How to build a £600 Gaming PC
Introduction
Published: 13th December 2010 | Source: Aria | Price: £219 |
Introduction
We've often talked amongst ourselves about what the difference is between a super high-end system and one that's much more affordable, especially for gaming. One of the major things we've spoken of when reviewing graphics cards is that the speed and capabilities of the processor doesn't make that much difference when compared to the abilities of the card.
Obviously if you're going to spend your life editing video or doing an independent version of a Pixar film then you'll need all the power that you can get your hands on. But what if you just want to have a standard PC and use it for standard things, with the occasional game thrown in?
One of the great little processors we've reviewed in recent months was the Intel i3 and so having a good look around and talking to some of the companies who are kind enough to keep in contact with us, we discovered that Aria have a pre-overclocked bundle that's hugely popular and just £220, pre-built too.
So we've got a good base to work from and could add enough bits and bobs to put together what we feel would be a superb gaming rig for around £380, leaving us about £220 to buy a graphics card and still get under budget. Before we move on to what we've chosen, let's look at the basis for our sub-£600 gaming system.
The Main Platform
The foundation for our system is the Aria Gladiator i3 540 pre-overclocked and pre-built system bundle. For only £220 you get the following parts :
• Intel® Core™ i3-540 Dual Core CPU - Overclocked @ 4.20GHz
• 4GB Mushkin Silverline 1333MHz 9-9-9-24
• MSI H55M-ED55 Micro-ATX Motherboard
• Coolermaster Hyper TX3 CPU Cooler
• Arctic Silver 5 Thermal Compound
• Pre-Assembled & Tested
• 1 Years Warranty
As you can see that's a huge amount of stuff for the price of a sole i7-930. We've often reviewed Mushkin RAM recently and we know how good that performs. MSI produce some of the best motherboards available so we should be fine there too, and of course the excellent Core i3 from Intel at a stonking 4.2 GHz.
Usually there is a hefty premium to pay for any pre-built system, and a further one if that is overclocked. However here we find the bundle comes in right at where you'd be able to purchase the parts separately, but without any of the hassles of building it yourself, or finding a good overclock, or even the dreaded nightmare of a DOA part.
Most Recent Comments
So you recommend Intel 1156 over AMD CPUs for a budget rig?
It also proves you can't bottleneck your GPU with your CPU
SO you were right all along
It also proves you can't bottleneck your GPU with your CPU
SO you were right all alongQuote:
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Originally Posted by Zeals
So you recommend Intel 1156 over AMD CPUs for a budget rig? It also proves you can't bottleneck your GPU with your CPU SO you were right all along |
Nice. Good price on that OC combo too, go Aria !
Awesome review 
simple: don't buy a case for it and run it in a freezer, no fans needed! 
Jks ofc, that'd be nuts
Jks ofc, that'd be nuts
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Originally Posted by Fodr Kreatr
simple: don't buy a case for it and run it in a freezer, no fans needed! Jks ofc, that'd be nuts |
I WORKED
That looks nice, and for a reasonably good price! 
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Originally Posted by Jackster
I have put a old PC in a freezer once.... I WORKED |
Damn your Tom.. you've got me thinking of building a new rig now!
nice setup them i3's pump some beans dont they.
do you reckon they would do 4.5 with a dh14
do you reckon they would do 4.5 with a dh14
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Originally Posted by AMDFTW
nice setup them i3's pump some beans dont they. do you reckon they would do 4.5 with a dh14 |
I'd say an i3 would do 4.5 with stock cooler if you had some amazing air flow... probs idle at 40-50 and load 68-79 ish... lol
would be funny if that tested true... oh well when i get it maybe i can find out!
would be funny if that tested true... oh well when i get it maybe i can find out!
Hey everyone, I see there are actually two bundles for the I3 540 on aria:
The reviewed one:
• Intel® Core™ i3-540 Overclocked @ 4.20GHz - Dual Core CPU
• 4GB Mushkin Silverline 1333MHz 9-9-9-24
• MSI H55M-ED55 Micro-ATX Motherboard
• Coolermaster Hyper TX3 CPU Cooler
• Arctic Silver 5 Thermal Compound
• Pre-Assembled & Tested
• 1 Years Warranty
• No Operating System
And this one:
• Intel® Core™ i3-540 Overclocked @ 4.30GHz - Dual Core CPU
• Mushkin 4GB (2x2G
DDR3 1600MHz 8-8-8-24 Blackline - 996744
• Gigabyte GA-H55M-USB3 Intel H55 DDR3 Motherboard
• Gelid Tranquillo CPU Cooler
• Arctic Silver 5 Thermal Compound
• Pre-Assembled & Tested
• 1 Years Warranty
• No Operating System
First one is £220 and second one is £280, never heard of a gelid cooler though any comments?. And just out of interest is the extra £50 worth paying?
