Spec me a gaming PC... (Updated 02/08/2016)

moonbeam120

TBH for £700 that build is about as good as it gets and is excellent value for money. You might be able to shave off £20 - £30 by getting a cheaper mobo but frankly - for the money - I'd stick with the one you have chosen. It'll be very capable for the next 3 - 4 years.

monkfeesh

Thanks @moonbeam120 and less then £700 @Foster I think i'll see if any good prices come up around black friday to help reduce the price.

qwerty321

SSDs are usually regular with Amazon Black Friday deals. Time to upgrade my 64GB SSD so I'm on the lookout this year.

RMGEE

Why not drop the SSD for now and pick one up in 6-12 months, the way prices are going you'll be able to get a 500gb for around £60.

I recently upgraded to an SSD and it was fairly simple to clone my data.

monkfeesh

Hmmm, I think I'd like the SSD from the get go purely for the O/S. I reckon I'm gonna play the Black Friday game, let that be the catalyst. Any sites with good past Black Friday deals to keep an eye on?

RMGEE

Yeah, there's no doubt it speeds things up but just though it would help reduce costs and get you closer to your £600 budget.

When I got mine, amazon & ebuyer always seemed cheapest but keep a lookout on Hotdeals as they're always posted on there.

monkfeesh

On a side note, pre-built motherboard bundles, are there any pros/cons looking at this route (apart from obviously being priced with a labour charge).

RMGEE

I also looked at these because I was worried about installing the CPU and cooler but honestly it's very simple and you'll be wasting money.

The processer just sits in place as long as you put it the correct way round and most cpu coolers come with thermal paste applied so it's just a case of fitting it to the mobo.

monkfeesh

I guess the stock cooler will be ok too as i'm not planning on overclocking (i'm just using big words i've seen online now to look clever!! )

monkfeesh

Would this motherboard be suitable? its £20 cheaper...
Gigabyte Z97 GA-Z97M-DS3H Micro-ATX Motherboard  - Aria PC