Budget setup - is this ok?

[allanmb]

I am building a bare-bones setup for my parents and they have given me a strict budget of 300 pounds. I have scoured online and come up with the following system. I was wondering if anyone could comment on the setup if it is decent enough, or if they could recommend a better setup?

A few notes on the setup:
- they have keyb/mouse/monitor/etc so none of that is required, it is merely a replacement tower for their existing PC.
- They also have Windows 7 so no OS is required.
- I have included a fast SSD (500MB/s read/450MB/s write) as I think with the OS on there, it makes a huge difference to the responsiveness of the computer.
- They aren't going to be playing any 3D games hence no dedicated GPU.

Thanks
Allan

Mobo: Asrock A75M-HVS AMD A75 41.76
CPU: AMD Athlon II X4 651K Black 65.63
Ram: kingston 2x4gb ddr3 1600mhz 34.98
SSD Drive: OCZ Agility 3 60GB 49.98
HD: Seagate 1TB Barracuda Green 63.99
case: CIT Black Case with 500W PSU 23.99
DVD-RW: Samsung SH-222BB SATA DVD 11.99
extras: Xenta LP4 Molex MALE to 2x SATA 1.59
UK Kettle Lead 1.76

total 295.67

 

[Kennysevenfold]

You can use the kettle thead they already have?

 

[Kennysevenfold]

Product Name Qty Price Line Total

Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 1TB SATA 6Gb/s 32MB Cache - OEM (ST31000524AS) £65.99
(£54.99) £65.99
(£54.99)

Intel Pentium G620 2.60GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor - Retail £43.99
(£36.66) £43.99
(£36.66)

OCZ Petrol 64GB 2.5" SATA 6Gb/s Solid State Hard Drive (PTL1-25SAT3-64G) £41.69
(£34.74) £41.69
(£34.74)

Antec 300 Three Hundred Ultimate Gaming Case - Black £39.98
(£33.32) £39.98
(£33.32)

MSI H61M-P31-G3 Intel H61 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £38.99
(£32.49) £38.99
(£32.49)

OCZ CoreXtreme 500w '80 Plus' Power Supply £29.99
(£24.99) £29.99
(£24.99)

Kingston Blu 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (KHX1600C9AD3B1K2/4G) £23.99
(£19.99) £23.99
(£19.99)

Samsung SH-S222BB/BEBE 22x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £16.99
(£14.16) £16.99
(£14.16) Sub Total : £251.34 Shipping cost based on delivery to Credit/debit card billing address, with:
FREE SHIPPING (DPD Next Day)
(This can be changed during checkout) Shipping : FREE VAT is being charged at 20.00% VAT : £50.27 Total : £301.61

 

[allanmb]

You can use the kettle thead they already have?

They could, but I will be setting up the PC for them and don't have a spare so I will need the plug

 

[allanmb]

Product Name Qty Price Line Total Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 1TB SATA 6Gb/s 32MB Cache - OEM (ST31000524AS) £65.99
(£54.99) £65.99
(£54.99) Intel Pentium G620 2.60GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor - Retail £43.99
(£36.66) £43.99
(£36.66) OCZ Petrol 64GB 2.5" SATA 6Gb/s Solid State Hard Drive (PTL1-25SAT3-64G) £41.69
(£34.74) £41.69
(£34.74) Antec 300 Three Hundred Ultimate Gaming Case - Black £39.98
(£33.32) £39.98
(£33.32) MSI H61M-P31-G3 Intel H61 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £38.99
(£32.49) £38.99
(£32.49) OCZ CoreXtreme 500w '80 Plus' Power Supply £29.99
(£24.99) £29.99
(£24.99) Kingston Blu 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (KHX1600C9AD3B1K2/4G) £23.99
(£19.99) £23.99
(£19.99) Samsung SH-S222BB/BEBE 22x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £16.99
(£14.16) £16.99
(£14.16) Sub Total : £251.34 Shipping cost based on delivery to Credit/debit card billing address, with:
FREE SHIPPING (DPD Next Day)
(This can be changed during checkout) Shipping : FREE VAT is being charged at 20.00% VAT : £50.27 Total : £301.61

Thank you for the recommendation. Can I ask what advantages this setup would have? It seems to me that it has better quality components but is giving up:
- fast SSD (any SSD is going to give a boost due to the seek time but this one is 5 times slower than the Agility)
- RAM (For now, 8GB might not be required but for an extra £10 it seems worth it)
- Quad core processor (The Intel is Dual Core and slower clock speed)

I think the first two wouldn't be noticeable but I think the processor would probably be quite a bit slower?

Thanks
Allan

 

[Kennysevenfold]

MUCH Better quality case and PSU, Are you serious about getting a case at £23 with a psu bundled with it? Crazy. I wouldnt go near a psu @ £24 alone never mind bundled with a case.

You say they wont be playing games on this system? what will they be doing?
Pottering around the internet? I doubt they would even notice the difference with a normal HDD and a SSD, nevermind wanting a facer CPU.

Bit overkill for there use of it.

