Mac broke help me build a pc instead of giving money to apple

thezone

thezone

thezone

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19 Mar 2013
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Hey guys basically my Mac died just as apple care ended... coincidence... i think not anyway instead of forking out £700 from apple for the repair i'm wanting to try out a PC but i do not no where to start.

I kinda have a budget of £500 so i will probably not get everything i need.

I'd like an intel i5 but i've read reviews and getting mixed signals from some people saying it does not matter if you get amd or intel.

So i'll be using my PC for music production using ableton live and of course i'd like to be able to game. I would need usb 3.0 and atleast 8gb of ram

I was looking at this weeks offer

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=FS-300-OE&groupid=43&catid=2479

and also

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=FS-210-OK&groupid=43&catid=2475&subcat=2485

Both AMD and very affordable but like i said in my first part of this wall of text i am not very techie when it comes to PCs

Please help! Thanks
 
first of all, welcome to the forum,

second what do you use the mac for, for a replacement pc, we would like to know what you do on it so can spec for that etc

both ready built pc are fine, but do you need a monitor? peripherals? or a operating system etc, as they all cost etc

so £500 wont get you it all, unless you don't want something or go Trinity build etc
 
1 x AMD A10-5800K Black Edition 3.80GHz (Socket FM2) APU Trinity Quad Core Processor (AD580KWOHJBOX) £99.95
1 x Plextor M5S 128GB Solid State Drive - (PX-128M5S) £82.99
1 x Seagate Barracuda 2TB 7200RPM SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache - OEM (ST2000DM001) HDD £71.99
1 x Gigabyte F2A85XM-D3H AMD A85X Chipset (Socket FM2) DDR3 micro ATX Motherboard £61.99
1 x TeamGroup Xtreem LV 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-17000C11 2133MHz Dual Channel Kit (TXD38G2133HC11DC01) £49.99
1 x XFX Pro 450W Core Edition '80 Plus Bronze' Power Supply £39.95
1 x BitFenix Merc Beta Gaming Case - Black £32.99
1 x OcUK 24x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £18.98
Total : £472.93 (includes shipping : £11.75).



option 2

1 x AMD A10-5800K Black Edition 3.80GHz (Socket FM2) APU Trinity Quad Core Processor (AD580KWOHJBOX) £99.95
1 x Plextor M5S 128GB Solid State Drive - (PX-128M5S) £82.99
1 x Seagate Barracuda 2TB 7200RPM SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache - OEM (ST2000DM001) HDD £71.99
1 x Gigabyte F2A85XM-D3H AMD A85X Chipset (Socket FM2) DDR3 micro ATX Motherboard £61.99
1 x TeamGroup Xtreem LV 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-17000C11 2133MHz Dual Channel Kit (TXD38G2133HC11DC01) £49.99
1 x Imp MicroATX Tower Case (500w PSU) £30.98
1 x OcUK 24x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £18.98
Total : £428.88 (includes shipping : £10.00).



option 3 same as above with O/S

1 x AMD A10-5800K Black Edition 3.80GHz (Socket FM2) APU Trinity Quad Core Processor (AD580KWOHJBOX) £99.95
1 x Plextor M5S 128GB Solid State Drive - (PX-128M5S) £82.99
1 x Microsoft Windows 8 64-Bit DVD - OEM (WN7-00403) £79.99
1 x Seagate Barracuda 2TB 7200RPM SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache - OEM (ST2000DM001) HDD £71.99
1 x Gigabyte F2A85XM-D3H AMD A85X Chipset (Socket FM2) DDR3 micro ATX Motherboard £61.99
1 x TeamGroup Xtreem LV 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-17000C11 2133MHz Dual Channel Kit (TXD38G2133HC11DC01) £49.99
1 x Imp MicroATX Tower Case (500w PSU) £30.98
1 x OcUK 24x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £18.98
Total : £508.87 (includes shipping : £10.00).



just to show you what you can get for under £500
 
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zakblood said:
first of all, welcome to the forum,

second what do you use the mac for, for a replacement pc, we would like to know what you do on it so can spec for that etc

both ready built pc are fine, but do you need a monitor? peripherals? or a operating system etc, as they all cost etc

so £500 wont get you it all, unless you don't want something or go Trinity build etc
Click to expand...

