Advice on first build

jk1986

jk1986

jk1986

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Joined
25 Jun 2012
Posts
13
Hi, I've got a prebuilt machine that's getting old (that's done suprisingly ok) and I'm considering moving towards building my own on a budget.

I currently have the below:

Needs replacing:
case + PSU
Dell Motherboard + Core 2 duo E8400 3ghz
OEM Vista

Possibly useful?:
2x2GB DDR2
Geforce GT440

Reuse:
750GB Hitachi SATA hard drive
Monitor
keyboard + mouse
wireless adapter
tv tuner card
DVDRW


I'm on a tight budget, but would like some gaming, realistically it's not going to be amazing. What do people think I could put together at around the £300-400 mark (inc VAT)? One thing I would consider is keeping the GT440 for the time being and upgrading later on.

I may be interesting in overclocking if the system built is suitable. Funnily enough I've heard the E8400 was really decent for overclocking but I was stuck with a crappy motherboard.

I'm new to this, my previous experience being limited to installing upgrades, so would really appreciate any advice given!
 
YOUR BASKET
1 x Intel Core i3-2120 3.30GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor - Retail £99.95
1 x MSI HD 6850 OC 1024MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £89.99
1 x Asus P8H61 Intel H61 Chipset (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard **B3 REVISION** £62.98
1 x Samsung 64GB SSD 830 Desktop Series SATA 6Gb/s KIT with Norton Ghost - (MZ-7PC064D/EU) £53.99
1 x OCZ ZS Series 550W '80 Plus Bronze' Power Supply £46.98
1 x GeIL Dragon 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C11 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (GD38GB1600C11DC) £37.99
Total : £403.87 (includes shipping : £10.00).





i know its a lil overbudget, and there's no case, but all the cases that are usually recommended are out of stock! =(
i didnt spec a pentium g840 cuz that's not really an upgrade to the e8400
the i3 cant be overclocked though. but the graphics card can be
i specced a ssd inside, but if you're struggling to get it under budget u can remove it. but you'll find most improvement from having an ssd rather than anything else.
 
 
YOUR BASKET
1 x Intel Core i5-3570K 3.40GHz (Ivybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor (77W) - Retail £173.99
1 x MSI Z77A-G43 Intel Z77 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £77.99
1 x Samsung Green (MV-3V4G3D/US) 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C11 1600MHz 30nm Dual Channel Kit £59.99
1 x Cooler Master GX Lite 500W '80 Plus' Power Supply £35.99
Total : £359.35 (includes shipping : £9.50).



Leaves £50 for a new case there personal so don see the point in picking one out for you, personally i would probably keep the old one and just port all the bits in if my budget was tight. you can always grab a 460 off an auction site for about that too which would give you a good all round system and a decent graphics upgrade.
 
Gav_881 said:
YOUR BASKET
1 x Intel Core i5-3570K 3.40GHz (Ivybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor (77W) - Retail £173.99
1 x MSI Z77A-G43 Intel Z77 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £77.99
1 x Samsung Green (MV-3V4G3D/US) 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C11 1600MHz 30nm Dual Channel Kit £59.99
1 x Cooler Master GX Lite 500W '80 Plus' Power Supply £35.99
Total : £359.35 (includes shipping : £9.50).



Leaves £50 for a new case there personal so don see the point in picking one out for you, personally i would probably keep the old one and just port all the bits in if my budget was tight. you can always grab a 460 off an auction site for about that too which would give you a good all round system and a decent graphics upgrade.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the suggestions so far, I think the above fits my needs best - I'm less concerned about graphics card, more want to get a motherboard + processor that will last (especially if I use OEM windows), can upgrade a graphics card once I need it.

As far as the case goes - my old one is a funnily designed dell xps tower, so thinking I will buy one. Will also need to buy a copy of windows 7 so that'll put the cost up a bit.

Woden said:
Is your optical drive sata?
Click to expand...

Not sure, I'll check that when I get back from work.
 
you can use the windows 8 preview for free at the moment, so you can save up to buy the operating system at a later date if you so wish
 
I hope your HDD and optical drive are sata.

YOUR BASKET
1 x Intel Core i5-3570K 3.40GHz (Ivybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor (77W) - Retail £173.99
1 x MSI Z77A-G43 Intel Z77 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £77.99
1 x Zalman Z9 Plus Tower Case with Fan Controller - Black £49.99
1 x OCZ ZS Series 550W '80 Plus Bronze' Power Supply £46.98
1 x GeIL Dragon 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C11 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (GD38GB1600C11DC) £37.99
Total : £401.94 (includes shipping : £12.50).



Z77 mobo allows overclocking of the i5K. It has lucidMVP which uses the IGP to boost the GPU (bonus if you want to reuse the 440 for a lil bit). Intel quicksync uses the IGP to boost video encoding tasks.

The RAM Gav spec'd is good but overkill on this socket. It overclocks well but in truth anything over 1600mhz makes no odds on the 1155 socket.

Case is in my opinion the best budget gaming case available. Four 120mm fans, fan controller, digital temp display, cable management with a P4/8 extension lead included too.
 
honosuseri said:
I hope your HDD and optical drive are sata.

YOUR BASKET
1 x Intel Core i5-3570K 3.40GHz (Ivybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor (77W) - Retail £173.99
1 x MSI Z77A-G43 Intel Z77 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £77.99
1 x Zalman Z9 Plus Tower Case with Fan Controller - Black £49.99
1 x OCZ ZS Series 550W '80 Plus Bronze' Power Supply £46.98
1 x GeIL Dragon 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C11 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (GD38GB1600C11DC) £37.99
Total : £401.94 (includes shipping : £12.50).



Z77 mobo allows overclocking of the i5K. It has lucidMVP which uses the IGP to boost the GPU (bonus if you want to reuse the 440 for a lil bit). Intel quicksync uses the IGP to boost video encoding tasks.

The RAM Gav spec'd is good but overkill on this socket. It overclocks well but in truth anything over 1600mhz makes no odds on the 1155 socket.

Case is in my opinion the best budget gaming case available. Four 120mm fans, fan controller, digital temp display, cable management with a P4/8 extension lead included too.
Click to expand...

Good stuff, both HDD and optical drive are SATA. I think it's looking good, just gotta wait for payday now!

I'm a little tempted to stretch to an SSD as well, just not sure whether it's worthwhile (not really bothered by a faster boot).
 
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