£400 limit on components

[rogan]

Im looking for a new desktop to use as an online 24/7 machine so quietish would be nice but silence isnt key,

going to be running a linux VM all the time and occasionally Win XP,

Id like to use the fractal design arc mini case, and i already have a dvd drive and a Corsair VX450 PSU,already got monitor, KB, Mouse, OS's too

Has to be Intel sandybridge, faster the better,

only gaming i do is team fortress 2 so no need for an expensive gfx card

 

[tigerstyle]

Loads of threads around this budget at the moment, have a good read around.

I'm guessing an 2500K with 4gig ram for starters, ASRock Z68 mobo, then add your 1Tb Samsung F3 and then the rest of your budget on your gfx card, long shot but an ati 6870 is £120 iirc?
Tranquillo cooler keeps it running cool and quiet, whilst still allowing room for a good overclock too.

 

[Jony27]

Loads of threads around this budget at the moment, have a good read around.

I'm guessing an 2500K with 4gig ram for starters, ASRock Z68 mobo, then add your 1Tb Samsung F3 and then the rest of your budget on your gfx card, long shot but an ati 6870 is £120 iirc?
Tranquillo cooler keeps it running cool and quiet, whilst still allowing room for a good overclock too.

tried it, way over budget.

theres this

YOUR BASKET
1 x Intel Core i3-2120 3.30GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor - Retail £99.98
1 x OcUK GeForce GTX 460 1024MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card - OEM £89.99
1 x Fractal Design Arc Mini Tower Case - Black £66.98
1 x MSI H67MA-E35 Intel H67 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Micro-ATX Motherboard - (Sandybridge) **B3 REVISION** £64.99
1 x Samsung SpinPoint F3 1TB SATA-II 32MB Cache - OEM (HD103SJ) £44.99
1 x Crucial Ballistix Sport 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 PC3-10666C9 1333MHz Dual Channel Kit (BL2KIT25664BA1339) £23.99
Total : £405.02 (includes shipping : £11.75).



and theres this

YOUR BASKET
1 x Intel Core i5-2400 3.10GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor - Retail £137.99
1 x OcUK GeForce GTX 460 1024MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card - OEM £89.99
1 x Fractal Design Arc Mini Tower Case - Black £66.98
1 x MSI H67MA-E35 Intel H67 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Micro-ATX Motherboard - (Sandybridge) **B3 REVISION** £64.99
1 x Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 500GB SATA 6Gb/s 16MB Cache - OEM (ST3500413AS) £30.98
1 x Crucial Ballistix Sport 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 PC3-10666C9 1333MHz Dual Channel Kit (BL2KIT25664BA1339) £23.99
Total : £429.02 (includes shipping : £11.75).



the case really takes a big chunk of the budget.

 

[Hyburnate]

Your going to need around 8GB of RAM if your running VM, I use it a lot myself.

 

[Idleman]

Corsair CMX8GX3M2A1600C9 DDR3 XMS3 8GB £38
Intel Sandybridge i5-2500K £160
Fractal Design Arc Mini Series Micro ATX Case - Black Pearl £64
Asrock P67 PRO3 REV 3.0 1155 £84
Total £346

That leaves £54. Could get better mobo and cooler.
Just got to know where to look.

 

[tigerstyle]

the case really takes a big chunk of the budget.

props for actually speccing it out

the OP says 'like' to use that case, thing is, the case is nothing special, there are lots just like it for a tad over half the price. Unless the OP can expand on why he wants that case? I'm guessing it's compact size mostly, probably find it's cheaper rivals aren't much bigger.

 

[Idleman]

Corsair CMX8GX3M2A1600C9 DDR3 XMS3 8GB £38
Intel Sandybridge i5-2500K £160
Fractal Design Arc Mini Series Micro ATX Case - Black Pearl £64
Asrock P67 PRO3 REV 3.0 1155 £84
Total £346

That leaves £54. Could get better mobo and cooler.
Just got to know where to look.

Forgot HDD
Seagate ST31000524AS 3.5 inch Barracuda 1TB GB 7200rpm SATA £45

Total £391

Do you have a GPU you could use and then add a better 1 later.

 

[rogan]

TBH since im only doing TF2 i reckon i could get awayw ith HD3000 for a while... and the case reasoning was the size, its smallish, looks nice and has good cable management a lot of the other matx cases have barely anything in terms of management

 

[rogan]

But these specs look good, the i5-2400 by jony looks good, not sure i need the 2500k i dont plan to OC

 

[Jony27]

if your mind is set on the Arc Mini then ive done a re-spec to fit the i5 2400/8gb ram/arc mini

YOUR BASKET
1 x Intel Core i5-2400 3.10GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor - Retail £137.99
1 x Fractal Design Arc Mini Tower Case - Black £66.98
1 x MSI H67MA-E35 Intel H67 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Micro-ATX Motherboard - (Sandybridge) **B3 REVISION** £64.99
1 x OcUK GeForce 9800 GT 1024MB GDDR3 PCI-Express Graphics Card - OEM £47.99
1 x Kingston HyperX Genesis Grey 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (KHX1600C9D3X2K2/8GX) £39.98
1 x Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 500GB SATA 6Gb/s 16MB Cache - OEM (ST3500413AS) £30.98
Total : £403.02 (includes shipping : £11.75).



you have to order soon as that ram wont be on offer for long
the 9800 Gt should handle TF2 fine.