£500 spec me please

BringTheRain · 21 Aug 2009 at 18:47

I have £500 exactly to spend.

The ONLY parts i have are the following.

Case & fans
Mouse
Keyboard
Monitor
Speakers

The PC wont be used for gaming. Just browsing the web and encoding,ripping and burning etc. BUT i would like the chance to maybe upgrade my GPU in the next 6months or so. Mainly to play games like, command and conquer RTS etc.

What i would like is

Blu Ray
Quad core
SSD

Thats about it. I have a dual core at the moment and it just doesn't cut it.

NO over- clocking as im useless in that department.

I have had a go myself and i pretty certain £500 is not enough. But thats why i am posting this

many thanks

Franksi · 21 Aug 2009 at 19:10

far too much happening in the next 4 to 6 weeks to be speccing anyone right now in my opinion! Blue ray is going to use up about 20% of your budget too!

BringTheRain · 21 Aug 2009 at 19:12

okey doke - I think i made a mistake with the case lol Blew £210 on it. But its looks good

Yeah i have done some figures and i think i need more cash.

PwnDirect · 21 Aug 2009 at 19:21

AMD Phenom II X4 Quad Core 955 Black Edition 3.2GHz

LG BH08LS20 8x Blu-Ray-RW/DVD±RW Dual Layer SATA Drive - Black (OEM) LG

Kingston SSDNow V Series 64GB 2.5" SATA-II Solid State Hard Drive Kit

Asus M4A785TD-V Evo AMD 785G (Socket AM3) PCI-Express DDR3 Motherboard

OCZ ModXStream Pro 700w Silent SLI Ready Modular Power Supply

OCZ Gold 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C8 1600MHz Dual Channel

£590.94 inc VAT you need £100 more for all you wats without having a gimped setup

|LBTG|Theos · 21 Aug 2009 at 19:21

Okay, I've given it a shot and the only configuration I can come up with to meet the requirements is this:

Crucial M225 64GB 2.5" SATA-II Solid State Hard Drive (CT64M225) £107.99

Intel Core 2 Quad Q8200 LGA775 'Yorkfield' 2.33GHz 4MB-cache (1333FSB) Processor - Retail £103.99

LG CH08LS10 8x Blu-Ray Reader/16x DVD±RW - Black (OEM) £79.99

Gigabyte GA-P43-ES3G Intel P43 (Socket 775) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard £56.99

Sapphire ATI Radeon HD 4670 512MB GDDR3 TV-Out/DVI/HDMI (PCI-Express) - Retail £54.04

OCZ ModXStream Pro 500w Silent SLI Ready Modular Power Supply £52.99

OCZ Titanium 4GB (2x2GB) Edition DDR2 PC2-6400 Dual Channel (OCZ2T800C44GK) £42.54

Total : £498.54

Not exactly an ideal spec as the drive is only a Rom and you will only have 64gb of storage. I would suggest either saving a little longer or maybe holding off on the ssd and blu-ray for a little while and getting them when you have the money.

hope this helps.

BringTheRain · 21 Aug 2009 at 20:15

Thanks for the input guys

I have an external DVD rw so that covers me on one side. I also have an external 1TB drive so that kinda covers me on the other side.

I have my old rig i can sell, but dont want to be without a pc.

I have just been paid, so if i waited for 4 weeks i would have £750 -£800 for a build. With the extra cash i could cover a few more angles then

Made me a lot happier, and it aint all doom and gloom now

paininlife · 22 Aug 2009 at 01:57

if u got £800 ,thn suggest u to go i7 way as its better for encoding

|LBTG|Theos · 22 Aug 2009 at 02:23

That would be a much improved amount 750 - 800 would easily be able to get you a top notch system. However not so sure that i7 would be cost effective option. Considering the requirements of blu-ray and ssd easily wipe £200 off the budget. I would suggest going for a am3 socket for that budget. maybe something like this:

AMD Phenom II X4 Quad Core 955 Black Edition 3.2GHz (Socket AM3) - Retail £149.99

Pioneer BDR-203BK 8x BluRay-RW/DVD±RW Serial ATA Dual Layer Drive - OEM £136.98

Crucial M225 64GB 2.5" SATA-II Solid State Hard Drive (CT64M225) £107.99

Gigabyte GA-MA790XT-UD4P (Socket AM3) PCI-Express DDR3 Motherboard £105.00

XFX ATI Radeon HD 4870 512MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £92.99

OCZ ModXStream Pro 700w Silent SLI Ready Modular Power Supply £62.99

OCZ Gold 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C8 1600MHz Dual Channel (OCZ3G16004GK) £61.99

Sub Total : £624.27
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 15% VAT : £95.14
Total : £729.41

That spec includes a decent gfx card but it could always be substituted for a cheaper one (i assume you maybe waiting on dx11 cards) freeing up some cash for a larger ssd/internal hdd.

