Any suggestions?

[HeathCliff]

So, I got a request today from a friend who wants to get into PC gaming. His budget is £500 (no need for a monitor, mouse, keyboard and OS). But the thing that I want your feedback is about my option to go for the Pentium G3258. Does this look like a suitable build? He won't be upgrading anytime soon so I chose to keep and SSD and bump down the GPU a fair bit.

 

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

 

CPU: Intel Pentium G3258 3.2GHz Dual-Core Processor  (£47.99 @ Aria PC) 

CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Seidon 120V 86.2 CFM Liquid CPU Cooler  (£31.80 @ Aria PC) 

Motherboard: MSI Z97 PC MATE ATX LGA1150 Motherboard  (£69.54 @ Aria PC) 

Memory: Corsair Vengeance 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory  (£58.99 @ Amazon UK) 

Storage: Sandisk Solid State Drive 64GB 2.5" Solid State Drive  (£32.46 @ Amazon UK) 

Storage: Seagate Barracuda 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive  (£35.94 @ Aria PC) 

Video Card: Gigabyte Radeon R9 270X 2GB WINDFORCE Video Card  (£145.52 @ Scan.co.uk) 

Case: BitFenix Merc Alpha (Black) ATX Mid Tower Case  (£29.99 @ Amazon UK) 

Power Supply: Corsair CX 430W 80+ Bronze Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply  (£35.82 @ Amazon UK) 

Total: £488.05

Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available

 

Here's what I got so far. The total shipping makes it just under £500. So, any suggestions?

[Epitome]

Looks pretty good, i would change the cooler to the hyper 212 evo

[HeathCliff]

Looks pretty good, i would change the cooler to the hyper 212 evo

 

Decided to opt for a AIO because I'm planning on overclocking the snot out of that chip.

[Epitome]

Decided to opt for a AIO because I'm planning on overclocking the snot out of that chip.

Oh ok, then its fine

[HeathCliff]

Just as a reminder, I will not be posting pics because I will not allow myself to post any instances of me with bad cable management. And with such a PSU and case, I'd doubt that it will look anywhere near satisfactory. Although, I may post benchmarks if I chance arises.

 

Long live the art of origami cabling!

[Guest]

The Pentium Anniversary is a good choice for a budget build. The fact that it is unlocked makes it even more appealing 

 

I would try and squeeze a bigger SSD into the build. Have a look at the Crucial MX100 SSD's, they are good value for money.

 

http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/part/crucial-internal-hard-drive-ct128mx100ssd1

[HeathCliff]

The Pentium Anniversary is a good choice for a budget build. The fact that it is unlocked makes it even more appealing 

 

I would try and squeeze a bigger SSD into the build. Have a look at the Crucial MX100 SSD's, they are good value for money.

 

http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/part/crucial-internal-hard-drive-ct128mx100ssd1

 

A bigger SSD might not be possible. He had exactly £500 and being patient is not his strongest suit. The order has already been put through so the parts should be here in 3-5 days. 

 

On a side note, I wonder how high I can get the frequency of the memory before any stability issues arises with the CPU.

[Guest]

A bigger SSD might not be possible. He had exactly £500 and being patient is not his strongest suit. The order has already been put through so the parts should be here in 3-5 days. 

 

On a side note, I wonder how high I can get the frequency of the memory before any stability issues arises with the CPU.

The things is, with a 64GB SSD you will probably have room for 1/2 games depending on how big they are. The o/s will take up about 20GB or more, so it doesn't leave you a lot of room to put any games on it. The SSD in my link above is only £20 more and you get double the space.

 

If you have already ordered though then I guess it's too late 

[HeathCliff]

The things is, with a 64GB SSD you will probably have room for 1/2 games depending on how big they are. The o/s will take up about 20GB or more, so it doesn't leave you a lot of room to put any games on it. The SSD in my link above is only £20 more and you get double the space.

 

If you have already ordered though then I guess it's too late 

 

The SSD is pretty much for the OS and core programs only. The 1TB HDD is where everything else is stored. But even with a 128GB SSD, he plans on spending a butt-tonne of money buying games. It'll fill up in a matter of days.