£300 Gaming Rig

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Soldato
Joined
7 Jul 2009
Posts
16,234
Location
Newcastle/Aberdeen
For a friend, asked to do a spec - anything better than this?

AMD Athlon II X3 450 - £60
Corsair 2GB DDR3 1333MHz - £23
ASUS M4A78LT-M LE - £42
Corsair CX 430W - £37
Seagate 7200.12 500GB SATA - £31
Samsung SH-S223 22x DVD±RW - £12
PALIT GT240 512MB GDDR3 - £50
Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro rev 2 - £15
Casecom KM-6988 - £20

Logitech B110 - £7
Logitech K200 - £8

Thanks :)
 
The graphics card you have specced is so rubbish you might as well use onboard gpu.

Your basketProduct Name Qty Price Line Total
AMD Phenom II X2 Dual Core 555 3.20GHz Black Edition (Socket AM3) - Retail £65.79
(£55.99) £65.79
(£55.99)
Coolermaster Elite 430 Windowed Case - Black (with 500w Elite Power PSU) £62.99
(£53.61) £62.99
(£53.61)
Foxconn A7DA-S 3.0 AMD 790GX (Socket AM3) DDR3 Motherboard £49.98
(£42.54) £49.98
(£42.54)
OCZ Gold 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 PC3-10666C9 1333MHz Low-Voltage Dual Channel (OCZ3G1333LV4GK) £44.99
(£38.29) £44.99
(£38.29)
Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 500GB SATA-II 16MB Cache - OEM (ST3500418AS) £30.98
(£26.37) £30.98
(£26.37)
Sony Optiarc AD-5260S 24x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £11.74
(£9.99) £11.74
(£9.99)
Sub Total : £226.79
Shipping cost assumes delivery to UK Mainland with:
DPD Next Day Parcel
(This can be changed during checkout) Shipping : £10.00
VAT is being charged at 17.50% VAT : £41.44
Total : £278.23

when he can afford to buy a half decent card then add it later, or you could look in the members market for him.

The motherboard does crossfire at 8X/8X so there is the opportunity to get some kick ass setup.
 
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The performance of a GT240 just looks dire - http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/video/display/gf-gt240-1gb_6.html#sect0

for that £50, you could look through the members market and pick him up a second hand 4870/GTS250 or I have even seen GTX260 going for £65 delivered.

If I was your mate, I would appreciate more a pc build with good basic parts like above, then add a better gpu a month later, just use onboard gpu for a little bit?
 
Obviously it's going to be beaten by cards that cost nearly twice as much... as it stands it's great value for that price. They certainly won't be playing at 1920x1200 and even then there's nothing unplayable about 35 FPS.

I sincerely doubt my mate would be interested in buying a PC as an investment, if i suggest that then they might well just get a pre built and not care about hardware.
 
Theres plenty of graphs where it is less than 30fps at lower resolutions than 1920X1200, infact those results probably arent even minimum frame rates, so it could be choppy as hell while playing.

And who said cards costing twice as much? I said use that £50 to get a much faster USED card.

All I said is buy a good selection of bits, with a motherboard wth built in GPU, run that for 3-4 weeks, then stick a second hand card in it.
 
Truthfully I'd aree with stu.

There's no point buying a new machine for a jerk-a-thon it's just going to end up a disappointment.

Indeed, I'd be tempted to get £400 together before the upgrade. for 500 you could put together an I3 system. I know it's not what you're asking, but I'd not recommend that card... 2nd hand 8800 or better still a 48xx series card.

Or, up the budget... which is obviously possibly um... not possible? :p
 
id hang on too, get better base components and pick up a used card, with the new 69 series out soon 5 series cards will be getting cheaper and cheaper, u may be able to pick up a 5770 for next to nothing quite soon.
 
i'd go with stu's list and then stick in a second hand 4870 on the cheap when he can afford it :) just seen a pair of them go on ebay for £77!
 
Well they might be able to spare a bit extra, with a 5750 for £85 in place of the 240 in the original build does anybody have any criticisms?
 
stulid said:
Crap case.
Click to expand...

Casecom have actually made some really decent budget cases recently, decent build quality, black interior, cable routing and cooler backplate holes, tool-less hard drive and optical drive installation, mesh front and a bottom mounted PSU. What more do you want for £20? :p

I believe it's actually identical on the interior to the NZXT Gamma, is it not them who makes them?
 
Superewza said:
And yet used, which they aren't keen on and they certainly aren't keen on doing a bank transfer.
Click to expand...

I just don't understand I'm afraid, were trying to give you advice, yet its failing on deaf ears.

its almost like your trying to get your mate a rubbish pc, when he can get better.

And whats wrong with a bank transfer? infact the seller has such a low trust rating, make him post it first.

Edit- just checked your TRUST, ah!!!
 
Superewza said:
Well they might be able to spare a bit extra, with a 5750 for £85 in place of the 240 in the original build does anybody have any criticisms?
Click to expand...

Given that, spend a fiver more n get this psu/case combo, also yeah better mobo

HIS ATI Radeon HD 5750 iCooler IV 512MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card (H575FN512) £85.99
Coolermaster Elite 430 Windowed Case - Black (with 500w Elite Power PSU) £62.99
Foxconn A7DA-S 3.0 AMD 790GX (Socket AM3) DDR3 Motherboard £49.98
OCZ Gold 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 PC3-10666C9 1333MHz Low-Voltage Dual Channel (OCZ3G1333LV4GK) £44.99
AMD Athlon II X2 Dual Core 250 3.00GHz (Socket AM3) - Retail £39.99
Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 500GB SATA-II 16MB Cache - OEM (ST3500418AS) £30.98
Samsung SH-S223L/RSMN 22x DVD±RW SATA Lightscribe ReWriter (Beige/Black/Silver) - Retail £11.74
Sub Total : £278.01
Shipping cost assumes delivery to UK Mainland with:
DPD Next Day Parcel
(This can be changed during checkout) Shipping : £10.50
VAT is being charged at 17.50% VAT : £50.49
Total : £326.66
 
Wouldn't go with above, the dual core althlons have locked multiplyers so you will only beable to increase as much as the memory will let the fsb go up, and as they stand there crap with games.

I would go with stulids build with the onboard gpu, your friend will be happy he has a system running £20 under budget and if and when he complains about graphics performance you like mentioned above can advise to pick up a 4870 or 4890 for cheap these days.

What type of games does your friend play!?
 
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