Budget gaming rig

[Akari]

I'm currently planning a budget gaming rig for a young friend of mine. He's 15/16 years old and before this only played on his 360, and the budget is approximately £350 GB, with the absolute maximum being £400.

 

The main aim of this build is to get a good base platform which can play modern-ish games at reasonable settings and then upgrade with a dedicated gpu at a later date when needed. Micro ATX form factor for smaller size to fit nicely in his room with future expansion possibilities. Noise levels can be fixed after the fact, if necessary.

 

Only one 1080p monitor is to be used, with no upgrade plans for the foreseeable future.

 

Peripherals, such as keyboards and mice, Windows, and storage HDDs do not need to be considered.

 

Point no 5 is irrelevant, other than he wants something better than his 360 and his laptop won't cut it.

 

 

Current parts list (with prices from Amazon UK):

 

 

AMD A10 7850K Black Edition (£124.99)

 

G-Skill 8GB Ripjaws X DDR3 2133 Dual Kit (£63)

 

MSI A88XM-E45 (£44)

 

Corsair Builder Series CX 430 Watt (£31.46)

 

Samsung 840 EVO 120GB 2.5 (£55.85)

 

Silverstone SST-PS08B (£37.75)

 

Total: £357.05

[helping]

 

 

(just check for lowest prices on PCpartpicker)

If your goal is to use up your budget, consider a mechanical drive, CPU cooler, better MB, or better MB+CPU cooler. 

The former can be made possible if you trim the prices by shopping at multiple retailers instead of just Amazon. 

Athlon + discrete route mentioned below is also valid. 

[Izaya Orihara]

Here you go for 400

 

PCPartPicker part list: http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/p/bhbWf7

Price breakdown by merchant: http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/p/bhbWf7/by_merchant/

Benchmarks: http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/p/bhbWf7/benchmarks/

 

CPU: AMD Athlon X4 760K 3.8GHz Quad-Core Processor  (£57.31 @ Scan.co.uk) 

Motherboard: MSI A78M-E45 Micro ATX FM2+ Motherboard  (£40.14 @ Aria PC) 

Memory: Corsair Vengeance 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory  (£55.34 @ Scan.co.uk) 

Storage: Samsung 840 EVO 120GB 2.5" Solid State Drive  (£55.85 @ Amazon UK) 

Video Card: PowerColor Radeon R9 270 2GB TurboDuo Video Card  (£127.26 @ CCL Computers) 

Case: Cooler Master N200 MicroATX Mid Tower Case  (£31.44 @ Scan.co.uk) 

Power Supply: Corsair CX 430W 80+ Bronze Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply  (£35.65 @ Amazon UK) 

Total: £402.99

(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)

(Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-06-02 04:08 BST+0100)

 

I'd go for this.

 

If that's a little too much for 375

PCPartPicker part list: http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/p/C8DDJx

Price breakdown by merchant: http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/p/C8DDJx/by_merchant/

Benchmarks: http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/p/C8DDJx/benchmarks/

 

CPU: AMD Athlon X4 750K 3.4GHz Quad-Core Processor  (£53.70 @ Scan.co.uk) 

Motherboard: MSI A78M-E45 Micro ATX FM2+ Motherboard  (£40.14 @ Aria PC) 

Memory: Corsair Vengeance 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory  (£55.34 @ Scan.co.uk) 

Storage: Samsung 840 EVO 120GB 2.5" Solid State Drive  (£55.85 @ Amazon UK) 

Video Card: Zotac GeForce GTX 750 Ti 2GB Video Card  (£101.98 @ Dabs) 

Case: Cooler Master N200 MicroATX Mid Tower Case  (£31.44 @ Aria PC) 

Power Supply: Corsair CX 430W 80+ Bronze Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply  (£35.65 @ Amazon UK) 

Total: £374.10

(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)

(Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-06-02 04:09 BST+0100)

 

Or this for 360 

 

PCPartPicker part list: http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/p/WKvgzy

Price breakdown by merchant: http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/p/WKvgzy/by_merchant/

Benchmarks: http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/p/WKvgzy/benchmarks/

 

CPU: AMD Athlon X4 750K 3.4GHz Quad-Core Processor  (£53.70 @ Scan.co.uk) 

Motherboard: MSI A78M-E45 Micro ATX FM2+ Motherboard  (£40.14 @ Aria PC) 

Memory: Corsair 8GB (1 x 8GB) DDR3-1333 Memory  (£51.04 @ Amazon UK) 

Storage: Samsung 840 EVO 120GB 2.5" Solid State Drive  (£55.85 @ Amazon UK) 

Video Card: XFX Radeon R7 260X 2GB Core Edition Video Card  (£92.94 @ CCL Computers) 

Case: Cooler Master N200 MicroATX Mid Tower Case  (£31.44 @ Aria PC) 

Power Supply: XFX ProSeries 450W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply  (£35.34 @ Scan.co.uk) 

Total: £360.45

(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)

(Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-06-02 04:11 BST+0100)