£400 Budget PC - Help Needed

chenga · 14 Aug 2011 at 05:01

Hi
I'm new to this forum and as this forum is quite active and helpful, I decided to register.

My laptop has now stopped charging and as the laptop is 4 years old and not that great for what I use it for, I have decided to build a PC instead of fixing it. I need help choosing parts for a build. I won't need a keyboard, mouse or OS as I have those already, just need a monitor.

I have a budget around £400 including a monitor 20" or bigger.

This PC would be used for Photoshop, SolidWorks (3D CAD program), Word 2007, web browsing, music, movies and sometimes Dreamweaver. I may start gaming again with this PC as the only thing holding me back was my laptop as it wasn't that good.

My laptop is an HP DV9646em with AMD Turion 64 X2 Mobile Technology TL-58, 2GB RAM and NVIDIA GeForce 8400M GS.

I have looked around and made a spec but just wanted to know if it was OK for me.

Xenon AMD Phenom II X4 850 3.30GHz Bundle - Quad Core £160.00

XFX ATI Radeon HD 5770 Single Slot 1024MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card with Stalker & AVP Games £89.99

Samsung SpinPoint F3 1TB SATA-II 32MB Cache - OEM (HD103SJ) £44.99

Sony Optiarc AD-5260S 24x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £17.99

Shipping : £10.50
Total : £325.56

I still need a case, PSU and a monitor and I don't think £80 will get them all so can someone suggest any cheaper builds.

Would an AMD Llano A8 be enough to do what I need without a GPU? I can get a GPU in the future.

Thanks

Greavesy · 14 Aug 2011 at 05:46

Llano is probably your only option at that budget. If you went for intel you'd need a graphics card aswell :/

A llano build will probably still put you over budget, have you got a copy if windows ?

Hyburnate · 14 Aug 2011 at 05:48

Intel Core i3-2100 3.10GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor - £89.99 inc VAT
Asrock Z68 PRO3 Intel Z68 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard - £99.98 inc VAT
Antec TruePower New Modular 750W '80 Plus Bronze' Power Supply - £85.99 inc VAT
Samsung SpinPoint F3 1TB SATA-II 32MB Cache - OEM - £44.99 inc VAT
Crucial Ballistix Sport 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 - £49.99 inc VAT
Antec Dark Fleet Series DF35 Gaming Enclosure - £86.99 inc VAT
Samsung SH-S222AB/BEBE 22x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - £16.99 inc VAT
OcUK V-Line 221V2SB 22" Widescreen LCD Monitor - £99.98 inc VAT

Not added it up but I think it came in around £550 your best sitting patiently for stulid.

Hyburnate · 14 Aug 2011 at 05:49

Greavesy said:
Llano is probably your only option at that budget. If you went for intel you'd need a graphics card aswell :/

A llano build will probably still put you over budget, have you got a copy if windows ?

mhm, but like what op said he could buy one down the line, that motherboard has a VGA. HDMI and DVI out.

Oops, can't this forum get that auto merger plugin.

tigerstyle · 14 Aug 2011 at 07:32

I'd go for the i3 2100 Build for now, and upgrade to a decent graphics card after 2-3 months and you can afford what you really want, not restricted by budget!

Maybe even wait for the i3 2120K so you can overclock it, or stretch to the i5 2500K straight away and get the graphics card later again.

Something along Hyburnates build.
You can edit your posts Hyburnate, not merge them.

stulid · 14 Aug 2011 at 13:59

Greavesy said:
Llano is probably your only option at that budget. If you went for intel you'd need a graphics card aswell :/

A llano build will probably still put you over budget, have you got a copy if windows ?

This really,

Your basketProduct Name Qty Price Line Total
OcUK V-Line 221V2SB 22" Widescreen LCD Monitor - Black £99.98
(£83.32) £99.98
(£83.32)
AMD Llano A6-3650 2.60GHz (Socket FM1) APU Processor (AD3650WNGXBOX) with FREE DIRT3 PC Game £83.99
(£69.99) £83.99
(£69.99)
MSI A75MA-G55 AMD Hudson D3 (Socket FM1) DDR3 Llano MIcro-ATX Motherboard £71.99
(£59.99) £71.99
(£59.99)
Corsair Builder Series CX 430W V2 ATX '80 Plus' Power Supply (CMPSU-430CXUKV2) £39.98
(£33.32) £39.98
(£33.32)
BitFenix Merc Alpha Gaming Case - Black £32.99
(£27.49) £32.99
(£27.49)
Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 500GB SATA 6Gb/s 16MB Cache - OEM (ST3500413AS) £28.99
(£24.16) £28.99
(£24.16)
Corsair XMS3 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (CMX4GX3M2A1600C9) £23.99
(£19.99) £23.99
(£19.99)
Samsung SH-S222AL/BEBE 22x DVD±RW SATA Lightscribe ReWriter (Black) - OEM £15.98
(£13.32) £15.98
(£13.32)
Sub Total : £331.58
Shipping cost assumes delivery to UK Mainland with:
DPD Next Day Parcel
(This can be changed during checkout) Shipping : £13.75
VAT is being charged at 20.00% VAT : £69.07
Total : £414.40

Llano can actually do ok gaming,

And you can add a cheap ATI 6450 or 6670 card later on and Crossfire it with Llanos graphic core to get a good speed increase.

