£400 budget rig

mayweather12

mayweather12

mayweather12

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18 Nov 2012
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Have my Macbook Air, but feeling a windows pc for the desk now, do not require a monitor....been a while since i've built a rig, almost 7 years!
Required for general, day to day tasks, web, email, Skype etc


So need, CPU,MOBO,RAM,GPU,PSU,Case,HDD

I will not be using to play games, so GPU doesn't have to be great, far from it I assume?...MOBO very mediocre too I guess, probably looking at i5 processor though, these are quite a step up from i3 correct?...also, possible for an SSD within the price for OS, then a HDD on the side for storage I assume.

Thanks guys.
 
For what you say you'll use it for, there's no need for a GPU. And an i3 would be fine.

Nevertheless, this is an example of what a £400 spec with an i5 looks like:

YOUR BASKET
1 x Intel Core i5-4460 3.20GHz (Haswell) Socket LGA1150 Processor - Retail £134.99
1 x Asus H81I-Plus Intel H81 (Socket 1150) DDR3 Mini ITX Motherboard £58.99
1 x Cooler Master Elite 130 Mini ITX Case - Black £45.95
1 x Seagate Barracuda 7200RPM 1TB SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache - OEM (ST1000DM003) HDD £43.99
1 x Kingston 60GB SSDNow V300 Drive SATA 6Gb/s 3 2.5" (7mm height) Solid State Hard Drive - (SV300S37A/60G) £39.95
1 x TeamGroup Elite 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C11 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (TED34GM1600HC11DC01) £31.99
1 x SuperFlower Amazon 300W "80 Plus Bronze" Power Supply £29.99
Total : £395.45 (includes shipping : £8.00).




Some questions: Do you need OS, WiFi, Optical Drive?

My advice is to get an i3, and then you can get an even better SSD, and the rest leftover towards a nicer case perhaps. For day to day tasks you won't notice the difference processor-wise, but a better/larger SSD might be of use.


YOUR BASKET
1 x Intel Core i3-4130 3.40GHz (Haswell) Socket LGA1150 Processor - Retail £82.99
1 x Corsair Obsidian Series 250D Mini ITX Compact Gaming Case - Black (CC-9011047-WW) £71.99
1 x Samsung 120GB SSD 840 EVO SATA 6Gb/s Basic - (MZ-7TE120BW) £67.99
1 x Asus H81I-Plus Intel H81 (Socket 1150) DDR3 Mini ITX Motherboard £58.99
1 x Seagate Barracuda 7200RPM 1TB SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache - OEM (ST1000DM003) HDD £43.99
1 x TeamGroup Elite 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C11 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (TED34GM1600HC11DC01) £31.99
1 x SuperFlower Amazon 300W "80 Plus Bronze" Power Supply £29.99
Total : £397.54 (includes shipping : £8.00).

 
Thanks very much for the reply, so defiantly i3 vs i5 will not make a difference in terms of everyday tasks? ... also, the difference in the SSD you posted is considerably larger than i5 vs i3 in terms of my actual experience as a user? ...

I do like that case, Wifi I am in need of and an optical drive, however both being circa £15 so not too fussed about them. Is that PSU adequate? Also is 8gb ram over kill?
 
mayweather12 said:
Thanks very much for the reply, so defiantly i3 vs i5 will not make a difference in terms of everyday tasks? ... also, the difference in the SSD you posted is considerably larger than i5 vs i3 in terms of my actual experience as a user? ...
Click to expand...

Unless you're gaming, or doing a substantial amount of tasks like photo or video editing, you won't see any real difference between an i3 and an i5 in things like email, Skype, browsing.

The Samsung 120GB SSD is faster than the Kingston 60GB, and you'll have more room to add new programs on it, as time goes by.


mayweather12 said:
I do like that case, Wifi I am in need of and an optical drive, however both being circa £15 so not too fussed about them. Is that PSU adequate? Also is 8gb ram over kill?
Click to expand...

The PSU is more than adequate. I'd estimate the rig would pull only around 150W max (on load), as there is no GPU. 8GB RAM would be overkill for your needs unless you do a serious amount of multi-tasking (e.g. dozens of browser windows open at same time). Feel free to wait for a second opinion.


YOUR BASKET
1 x Intel Core i3-4130 3.40GHz (Haswell) Socket LGA1150 Processor - Retail £82.99
1 x Corsair Obsidian Series 250D Mini ITX Compact Gaming Case - Black (CC-9011047-WW) £71.99
1 x Samsung 120GB SSD 840 EVO SATA 6Gb/s Basic - (MZ-7TE120BW) £67.99
1 x Asus H81I-Plus Intel H81 (Socket 1150) DDR3 Mini ITX Motherboard £58.99
1 x Seagate Barracuda 7200RPM 1TB SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache - OEM (ST1000DM003) HDD £43.99
1 x TeamGroup Elite 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C11 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (TED34GM1600HC11DC01) £31.99
1 x SuperFlower Amazon 300W "80 Plus Bronze" Power Supply £29.99
1 x Asus 24x DVD±RW DRW-24F1ST SATA ReWriter - Black (Retail) £14.99
1 x TP-Link 300Mbps Wireless N USB Adapter (TL-WN821NC) £11.95
1 x BitFenix Alchemy Molex to 3pin x3 Fan adaptor 12V 20cm - Black £4.99
1 x Akasa AK-CBSA05-30BK Super slim SATA rev 3.0 data cable with securing latches - 30cm, Black £3.29
Total : £436.66 (includes shipping : £11.25).



You'd need an extra Sata data cable if you get an optical drive (motherboard brings two - SSD and HDD), and the motherboard only brings two fan headers (and one is for the CPU), so you'd need something like a fan adaptor cable like the one above for the two case fans.
 
 
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