New Build, budget £600-£700

Rooster212

Rooster212

Rooster212

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Build for another friend, budget is £600 for now but could be £700, suggested changes if it goes either way? I was thinking change the graphics card down if it goes lower, but wasn't sure what to do if it goes up a bit.

He is going to be doing computer game design at university next year, and he plays a lot of Starcraft 2 and WoW so needs a decent graphics card for those. He also needs a mouse and keyboard which makes it slightly harder. Also haven't included a cooler cause I don't know whats good in the £10-£20 range, if a mouse and keyboard is to be included.

YOUR BASKET
1 x Sapphire ATI Radeon HD 6850 1024MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card with FREE DIRT3 & Deus Ex PC Games £114.98
1 x Dell ST2220M 21.5" Widescreen LED Monitor - Black £99.98
1 x Gigabyte 970A-UD3 AMD 970A (Socket AM3+) DDR3 PCI-Express ATX Motherboard £85.99
1 x AMD Phenom II X4 Quad Core 850 "95W Edition" 3.30GHz (Socket AM3) - Retail £79.99
1 x Microsoft Windows 7 Bundle - Home Premium 64 Bit £68.40
1 x Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 1TB SATA 6Gb/s 32MB Cache - OEM (ST31000524AS) £44.99
1 x OCZ StealthXStream 2 700W Power Supply £64.99
1 x OCZ Gold 4GB (2x2GB) PC3-14400C9 1800MHz Dual Channel Kit £41.99
1 x OcUK Bos Midi Tower Case - Black/Red £24.98
1 x Sony DDU1681S-0B 18x DVD-ROM (Black) - OEM £12.98
Total : £656.99 (includes shipping : £14.75).

Any thoughts? The 6850 should be plenty for his requirements and i'm sure there are a few money busting products to be bought. Weekly deals won't help because i don't know when he will be buying.

Thanks for any help in advance guys!
 
OCZ ZS Series 650W '80 Plus Bronze' Power Supply £55.99
Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 1TB SATA 6Gb/s 32MB Cache - OEM (ST31000524AS) £44.99
Corsair XMS3 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (CMX4GX3M2A1600C9) £29.99

The memory you have chosen has no advantages over this spec. Also this HDD is faster, and this PSU will do the job...
 
The hard drive is not changeable because its part of the bundle with Windows unless i get them seperately which i assume would be more expensive?

The other suggestions are great :)
 
OK this now, still need a keyboard and mouse but that can and will be sorted out soon enough.


YOUR BASKET
1 x Sapphire ATI Radeon HD 6850 1024MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card with FREE DIRT3 & Deus Ex PC Games £114.98
1 x Dell ST2220M 21.5" Widescreen LED Monitor - Black £99.98
1 x Gigabyte 970A-UD3 AMD 970A (Socket AM3+) DDR3 PCI-Express ATX Motherboard £85.99
1 x AMD Phenom II X4 Quad Core 850 "95W Edition" 3.30GHz (Socket AM3) - Retail £79.99
1 x Microsoft Windows 7 Bundle - Home Premium 64 Bit £68.40
1 x Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 1TB SATA 6Gb/s 32MB Cache - OEM (ST31000524AS) £44.99
1 x OCZ ZS Series 650W '80 Plus Bronze' Power Supply £55.99
1 x Corsair XMS3 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (CMX4GX3M2A1600C9) £29.99
1 x OcUK Bos Midi Tower Case - Black/Red £24.98
1 x Sony DDU1681S-0B 18x DVD-ROM (Black) - OEM £12.98
Total : £644.93 (includes shipping : £22.20).
 
Untitled-41.jpg


The i3 2120 will dump on that fake phenom from a great height.
http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/cpu/display/core-i3-2120-2100.html
They compare the i3 2120 against the Phenom955BE which is a true Phenom with L3 cache, the Phenom 850 is an Athlon core so is missing this L3 cache so think of it as a AthlonII X4 650'ish.

The motherboard supports SATA3.0 and USB3.0,
http://www.msi.com/product/mb/H67MA-E35.html

The PSU is quality,
http://www.jonnyguru.com/modules.php?name=NDReviews&op=Story&reid=248

Leaves you £50 or buy a cooler with this change and remain well within the budget;)
 
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can your brother cope without windows 7 until he goes to university? i ask because you can usually get a windows 7 home premium for under £40 as a student, and sometimes you can get windows 7 for free at university, especially if you do a computing subject. *smug grin* i got windows 7 professional for free at university, along with a heap of other stuff (visual studios for C++, microsoft office, etc)

heres what i would go for (not sure on the mouse though)
very similar to stulids, but with a couple of changes and the keyboard + mouse added:


