£300 pc spec for general use/gaming

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Hi I'm looking for a PC spec pretty much just for general use but can also cope playing some less graphically heavy games like sim city etc. The budget is around £300 but I've already got a 1tb HDD I can pull out of my laptop if I need to.
Any ideas will be greatly appreciated. Thanks

PS I've found this build on another website and I wouldn't mind your opinions on that as well as your own specs. Cheers
http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/df-hardware-introducing-the-digital-foundry-pc
 
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YOUR BASKET
1 x AMD A10-5800K Black Edition 3.80GHz (Socket FM2) APU Trinity Quad Core Processor **FREE SIMCITY PC GAME** (AD580KWOHJBOX) £95.99
1 x Gigabyte F2A85X-D3H AMD A85X Chipset (Socket FM2) DDR3 ATX Motherboard £64.99
1 x Patriot Viper "Black Mamba" Generation 3 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-15000C9 1866MHz Dual Channel Kit (PV38G186C9K) £49.99
1 x Corsair Builder Series CX 430w Modular '80 Plus Bronze' Power Supply (CP-9020058-UK) £39.98
1 x Xigmatek Asgard Pro Gaming Case - Black £32.99
1 x OcUK 24x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £16.99
Total : £315.04 (includes shipping : £11.75).



Something like that bud. The laptop HDD isn't ideal for an OS drive as it's slow. That said it will do for now. Probably makes more sense to buy an SSD in time rather than a better mechanical drive
 
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Yeah that was exactly my line of thinking with the HDD it was just to save a little but of money for the time being so I could get it up and running. Also I like your spec but I am more inclined to go for an Intel CPU over amd mainly due to personnel preference but for that price I think I'd be looking at an i3
 
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Yeah that was exactly my line of thinking with the HDD it was just to save a little but of money for the time being so I could get it up and running. Also I like your spec but I am more inclined to go for an Intel CPU over amd mainly due to personnel preference but for that price I think I'd be looking at an i3

The problem is at this price range you wont be able to match the performance above with an Intel setup.
 
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The problem is at this price range you wont be able to match the performance above with an Intel setup.

This, with an i3 build you will only have have enough cash for a motherboard, CPU, RAM and PSU, you would not be able to get a GPU worth its salt.

On a budget, Trinity is the way forward. As usual not including case as that is personal preference, a £30 one will do however.

YOUR BASKET
1 x AMD A10-5800K Black Edition 3.80GHz (Socket FM2) APU Trinity Quad Core Processor **FREE SIMCITY PC GAME** (AD580KWOHJBOX) £95.99
1 x Gigabyte F2A85X-D3H AMD A85X Chipset (Socket FM2) DDR3 ATX Motherboard £64.99
1 x GeIL EVO Leggera 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-14900C10 1866MHz Dual Channel Kit (GEL38GB1866C10DC) £49.99
1 x BeQuiet Pure Power L7 430W '80 Plus' Power Supply £39.95
1 x OcUK 24x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £16.99
Total : £279.31 (includes shipping : £9.50).




For intel you are looking to spend this much, not including case as that is personal preference.

YOUR BASKET
1 x HIS HD 7850 IceQ X 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card (H785QN2G2M) £164.99
1 x Intel Core i3-3220 3.30GHz (Ivybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor (77W) - Retail £92.99
1 x Gigabyte Z77-D3H Intel Z77 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £85.99
1 x XFX Pro 550W Core Edition '80 Plus Bronze' Power Supply £54.98
1 x GeIL EVO Leggera 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-14900C10 1866MHz Dual Channel Kit (GEL38GB1866C10DC) £49.99
1 x OcUK 24x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £16.99
Total : £477.94 (includes shipping : £10.00).

 
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How will this perform compared to the A10 build? If I may be so bold, my method of going with intel is to spend the money and get a Z77 chip w/ a decent GPU, then later on in the year, grab one of the many second hand i5's that people are selling due to Haswell.

