Cheap first build, £300 budget

Digisword

Digisword

Digisword

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Joined
4 Jul 2011
Posts
4
Hey,

Im asking for advice on building a £300 budget build that is mainly going to be used for Web browsing and light gaming. I would like it to be able to run at least Starcraft 2 at decent settings (1920 x 1080) and similar games.

I know its really tough to get all this in such a tight budget, but ive managed to make the following after much searching:

Antec High Current Gamer 620W '80 Plus Bronze' Power Supply £62.99
Cooler Master CM-690 II Lite Dominator Case - Black £59.99
AMD Athlon II X3 Tri Core 450 3.20GHz (Socket AM3) - Retail £57.59
Asus M4A78LT-M 760G (Socket AM3) DDR3 Motherboard £47.99
Corsair XMS3 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (CMX4GX3M2A1600C9) £34.99
Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 250GB SATA 6Gb/s 8MB Cache - OEM (ST3250312AS) £28.98
LiteOn IHAS124-19 24x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £16.99

Total = £ 309.52


As you can see from the above build, the gaming performance is a bit too poor to what im expecting. Im still missing a graphics card but dont see how I could fit it in that budget. I think the case is pretty overkill so if you have any suitable replacements dont hesitate to post! ;).

Im kinda stuck on how to edit this build to suit my requirements so any help would be appreciated. I would prefer not to go too far above budget but otherwise do what you please!

Thanks in advance!
 
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I think you have gone overkill on the case and power supply for what you want. Also a dedicated graphics card is pretty much needed for any decent 1080p gaming. I'll see what I can do but most likely won't be completely inside £300
 
Your basketProduct Name Qty Price Line Total
AMD Llano A8-3850 2.90 (Socket FM1) APU Processor (AD3850WNGXBOX) £113.99
(£94.99) £113.99
(£94.99)
Asus F1A75-M AMD A75 Chipset (Socket FM1) DDR3 Motherboard £79.99
(£66.66) £79.99
(£66.66)
Cooler Master Elite 430 Windowed Case - Black (with 500w Elite Power PSU) £64.99
(£54.16) £64.99
(£54.16)
Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 500GB SATA 6Gb/s 16MB Cache - OEM (ST3500413AS) £28.99
(£24.16) £28.99
(£24.16)
Corsair Value 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 PC3-10666C9 1333MHz Low Voltage Dual-Channel Kit £23.98
(£19.98) £23.98
(£19.98)
OcUK 22x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £14.99
(£12.49) £14.99
(£12.49)
Sub Total : £272.44
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 : £56.49
Total : £338.93

New AMD Lllano, its a CPU core and a strong graphics core on the same chip,

http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/cpu/display/amd-a8-3800.html

And you can add a simple 6450/6550 card later on in a hybrid corssfire mode to double the performance.

The motherboard has HDMI/DVI etc,

http://www.asus.com/Motherboards/AMD_Socket_FM1/F1A75M/
 
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Digisword said:
The build above looks good, thanks stulid! Just kinda cautious about the bundled psu. Dont want anything to fry thats all! xD
Click to expand...

Well its not going to go bang, Llano is very power efficient, and adding a extra card such as a 6450/6550 etc wont do anything to worry it.
 
I thought they were basically for HTPCs?
Click to expand...

Yea, thats why I wasn't thinking about llano when making the build but Stulid seems to have done a good job :P.

I really like the build posted by DJmartin but still worried about no-name PSU's.
 
Well its not going to go bang, Llano is very power efficient, and adding a extra card such as a 6450/6550 etc wont do anything to worry it.
Click to expand...

As long as it will last me a few years its great. Thanks for the suggestions, really helped me out there! Both builds look very viable. Much appreciated :).
 
Digisword said:
I really like the build posted by DJmartin but still worried about no-name PSU's.
Click to expand...

Well the one with the Coolermaster case is a Coolermaster PSU as well so it isn't really no name but not brilliant. Also, in the words of stulid: http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showpost.php?p=19381087&postcount=9 He may have changed his mind now but that is why I specced the OcUK PSU :D

Anyway, Anandtech don't have the Llano's on their bench feature (yet) so I am clueless to how they perform compared to other graphics cards. Following Stulid's advice would probably be your best bet here :)
 
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you can ofc go with llano for high end htpc :)
but yeah its gonna be great for low budget build as you basically dont need to get cheap dicrete graphics card.
For aroound £110 you get 4 core processor and graphics that beat the £40 hd 6450. I really like upgradeability aswell, you can overclock it, get fast ram, add an extra gpu for crossfire goodness!

you mention light gaming you could possibly get away with the cheaper llano? its around £90 is bit slower 300mhz and has a not as good graphics on it though,.. for 11-15 more quid go for more expensive option but just throwing that out there.
 
If its starcraft you will get better fps with an Intel chip and nvidea graphics. The llano seems perfect but taking that into account you are probally better getting an i3 2100 and then maybe a 460 or something when funds allow. At that resolution 300 is unrealistic I'm afraid.
 
Dunno if this helps at all.

i have a Thermaltake VB1000BWS Soprano SuperMidi Tower Silver, BFG 8800GTS and a 750w psu that im trying to get rid off (cant remember the name of the psu can check tonight)

and i know that gpu ran sc2 as i was using that before i upgraded.
 
yeah Starcraft 2 the cpu is more important tbh, unlike a lot of games.
And i agree nvida gpu tend to perform better with Blizzard games, they are better optimised or something.
my i5 + 460 i get about 130-140 fps in 1vs 1 :P overkill lol
 
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