 

[pastymuncher]

I would go with Kennys build. Much better components.

The AMD cpu that you have picked has no onboard graphics, neither does the motherboard so that is something else you would need to spend money on. The case and psu that you picked are just awful!!

For the sake of a extra £8 i would stick with the Agility ssd.

 

[allanmb]

MUCH Better quality case and PSU, Are you serious about getting a case at £23 with a psu bundled with it? Crazy. I wouldnt go near a psu @ £24 alone never mind bundled with a case.

You say they wont be playing games on this system? what will they be doing?
Pottering around the internet? I doubt they would even notice the difference with a normal HDD and a SSD, nevermind wanting a facer CPU.

Bit overkill for there use of it.

Yeah I know the PSU is going to be crud but there won't be a gfx card to power, nor wireless card so I was hoping it would be ok. Spending £70 on a £300 setup for case/PSU seems a bit much.

The use of the computer will be mainly office-type applications and accountancy apps. My dad will also play 2D sim-based games, mainly turn based wargames which are quite heavily AI-based.

 

[allanmb]

I would go with Kennys build. Much better components.

The AMD cpu that you have picked has no onboard graphics, neither does the motherboard so that is something else you would need to spend money on. The case and psu that you picked are just awful!!

For the sake of a extra £8 i would stick with the Agility ssd.

I thought the Mobo had on-board Radeon gfx? I know the case/PSU are awful. I would never get that for my setup but then again my case/PSU cost almost £300 alone!!

 

[pastymuncher]

If you go to Asrock's website you will see that onboard is only available if the cpu has it. Read the highlighted box under graphics. Onboard graphics are all on the cpu now and the one you picked does'nt have any so you would either have to go for a AMD A4/A6/A8 series APU or buy a graphics card.

The psu is the single most important component in a pc. The piece of junk in the one you picked will be absolute rubbish that is built as cheap as possible and will offer little, if any protection for your other components if it blows up. By all means, save money on a case but the psu is not the place to do it.

 

[bru]

Here you go a nice simple setup with a SATAIII motherboard (even though in day to day use you will never notice the difference between SATAII and SATAIII with a modern SSD).
Of course the case can be changed if you don't like that particular one I only picked it because its cheap. a nice big 2TB storage drive and Intel Pentium 620 which is plenty fast enough and the other Pentium chips are not worth the extra in my opinion.


YOUR BASKET
1 x Seagate Barracuda Green 2TB SATA 6Gb/s Hard Drive - OEM (ST2000DL003) £89.99
1 x Gigabyte H61MA-D3V Intel H61 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £47.99
1 x Intel Pentium G620 2.60GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor - Retail £43.99
1 x OCZ CoreXtreme 500w '80 Plus' Power Supply £29.99
1 x OcUK Value 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-10666C9 1333MHz Low-Voltage Dual Channel Kit £29.99
1 x OcUK Tsunami Gaming Case - Black £19.99
1 x Samsung SH-S222BB/BEBE 22x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £16.99
Total : £291.53 (includes shipping : £10.50).

 

[allanmb]

If you go to Asrock's website you will see that onboard is only available if the cpu has it. Read the highlighted box under graphics. Onboard graphics are all on the cpu now and the one you picked does'nt have any so you would either have to go for a AMD A4/A6/A8 series APU or buy a graphics card.

The psu is the single most important component in a pc. The piece of junk in the one you picked will be absolute rubbish that is built as cheap as possible and will offer little, if any protection for your other components if it blows up. By all means, save money on a case but the psu is not the place to do it.

Thank you! That is precisely why I wanted to run this setup by people before I went for it. I just assumed the Mobo had integrated GFX. So I will re-think things with this in mind and also the fact that it would seem that the PSU is horrific! What would be the minimum PSU you would recommend?

<OT>Also, I just noticed you are from Aberlour! I used to live in Elgin, in fact this computer is for my folks who still live there, small world!</OT>

 

[ChilledLJ]

Another vote for intel rather than AMD, it gives you a platform to build off later and maybe upgrade to an i5 / i7 if you wanted to

 

[satnav96]

im not replying about the 300£ computer but i am trying to build my own computer for 600£ to play games on, this is from scratch so new everything here is what ive got, will it work?
and can it be inproved?
OCZ OCZ600MXSP-UK ModXStream Pro 600W ATX Power Supply - OCZ
£56.70

Logitech B110 Optical USB Mouse - Logitech
£5.20

Corsair CMZ8GX3M2A1600C9 8GB 1600MHz CL9 DDR3 Vengeance Memory Two Module Kit - Corsair
£42.44

Asus M5A78L-M/USB3 Motherboard (Socket AM3+, Up to 16GB DDR3, USB 3.0, uATX) - Asus
£50.23

Intel Sandybridge i5-2400 Core i5 Quad-Core Processor (3.10GHz, 6MB Cache, Socket 1155) - Intel
£143.99

Western Digital Caviar Blue 500GB SATAIII 6Gb/s 16MB Cache 3.5 inch Internal Hard Drive OEM - Western Digital
£48.67