Reaper 392 · 14 Aug 2011 at 14:16

tigerstyle said:
I'd go for the i3 2100 Build for now, and upgrade to a decent graphics card after 2-3 months and you can afford what you really want, not restricted by budget!

the i3 2100's onboard will not cope with solidworks, i can guarantee you that. to be honest i'm not sure if the onboard of llano will cope with it when you get to the decent sized models

tigerstyle · 14 Aug 2011 at 14:33

Reaper 392 said:
the i3 2100's onboard will not cope with solidworks, i can guarantee you that. to be honest i'm not sure if the onboard of llano will cope with it when you get to the decent sized models

Interesting, I know it's in a different league software wise, but how would the HD2000 Onboard stuff cope with beefy Sketchup Models? (not knowing SolidWorks would cause it hassle!)

Reaper 392 · 14 Aug 2011 at 16:13

tigerstyle said:
Interesting, I know it's in a different league software wise, but how would the HD2000 Onboard stuff cope with beefy Sketchup Models? (not knowing SolidWorks would cause it hassle!)

im really not sure about sketchup, but i would suspect it will take a lot less graphics power for the beefier models than solidworks simply because of all the small details in solidworks (like screwthreads, etc) that it needs to render.

i know the people in charge of the computers that run solidworks at my uni were complaining that the graphics cards they bought were really not good enough to run solidworks (and the PCs seemed decent for uni PCs)

chenga · 14 Aug 2011 at 17:39

Thanks for your help guys.

I have just looked at the system requirements for Solidworks and it says the CPU must support SSE2. Does the AMD Llano support it? I can run Solidworks at uni so it is not that essential to run it.

Reaper 392 said:
the i3 2100's onboard will not cope with solidworks, i can guarantee you that. to be honest i'm not sure if the onboard of llano will cope with it when you get to the decent sized models

Would an i3 with a GPU cope with Solidworks? I can get a GPU in the future. Will it be OK with just the i3's onboard for internet, music, Word and movies? I can cope with not playing games till I get a GPU.

stulid · 14 Aug 2011 at 17:41

chenga said:
I have just looked at the system requirements for Solidworks and it says the CPU must support SSE2. Does the AMD Llano support it?

Yes.

Reaper 392 · 14 Aug 2011 at 17:42

chenga said:
Thanks for your help guys.

I have just looked at the system requirements for Solidworks and it says the CPU must support SSE2. Does the AMD Llano support it? I can run Solidworks at uni so it is not that essential to run it.

Would an i3 with a GPU cope with Solidworks? I can get a GPU in the future. Will it be OK with just the i3's onboard for internet, music, Word and movies? I can cope with not playing games till I get a GPU.

yeah, its graphics will be just fine for movies and stuff, and with a GPU it will be fine with big solidworks models.

not sure about the SSE2 thing though. i dont even know what that is but if the i3 2100 didnt have it i'd be surprised

stulid · 14 Aug 2011 at 17:46

Reaper 392 said:
not sure about the SSE2 thing though. i dont even know what that is but if the i3 2100 didnt have it i'd be surprised

They are special instruction sets, been around for years and new ones get released with new processors.

llano has these instruction sets,

MMX, 3DNow!+, SSE, SSE2, SSE3, SSE4a, x86-64, AMD-V

chenga · 15 Aug 2011 at 21:24

Thanks for your help guys. I think I'll go with the spec stulid posted.

camerongray · 15 Aug 2011 at 21:35

Good choice - The Llano APU is great for a budget system that will be used for light gaming!

chenga · 19 Sep 2011 at 00:58

Here is my PC. My dad got me a 27" AOC Monitor so I decided to get a CM Storm Enforcer.

I have had it for about a month now and it has been great. With the Llano I can Mafia 2 on medium quality I think and Team Fortress on the highest quality setting without any problems.
I haven't tried Solidworks yet as I don't start uni till the 26th.

I think this PC will stay as it is for a very long time before I upgrade. Only thing I would do in the near future is to tidy up the inside with new cables as some of them aren't long enough to go behind the motherboard.

stulid · 19 Sep 2011 at 01:03

You can get a braided extension for the 8pin cable to enable you to route it behind the board.

Buchanan0204 · 19 Sep 2011 at 03:04

The case is very Coolermasterish!

tigerstyle · 19 Sep 2011 at 06:31

Is your RAM in all the right slots?

chenga · 19 Sep 2011 at 16:07

stulid said:
You can get a braided extension for the 8pin cable to enable you to route it behind the board.

Something like this?

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CB-066-AK&groupid=1929&catid=1979&subcat=

Would this be suitable to extend the cable for the front fan?

tigerstyle said:
Is your RAM in all the right slots?

I think so, the computer is running fine. Should they be in a different slot?

Buchanan0204 said:
The case is very Coolermasterish!

I can even add two more fans at the top. I chose this case as it had a front cover to hide the CD drive and wasn't very expensive.