The reviewed one:
• Intel® Core™ i3-540 Overclocked @ 4.20GHz - Dual Core CPU
• 4GB Mushkin Silverline 1333MHz 9-9-9-24
• MSI H55M-ED55 Micro-ATX Motherboard
• Coolermaster Hyper TX3 CPU Cooler
• Arctic Silver 5 Thermal Compound
• Pre-Assembled & Tested
• 1 Years Warranty
• No Operating System
And this one:
• Intel® Core™ i3-540 Overclocked @ 4.30GHz - Dual Core CPU
• Mushkin 4GB (2x2G
DDR3 1600MHz 8-8-8-24 Blackline - 996744• Gigabyte GA-H55M-USB3 Intel H55 DDR3 Motherboard
• Gelid Tranquillo CPU Cooler
• Arctic Silver 5 Thermal Compound
• Pre-Assembled & Tested
• 1 Years Warranty
• No Operating System
First one is £220 and second one is £280, never heard of a gelid cooler though any comments?. And just out of interest is the extra £50 worth paying?
Theres faster ram too which will give a better divider tie in and a higher ram speed add to that a better mobo with usb3.... For £50 Id probs pay it tbh dude.
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Originally Posted by tinytomlogan
Theres faster ram too which will give a better divider tie in and a higher ram speed add to that a better mobo with usb3.... For £50 Id probs pay it tbh dude. |
sweet, I have to say I do like these bundle deals.Great review Tom :>
yeah i was wondering that, it will depend on how much i get for xmas... get paid this month 300 ish so... could buy it... but would then need to buy a psu if i want to use it before the end of january as my psu is 400 watts and sucks.... so i would need to buy a 4 pin power adapter which would cost £7 including postage which tbh is a waste. I'd also rather use new parts with new psu not risking the fact that the psu is dell and is over 6 years old.
***EDIT****
these bundle deals are sick! Aria provide much better performance for the price compared to competitors like overclockers....
***EDIT****
these bundle deals are sick! Aria provide much better performance for the price compared to competitors like overclockers....
how do the rest compare in regards to bang4buck
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Originally Posted by BertDaSquirt
so i would need to buy a 4 pin power adapter which would cost £7 including postage which tbh is a waste. |
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| Que? |
?????
What are you talking about 4 pin adapter?
4 pin atx power adapter as my current psu one is too short to reach to the top of my motherboard in my xigmatek utgard...
*** edit****
4 pin extension might make it easier to understand
*** edit****
4 pin extension might make it easier to understand
I see.
you want to make sure your psu is powerful enough before spending any money on adapters. And you also want a good one with solid rail ampage if you're even so much as contemplating running an overclocked setup like that on it.
you want to make sure your psu is powerful enough before spending any money on adapters. And you also want a good one with solid rail ampage if you're even so much as contemplating running an overclocked setup like that on it.
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Originally Posted by Ollii
Hey everyone, I see there are actually two bundles for the I3 540 on aria: The reviewed one: • Intel® Core™ i3-540 Overclocked @ 4.20GHz - Dual Core CPU • 4GB Mushkin Silverline 1333MHz 9-9-9-24 • MSI H55M-ED55 Micro-ATX Motherboard • Coolermaster Hyper TX3 CPU Cooler • Arctic Silver 5 Thermal Compound • Pre-Assembled & Tested • 1 Years Warranty • No Operating System And this one: • Intel® Core™ i3-540 Overclocked @ 4.30GHz - Dual Core CPU • Mushkin 4GB (2x2G DDR3 1600MHz 8-8-8-24 Blackline - 996744• Gigabyte GA-H55M-USB3 Intel H55 DDR3 Motherboard • Gelid Tranquillo CPU Cooler • Arctic Silver 5 Thermal Compound • Pre-Assembled & Tested • 1 Years Warranty • No Operating System First one is £220 and second one is £280, never heard of a gelid cooler though any comments?. And just out of interest is the extra £50 worth paying? |
Just out of curiosity, what software comes with an Aria Rig by default?
