£400 girlfriend build, sanity check.

pete248

pete248

pete248

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So my girlfriend wants a desktop PC for around £400, for general non intensive usage and maybe playing a few modern games but not looking to crank up any graphics settings to their maximums. Just thought I'd post on here to check my build and get any feedback you guys may have (no screen or peripherals needed).

I went MicroATX mainly because the case was quite a bit cheaper, and also because she is going abroad for a while in 2013, so it would be easier to transport. Not tied to AMD or nVidia for the GPU, whatever is best for the budget. I tried to fit in a 7850 over the 7770 but £430 is a bit too much over apparently! Cheers for any suggestions.

YOUR BASKET
1 x Gigabyte HD 7770 OC 1024MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card w/ FARCRY3 & 20% MOH WarFighter PC Games £91.99
1 x Intel Core i3-3220 3.30GHz (Ivybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor (77W) - Retail £89.99
1 x Gigabyte Z77M-D3H Intel Z77 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Micro ATX Motherboard £86.99
1 x Toshiba (7K1000.D) 1TB SATA 6GB/s 32MB Cache - OEM (DT01ACA100) £51.98
1 x Cooler Master Elite Power 500W Power Supply £32.99
1 x TeamGroup Elite 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C11 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (TED34096M1600HC11DC) £22.99
1 x Zalman T1 Mini Tower Case - Black £17.99
1 x OcUK 24x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £13.99
Total : £408.91 (includes shipping : FREE).

 
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YOUR BASKET
1 x Gigabyte HD 7770 OC 1024MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card w/ FARCRY3 & 20% MOH WarFighter PC Games £91.99
1 x Intel Core i3-3220 3.30GHz (Ivybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor (77W) - Retail £89.99
1 x ASRock H77 Pro4-M Intel H77 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Micro ATX Motherboard £67.99
1 x Toshiba (7K1000.D) 1TB SATA 6GB/s 32MB Cache - OEM (DT01ACA100) £51.98
1 x Corsair Builder Series CX 430W V2 '80 Plus Bronze' Power Supply (CP-9020046-UK) £36.98
1 x Asus 24x DVD±RW DRW-24B5ST SATA ReWriter - Black (Retail) £20.99
1 x Avexir Blitz Series 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C8 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (AVD3U16000802G-2GW) £19.99
1 x Zalman T1 Mini Tower Case - Black £17.99
Total : £397.91 (includes shipping : FREE).



Just a little different but is cheaper, I went with the H77 motherboard as I'm guessing this machine is never going to be overclocked ..... so you still get all the features of a Z77 board tho just no overclocking options. But being a tenner cheaper nearly you could lost the DVD drive and install windows off a USB stick and that may allow you to get that 7850 after all ;). I mean lets be honest who ever uses a DVD drive these days apart from installing Windows ??????

YOUR BASKET
1 x MSI HD 7850 OC 1024MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Cards w/ FARCRY3, Nexuiz & Sleeping Dogs PC Games £131.99
1 x Intel Core i3-3220 3.30GHz (Ivybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor (77W) - Retail £89.99
1 x ASRock H77 Pro4-M Intel H77 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Micro ATX Motherboard £67.99
1 x Toshiba (7K1000.D) 1TB SATA 6GB/s 32MB Cache - OEM (DT01ACA100) £51.98
1 x Corsair Builder Series CX 430W V2 '80 Plus Bronze' Power Supply (CP-9020046-UK) £36.98
1 x Avexir Blitz Series 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C8 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (AVD3U16000802G-2GW) £19.99
1 x Zalman T1 Mini Tower Case - Black £17.99
Total : £416.92 (includes shipping : FREE).

 
 
Side question - How do you paste basket contents like that? I can only seem to get a wall of unformatted text when I preview my posts.

Thanks
 
Have you considered this? Has the advantage of our system warranty over and above component manufaturers individual warranties, and supported by our experienced technicians.
 
seabiscuit said:
Have you considered this? Has the advantage of our system warranty over and above component manufaturers individual warranties, and supported by our experienced technicians.
Click to expand...

Looks good but why havnt you paired it with faster RAM? The reviews say paired with 2133mhz Ram it makes the GPU a lot better.

Seems a bit of a waste really.
 
seabiscuit said:
Have you considered this? Has the advantage of our system warranty over and above component manufaturers individual warranties, and supported by our experienced technicians.
Click to expand...

Thanks, I did look at the systems but I just wanted to see what I could build myself first, then seeing if there are any good deals about on prebuilt stuff :)

What do people think on using an H61 motherboard?

YOUR BASKET
1 x MSI HD 7850 OC 1024MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Cards w/ FARCRY3, Nexuiz & Sleeping Dogs PC Games £131.99
1 x Intel Core i3-3220 3.30GHz (Ivybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor (77W) - Retail £89.99
1 x Toshiba (7K1000.D) 1TB SATA 6GB/s 32MB Cache - OEM (DT01ACA100) £51.98
1 x Gigabyte H61MA-D2V Intel H61 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £39.98
1 x Corsair Builder Series CX 430W V2 '80 Plus Bronze' Power Supply (CP-9020046-UK) £36.98
1 x Avexir Blitz Series 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C8 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (AVD3U16000802G-2GW) £19.99
1 x Zalman T1 Mini Tower Case - Black £17.99
1 x OcUK 24x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £13.99
Total : £402.90 (includes shipping : FREE).

 
Doomedspeed said:
Looks good but why havnt you paired it with faster RAM? The reviews say paired with 2133mhz Ram it makes the GPU a lot better.

Seems a bit of a waste really.
Click to expand...

Basically it will be price. For faster RAM it wouldn't be possible at the £400 price point. Everything has to be a ballance. We would be able to make changes such as alternate RAM if a customer requests it, but it would change the price.
 
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