Thanks for the welcome

I've got a tv that has a htmi port so i can use that for my monitor i used my mac for music production and sometimes i use it to play starcraft and warcraft due to there not being many games readily available on a Mac. I think i have a copy of windows 7 laying around the house somewhere so operating system is fine.

So the PC will be used for music production and to play games i'm not after playing games like crysis on max settings tho.

I noticed on OC website the OC Friday deal. Is that every friday a desktop deal comes out?

zakblood thanks for the list but i'm not sure what is good or bad when it comes to any of the parts
as im not really a pc techie person.
 
well for me do you want to go ready built? or build yourself?

http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?t=18046396

for self builds ^^

a10 trinity pre built,

System Specification
- Case: Xigmatek Alfar Case - Black (default choice, options available)
- Power Supply: Corsair GS 600w PSU
- CPU: AMD A10-5800K 3.80GHz @ 4.40GHz Quad Core APU
- Motherboard: Gigabyte F2A85X-UP4 (Socket FM2) DDR3 Motherboard
- Cooler: Corsair H60 CPU Cooler
- RAM: Patriot Viper 3 "Red Venom" 8GB DDR3 PC3-15000C11 1866MHz @ 2133MHz Dual Channel
- Hard Drive: Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 500GB SATA 6Gb/s 16MB Cache HDD (Upgrade Options Available)
- Graphics Card: Onboard AMD HD 7660D 800MHz @ 1000Mhz Graphics (DX11 graphics card options available)
- Sound: Onboard 7.1 Audio
- Optical Drive: OcUK 24x DVD+/-RW SATA Drive
- Wireless: Asus USB-N10 Micro USB Network Adapter Wireless-N 150Mbps

£523.00 inc VAT

against AMD Bulldozer FX-4 4100 3.60GHz DDR3 Quad Core System

System Specification
- Case: Bitfenix Shinobi USB3.0 Case - Black (default choice, options available)
- Power Supply: Corsair GS 600w PSU
- CPU: AMD Bulldozer FX-4 Quad Core 4100 3.60GHz Processor
- Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-78LMT-S2P AMD 760G Chipset (AM3+) Motherboard
- RAM: Patriot Viper 3 "Red Venom" 8GB DDR3 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit
- Hard Drives: Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 1TB SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache HDD (Upgrade Options Available)
- Graphics Card: AMD 760G Onboard (default choice, options available)
- Sound: 7.1 Channel Sound (On-Board)
- Optical Drive: OcUK 24x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black)
- CPU Cooler: Stock AMD Cooler
- Wireless: Asus USB-N10 Micro USB Network Adapter Wireless-N 150Mbps

£444.94 inc VAT

for me i'd go for the cheapest, as you don't do anything that would need anything more than any of them tbh, so choice is ready built or spec?

both pre builts are good machines and very good prices.
 
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YOUR BASKET
1 x Intel Core i5-2500K 3.30GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor - Retail £179.99
1 x Asus P8Z77-V LX2 Intel Z77 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £82.99
1 x Antec High Current Gamer 520W '80 Plus Bronze' Power Supply £62.99
1 x Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache WD10EZEX - OEM ** Single Platter ** HDD £59.99
1 x Zalman Z9 USB 3.0 Midi Tower Case - Black £54.98
1 x Adata XPG Gaming v1.0 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Memory Kit (AX3U1600GC4G9-2G) £44.99
1 x Pioneer 24x Internal DVR-S20LBK DVD Rewriter including Labelflash - Retail £20.99
Total : £521.02 (includes shipping : £11.75).



I'm not sure about the graphics card tbh. It depends if your software makes use of CUDA or AMD streams, and how much you want to spend on a GPU.

As for the CPU, 2500K / 3570K, depending on price.

