Can you do better for £500?

Marmot

Marmot

Marmot

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Building a budget computer for a friend who wants to be able to play up and coming games such as D3 and GW2 at medium settings. I have an old 320GB sata HDD for him to use, but he needs Windows 7. This is what I have, can you guys do any better?

YOUR BASKET
1 x Intel Core i3-2120 3.30GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor - Retail £91.99
1 x Gigabyte Z77-D3H Intel Z77 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £84.98
1 x **B Grade** EVGA GeForce GTX 460 Superclocked 1024MB GDDR5 PCI-Express G (GX-160-EA) £80.00
1 x Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 64-Bit - OEM (GFC-02050) £79.98
1 x BitFenix Shinobi USB3.0 Gaming Case - Black £49.99
1 x XFX Pro 450W Core Edition '80 Plus Bronze' Power Supply £41.99
1 x Corsair Vengeance Low Profile 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (CML8GX3M2A1600C9) £39.95
1 x OcUK 22x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £17.99
Total : £499.48 (includes shipping : £10.50).

 
I wouldn't go for the Corsair, from a review I found -

(Yes it's the 430, but the builder are the same)

The exterior of this Corsair’s unit looks like other units from this brand, but once we open the cover, it doesn’t seem to be a Corsair PSU. Yes, I know it. This is a low end unit and it is sold at a low price, but we were not used to receiving this kind of PSU from Corsair. I have to say that I have a bad taste in my mouth after previewing this unit. The CX430 takes a big step backward in terms of quality.


Maybe someone withg a bit more knowledge on these could put some more in depth information regarding the builder series, but I have read a few dodgy reviews about them recently.
 
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it's not really a gaming PSU, but should do the job. However I would got the CM Silent Pro 500W for £50.

Over £500 though, but you could downgrade the shinobi, although it's one of the better budget cases.

But yeah otherwise, bang on build imo.
 
olivier renault said:
it's not really a gaming PSU, but should do the job. However I would got the CM Silent Pro 500W for £50.

Over £500 though, but you could downgrade the shinobi, although it's one of the better budget cases.

But yeah otherwise, bang on build imo.
Click to expand...

Would actually remain in budget, with free delivery.

Thanks for the information guys.
 
No, not good :)
For 90 quids you are able to buy used CPU on Ebay, i5 2400, for example. It's far better than i3. CPUs don't break so often as other components (gtaphic cards, memory sticks), so if you buy used and working - it still will work. They are not overclockable, so no worries with any overvoltage, or overheating. I mean they can be overcloked, but just a bit (+500/600 MHz), not so great as "K" CPUs do. I would recommend buying used CPUs in such situations with tight budget as used CPUs are most reliable and safe among used components.
 
biuro74 said:
No, not good :)
For 90 quids you are able to buy used CPU on Ebay, i5 2400, for example. It's far better than i3. CPUs don't break so often as other components (gtaphic cards, memory sticks), so if you buy used and working - it still will work. They are not overclockable, so no worries with any overvoltage, or overheating. I mean they can be overcloked, but just a bit (+500/600 MHz), not so great as "K" CPUs do. I would recommend buying used CPUs in such situations with tight budget as used CPUs are most reliable and safe among used components.
Click to expand...

Interesting. Food for thought.
 
You have access to MM, look in there. However most games are GPU bound and not CPU. So wont make much difference. A lot of people run latest games on a Q6600.
 
On a really tight budget I'd definitely be looking at second hand bits. I personally wouldn't buy from eBay, my current PC was purchased from the MM over 5 years ago and is working fantastically well. The beauty of OcUK is that a lot of people are offloading pretty recent kit to upgrade to the latest and greatest. You don't have to buy it all second hand of course, but do consider it!
 
olivier renault said:
I would never buy anything like a CPU on ebay, no matter what.
Click to expand...

Of course, look at yourself, you o-c your CPU :) But oc-ers are in minority, those people who sell on Ebay often don't know how to do that. Moreover, you should to know exactly which part and which model to buy on second hand market, not everything. K-models are special due to huge o-c potential, so you have to know if person who claims didn't overclock CPU - really didn't do it. Sometimes you give specialistic questions and you simply see if that persons knows what is it, or treats you like a geek. With such case like alternative "used i5 or new i3" I think pros are much more benefitial than cons might be awful. By the way - the biggest cons is CPU not working, but if you pay by PayPal, they return all the money after you sent CPU back. Just tell the seller to pack item carefully and in 99,9% of cases you are covered and item works fine. I've bought many used CPUs and I found just 1 which was not good for me (C2Q 9550 which couldn't be overclockable due to high temp.. but it worked fine at stock speed). The rest was brilliant - I applied own thermal grease and put aftermarket cooling and I felt like I had brand new CPU :)
 
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