£600 budget - need mobo, cpu, gfx, hdd and ram

smr · 23 Mar 2010 at 18:01

Hi all,

I'll tell you what I have at the moment:

Pentium D Dual Core CPU (Smithfield) @ 2.8Ghz
1GB of DDR Corsair RAM
6200 agp graphics card
28" WS Hanspree HG281D TFT
1 very old WD Caviar IDE 120gb HDD
1 very old Seagate Barracuda SATA 120gb HDD
Coolermaster CM201 Case
Corsair 550W Modular PSU

I need to upgrade my PC. I will be using it for making music (with Fruity Loops and some VSTs)...

So from my old PC I will be keeping the Monitor and possibly the PSU - if the PSU will suffice for the new rig.

I would like an i5 core CPU if possible, a decent motherboard (for making future upgrades possible - I've heard Gigabyte are the MOBO specialists these days), and a decent amount of RAM (I like Corsair's RAM)

The WD HDD is clicking and clunking from cold boots and has been doing this for a few months now... don't worry I've got my important stuff backed up onto the Seagate. I feel its time to get rid of the WD and use the Seagate as the second drive in my new rig - so I'm looking for a new HDD.

Graphics wise I don't want to skimp and get something cheap and nasty yet I don't need something ridiculous like a £300 version. Something mid range but towards the lower end. It would be nice if it could play Crysis maybe - one game I've never played !

The majority of my usage for the new rig will be producing music though...

I presume my Coolermaster case will be ok as well, it's circa 2003 like the rest of the kit but it's quite big and, after all this time I still love it!

Any help would be greatly appreciated!

smr · 23 Mar 2010 at 19:21

Hi guys,

I've just conjured this spec up - will it suit my needs well? Is there anything I should change? Like I said in my OP, most of my work will be using a Digital Audio Workstation, in my case Fruity Loops Studio, which I know is probably better on an Intel based system but this kind of AMD system would suffice wouldn't it? It's obviously cheaper as well which is why I've specced this together. cheers.

stulid · 23 Mar 2010 at 20:03

Only thing wrong is that a 5770 is the same price, and 1600mhz ram from either ocz or g-skill is cheaper.

CAT-THE-FIFTH · 23 Mar 2010 at 20:15

What about an operating system??

How old is the PSU??

Also do you need Crossfire ability on your motherboard??

Is having USB 3.0 and SATA 3.0 important??

mrteabag · 23 Mar 2010 at 20:27

Sapphire ATI Radeon HD 5770 Vapor-X 1024MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card - £119.14(£139.99)

Gigabyte GA-H57M-USB3 Intel H57 (Socket 1156) DDR3 Motherboard - £93.61(£109.99)

Intel Core i3 530 2.93GHz (Clarkdale) (Socket LGA1156) - Retail - £83.40(£98.00)

Geil Value 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C8 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (GV34GB1600C8DC) - £81.69(£95.99)

Samsung SpinPoint F3 1TB SATA-II 32MB Cache - OEM (HD103SJ) - £56.16(£65.99)

Sub Total : £434.00

Shipping : £9.50

VAT : £77.61

Total : £521.11

smr · 23 Mar 2010 at 20:36

CAT-THE-FIFTH said:
What about an operating system??

How old is the PSU??

Also do you need Crossfire ability on your motherboard??

Is having USB 3.0 and SATA 3.0 important??

already have win 7 ultimate 32bit....

Not really after crossfire ability tbh, though if I can get similar board, same sort of price with crossfire support then obviously I'd go for that incase I decide to game more in the future..

Didn't even know USB 3.0 was out, thought we were still on 2.0 - do you think having a USB 3 supported mobo is a must have then?

smr · 23 Mar 2010 at 20:37

mrteabag said:
Sapphire ATI Radeon HD 5770 Vapor-X 1024MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card - £119.14(£139.99)

Gigabyte GA-H57M-USB3 Intel H57 (Socket 1156) DDR3 Motherboard - £93.61(£109.99)

Intel Core i3 530 2.93GHz (Clarkdale) (Socket LGA1156) - Retail - £83.40(£98.00)

Geil Value 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C8 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (GV34GB1600C8DC) - £81.69(£95.99)

Samsung SpinPoint F3 1TB SATA-II 32MB Cache - OEM (HD103SJ) - £56.16(£65.99)

Sub Total : £434.00

Shipping : £9.50

VAT : £77.61

Total : £521.11

Is that i3 core better than the quadcore phenom ? I'll be using the PC mostly for music production. Also I'm not sure if geil ram is decent...

smr · 23 Mar 2010 at 20:38

stulid said:
Only thing wrong is that a 5770 is the same price, and 1600mhz ram from either ocz or g-skill is cheaper.

