£300 budget

Sumer · 18 Sep 2012 at 08:28

Hello everyone.

My brother has decided he wants to go down the pc route but he isnt exactly made of money as he is only able to spend a maximum of £300. I am able to supply him a case, 250gb hdd and windows 7, he already has a keyboard, mouse and monitor available.
Im looking for a build consisting of a cpu, mobo, psu, ram and gpu. He will be using it mainly for web and gaming. Ive already suggested what he could get with this budget but would also like to see other ideas, thanks.

Idleman · 18 Sep 2012 at 08:51

A little over budget.

YOUR BASKET
1 x MSI HD 7770 Power Edition Transthermal OC 1024MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £99.95
1 x Intel Core i3-2120 3.30GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor - Retail £89.99
1 x Asus P8H61-MX Intel H61 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard - OEM ** £39.98
1 x Corsair Builder Series CX 430W V2 '80 Plus' Power Supply (CMPSU-430CXUKV2) £36.98
1 x OcUK Value 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit £26.99
Total : £305.89 (includes shipping : £10.00).

Sumer · 18 Sep 2012 at 08:57

Idleman said:
A little over budget.

YOUR BASKET
1 x MSI HD 7770 Power Edition Transthermal OC 1024MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £99.95
1 x Intel Core i3-2120 3.30GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor - Retail £89.99
1 x Asus P8H61-MX Intel H61 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard - OEM ** £39.98
1 x Corsair Builder Series CX 430W V2 '80 Plus' Power Supply (CMPSU-430CXUKV2) £36.98
1 x OcUK Value 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit £26.99
Total : £305.89 (includes shipping : £10.00).

That looks good, my main issue was the cpu, wether to go down the amd route like I did or get him an i3 and upon looking at the i3 bench compared to the phenom 965 I was very surprised

horrorwood · 18 Sep 2012 at 08:58

Faster ram on GPU, slower core clock, but better warranty. Faster CPU.

YOUR BASKET
1 x Gigabyte HD 7770 OC 1024MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £99.95
1 x Intel Core i3-3220 3.30GHz (Ivybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor (77W) - Retail £95.99
1 x MSI H61M-P31-G3 Intel H61 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £32.99
1 x Cooler Master Elite Power 500W Power Supply £32.99
1 x OcUK Value 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit £26.99
Total : £300.90 (includes shipping : £10.00).

Doomedspeed · 18 Sep 2012 at 09:02

horrorwood said:
Faster ram on GPU, slower core clock, but better warranty. Faster CPU.

YOUR BASKET
1 x Gigabyte HD 7770 OC 1024MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £99.95
1 x Intel Core i3-3220 3.30GHz (Ivybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor (77W) - Retail £95.99
1 x MSI H61M-P31-G3 Intel H61 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £32.99
1 x Cooler Master Elite Power 500W Power Supply £32.99
1 x OcUK Value 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit £26.99
Total : £300.90 (includes shipping : £10.00).

would need a bios update for the motherboard. Don't know how easy that is.

horrorwood · 18 Sep 2012 at 09:03

Sumer said:
That looks good, my main issue was the cpu, wether to go down the amd route like I did or get him an i3 and upon looking at the i3 bench compared to the phenom 965 I was very surprised

Yes there is not much the Phenom wins in, even though it has 4 cores vs the i3 2120's 2 cores.

See here: http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/cpu/display/core-i3-2120-2100_5.html#sect0

The i3 3220 is faster than the i3 2120 by around 5% I believe.

horrorwood · 18 Sep 2012 at 09:12

Doomedspeed said:
would need a bios update for the motherboard. Don't know how easy that is.

Good point, it is supported on the bios that was released on the 17th of April, so there is a good chance it would have it on. I'd still ask overclockers which bios it has on before purchasing.