First Time Builder

Maadde93 · August 17, 2014

Hey all, I'm looking to build a budget gaming PC for the very first time and was hoping I could get some help and advice with my build. I've done a bit of reading and I think this build is pretty good for my budget (around £500).

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: AMD FX-6300 3.5GHz 6-Core Processor (£73.92 @ Amazon UK)

Motherboard: Asus M5A97 R2.0 ATX AM3+ Motherboard (£63.56 @ Scan.co.uk)

Memory: Corsair Vengeance 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory (£59.98 @ Amazon UK)

Storage: Sandisk Ultra Plus 128GB 2.5" Solid State Drive (£44.34 @ Aria PC)

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

Video Card: Sapphire Radeon R9 270X 2GB Dual-X Video Card (£125.00 @ Amazon UK)

Case: Corsair 300R ATX Mid Tower Case (£54.84 @ Aria PC)

Total: £457.58

Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available

Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-08-17 18:10 BST+0100

I wasn't too sure as to which PSU I would need to run the system as I plan to use 2 monitors and was hoping someone could recommend one. Any other build recommendations within my price range are welcome, also if there's anywhere in my build I can save some money such as the mobo or case would be nice to know. Finally any general tips and advice for putting the PC together would be appreciated such as beginner mistakes to avoid etc.

Thanks in advance

Madster · August 17, 2014

I personally wouldnt recommend a seagate HDD. Both my mother, and father had seagates and they failed within 6 months. They have terrible reviews, and are not overall that good of a drive. I would recommend a Western Digital, thats what I use.

hammerslap1 · August 17, 2014

looks decent but you may not want to use the stock CPU cooler.

also when sharing your pcpartpicker insted of putting think like you did here youll see a button labled export/markup. if you click that then under format select bbcode then copy past all the highlited stuff it will put the list right into the forum so folks dont have to click on links

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: AMD FX-6300 3.5GHz 6-Core Processor (£73.10 @ CCL Computers)
Motherboard: Asus M5A97 R2.0 ATX AM3+ Motherboard (£63.56 @ Scan.co.uk)
Memory: Corsair Vengeance 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory (£59.98 @ Amazon UK)
Storage: Sandisk Ultra Plus 128GB 2.5" Solid State Drive (£44.34 @ Aria PC)
Storage: Seagate Barracuda 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive (£35.94 @ Aria PC)
Video Card: Sapphire Radeon R9 270X 2GB Dual-X Video Card (£125.00 @ Amazon UK)
Case: Corsair 300R ATX Mid Tower Case (£54.84 @ Aria PC)
Total: £456.76
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-08-17 17:39 BST+0100

hammerslap1 · August 17, 2014

I personally wouldnt recommend a seagate HDD. Both my mother, and father had seagates and they failed within 6 months. They have terrible reviews, and are not overall that good of a drive. I would recommend a Western Digital, thats what I use.

they cant be that bad of a drive when they have like 800 reviews and a 4.5 out of 5 stars rating

Maadde93 · August 17, 2014

looks decent but you may not want to use the stock CPU cooler.

also when sharing your pcpartpicker insted of putting think like you did here youll see a button labled export/markup. if you click that then under format select bbcode then copy past all the highlited stuff it will put the list right into the forum so folks dont have to click on links

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: AMD FX-6300 3.5GHz 6-Core Processor (£73.10 @ CCL Computers)

Motherboard: Asus M5A97 R2.0 ATX AM3+ Motherboard (£63.56 @ Scan.co.uk)

Memory: Corsair Vengeance 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory (£59.98 @ Amazon UK)

Storage: Sandisk Ultra Plus 128GB 2.5" Solid State Drive (£44.34 @ Aria PC)

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

Video Card: Sapphire Radeon R9 270X 2GB Dual-X Video Card (£125.00 @ Amazon UK)

Case: Corsair 300R ATX Mid Tower Case (£54.84 @ Aria PC)

Total: £456.76

Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available

Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-08-17 17:39 BST+0100

Done, any chance you could recommend a PSU sufficient for this system running 2x24" monitors? Cheers

General_Led · August 17, 2014

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: AMD FX-6300 3.5GHz 6-Core Processor (£73.92 @ Amazon UK)

Motherboard: Asus M5A97 R2.0 ATX AM3+ Motherboard (£63.56 @ Scan.co.uk)

Memory: Corsair Vengeance 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory (£59.98 @ Amazon UK)

Storage: Seagate 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Hybrid Internal Hard Drive (£53.57 @ CCL Computers)

Video Card: Sapphire Radeon R9 270X 2GB Dual-X Video Card (£125.00 @ Amazon UK)

Case: Corsair 300R ATX Mid Tower Case (£54.84 @ Aria PC)

Power Supply: Corsair CX 600W 80+ Bronze Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply (£50.93 @ Amazon UK)

Total: £481.80

Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available

Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-08-17 18:18 BST+0100

hammerslap1 · August 17, 2014

Done, any chance you could recommend a PSU sufficient for this system running 2x24" monitors? Cheers

well the monitors themselves will have their own power cables so they dont really run off your PSU but any 500 watt gold or 600 watt bronze should fit your needs just fine unless you plan on adding a second card in the future in that case for a bit more id say 750-800 watt gold would be more than enough head room. but make sure when selecting your PSU that you go with a well established reputable brand since a bad psu could ruin eveything in the case. corsair, evga, thermaltake, and several others make decent powersupplies and really dont cost that much more than a no name psu