty "shoddy" in recent years, is this true?

Other than that, all looks good.

PS: I guess on that budget, 770 won't be possible? Would AMD not be better in the low/bang for buck/performance area?

Thanks for the reply

[Apoc11]

Using that same site I got:

Case: Corsair 200r = £ 36.23
CPU: i5-4590= £ 124.29
PSU: 600W EVGA = £39.99
MOBO: ASUS H97M-PLUS = £ 59.95
GPU: Gigabyte GTX 970 = £ 221.03
RAM: G.Skill RipJawsX 8GB(2x4GB) = £ 51.99
SSD: 120GB Samsung 840 EVO (For OS) = £ 47.33
HD: 1TB Seagate Barracuda (For Storage) = £ 32.95

Total came out to £746.53 after Delivery VAT.

Mind me I'm used to $ currency but I figured I could build a great pc within your budget. I also didn't want to create a username for a wishlist.
Hope this is something you would be interested in!

Note: This build was if you do not wish to overclock your CPU. If you do you will need to change the chipset of the motherboard to a Z97, CPU, and I would strongly recommend getting a aftermarket heatsink. Something like a 212 EVO by CoolerMaster. This would most likely go outside your budget range.

[Deleted]

If you can just stretch to £800, this is a monster setup:

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i5-4690K 3.5GHz Quad-Core Processor (£173.94 @ Aria PC)
CPU Cooler: Deepcool GAMMAXX 200 37.2 CFM CPU Cooler (£17.88 @ Amazon UK)
Motherboard: Asus Z97-P ATX LGA1150 Motherboard (£69.56 @ Scan.co.uk)
Memory: Corsair Vengeance LP 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory (£69.00 @ Amazon UK)
Storage: Crucial MX100 256GB 2.5" Solid State Drive (£77.98 @ Amazon UK)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive (£40.39 @ Aria PC)
Video Card: Palit GeForce GTX 970 4GB JetStream Video Card (£257.99 @ Aria PC)
Case: Thermaltake Commander MS-I ID ATX Mid Tower Case (£34.54 @ CCL Computers)
Power Supply: Corsair CSM 550W 80+ Gold Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply (£59.99 @ Novatech)
Total: £801.27
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-01-06 11:13 GMT+0000

It should be able to smack everything around like a demented Joker at 1080p (except, of course, Crysis 3). If you can live without the HDD and after-market cooler for now, then that rig fits your budget.

[Deleted]

Nothing wrong with above build, just shaving off of the budget

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i5-4690K 3.5GHz Quad-Core Processor (£173.94 @ Aria PC)
CPU Cooler: Deepcool GAMMAXX 200 37.2 CFM CPU Cooler (£17.88 @ Amazon UK)
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-Z97P-D3 ATX LGA1150 Motherboard (£61.16 @ Scan.co.uk)
Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws X Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1866 Memory (£56.57 @ Ebuyer)
Storage: Crucial MX100 256GB 2.5" Solid State Drive (£77.98 @ Amazon UK)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive (£40.39 @ Aria PC)
Video Card: EVGA GeForce GTX 970 4GB Superclocked ACX 2.0 Video Card (£265.00)
Case: Zalman Z3 Plus ATX Mid Tower Case (£34.40)
Power Supply: XFX 550W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply (£46.99 @ Amazon UK)
Total: £774.31
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-01-06 11:53 GMT+0000

Motherboard - Cheaper, shouldn't make a difference.

RAM - Cheaper and faster, Yes it's not green but with your budget I'd be more worried about performance.

Case - Same price, two fans included instead of one. You can shave off another ~£5.9 if you can live without a windowed case, still two fans included. Cooler Master K281

GPU - The Palit GPU is actually more expensive when you visit the vendor so the EVGA is about the same cost and a better card.

PSU - Cheaper, Seasonic OEM, it's not modular.

[Mister K]

Thanks for the suggestions. I will be going with the build Notarget has linked (http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/p/NtT6P6) however removing the HDD from the list as Il be giving my friend few 250GB HDDs for now to use.

Quick question, any incompatibly issues with this case Corsair Carbide Series Air 540 ATX and Notarget's build?

[potis]

As long as you dont shave off money from other parts to put that case then no.

