New PC build Budget 400-500

ftwstu

ftwstu

ftwstu

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Joined
18 Jun 2012
Posts
5
Hello,

First post and first question.

My 7 year build has finally bitten the dust and need to start to look to a new one.

Budget 400-500
Don't really play many big games, only Football Manager which is only really process heavy but would still like it to be fast.

Don't need Monitor,Mouse,Keyboard or OS.

The only thing I have decided on is the Zalman Z9 case.

So if anyone could put a spec together that would be great.
 
 
Last edited:
Thanks for that.

Forgot to add I don't need a Harddrive either.

Is there anything I can upgrade to make up for that price difference?
 
Hi and Welcome :)

Hono's build above is great as usual, and the Z9 is a great case!

Slightly more expensive option with an SSD and 500GB HDD:

YOUR BASKET
1 x Intel Core i3-2120 3.30GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor - Retail £99.95
1 x MSI HD 6850 OC 1024MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £83.99
1 x Sandisk Ultra SSD 120GB 2.5" SATA II Solid State Hard Drive - (SDSSDH-120G-G25) £71.99
1 x Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 500GB SATA 6Gb/s 16MB Cache - OEM (ST500DM002) £53.99
1 x Gigabyte H61MA-D3V Intel H61 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £47.99
1 x Zalman Z9 Plus Tower Case with Fan Controller - Black £44.99
1 x XFX Pro 450W Core Edition '80 Plus Bronze' Power Supply £41.99
1 x Patriot Viper Xtreme 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C8 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (PXD38G1600LLK) £39.95
1 x OcUK 22x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £14.99
Total : £514.81 (includes shipping : £12.50).

 
beejjacobs said:
Hi and Welcome :)

Hono's build above is great as usual, and the Z9 is a great case!
Click to expand...

Thanks bud :D I'm back to explain the choices.

The i3 is a great bang for buck CPU, I've paired it to a Z77 mobo. The mobo can overclock K series CPU (alas not the i3), it has lucid MVP which uses the IGP to boost your GPU (6850). You can't OC the i3 CPU but you can tweak some more power from the 6850 and it's getting an extra boost from MVP ;)

Z9 case has lots of features of the price. 4 120mm fans, fan controller, digital temp display, cable management and a P4/8 extension cable.....lots to like for the price :)

PSU has ample juice for a single GPU setup and 8GB of RAM is all you will realsitically need. Beejs RAM choice isnt low profile (fine if you are watercooling not so great with aftermarket aircoolers), my choice was more but low profile FYI.

If you want to spend a lil more we can get you the overclockable i5K ;)

YOUR BASKET
1 x Intel Core i5-3570K 3.40GHz (Ivybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor (77W) - Retail £189.95
1 x MSI HD 6850 OC 1024MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £83.99
1 x Gigabyte Z77-D3H Intel Z77 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £79.99
1 x Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 500GB SATA 6Gb/s 16MB Cache - OEM (ST500DM002) £53.99
1 x OCZ ZS Series 550W '80 Plus Bronze' Power Supply £49.99
1 x Zalman Z9 Plus Tower Case with Fan Controller - Black £44.99
1 x Kingston Blu 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (KHX1600C9AD3B1K2/4G) £23.99
1 x OcUK 22x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £14.99
Total : £556.87 (includes shipping : £12.50).



Less RAM and smaller HDD to help pay for the better CPU. Unlike the H61 mobo the Z77 has two spare RAM slots so you could add more RAM later if you wanted (dead easy upgrade).

Hope this helps. If you need an OS you want 64bit to use 8GB of RAM. The developers copy of windows 8 is a free download and could tide you over for a while (then buy windows 8 or 7 depending).
 
beejjacobs said:
Well explained by Hono as usual :)

Plenty of options for you there! Let us know what you like the look of :cool:
Click to expand...

I do try buddy, I do fear that I drift off into waffle mode though lol

I forgot to mention about the HDD situation. I like that Beej tried to get an SSD in. These drives load much faster than mechanical drives so the OS responds quicker and games installed will have reduced load times too. 120GB i do believe is the minimum size an average user should be considering

My only issue was that Beej used the sataII SSD drive. Both our mobos do sataIII, SataIII is faster so it makes sense to go with the faster drive.

