Help Spec a Friend Cheap BareBones. £250

lettuce · 17 Oct 2012 at 20:39

A mate of mine currently has the following:

ASRock G41M-VS3
Intel Core2 Quad Processor Q8200 2.33GHz CPU
4gb ram ddr 800mhz
HD4890 GPU

He has roughly £250 to spend, says his happy to keep his current GPU (not sure how the HD4890 stands up today) to keep costs down. Mainly for gaming and internet. What spec would give good noticeable performance gains??

Doomedspeed · 17 Oct 2012 at 21:19

Does he need a case and PSU?

If so,

YOUR BASKET
1 x Intel Core i3-2130 3.40GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor - Retail £89.99
1 x BeQuiet Pure Power L7 530W '80 Plus' Power Supply £54.98
1 x Gigabyte H61MA-D2V Intel H61 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £39.98
1 x Xigmatek Asgard Pro Gaming Case - Black £32.99
1 x GeIL Black Dragon 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C11 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (GD38GB1600C11DC) £23.99
Total : £256.03 (includes shipping : £11.75).

If not:

YOUR BASKET
1 x Intel Core i5-3330 3.00GHz (Ivybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor (77W) - Retail £137.99
1 x Gigabyte Z77-D3H Intel Z77 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £84.98
1 x GeIL Black Dragon 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C11 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (GD38GB1600C11DC) £23.99
Total : £258.36 (includes shipping : £9.50).

lettuce · 17 Oct 2012 at 21:24

Thanks, yeah he needs a case but no PSU though has a corsair 600watt

Is the Gigabyte Z77-D3H going to make any difference in performance over the Gigabyte H61MA-D2V if no overclocking is going to be carried out?, as the Z77-D3H is twice as much!

Doomedspeed · 17 Oct 2012 at 21:40

Has sataIII, usb3 and all the other bios trimmings.

In terms of raw performance, Nothing majorally noticeable. Just completely take Overclocking ability off the table.

YOUR BASKET
1 x Intel Core i5-3330 3.00GHz (Ivybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor (77W) - Retail £137.99
1 x Gigabyte H61MA-D2V Intel H61 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £39.98
1 x Xigmatek Asgard Pro Gaming Case - Black £32.99
1 x GeIL Black Dragon 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C11 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (GD38GB1600C11DC) £23.99
Total : £248.45 (includes shipping : £11.25).

Idleman · 17 Oct 2012 at 21:53

Another alternative, slightly over budget.

YOUR BASKET
1 x Intel Core i5-3330 3.00GHz (Ivybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor (77W) - Retail £137.99
1 x ASRock B75M Intel B75 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Micro ATX Motherboard £52.99
1 x Kingston HyperX Genesis Grey 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (KHX1600C9D3X2K2/8GX) £25.99
1 x Zalman T1 Mini Tower Case - Black ** OcUK Exclusive ** £24.98
Total : £253.96 (includes shipping : £10.00).

Doomedspeed · 17 Oct 2012 at 22:11

Idleman said:
Another alternative, slightly over budget.

YOUR BASKET
1 x Intel Core i5-3330 3.00GHz (Ivybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor (77W) - Retail £137.99
1 x ASRock B75M Intel B75 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Micro ATX Motherboard £52.99
1 x Kingston HyperX Genesis Grey 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (KHX1600C9D3X2K2/8GX) £25.99
1 x Zalman T1 Mini Tower Case - Black ** OcUK Exclusive ** £24.98
Total : £253.96 (includes shipping : £10.00).

Good showing.

The advantage of that is you get SATAIII and USB3 connectivity.

Idleman · 17 Oct 2012 at 22:15

Doomedspeed said:
Good showing.

The advantage of that is you get SATAIII and USB3 connectivity.

Thanks.
My thoughts exactly.

lettuce · 17 Oct 2012 at 22:18

Cool, cheers lads. Keep anymore ideas coming please

Regarding the i5 over the i3 CPU, from a gaming stand point would it be best to go for the faster clock speed, i mean do many games utilise more that 2 cores?