I just went with corsair because it's a solid name really and they haven't let me down with their RAM or PSUs to date.

The PSU I have isn't that old, bought last year.. it's an HX520W Corsair Modular.

CAT-THE-FIFTH · 23 Mar 2010 at 20:40

smr said:
already have win 7 ultimate 32bit....

Not really after crossfire ability tbh, though if I can get similar board, same sort of price with crossfire support then obviously I'd go for that incase I decide to game more in the future..

Didn't even know USB 3.0 was out, thought we were still on 2.0 - do you think having a USB 3 supported mobo is a must have then?

Having SATA 3.0 will be useful if you intend to get an SSD for the PC as some point and of course USB 3.0 will be useful when more devices start using this.

Also AMD is releasing the six core Phenom II X6 next month too so you could always upgrade the PC at some point with this processor if required.

smr · 23 Mar 2010 at 20:42

CAT-THE-FIFTH said:
Having SATA 3.0 will be useful if you intend to get an SSD for the PC as some point and of course USB 3.0 will be useful when more devices start using this.

SSD? I shall look for a mobo with USB 3 support then I think.. would seem daft not to future proof for it if everything is going that way.

edit - hang on that mobo does support usb 3.0?

stulid · 23 Mar 2010 at 20:48

smr said:
I just went with corsair because it's a solid name really and they haven't let me down with their RAM or PSUs to date.

The PSU I have isn't that old, bought last year.. it's an HX520W Corsair Modular.

Just change the graphics card to a 5770, and keep the rest.

smr · 23 Mar 2010 at 20:50

stulid said:
Just change the graphics card to a 5770, and keep the rest.

are you sure ? I mean I don't mind switching to better RAM and getting more for my money upon good recommendation... it's just that I've not heard much about either company..

CAT-THE-FIFTH · 23 Mar 2010 at 20:50

This is what I would get:

Phenom II X4 955 ~ £136

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CP-244-AM

Gigabyte GA-770TA-UD3 ~ £81

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MB-242-GI&groupid=701&catid=5&subcat=1481

This has an 8+2 phase VRM, USB 3.0,SATA 3.0 and all solid capacitors.

4GB Geil 1333MHZ DDR3 ~ £95

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MY-085-GL&groupid=701&catid=8&subcat=1516

Has low latencies as the Phenom II memory controller is more latency dependent.

Powercolor ATI Radeon HD 5770 1024MB GDDR5 ~ £120

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-125-PC

Samsung F3 1TB ~ £66

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=HD-082-SA

Intel X25-V Value 40GB 2.5" SATA-II Solid State Hard Drive ~ £99

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=HD-006-IN

The total comes to around £597 excluding postage.

mattjd · 23 Mar 2010 at 20:55

AMD Phenom II X4 Quad Core 955 Black Edition 3.20GHz - £135.99
Gigabyte GA-890GPA-UD3H AMD 890GX (Socket AM3) PCI-Express DDR3 Motherboard - £109.99
Geil Value 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C8 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit - £95.99
Sapphire ATI Radeon HD 5770 Vapor-X 1024MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card - £139.99
Western Digital Caviar Black 1TB SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache - OEM - £86.99

smr · 23 Mar 2010 at 20:59

Thanks for your replies guys will check them out in further detail in the morn. For now gonna watch a film and chill as I've been sat here all day in front of the PC !

stulid · 23 Mar 2010 at 21:00

The above by matt is nice

Fallen god · 24 Mar 2010 at 03:05

I would go with CAT-THE-FIFTH its comes with a SSD and the rest is still really good.

smr · 24 Mar 2010 at 10:52

ok would you guys recommend going for a 32bit OS or 64bit - I do have a copy of Win 7 32bit already but I am wondering if it's better to bite the bullet and just buy a 64bit copy for future proofing... If I were to stick with 32bit there would be no point in getting anymore than 4gb of RAM as 32bit OS/apps don't use anymore than 4gb of RAM anyway do they?

Also, is there any need now, or in the foreseeable future for getting more than 4gb of RAM?

Cheers

stulid · 24 Mar 2010 at 11:02

Keep your 32bit version and 4Gb of ram, its still a while untill 8Gb is needed.

Just add more in a year or two, or untill maybe the next crysis game comes out, and a 64bit version of windows.

Edit. You sure you don't have both versions on your disk?

smr · 24 Mar 2010 at 11:43

stulid said:
Keep your 32bit version and 4Gb of ram, its still a while untill 8Gb is needed.

Just add more in a year or two, or untill maybe the next crysis game comes out, and a 64bit version of windows.

Edit. You sure you don't have both versions on your disk?

oh wait yeah its the full retail - 32 and 64