£500 budget home computer

PAD

PAD

PAD

Associate
Joined
19 Sep 2011
Posts
99
Hello all,
I am putting together a computer for my friends mum.

The main target is to last 5 years+ and to be £500 or under if possible.

It will be used for everyday life and some games. looking at web base games and maybe a game like tomb raider she wont care if its at best graphics just wants to be able to do what she wants IE multi tasking etc without issues.

I was torn between an i3 and i5 for her so for my frist spec i did it with the i5 but if we went with i3 would be some nice saving.


Intel Core i5-2500K 3.30GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor - Retail
£161.99

Gigabyte Z68AP-D3 Intel Z68 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard with FREE 16GB USB 2.0 PEN
£75.98

Toshiba (7K1000.D) 1TB SATA 6GB/s 32MB Cache - OEM (DT01ACA100)
£64.99

Corsair Carbide 300R Mid Tower Case - Black
£59.99

Corsair Builder Series CX 500W V2 '80 Plus Bronze' Power Supply (CP-9020047-UK)
£49.99

Kingston HyperX Genesis Grey 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (KHX1600C9D3X2K2/8GX)
£25.99

Samsung SH-S222BB/RSMS 22x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black/Silver/Biege) - Retail
£14.99

no graphics card listed yet, but will it be worth going from i5 or i3 or just spend the money.

I wont need os or keyboard but if you know a good screen around 22" that might be worth looking at, but its not in the 500 budget since she might use the old one she has.

£500 is max but tbh if we can do it cheaper thats great

thanks for help
Pete
 
For a five year setup would reccomend an i5 over an i3.

YOUR BASKET
1 x Intel Core i5-3570K 3.40GHz (Ivybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor (77W) - Retail £167.99
1 x MSI Z77A-G43 Intel Z77 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £79.99
1 x Antec High Current Gamer M 520W "80+ Bronze" Modular Power Supply £63.98
1 x Corsair Carbide 300R Mid Tower Case - Black £59.99
1 x Seagate Barracuda 7200RPM 1TB SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache - OEM (ST1000DM003) £58.99
1 x GeIL Black Dragon 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C11 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (GD38GB1600C11DC) £25.99
1 x Samsung SH-S222BB/RSMS 22x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black/Silver/Biege) - Retail £14.99
Total : £486.02 (includes shipping : £11.75).



I know most people reccomend the Gigabyte board over others because of the good price and UK RMA depot however I have seen a few people having problems with this board other than BIOS problems and AFAIK OcUK only stock the revision 1 board not revision 1.1
 
 
Thing is I dont think you need 3570K to last for next 5 years... I mean Q6600 is still going strong and that is over 5 years old...

However Intel always seem to provide better upgrade route in future, but here is my AMD spec for you. Remember that AMD processing power as CPU is much weaker than both i5 mentioned above, but I cant really imagine i5 being put into use in someones in this case, she isnt going to play crysis or bf3 on ultra is she? A10 can handle those games on mediocre settings.


You can take away SSD which is more of a luxury than a need and you will end up with roughly 350 quid... You can also add/remove 6670 for 50 quid which would work together with on board A10 GPU, giving better FPS, it is also silent so no noise would be made.

YOUR BASKET
1 x AMD A10-5800K Black Edition 3.80GHz (Socket FM2) APU Trinity Quad Core Processor (AD580KWOHJBOX) £95.99
1 x Intel 330 Series 120GB 2.5" SATA 6Gb/s Solid State Hard Drive - Retail £77.99
1 x Gigabyte F2A75M-D3H AMD A75 Chipset (Socket FM2) DDR3 Micro ATX Motherboard £69.98
1 x Asus HD 6670 SILENT EDITION 1024MB GDDR3 PCI-Express Graphics Card £61.99
1 x Seagate Barracuda 7200RPM 1TB SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache - OEM (ST1000DM003) £58.99
1 x Zalman Z9 Plus Tower Case with Fan Controller - Black £42.95
1 x OCZ CoreXtreme 500w '80 Plus' Power Supply £29.99
1 x Kingston HyperX Genesis Grey 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (KHX1600C9D3X2K2/8GX) £25.99
Total : £463.87 (includes shipping : FREE).



I would advise you to get 3rd market cooler with this setup, so it would be quiet and you could overclock a little... But I am not too sure on FM2 coolers atm.


However nothing really stops us from getting a gaming system instead of home one for extra 30 quid, but 1gb of GPU is quite small these days, 2 is advisable.. You can get it withing budget if you shop around and wait for offers

YOUR BASKET
1 x Intel Core i5-3570K 3.40GHz (Ivybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor (77W) - Retail £167.99
1 x Sapphire HD 7850 1024MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card w/ Nexuiz & Sleeping Dogs PC Games £137.99
1 x MSI Z77A-G43 Intel Z77 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £79.99
1 x OCZ ZS Series 550W '80 Plus Bronze' Power Supply £49.99
1 x Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 500GB SATA 6Gb/s 16MB Cache - OEM (ST500DM002) £43.99
1 x BitFenix Merc Alpha Gaming Case - Black £28.99
1 x Kingston HyperX Genesis Grey 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (KHX1600C9D3X2K2/8GX) £25.99
Total : £534.94 (includes shipping : FREE).

 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom