advice on spec

[Yurihyuga]

well I was building a spec for moderate gaming, HD Movies + TV Viewing(PS2 Emulation requires some good CPU Clock speeds so went for i5 650 for good stock clock + with turbo requires no overclocking and Hyper Threading boosts fps and quads with HT offer no extra boost so not needed plus 65W over 95W for less noise) not sure if its worth getting the i3 530 since its cheaper and can probably OC it to 3.6ghz

Any comments would be great looking to see if I can make any cuts and push it as close to 500 as I can, its currently sitting at 595. I know close to nothing about TV Cards, would be my first + its mostly to just watch freeview and possibly in near future hook up with V+ Box, no recording required as I have my V+ box for that.

Intel Core i5 650 3.20GHz (Clarkdale) (Socket LGA1156) - Retail + Assassin's Creed II Game £150.99

Asus P7P55D LE Intel P55 (Socket 1156) DDR3 Motherboard £104.99
(£89.35) £104.99

Patriot G Series 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 PC3-10666C9 1333MHz Dual Channel (PGS34G1333ELK) £79.99

Antec Basiq Plus 550W Modular Power Supply £56.19

Compro VideoMate S800F PCIe Quad Mode DVB-S / DVB-T / Analogue TV / Radio Tuner and Remote £52.99

Antec 300 Three Hundred Ultimate Gaming Case - Black £44.99

XFX ATI Radeon HD 5450 512MB GDDR2 PCI-Express Graphics Card £39.99

Samsung SpinPoint F1 320GB SATA-II 16MB Cache - OEM (HD322HJ) £34.99

Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro Rev 2 CPU Cooler (Socket 939 / AM2 / AM3 / 775 / 1156 / 1366) £15.99

Asus DRW-2014L1T 20x DVD±RW SATA Dual Layer Lightscribe ReWriter (Black/Silver) - Retail £13.99

 

[stulid]

You mention moderate gaming, unfortunately the 5450 is a slow card, it will struggle with that free copy of assassins creed II for example, and any directX11 features the card has will run slowly.

You could do away with the extra cooler and choose a cheaper psu such as a corsair 400cx.

Put the money saved towards a better graphics card like a nvidia 9800gt

 

[Jae-So]

I'd get an i5 750 instead of that i5 650, you won't even be able to utilise the integrated GPU of the i5 650 if u use a P55 board

 

[cmndr_andi]

I would suggest getting using an H55 board and using the integrated GPU that is on your i5 CPU. Here is an review showing that the i5 + H55 is a great HTPC solution.

If you go for this board, this PSU and no discrete GPU then you save £93.

 

[Yurihyuga]

well im an idiot, take away the graphics card. I looked at my sig and just remembered I have not updated it to say 5870 and I have my GTX260 sitting in its box in storage so I can use that.

 

[stulid]

Take your original spec.

Replace the CPU with the 750 version.

Replace the harddrive with a samsung F3 500gb.

That small adjustment plus your gtx260 will definitely provide decent gaming performance.

 

[Yurihyuga]

I'd get an i5 750 instead of that i5 650, you won't even be able to utilise the integrated GPU of the i5 650 if u use a P55 board

Thanks for the advice but I already mentioned that a quad for this rig isn't needed. If c2d was dirt cheap I probably would have gone with that but for example an e8400 is pretty much costing the same so I might as well go for i3/i5 for future upgradability.

For big gaming I have my main rig, this is mainly a budget one for TV Viewing/HD Movies and streaming and playing games with low requirements pretty much old school games.

I am more curious of the i3 530 vs the processor I have chosen since its easily overclocked and I can save pretty much £50 but if I have to get a better cooler and things I won't save anything. Max overclock would probably be 3.4-3.6ghz.


Would a Asus P7H55-M Pro Intel H55 be an alright motherboard? remember I am looking to make cuts and save money here hence im calling it a budget system.

 

[Yurihyuga]

Ok I have updated the spec think this should be alright, let me know sitting at a price im alright with now £475

Intel Core i3 530 2.93GHz (Clarkdale) (Socket LGA1156) - OEM £95.99

Geil Value 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (GV34GB1600C9DC) £84.99

Gigabyte GA-H55M-S2H Intel H55 (Socket 1156) DDR3 microATX Motherboard £67.99

Antec Basiq Plus 550W Modular Power Supply £56.19

Compro VideoMate S800F PCIe Quad Mode DVB-S / DVB-T / Analogue TV / Radio Tuner and Remote £52.99

Antec 300 Three Hundred Ultimate Gaming Case - Black £44.99

Samsung SpinPoint F3 500GB SATA-II 16MB Cache - OEM (HD502HJ) £41.99

Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro Rev 2 CPU Cooler (Socket 939 / AM2 / AM3 / 775 / 1156 / 1366) £15.99

Samsung SH-S203P/RSMN 20x DVD±RW SATA Dual Layer Lightscribe ReWriter (Beige/Black/Silver) - Retail £13.99

 

[stulid]

You can save £15 by using a corsair 400cx psu.

The rest is all good.

 

[Yurihyuga]

sounds good ill change the power supply just wasn't sure if the 400W would power it up with the GTX260.

 

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

The OCZ PSU has a pair of 12V rails which can provide upto 14A and 17A. However it only has a single PCI-E power connector though.

 

[Yurihyuga]

actually thats a thought looked at the corsair and that has only got 1 six pin PCI-E connector as well.

Think I will stick with the antec good PSU good price and its modular which is a bonus so don't have to mess with all the unused cables.

Other than that looking at the OCUK 450W has everything I need + it has 2 dedicated 12V rails and at only 33.99. Just need to make sure that is not one that is gonna blow up in my face.