£650 build for home / office use..

miceormen

miceormen

miceormen

Associate
Joined
26 Feb 2008
Posts
437
Hi everyone.

Been a while since I built my last system.. Tweaked my own some over the years but everything post-lga775 is a bit beyond me. So many options. :eek:

I need to build a system for my Dad's home office.. He might play the odd bit of F1 2010 or similar.. And my sister will play LoL, TF2 and Civ5 when she visits, so it needs a reasonable gfx card..

This is all easy enough. My main issue is having components compatible out of the box.. Don't want to be flashing mobos to be compatible with troublesome SSDs or anything else.

So the spec needs to be as follows:

- 128gb SSD
- 500gb storage drive
- Windows 7 Pro
- Quality PSU (it may be left on, put to sleep a lot.. etc)
- Case with sufficient cooling for office-style PC abuse ^

If a 1080 monitor could be included with a decent spec, fantastic.. If it makes a big impact on the quality, no worries, I'll sort that separately.

Any ideas / builds appreciated

Cheers guys
 
Without monitor:


YOUR BASKET
1 x Crucial RealSSD M4 128GB 2.5" SATA 6Gb/s Solid State Hard Drive (CT128M4SSD2) £99.95
1 x Intel Core i3-2120 3.30GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor - Retail £99.95
1 x MSI HD 6850 "Dual Fan Edition" 1024MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £83.99
1 x MSI Z77A-G43 Intel Z77 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £77.38
1 x Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 64-Bit - OEM (GFC-02050) £72
1 x Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 500GB SATA 6Gb/s 16MB Cache - OEM (ST500DM002) £59.99
1 x OCZ ZS Series 550W '80 Plus Bronze' Power Supply £49.99
1 x Zalman Z9 Plus Tower Case with Fan Controller - Black £49.99
1 x Corsair Vengeance Low Profile 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (CML8GX3M2A1600C9) £44.99
1 x OcUK 22x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £17.99
Total : £671.21 (includes shipping : £12.50).




Okay so its over budget without a monitor let me explain why:

The i3 is by the far the best processor you want to use if gaming comes into the equation for under £100.

The M4 might not be the cheapest SSD but its got good reviews and is SATA 3.

The 6850 will tear through the presented games very easily.

I chose a Z77 mobo for two reasons, one it would be handy for a future upgrade to Ivy? And also because I couldnt find a cheaper mobo that supported SATA 3 but I could be wrong?

Zalman Z9 has 4 fans, fan controller and a temperature gauge for the cooling aspects.

8GB of low profile RAM so if he needs an after market cooler there wont be any issues.


EDIT: Sorry I couldnt fit Windows 7 Pro in there, but you would need to cut down on RAM and Graphics to achieve it. So it down to if you think its worth it?
 
Last edited:
This is what I came up with including a monitor, although I have had to cut sown on the SSD size to try and keep to budget.


YOUR BASKET
1 x Microsoft Windows 7 Professional SP1 64-Bit - OEM (FQC-04649) £114.98
1 x Intel Core i3-2120 3.30GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor - Retail £99.95
1 x OcUK E2250SWDA 22" Widescreen LED Monitor - Black £89.99
1 x MSI HD 6850 "Dual Fan Edition" 1024MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £83.99
1 x Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 500GB SATA 6Gb/s 16MB Cache - OEM (ST500DM002) £59.99
1 x Sandisk Ultra SSD 60GB 2.5" SATA-2 Solid State Hard Drive - (SDSSDH-060G-G25) £49.99
1 x Corsair Builder Series CX 500W V2 '80 Plus' Power Supply (CMPSU-500CXUKV2) £49.99
1 x Gigabyte H61MA-D2V Intel H61 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £44.99
1 x Crucial Ballistix Sport 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (BLS2CP4G3D1609DS1S00CEU) £38.39
1 x BitFenix Merc Alpha Gaming Case - Black £32.99
1 x OcUK 22x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £17.99
Total : £706.15 (includes shipping : £19.10).



I would advises leaving the monitor as it is for the moment unless you are in urgent need of a new one and then get one separately at a later date. If you do that then this is what I would go for.

YOUR BASKET
1 x Microsoft Windows 7 Professional SP1 64-Bit - OEM (FQC-04649) £114.98
1 x Crucial RealSSD M4 128GB 2.5" SATA 6Gb/s Solid State Hard Drive (CT128M4SSD2) £99.95
1 x Intel Core i3-2120 3.30GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor - Retail £99.95
1 x MSI HD 6850 "Dual Fan Edition" 1024MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £83.99
1 x Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 500GB SATA 6Gb/s 16MB Cache - OEM (ST500DM002) £59.99
1 x Corsair Builder Series CX 500W V2 '80 Plus' Power Supply (CMPSU-500CXUKV2) £49.99
1 x Gigabyte H61MA-D3V Intel H61 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £47.99
1 x Crucial Ballistix Sport 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (BLS2CP4G3D1609DS1S00CEU) £38.39
1 x BitFenix Merc Alpha Gaming Case - Black £32.99
1 x OcUK 22x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £17.99
Total : £660.30 (includes shipping : £11.75).

 
Looks good guys, cheers.

Anyone had any experience with the Pentium Sandybridge chips? Looks like I could save myself fifty quid.. Just means no hyperthreading..
 
YOUR BASKET
1 x Microsoft Windows 7 Professional SP1 64-Bit - OEM (FQC-04649) £114.98
1 x Sandisk Extreme SSD 120GB 2.5" SATA 6Gb/s Solid State Hard Drive - (SDSSDX-120G-G25) £89.99
1 x OcUK E2250SWDA 22" Widescreen LED Monitor - Black £89.99
1 x MSI HD 6850 "Dual Fan Edition" 1024MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £83.99
1 x Hitachi Deskstar 7K1000.D 500GB SATA 6GB/s 16MB Cache - OEM (0F13178) £59.99
1 x Intel Pentium G840 2.80GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor - Retail £55.99
1 x Gigabyte H61MA-D3V Intel H61 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £47.99
1 x BitFenix Merc Beta Gaming Case - Black £32.99
1 x OCZ CoreXtreme 500w '80 Plus' Power Supply £32.99
1 x Kingston Blu 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (KHX1600C9AD3B1K2/4G) £23.99
1 x OcUK 22x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £17.99
Total : £672.29 (includes shipping : £17.85).

 
Decided to make it a plain atx build, hate fiddling with little pcbs..

Removed the extra hdd, going with a Crucial M4 128gb ssd I think.

The guts of the computer will be:

i3 2120 (with an Arctic 7 cooler)
Gigabyte H77-D3H
Crucial Ballistix 8gb pc3-12800
MSI 6850 dual fan
Crucial Realssd M4 128gb
Corsair CX500

Can anyone tell me if there's any known incompatibilities between the chosen ssd and motherboard? Really don't want to be faffing with bios flashes.
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom