£850 Gaming PC - Anyway to improve gaming performance for same cost?

[Atuleon]

We are ordering the below PC tomorrow for my wife. She wants a PC mainly for gaming use, and wants to keep it as close to £25.00 a month on finance as possible, which is roughly £800.00. Finance is over 4years, so this HAS to last 4years, (playing games on medium settings 4yrs from now) with no upgrades.

This is the best gaming rig I can come up with for her in that budget:
Case PCS MAELSTROM T900 BLACK GAMING CASE
Processor (CPU) Intel® Core™i5-2500 Quad Core (3.30GHz, 6MB Cache) + HD Graphics
Motherboard ASUS® P8Z68-V LX: USB 3.0, SATA 6GBs, ATI®CrossFireX
Memory (RAM) 8GB SAMSUNG DUAL-DDR3 1333MHz (2 X 4GB)
Graphics Card 1GB NVIDIA GEFORCE GTX 560 Ti - 2 DVI,HDMI,VGA - 3D Vision Ready
Memory - 1st Hard Disk 2TB 3.5" SATA-III 6GB/s HDD 7200RPM 64MB CACHE
2nd Hard Disk NONE
SSD CACHE DRIVE NONE
1st DVD/BLU-RAY Drive 24x DUAL LAYER DVD WRITER ±R/±RW/RAM
2nd DVD/BLU-RAY Drive NONE
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)
Fan Controller NONE
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
Modem NONE, I WILL BE USING BROADBAND
Operating System Genuine Windows 7 Home Premium 64 Bit - inc DVD & Licence (£79)
Office Software NO OFFICE SOFTWARE
Anti-Virus NO ANTI-VIRUS SOFTWARE
Monitor NONE
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

Price (excluding VAT) £710.00
Price £852.00
Order Quantity 1
Bulk Discount £0.00
Total Order price (Ex VAT) £710.00
Total Order Price £852.00

Maximum Required Power 469W

 

[Corfate]

I'd say you're smack on there mate. Could drop down to the 4GB or RAM to save you some more pennies

 

[Atuleon]

Thanks Corfate. I appreciate your reply.

Anyone else agree that this is best for her, or anything else I can change to increase performance for her for the same cost?

edit: I was trying to persuade her to get the GTX570 for the extra £2 a month, but she doesn't want to spend any more. Is the build above the best for her for this price?

 

[Atuleon]

Is there really any noticable difference between the i5-2400 and the i5-2500? She could save money here if there is no difference?

 

[Corfate]

Yes, i'd say it is the best for that kind of price

I don't think you'll notice any difference by dropping it to the 2400 If that comes out cheaper than the 2500, you could up to the 570 with the saved pennies

 

[Buzz]

Is there really any noticable difference between the i5-2400 and the i5-2500?

The difference between the i5-2400 and the i5-2500 is

2400 =
Nominal clock frequency = 3.1Ghz
Frequency in Turbo Mode = 3.2/3.3/3.4Ghz

2500 =
Nominal clock frequency = 3.3Ghz
Frequency in Turbo Mode = 3.4/3.6/3.7Ghz

Bottom line is, with above specs (and even if dropped to 4Gig Ram) you really wont notice all that much difference in performance between the 2 2400/2500 but for the sake of 15 quid its really down to computer use and personal preference. Dropping the RAM from 8-4Gig would also save 15 quid +-

Could also save 10£ by going for the Windows 7 32bit then if not getting 8gig of RAM as most games and progs work with 32bit either natively or using compatibility mode

 

[MadMan]

Looks good mate, you could maybe consider an amd cpu and then upgrade to a more powerful gpu but id stick with what you've got.

 

[Atuleon]

To keep you updated: In the end, she ordered a 'reviewed' budget gaming PC build called "Enigma HD", details below. I think it gives good "bang for her buck", as this cost her £550, but I also arranged for the RAM to be upgraded for £16.00 (so cheap it's worth doing it now, not to have to worry about it in the future). To build this via PCSpecialists custom builder it would have cost her £638.00, so a nice saving to buy it this way (as a reviewed package).

