New build for friend

Dogboy73

Dogboy73

Dogboy73

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27 May 2004
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693
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UK
I'm looking to build a new system for a friend. It's the usual confusion when trying to match up mobo's to RAM but I think I'm pretty okay with everything else. Budget is sub £500 & there preferences is for fast, quiet home/office use. It has to be small as well so I've gone for one of those nice lookig Lian Micro towers. I put 2 systems together - 1 with newer i3 stuff & the other older Dual Core. Price wise they didn't come out all that different, which surprised me. Anyway do these look okay for the intended use i.e. home office PC, Internet?

system1e.jpg


system2.jpg
 
get the second one, change the psu to a corsair CX400.

change harddrive to a samsung F3, same prices/faster.

you dont need a graphics card, i3 and some i5 cpus have a gpu on the cpu which the H55 chipset can use
 
Why did you choose a p45 mobo with a pentium dual core?
Makes no sense to have such a high end mobo with a low end cpu.
That's why the price of the old dual core isn't much cheaper.

If you were going to do the dual core build properly, change these bits:

CPU: http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CP-340-IN&groupid=701&catid=6&subcat=567

MOBO: http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MB-220-GI&groupid=701&catid=5&subcat=1490

The graphics card you chose is a bit of a waste of time (not powerful enough to do much with), a g41 mobo has onboard graphics and so do H55 mobo's.

The CPU is essentially the same but for 10 quid less, the mobo is still good enough to overclock to over 3.6ghz, the graphics card is made redundant and suddenly you've dropped £100 off the price for essentially the same performing pc.
 
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rickh said:
Why did you choose a p45 mobo with a pentium dual core?
Makes no sense to have such a high end mobo with a low end cpu.
That's why the price of the old dual core isn't much cheaper.

If you were going to do the dual core build properly, change these bits:

CPU: http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CP-340-IN&groupid=701&catid=6&subcat=567

MOBO: http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MB-220-GI&groupid=701&catid=5&subcat=1490

The graphics card you chose is a bit of a waste of time (not powerful enough to do much with), a g41 mobo has onboard graphics and so do H55 mobo's.

The CPU is essentially the same but for 10 quid less, the mobo is still good enough to overclock to over 3.6ghz, the graphics card is made redundant and suddenly you've dropped £100 off the price for essentially the same performing pc.
Click to expand...

Fanastic. Didn't realise that about the CPU ........ or the onboard graphics.

What about the RAM I've gone for?
 
Change the power supply to a corsair cx400 and the hd to an f3 500gb.

The ocuk psu's are just generic psu's and a corsair is much better considering the small increase in price. The f3 500gb is the 2nd fastest 500gb HD (the new WD 64mb cache 500gb hd is the new fastest).

The ram is ok, but i'd rather have a single 2gb stick so I could upgrade to 4gb later.
I would suggest buying a 4gb kit now or one 2gb stick and upgrade later.

The ocz gold ddr2 ram is excellent quality (not so good with their gold ddr3 kits!).

If your friend wants to do any gaming, something like a 9800gt or a 4850 would be good and are fairly cheap at the moment.

Also, don't forget to overclock the cpu - anything over 3.2ghz will be fine for watching 1080p video without a graphics card and is very easily achieved (will probably just need the fsb raising in the bios and maybe the vcore up a couple of notches).
 
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Done a build on AMD:

Product Name Qty Price Line Total
Gigabyte GA-880GMA-UD2H AMD 880G (Socket AM3) DDR3 microATX Motherboard £84.99
(£72.33) £84.99
(£72.33)
Lian Li PC-A05NB Aluminium Mini-Tower Case - Black £72.99
(£62.12) £72.99
(£62.12)
Patriot Viper 4GB (2x2GB) PC3-10666 1333MHz Dual Channel (PVS34G1333ELK) £70.49
(£59.99) £70.49
(£59.99)
AMD Athlon II X2 Dual Core 245 2.90GHz (Socket AM3) - Retail £46.99
(£39.99) £46.99
(£39.99)
Corsair CX 400W ATX Power Supply (CMPSU-400CXUK) £39.99
(£34.03) £39.99
(£34.03)
Samsung SpinPoint F3 500GB SATA-II 16MB Cache - OEM (HD502HJ) £35.24
(£29.99) £35.24
(£29.99)
Sony Optiarc AD-7260S 24x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £15.99
(£13.61) £15.99
(£13.61)
Sub Total : £312.06
Shipping cost assumes delivery to UK Mainland with:
DPD Next Day Parcel
(This can be changed during checkout) Shipping : £11.25
VAT is being charged at 17.50% VAT : £56.58
Total : £379.89
 
400build.jpg


Another AMD. Maybe consider some after market CPU cooler and case fans, for less noise. Although since he wont be gaming, it should stay cool and quiet.

EDIT : Looks like a minime of my A71B. In that case, it should be very nice and light. :) You should get a couple of USB ports, e-sata, and audio at the top of the case. IMO, they should have added a 3.5'' tray instead :)
 
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Thanks for everyones help & suggestions. Much appreciated. However based on some of the info above I've put this together for under £300 all in. How does this look?

58034774.jpg
 
Pssst... I think there are a lot of people subtley telling you to splash out the extra 25p and get the Samsung Spinpoint F3 hard drive instead. :P
 
Looks good.
An extra 2gb ram in the future will be a nice upgrade if your friend multi tasks.

Don't forget to overclock ;P

Also, don't forget the free postage because you're a forum member.
 
Very nice system, Seb. Apart from the fact that it's £200 more expensive than my spec & just maybe a tad overkill for Running Office 2007 & browsing the internet ;)
 
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