YOUR BASKET
1 x OcUK ATI Radeon HD 6870 1024MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card with FREE Deus Ex PC Game **PRE-ORDER ONLY PRICE** £119.99
1 x Intel Core i3-2120 3.30GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor - Retail £99.98
1 x OcUK V-Line 221V2SB 22" Widescreen LCD Monitor - Black £89.99
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 MSI H67MA-E35 Intel H67 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Micro-ATX Motherboard - (Sandybridge) **B3 REVISION** £64.99
1 x Kingston HyperX Blu 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-10666C9 1333MHz Dual Channel Kit (KHX1333C9D3B1K2/8G) £49.99
1 x OCZ ZS Series 550W '80 Plus Bronze' Power Supply £47.99
1 x Zalman Z9 Plus Tower Case with Fan Controller - Black £40.79
1 x Microsoft SideWinder X4 Gaming Keyboard - Retail (JQD-00006) £32.99
1 x Samsung SH-S222AL/BEBE 22x DVD±RW SATA Lightscribe ReWriter (Black) - OEM £16.99
1 x Gigabyte M6900 3200DPI Gaming Mouse £14.99
Total : £706.72 (includes shipping : £22.20).

motherboard doesnt support anything over 1133Mhz (not sure if they mean 1133 or 1333Mhz), so i figured there wasnt much point spending money on performance you simply cant use.
also changed the case because i certainly know that getting a good case is very important. the fractal will do for stulids build (and mine if you wanted to save £8), but the zalman will support full sized ATX boards if you decide to upgrade in the future, and has been made by a company that has a quality control department
 
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Reaper that build looks great, i hadn't thought about an i3 because i thought expense would get in the way.

Looking at it i'm thinking:

Possibly change the motherboard to a P67 or Z68 so that overclocking is possible if he ever upgrades to an i5 2500K or i7 2600K which i'm sure he will!

8GB of RAM... required? Faster if going for better motherboard?

I'll chuck Windows out the window (haha) and he can have my old XP install, I don't need that. So get him a hard drive.

So if i get this...

Looks like a good build to me!

YOUR BASKET
1 x OcUK ATI Radeon HD 6870 1024MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card with FREE Deus Ex PC Game **PRE-ORDER ONLY PRICE** £119.99
1 x Asrock Z68 PRO3 Intel Z68 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £99.98
1 x Intel Core i3-2120 3.30GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor - Retail £99.98
1 x OcUK V-Line 221V2SB 22" Widescreen LCD Monitor - Black £89.99
1 x OCZ ZS Series 550W '80 Plus Bronze' Power Supply £47.99
1 x Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 1TB SATA 6Gb/s 32MB Cache - OEM (ST31000524AS) £44.99
1 x Microsoft SideWinder X4 Gaming Keyboard - Retail (JQD-00006) £32.99
1 x OcUK Bos Midi Tower Case - Black/Red £24.98
1 x Crucial Ballistix Sport 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 PC3-10666C9 1333MHz Dual Channel Kit (BL2KIT25664BA1339) £23.99
1 x Samsung SH-S222AL/BEBE 22x DVD±RW SATA Lightscribe ReWriter (Black) - OEM £16.99
1 x Gigabyte M6900 3200DPI Gaming Mouse £14.99
Total : £640.98 (includes shipping : £20.10).
 
Rooster212 said:
YOUR BASKET
1 x OcUK ATI Radeon HD 6870 1024MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card with FREE Deus Ex PC Game **PRE-ORDER ONLY PRICE** £119.99
1 x Asrock Z68 PRO3 Intel Z68 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £99.98
1 x Intel Core i3-2120 3.30GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor - Retail £99.98
1 x OcUK V-Line 221V2SB 22" Widescreen LCD Monitor - Black £89.99
1 x OCZ ZS Series 550W '80 Plus Bronze' Power Supply £47.99
1 x Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 1TB SATA 6Gb/s 32MB Cache - OEM (ST31000524AS) £44.99
1 x Microsoft SideWinder X4 Gaming Keyboard - Retail (JQD-00006) £32.99
1 x OcUK Bos Midi Tower Case - Black/Red £24.98
1 x Crucial Ballistix Sport 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 PC3-10666C9 1333MHz Dual Channel Kit (BL2KIT25664BA1339) £23.99
1 x Samsung SH-S222AL/BEBE 22x DVD±RW SATA Lightscribe ReWriter (Black) - OEM £16.99
1 x Gigabyte M6900 3200DPI Gaming Mouse £14.99
Total : £640.98 (includes shipping : £20.10).
Click to expand...

Think you should put 1600MHz ram in as that board can use it.
 
