Beginner gaming Set up £492

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Don't worry too much about hyperthreading on your CPU - no need to go above an i5, but I would say perhaps an i3 is a little too small. Most games don't utilise it well, and most modern games are very good at utilising the GPU over CPU (the biggest exception being ArmA, which is one of the shittiest-ly made games when it comes to performance as it relies heavily on your CPU).

As people have said, get a 900 series - they are exceeding good value. Don't spend more than £40 on your case if you can help it, and look for other things that you can upgrade later. Upgrading the motherboard later on a little tricky if you ask me, whereas adding HDDs or SSDs is really straight forward.

Don't skimp on the PSU. The technology involved in making PSUs has remained the same for years and won't change soon. I'm still using a nice one I bought 5 years ago, and you can carry it over to any subsequent build. Also, cheaper ones might go kaput and - in some extreme cases - fry everything you own. The one you have picked looks decent enough.

Fans are something else that people always neglect to buy. Case fans are almost always complete crap - spend an extra £40-60 later on and get some nice, quiet, high flow ones and it'll improve your gaming experience significantly.

PC gaming isn't cheap I'm afraid. A £500 build in the UK is hard to do because parts here are about 20% more expensive than in the US (where most of the guides on this sort of thing are written).

Also, I'll see if I can get a hold of a Windows 10 key for you. I know a chap that gets them free through his work.

 

[Rock-climby-Dave]

http://pcpartpicker.com/p/Fss4zy

I barely play games anymore, Insurgency is good though.

 

[JamesAirsofterAgent]

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Freshtech-Motherboard-Performance-Certified-Barracuda/dp/B012WZO4O8/ref=sr_1_1?s=computers&ie=UTF8&qid=1448042106&sr=1-1&keywords=freshtech+intel+core+i5

 

[Mos]

Just buy that aha. If it needs some doing, do it! The specs seem good to me, or enough to run some decent games. I have played arma 3 on a useless PC. Well, certainly not a gaming PC, and I could run arma 3 at 20 FPS, which isn't good, but the PC from Amazon is much better than the one I used... It may turn out, your PC is not good enough, well, just upgrade it. There's a website 'CanIrunIt' something like that, it'll help you see if the PC is good. Some smart lad will come tell me I'm wrong. Whatever you do, good luck..

 

[JamesAirsofterAgent]

Bought it, dad wasn't going to let me build one and time is running out with important exams etc next year so looks like I'll have a gaming pc this Christmas. Brothers still getting a ps4 because he has money sense haha, I really need a job now...

 

[Mos]

Ok, nice. You should just wait and be excited now. IMO, the excitement of getting it, is always quite fun. Wait to get it, test it on some games, then, go on the website of 'CanIRunIt' and browse some gamers, and check which part of the pc is the weak spot. And then go from there (upgrading etc) goodluck!

 

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CanIRunIt is not very useful these days - don't bother with it. There are so many variables in PC gaming that it's basically impossible to predict - with reliable accuracy - what level you can play a game at. Especially as it goes off the developer-recommended specs. which become completely obsolete after a few months anyway.

Here's a website I've been using recently for fiddling with builds though that I think has surpassed PCPartPicker for ease of use (who haven't updated their website in ages): http://choosemypc.net/. It will still link back to PCPartPicker if you want to swap things out etc.