Spec me for £700

RossG

RossG

RossG

Associate
Joined
5 Dec 2007
Posts
1,269
Location
Harrow, London
Been asked to spec a machine for a mate, but to be honest, it's been ages since I was totally up to date with hardware. He has £700 to spend and must have the following things:
Be built in an Antec 900 case
At least 1Tb HD space
At least 4GB RAM (he dabbles in photoshop)
Include win7 x64 in the budget
A good graphics card (will run all new games comfortably)

No monitors/keyboards etc required.

So really I don't know much at this point. Is AMD or Intel the way forward at the moment? Same with ATI/Nvidia. I don't really know how realistic the budget is, but I would have thought it should be enough.
What suggestions do you have? :)
 
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antec 902 is an updated version. its basically just an 1200 but with 2 intake fans and 1 outtake at the back. you still get the big 200mm fan at the top whcih is still cool
 
Oh, I was gonna give the spec to the guy this evening (he's been away) and the picture wit the spec has disappeared from the second post >_<. Anyone fancy doing it again? <3
 
RossG said:
Oh, I was gonna give the spec to the guy this evening (he's been away) and the picture wit the spec has disappeared from the second post >_<. Anyone fancy doing it again? <3
Click to expand...

sorry, i cleared out some rubbish from my photo account, must have binned it to by mistake

it was similar too this, some deals have changed since that last basket pic

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only got 500gb.
 
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Must admit that the PSU still looks a little low. If mateybloke decides to upgrade at some point in the near future he'll have to get a new PSU as well. Running a PSU at capacity constantly will reduce it's lifespan considerably. I'd suggest spending a bit more on it
 
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RossG said:
  • £700 to spend
  • built in an Antec 900 case
  • At least 1Tb HD space
  • At least 4GB RAM (he dabbles in photoshop)
  • Include win7 x64 in the budget
  • A good graphics card (will run all new games comfortably)
  • No monitors/keyboards etc required.
  • I don't really know how realistic the budget is
Click to expand...

rossg700.jpg


gpupower.png
 
Tat's a fair old drop in the CPU department, how much real world performance will I realistically lose? Also it seems an OCZ 600W PSU comes to less than that Coolermaster. Would that be a better option?
 
stulid said:
sorry, i cleared out some rubbish from my photo account, must have binned it to by mistake

it was similar too this, some deals have changed since that last basket pic

Untitleda-1.png


only got 500gb.
Click to expand...

A 400W corsair can run a ATI 5830 :/ ?

If so i would be fine with that PSU and a 5750 ?
 
RossG said:
Tat's a fair old drop in the CPU department, how much real world performance will I realistically lose?
Click to expand...
Hello RossG,

I don't think it's a case of what you will lose . . . but rather a case of what you won't gain! :p . . . . at the end of the day it always comes down to Cash-For-Performance so the real skill comes in paying the right amount of money for the performance you require *now* and a guesstimate of what you will need in the *future* before you wish to upgrade next! . . . . remember there is no skill in OverSpeccing a system on performance that will never be realised and spending money is very easy! ;)

you may think the AMD® Athlon™ II X3 is a £60 welp but having used one in my main rig for several months I have nothing but respect for the little Pocket-Rocket . . . Any newer games that perhaps show some Real-World gains from additional cores respond very well to a TripleCore, in fact the Athlon™ II X3 435 is very hard to beat in terms of Gaming Bang-For-Buck

  • AMD® Athlon™ II X3 TripleCore 435 (£60.99)
  • AMD® Phenom™ II X4 QuadCore 955 (£127.98)
+109% Premium for Phenom™ II X4 :eek: . . . not a great deal of that will convert into % performance increase! :(

Working to your specific list of requirements and budget of approx £700 the TripleCore fits the bill well but in the interests of exploring the alternatives lets jiggly the spec above in post #12 . . . swap out the Triple for a Quad and Downgrade the GPU . . .

rossg71760.gif


That's not a bad build but from a gaming perspective I don't think it's as good as the TripleCore build because

  • You have an extra Core you don't need
  • The graphics card is not as good, important for FPS with good eyecandy
Looking at some gaming results that compare a Athlon II X3 to an Athlon II X4 running identical clocks you can see having a fourth core offers no Real-World Advantage for the FPS massive . . . In a £700 pound build I would take an X3/HD5830 over an X4/HD5770 anyday! :D



So, lets say your still not convinced and you really really won't be happy unless you get some AMD® Phenom™ II X4 silicon under the hood! :p . . . lets jiggle the build again and see if we can make Mr RossG happy! :)

rossg74258.gif


There you go! . . . still over budget and you downgraded a Radeon HD5830 to a Radeon HD 5750 . . . and that's basically it for approx £700, I suppose to make life easier for yourself the two systems out of the three you should concentrate your research on would be

  • AMD® Athlon™ II X3 + Radeon HD 5830
  • AMD® Phenom™ II X4 + Radeon HD 5750

RossG said:
it seems an OCZ 600W PSU comes to less than that Coolermaster. Would that be a better option?
Click to expand...
Feel free to choose whatever PSU you like, I only placed that one in the basket because I've used a few of them in builds and they work well, are very quiet and modular which is a pretty sweet deal for £67 :)

If you want to double check if there are any better models for your budget then the Cooler Master Silent Pro Modular then track down CAT-THE-FIFTH as he is pretty up on which PSU is made of good bits etc :cool:
 
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Well I think you've shown me the way there, thank you! :). Was just assuming that if the CPU is half the price of the other then it must be a big drop down, but thankfully I am wrong :p. I guess the only thing left to decide on is the PSU then, though I'll probably take your advice on that too. I'd be most comfortable with a Corsair PSU as I have used many of them and they've all been great. Problem is they seem very expensive compared to what I remember. I'm sure my HX 520W was about £65 2-3 years ago.
 
RossG, just to clarify the chart in post #12 is comparing a Athlon II X3 vs an Athlon II X4 and *not* an Athlon II X3 (£60) vs a Phenom II X4 (£127) :)

I was trying to demonstrate why I thought the Athlon II X3 was better value than an Athlon II X4 for a £700 gaming build . . . the Phenom II X4 will produce higher benchmark numbers and game FPS but you need to look into what % performance increase you will get for your hard earned money by choosing the £128 Phenom II Quad!

I am suggesting the Premium is very steep and offers you quite low Price-To-Performance ratio i.e if you pay 109% extra for the chip how much extra percent performance will you gain? . . . is it something you will actually be able to notice in the RealWorld? . . . diminishing returns are a bitter pill to swallow! :p

Happy to discuss and please don't take my word or other peoples opinion as Gospel . . . look into it yourself and see how you can get *maximum* value for money with your £700 budget! :cool:
 
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Does sound like the triple core you suggest is definitley the way forward then. If it is a more balanced machine for it then I'll go ahead and suggest that to my friend along with the rest of the spec. Bang for buck is always good. I'm still running a core2 E6300, which was cheap at the time but it stil just about does everything I want it to. Thanks for your help. Much appreciated.
 
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