Care to back that up? From the benchmarks that I have seen, the g3258 is more than adequate for gaming in any modern title. Especially considering the budget/gpu pairing. Spending the extra cash to go from that to an i3 seems like a complete waste to me and just bad advice overall.
The are both adequate for this build and more. However, the pentium has an upgrade path while the 860k doesn't. Through a xeon in an h81 board (or whatever) and you are golden for and gaming build with one video card (I don't think it supports SLI but can't be bothered to look it up).
So to clarify, you think the build for the money is good value for what I'm trying to achieve which is a dirt cheap build at console performance (PC obviously better anyway). I am not looking for anything fancy, just a few casual sessions in my front room.
Not necessarily. More cores, different architecture. In terms of gaming performance, they are mostly neck-and-neck. Some games might prefer Intel. But they may be situated in the margin of error.
You're right about the upgrade path +1
The builds listed below were posted here by others already. Either of these will do you well. Both really solid. As we were discussing, the pentium has a better upgrade path, while the 860k has more cores. I personally have a preference for AMD, so I would go that route, but the Intel offering has just as many merits, so it is kind of a toss up if you aren't considering upgrading in the future. If you do plan to turn this into a multi-thousand dollar machine, then I would definitely go with the Intel version because as I said before, it would be really easy to slap a xeon or something in there and be all good to go.
Someone beat me to it on the R9 270 at £89.99 :L. It's now out of stock and at £137.15. :'( Think I'm gonna have to wait a couple of weeks to see if retailers do infact lower their prices to make way for AMDs new cards.
There's a good R9 270x on CCL for <£110
Just ensure that it will fit your case
Because an extra 20 bucks breaks the bank. A lot of AAA games require a 4 core at minimum. An i3 counts as a 4 core.
Logan says 4 cores is better.
I don't know in what world you live in where a dual core is better than a quad core in overall tasks and gaming.
You should consider buying a second hand 7xxx series GPU.
There's basically no difference between a 2xx series and 7xxx at the mid level.
7950s and 7970s go for next to nothing. Also the 7870 XT models are the same Tahiti chips.
With a bit of searching you should get one for about £100.
Would I need to up my PSU for this? It requires 2 x 6pin pci-e connectors whereas the PSU I listed only has 1, however I could use molex to 6pin, but I've mixed reviews about doing that in terms of safety.
A larger PSU is only marginally more expensive, if it gives you peace of mind.