£650 spec adjustment

bru

bru

bru

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OK I have been tasked to spec, order and build a system for a friend with a budgeted hard limit of £650, the system will be used for gaming and normal Internet use. There will be no overclocking. I need to make a few cutbacks to get it under the £650, of course any other suggestions are welcome.


YOUR BASKET
1 x Samsung S24B300BS 24" Widescreen LED Monitor - Glossy Black £129.95
1 x MSI HD 7850 OC 1024MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Cards £119.99
1 x Intel Core i3-3220 3.30GHz (Ivybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor (77W) - Retail £89.99
1 x Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 64-Bit - OEM (GFC-02050) £71.99
1 x Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 500GB SATA 6Gb/s 16MB Cache - OEM (ST500DM002) HDD £41.99
1 x Gigabyte H61MA-D2V Intel H61 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £39.98
1 x Cooler Master GX Lite 500W '80 Plus' Power Supply £37.99
1 x GeIL EVO Leggera 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (GEL38GB1600C9DC) £31.99
1 x Xigmatek Asgard II Midi Tower Case - Black £26.99
1 x Logitech S-220 2.1 Speaker System - OEM (980-000022) £19.99
1 x OcUK 24x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £18.98
1 x OcUK Black Gaming Keyboard (5105GU) £10.99
1 x Gigabyte M6880 1600DPI Gaming Mouse £9.98
1 x OcUK Tech Labs Zaward OEM 120mm Golf Ball Fan £2.99
Total : £653.80 (includes shipping : FREE).

 
I think if you only get the 1GB 7850 you are shooting yourself in the foot a bit. I'm not sure on the actual performance difference but 1GB seems a bit low for a new graphics card. 2GB version for futureproof. Seems like a good value and relatively solid build to me though.
 
Macky said:
I think if you only get the 1GB 7850 you are shooting yourself in the foot a bit. I'm not sure on the actual performance difference but 1GB seems a bit low for a new graphics card. 2GB version for futureproof. Seems like a good value and relatively solid build to me though.
Click to expand...

Well in an ideal world I would agree with you that a 1GB card isn't enough, but price constraints warrant certain sacrifices.
In this price bracket you have the £90 AMD 7770, the £80 Nvidia 650, the £109 Nvidia 650Ti and the £120 AMD7850 1GB. The performance differences between these slower cards and the 7850 is night and day, unfortunately the 2GB version is another £42 which is just not attainable with this limited budget.
 
A B-grade HDD will save you a tenner. The only things missing from B-grade items is accessories etc. With the hard drive, I'd doubt he'd even notice.
 
Very true, I might have to sneak one in there under the radar just to get the overall price down.
 
Another thing on the PSU front, the 7850 has two 6 pin connectors I think so a PSU with two native 6 pin connectors would be better than a PSU with only one
 
LukieBoy007 said:
A B-grade HDD will save you a tenner. The only things missing from B-grade items is accessories etc. With the hard drive, I'd doubt he'd even notice.
Click to expand...

bru said:
Very true, I might have to sneak one in there under the radar just to get the overall price down.
Click to expand...

If your willing to go B Grade you can save another £10 on the motherboard too:

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=BG-301-GI&groupid=595&catid=689&subcat=

Same mouse half price:

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=BG-324-GI&groupid=595&catid=684&subcat=

Hard drive:

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=BG-131-WD&groupid=595&catid=671&subcat=

£25 worth of savings there. :)

EDIT: Meaning you can get a better PSU,

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CA-007-XF
 
With the money saved, you'd be able to get a XFX PSU in there and still be under budget. You could change the monitor to this:
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MO-193-SA&groupid=17&catid=949&subcat=
Yes, its smaller sized but it may have to be a sacrifice to be made.
Here's my take on the build:
YOUR BASKET
1 x MSI HD 7850 OC 1024MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Cards with Tomb Raider & Bioshock PC Games £119.99
1 x Samsung S22B300BS 22" Widescreen LED Monitor - Glossy Black £99.98
1 x Intel Core i3-3220 3.30GHz (Ivybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor (77W) - Retail £89.99
1 x Gigabyte Z77-D3H Intel Z77 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £79.99
1 x Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 64-Bit - OEM (GFC-02050) £71.99
1 x XFX Pro 450W Core Edition '80 Plus Bronze' Power Supply £39.95
1 x GeIL EVO Leggera 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (GEL38GB1600C9DC) £31.99
1 x **B Grade** Western Digital Caviar Blue 500GB SATA 6Gb/s 16MB Cache - OEM £30
1 x BitFenix Merc Beta Gaming Case - Black £29.99
1 x Logitech S-220 2.1 Speaker System - OEM (980-000022) £19.99
1 x OcUK 24x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £18.98
1 x OcUK Black Gaming Keyboard (5105GU) £10.99
1 x **B Grade** Gigabyte M6880 1600DPI (KB-005-GI) £4.99
Total : £648.83 (includes shipping : FREE).



