Best value for money build.

bowserbash

bowserbash

bowserbash

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3 Mar 2009
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16
Hey everyone, I don't have a specific budget but I am looking to get the best value for money I can, not spending more than on the components than what I need the system to be capable of but also not buying components of a signifcant lower quality just to save a few £'s.

I haven't been around the hardware scene since I got an Epox 8RDA+ and a AMD Athlon 1.7Ghz back in the day to overclock. Hopefully a few of you won't mind helping me out.

This is the rig I've got lined up so far:

Intel Pentium Dual Core E5200, 2.50GHz, 2MB Cache

Asus P5Q SE2 iP45 Socket 775 Motherboard

Asus ATi Radeon HD 4850 512MB PCI-E2.0

OCZ 4GB PC2-6400 Platinum Vista

320GB Hitachi Deskstar SATA2 16MB

Xilence 480W Gaming PSU


Can anyone confirm I haven't been a real donkey and these items are all compatible too. I mainly use the system for a bit of light gaming, Dota, a fair bit of online poker and surfing the net and watching films etc.

Thanks a lot.
 
That's a good spec you've lined up for yourself. Just a few changes though -

1) I've added an aftermarket CPU cooler, you're going to need it if you want a good overclock with that chip.

2) I've chosen the XFX 4850, it's cheaper than the Asus, and is essentially the same thing.

3) I've changed the RAM, the Kingston is on offer at the minute and is faster than the OCZ for the same price.

4) The hard drive has been changed to a Samsung Spinpoint F1 640GB, which costs about a tenner more!

5) I would go with a better quality PSU than the Xilence, so I've spec'd the Coolermaster.

Hope this helps.

captureybp.jpg
 
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Thanks a lot for the replies Icey.

I haven't decided whether to overclock this time, now I don't game all that much, other than odd games of dota etc. I'm not as interested in squeezing every bit of perfomance out of a rig as I used to be.
That being said I do want a fast machine with some good memory and the option to play games.

Even if I'm not going to clock the system would you still advise an after market CPU cooler?

I was also thinking of buying a new case because my current one is a bit bashed up, I was going to go for something cheap like this:

Asus TA-861 Midi-ATX Case

or

Asus TA-250 Black/Silver Midi Case

Has anyone heard anything bad about this cases? They are pretty cheap afterall. The mobo is ATX so it should fit.
 
bowserbash said:
Even if I'm not going to clock the system would you still advise an after market CPU cooler?

I was also thinking of buying a new case because my current one is a bit bashed up, I was going to go for something cheap like this:

Asus TA-861 Midi-ATX Case

or

Asus TA-250 Black/Silver Midi Case

Has anyone heard anything bad about this cases? They are pretty cheap afterall. The mobo is ATX so it should fit.
Click to expand...

Even if you don't overclock, I would still recommend an aftermarket cooler for your chip. You don't have to overclock, but it's a great way to squeeze some extra performance out of your system for little to no cost. You don't have to push the system to it's limits, with an e5200, you could quite easily get an extra .75GHz out of it. It's definitely worth it, in my opinion. Plus if you get a better 775 chip in the future, you can carry your cooler over to the new one.

I haven't heard much about the Asus cases, but I have heard good things about the Coolermaster 330 and 335.

Icey's spec is great, and he's right, to fully utilize the 4GB of RAM, you'll need a 64-bit OS. It doesn't matter if it's XP or Vista. If you already have 32-bit, you should be able to call microsoft and request a 64-bit disc. It'll cost you around £7, but it's cheaper than re-buying an OS.
 
Yeah like Danneh says, I would advise you to overclock - even if it's just a little.

If you're after a cheap case that's pretty decent, then look no further than the Coolermaster 335.
 
i know this is probably going to sound a bit noobish of me to say but before you go and buy those components (which look like a good setup to me) individually, why don't you take 5 minutes to check what systems OC has for sale that are prebuilt for the same price? if you're after a good case though, why not try the antec titan case? comes with a 650W psu and they are quite good cases from what i've been told but they rrp for around £105

You might be able to buy a better prebuilt system than having to buy the individual components and put it together yourself, just make sure that if you do look at them, select no opperating system because it saves some cash for other upgrades and it's usually pretty easy to put you're own OS on anyway.

btw do you need all that storage space? because you can get 64GB SSD's on the net for £100, and i'm guessing that drive is around £45 anyway and the SSD will increase the performance in a big way compared to magnetic?
 
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Wow the coolermasters 330 and 335 do look great value for money. Thanks for the tip guys.

I use windows XP atm but it's a corporate edition copy I got from a friend years and years ago, which means I can't install the genuine windows detection update. I'd guess that I couldn't just ring microsoft and upgrade to the 64bit edition then. What OS would you suggest I buy for this system? I found a website that does downloadable fully licensed version of windows vista and xp for the fraction of the cost, you don't get a CD though.

I also thought of just going for a cheaper system, AM2 and 2gig of ram and keeping XP, kinda basing it on the £300 system in the sticky at the top of this forum.

What do you guys think?

Cheers.
 
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Cooler Master Elite 335 (No PSU)

Xilence 480W Gaming PSU

Gigabyte GA-MA74GM-S2H AMD 740G Socket AM2+ Motherboard

AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual Core 5200+ 2.70GHz (AM2)

PowerColor ATI Radeon HD4650 1024MB PCI-E

OCZ 2GB PC2-6400 Gold 800mhz (2x1GB)

320GB Hitachi Deskstar SATA2 16MB

How does this setup look to everyone? It's over £100 cheaper than the other and would allow me to keep windows XP therefore don't have to buy Vista, which saves a bit more.

I would be buying the GFX from somewhere else but since I'm still buying the majority from OCUK I guess it's ok to post here still for advice.

Has anyone heard anything about the Coolermaster 334?

Thanks.
 
It sounds like that will do what you want but the rig spec'd by icey is worth thinking about.. 100 pound more but better parts although getting the AM2+ board will allow u future upgrade potential.
 
icey_haj said:
Oh, and as for the memory, you will need to use XP 64-bit to address 4GB of RAM.
Click to expand...

However 32bit XP will, I think address either 3 or 3.5GB of the 4GB .. so you're not using all the RAM you've paid for but its still a useful increment over 2GB (though how we've come to the point that we're arguing between 2GB and 3GB is always a bit amazing to me given that when I first started with micro's we were dealing with 4kB memory *cards* and I remember wondering whether the extra ?£100 to get BBC model B instead of model A was really worth it for the extra 16kB mem!)
 
Ah Ok, I may just go for 4gig of ram and stick with Winxp 32 bit then.

Has anyone heard anything about the Coolermaster 334 case?

How about the graphics I picked out? Is it just a terrible low budget card?
 
4650 is a reasonable buget gaming card but the 1024mb on there is a waste of time as it wont have the power to run at the resolutions necessary to require that amount of memory, so you would be better off with either the 512mb version of the 4650 or spens and extra £10 and get the 512mb version of the 4670.
 
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