Case
STYLISH PIANO BLACK ENIGMA CASE + 2 FRONT USB

Processor (CPU)
Intel® Core™i5-2400 Quad Core (3.10GHz, 6MB Cache) + HD Graphics

Motherboard
ASUS® P8H61-M LE/USB3 (NEW REV 3.0): M-ATX, USB 3.0, SATA 3.0Gb/s

Memory (RAM)
4GB SAMSUNG DUAL-DDR3 1333MHz (2 X 2GB) (I arranged for this to be upgraded from 4GB to 8GB for £16.00 extra)

Graphics Card
1GB AMD RADEON™ HD6850 - 2 DVI,HDMI, DP - DX® 11, Eyefinity 3 Capable

Memory - 1st Hard Disk
1TB 3.5" SATA-III 6GB/s HDD 7200RPM 32MB CACHE

1st DVD/BLU-RAY Drive
12x BLU-RAY ROM DRIVE, 16x DVD ±R/±RW (£46)

Power Supply
450W Quiet 80 PLUS Dual Rail PSU + 120mm Case Fan (£29)

Processor Cooling
INTEL SOCKET LGA1155 STANDARD CPU COOLER

Sound Card
ONBOARD 8 CHANNEL (7.1) HIGH DEF AUDIO (AS STANDARD)

Network Facilities
10/100/1000 GIGABIT LAN PORT - AS STANDARD ON ALL PCs

USB Options
4 x USB 2.0 PORTS @ BACK PANEL (MIN 2 FRONT PORTS) AS STANDARD

Operating System
Genuine Windows 7 Home Premium 64 Bit - inc DVD & Licence (£79)

Office Software
FREE Microsoft® Office Starter 2010 (Limited functionality Word & Excel)

Anti-Virus
BULLGUARD INTERNET SECURITY - FREE 90 DAY TRIAL

Warranty
3 Year Standard Warranty (1 Month Collect & Return, 1 Year Parts, 3 Year Labour)

Delivery
STANDARD INSURED DELIVERY TO UK MAINLAND (MON-FRI)

Build Time
Standard Build - Approximately 10 to 12 working days

REVIEW: http://www.expertreviews.co.uk/pcs/1290784/pc-specialist-enigma-hd

While I know it's not the best gaming PC out there, for the cost/budget I think it's pretty good. Let us know what you think of it for the cost.

 

[Corfate]

It's a good build, but i'd have liked a better case, for looks and cooling

 

[Atuleon]

We can't changed it too much we don't get the original discounted 'review' package price, and all the little changes soon add up. But yeh, I would have liked a better case too, but it has a front and rear fan right? I can't see much info on the case tbh?

 

[keynes]

We can't changed it too much we don't get the original discounted 'review' package price, and all the little changes soon add up. But yeh, I would have liked a better case too, but it has a front and rear fan right? I can't see much info on the case tbh?

I think you could order it and when it is "processing" you should be able to change to a better case.

 

[MadMan]

and dont forget the year warranty, its a must

 

[keynes]

Morning Atuleon,
Did you manage to order the Enigma HD? I was considering in purchasing the same unit but still unsure on whether you are able to order it and upgrade it when the order is "processing" without losing the advertised price.

 

[Atuleon]

Hi rubensob,

Sorry for the delay in reply, yes we ordered it. After we put the order through at the good reduced price of the reviewed package, we was able to upgrade via the web-site as normal without increasing the price.

For example we upgraded from 4gb to 8gb of RAM, and this was just the £16 increase that would apply when building a custom PC specification.

Let us know when you order it ^^ Our's is in 5th working day of production now.

 

[Atuleon]

and dont forget the year warranty, its a must

Yes, I normally always pick this in the custom builds I make, but forgot as it was a reviewed pre-package. Went back in and modified order for an extra £5 for this. Thanks.

 

[keynes]

Hi rubensob,

Sorry for the delay in reply, yes we ordered it. After we put the order through at the good reduced price of the reviewed package, we was able to upgrade via the web-site as normal without increasing the price.

For example we upgraded from 4gb to 8gb of RAM, and this was just the £16 increase that would apply when building a custom PC specification.

Let us know when you order it ^^ Our's is in 5th working day of production now.

Thanks for the reply, waiting for payday before I make a decision.