+ Much better, Z77 motherboard.
+ Better quality PSU.
+ Better case.

- Had to lose a extra fan.
- B-grade items, although it won't be noticeable to him.
- Smaller monitor.
 
YOUR BASKET
1 x Samsung S24B300BS 24" Widescreen LED Monitor - Glossy Black £129.95
1 x MSI HD 7850 OC 1024MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Cards with Tomb Raider & Bioshock PC Games £119.99
1 x Intel Core i3-3220 3.30GHz (Ivybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor (77W) - Retail £89.99
1 x Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 64-Bit - OEM (GFC-02050) £71.99
1 x ASRock B75M Intel B75 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Micro ATX Motherboard £52.99
1 x XFX Pro 450W Core Edition '80 Plus Bronze' Power Supply £39.95
1 x GeIL EVO Leggera 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (GEL38GB1600C9DC) £31.99
1 x **B Grade** Western Digital Caviar Blue 500GB SATA 6Gb/s 16MB Cache - OEM £30
1 x Logitech S-220 2.1 Speaker System - OEM (980-000022) £19.99
1 x Antec VSK3000 Micro ATX Case £19.98
1 x OcUK 24x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £18.98
1 x Zalman ZM-K200M Multimedia/Gaming Keyboard £9.98
1 x **B Grade** Gigabyte M6880 1600DPI (KB-005-GI) £4.99
1 x Arctic 9L Case Fan - 92mm £2.59
Total : £643.37 (includes shipping : FREE).

 
Some nice finds there Doomedspeed.
I really am going to have to talk to him about some of the B grad options again, as there could be some nice savings to be made.
 
LukieBoy007 said:
With the money saved, you'd be able to get a XFX PSU in there and still be under budget. You could change the monitor to this:
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MO-193-SA&groupid=17&catid=949&subcat=
Yes, its smaller sized but it may have to be a sacrifice to be made.
Here's my take on the build:
YOUR BASKET
1 x MSI HD 7850 OC 1024MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Cards with Tomb Raider & Bioshock PC Games £119.99
1 x Samsung S22B300BS 22" Widescreen LED Monitor - Glossy Black £99.98
1 x Intel Core i3-3220 3.30GHz (Ivybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor (77W) - Retail £89.99
1 x Gigabyte Z77-D3H Intel Z77 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £79.99
1 x Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 64-Bit - OEM (GFC-02050) £71.99
1 x XFX Pro 450W Core Edition '80 Plus Bronze' Power Supply £39.95
1 x GeIL EVO Leggera 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (GEL38GB1600C9DC) £31.99
1 x **B Grade** Western Digital Caviar Blue 500GB SATA 6Gb/s 16MB Cache - OEM £30
1 x BitFenix Merc Beta Gaming Case - Black £29.99
1 x Logitech S-220 2.1 Speaker System - OEM (980-000022) £19.99
1 x OcUK 24x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £18.98
1 x OcUK Black Gaming Keyboard (5105GU) £10.99
1 x **B Grade** Gigabyte M6880 1600DPI (KB-005-GI) £4.99
Total : £648.83 (includes shipping : FREE).



+ Much better, Z77 motherboard.
+ Better quality PSU.
+ Better case.

- Had to lose a extra fan.
- B-grade items, although it won't be noticeable to him.
- Smaller monitor.
Click to expand...

Thank you for your contribution, couple of points though.

His outgoing monitor (he has sold his entire system to his sister is 23.5" so I very much doubt he would want to go down in size.

The much better Z77 motherboard. Yes it is, but in my opinion not for this system. Could you tell me in what way you think this motherboard would be worth twice the price for a system that is using a CPU that cannot be overclocked, a system that will not be overclocked in the future even if a better CPU is used. There is no SSD in the system to warrant SATA 6Gbps ports and very unlikely to be one in the future.

Losing the extra fan,in my opinion it is not a good idea to run a system without an input and exhaust fan.
 
