Building a home PC with a budget of (£250-£350)

Fate Zero

Fate Zero

Fate Zero

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26 Jul 2012
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EDIT: Changed budget to £300-400

Hi there, I'm looking to build a basic home PC that still has enough kick to playback 1080p HD movies. I wouldn't mind being able to play some games as well, but I'm not expecting a gaming pc on this budget anyway.

My old desktop is ancient, it's specs were

eMachine E3048 Specs

- Intel Celeron D/356 3.33GHz Processor

- 1GB DDR2 Memory

- 80GB SATA II Hard Drive

- 56K* ITU v.92 ready Fax/Modem

- 10/100 Mbps built-in Ethernet

- 16xDouble Layer DVD±RW Multi-Format Drive

- 8 Channel Audio (7.1)

- ATI Radeon Shared Graphics (integrated)

I'll need everything expect for a mouse, keyboard and monitor. Although I might consider upgrading to a HD monitor outside of my original budget. Also I'll need a operating system (also outside of my budget) and I can't decide between win 7/8. I have 7 on my laptop and I really like it. 8 seems cheaper to buy though separately, although I've heard quite a bit of negativity towards it.
 
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Fate Zero said:
I'll need everything expect for a mouse, keyboard and monitor. Although I might consider upgrading to a HD monitor outside of my original budget. Also I'll need a operating system (also outside of my budget) and I can't decide between win 7/8. I have 7 on my laptop and I really like it. 8 seems cheaper to buy though separately, although I've heard quite a bit of negativity towards it.
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As to the whether to go 7 or 8, just go with whatever you feel comfortable with. A lot of bad reviews was because the beta version was not user friendly at all, however it has gone a long way since the. Though the start button is still gone, there are plenty of non Microsoft made programs which are free and you can install to make your windows 8 have a lot of the features taken away from windows 7 (including start bar and straight to desktop start up). The one i use is Pokki and i have grown to like it so much that i prefer it to the old start bar.

The Trinity A10 or A8 will be effect for your budget and needs. It will ven let you play the latest modern games, though you will have to lower the settings on more intensive ones. The above specs are both good, though i would recommend using a motherboard that an take 2133 memory and using that memory to give it a decent performance boost.
 
Personally I still prefer win 7 for anything other than touchscreen devices, however 8.1 seems to be making quite a few positive changes for desktop users.
 
YOUR BASKET
1 x AMD A8-6600K 3.90GHz (Socket FM2) APU Richland Quad Core Processor (AD660KWOHLBOX) £99.95
1 x Gigabyte F2A85X-D3H AMD A85X Chipset (Socket FM2) DDR3 ATX Motherboard £68.99
1 x TeamGroup Xtreem LV 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-19200C10 2400MHz Dual Channel Memory Kit (TXD38G2400HC10QDC01) £59.99
1 x Seagate Barracuda 7200RPM 1TB SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache - OEM (ST1000DM003) HDD £52.99
1 x Corsair Builder Series CX 430w Modular '80 Plus Bronze' Power Supply (CP-9020058-UK) £41.99
1 x Xigmatek Asgard Pro Gaming Case - Black £32.99
1 x OcUK 20x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £14.99
Total : £385.98 (includes shipping : £11.75).



Something like that I'd say, the A10K has a better IGP for gaming but the A8K is a good compromise. You can give the Windows 8 Enterprise (evaluation) Edition a bash for free on a 3 month trial to give it a go. Windows 8.1 will be a service pack of sorts (adds back the start menu), it too should get it's own preview to try
 
RJC said:
YOUR BASKET
1 x AMD A8-6600K 3.90GHz (Socket FM2) APU Richland Quad Core Processor (AD660KWOHLBOX) £99.95
1 x Microsoft Windows 8 64-Bit DVD - OEM (WN7-00403) £79.99
1 x Gigabyte F2A85XM-D3H AMD A85X Chipset (Socket FM2) DDR3 micro ATX Motherboard £61.99
1 x Silverstone Milo ML03 HTPC Case - Black (SST-ML03B) £56.99
1 x Crucial Ballistix Sport 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (BLS2CP4G3D1609DS1S00CEU) £43.99
1 x Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 500GB SATA 6Gb/s 16MB Cache - OEM (ST500DM002) HDD £39.95
1 x Corsair Builder Series CX 430W V2 '80 Plus Bronze' Power Supply (CP-9020046-UK) £35.99
1 x OcUK 20x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £14.99
Total : £447.94 (includes shipping : £11.75).

