£600ish build

Adam123

Adam123

Adam123

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11 Jan 2009
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Hello OCUK forums,

Been tasked with putting together a spec for a £550-600ish build - only tower and OS needed - tried to go with a red and black colour scheme.

Student windows 8.1 can be had for around £50 so missed that out of the spec below.

This build needs to be easily up-gradable and will be used for playing games like Total War: Rome 2.

Here is what I have so far:

YOUR BASKET
1 x MSI Radeon R9 280 Gaming 3072MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £155.99
1 x MSI Z97 Gaming 5 Intel Z97 (Socket 1150) DDR3 ATX Motherboard £106.99
1 x EVGA SuperNova G2 750W '80 Plus Gold' Modular Power Supply £79.99
1 x Intel Pentium K Anniversary G3258 Socket LGA1150 Processor - Retail £53.99
1 x Avexir Core Red Series 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C11 1600MHz Dual Channel Memory Kit (AVD3U16001104G-2IR) - Red Light £53.99
1 x Corsair Carbide 200R Compact ATX Case - Black (CC-9011023-WW) £46.99
1 x Seagate Barracuda 7200RPM 1TB SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache - OEM (ST1000DM003) HDD £43.99
1 x Cooler Master Hyper 212 Evo CPU Cooler £24.97
Total : £566.90

The thought process is that this can act as a solid base and then upgraded as follows:

1) Add an SSD
2) Upgrade to i5 4690k or similar
3) Additional 280 for X-fire.

Anyone do any better?

Please and thanks

:-)
 
 
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The CX 500W v2 has only 408W/34 amps max ouput on 12v rail. Wee bit short for a i5-4690K + 290 build, imo.

The SuperFlower 550W Gold is at a good price just now - 546W/45.5 amps max output + better internals/warranty. Safer, longer-lasting bet.

For CrossFire/SLI, that EVGA G2 in Adam's spec is ideal. The Antec TruePower Gold 750 is a little cheaper right now, but I'd probably go with the G2 if it were my build, plus it brings red PCI-E cables already.
 
 
Danny75 said:
The CX 500W v2 has only 408W/34 amps max ouput on 12v rail. Wee bit short for a i5-4690K + 290 build, imo.

The SuperFlower 550W Gold is at a good price just now - 546W/45.5 amps max output + better internals/warranty. Safer, longer-lasting bet.

For CrossFire/SLI, that EVGA G2 in Adam's spec is ideal. The Antec TruePower Gold 750 is a little cheaper right now, but I'd probably go with the G2 if it were my build, plus it brings red PCI-E cables already.
Click to expand...

Yeah the EVGA G2 has some good reviews and should be enough for 2x 280s in the future.

Also the spec is for £600ish including OS (so around the £550 mark). Otherwise nice specs ha.

Wont I need more than a 550W psu for 2 x 280's and an overclocked 4690k?
 
Adam123 said:
Yeah the EVGA G2 has some good reviews and should be enough for 2x 280s in the future.

Also the spec is for £600ish including OS (so around the £550 mark). Otherwise nice specs ha.

Wont I need more than a 550W psu for 2 x 280's and an overclocked 4690k?
Click to expand...

Yes, if he'll want 2 x 280, then a good 750W minimum.

To be fair, I reckon the above specs are alternatives to having CrossFire capability, so it can just start off being a better performing computer, than the 750W + Pentium K one. And the 550W would handle a single more powerful card in future.
 
As an afterthought - I'd differ from the upgrade route you planned and would go with Idleman's spec instead (if your mate can borrow £50 somewhere).

Reason being that the 7950 might be decent enough to last him a while, and by the time he wants more GPU power, there'll be new cards out and/or cards like the GTX 970 will have gone down in price. The expenditure for a new CPU is no longer in the equation as he'll already have the i5-4690K. If your mate has a 1080p monitor, the 7950 should still be good for now and knowing it'll be upgraded might as well go for the cheaper refurb in the spec instead of blowing more on a new 280.

Preparing for 2 x 280s might actually limit options/not get the best for the money ultimately, by restricting choice to another 280. Single card is always preferable to XFire/SLI if it can deliver the goods.

Fwiw. :)
 
YOUR BASKET
1 x Intel Core i5-4690K 3.50GHz (Devil's Canyon) Socket LGA1150 Processor - Retail £188.99
1 x MSI AMD ATI Radeon 7950 Twin FrozR BE 3072MB PCI-Express Graphics Card **REFURB 90 DAY WARRANTY** (R7950 TF 3GD5/BE) £99.95
1 x Crucial MX100 256GB SATA 2.5” 7mm SSD + 9.5mm Adapter (CT256MX100SSD1) £86.99
1 x Asus Z97-P Intel Z97 (Socket 1150) DDR3 ATX Motherboard £70.99
1 x TeamGroup Vulcan RED 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-19200C11 2400MHz Dual Channel Kit (TLRED38G2400HC11CDC01) £59.99
1 x SuperFlower Golden Green HX 550W "80 Plus Gold" Power Supply - Black £49.99
1 x Aerocool GT Advance Black Edition Mid tower - Black £29.99
Total : ££586.88 (includes shipping : ).




The Corsair 200R would hide any black/red theme inside anyway, so there's an alternative cheaper case with 2 x 120mm fans and a few red leds on the outside. PSU dust filter included.

Shipping is free using "SFCASE" code upon checkout. The CPU in combination with that Asus motherboard, would qualify for a £40 cashback if you order prior to the 27th December.

So, total cost, with 250GB SSD included (add mech drive later), would eventually come out to £546.88.

Squeeze the 7950 for all it's got, then buy a single card two or three levels better than a 280.

Only thing is if he wants to add a water cooler larger than 120mm in future, he'd have to take the top panel off, mod it (cut hole) and place rad and fans on top of the case.
 
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Good question. I know for B Grade stuff the remaining manufacturer warranty applies, but not sure about refurbs. Best ask in OcUK Customer Service forum or ring them up, or webnote them.
 
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CA-174-CS&groupid=2362&catid=1489

More expensive but still a much nicer looking case in my opinion, thought I would bring this to your attention.

Save £8 towards an after market cooler (Optional) http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CP-542-IN&groupid=701&catid=6&subcat=567 and add http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=HS-013-RT&groupid=701&catid=2330&subcat=2666 http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=HS-002-RT&groupid=701&catid=2330&subcat=2666
resulting in lower temps and less noise than what you'd get with Intels awful stock cooler.
 
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Gilbert89 said:
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CA-174-CS&groupid=2362&catid=1489

More expensive but still a much nicer looking case in my opinion, thought I would bring this to your attention.

Save £8 towards an after market cooler (Optional) http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CP-542-IN&groupid=701&catid=6&subcat=567 and add http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=HS-013-RT&groupid=701&catid=2330&subcat=2666 http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=HS-002-RT&groupid=701&catid=2330&subcat=2666
resulting in lower temps and less noise than what you'd get with Intels awful stock cooler.
Click to expand...

Save £8 but lose 2 years worth of warranty
 
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