£600 PC?

Bloomfield

Bloomfield

Bloomfield

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So my friend wants a new PC for about £600 (Computer only, no peripherals/monitor/Windows, does need a HDD). It will be used for games at 1920*1080/1200 (1080 at first, until he gets a new monitor which does 1200).

He won't be overclocking, so a K version (if an i5 is best, which I'm assuming it is looking at other threads) won't be needed to save a bit of cash, and no need for a third party cooler.

Looking at the "Budget Build" thread something like this:

cmd1989 said:
YOUR BASKET
1 x Intel Core i5-3550 3.30GHz (Ivybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor (77W) - Retail £164.99
1 x MSI Z77A-G43 Intel Z77 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £75.98
1 x Toshiba (7K1000.D) 1TB SATA 6GB/s 32MB Cache - OEM (DT01ACA100) £57.98
1 x OCZ ZS Series 550W '80 Plus Bronze' Power Supply £49.99
1 x BitFenix Merc Beta Gaming Case - Black £32.99
1 x GeIL Black Dragon 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-10666C9 1333MHz Dual Channel Kit (GD38GB1333C9DC) £29.99
1 x Sony Optiarc AD-7280S 24x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £19.99
Total : £446.02 (includes shipping : £11.75).

Click to expand...

seems to be best, unsure what to get graphics card wise though, or whether I should change anything there?

Oh, and I have a PC around the same mates house that I use for LAN around his, but I need to replace the 8800GTX in it (****ing BFG aren't honoring their lifetime warranties anymore, are they?). May as well ask in here instead of a new thread, what's the best graphics card to get for around £100? I'm guessing the 7770?.

Edit - I might be able to talk him out of getting a DVD drive (or just giving him mine, since I don't care about them), so might be able to spend another £20 on the graphics card that way.
 
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For your friend, yes use the same build we previously spec'd in cmd1989's thread. I would grab a 7850 with the remaining £170 budget. It may be worth grabbing a budget SSD also for improved overall performance.

YOUR BASKET
1 x MSI HD 7850 Power Edition Twin Frozr IV OC 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card w/ Nexuiz & Dirt Showdown PC Games £167.99
1 x Intel Core i5-3550 3.30GHz (Ivybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor (77W) - Retail £164.99
1 x MSI Z77A-G43 Intel Z77 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £75.98
1 x Toshiba (7K1000.D) 1TB SATA 6GB/s 32MB Cache - OEM (DT01ACA100) £57.98
1 x OCZ ZS Series 550W '80 Plus Bronze' Power Supply £49.99
1 x BitFenix Merc Beta Gaming Case - Black £32.99
1 x GeIL Black Dragon 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-10666C9 1333MHz Dual Channel Kit (GD38GB1333C9DC) £29.99
1 x Sony Optiarc AD-7280S 24x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £19.99
Total : £599.90 (includes shipping : FREE).



As for your own graphics card, to replace a 8800GTX with £100 you are pretty limited and would have to stretch that budget a little. But you would see a noticable difference with either the MSI 6850 or 6870.
 
Not fully tuned in on the lower end GPUs so I won't offer my advice there but looking at your build it looks like you have all the bases covered, though I do wonder why you don't cough up the very little extra and get the K as then you always have the overclocking possibilites in the future should you want to extend its lifespan.

Can't say anything bad at all about the motherboard choice but Gigabyte also get praise for their good UK customer support so might be another option.

One other thing I wanted to mention was about your storage. I see you have 1 x 1TB HDD, but are there any budgetary clearance for perhaps getting a small 60GB SSD for OS - I honestly think it's one of the biggest factors in the perceptual speed of a computer at this moment in time, particularly compared to a traditional mech. drive.

Anyway GL.
 
Im not saying this is best option but it's another way. I don't see the point in a Z77 board when not overclock, though having a H61 board with an Ivybridge processor means a BIOS update, that can be tricky.

This Sandy CPU is expensive, though you may be able to pick one up cheaper (secondhand or otherwise).


YOUR BASKET
1 x MSI HD 7850 Power Edition Twin Frozr IV OC 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card w/ Nexuiz & Dirt Showdown PC Games £167.99
1 x Intel Core i5-2400 3.10GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor - Retail £161.99
1 x Intel 330 Series 60GB 2.5" SATA 6Gb/s Solid State Hard Drive - Retail £53.99
1 x OCZ ZS Series 550W '80 Plus Bronze' Power Supply £49.99
1 x Gigabyte H61MA-D3V Intel H61 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £47.99
1 x Toshiba (7K1000.D) 500GB SATA 6GB/s 32MB Cache - OEM (DT01ACA050) £44.99
1 x BitFenix Merc Beta Gaming Case - Black £32.99
1 x GeIL Black Dragon 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-10666C9 1333MHz Dual Channel Kit (GD38GB1333C9DC) £29.99
1 x Sony Optiarc AD-7280S 24x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £19.99
Total : £609.90 (includes shipping : FREE).