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Thanks for all the responses. I was wondering how this build stacks up against this pre built Medion for £479.

CPU: Intel® Core™ i5-3350P Processor
Operating system (OEM version):

Windows 8
Clock Frequency: 3.1GHz
Memory size: 8GB
Total RAM slots: 2
Used RAM slots: 2
Hard disk capacity: 1TB
Graphic:

AMD Radeon™ HD 7670 DirectX®11 graphics
with 1024 MB DDR3 memory, HDMI® (HDCP support), DVI-I and D-SUB VGA connections
 
I was going to ebay a PC for this budget that will run what you want and almost all games at max settings (with the exception of BF3 which needs lowering to medium/high).

I can list it in the members market here for you if you would condsider a second hand one?

Cheers,

G
 
i5 alternative?

Intel Core i5-3330 3.00GHz (Ivybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor (77W) - Retail £149.99
(£124.99)

Samsung 120GB SSD 840 SATA 6Gb/s Basic - (MZ-7TD120BW) £79.99
(£66.66)

Crucial Ballistix Sport 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (BLS2CP4G3D1609DS1S00CEU) £43.99
(£36.66)

MSI H61M-P31-G3 Intel H61 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £38.99 (£32.49) - assuming this will boot with the CPU as is(not used the board), makes a pretty big saving on the spec just choosing this board though.

BitFenix Merc Alpha Gaming Case - Black £32.99
(£27.49)

OCZ CoreXtreme 500w '80 Plus' Power Supply £34.99
(£29.16)

or

Corsair builder series 430W(for a couple of quid more)

Total : £394.44

Carry across the DVD drive you have and maybe repurpose the old HDD to make up for the lack of new one(storage wise that is), utilise the i5 graphics for HD playback(it should be ample enough). If you want more space, switch the SSD for a regular sata ii/iii drive(a lot of brand preferences when it comes to selection, so any listed by the other members or whatever you decide).

I think the 7670 would be totally wasted in the Medion for just watching movies....(you don't need that much graphical power just for movies).

P.S. I'd personally go with Win 7, we use it on all our systems here and did have the chance to play around with Windows 8 for a few days(i didn't like it much at all and i was really trying to - ymmv).
 
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Intel Core i5-3330 3.00GHz (Ivybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor (77W) - Retail £149.99
AMD A10-6800K Black Edition 4.10GHz (Socket FM2) APU Richland Quad Core Processor (AD680KWOHLBOX)

Between the two which has the best integrated graphics for gaming? Does the Intel only have HD 2500? Also is there a large difference in performance between the AMD A8 and A10, seeing as the price difference isn't that big?
 
Fate Zero said:
Intel Core i5-3330 3.00GHz (Ivybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor (77W) - Retail £149.99
AMD A10-6800K Black Edition 4.10GHz (Socket FM2) APU Richland Quad Core Processor (AD680KWOHLBOX)

Between the two which has the best integrated graphics for gaming? Does the Intel only have HD 2500? Also is there a large difference in performance between the AMD A8 and A10, seeing as the price difference isn't that big?
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Check this out for integrated graphics and his other vids. Very impressive:


 
Bumping this thread, as I've got a new request. Thanks for all the suggestions last time, I managed to get a PC made within budget. This time the budget is £400-£500, I'll need everything except for the monitor, with a preference for windows 7. The best budget gaming build possible would be appreciated. Also if possible could you spec me a build at both the bottom and top of my budget? Thanks
 
 
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