£350 Budget - Help needed

zootfloot

zootfloot

zootfloot

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Joined
24 Nov 2005
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Skelton in Cleveland
Hi,

I have been going round and round in circles on the shop site looking at components to put a little budget build together for my nephew.

He already has a monitor, HDD, keyboard, mouse and OS and obviously i want to build him the best little machine i can, so for less than £375 can you put together a better build than this?

Intel Core i3-2100 3.10GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor - Retail [BX80623I32100]
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CP-367-IN

MSI H67MA-E35 Intel H67 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Micro-ATX Motherboard - (Sandybridge) **B3 REVISION** [7680-021R]
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MB-172-MS

Sapphire ATI Radeon HD 6670 "Ultimate Edition"1024MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card [11192-06-20G]
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-268-SP

Corsair Vengeance Blue 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (CMZ8GX3M2A1600C9B) [CMZ8GX3M2A1600C9B]
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MY-300-CS

BeQuiet Pure Power L7 530W '80 Plus' Power Supply [BN106]
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CA-042-BQ

LiteOn IHAS124-19 24x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM (Version B - with new Firmware) [IHAS124-19]
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CD-096-LO

BitFenix Merc Beta Gaming Case - Black (His choice)
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CA-011-BX

Total Cost - £375.92
 
drop the memory to the Kingston HyperX Genesis Grey 8GB (2x4GB) kit to save a bit of money and go for the MSI H61M-E33 Intel H61 mobo (£47).
 
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If your not that bothered about USB3 dropping to the H61 wouldnt hurt. Maybe push that money saved to the GPU budget for a 6850, the SOC 460 would be better though at that price range.

8GB is a bit OTT for gaming 4GB would do. MP already pointed out a cheaper alternative. That PSU is getting a lot of bad press but we used to spec it a lot in budget gaming rigs. It runs AMD 955s with a 460 just fine and that has a higher power draw than the i3. If you want to spend a lil more you could, atleast you didnt spec a 700W cheap generic PSU.

That DVD drive can be flashed to a 524 to get the extra features (yes that's me who wrote the review). All in all I think you did a pretty good job fella
 
bobbyspangles said:
Not really a saving but for £20 the 6850 is a BIG upgrade from the 6670. Almost double the frame rates in some of the benchmarks I've been able to find.

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-174-OK&groupid=701&catid=56&subcat=1866

As for the GTX 460 suggestion I don't see it's worth the £20 premium over the HD 6850 for better performance in only a few games. Also it draws a lot more power that the ATI.

http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/291?vs=313
Click to expand...

If he drops to the H61 adding the 460 is no more expensive. That 460 in the link is the STOCK 460 not the SOC. If you read a review of the card you will see it can be overclocked even further (850-900mhz). So you get better performance out the box than the 6850 plus physX and cuda.....plus you can OC it further. No brainer to me really i would certainly drop the USB3 in favour of better GPU performance.

*EDIT* I know he picked that case out but the coolermaster 430 is only ever so slightly more expensive. It supports more fans than the one you spec'd and has a side window if that floats his boat.
 
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