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Originally Posted by Zeals
Just out of curiosity, what software comes with an Aria Rig by default? |
We don't supply any software per say. We do of course supply everything that comes with the motherboard i.e. Software CD and anything extra that the motherboard vendor suppied with the motherboard. We also supply the extra socket mounting that comes with each CPU cooler incase you wish to upgrade and use the same cooler on a different platform.
Hope that helps
EDIT: Just realised, you are on about our bundles right? lol
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Originally Posted by RawZ@Aria
Hi Zeals, We don't supply any software per say. We do of course supply everything that comes with the motherboard i.e. Software CD and anything extra that the motherboard vendor suppied with the motherboard. We also supply the extra socket mounting that comes with each CPU cooler incase you wish to upgrade and use the same cooler on a different platform. Hope that helps EDIT: Just realised, you are on about our bundles right? lol |
Great review and video, surprising what you can get for your money...,
Well done Aria great prices
Well done Aria great prices
Thats really good, i'm building something similar to this for a family member (full system no g-card (not needed for what he wabts the computer for. The on board graphics will do for now) inc monitor etc etc) for under £400
@AlienALX
Exactly thats what i said;
Meaning i'd rather go for the cheaper on so i can afford a new PSU.. but it all depends on how much money i get for xmas... also noticed an i5 bundle on overclockers gigabyte board and corsair dominator RAM @ £280
Exactly what i was thinking and much easier if you have already got a decent case, psu storage etc... you could buy a new 6900 seriese card when it comes out and will still equate to £600--- sadly im not in that situation
...
If you want to see how bad my current rig is, check out my profile, ive got the rough specs listed.
Exactly thats what i said;
I'd also rather use new parts with new psu not risking the fact that the psu is dell and is over 6 years old.
Meaning i'd rather go for the cheaper on so i can afford a new PSU.. but it all depends on how much money i get for xmas... also noticed an i5 bundle on overclockers gigabyte board and corsair dominator RAM @ £280
Then throw in a gtx 570 for a laugh because that will only cost another £100
Exactly what i was thinking and much easier if you have already got a decent case, psu storage etc... you could buy a new 6900 seriese card when it comes out and will still equate to £600--- sadly im not in that situation
...If you want to see how bad my current rig is, check out my profile, ive got the rough specs listed.
that i3 on the review has the same vantage score as my q8200@3.22ghz. Based on that do you thing it can handle well a card like the hd5970 (I'm waiting for the 6990 to buy it)? Or should I upgrade my cpu before thinking in upgrading my 4850? Putting in other terms: budget cpu = budget videocard?
IMO i think your CPU is fine at the moment.. and you should get a new graphics card.. you will see dramatic game performance increases. Then your next upgrade after that would be new CPU, Motherboard, RAM, Storage e.t.c.
The reason i was thinking about buying this bundle is because im still stuck on a stupid AMD Athlon 64 x2 5000+... with a 6800GT...
The reason i was thinking about buying this bundle is because im still stuck on a stupid AMD Athlon 64 x2 5000+...
with a 6800GT...that i3 on the review has the same vantage score as my q8200@3.22ghz. Based on that do you thing it can handle well a card like the hd5970 (I'm waiting for the 6990 to buy it)? Or should I upgrade my cpu before thinking in upgrading my 4850? Putting in other terms: budget cpu = budget videocard?
If its one or the other get a GPU first.
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Originally Posted by tiagojcp
that i3 on the review has the same vantage score as my q8200@3.22ghz. Based on that do you thing it can handle well a card like the hd5970 (I'm waiting for the 6990 to buy it)? Or should I upgrade my cpu before thinking in upgrading my 4850? Putting in other terms: budget cpu = budget videocard? |
I used to own Crossfire Radeon 5770. In a review on this site with an I7 920 they knocked out nearly 18000 3d marks. In my system (Phenom 2 940 @ 3.4ghz) they knocked out 14500.
Your CPU will bottleneck anything over a 460 1gb IMO. I certainly wouldn't spend the money on a top level card and then put it in there.
