Budget Gaming PC, need help

[wily weasel]

Hello Mygaming forumites!

So my PSU just died recently, taking my old mobo with it. So I'm now in a situation where I either replace it (old socket AM2 :sick: ) or build a new PC from scratch. Long story short I decided to go with the latter. Only problem is I'm not really clued up with the whole PC component deal so I was hoping you guys could give me some advice.

My budget is 5k for the tower only. I'll be gaming at 720p, and my main goal is for the PC to be able to handle guild wars 2 on decent settings.

I realise my budget is limited, so I don't really care for shiny bells and whistles like USB3 and SATA6 at the moment. Also don't really intend to overclock any time soon if ever. Ideally the PC should be able to last 2 years (too optimistic? ), but if not I'd at least like it to have a clear upgrade path for later down the line as funds become available. i.e. cpu socket that isn't EOL.

Any other info you guys need, just shout.

[simon]

Hello Mygaming forumites!

So my PSU just died recently, taking my old mobo with it. So I'm now in a situation where I either replace it (old socket AM2 :sick: ) or build a new PC from scratch. Long story short I decided to go with the latter. Only problem is I'm not really clued up with the whole PC component deal so I was hoping you guys could give me some advice.

My budget is 5k for the tower only. I'll be gaming at 720p, and my main goal is for the PC to be able to handle guild wars 2 on decent settings.

I realise my budget is limited, so I don't really care for shiny bells and whistles like USB3 and SATA6 at the moment. Also don't really intend to overclock any time soon if ever. Ideally the PC should be able to last 2 years (too optimistic? ), but if not I'd at least like it to have a clear upgrade path for later down the line as funds become available. i.e. cpu socket that isn't EOL.

Any other info you guys need, just shout.

Best way to go about this is to send a pm to the resident computer okie, The Joker.
I would recommend going for stronger cpu and gpu, 4gb ram, entry levelish motherboard (expect around R800) and a decent 500W psu. I presume you will carry on using your hdd and dvd drive and case?

[wily weasel]

Best way to go about this is to send a pm to the resident computer okie, The Joker.
I would recommend going for stronger cpu and gpu, 4gb ram, entry levelish motherboard (expect around R800) and a decent 500W psu. I presume you will carry on using your hdd and dvd drive and case?

Any cpu and gpu in particular that you'd recommend in my price range? Will get to sending The Joker a PM asap.

[wily weasel]

Best way to go about this is to send a pm to the resident computer okie, The Joker.
I would recommend going for stronger cpu and gpu, 4gb ram, entry levelish motherboard (expect around R800) and a decent 500W psu. I presume you will carry on using your hdd and dvd drive and case?

Oh yeah and you're right about the chassis and hdd. I just need to test if the dvd drive still works in another pc first.

[Namdrater]

Could you try keep some of the conversation in here as well? I'm interested to know what could be built in that price range.

[wily weasel]

Okay based on Simon's advice above, I tried for the following build. Like I said I'm not too clued up with regards to components so can someone just point out where I could do better?

CPU: Intel Core i5-3470
MOBO: Gigabyte GA-B75M-D3H
RAM: Transcend Jetram 4GB-1333
GPU: Gigabyte AMD Radeon HD 7770
PSU: Gigabyte - Odin 585W
CASE: n/a
DVD: n/a
HDD: n/a

The above comes to a grand total of R5092 from takealot.



I wasn't too sure about the balance between CPU and GPU. From what I've read, GW2 being an mmo is more CPU heavy so I tried to lean my build more in that direction.

So.. any comments?

P.S. Sorry if formatting looks messed up, I'm doing this on tapa so I'm not sure how it looks on PC.

[simon]

looks good but I think The Joker will be able to hook you up with something better.

[wily weasel]

looks good but I think The Joker will be able to hook you up with something better.

Yes I sent him a PM already. He said he'd get back to me later. Thanks for recommending him.

[HavocXphere]

Yeah do whatever Joker says. In the mean time:

I'd swop the i5 for an i3 and change the RAM to 8gb of 1600mhz. Pretty sure he'll recommend changing the PSU too, but I don't know what to get @ that price point so I'll leave that to the pros.

Also, have a look at Rebeltech.co.za - I had good luck there w/ specials.

CPU: Intel Core i5-3470
MOBO: Gigabyte GA-B75M-D3H
RAM: Transcend Jetram 4GB-1333
GPU: Gigabyte AMD Radeon HD 7770
PSU: Gigabyte - Odin 585W

[simon]

Yeah do whatever Joker says. In the mean time:

I'd swop the i5 for an i3 and change the RAM to 8gb of 1600mhz. Pretty sure he'll recommend changing the PSU too, but I don't know what to get @ that price point so I'll leave that to the pros.

Also, have a look at Rebeltech.co.za - I had good luck there w/ specials.

No, the i5 is quad core so it will last longer. The difference in price between the i5 and i3 would be pushed to a gpu so it would change it to a 7850 instead.
1600 ram is more expensive and there isn't much difference. Ram is cheap and can be upgraded to 8gb at a later stage but for the meantime 4gb is good.
Yeah the psu would probably change but it is fine to power that rig no problem.