 
 
I hadn't actually realised 7850s were only £170, seems like that's the best choice graphics wise, cheers :).

As for the SSD, I've mentioned them to him in the past, and he's not bothered about faster boot times and general stuff in windows, and he definitely won't be /mklink'ing his Steam games every time he wants to play a new one, so I can't see him wanting to get one instead of a larger HDD or an i5K and making me overclock it for him :p.

Just asked him and he definitely wants a 1TB HDD, as he'll be storing films and stuff on there :).

The H61 v Z77 thing, upgrading the BIOS on an H61 wouldn't be a problem, the PC I have around his just got upgraded to the same motherboard you're recommending with an i3 in it, so I could just use that to flash it if needed. Most people just seem to recommend the Z77 over the others even when not overclocking though, so I'm not really sure what would be best to get?

I don't know what to do about overclocking, I'd prefer to overclock it for him, but that'd mean another £20 for the i5K and another £30 for a cooler (is the motherboard listed decent enough for overclocking?), which would mean he either has to up his budget, which I doubt he wants to do, or get a worse GPU which would probably mean games run worse overall even with an overclocked CPU :(.

Now, my 8800GTX replacement, it is tempting to get the 6850/6870, but at the same time if I was to get the 6870 I may aswell get a 7850 for an extra £15 :D. I forgot to say, I only use a 1440*900 monitor around my mates, so it doesn't need to be massively powerful, even the 8800GTX plays stuff fine at that res, it just seems like the RAM is broke on it so I need to find a replacement, rather than an upgrade. I can afford more than £100 if it's actually worthwhile, I just don't know whether it will be at that res?
 
You should be able to find the i5-3570K (retail) for around £170. I got mine for £163 from OcUK for the OEM when they were on T/O offer. The aftermarket cooler is a valid point though, knowing how hot ivy gets. However, I was thinking with the roughly £5-10 more for the 'K' that you could get away with the stock cooler and say in a year or twos time when he comes to you and says: "my CPU is slow, which new one do I get?" you could just tell him to get an £30 HSF and overclock it for him.

The overclocking is personal choice really but it's a bit disappointing he's not into the SSD idea because I think that would make the most difference to him - then again if that's what he wants who are we to argue!

As it stands I think you're original spec with the 7850 is probably his best bet imo.

GL
 
Bloomfield said:
I hadn't actually realised 7850s were only £170, seems like that's the best choice graphics wise, cheers :).
Click to expand...
HD 7850 is on sale, it usually is around £190

Bloomfield said:
The H61 v Z77 thing, upgrading the BIOS on an H61 wouldn't be a problem, the PC I have around his just got upgraded to the same motherboard you're recommending with an i3 in it, so I could just use that to flash it if needed. Most people just seem to recommend the Z77 over the others even when not overclocking though, so I'm not really sure what would be best to get?
Click to expand...
Going for the Z77 over the H61 because your friend might consider overclocking the CPU if it's lacking in games

Bloomfield said:
I don't know what to do about overclocking, I'd prefer to overclock it for him, but that'd mean another £20 for the i5K and another £30 for a cooler (is the motherboard listed decent enough for overclocking?), which would mean he either has to up his budget, which I doubt he wants to do, or get a worse GPU which would probably mean games run worse overall even with an overclocked CPU :(.
Click to expand...
Gigabyte Z77 D3H is good enough to overclock the CPU to 4.5GHz+

Bloomfield said:
Now, my 8800GTX replacement, it is tempting to get the 6850/6870, but at the same time if I was to get the 6870 I may aswell get a 7850 for an extra £15 :D. I forgot to say, I only use a 1440*900 monitor around my mates, so it doesn't need to be massively powerful, even the 8800GTX plays stuff fine at that res, it just seems like the RAM is broke on it so I need to find a replacement, rather than an upgrade. I can afford more than £100 if it's actually worthwhile, I just don't know whether it will be at that res?
Click to expand...
What's your specs?
 
The PC with the 8800 has an i3 2120 and 8GB RAM in it atm.

So, the Gigabyte mobo listed Phusion or the MSI one in the OP? Ignore the price difference since I've just found out that the laptop he sold to fund this is probably going to be sent back to him now, as the buyer wasn't happy with it :/, so it won't be on This Week Only anymore (and it's only £5 difference anyways :p).

If the Gigabyte one is up to overclocking I'd be tempted to pick that one, just due to the fact that the last 3 motherboards I've bought have been Gigabyte :D.

I'm thinking it'd be best to do what martian recommended atm, get a retail 3570k for now (I'd probably get the retail anyway, just for the extra warranty), then if he wants it overclocked in the future I can do that. It might mess with the budget a bit, but since he's not getting it today anymore, something else might be on this week only and make up the difference :D.

Cheers for all the input so far, I'll be seeing him tonight so he can have a look at the options everyone has given, and I'll find out what's happening money wise and when it'll be available :).
 
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