Budget Build

[abit-sean]

Build number 3 of the year and this one is for my Nephew who is in desperate need for a new gaming PC.

 

Currently the poor boy is using a intel i5 3470 which is a good 4 core chip but when paired with a ATI HD 6870  doesn't real meet the requirements. I decided that the only parts I would reuse from the existing build is the storage, although the case is perfectly useable it doesn't meet the requirements of a 14 year old.

 

I had a few ideas for a new motherboard and CPU combo, it was either going to be a budget H510 & i3-10100 or a used b350 and a Ryzen 5 3600. I ended up using a donor system in the end, a friend and colleague of mine was leaving the army and was clearing out his room, throwing out his old mining rig (minus the GPU and PSU). So I took off his hands.

So the new system will be based on a i5-7600k and a Gigabyte B250-HD3P.

 

I didn't end up using the case that came with the donor system. You can see from the photo it is pretty banged up with no side panels included.

 

[abit-sean]

New system specs:

CPU:  Intel i5-7600k (donor system)
Motherboard: Gigabyte B250-HD3P (donor system)
RAM: Samsung 8GB 2666 x2 (donor system)
PSU: Kolink RGB 500w
GPU: MSI GTX 1660 ti (used in my old rig)
CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper H412R
Case fans: 2x Corsair 120mm Fans (used, found in a box in my workshop)
Cooler Master ARGB controller (Think I got this this with a aio a some point)
EZDIY-FAB ARGB RAM covers (pointless but a cheap way of adding RGB RAM)

Case: CiT Sauron Mid-Tower ATX 

 

The case

Good points: 

-Lots of space behind the motherboard tray.

-Good looking LED front panel

-Price, only £35 from CCL.

-Glass side panel.

Bad points

-ARGB rear can only be powered by 12v Molex, therefore could not be adjusted. Replaced with another fan.

-No front dust filter. Good for airflow bad for cleaning.

-Very thin metal. Noticeable when screwing in case fans.

 

Really easy build, my 11 year old daughter did a lot of the work as she enjoys building PCs. As mentioned above loads of room behind the motherboard tray which made for an okay cable management job. 

Was going to use the Artic cooler but I don't like the look of the them and my friend used a whole tube of thermal compound which I couldn't be bothered to clean. The Cooler master hyper looks a bit nicer and is really cheap, not sure I would use them again as I think the artic freezer perform better for the price.

 

The one thing I hate about modern builds is ARGB connectors, they are not fit for purpose and will fallout at every opportunity. I ended up taping all the connectors together as well as the controller.

 

Overall I think I spent £135 on this build which isn't too bad for how it turned out. Not bad for a 30 minute build.