£800 Build, spec me

Bickaxe

Bickaxe

Bickaxe

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£800 to potentially spend at the very most, ideally it will be less.

I've put together an Intel and an AMD system and they work out very similar so after some advice and suggestions. I'm erring towards the Intel (i5) with an Nvidia card (GTX760)

A couple of stipulations though;
1) Discreet case, can be any size but must be as quiet as possible
2) Will be used for gaming
3) Will be used for media (will be in living room connected to TV)
4) I've never built a water cooled system
5) Not interested in OCing
6) Wireless mouse and keyboard req'd
7) OS on SSD and small HDD should be okay
8) Blu Ray drive (we considered a separate system but this is whats been decided due to clutter)
 
YOUR BASKET
1 x Gigabyte Z97X-SLI - Devils Canyon Core i5 4690K Bundle **£14 Saving** £252.58
1 x XFX Radeon R9 280X DD Black Edition 3072MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card (R9-280X-TDBD) £227.99
1 x Crucial MX100 256GB SATA 2.5” 7mm SSD + 9.5mm Adapter (CT256MX100SSD1) £74.99
1 x TeamGroup Vulcan RED 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-17100C11 2133MHz Dual Channel Kit (TLD38G2133HC11ADC01) £65.99
1 x Antec P100 Mid Tower Silenced Computing Case £51.95
1 x SuperFlower Golden Green HX 550W "80 Plus Gold" Power Supply - Black £46.99
1 x OcUK Value Blu-ray / DVDRW combi SATA - OEM £39.95
1 x Seagate Barracuda 7200RPM 1TB SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache - OEM (ST1000DM003) HDD £38.99
1 x Gigabyte KM7580 Wireless 2.4GHz Keyboard & Mouse Set £19.99
1 x Raijintek Themis Black Heatpipe CPU Cooler PWM - 120mm £19.99
Total : £839.40 (includes shipping : ).



The XFX 280X comes with a free 60Gb SSD, its not a great SSD so sell it to recoup money.

Not sure if the Blu-Ray drive comes with any playback software, but you usually need to pay for software to play back Blu-Rays, or get a retail drive that does come with software.
 
@ stulid you missed the OS... youre over budget

YOUR BASKET
1 x MSI GeForce GTX 760 OC Gaming Edition 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £163.99
1 x Intel Core i5-4690 3.50GHz (Haswell) Socket LGA1150 Processor - Retail £151.99
1 x Microsoft Windows 8.1 64-Bit DVD - OEM (WN7-00614) £74.99
1 x Gigabyte Z97M-DS3H Intel Z97 (Socket 1150) DDR3 Micro ATX Motherboard £68.99
1 x TeamGroup Xtreem LV "Frost Edition" 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-19200C10 2400MHz Dual Channel Kit £67.99
1 x SanDisk Pulse 128GB 2.5" SATA 6Gb/s Solid State Hard Drive - (SDSSDP-128G-G25) £50.99
1 x SuperFlower Golden Green HX 550W "80 Plus Gold" Power Supply - Black £46.99
1 x OcUK Value Blu-ray / DVDRW combi SATA - OEM £39.95
1 x Seagate Barracuda 7200RPM 1TB SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache - OEM (ST1000DM003) HDD £38.99
1 x BitFenix Neos ATX Tower Black/Black £29.99
1 x OcUK Compact Wireless Desktop Set (6309ARF) £19.99
1 x Zalman ZM-F3 120mm Silent Case Fan - 3 Pin £4.99
Total : £759.84 (includes shipping : ).

 
Svyper1 said:
@ stulid you missed the OS... youre over budget
Click to expand...

Does he actually say he needs an OS though?


Plus your £800 with OS spec is pretty horrid.

