Budget PC Spec pls

Coln · 21 Mar 2012 at 23:45

Friend is looking for a nice budget system, something that will last a few years, does mostly web browsing, light photoshop work, publisher, etc.

Was thinking along the lines of an i3, would the onboard gfx be ok for this type of work?

Only need cpu, mobo, psu and ram, £200-£250 budget.

Many thanks,

wozzsta · 22 Mar 2012 at 00:10

i think this would work well, i had a crappy laptop that worked perfectly fine for these kinds of things, and this a big upgrade from that.

YOUR BASKET
1 x Intel Core i3-2100 3.10GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor - Retail £89.99
1 x Gigabyte Z68AP-D3 Intel Z68 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard REV 1 £80.40
1 x XFX Pro 450W Core Edition '80 Plus Bronze' Power Supply £38.99
1 x Corsair Vengeance 4GB (1x4GB) DDR3-PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Single Channel Module (CMZ4GX3M1A1600C9) £21.95
Total : £243.32 (includes shipping : £10.00).

Coln · 22 Mar 2012 at 00:11

Had a quick look, how does this sound, any changes??

i3-2100
Asus P8H61 mobo
Antec VP450 psu
Kingston Hyper X Blu (2x4GB)

£233 including Saturday delivery.

wozzsta · 22 Mar 2012 at 00:19

sounds good to me. ide go for the XFX Pro 450W, purely because thats what everyone keeps on telling me to get.

Incapable · 22 Mar 2012 at 06:55

Your basket
Product Name Qty Price Line Total
Intel Core i3-2100 3.10GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor - Retail £89.99
(£74.99) £89.99
(£74.99)
Gigabyte Z68AP-D3 Intel Z68 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard REV 1 £80.40
(£67.00) £80.40
(£67.00)
Crucial Ballistix Sport 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (BLS2CP4G3D1609DS1S00CEU) £37.99
(£31.66) £37.99
(£31.66)
Corsair Builder Series CX 430W V2 '80 Plus' Power Supply (CMPSU-430CXUKV2) £34.99
(£29.16) £34.99
(£29.16)
* Sub Total : £202.81
Shipping cost assumes delivery to UK Mainland with:
DPD Next Day Parcel
(This can be changed during checkout) Shipping : £10.00
VAT is being charged at 20.00% VAT : £42.56
* Total : £255.37

Buy now pay March 2013?

Spend another £89.97 for finance options.

Coln · 22 Mar 2012 at 07:22

Cheers for those. Quick q, better to use CPU inboard gfx, mobo inboard gfx or an older 4870 card I have here??

Incapable · 22 Mar 2012 at 07:30

Use the 4870.

honosuseri · 22 Mar 2012 at 14:54

YOUR BASKET
1 x Intel Core i3-2100 3.10GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor - Retail £89.99
1 x Gigabyte H61MA-D3V Intel H61 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £47.99
1 x Crucial Ballistix Sport 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (BLS2CP4G3D1609DS1S00CEU) £37.99
1 x Corsair Builder Series CX 430W V2 '80 Plus' Power Supply (CMPSU-430CXUKV2) £34.99
Total : £210.96 (includes shipping : FREE).

Similar to incapables spec (which is very good by the way). I have used a H series mobo so you lose the overclocking feature (can't OC an i3 anyways) but you still have a PCI-EX 3 slot and USB3 for less cash.

You want to use the 4000 series GPU you have, with lucid virtu (z series mobos) the mobo will switch between the IGP and the GPU depending on what's needed. On the H and Z series you have quicksync to help with video encoding.

Hope this helps, any questions or problems with the build let us know

Incapable · 22 Mar 2012 at 18:02

The z68ap-d3 still offers more future proofing. Worthit in my opinion.

honosuseri · 22 Mar 2012 at 19:41

Incapable said:
The z68ap-d3 still offers more future proofing. Worthit in my opinion.

I agree, I did say your spec was good. I was just offering a cheaper alternative, "my" H series mobo is nearly half the price but will support ivy bridge and still has USB3.

YOUR BASKET
1 x Intel Core i5-2400 3.10GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor - Retail £151.99
1 x Gigabyte H61MA-D3V Intel H61 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £47.99
1 x Crucial Ballistix Sport 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (BLS2CP4G3D1609DS1S00CEU) £37.99
1 x Corsair Builder Series CX 430W V2 '80 Plus' Power Supply (CMPSU-430CXUKV2) £34.99
Total : £272.96 (includes shipping : FREE).

Because the H series mobo is cheaper getting an i5 CPU is almost in budget. The i5K was way out of budget anyway but would have been a silly addition to this spec. You are losing the overclocking ability (for K edition CPUs) and the lucid virtu by going with this setup apposed to incapables spec......depends what price you want to put on those features.

An i5 is probably overkill for his needs but you said you wanted it to last so it makes sense to get the best CPU you can afford. I don't want to insult your friends intelligence but make sure the optical and the HDDs are sata and not IDE