The perfect budget?

Madals · 22 Aug 2010 at 18:48

Hi people,
I have been wondering this recently so thought I would get a discussion going about it - What is the perfect budget?
By this I mean where do you feel is the happy balance between performance and price for a gaming computer.
So, What is your price and why do you feel that way?

Madals

stulid · 22 Aug 2010 at 18:50

£900

Freddie589 · 22 Aug 2010 at 18:50

probably around £800 without a moniter, i usally set prices first before looking for example saying i will spend £115 on a motherboard and £90 on RAM etc.. i find its the easiest way to stick to your budget

Randomface74 · 22 Aug 2010 at 19:03

1400 for a base unit

Anewbe4u · 22 Aug 2010 at 19:10

Well, building soon and £900 seems a pretty good target to aim for, that's with a monitor.

macca672 · 22 Aug 2010 at 19:24

budgets are made to be broken

Madals · 22 Aug 2010 at 20:04

Should have added, all without monitors.

Cycrow · 22 Aug 2010 at 20:07

id say about £700-800.

will get u a pretty decent base unit without going top end.

something like an i5/GTX460 would come in that budget.

obviously if you want to go top end, that budget would have to be much higher, but then at that point, the extra price you pay doesn't equal the extra performance u will get

admoo · 22 Aug 2010 at 20:08

I'd say £1200 was probably a good amount. You can get high end stuff, without going for the absolute best of each component.

Grimley · 22 Aug 2010 at 20:08

I set my budget for a complete build at £1k, £500 for partial upgrade. (CPU/MOBO/RAM)

Nico_Joey · 22 Aug 2010 at 20:09

£1000-1400 For a tower from scratch.

The extra £100-200 spent on higher quality brands and longer warranties really help the re-sale value of the individual parts when you decide to upgrade.

RJC · 22 Aug 2010 at 20:10

Without monitor I would look around £800.00, I might go a little more if it's worth it.

zapgod · 22 Aug 2010 at 20:14

1500 with a great monitor + great case. 2 less regarded but really important components of a system if u ask me.

mattyfez · 22 Aug 2010 at 20:24

I would say £700 - £900 without a monitor, that will get you something pretty kick-ass.

A recent observation I made is people over-spend on motherboards, mine cost £85

To spend more than £150 on a mobo seems mad to me. Whilst they may have the potential to OC further, you have to ask if 2/300mhz is worth and extra money/hours spent benching.

sjcf1 · 22 Aug 2010 at 20:32

That's a tough one, if its the money that I have now, it would the cheapest of the best available at the time.

If it was what I'd have in the future, I'd do the same as above, being a yorkshire man

Craig321 · 22 Aug 2010 at 20:33

If I was to buy a PC right now, £2000. I refuse to buy a full new PC that doesn't have a solid state and at least as much RAM as I currently have.

The £2k includes a ~£500 screen though, so £1500 for base.

Mr Krugga · 22 Aug 2010 at 21:10

Wasn't even trying to get it to £800 but here it is:

egnshane · 22 Aug 2010 at 21:25

£800 - £1000 for the base unit I would say

iBSOD · 22 Aug 2010 at 21:34

The perfect budget, isn't.

What I mean is, the perfect budget for a PC is infinite.

But I'd buy an Asus for £2k. Or if Vadim didn't go bankrupt, buy a £14k monster gaming rig

PhoenixUK · 22 Aug 2010 at 21:57

It all depends on what resolutions and what games you play at.

If you play max res on 24" then preferably around 800.

If you play at lower res, then usually a budget around 600 would be just fine.

Also if you're building a new complete build first time I'd spend more on things like monitor, case, psu and mice, maybe soundcard and speakers/headsets as those last usually through several upgrades and it's nice to not skimp on those, that brings the budget quite up but after you've got nice set then the next upgrades/builds can be had for as low as 300-400 for a quality setup.

The main thing that many have to realise is that future proofing doesn't exist anymore, buy what you need for now and upgrade in a few months/year, keeping same PC for longer than 2yrs is just un-economical.