YOUR BASKET
1 x Gigabyte Z97X-SLI - Devils Canyon Core i5 4690K Bundle **£14 Saving** £252.58
1 x XFX Radeon R9 280 DD Edition 3072MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card (R9-280A-TDFD) £169.99
1 x Crucial MX100 256GB SATA 2.5” 7mm SSD + 9.5mm Adapter (CT256MX100SSD1) £74.99
1 x Microsoft Windows 8.1 64-Bit DVD - OEM (WN7-00614) £74.99
1 x TeamGroup Vulcan RED 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-17100C11 2133MHz Dual Channel Kit (TLD38G2133HC11ADC01) £65.99
1 x SuperFlower Golden Green HX 550W "80 Plus Gold" Power Supply - Black £46.99
1 x OcUK Value Blu-ray / DVDRW combi SATA - OEM £39.95
1 x Seagate Barracuda 7200RPM 1TB SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache - OEM (ST1000DM003) HDD £38.99
1 x Antec One Gaming Case - Black £29.99
1 x Gigabyte KM7580 Wireless 2.4GHz Keyboard & Mouse Set £19.99
1 x Raijintek Themis Black Heatpipe CPU Cooler PWM - 120mm £19.99
Total : £834.43 (includes shipping : ).



The Antec case comes with two fans and is better than the Neos for the same price.

A R9 280 is faster than a GTX760 and this XFX includes a free 60GB SSD to sell on and recoup money.
 
you're "opinion" is completely biased and wrong...cooling is completely fine

Bickaxe said:
7) OS on SSD and small HDD should be okay
Click to expand...

also he doesnt want to OC therefore k-series not necessary...

if he doesnt need OS :

YOUR BASKET
1 x MSI Geforce GTX 770 Gaming Edition 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £217.99
1 x Intel Core i5-4690 3.50GHz (Haswell) Socket LGA1150 Processor - Retail £151.99
1 x Kingston HyperX 3K SSD 240GB 2.5" SATA 6Gb/s Solid State Drive (SH103S3/240G) £109.99
1 x Gigabyte Z97M-DS3H Intel Z97 (Socket 1150) DDR3 Micro ATX Motherboard £68.99
1 x TeamGroup Xtreem LV "Frost Edition" 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-19200C10 2400MHz Dual Channel Kit £67.99
1 x SuperFlower Golden Green HX 550W "80 Plus Gold" Power Supply - Black £46.99
1 x OcUK Value Blu-ray / DVDRW combi SATA - OEM £39.95
1 x Seagate Barracuda 7200RPM 1TB SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache - OEM (ST1000DM003) HDD £38.99
1 x BitFenix Neos ATX Tower Black/Black £29.99
1 x OcUK Compact Wireless Desktop Set (6309ARF) £19.99
1 x Zalman ZM-F3 120mm Silent Case Fan - 3 Pin £4.99
Total : £797.86 (includes shipping : ).



free game and improved gfx for less
 
Svyper1 said:
you're "opinion" is completely biased and wrong...

also he doesnt want to OC therefore k-series not necessary...
Click to expand...

Doesn't matter, I got it included within the budget and it's more valuable than a non K, also he may want to OC later on, never say never.

Also why include a Z chipset board if you don't need it.

A Kingston Hyper X is not as fast as a MX100 and it costs more money.

Tell me what I'm "biased" about.
 
stulid said:
Doesn't matter, I got it included within the budget and it's more valuable than a non K, also he may want to OC later on, never say never.

Also why include a Z chipset board if you don't need it.

A Kingston Hyper X is not as fast as a MX100 and it costs more money.

Tell me what I'm "biased" about.
Click to expand...


simple it's a better board for £1-2 difference to H97

free game or £30 less his choice :)
 
Svyper1 said:
simple it's a better board for £1-2 difference to H97

free game or £30 less his choice :)
Click to expand...

Plenty of H87/B85 boards for less.

Also free game? well the R9 280 and 280X not only include a free SSD but also include Gold tickets for three free games.
 
stulid said:
Plenty of H87/B85 boards for less.

