£500 music/internet/light gaming PC

Vorash · 27 May 2011 at 18:49

My father's PC has just died and he asked me to build him a new one with a £500 budget. With that budget i'm not sure if it's best to go i3/i5 or AMD? He uses the PC mostly for listening to his music, microsoft office type work, internet and a little gaming (he likes playing golf games and older battlefield games). He does plan on getting rid of his hi-fi and using the PC to play his music, so will that require a good soundcard? He needs absolutely everything minus the keyboard, mouse and monitor and speakers.

What would be the best options? Thank you for any help

TALON1973 · 27 May 2011 at 18:57

what speakers has he got ? just wondered as how serious is his music listening ?

olivier renault · 27 May 2011 at 19:26

PC speakers aren't the best for music. Integrated sound chips aren't bad nowadays though. If he needs just a central unit, then there are quite a few options. Does he want USB3? Bluray? He should be able to plug his PC to his sound system via line-out.

YOUR BASKET
1 x Intel Core i3-2100 3.10GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor - Retail £89.99
1 x XFX ATI Radeon HD 5770 Single Slot 1024MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £77.99
1 x Microsoft Windows 7 Bundle - Home Premium 64 Bit £68.40
1 x Western Digital Caviar Blue 500GB SATA 6Gb/s 16MB Cache - OEM (WD5000AAKX) £32.99
1 x Gigabyte H61M-D2 Intel H61 Chipset (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard **B3 REVISION** £59.99
1 x XFX Pro 550W Core Edition Power Supply £50.99
1 x Corsair XMS3 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (CMX4GX3M2A1600C9) £39.98
1 x Cooler Master Elite 430 Windowed Case - Black £33.98
1 x Sony Optiarc AD-5260S 24x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £15.98
Total : £485.29 (includes shipping : £12.50).

Vorash · 27 May 2011 at 22:35

TALON1973 said:
what speakers has he got ? just wondered as how serious is his music listening ?

I will be buying these for him as a birthday gift, I heard they're quite good http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=SP-001-AE&groupid=702&catid=22&subcat=

Vorash · 27 May 2011 at 22:36

olivier renault said:
PC speakers aren't the best for music. Integrated sound chips aren't bad nowadays though. If he needs just a central unit, then there are quite a few options. Does he want USB3? Bluray? He should be able to plug his PC to his sound system via line-out.

The speakers I posted above should be good enough? No he doesn't want Bluray and he isn't too bothered about USB3

Buchanan0204 · 28 May 2011 at 00:42

Vorash said:
The speakers I posted above should be good enough? No he doesn't want Bluray and he isn't too bothered about USB3

They will indeed be good enough. A dedicated sound card is reccomended.

23JMZ07 · 28 May 2011 at 01:21

Unless he is a mega audiophile onboard sound will suffice. It has come a long way in recent years.

UKMEDIASTORE · 28 May 2011 at 01:43

23JMZ07 said:
Unless he is a mega audiophile onboard sound will suffice. It has come a long way in recent years.

I agree with 23JMZ07, onboard sound has come on a very very long way

Vorash · 28 May 2011 at 02:09

I tried to fit a sound card and decent graphics card in, how does this look? Can the motherboard take the graphics and soundcard, and is the PSU powerful enough for it?

Intel Core i3-2100 3.10GHz (Sandybridge) - £89.99
Microsoft Bundle Windows 7 Home 64 Bit - £68.40
Options applied to the above product:
Western Digital Caviar Blue 500GB SATA 6Gb/s 16MB Cache - £32.99
Gigabyte H61M-D2 - £59.99
Asus Xonar D1 7.1 PCI Sound Card - £55.99
XFX Pro 550W Core Edition Power Supply - £50.99
HIS ATI Radeon HD 5570 1024MB - £49.99
OCZ Platinum 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 PC3-10666C7 1333MHz - £29.99
Cooler Master Elite 330 Midi Tower Case - Black - £28.99
LG GH22NS50 22x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - £16.99
Total : £500.81

sk82jack · 28 May 2011 at 02:41

Sound card won't go on that motherboard as it's a PCI soundcard and the motherboard only has PCI-express slots.

PSU is a good choice but I'd be tempted to go with a cooler master elite 430 windowed case - black (with 500w elite power psu) as it's a better case and to bring costs down and get a compatible motherboard with the soundcard.

anandtech shows an i3-2100 system w/ 6870 pulls 106 watts @ load

SilentPCReview shows 79@ load

Legit Reviews shows 86 @ load

OK I had a go:

Intel Core i3-2100 3.10GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor - Retail £89.99

XFX ATI Radeon HD 5770 Single Slot 1024MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £77.99

Gigabyte P61-USB3 Intel P61 Chipset (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard **B3 REVISION** £69.98

Microsoft Windows 7 Bundle - Home Premium 64 Bit £68.40

Options applied to the above product:
Western Digital Caviar Blue 500GB SATA 6Gb/s 16MB Cache - OEM (WD5000AAKX) £32.99
Cooler Master Elite 430 Windowed Case - Black (with 500w Elite Power PSU) £64.99

Asus Xonar DS 7.1 PCI Sound Card £39.98

OCZ Platinum 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 PC3-10666C7 1333MHz Dual Channel Kit (OCZ3P1333LV4GK) £29.99

Sony Optiarc AD-5260S 24x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £15.98

Total : £503.80 (includes shipping : £11.25)

Vorash · 29 May 2011 at 00:23

With the advice above I think i've settled on this, unless there's any better way to spend £500 and get the same things? Can always buy a sound card later if he notices a difference

Intel Core i3-2100 3.10GHz (Sandybridge) - £89.99
Microsoft Bundle Windows 7 Home 64 Bit - £68.40
Options applied to the above product:
Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB SATA 6Gb/s 32MB Cache - £50.99
Gigabyte P61-USB3 - £69.98
XFX ATI Radeon HD 5770 1024MB - £77.99
OCZ Platinum 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 PC3-10666C7 1333MHz - £29.99
LG GH22NS50 22x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - £16.99
Cooler Master Elite 430 (with 500w Elite Power PSU) - £64.99
Total : £482.82

For the harddrive/OS bundle, does anyone know if it actually comes with the Windows 7 CD and key so we can reinstall it if anything goes wrong in the future?

sk82jack · 29 May 2011 at 00:26

Vorash said:
For the harddrive/OS bundle, does anyone know if it actually comes with the Windows 7 CD and key so we can reinstall it if anything goes wrong in the future?

It should be the same as if you were buying them seperate so you should get a CD and key

Spec looks good but the DVD drive I (and Olivier) posted is faster and cheaper

Vorash · 29 May 2011 at 00:27

sk82jack said:
It should be the same as if you were buying them seperate so you should get a CD and key

Spec looks good.

Thanks a lot. Time to get it ordered!

sk82jack · 29 May 2011 at 00:27

Check my edit

Vorash · 29 May 2011 at 00:29

sk82jack said:
Check my edit

I've changed it now, thanks again