£500 Build - Could do with some help!

wissel

wissel

wissel

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Location
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Hi, need to build a PC for my Dad with a budget of around £500.

I have no idea when it comes to cheaper systems so would really appreciate some help on specs.

He uses a PC mainly for MS Office and also specialist kitchen design software.

I have no preferences on AMD or Intel processor's or on graphics cards.

Would like a 1tb hd plus a 128gb ssd, don't need monitor or keyboard etc.

There is nothing I can salvage from his old PC, its just to old :(

Is £500 possible for a reasonable machine?

Specs really appreciated
 
Need a GPU or not?

YOUR BASKET
1 x Intel Core i3-2120 3.30GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor - Retail £101.99
1 x Intel 330 Series 120GB 2.5" SATA 6Gb/s Solid State Hard Drive - Retail £83.99
1 x Seagate Barracuda 7200RPM 1TB SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache - OEM (ST1000DM003) £69.98
1 x OCZ ZS Series 550W '80 Plus Bronze' Power Supply £49.99
1 x BitFenix Shinobi Midi Tower German Edition Case - Black/Red/Gold £49.99
1 x Gigabyte H61MA-D3V Intel H61 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £47.99
1 x GeIL Black Dragon 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C11 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (GD38GB1600C11DC) £35.99
1 x OcUK 22x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £17.99
Total : £469.91 (includes shipping : £10.00).



If you do then this may suffice:


YOUR BASKET
1 x Intel Core i3-2120 3.30GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor - Retail £101.99
1 x Intel 330 Series 120GB 2.5" SATA 6Gb/s Solid State Hard Drive - Retail £83.99
1 x Seagate Barracuda 7200RPM 1TB SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache - OEM (ST1000DM003) £69.98
1 x Asus HD 6670 1024MB GDDR3 PCI-Express Graphics Card £53.99
1 x OCZ ZS Series 550W '80 Plus Bronze' Power Supply £49.99
1 x BitFenix Shinobi Midi Tower German Edition Case - Black/Red/Gold £49.99
1 x Gigabyte H61MA-D3V Intel H61 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £47.99
1 x GeIL Black Dragon 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C11 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (GD38GB1600C11DC) £35.99
1 x OcUK 22x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £17.99
Total : £524.50 (includes shipping : £10.50).

 
 
Yeah forget about AMD.

YOUR BASKET
1 x Intel 330 Series 120GB 2.5" SATA 6Gb/s Solid State Hard Drive - Retail £83.99
1 x Gigabyte Z77-D3H Intel Z77 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £79.99
1 x Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 1TB SATA 6Gb/s 32MB Cache - OEM (ST31000524AS) £64.99
1 x Intel Pentium G840 2.80GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor - Retail £56.99
1 x BitFenix Shinobi USB3.0 Gaming Case - White/Blue £44.99
1 x Corsair Builder Series CX 430W V2 '80 Plus' Power Supply (CMPSU-430CXUKV2) £36.98
1 x GeIL Black Dragon 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C11 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (GD38GB1600C11DC) £35.99
1 x LG GH24NS90 24x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £14.99
Total : £432.41 (includes shipping : £11.25).



I've used the G840 as an alternative. It's cheaper than the i3 and nearly as good. I used a Z77 mobo as he could consider upping the CPU to an i5K and overclock once they are going cheap or secondhand. At £50ish it's easier to consider "writing off" the G840 down the line.

i3 2100 vs G840
 
honosuseri said:
I've used the G840 as an alternative. It's cheaper than the i3 and nearly as good. I used a Z77 mobo as he could consider upping the CPU to an i5K and overclock once they are going secondhand. At £50ish it's easier to consider "writing off" the G840 down the line.

i3 2100 vs G840
Click to expand...

I've heard god things about the G840 too. For the kind of use, it's perfect. The place i can see it struggling is graphical, then all you do is add a £20-£50 GPU, sorted.

I'd go with Honosuseri's spec. :)
 
Katsumoto said:
I'd take my HDD of hono's to be honest. For an extra £5 why not really. That's all i'd say.
Click to expand...

There isn't much between the two if at all to be honest, especially as im using it as a storage HDD in my spec. That's £5 that can go elsewhere for an extra case fan or whatever
 
Last edited:
I finally got round to ordering the PC for my Dad, was doing a few things at the time so would just like to check what's ordered if fine. Here's the order:

dadsPC.PNG


I've already noticed I haven't ordered a CPU cooler or a DVD drive, any recommendations for the CPU cooler?

Have I missed anything else?
 
CPU cooler comes with the retail chip so dont worry, also comes with pre-applied past. For the DVD-RW just get the cheapest one on offer, just make sure its a DVD-RW.
 
Bacon? said:
CPU cooler comes with the retail chip so dont worry, also comes with pre-applied past. For the DVD-RW just get the cheapest one on offer, just make sure its a DVD-RW.
Click to expand...

Cool, didn't know that it came with the cooler. Is the stock cooler OK?
Or is it worth buying another?
 
beejjacobs said:
Stock cooler for the i3 is fine :)
Click to expand...

Excellent.

The rig will be as in the list but will add a 2mb GT610 (passive) just because I have one kicking about.

I've ordered the DVD drive for it, just wondering about additional cooling now.

The Fractal case comes with a 120mm in the front and can take an additional 120mm in the side and a 92mm in the back.

Would it be worth me getting the extra 2 fans? If I did I guess I would run the front and side as intakes and use the 92mm as an exhaust?
 
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