£500 Spec

NotAGolf · 4 Oct 2009 at 20:54

Hi all.

I'm looking into getting a new computer, but I've been out of the hardware game for a while now so I'm not sure what to look for these days.

My budget is £500 tops. I need everything apart from monitor and OS, so I need case, fans, dvd drives as well as the core stuff.

It will be used for pretty much everything, bit of programming, bit of video/photo editing, bit of gaming. I'm definetely not a big gamer though. I currently have a 256mb 7800GTX and that plays pretty much everything I want atm so I don't want to be spending too much on the graphics card, I'd rather have a faster cpu and more memory.

I'd be open to a small amount of overclocking but only with sufficient cooling, nothing hardcore.

What kind of setup would I be looking with this budget?

Thanks for any help.

95thrifles · 4 Oct 2009 at 21:41

Hi, firstly if you want to update yourself on current hardware, have a read of this thread
Hows this look for you?

XFX ATI Radeon HD 4870 1024MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £105.00 (£91.30)
AMD Phenom II X3 Tri Core 720 Black Edition 2.80GHz (Socket AM3) - Retail £97.99 (£85.21)
Asus M4A79XTD Evo (Socket AM3) PCI-Express DDR3 Motherboard £83.00 (£72.17)
Patriot G Series AMD 4GB (2x2GB) PC3-10666 1333MHz Dual Channel (PGS34G1333LLKA) £70.99 (£61.73)
OCZ ModXStream Pro 600w Silent SLI Ready Modular Power Supply £66.99 (£58.25)
Samsung SpinPoint F3 500GB SATA-II 16MB Cache - OEM (HD502HJ) £41.99 (£36.51)
Antec 200 Two Hundred Ultimate Gaming Case - Black (No PSU) £37.98 (£33.03)
Sony Optiarc AD-7241S 24x DVD±RW SATA Lightscribe Optical Drive (Black) - OEM £18.99 (£16.51)
Total : £522.92

I realise the case doesnt look particuarly great but it cools well which is main thing, Id normally recommend the coolermaster 335 but its out of stock atm, with no eta
You could also get away with 500W PSU but again most of them are out of stock too
The rest should do you fine, decent CPU, mobo + RAM combo, that gfx card is quite a bit better than old one so should see you comfortable for a while, and I included a 500 gig HDD, if you need more you can obviously up it

NotAGolf · 4 Oct 2009 at 22:08

Thanks for the reply mate. I will have a look through that link tomorrow as I don't have the time right now but thanks for that.

Spec looks ok. I've just been having a quick browse through OC to see what kind of setup I could get and came to a similar conclusion. I think overall that is close to what I want. I would perhaps downgrade the graphics slightly and bump the ram up to 6GB and the HD up to 1TB.

The other difference is that I have a been an Intel/Nvidia man up until now, whereas you've gone the AMD/ATi route. I do NOT want to start a flame war, but how do they stack up against each other? I don't have a problem with an ATi card but I think I'd prefer an intel cpu. I can't really explain why, its just a personal preference and I feel a bit more comfortable with them. But if the AMD's clock a lot better then I'd obviously give them a go.

Thanks again.

Hotwired · 4 Oct 2009 at 22:20

Here's my initial go:

Review of the case here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oLyQY23bO2o

Fan is for the back by the way.

Motherboard is a mATX - so a few less expansion slots are available but it'll work.

6GB is a triple channel memory number and for 500 you won't be on a triple channel memory motherboard. 4GB is about as good as it can be.

I'll have another look and attempt intel and a 1TB drive.

95thrifles · 4 Oct 2009 at 22:35

At this budget AMD outperforms intel, intels only option at this budget is socket 775 and even then not even high end 775, 775 has been superceeded by i5 now, if you could afford to stretch to i5 Id say go for it, bout another £100, if you cant and 500 is limit then this AM3 route is your best option. There arent going to be any new releases for 775 where as chances are there will be for AM3, plus AMD tend to make their stuff backwards compatible anyway. AM3 vs 775 are pretty even performance wise, and yes they do clock well, think the 550BE dual core chip holds current world record, seen as how AM3 provides a future upgrade route and 775 doesnt imo youd be daft to go intel

Hotwired · 4 Oct 2009 at 22:39

Ok, a revised version using intel and nvdia.

I downgraded the processor, motherboard and memory which freed up room for the 1TB drive, more case fans and a better graphics card. Also room for a 3rd party cpu cooler instead of retail.

coupe69 · 4 Oct 2009 at 23:19

For a another 50 quid or so you could go core i5.

You could even put your old video card in to get it under £500, providing it's pci-e.

NotAGolf · 5 Oct 2009 at 08:38

Thanks for the help all.

I've had a bit of a read and I think the AMD Tri Core's might be worth a bash. I'll get a decent fan and hopefully I'll be able to clock it nicely. I think the graphics card's are still a bit much for me. I think If I can drop it down to around the £60 mark I could make a decent system.

What card would you suggest in this range? Is the 9600GT coupe69 suggested ok? The other thing about the graphics card is that the last 2 I've had have been the loudest thing in the system by far, the fan on that Gainward looks pretty substantial, is it noisy?

The only other thing I'm not to sure on is the PSU. I'm not intending to buy a new GPU after this one, so all it will have to cope with is an overclocked CPU. Would the 450W Corsair be enough? I'd imagine so, but I'm not sure. Anything cheaper worth looking at? Perhaps the 500W OCZ for a tenner less?

Thanks again.

NotAGolf · 5 Oct 2009 at 13:18

Managed to put together a setup whilst on lunch:

How does that look?

Few Points:

- No idea about the cooler, it's the cheapest one available that fits AM3, there doesn't seem to be any about.

- Is that mobo alright? I've always had ASUS one's in the past so I'd like to stick with them really, unless the Gigabyte ones at a similar price are better (features, easier/better to clock etc)

- Still unsure about the graphics card, any ideas as to the loudness of it?

I've got £20 spare so I'm tempted to add a little something, perhaps another 4GB ram to take it to 8GB? Maybe a slight better gfx card? Might end up sticking with that and putting it towards windows 7 actually...

Cheers

95thrifles · 5 Oct 2009 at 13:25

Im sure the cooler will be fine
The motherboard is good, but if you can afford a few more quid go for the 790 chipset one on TWO
For graphics Id personally go with an ATI, either a 4770 or 4730, here, they use the same new RV770 architecture as the new 58 series so run nice and efficient, cool and quiet