Another spec me a PC/first time build £600 - £700

Burty88

Burty88

Burty88

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13 Jul 2010
Posts
138
Hi all,

Requirements: Gaming (WoW, Steam stuff (MW2, CS, LFD)) @ 1920x1080 40" HDTV :P
AutoCAD Rendering etc on the same TV.
Basic PC stuff

Budget: £700max (the lower the better)

What I've come up with so far:

Spec.png


Is there anywhere that spec doesn't work, could be improved or money could be saved?

This'll be my first time putting together a PC, but hoping a friend (who built his own spec) will help/bring tools etc.

Thanks in advance guys.
 
you have picked a crossfire capable motherboard(proper crossfire at 8X/8X) so if you want a second 5850 later on? then up the psu to- http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CA-116-AN&groupid=701&catid=123&subcat=1088

or change to a normal motherboard to- http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MB-410-AS&groupid=701&catid=5&subcat=1782 which has sata and usb3.0.

everything else is good.

edit, except, if you get a 8** series chipset motherboard, tyhe samsung F3 have had issues, that have been resolved with a firmware update, so maybe a barracuda 7200.12.
 
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Thanks, will definitely change the mobo as I don't really plan on doubling up the 5850 anytime soon.

Are the seagates reliable? Just I think I remember hearing the Samsungs had better reliability. However, I suppose if they have issues with that mobo then barracuda is the only way forward.
 
From the reviews I've read it seems that cooler is very quiet but not that great at cooling for the price. If you're going to be looking at overclocking then you might want to consider the titan fenrir.
 
Don't need an OS, got a friend who works for MS so can get Win7 for pennies :P.

Is the Phenom II really worth the extra £50 though, how much "extra" performance/future proofing are we talking? I'm not planning on a heavy overclock (if any to begin with) so I'm hoping the CPU cooler wil be adequate.

ETA: How about this option:

Athlon II + 5850 or Phenom II + 1GB 460???

ETAA: Just noticed this pre built system and with a 5850 costs about the same as building my own, but with a slightly better case and PSU, however the motherboard isn't as good a spec. Is there anything in that spec that would put you off?
 
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The Titan Krypt is quite nice for the money, it is a very basic MATX motherboard though so you'll be quite limited if you want to install any extra PCIE/PCI cards.

(you could call OCuk and ask them for a quote on the Krypt with a better motherboard...)
 
Ta, think I'm going to self-build now - much more fun!

Now, my finger is hovering over the buy button but I'm not sure whether upgrading to the Phenom II is worth the money... any thoughts? :confused:

£675 - with the Athlon
£720 - with the Phenom

Both with delivery.
 
Thanks for all your help so far.:D

That site has just made me think intel ****es all over AMD. Assume it's not possible to make a quad core intel build with the 5850 for ~£700?!
 
Your basketProduct Name Qty Price Line Total
HIS iCooler V ATI Radeon HD 5850 1024MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £232.99
(£198.29) £232.99
(£198.29)
Intel Core i5 750 2.66GHz (Lynnfield) (Socket LGA1156) - Retail £152.99
(£130.20) £152.99
(£130.20)
Gigabyte GA-P55-USB3 Intel P55 (Socket 1156) DDR3 Motherboard £104.99
(£89.35) £104.99
(£89.35)
Corsair XMS3 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (CMX4GX3M2A1600C9) £86.99
(£74.03) £86.99
(£74.03)
OCZ ModXStream Pro 500w Silent SLI Certified Modular Power Supply £56.99
(£48.50) £56.99
(£48.50)
Samsung SpinPoint F3 500GB SATA-II 16MB Cache - OEM (HD502HJ) £39.99
(£34.03) £39.99
(£34.03)
Xigmatek Asgard Midi Tower Case - Black £26.99
(£22.97) £26.99
(£22.97)
Samsung SH-S223C/BEBE 22x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £13.99
(£11.91) £13.99
(£11.91)
Sub Total : £609.28
Shipping cost assumes delivery to UK Mainland with:
DPD Next Day Parcel
(This can be changed during checkout) Shipping : £11.75
VAT is being charged at 17.50% VAT : £108.68
Total : £729.71

it comes with a retail intel heatsink, if you want extra, then its more dollars.

even tho it looks like it could run two graphics cards, it would limit the second cards bandwidth, but this was ok with you, as a 5850 is fast enough on its own for years.
 
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Cheers all! Went for the i5 spec in the end, arrives here Friday! Not really looking to do xfire or OCing straight away so a new mobo/cpu cooler can wait.

Thanks again.:D
 
Burty88 said:
Don't need an OS, got a friend who works for MS so can get Win7 for pennies :P.

Is the Phenom II really worth the extra £50 though, how much "extra" performance/future proofing are we talking? I'm not planning on a heavy overclock (if any to begin with) so I'm hoping the CPU cooler wil be adequate.

ETA: How about this option:

Athlon II + 5850 or Phenom II + 1GB 460???

ETAA: Just noticed this pre built system and with a 5850 costs about the same as building my own, but with a slightly better case and PSU, however the motherboard isn't as good a spec. Is there anything in that spec that would put you off?
Click to expand...

I wish I had a friend at Microsoft, I've been looking for a way to get Win7 cheaper than retail for a week now and nothing.
 
Burty88 said:
Not got any friends who are students? If they've got an ac.uk e-mail address than it's £30.
Click to expand...

My brother's gonna ask a guy he knows at the pub who lectures about computers at the local collage but I don't hold out much hope. The problem is though, I want Win7 for my (first) self build and I don't have an OS that I can upgrade from, so I need a full retail version.
 
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