BringTheRain · 22 Aug 2009 at 11:07

Thanks for the replies guys, i dont know what GPU i would need. One for Blu Ray and playing some old command and conquer games, BUT they may be releasing Halo Wars on pc, so id love to play that!

i7 would be very cool i guess.

I dont game on my pc really, use a 360.

reygjabla · 22 Aug 2009 at 11:22

DAMO RAM80 said:
i7 would be very cool i guess.

I dont game on my pc really, use a 360.

If that's the case, you might want to look at this,

Intel Core i7 920 D0 Stepping (SLBEJ) 2.66Ghz (Nehalem) (Socket LGA1366) - OEM £199.99
(£173.90) £199.99
(£173.90)
Gigabyte GA-EX58-UD3R Intel X58 (Socket 1366) PCI-Express DDR3 Motherboard £137.99
(£119.99) £137.99
(£119.99)
Crucial M225 64GB 2.5" SATA-II Solid State Hard Drive (CT64M225) £107.99
(£93.90) £107.99
(£93.90)
XFX ATI Radeon HD 4870 512MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £92.99
(£80.86) £92.99
(£80.86)
Corsair XMS3 6GB (3x2GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 (1600MHz) Tri-Channel (TR3X6G1600C9) £89.99
(£78.25) £89.99
(£78.25)
OCZ ModXStream Pro 700w Silent SLI Ready Modular Power Supply £62.99
(£54.77) £62.99
(£54.77)
Western Digital RE3 250GB SATA-II 16MB Cache - OEM (WD2502ABYS) £44.99
(£39.12) £44.99
(£39.12)
LG GH22NS40 22x DVD±RW SATA Dual Layer ReWriter (Black) - OEM £18.99
(£16.51) £18.99
(£16.51)
Sub Total : £657.30
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 15% VAT : £100.10
Total : £767.40

When you save enough money later on then you can add the Blue ray. That's how I built my system. Bought the components one at a time.

baked188 · 22 Aug 2009 at 11:29

If you're not really going to game much id get a HD4850 or GTS250, these will be able to run games and are under £100

reygjabla · 22 Aug 2009 at 11:42

Here's my second try with everything you wish included.

Product Name Qty Price Line Total
Intel Core i7 920 D0 Stepping (SLBEJ) 2.66Ghz (Nehalem) (Socket LGA1366) - OEM £199.99
(£173.90) £199.99
(£173.90)
Gigabyte GA-EX58-UD3R Intel X58 (Socket 1366) PCI-Express DDR3 Motherboard £137.99
(£119.99) £137.99
(£119.99)
Crucial M225 64GB 2.5" SATA-II Solid State Hard Drive (CT64M225) £107.99
(£93.90) £107.99
(£93.90)
XFX ATI Radeon HD 4870 512MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £92.99
(£80.86) £92.99
(£80.86)
OCZ Gold 6GB (3x2GB) DDR3 PC3-10666C9 Low-Voltage Triple Channel (OCZ3G1333LV6GK) £82.00
(£71.30) £82.00
(£71.30)
LG CH08LS10 8x Blu-Ray Reader/16x DVD±RW - Black (OEM) £79.99
(£69.56) £79.99
(£69.56)
OCZ ModXStream Pro 700w Silent SLI Ready Modular Power Supply £62.99
(£54.77) £62.99
(£54.77)
Sub Total : £664.28
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 15% VAT : £101.14
Total : £775.42

BringTheRain · 22 Aug 2009 at 12:25

Thanks again, its looking very good indeed then. Just need to wait 4 weeks HUFF lol

Gonna try and keep this thread saved so i can come back to it. Or just copy and paste it lol