£500 to spend on new machine

The1nonly1

The1nonly1

The1nonly1

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Ive got £500 to spend on a new computer, prefer it to be AMD but if Intel is cheaper i'd have that, i want it to be able to play the latest games (if possible). All i need is a motherboard, processor, graphics card, RAM and a psu. If their is enough for a Hard drive then add one, although its not important.

Thanks
 
Your basketProduct Name Qty Price Line Total
Intel Core i5-2500K 3.30GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor £161.99
(£134.99) £161.99
(£134.99)
XFX ATI Radeon HD 5870 1024MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £159.98
(£133.32) £159.98
(£133.32)
MSI P67A-C45 Intel P67 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard - (Sandybridge) ** B3 REVISION ** £89.98
(£74.98) £89.98
(£74.98)
OCZ StealthXStream 2 600W Power Supply £50.99
(£42.49) £50.99
(£42.49)
Kingston HyperX Blu 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (KHX1600C9AD3B1K2/4G) £33.59
(£27.99) £33.59
(£27.99)
Sub Total : £413.77
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 20.00% VAT : £84.75
Total : £508.52
 
If you can manage the extra £9 I'd definitely swap the PSU for this one...

Antec High Current Gamer 620W Power Supply
£59.99 inc VAT
£49.99 ex VAT
 
Stulid has seen you right so to speak. Definately worth going with the i5 over AMD, intel rules the roost at the moment, we are waiting on bulldozer for AMD to get back in the race.

My only reservation is that XFX 5870. I have seen this card going for this price for a while at a number of e-tailers. Considering all other 5870s are £200-£300 I had to ask why it's so cheap! I did a lil googling and found people complaining over compatibilty and reliability issues (look on flea bay you'll see a number of faulty cards being sold for parts).

That was enough to put me off buying or recommending it to others. All the other parts are ace that have been suggested. Im just suggesting you do a lil homework on that particular XFX card. It may have been a bad batch and I caught a lot of negative press on it.

The 5850 is £100 (if its still on offer) and could be overclocked to near 5870 spec if you are unsure on that 5870. Still plenty of bang for buck and would give you some cash left over for another HDD ;)

Good luck with the build fella
 
What's wrong with the OCZ PSU then?

For £500 that is an excellent spec (I'm hoping the OP qualifies for free delivery). It has the overclockable i5 and a mobo that will allow it to be OC'd. You could be anal and complain at the lack of an aftermarket heatsink but that's more a budget constraint than stulids "know how".

There is no mention of sli or Xfire. Had stulid spec'd a cheapo PSU there would be a reason to complain. OCZ is still a recognised brand name, they are all quality parts (? on the 5870 mind) and it's on budget......what's the problem?
 
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stulid said:
Your basketProduct Name Qty Price Line Total
Intel Core i5-2500K 3.30GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor £161.99
(£134.99) £161.99
(£134.99)
XFX ATI Radeon HD 5870 1024MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £159.98
(£133.32) £159.98
(£133.32)
MSI P67A-C45 Intel P67 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard - (Sandybridge) ** B3 REVISION ** £89.98
(£74.98) £89.98
(£74.98)
OCZ StealthXStream 2 600W Power Supply £50.99
(£42.49) £50.99
(£42.49)
Kingston HyperX Blu 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (KHX1600C9AD3B1K2/4G) £33.59
(£27.99) £33.59
(£27.99)
Sub Total : £413.77
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 20.00% VAT : £84.75
Total : £508.52
Click to expand...

I would spec the same as above but change;

- The RAM for Corsair XMS3 (low profile RAM) (simply outstanding RAM!).
- GPU to nVidia something along the lines of the GTX560Ti (I can't stand ATI cards with their stupid drivers).
- PSU to the Antec High Current Gamer 620W (OCZ have had issues in the past and afaik Antec PSU's are for the most part rock solid).

Just a few other options to consider maybe, the changes above would probably push you over budget but as I say gives you possible options.

Stoner81.
 
It's true that the guys at overclockers favour the XMS RAM it's often used in their overclocked bundles, is good stuff. I used that kingston RAM (albeit the genesis C7 version) in my bros rig. It OC'd fine and have had no issues, i'm not gonna complain for what I/he paid for it.

I did question the GPU too although on paper it looks good. The OP can easily google benchmarks to compare GPUs and find one to fit the budget if he wants something else. I just checked and the 5850 is no longer on offer unfortunately which is a shame.

We both know if that Antec PSU was still on offer at £50 stulid would have spec'd it ;)

It's always a compromise. It's so easy to "justify" another £10 here and £5 there, before you know it we are looking at a £600 build not £500.