BTW thanks for posting that though. Maybe now these people who keep wanting to buy X4 AMD chips can finally understand what I am saying. IE - They are no better than the 45nm quads and cost more. The I3 is where it's at now.
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Originally Posted by AlienALX
No it absolutely can't handle something like the 5970 you would be throwing your money away. I used to own Crossfire Radeon 5770. In a review on this site with an I7 920 they knocked out nearly 18000 3d marks. In my system (Phenom 2 940 @ 3.4ghz) they knocked out 14500. Your CPU will bottleneck anything over a 460 1gb IMO. I certainly wouldn't spend the money on a top level card and then put it in there. BTW thanks for posting that though. Maybe now these people who keep wanting to buy X4 AMD chips can finally understand what I am saying. IE - They are no better than the 45nm quads and cost more. The I3 is where it's at now. |
Your scores were lower because it was AMD.
You will loose a bit where its a lower chip but its not huge. Look at the comparisons in the review against a 4ghz 950... slim to nothing in it.
BUT if you have that sort of money for a GPU then you may want to think about spreading the load a little more.
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Originally Posted by tinytomlogan
Alien thats almost all B******S. Your scores were lower because it was AMD. You will loose a bit where its a lower chip but its not huge. Look at the comparisons in the review against a 4ghz 950... slim to nothing in it. BUT if you have that sort of money for a GPU then you may want to think about spreading the load a little more. |
2500 3d marks less due to a slower CPU. Wish I had something even slower to throw in there to test them with now
Here you go. 3D score for a 470 GTX with a Phenom 2 940 @ 3800mhz.
http://i72.photobucket.com/albums/i1...ron/3dmv-1.jpg
I've seen a 460 score more than that with a 920 OC to 4ghz. Bottlenecking. That's why I just got an I7 rig.
Talking about bottlenecks incites the Wrath of TTL
Aye benchmarks will go down its a BENCHMARK, its FPS you want to look at.
Well yes, that's fair enough. However we already deciphered you only really need to make 60 with no less than 40 min to play a game as it was intended.
God I'm getting boring in my old age
God I'm getting boring in my old age
The great thing about TTL's gameplay it shows a worse case scenario, what happens when you play a Black Ops and not kill anything, so everything is shooting at you by the end of the level.
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Originally Posted by Zeals
Talking about bottlenecks incites the Wrath of TTL |
loved this review/report Tom, such an important topic imo.
though you said 'at the end of the day' far too much
though you said 'at the end of the day' far too much
I have almost the same
Could someone recommend a case for this as Aria dont have the one in stock, I've posted this in the cases area, but in hindsight should of posted here.
Have you emailed Aria to see when they will have stock dude?
No, my issue I need it fairly quickly, and they have a web special of the sapphire 6870 for £180 so didnt want to miss out - kind of didnt decide to actually take the plunge until gone 8pm
EDIT:
Ok, changes to Toms rig as follows
Sapphire HD 6870 - different make, but on offer 150+VAT
Seagate Barracuda ST31000528AS 1TB 3.5" SATA II Hard Drive - Samsung currently not available
Coolermaster HAF 912 Plus Midi Tower Case - Case from review not in stock
Including delivery it comes to 586.15 - unfortunately I dont qualify for free delivery
Just want to say thanks Tom for having this sort of stuff available, its a God send
EDIT:
Ok, changes to Toms rig as follows
Sapphire HD 6870 - different make, but on offer 150+VAT
Seagate Barracuda ST31000528AS 1TB 3.5" SATA II Hard Drive - Samsung currently not available
Coolermaster HAF 912 Plus Midi Tower Case - Case from review not in stock
Including delivery it comes to 586.15 - unfortunately I dont qualify for free delivery
Just want to say thanks Tom for having this sort of stuff available, its a God send
I would love to see a Redux of this 600 pound gaming rig, sandy bridge style when the i3 chips are released. Will lose some budget with the p67? But it might be worth it in performance. Or maybe even an h67 with the lowest i3 chip for budget reasons. Its fun to think about.
EDIT* Now that I got to looking, I don't think there will be an i3 "K" Edition, so that might render this idea pointless lol.
EDIT* Now that I got to looking, I don't think there will be an i3 "K" Edition, so that might render this idea pointless lol.
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