Basic but good performance PC build, £400

Dr.EM

Dr.EM

Dr.EM

Soldato
Joined
15 Jun 2006
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Swindon
Hi all, this won't be a build for me but it will replace an outdated Windows XP machine. Primarily for office tasks and simple (not 3D) games, but a fast boot up is desired. Current PC has only 60GB of hard disk used so the 250GB storage should be ample; using 2 drives (as I do in my machine, SSD and HDD) will be confusing for who this is for.

I generally find fewer problems building and setting up a machine if it has some sort of graphics card rather than on-board, plus gives it gives the potential to run some 3D games if ever desired.

I'm a little concerned the 450W supply isn't yet tested Haswell compliant, but what does this mean in operation? That sleep mode is unavailable, or that it uses more power in sleep than it should, or something worse? Apparently just adding a little load to the 12V line cures any issues, a fan is suggested but I can add a resistor onto a spare cable no problems, 100mA draw should do?

Any idea about that case? It's very cheap but I think a decent brand. It does need to be small to fit where it goes. I would probably add a rear case fan, likely Arctic F9 92mm. Otherwise I should be OK for hardware?

Might get a SATA cable, I think I have some around anyhow, unless they aren't Rev3.

CPU cooler isn't essential providing the retail cooler is decent/quiet. If it's 4-pin PWM control then I think it'll be quiet enough.

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Let me know your thoughts!

Thanks :)
 
Don't bother with an SSD if you want budget, use the money on a GTX 960 or better. Also save even more quids by buying from /r/microsoftsoftwareswap. Windows 8.1 Pro is around £15 there - why people spend more than £25 on Windows I will never know. Also swap that cooler for a Hyper 212 Evo. Upgrade the PSU to a EVGA G2 grade PSU and get 8GB of RAM.
 
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Chugz said:
Don't bother with an SSD if you want budget, use the money on a GTX 960 or better. Also save even more quids by buying from /r/microsoftsoftwareswap. Windows 8.1 Pro is around £15 there - why people spend more than £25 on Windows I will never know. Also swap that cooler for a Hyper 212 Evo. Upgrade the PSU to a EVGA G2 grade PSU and get 8GB of RAM.
Click to expand...

He wants a PC that boots up fast - why one earth would you not recommend an SSD?! Also why a GTX960 he's not fussed on 3D gaming :rolleyes:
 
OP - Haswell compatible PSU's are those that can make use of low power C6/C7 states, if the PSU does not support it and you're not bothered then disable them in the BIOS ;)

How about ditching the CPU/RAM/Motherboard/Memory/CPU Cooler and GT 610 GPU and going for this:

Asus H81M-K Intel Core i5 DIY Micro ATX Motherboard, CPU & RAM Bundle = £227.93

Appreciate you're probably trying to keep to your £400 budget and probably pushing the boat out a bit but for £43 extra cost you'll have faster processor, 4GB extra of RAM and you can use the onboard HD4600 graphics of the CPU - it's faster than the GT610 ;) Don't understand why you're put off using/setting up onboard BTW?

Also, an i5 would also make a good basis of a gaming PC if you wanted to go there in future by getting a good GPU but you might be looking at a better spec/higher wattage PSU to accommodate this now rather than getting another later. Just throwing it out there as an idea..
 
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Thanks all :)

I've upgraded to 8GB RAM, might as well put that 64bit OS to use :D . Also got a better CPU cooler, same as I have, Arctic Cooling Freezer Pro 7, it'll fit OK in the small case and gives overclocking potential if the system feels slow in the future.

Unfortunately £400 was already a stretch so i5 was a bit out of reach, pretty sure the Pentium will be plenty fast enough though. I didn't have much success with the CPU graphics on my own i5 machine when I was trying to use them to rule out a graphics card issue. Control panel never came up, seemed it never installed correctly, then it kept freezing at boot-up. A flat install fixed the system issues and I haven't tried reverting to on-board since as there's no need so maybe it's a harsh judgement but graphics cards have always served me well! I got the 2GB GT610 anyhow in the end.

Hopefully the build goes smoothly and I'll report back on the PSU sleep modes, perhaps it'll turn out to work fine anyhow!
 
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