Budget build

doggystyle · 1 Mar 2012 at 13:35

Hi boys. It's been a while since I posted.
I'm wondering if I could buy a CPU, Ram and a board for sub £200.
I was wanting to avoid Intel if possible. I've got a 6870 card, case, psu and the usual other stuff.

Is it possible? Any ideas?

thanks.

stulid · 1 Mar 2012 at 13:40

A few q's,

1) Are your HDD and DVD drive SATA or IDE?
2) What case+PSU do you have?
3) 32 or 64 bit OS?

If you are not sure on whats SATA or IDE, the connections look like this,

This is IDE,

This is SATA,

doggystyle · 1 Mar 2012 at 14:23

Hi, I've got loads of spares. I've got sata and ide optical and hard drives. The cases are non branded but big. My psu is decent too maybe 600w i think. Ive got loads of operating systems, 32 bit and 64, win 7, vista, xp.
I'm not intirely sure of the benefits of a 64 bit OS.

stulid · 1 Mar 2012 at 14:47

A 64bit OS allows you to use more than 4Gb of RAM which a 32bit OS effectively limits you too.

Hows this look?

YOUR BASKET
1 x Intel Core i3-2100 3.10GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor - Retail £94.99
1 x Gigabyte Z68AP-D3 Intel Z68 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard REV 1 £78.98
1 x Kingston HyperX Blu 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (KHX1600C9AD3B1K2/4G) £22.99
Total : £208.37 (includes shipping : £9.50).

Be aware if you are going to use the built-in GFX core of the CPU, then the motherboard only has a HDMI output for this, but you have a 6870

IF you can afford a 8GB kit of RAM then its cheap at £38

doggystyle · 1 Mar 2012 at 14:52

Thanks. Does anyone really need 8gb of Ram?
I've spoken to IT guys in my work and they saw no. 8gb is cheap, but do I need it?

stulid · 1 Mar 2012 at 14:55

doggystyle said:
Thanks. Does anyone really need 8gb of Ram?
I've spoken to IT guys in my work and they saw no. 8gb is cheap, but do I need it?

Well if you edit video/music its useful to have more, also some people who have gone from 4 to 8gb while playing BF3 have reported improvements, theres a thread here - http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?t=18377873

You decide

doggystyle · 1 Mar 2012 at 15:27

8 gb sounds the way to go.

would you not consider an AMD route?

stulid · 1 Mar 2012 at 15:32

doggystyle said:
would you not consider an AMD route?

Maybe two years ago, since last Xmas when the Sandybridge was released AMD haven't had anything to compete with, even the FX range are pants compared to the equivalent Intel product, they are slower/hotter and use more electricity.

The only thing slight poor thing about that I3 2100 is its not a "K" variant like a i5 2500K, that means overclocking can only be done by increasing the turboboost ratios by four steps (giving you 3.5GHz)

But the Z68 board is Ivybridge ready and will allow multiplier overclocking of "K" chips.