I look forward to hearing what the OP thinks and see what he "settles" on.
 
stulid said:
Theres nothing wrong with the PSU:rolleyes: - http://www.hardwaresecrets.com/article/OCZ-StealthXStream-2-600-W-Power-Supply-Review/1058

Theres nothing wrong with the RAM.
Click to expand...

I didn't say there was, it's just my personal preference.

honosuseri said:
It's true that the guys at overclockers favour the XMS RAM it's often used in their overclocked bundles, is good stuff. I used that kingston RAM (albeit the genesis C7 version) in my bros rig. It OC'd fine and have had no issues, i'm not gonna complain for what I/he paid for it.

I did question the GPU too although on paper it looks good. The OP can easily google benchmarks to compare GPUs and find one to fit the budget if he wants something else. I just checked and the 5850 is no longer on offer unfortunately which is a shame.

We both know if that Antec PSU was still on offer at £50 stulid would have spec'd it ;)

It's always a compromise. It's so easy to "justify" another £10 here and £5 there, before you know it we are looking at a £600 build not £500.

I look forward to hearing what the OP thinks and see what he "settles" on.
Click to expand...

The offer OCUK had on the PSU was just sublime it was daylight robbery! Shame it's not on offer now but hey ho can't have everything.

Stoner81.
 
Id get an XFX or Corsair PSU at that wattage. Have a gripe against OCZ tbh. I wont divulge into this debate again though because it usually ends up with me getting a 3 day suspension. Listen to stulid :)
 
OCZ power supplies are great when they work and that's the problem when they work.....

Other problem is the paper specs they give they've rated the 600watt at having 4 x 12V rails each providing 18amps so 4 x 18amp = 72amp from a 600watt psu? Don't think sooo :rolleyes:

It's up to you of course but at the end of the day the PSU is quite an important part of a computer.
 
The OCZ maximum combined output is 504W (42A).

The Antec Max power on 12V is (IIRC) 576W (48A).

The XFX 650W is 636W (53A).

The XFX also has 4 PCIE connectors, compared to two for the others. :)

The XFX is designed for SLI, but the others work for single cards.

The power consumption load on a 5870 system is around 350-400W.
 
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The Amps from the 12V are clearly stated in the hardware secrets test, 534W (44.5A)

Has anyone bothered to look at the spec in post2? its pretty simple and that OCZ PSU wont have any issues.

Its a single PCi-E slot motherboard so the PSU will only ever need two PCI-E connectors.

The power consumption of a 5870 while gaming and a more power hungry i7 Socket1366 system is,

268W - http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/graphics/2009/09/23/ait-radeon-hd-5870-1gb-review/8
310W - http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/162

Or 358W under full stress test - http://www.guru3d.com/article/radeon-hd-5870-review-test/13

The card requires you to have a 500 Watt power supply unit at minimum if you use it in a high-end system. That power supply needs to have (in total accumulated) at least 40 Amps available on the +12 volts rails.
Click to expand...

Which is less than what that OCZ PSU puts out
 
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My issue is the OCZ specs are very misleading also I never said the OCZ wasn't capable of powering the spec'd machine the concern with OCZ is reliability I have 2 of their PSU's sitting here to be RMA'd one is mine the other is a friend who I built a computer for both are StealthXStream mine is rev1 his is rev2.

The downside? To RMA both will cost between £40-45 yay?

Mine wasn't even pushed hard and died in well under a year.....
 
stulid said:
Your basketProduct Name Qty Price Line Total
Intel Core i5-2500K 3.30GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor £161.99
(£134.99) £161.99
(£134.99)
XFX ATI Radeon HD 5870 1024MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £159.98
(£133.32) £159.98
(£133.32)
MSI P67A-C45 Intel P67 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard - (Sandybridge) ** B3 REVISION ** £89.98
(£74.98) £89.98
(£74.98)
OCZ StealthXStream 2 600W Power Supply £50.99
(£42.49) £50.99
(£42.49)
Kingston HyperX Blu 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (KHX1600C9AD3B1K2/4G) £33.59
(£27.99) £33.59
(£27.99)
Sub Total : £413.77
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 20.00% VAT : £84.75
Total : £508.52
Click to expand...

This is a brilliant spec for the money. Would personally spend a little extra and swap out the GPU for a 560 Ti, but that's just personal preference.
 
Thejay said:
My issue is the OCZ specs are very misleading also I never said the OCZ wasn't capable of powering the spec'd machine the concern with OCZ is reliability I have 2 of their PSU's sitting here to be RMA'd one is mine the other is a friend who I built a computer for both are StealthXStream mine is rev1 his is rev2.

The downside? To RMA both will cost between £40-45 yay?

Mine wasn't even pushed hard and died in well under a year.....
Click to expand...

Some people have bad luck, I am sure I can find many reports of happy OCZ PSU users if I looked, I can find bad reports of all types of PSU's even some of the best Corsair/Seasonic/bequeit models.
 
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