Ok then i'll change that over for £1 extra, think we can stretch to that. So we'll see what the budget is and i'll come back when I know the budget but this is what we have for the moment:

YOUR BASKET
1 x OcUK ATI Radeon HD 6870 1024MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card with FREE Deus Ex PC Game **PRE-ORDER ONLY PRICE** £119.99
1 x Asrock Z68 PRO3 Intel Z68 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £99.98
1 x Intel Core i3-2120 3.30GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor - Retail £99.98
1 x OcUK V-Line 221V2SB 22" Widescreen LCD Monitor - Black £89.99
1 x OCZ ZS Series 550W '80 Plus Bronze' Power Supply £47.99
1 x Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 1TB SATA 6Gb/s 32MB Cache - OEM (ST31000524AS) £44.99
1 x Microsoft SideWinder X4 Gaming Keyboard - Retail (JQD-00006) £32.99
1 x Crucial Ballistix Sport 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C10 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (BL2KIT25664BA160A) £26.99
1 x OcUK Bos Midi Tower Case - Black/Red £24.98
1 x Samsung SH-S222AL/BEBE 22x DVD±RW SATA Lightscribe ReWriter (Black) - OEM £16.99
1 x Gigabyte M6900 3200DPI Gaming Mouse £14.99
Total : £643.98 (includes shipping : £20.10).
 
OK well his budget has been knocked up to £700, what should be improved? Thinking knock up the RAM to 8GB and/or a better motherboard?
 
Stick a i5 2400 in it? 8GB RAM,


Your basketProduct Name Qty Price Line Total
Intel Core i5-2300 2.80GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor - Retail £145.99
(£121.66) £145.99
(£121.66)
OcUK ATI Radeon HD 6870 1024MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card with FREE Deus Ex PC Game £131.99
(£109.99) £131.99
(£109.99)
Gigabyte Z68AP-D3 Intel Z68 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £91.99
(£76.66) £91.99
(£76.66)
OcUK V-Line 221V2SB 22" Widescreen LCD Monitor - Black £89.99
(£74.99) £89.99
(£74.99)
OCZ ModXStream Pro 500w Silent SLI Certified Modular Power Supply £43.98
(£36.65) £43.98
(£36.65)
Samsung SpinPoint F3 1TB SATA-II 32MB Cache - OEM (HD103SJ) £41.99
(£34.99) £41.99
(£34.99)
Crucial Ballistix Sport 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C10 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (BL2KIT51264BA160A) £39.98
(£33.32) £39.98
(£33.32)
Microsoft SideWinder X4 Gaming Keyboard - Retail (JQD-00006) £32.99
(£27.49) £32.99
(£27.49)
OcUK Bos Midi Tower Case - Black/Red £24.98
(£20.82) £24.98
(£20.82)
Gigabyte M6900 3200DPI Gaming Mouse & "Ghost" Mouse Pad Bundle £18.77
(£15.64) £18.77
(£15.64)
Samsung SH-S222AL/BEBE 22x DVD±RW SATA Lightscribe ReWriter (Black) - OEM £16.99
(£14.16) £16.99
(£14.16)
Sub Total : £566.37
Shipping cost assumes delivery to UK Mainland with:
DPD Next Day Parcel
(This can be changed during checkout) Shipping : £17.85
VAT is being charged at 20.00% VAT : £116.84
Total : £701.06

i5 2500K?

Untitled-42.jpg
 
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YOUR BASKET
1 x Intel Core i5-2500K 3.30GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor - OEM £161.99
1 x OcUK ATI Radeon HD 6870 1024MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card with FREE Deus Ex PC Game £131.99
1 x OcUK V-Line 221V2SB 22" Widescreen LCD Monitor - Black £89.99
1 x Asus P8P67 LE Intel P67 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard ** B3 REVISION ** £74.99
1 x OCZ ModXStream Pro 500w Silent SLI Certified Modular Power Supply £43.98
1 x Samsung SpinPoint F3 1TB SATA-II 32MB Cache - OEM (HD103SJ) £41.99
1 x Crucial Ballistix Sport 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C10 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (BL2KIT51264BA160A) £39.98
1 x OcUK Terminator Gaming Case - Black £38.99
1 x Saitek Cyborg V5 Illuminated Gaming Keyboard £35.99
1 x Samsung SH-S222AL/BEBE 22x DVD±RW SATA Lightscribe ReWriter (Black) - OEM £16.99
Total : £691.87 (includes shipping : £12.50).




Think this might be it, i'll run it past him (he expressed a preference for that case and it looks good to build in). Thanks for your help everyone :D i'll be building it for him/we'll do it together so may post some pics back when he orders and it gets done!
 
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