£800 budget gaming PC.

shwilliams

New member
Hi,

Seems to be a real friendly and responsive forum, so I was wondering if you all could help me decide on a build for a new PC. I currently have (and need to keep) a dual monitor setup, but I'd plan to extend it to three monitors in the near future, so I'd appreciate if this was available out of the box. I'd also need to dual boot (Ubuntu for work, Windows for games) so known compatibility with Linux would be great. I'd prefer to have an Intel processor and AMD graphics if possible (the latter for Eyefinity). I'd like it to be great for gaming (Skyrim, Diablo 3 etc, none of which I can play at the moment but I really want to be able to). Any help would be massively appreciated!

I may be willing to edge over the £800 mark if needs be to get the desired setup, or if doing so would give a significant benefit.

Cheers! :)
 

vanthus

Member Resting in Peace
Case
COOLERMASTER CM690 MKII ADVANCED CASE
Processor (CPU)
Intel® Core™i5-2500k Quad Core (3.30GHz, 6MB Cache) + HD Graphics
Motherboard
ASUS® P8Z77-V LX: USB 3.0, SATA 6GBs, ATI®CrossFireX
Memory (RAM)
8GB SAMSUNG DUAL-DDR3 1333MHz (2 X 4GB)
Graphics Card
1GB AMD RADEON™ HD7750 - DVI,HDMI,DP - DX® 11, Eyefinity 3 Capable
Free Item
FREE DIRT SHOWDOWN GAME with any AMD 7000 Series GPU!
Memory - 1st Hard Disk
1TB WD CAVIAR BLACK WD1002FAEX, SATA 6 Gb/s, 64MB CACHE (7200rpm)
1st DVD/BLU-RAY Drive
24x DUAL LAYER DVD WRITER ±R/±RW/RAM
Memory Card Reader
INTERNAL 52 IN 1 CARD READER (XD, MS, CF, SD, etc) + 1 x USB 2.0 PORT
Power Supply
CORSAIR 650W ENTHUSIAST SERIES™ TX650 V2-80 PLUS® BRONZE (£69)
Processor Cooling
SUPER QUIET 22dBA TRIPLE COPPER HEATPIPE INTEL CPU COOLER (£19)
Sound Card
ONBOARD 6 CHANNEL (5.1) HIGH DEF AUDIO (AS STANDARD)
Network Facilities
10/100/1000 GIGABIT LAN PORT - AS STANDARD ON ALL PCs
USB Options
6 x USB 2.0 PORTS @ BACK PANEL (MIN 2 FRONT PORTS) AS STANDARD
Operating System
Genuine Windows 7 Home Premium 64 Bit w/SP1 - inc DVD & Licence
Office Software
FREE Microsoft® Office Starter 2010 (Limited functionality Word & Excel)
Anti-Virus
BULLGUARD INTERNET SECURITY - FREE 90 DAY TRIAL
Warranty
3 Year Silver Warranty (1 Year Collect & Return, 1 Year Parts, 3 Year Labour) (£5)
Delivery
STANDARD INSURED DELIVERY TO UK MAINLAND (MON-FRI)
Build Time
Standard Build - Approximately 10 to 12 working days
Quantity 1
£815 inc VAT and Delivery.
 
Last edited:

shwilliams

New member
Thanks for the quick response! Out of curiosity, if I were to extend the budget by £200 and £400 respectively (total £1000 and £1200), what modifications to that setup would you make and what difference would you expect it to make to gaming? This is mostly a hypothetical, as my intended budget is still £800 - but I'd rather wait a month longer and pay the extra if it would make a noticeable difference and save me upgrading a few months down the line.
 

bigben

Master Poster
Hi, the spec vanthus posted looks good, if you are willing to raise the budget I would recommend a solid state drive (SSD), they are really good.
I don't know why vanthus posted a sandy bridge processor (there may have been a specific reason) but you could get a newer ivy bridge processor for the same price.

Case
COOLERMASTER CM690 MKII ADVANCED CASE
Processor (CPU)
Intel® Core™i5 Quad Core Processor i5-3550 (3.3GHz) 6MB Cache
Motherboard
ASUS® P8Z77-V LX: USB 3.0, SATA 6GBs, ATI®CrossFireX
Memory (RAM)
8GB SAMSUNG DUAL-DDR3 1333MHz (2 X 4GB)
Graphics Card
3GB AMD RADEON™ HD7970 - DVI,HDMI,2 mDP - DX® 11, Eyefinity 4 Capable
Free Item
FREE DIRT SHOWDOWN GAME with any AMD 7000 Series GPU!
Memory - 1st Hard Disk
120GB KINGSTON HYPERX 3K SSD, SATA 6 Gb/s (upto 555MB/sR | 510MB/sW)
2nd Hard Disk
1TB WD CAVIAR BLACK WD1002FAEX, SATA 6 Gb/s, 64MB CACHE (7200rpm)
1st DVD/BLU-RAY Drive
24x DUAL LAYER DVD WRITER ±R/±RW/RAM
Memory Card Reader
INTERNAL 52 IN 1 CARD READER (XD, MS, CF, SD, etc) + 1 x USB 2.0 PORT
Power Supply
CORSAIR 650W ENTHUSIAST SERIES™ TX650 V2-80 PLUS® BRONZE (£69)
Processor Cooling
SUPER QUIET 22dBA TRIPLE COPPER HEATPIPE INTEL CPU COOLER (£19)
Sound Card
ONBOARD 6 CHANNEL (5.1) HIGH DEF AUDIO (AS STANDARD)
Network Facilities
10/100/1000 GIGABIT LAN PORT - AS STANDARD ON ALL PCs
USB Options
6 x USB 2.0 PORTS @ BACK PANEL (MIN 2 FRONT PORTS) AS STANDARD
Operating System
Genuine Windows 7 Home Premium 64 Bit w/SP1 - inc DVD & Licence
Office Software
FREE Microsoft® Office Starter 2010 (Limited functionality Word & Excel)
Anti-Virus
BULLGUARD INTERNET SECURITY - FREE 90 DAY TRIAL
Warranty
3 Year Silver Warranty (1 Year Collect & Return, 1 Year Parts, 3 Year Labour) (£5)
Delivery
STANDARD INSURED DELIVERY TO UK MAINLAND (MON-FRI)
Build Time
Standard Build - Approximately 10 to 12 working days
Quantity
1

Price: £1,197.00 including VAT and delivery.

Configure Here: http://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/quotes/intel-ivy-bridge-pc/bAGVcqT4Sr/
 

shwilliams

New member
Geez you guys are fast! Thanks so much, that's brilliant. Yeah, an SSD would be good and I'd probably look to get one for Windows (I run Ubuntu on one already), with a 1TB for storing everything like you've already put in that spec. Definitely going to have to put some thought into this now! Would the latter spec be notably better in terms of graphics for my gaming? In terms of whether settings would be mid, high, ultra or whatever.
 
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