Also free game? well the R9 280 and 280X not only include a free SSD but also include Gold tickets for three free games.
Click to expand...

well that would mean £60 less for so he can buy 2-4 games at £800 compared to your over budget adding another 2 games price if he really wanted to go mx100 and h87 or even lower the SSD as not needed and get more...

seriously I could go 10 rounds with you but hey night night :)

@ OP hope you get want you want :)
 
Its not over budget when the V300 SSD is sold on.

Also still waiting for you to tell me what I am "biased" about.
 
Its for the missus to play Sims, Civ, Tropico etc... as well as play with photos, play Blu Rays etc... and I don't have to worry about it not being able to cope in a few years time

OS - Needs to be included for budgeting but may get it cheap through work
SSD - The free one with GPU could hold the OS with the other holding a few games
Blu-Ray - Have read up that the software has to be bought.

A quick 5 mins gives me this for an Intel based system, thoughts?
Why not an AMD based system?

YOUR BASKET
1 x XFX Radeon R9 280 DD Edition 3072MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card (R9-280A-TDFD) £169.99
1 x Intel Core i5-4690 3.50GHz (Haswell) Socket LGA1150 Processor - Retail £151.99
1 x Microsoft Windows 8.1 64-Bit DVD - OEM (WN7-00614) £74.99
1 x Gigabyte H97-HD3 Intel H97 (Socket 1150) DDR3 ATX Motherboard £74.99
1 x TeamGroup Elite Black 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C11 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (TED38GM1600HC11DC01) £55.99
1 x Antec P100 Mid Tower Silenced Computing Case £51.95
1 x Kingston 120GB SSDNow V300 Drive SATA 6Gb/s 3 2.5" (7mm height) Solid State Hard Drive - (SV300S37A/120G) £47.99
1 x SuperFlower Golden Green HX 550W "80 Plus Gold" Power Supply - Black £46.99
1 x OcUK Value Blu-ray / DVDRW combi SATA - OEM £39.95
1 x Seagate Barracuda 7200RPM 1TB SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache - OEM (ST1000DM003) HDD £38.99
1 x Gigabyte KM7580 Wireless 2.4GHz Keyboard & Mouse Set £19.99
1 x Raijintek Themis Black Heatpipe CPU Cooler PWM - 120mm £19.99
1 x OcUK Value 2mtr HDMI Male - Cable Male (CDLHD-302) £3.98
Total : £797.78 (includes shipping : ).



I've not really kept up with new stuff since building mine in November, is there anything on the horizon that looks interesting for a mid-level system?
 
Spend more and get a good SSD,

The V300 were subject to a revision and use worse memory chips - http://www.anandtech.com/show/7763/an-update-to-kingston-ssdnow-v300-a-switch-to-slower-micron-nand

YOUR BASKET
1 x Crucial MX100 256GB SATA 2.5” 7mm SSD + 9.5mm Adapter (CT256MX100SSD1) £74.99
1 x Crucial MX100 128GB SATA 2.5” 7mm SSD + 9.5mm Adapter (CT128MX100SSD1) £54.98
1 x Crucial M500 120GB SATA 6Gb/s Solid State Hard Drive - (CT120M500SSD1) £54.98
1 x Toshiba SSD HDTS212EZSTA 9.5mm 128GB Solid State Hard Drive - Retail £54.98
1 x Corsair Force LX 2.5" 128GB SATA III MLC 7mm Internal Solid State Drive (CSSD-F128GBLX) £54.98
Total : £294.92 (includes shipping : ).




The only thing coming out is X99 and Haswell-E CPU's, but these will be top end stuff with pricing to match, let alone needing DDR4 which is also expensive.

Why not AMD? well you can afford Intel, so do that.

The 4670 will be faster than FX8320/8350.
 
Point taken on the SSD. Just waiting for the bonus to come in now to pay for it.

Intel over AMD, but AMD over Nvidia but only to a point (my 780 ghz was a fantastic investment)
 
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