Last edited:
agree with your points,

m/b a waste if no OC needed but wouldn't choose a H61 board either, just a cheap Z77 one if needed or used, don't go to low as m/b is heart of the pc, with cpu being the brain, put a i3 in a plie of rubbish and you might as well use a amd chip as there close enough and cheaper, it's not rubbish either but at the side of a Z77 board you get my meaning i hope

and saying much better is well depends on your views, for me it's good, but i couldn't warrant it either so went for a asus one which for me is fine

no sdd then maybe i'd still want board with later ports mind you as my hdd would be a good one and the latests, but thought all Z77 has them anyway tbh, so mute point for me

and never loose fans, most important bits in a case, i;d use a cheap case, rather than a better speced one but add my own fans, as airflow keeps it cool, won;t work half as long without.

and size is everything with monitors, nobody ever goes down, just like TV's, it's always the same or up

it comes to a point when altering a budget to make it all fits on a tight budget, making too many changers if makes you think some parts will just have to wait until funds are better, as if you cut your pc too thin, it ends up being a box of cheap bits which does nothing, better to say, it can;t be done good for the budget, use this for now maybe and upgrade some bits later when budget / funds are better, as for me now your starting to go to low and might as well have used a amd trinity chip and build and saved a bit more, but got some better bits in other area's etc
 
Last edited:
bru said:
Thank you for your contribution, couple of points though.

His outgoing monitor (he has sold his entire system to his sister is 23.5" so I very much doubt he would want to go down in size.

The much better Z77 motherboard. Yes it is, but in my opinion not for this system. Could you tell me in what way you think this motherboard would be worth twice the price for a system that is using a CPU that cannot be overclocked, a system that will not be overclocked in the future even if a better CPU is used. There is no SSD in the system to warrant SATA 6Gbps ports and very unlikely to be one in the future.

Losing the extra fan,in my opinion it is not a good idea to run a system without an input and exhaust fan.
Click to expand...

managed to get in in budget post #13 if u missed. 24inch screen included.
2 fans as well.
 
1 x Samsung S24B300BS 24" Widescreen LED Monitor - Glossy Black £129.95
1 x AMD A10-5800K Black Edition 3.80GHz (Socket FM2) APU Trinity Quad Core Processor (AD580KWOHJBOX) £95.99
1 x Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 64-Bit - OEM (GFC-02050) £71.99
1 x **B Grade** Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 1TB SATA 6Gb/s 32MB Cache - OEM £45.00
1 x MSI A55M-E33 AMD A55 Chipset (Socket FM2) DDR3 Micro ATX Motherboard £40.99
1 x XFX Pro 450W Core Edition '80 Plus Bronze' Power Supply £39.95
1 x GeIL EVO Leggera 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (GEL38GB1600C9DC) £31.99
1 x BitFenix Merc Alpha Gaming Case - Black £29.99
1 x OcUK 24x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £18.98
1 x Gigabyte KM6150 Keyboard and Mouse Set £11.99
1 x Logitech S-120 2.0 Speaker System - OEM (980-000011) £9.59
2 x OcUK Tech Labs Zaward OEM 120mm Golf Ball Fan £2.99 (£5.98)
Total : £553.80 (includes shipping : £17.85).



add a vga card when budget allows, trinity chip has good onboard vga and would do until they can afford it, or see spec below with one added.

1 x Samsung S24B300BS 24" Widescreen LED Monitor - Glossy Black £129.95
1 x AMD A10-5800K Black Edition 3.80GHz (Socket FM2) APU Trinity Quad Core Processor (AD580KWOHJBOX) £95.99
1 x Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 64-Bit - OEM (GFC-02050) £71.99
1 x MSI HD 6670 2048MB GDDR3 PCI-Express Graphics Card £59.99
1 x **B Grade** Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 1TB SATA 6Gb/s 32MB Cache - OEM £45.00
1 x MSI A55M-E33 AMD A55 Chipset (Socket FM2) DDR3 Micro ATX Motherboard £40.99
1 x XFX Pro 450W Core Edition '80 Plus Bronze' Power Supply £39.95
1 x GeIL EVO Leggera 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (GEL38GB1600C9DC) £31.99
1 x BitFenix Merc Alpha Gaming Case - Black £29.99
1 x OcUK 24x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £18.98
1 x Gigabyte KM6150 Keyboard and Mouse Set £11.99
1 x Logitech S-120 2.0 Speaker System - OEM (980-000011) £9.59
2 x OcUK Tech Labs Zaward OEM 120mm Golf Ball Fan £2.99 (£5.98)
Total : £613.79 (includes shipping : £17.85).



added a low to mid ranged 2gb card, i know some can be paired with onboard for dual vga but tbh don't know enough about it either to say or spec which ones can and can't.