That's me however :D. I like the build, decent, not a fan of 1gb cards though unless only gaming at 720p.
 
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How will this perform compared to the A10 build? If I may be so bold, my method of going with intel is to spend the money and get a Z77 chip w/ a decent GPU, then later on in the year, grab one of the many second hand i5's that people are selling due to Haswell.

That's me however :D. I like the build, decent, not a fan of 1gb cards though unless only gaming at 720p.

Makes sense but his budget does`nt allow for that. The 7770 will perform better than the Trinity iGPU, which is on par with a 6670 I believe. No doubt my mate hono will correct me if I am wrong.
 
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Yeah I think looking deeper into it the trinity mist probably the best option for my budget. I also wouldn't mind a WiFi card if anyone can suggest one.

Something like THIS then?

I'm not a fan of the 7770. You can get bargains 2nd hand like the nvidia 1GB 460 or AMDs 6850 (~£50) which are a better option. Judging from your intended use the A10s IGP will do you just fine, you cop the Simcity game free too.

The intel D2V mobo doesn't have sataIII either where as the FM2 mobo I used does. Personally if I went intel, I would spend more on the mobo (maybe even a Bgrade bargain) to get the sataIII and look for a second hand GPU.

YOUR BASKET
1 x Intel Core i3-3220 3.30GHz (Ivybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor (77W) - Retail £92.99
1 x Gigabyte H61MA-D3V Intel H61 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £47.99
1 x TeamGroup Elite 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C11 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (TED38GM1600HC11DC01) £43.99
1 x Corsair Builder Series CX 430w Modular '80 Plus Bronze' Power Supply (CP-9020058-UK) £39.98
1 x Xigmatek Asgard Pro Gaming Case - Black £32.99
1 x TP-Link 300Mbps Wireless N PCI Express Adapter (TL-WN881ND) £16.99
1 x OcUK 24x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £16.99
Total : £306.02 (includes shipping : £11.75).



This D3V has sataIII for a little more cash. I added the network card you'd just have to find a GPU. You can use the IGP to get up and going while you look but it's not really gaming capable
 
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AFAIK the AGP of a Trinity A10 combined with fast RAM and overclocked slightly is on par with a 7750.

AFAIK it's an IGP not an AGP lol

The A10 is called an APU rather than a CPU. I spec'd the FM2 setup first and I still think it's probably his best option. You can always add a better GPU much later if required.
 
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I'm still thinking the first spec by honosuseri seems to be the way to go but I'm wandering is there any mono in particular that will be best for adding a GPU ( the 6670 most likely) at a later date and will the 430w PSU be sufficient if I did add a GPU later on.
 
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I'm still thinking the first spec by honosuseri seems to be the way to go but I'm wandering is there any mono in particular that will be best for adding a GPU ( the 6670 most likely) at a later date and will the 430w PSU be sufficient if I did add a GPU later on.

I'd agree but after all I am biased ;)


That's only the lowly A6 (dual core) APU. Just using "bog standard" 1600Mhz RAM. As you can see it's not too shabby at all, you can expect better IGP performance with faster RAM :)

You could add a 6670 and Hybrid Xfire but it's not really worth the cash either. If you are on a budget you can get great bargains 2nd hand (pity you don't have access to our Members Market). I think the APU will cope for what you want now and grabbing a 2GB 7850 much later once they are going reasonably cheap 2nd hand would make the most sense.
 
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I'm still thinking the first spec by honosuseri seems to be the way to go but I'm wandering is there any mono in particular that will be best for adding a GPU ( the 6670 most likely) at a later date and will the 430w PSU be sufficient if I did add a GPU later on.

Yes that PSU will handle a 6670.
 
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Thanks for the clip its nice to see that I can expect even better results than that which is really more than I was expecting by itself. I was wandering if there was any reason in particular you chose the xigmatek case or whether you think I could get a slightly cheaper case to save a little money for a network card
 
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