Its one of the best there is despite being a cube ;p

But if you are gonna shave off money from other parts to cover the 100-120$ difference, then no, terrible choice.

A more important question..Why do you have a delided CPU at 4.2 and not 4.5 and above? o.O

[Mister K]

As long as you dont shave off money from other parts to put that case then no.

Its one of the best there is despite being a cube ;p

But if you are gonna shave off money from other parts to cover the 100-120$ difference, then no, terrible choice.

A more important question..Why do you have a delided CPU at 4.2 and not 4.5 and above? o.O

Only removed the Thermaltake case and 1TB HDD to cover that case (and then add £10 on top)

[potis]

Only removed the Thermaltake case and 1TB HDD to cover that case (and then add £10 on top)

Sounds alright, he can put the HDD later but on NoTargets build i have to disagree with the GPU choice.

Yes it is good, but for the same money there are better less problematic 970's, EVGA has been called out these last few months apart from the cooler issue on the quality of the PCB and other parts compared to the other companies.

I do not trust the 900 series of EVGA cards and others dont also for good reason.

The MSI Gaming is 3 pounds more expensive and is one of the recommended ones.

Do note there isnt something insanely bad or wrong with going EVGA, its just not recommended with all the fiasco stuff going on on different forums, from the cooler to the cheap PCB.

[Mister K]

Sounds alright, he can put the HDD later but on NoTargets build i have to disagree with the GPU choice.

Yes it is good, but for the same money there are better less problematic 970's, EVGA has been called out these last few months apart from the cooler issue on the quality of the PCB and other parts compared to the other companies.

I do not trust the 900 series of EVGA cards and others dont also for good reason.

The MSI Gaming is 3 pounds more expensive and is one of the recommended ones.

Do note there isnt something insanely bad or wrong with going EVGA, its just not recommended with all the fiasco stuff going on on different forums, from the cooler to the cheap PCB.

The one NoTarget recommended is Palit, are they also problematic?

[potis]

The one NoTarget recommended is Palit, are they also problematic?

Palit tend to overvoltage their card.

Out of the two cards he recommended i would go for the EVGA but i wouldnt go for either of them if i was buying for myself.

Look around for what options you have and post or simply go for the Gigabyte G1, not Windforce but the Gaming aka G1.

[Deleted]

There is nothing wrong with the EVGA card, especially revision 2.0 which is the one I linked. People saw some picture of the EVGA cooler early on and then the internet did its usual thing where people jump on the bandwagon without even really knowing all the details. I know two people with the EVGA, it's cool, it's quiet, there is absolutely no issues.

Also the G1 card was at the time an extra £23 which there wasn't really room for in the budget which was already a little high.

The one NoTarget recommended is Palit, are they also problematic?

Nah that wasn't me, I would (probably) never personally go for any of the cheaper brands.

[potis]

It is a good card i do not disagree and they did fix the cooler issue that much i know but:

It has been called out they use cheaper components on their cards compared to its competitors while in most countries the other cards are cheaper.

There is no cooling on the memory chips afaik?

Looking around quickly you can see the TDP is low/bad etc etc.

Generally i tend to follow overclocking forums and e-peen tards on these matters cause they test a lot of stuff and generally dont disappoint with info :P

Still instead of looking for the FTW version which usually is out of stock he can get the safer companies really.

[Deleted]

Still instead of looking for the FTW version which usually is out of stock he can get the safer companies really.

No one linked the FTW version. Also the card at the time was much cheaper, that has changed now. It's not an unsafe purchase.

There is no cooling on the memory chips afaik?

There is partial cooling on the memory, the Asus Strix for example doesn't have any. Stock of these cards are always limited and changing constantly.

Anyways since pricing has changed since OP asked for advice;

Gigabyte GTX 970 G1 Gaming £289 - Seems to best the best available card currently and reasonably priced.

If the cost is too high the other cheap option with be a Zotac GTX 970 for £259, I wouldn't personally go for Zotac, Palit etc. but I'm sure it'll be alright.

[potis]

Actually Zotac isnt a cheap manufacturer ;p

Their AMP! are usually beast cards, at least from the 500 series whenever i checked the AMP! was always a beast.

Generally most of the "bad bad" companies died down with the 600-700 series.

Of course some companies are most trustworthy/better in different parts of the world like how EVGA because of their support/prices always sells like crazy in Europe at least.