YOUR BASKET
1 x Sandisk Extreme SSD 120GB 2.5" SATA 6Gb/s Solid State Hard Drive - (SDSSDX-120G-G25) £84.98
1 x Sandisk Ultra SSD 120GB 2.5" SATA II Solid State Hard Drive - (SDSSDH-120G-G25) £71.99
Total : £156.97 (includes shipping : FREE).



Difference in price isn't really massive considering the (extreme) sataIII is much better. I'm not saying how Beej balanced the budget is wrong. At some point you have to draw a line in the sand.....I could certainly find use for a sataII SSD in my laptop if one came up cheap enough.

I left the SSD out but I would recommend it as an upgrade later. You will notice the difference adding one. An aftermarket cooler would be a sensible later addition to the i5K build as well. We have both used the 6850 in our builds HOWEVER...... if your games are like this....

Click me!

Then you might actually get away without the GPU all together and use the CPU integrated graphics (IGP). You can always add a dedicated GPU later for more performance which as I mentioned before, can use the power of the IGP for a boost when using the Z77 mobo.

It would be great if you took the time to do a build log. Take lots of pics as you go, post them in a thread on here and we can help you along with the build. Sounds like effort I know but this is a great way to increase your post count and let others see what they can buy and achieve themselves. Loyal forum members get free P&P which is ideal for picking up upgrades at great prices, so there are rewards for our efforts :)
 
Thanks very much for all your help.

I forgot to mention I don't know need a harddrive as I already have one. So could maybe upgrade something else.

Wasn't expecting so much response and help, but it's much appreciated :)
 
Wow thanks for the help guys.

Wasn't expecting so much response and help.

Forgot to mention I don't need a HD so maybe can upgrade something else with taking that out of the price.

Pretty sold on getting an SSD straight away aswell.
 
Wow thanks for the help guys.

Wasn't expecting so much response and help.

Forgot to mention I don't need a HD so maybe can upgrade something else with taking that out of the price.

Pretty sold on getting an SSD straight away aswell.
 
ftwstu said:
Wow thanks for the help guys.

Wasn't expecting so much response and help.

Forgot to mention I don't need a HD so maybe can upgrade something else with taking that out of the price.

Pretty sold on getting an SSD straight away aswell.
Click to expand...

No worries fella. The offers have changed so I would be aiming for something like that

YOUR BASKET
1 x Intel Core i5-3570K 3.40GHz (Ivybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor (77W) - Retail £181.99
1 x MSI HD 6850 OC 1024MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £89.99
1 x Gigabyte Z77-D3H Intel Z77 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £79.99
1 x Zalman Z9 Plus Tower Case with Fan Controller - Black £49.99
1 x OCZ ZS Series 550W '80 Plus Bronze' Power Supply £46.98
1 x GeIL Dragon 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C11 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (GD38GB1600C11DC) £37.99
1 x Sony Optiarc AD-5280S 24x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £14.99
Total : £516.92 (includes shipping : £12.50).

 
Apologies for jumping in someone else's thread, but thought it was perhaps better than starting a new one.

I have more or less the same budget for a new pc as the op. The above spec looks great and I'm pretty much settled on an i5 and 6850 (unless there's anything dramatically better for around the £150 mark? - I don't think I can reach £200)

However, I just want to see if I can salvage any of the parts from my current build, and perhaps save a bit there. I have two 160gb harddrives (a Maxtor 6y160m0, and a Seagate st3160023as), a P5KC Socket 775 Motherboard, and 4gb DDR2 ram. I've also got two DVD-RW drives that will do me fine, and a case (Casecom Black Mid Tower Case, with front and rear 120mm fans)

I'm guessing the motherboard probably won't be usable, but is there any real need to upgrade the hdd and ram? If not, I can put that money towards a better graphics card or cpu cooler or whatever. Will the case be usable or should I replace it?

Thanks for any help.
 
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