Also, a SSD will give you a nice productivity boost. But then you get over budget.

And the software side of course...

If you want to save money but want multicore, look into the FX6 chip, which is a decent compromise to a i5.

EDIT : If you budget is not flexible, then the A10 is probably a good bet. Ideally, you'd want the consumer 'Jaguar' CPU coming out sometimes in the future (basically the PS4 chip), but hey, ...
 
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If you can spend the extra £50

YOUR BASKET
1 x Intel Core i5-3570K 3.40GHz (Ivybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor (77W) - OEM £187.99
1 x Gigabyte Z77-D3H Intel Z77 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £89.99
1 x **B Grade** OcUK GeForce GTX 560Ti 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £79.99
1 x **B Grade** Toshiba (7K1000.D) 500GB SATA 6GB/s 32MB Cache - OEM (DT01ACA050) HDD £40
1 x Corsair Builder Series CX 430w Modular '80 Plus Bronze' Power Supply (CP-9020058-UK) £39.98
1 x NZXT Source 210 Elite Midi Tower Case - White £39.98
1 x Avexir MPower Yellow Series 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Memory Kit (AVD3U16000904G-2CM) £37.99
1 x OcUK 24x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £18.98
1 x Alpenföhn Civetta CPU Cooler (Socket 775 / 1155 / 1156 / AM2 / AM2+ / AM3 / FM1 / FM2) £12.98
Total : £562.00 (includes shipping : £11.75).

 
Thanks for the help guys i'll look through some reviews of the parts as I want something that wont feel obsolete! thanks for the patience with me
 
a10 newer, users less power and for many it's as fast if not faster than other amd chips for the same price etc, so happy reading and good luck which ever way you go
 
If you were going to compare the A10 to intel would you say its close to the i5? never mind just read the A10 was the competitor the the i3
 
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thezone said:
If you were going to compare the A10 to intel would you say its close to the i5? never mind just read the A10 was the competitor the the i3
Click to expand...

Id compare it to a Q9650 with a built in HD5770 personally... That's being a bit extreme in the comparison but AMD's processors at the moment are very weak per core, their strength is that that can have 6 or 8 cores whereas Intel only go up to four before you have to spend silly money. However as neither of the games you play a lot can use the extra cores of AMD's 6/8 core CPU's their a bit pointless, so your best bet is a quad core and ill admit on paper the A10-5800K looks good.

But looks can be deceiving, it is clock for clock (running at the same speed) slower than a Core 2 quad and while it can go faster and has an entry level GPU built in its not really up to the task of running WoW unless you want to turn off the shinies. The advantage here is that due to playing on a mac you were probably using the OGL client as OSX can't naitively do D3D so you may have had a lot of shinies either disabled or unavailable anyway.

Sorry im not really offering any useful alternatives to the 5800K just outlining the drawbacks lol. Obviously WoW is one of the games where an i3 will beat a A10-5800K but you do have the drawback there than you miss out on the iGPU which can run WoW at medium settings whereas the i3 one would probably need low settings (in either case I would recommend a proper GFX card).
 
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Tried pushing Apple again for a repair, or walk it into a store?

Cite the coincidence that it broke as the AppleCare was up and see if anything comes of it? Can't hurt to ask.

If you're still set on a pc if it gets fixed, sell it and finance a kick ass build.
 
randal said:
Tried pushing Apple again for a repair, or walk it into a store?

Cite the coincidence that it broke as the AppleCare was up and see if anything comes of it? Can't hurt to ask.

If you're still set on a pc if it gets fixed, sell it and finance a kick ass build.
Click to expand...

I was on the phone to apple this morning before i posted this they would not budge and gave me the contact details of group 8 who they said would be able to do a repair on it but i'd have to pay. Spoke to someone who was higher up with apple explained everything and he also said theres nothing that can be done.

So pc is my only option unless i folk out on a logic board for my mac...
 
Even broken apple stuff fetches silly money on the bay. Be non-specific about the issue and it could get you more. :)

an A10 would be a great upgrade.
 
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