BenQ G2222HDL 21.5-inch Widescreen LED Back-Light Monitor (Full-HD, DVI-D, Glossy Black, 5ms, Vista Premium) - BenQ
£97.54


Asus 1GB GeForce GTX 560TI DirectCUII PCI-E Graphics Card - Asus
£166.18

Microsoft Wired Keyboard 600 - Black - Microsoft
£10.98

Cm Storm Mid Tower Scout Case - CM Storm
£67.91

Subtotal: £689.84

 

[T345]

snip

Make your own thread please

 

[honosuseri]

YOUR BASKET
1 x Samsung 64GB SSD 830 Desktop Series SATA 6Gb/s KIT with Norton Ghost - (MZ-7PC064D/EU) £55.99
1 x Intel Pentium G840 2.80GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor - Retail £53.99
1 x Gigabyte H61MA-D3V Intel H61 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £47.99
1 x Cooler Master Silent Pro Modular 500W '80 Plus Bronze' Power Supply £43.98
1 x Adata XPG Gaming v1.0 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (AX3U1600GC4G9-2G) £38.99
1 x Xigmatek Asgard Pro Gaming Case - Black £31.98
1 x Samsung SH-S222BB/BEBE 22x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £16.99
Total : £304.01 (includes shipping : £11.75).



A smidge over, you could use 4GB of RAM to save some cash. However this H61 mobo only has 2 RAM slots so adding more is hassle.

The PSU is modular and quiet. On offer at a good price too

 

[pastymuncher]

Thank you! That is precisely why I wanted to run this setup by people before I went for it. I just assumed the Mobo had integrated GFX. So I will re-think things with this in mind and also the fact that it would seem that the PSU is horrific! What would be the minimum PSU you would recommend?

<OT>Also, I just noticed you are from Aberlour! I used to live in Elgin, in fact this computer is for my folks who still live there, small world!</OT>

It's not really the power, it's the quality and being able to deliver it stated power along with protection that matters. A quality 400w psu would be more than enough.

Wow, it is a small world indeed.

im not replying about the 300£ computer but i am trying to build my own computer for 600£ to play games on, this is from scratch so new everything here is what ive got, will it work?
and can it be inproved?
OCZ OCZ600MXSP-UK ModXStream Pro 600W ATX Power Supply - OCZ
£56.70

Logitech B110 Optical USB Mouse - Logitech
£5.20

Corsair CMZ8GX3M2A1600C9 8GB 1600MHz CL9 DDR3 Vengeance Memory Two Module Kit - Corsair
£42.44

Asus M5A78L-M/USB3 Motherboard (Socket AM3+, Up to 16GB DDR3, USB 3.0, uATX) - Asus
£50.23

Intel Sandybridge i5-2400 Core i5 Quad-Core Processor (3.10GHz, 6MB Cache, Socket 1155) - Intel
£143.99

Western Digital Caviar Blue 500GB SATAIII 6Gb/s 16MB Cache 3.5 inch Internal Hard Drive OEM - Western Digital
£48.67

BenQ G2222HDL 21.5-inch Widescreen LED Back-Light Monitor (Full-HD, DVI-D, Glossy Black, 5ms, Vista Premium) - BenQ
£97.54


Asus 1GB GeForce GTX 560TI DirectCUII PCI-E Graphics Card - Asus
£166.18

Microsoft Wired Keyboard 600 - Black - Microsoft
£10.98

Cm Storm Mid Tower Scout Case - CM Storm
£67.91

Subtotal: £689.84

Make your own thread as people will be able to tailor the answers toward you. No it won't work as you have paired up a Intel cpu with a AMD motherboard.

 

[bru]

ok so after completely failing to read the OP correctly (I thought it read that he has an SSD not thet wanted an SSD) here is a revised spec including an SSD.

YOUR BASKET
1 x Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 1TB SATA 6Gb/s 32MB Cache - OEM (ST31000524AS) £65.99
1 x SanDisk Ultra SSD 120GB 2.5" SATA II Solid State Hard Drive - (SDSSDH-120G-G25) £62.99
1 x MSI H61M-P31-G3 Intel H61 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £38.99
1 x Intel Celeron G530 2.40GHz Socket LGA 1155 Processor - Retail £32.99
1 x OCZ CoreXtreme 500w '80 Plus' Power Supply £29.99
1 x OcUK Value 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-10666C9 1333MHz Low-Voltage Dual Channel Kit £29.99
1 x OcUK Tsunami Gaming Case - Black £19.99
1 x Samsung SH-S222BB/BEBE 22x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £16.99
Total : £297.91 (includes shipping : FREE).

 

[Kennysevenfold]

Yeah I know the PSU is going to be crud but there won't be a gfx card to power, nor wireless card so I was hoping it would be ok. Spending £70 on a £300 setup for case/PSU seems a bit much.

It wont matter what you run on the cheap psu, it will blow at some point, just a case of when and what it will take with it. NEVER get a cheap psu. A branded psu should last the lifetime of the computer.