dual-GPU configuration, i searched online so know it can be done, but hopeful someone here will say with what card, mine might not be the one, but i know it's not a top end one for sure

cpu is as fast as i3 and bits are equal or better used, 500gb for a hdd for me is too low, so went for the one i picked but don't normal do B grade either

you will get the shipping off as well, but i dont so have done the build in my account, so even cheaper, just as fast as your first spec, keyboard and mice are ok, speakers will do but aren't great same as case tbh, but thats a box to hold bits in, something i'd change when budget gets better, but for now and budget it will do

1 x Samsung S24B300BS 24" Widescreen LED Monitor - Glossy Black £129.95
1 x AMD A10-5800K Black Edition 3.80GHz (Socket FM2) APU Trinity Quad Core Processor (AD580KWOHJBOX) £95.99
1 x Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 64-Bit - OEM (GFC-02050) £71.99
1 x MSI HD 6670 2048MB GDDR3 PCI-Express Graphics Card £59.99
1 x Antec One Gaming Case - Black £49.99
1 x **B Grade** Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 1TB SATA 6Gb/s 32MB Cache - OEM £45.00
1 x MSI A55M-E33 AMD A55 Chipset (Socket FM2) DDR3 Micro ATX Motherboard £40.99
1 x XFX Pro 450W Core Edition '80 Plus Bronze' Power Supply £39.95
1 x GeIL EVO Leggera 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (GEL38GB1600C9DC) £31.99
1 x OcUK 24x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £18.98
1 x Gigabyte KM6150 Keyboard and Mouse Set £11.99
1 x Logitech S-120 2.0 Speaker System - OEM (980-000011) £9.59
2 x OcUK Tech Labs Zaward OEM 120mm Golf Ball Fan £2.99 (£5.98)
Total : £635.29 (includes shipping : £19.10).



better case, same bits, makes me feel better :)
 
Last edited:
OK update to this spec thread, will be ordering tomorrow one of these two specs.

YOUR BASKET
1 x Intel Core i5-3450 3.10GHz (Ivybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor (77W) - Retail £146.99
1 x Samsung S24B300BS 24" Widescreen LED Monitor - Glossy Black £129.95
1 x MSI HD 7850 OC 1024MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Cards with Tomb Raider & Bioshock PC Games £119.99
1 x Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 500GB SATA 6Gb/s 16MB Cache - OEM (ST500DM002) HDD £41.99
1 x XFX Pro 450W Core Edition '80 Plus Bronze' Power Supply £39.95
1 x MSI H61M-P31-G3 Intel H61 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £38.99
1 x GeIL EVO Leggera 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (GEL38GB1600C9DC) £31.99
1 x Xigmatek Asgard II Midi Tower Case - Black £26.99
1 x Logitech S-220 2.1 Speaker System - OEM (980-000022) £19.99
1 x OcUK 24x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £18.98
1 x OcUK Black Gaming Keyboard (5105GU) £10.99
1 x Gigabyte M6880 1600DPI Gaming Mouse £9.98
1 x OcUK Tech Labs Zaward OEM 120mm Golf Ball Fan £2.99
Total : £639.77 (includes shipping : FREE).




or

YOUR BASKET
1 x Gigabyte ATI Radeon HD 7850 OC Windforce 2X 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card with Tomb Raider & Bioshock PC Games £161.99
1 x Samsung S24B300BS 24" Widescreen LED Monitor - Glossy Black £129.95
1 x Intel Core i3-3220 3.30GHz (Ivybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor (77W) - Retail £89.99
1 x Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 500GB SATA 6Gb/s 16MB Cache - OEM (ST500DM002) HDD £41.99
1 x XFX Pro 450W Core Edition '80 Plus Bronze' Power Supply £39.95
1 x MSI H61M-P31-G3 Intel H61 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £38.99
1 x GeIL EVO Leggera 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (GEL38GB1600C9DC) £31.99
1 x Xigmatek Asgard II Midi Tower Case - Black £26.99
1 x Logitech S-220 2.1 Speaker System - OEM (980-000022) £19.99
1 x OcUK 24x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £18.98
1 x OcUK Black Gaming Keyboard (5105GU) £10.99
1 x Gigabyte M6880 1600DPI Gaming Mouse £9.98
1 x OcUK Tech Labs Zaward OEM 120mm Golf Ball Fan £2.99
Total : £624.77 (includes shipping : FREE).





So what do you reckon the better CPU or the 2GB pre overclocked GPU.

Remember there will be no overclocking in this machine and no future SSD
 
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