£600 AMD or Intel & NVIDIA Build?

[SpamBrie]

I want to build a new pc for around £600. I will play games such as Fallout, Skyrim, GTAIV and want a rig that won't need upgrading for a few months. I use a 1600 x 1200  monitor and don't mind playing on medium settings.

So far I have come up with these 2 builds:

 

CPU:  Intel Core i3-3220 3.3GHz Dual-Core Processor  (£93.39 @ Amazon UK) 

CPU Cooler:  Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO 82.9 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler  (£24.80 @ Amazon UK) 

Motherboard:  Asus P8Z77-V LX ATX  LGA1155 Motherboard  (£79.99 @ Amazon UK) 

Memory:  Corsair Vengeance 8GB (1 x 8GB) DDR3-1600 Memory  (£36.58 @ Amazon UK) 

Storage:  Sandisk  64GB 2.5" Solid State Disk  (£46.37 @ Amazon UK) 

Storage:  Samsung Spinpoint M8 500GB 2.5" 5400RPM Internal Hard Drive  (Purchased For £0.00) 

Video Card:  MSI GeForce GTX 660 2GB Video Card  (£149.00 @ Amazon UK) 

Case:  BitFenix Shinobi ATX Mid Tower Case  (£49.90 @ Amazon UK) 

Power Supply:  Corsair CX 600W 80 PLUS Bronze Certified ATX12V Power Supply  (£61.98 @ Amazon UK) 

Operating System:  Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 (OEM) (64-bit)  (£70.97 @ Dabs) 

Total: £612.98

 

And...

 

CPU:  AMD FX-6300 3.5GHz 6-Core Processor  (£91.27 @ Amazon UK) 

CPU Cooler:  Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO 82.9 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler  (£24.80 @ Amazon UK) 

Motherboard:  Asus M5A97 R2.0 ATX  AM3+ Motherboard  (£72.96 @ Amazon UK) 

Memory:  Corsair Vengeance 8GB (1 x 8GB) DDR3-1600 Memory  (£36.58 @ Amazon UK) 

Storage:  Seagate Momentus XT 750GB 2.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive  (Purchased For £0.00) 

Video Card:  MSI Radeon HD 7870 GHz Edition 2GB Video Card  (£173.76 @ Amazon UK) 

Case:  BitFenix Shinobi ATX Mid Tower Case  (£49.90 @ Amazon UK) 

Power Supply:  Corsair CX 600W 80 PLUS Bronze Certified ATX12V Power Supply  (£61.98 @ Amazon UK) 

Operating System:  Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 (OEM) (64-bit)  (£70.97 @ Dabs) 

Total: £582.22

 

 

The memory is currently being shipped because it was on offer and it will basically work with both builds.

 

Any adjustments and thoughts?

 

Notice Intel Build has a SSD

Edited May 28, 2013 by SpamBrie

[No One Puts A Real Name]

AMD

[MrJakePrince]

Personally I'd change the i3 for a 3570k or the new haswell i5 but that will probably stretch your budget too far, but the  660 is a great card I run it myself and can play all of my games on very high and ultra and still have smooth frame rates so I would say the intel build, just because I don't know how the AMD build will perform

[Chakshu]

Go for the AMD one. I would say go for a dual channel memory kit And if you are left with some cash get  HD7950 even the cheapest one will kick any HD7870's ASS.

[AxelPeeters]

i should wait for hasswel and i don't see why u would put a cooler master hyper 212 evo on an I3-3220 , u can't overclock it but overall i should go with the intel build , the I3 runs circles around the fx-6300 in the most games and in rendering it will totaly dominate's the FX-6300

[Chevaishr]

the amd build would be best ... i believe the 7870 beats the 660 most times and that 6350 should be just as powerful in gaming as the i3 in gaming. about waiting for haswell ... your budget may not be able to hold a haswell cpu and motherboard and a decent gpu at the same time (prices at launch may be higher). 

