£400 Build Spec Help

FrankDaTank · 23 Feb 2011 at 13:43

Hi there. Thanks for viewing this thread. My friend wanted to build a pc for around £400 and I wanted some input from you guys.

He needs a complete system apart from monitor and optical drive. He mainly would use it to play World of Warcraft, and wants a nice gfx card capable of running it on highest setting, or somewhere close included in the £400 build. I am not sure if any of the onboard gfx cards would run it. So i know this is a big ask for a £400 system.

I am sure he will want to play other games on it at some point, so your input on a gfx card to allow recent games to be played would be greatly appreciated.

Any and all suggestions are welcome, and either amd or intel, whichever you think is best.

Oh and I seen that sandy bridge review, would anyone recommend this for my purposes?

Thank you so much, awaiting your knowledgeable ideas!

Redmint · 23 Feb 2011 at 13:45

Does he need operating system, keyboard, mouse and speakers included in the price? Also is he a student? (eligible for a cheap copy of Win 7)

FrankDaTank · 23 Feb 2011 at 14:53

Oh sorry I forgot to mention that he doesn't need speakers, mouse/keyboard, or operating system. Whats needed:

Case
Power supply
Motherboard
Ram
GFX Card
Hard Drive
Processor

Thanks

Redmint · 23 Feb 2011 at 15:08

Tiny bit over budget but I think it's worth the extra £27:

Asus ATI Radeon HD 6850 OC 1024MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £137.99
(£114.99) £137.99
(£114.99)
AMD Phenom II X4 Quad Core 955 Black Edition "125W Edition" 3.20GHz (Socket AM3) - Retail £101.99
(£84.99) £101.99
(£84.99)
Coolermaster Elite 430 Windowed Case - Black (with 500w Elite Power PSU) £64.33
(£53.61) £64.33
(£53.61)
Asus M4A78LT-M 760G (Socket AM3) DDR3 Motherboard £49.99
(£41.66) £49.99
(£41.66)
Samsung SpinPoint F3 500GB SATA-II 16MB Cache - OEM (HD502HJ) £30.98
(£25.82) £30.98
(£25.82)
OCZ Platinum 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Ultra Low Voltage Dual Channel Kit (OCZ3P1600C9ELV4GK) £29.99
(£24.99) £29.99
(£24.99)

Sub Total : £346.06
Shipping cost assumes delivery to UK Mainland with:
DPD Next Day Parcel
(This can be changed during checkout) Shipping : £10.00
VAT is being charged at 20.00% VAT : £71.21
Total : £427.27

FrankDaTank · 23 Feb 2011 at 15:45

Wow that system loks amazing. Thanks for the input. Do you have any thoughts on an equivalent intel system, as in motherboard and processor?

Do you think he will need any more cooling with that system, and will the power supply hold out alright with that card?

Thanks for the quick response!

CAT-THE-FIFTH · 23 Feb 2011 at 16:03

I assume that the OP already has an optical drive to use in the build.

If you want to stay within budget I would get the following parts:

AMD Athlon II X3 450 ~ £60

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CP-282-AM

MSI 870-C45 ~ £55

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MB-147-MS&groupid=701&catid=1903&subcat=1481

OR

ASRock M3A770DE ~ £53

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MB-034-AK&groupid=701&catid=1903&subcat=1481

The cheaper AMD 880G based motherboards use the same SB710 southbridge found in the 770 motherboards.

4GB 1600MHZ DDR3 ~ £30

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MY-221-OC&groupid=701&catid=8&subcat=1517

However,OCZ is leaving the RAM market so maybe it would be worth spending some extra money on another RAM kit.

Samsung F3 500GB ~ £31

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=HD-081-SA

BeQuiet Pure Power L7 530W ~ £43

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CA-042-BQ&groupid=701&catid=123&subcat=

Coolermaster Elite 370 ~ £34

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CM-023-CM&groupid=701&catid=7&subcat=

MSI ATI Radeon HD 5850 Twin FrozR II 1024MB GDDR5 ~ £135

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-103-MS&groupid=701&catid=56&subcat=411

OR

Asus ATI Radeon HD 6850 OC 1024MB GDDR5 ~ £138

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-241-AS&groupid=701&catid=56&subcat=1866

I have avoided the Coolermaster Elite 430 and PSU combination since the Coolermaster Elite Power 500W uses a passive PFC and is not very efficient.

The total comes to around £386 to £391 excluding postage.

Redmint · 23 Feb 2011 at 16:07

FrankDaTank said:
Do you have any thoughts on an equivalent intel system, as in motherboard and processor?

Do you think he will need any more cooling with that system, and will the power supply hold out alright with that card?

I really wouldn't bother with an Intel build at this price range, it's not enough to afford a Sandy Bridge build with a half decent graphics card and there's not much point going for an i3 1156 socket build these days.

Power supply wise that one is absolutely fine for that graphics card and CPU (I wouldn't have suggested it otherwise). As Cat says it's not the most efficient model in the world, however I still consider it to be pretty decent value for money.

Reaper 392 · 23 Feb 2011 at 16:09

when building my system a couple of days ago (came out at £445) i found that at this price range AMD seemed to offer better value for money, however, im happy to be proven wrong here

i went with a very similar build to yours, but i needed a DVD drive and keyboard, hence the extra price

Redmint · 23 Feb 2011 at 16:14

Just to add, I can't find any reviews of that exact PSU model, however the Elite 400W supply from the same range was found to be 80% efficient at 40-60% load (roughly the amount of power you'll normally be using with that system). Which is pretty good for a cheap PSU.

http://www.hardwaresecrets.com/article/Cooler-Master-Elite-Power-400-W-Power-Supply-Review/975/7

CAT-THE-FIFTH · 23 Feb 2011 at 16:20

The review said that noise and ripple levels were high when 400W was drawn from the unit.

Supposedly the 500W shows similar characteristics:

http://www.jonnyguru.com/forums/showthread.php?t=7510

However,since Hardware Secrets has reviewed quite a few of the Coolermaster units they may hopefully get around to reviewing the 500W version of the Elite Power soon.

Redmint · 23 Feb 2011 at 16:23

CAT-THE-FIFTH said:
The review said that noise and ripple levels were high when 400W was drawn from the unit.

Don't know about you but I never plan on trying to run my PSU at 100% load.

CAT-THE-FIFTH · 23 Feb 2011 at 16:31

Redmint said:
Don't know about you but I never plan on trying to run my PSU at 100% load.

It depends on whether at lower loads the Elite Power units exhibit the same characteristics.

OTH,as part of the PSU and case combination you are paying around £26 for the 500W Elite power PSU so it is probably not fair comparing to more expensive units though as they are around £35 to £45.