Cheap PC Build £500 $700

[harry18]

I have wanted to build a pc for gaming for a while but not really known what to put in it and how much money is enough for each individual part. I want to be able to play some of the latest games at medium to low settings and to be able to use it for school work aswell. I also need this to include an os

[Stardar1]

Just now, harry18 said:

I have wanted to build a pc for gaming for a while but not really known what to put in it and how much money is enough for each individual part. I want to be able to play some of the latest games at medium to low settings and to be able to use it for school work aswell.

Click the UK in my sig to go to UK's PCPP

[Stardar1]

2 minutes ago, harry18 said:

I have wanted to build a pc for gaming for a while but not really known what to put in it and how much money is enough for each individual part. I want to be able to play some of the latest games at medium to low settings and to be able to use it for school work aswell.

PCPartPicker part list: http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/p/zkW7cf
Price breakdown by merchant: http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/p/zkW7cf/by_merchant/

CPU: Intel Core i5-4460 3.2GHz Quad-Core Processor  (£149.99 @ Novatech) 
Motherboard: MSI H81M-P33 Micro ATX LGA1150 Motherboard  (£33.99 @ Ebuyer) 
Memory: Kingston HyperX Fury Blue 8GB (1 x 8GB) DDR3-1600 Memory  (£26.93 @ Amazon UK) 
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive  (£40.48 @ Amazon UK) 
Video Card: EVGA GeForce GTX 950 2GB Superclocked+ ACX 2.0 Video Card  (£139.70 @ Amazon UK) 
Case: NZXT S340 (Black/Blue) ATX Mid Tower Case  (£59.99 @ Novatech) 
Power Supply: Silverstone Strider Essential 500W 80+ Certified ATX Power Supply  (£45.00 @ Amazon UK) 
Total: £496.08
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2016-03-21 20:11 GMT+0000

[harry18]

Also should i go AMD or NVIDIA for graphics card and Intel or AMD for processor

[The_KIASER]

1 minute ago, harry18 said:

I have wanted to build a pc for gaming for a while but not really known what to put in it and how much money is enough for each individual part. I want to be able to play some of the latest games at medium to low settings and to be able to use it for school work aswell.

Highly advise looking into a few of these youtube channels, they should have all done builds at or near that $700us price tag. JayzTwoCents, PaulsHardware, AwesomeSauce Network, and CultofMush. They can also teach you how to build or at least give tips on doing a build, if needed...

[harry18]

1 minute ago, The_KIASER said:

They can also teach you how to build or at least give tips on doing a build

i know how to build just not really what parts are the best price to performance 

[Stardar1]

Just now, harry18 said:

i know how to build just not really what parts are the best price to performance 

PCPartPicker part list: http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/p/zkW7cf
Price breakdown by merchant: http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/p/zkW7cf/by_merchant/

CPU: Intel Core i5-4460 3.2GHz Quad-Core Processor  (£149.99 @ Novatech) 
Motherboard: MSI H81M-P33 Micro ATX LGA1150 Motherboard  (£33.99 @ Ebuyer) 
Memory: Kingston HyperX Fury Blue 8GB (1 x 8GB) DDR3-1600 Memory  (£26.93 @ Amazon UK) 
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive  (£40.48 @ Amazon UK) 
Video Card: EVGA GeForce GTX 950 2GB Superclocked+ ACX 2.0 Video Card  (£139.70 @ Amazon UK) 
Case: NZXT S340 (Black/Blue) ATX Mid Tower Case  (£59.99 @ Novatech) 
Power Supply: Silverstone Strider Essential 500W 80+ Certified ATX Power Supply  (£45.00 @ Amazon UK) 
Total: £496.08
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2016-03-21 20:11 GMT+0000

[Moonzy]

Just now, harry18 said:

Also should i go AMD or NVIDIA for graphics card and Intel or AMD for processor

there isnt a final answer to this as each companies have better product on each tier and sometimes, for entirely different purpose

 

here's my proposed build

Spoiler

PCPartPicker part list: http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/p/F88sRB
Price breakdown by merchant: http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/p/F88sRB/by_merchant/

CPU: Intel Xeon E3-1231 V3 3.4GHz Quad-Core Processor  (£214.04 @ Dabs) 
Motherboard: ASRock H97 Anniversary ATX LGA1150 Motherboard  (£69.29 @ Amazon UK) 
Memory: Kingston HyperX Fury Black 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory  (£29.99 @ Amazon UK) 
Storage: Samsung 850 EVO-Series 120GB 2.5" Solid State Drive  (£50.89 @ Amazon UK) 
Storage: Western Digital Blue 2TB 3.5" 5400RPM Internal Hard Drive  (£59.99 @ Ebuyer) 
Video Card: XFX Radeon R9 380 4GB Double Dissipation Video Card  (£159.98 @ Novatech) 
Case: Corsair 200R ATX Mid Tower Case  (£49.99 @ Amazon UK) 
Power Supply: EVGA SuperNOVA G2 550W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply  (£70.69 @ Amazon UK) 
Total: £704.86
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2016-03-21 20:18 GMT+0000

 

[Lotus]

If you focus on bang for the buck, you can get this:

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i5-6500 3.2GHz Quad-Core Processor  (£166.27 @ Amazon UK)
Motherboard: MSI H110M Pro-VD Micro ATX LGA1151 Motherboard  (£45.99 @ Ebuyer)
Memory: Crucial 8GB (1 x 8GB) DDR4-2133 Memory  (£25.99 @ Amazon UK)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive  (£40.48 @ Amazon UK)
Video Card: XFX Radeon R9 380 4GB Double Dissipation Video Card  (£159.98 @ Novatech)
Case: Zalman Z3 Plus ATX Mid Tower Case  (£32.99 @ Novatech)
Power Supply: EVGA 500W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply  (£44.37 @ Amazon UK)
Total: £516.07
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2016-03-21 20:20 GMT+0000

 

It cuts a few corners, but nothing I'd feel bad about. The PSU could be better, but we're not overclocking the CPU here, and the 500B is a solid unit and no CX.

[harry18]

2 minutes ago, Lotus said:

Intel Core i5-6500

6 minutes ago, Stardar1 said:

Intel Core i5-4460

 

what is the difference between these two cpus as they are both clocked at 3.2GHz

[Lotus]

They aren't clocked at 3.2 GHz. The i5-4460 is 3.4 GHz, and the i5-6500 is 3.6 GHz. On Intel CPUs, always compare turbo speed, not base speed. Also, the i5-6500 is a newer architecture, so it's 15% faster clock for clock.

[Stardar1]

3 minutes ago, harry18 said:

what is the difference between these two cpus as they are both clocked at 3.2GHz

different sockets, the 6500 is newer, but increases the price of motherboard and RAM, which is why I usually suggest the 4460, as at that level those few extra dollars towards a GPU make the difference. 

 

having said that, his build is better. 

[harry18]

ok thanks so the 6500 is worth the £16 more

[Lotus]

19 minutes ago, harry18 said:

ok thanks so the 6500 is worth the £16 more

It's not that simple. They are on different sockets and the parts for each are incompatible with each other. You cannot put an i5-6500 into a motherboard designed for an i5-4460.