[Willson94]

You don't need a Z77 board for your i3 just get an MSI B75A-G41 and save yourself a few £ to put towards a 7870 you wont need the cooler either and like Chakshu said I'd get a dual channel kit =)

[Scia]

Go for the AMD build, will give you a much better £/performance ratio.

If you can, get a dual channel kit [2 dims].

Is the HDD actually free as an offer? Otherwise drop the server grade hdd and go with a barracuda or wd black / blue.

 

The 7870 is a really good card, probably best £/Performance you can get.

You can OC the AMD build, while you can't OC the Intel build.

The 660 is a rather bad £/Performance card, I'd advise against it.

If the Momentus XT isn't free, pick a normal HDD as mentioned above and see if you can squeeze in an SSD. Although 64gb SSDs are rather bad in terms of longevity and performance. Perhaps check for a Samsung 840 [non pro] as they are quite cheap.

 

Not sure what you did with the HDDs since they are labeled as 0.00£ but considering you don't have them already:

http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/p/10LVv

Somewhat over budget, but you get much better performance especially with the 7870xt = ~7930

 

And in case you have the HDD since it's labeled as 0.00£ and it's too far over budget:

http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/p/10M0R

 

 

If you have ordered the ram already, remove it from the list.

[Jack.EXE]

I'd do the AMD build

go for the 7870 XT which is a 7950 with 2GB of memory, and i'd swap the psu for an Antec EA-500

hey look at that! an EA that is actually not horrible!

[david cassar]

Go for the AMD build, will give you a much better £/performance ratio.

If you can, get a dual channel kit [2 dims].

Is the HDD actually free as an offer? Otherwise drop the server grade hdd and go with a barracuda or wd black / blue.

 

The 7870 is a really good card, probably best £/Performance you can get.

You can OC the AMD build, while you can't OC the Intel build.

The 660 is a rather bad £/Performance card, I'd advise against it.

If the Momentus XT isn't free, pick a normal HDD as mentioned above and see if you can squeeze in an SSD. Although 64gb SSDs are rather bad in terms of longevity and performance. Perhaps check for a Samsung 840 [non pro] as they are quite cheap.

 

Not sure what you did with the HDDs since they are labeled as 0.00£ but considering you don't have them already:

http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/p/10LVv

Somewhat over budget, but you get much better performance especially with the 7870xt = ~7930

 

And in case you have the HDD since it's labeled as 0.00£ and it's too far over budget:

http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/p/10M0R

 

 

If you have ordered the ram already, remove it from the list.

In this case the gtx 660 is better for the money because it performs similar and costs 20-30 pounds less.

[Lavi]

I'd go for the AMD build except I'd go for the 660 and a cheaper PSU. 600W is overkill for almost any single card build. A good 450W one would do but something like the Corsair CX500M would work well since it is semi modular.

[Scia]

In this case the gtx 660 is better for the money because it performs similar and costs 20-30 pounds less.

 

You can overclock the snot out of a 7870, while the 600 series are rather poor overclockers.

Imho when building a PC comprimises should not be made for +/- 50£ as they often lead to bad cost / performance ratio.

[WoodenMarker]

You should have went with 2 sticks of ram for dual channel. In some cases, the performance increases between dual and no dual channel is 50%.

 

Here are some changes: http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/p/10NYI £531.46

Upgraded to 3470. You can fit it in your budget. 

Took out cooler. You don't need an aftermarket cooler if you're not going to overclock.

Got a b75 motherboard to keep the front usb 3.0 and not waste money on an overclocking motherboard like the z77.

Changed the SSD. The ssd you chose is terrible. It's random read/write speed is 7,000/2,000 iops compared to the Kingston SSDNow v300's read/write speed of 85,000/55,000.

Got a 7950, It fits in your budget and will blow the other cards out of the water.

XFX 550w Bronze Psu will do you fine.