budget under £300 bundle?

chanyboi

chanyboi

chanyboi

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11 Nov 2011
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Hi all, I'm new on this website and am in need of your expertise. I haven't played with pcs in 5 years (i.e. ever since I went to uni), so pretty much everything has changed.

I need your advise on building a budget pc to get things going.

My aim is to build something solely to run design softwares such as: Autocad 2012, solidworks, Lusas, Matlab etc.

I still have my old case and a new 450w power supply as given from a friend.

How would you review these items together?

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=BU-188-OK
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-259-AS&groupid=701&catid=56&subcat=1985

The hard drive I will most probably be running is a 60gb ssd to run Windows 7 + an external 1tb hard drive. (which i haven't purchased yet)

I don't have much money so I'm trying to keep prices as low as possible. I know most of you have machines that can run ten times quicker than that, but if someone could advise me on building a tower which can exceed those specs but at a similar price or recommend something different in my potential setup, I would be really grateful.


Thanks.

Andrew
 
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For that budget I'd probably go second hand.

If not you could go for

i3 sandy bridge with stock cooler http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CP-367-IN&groupid=701&catid=6&subcat=1671

Some cheap ram http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MY-097-KS&groupid=701&catid=8&subcat=1516

and a micro atx mobo should suffice http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MB-179-MS&groupid=701&catid=5&subcat=1965

I'd then probably go second hand for a decent graphics card, though I don't know how graphically demanding the programs you use are.
 
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for £300 your not getting a 1TB HDD, a 64GB SSD and win7 in your computer no matter how hard you try (unless you want something with the same power as a calculator)

i've had a little play with solidworks myself and i know you need a half decent graphics card and processor for it. not sure about the other stuff though

before i recommend anything for you can you tell me the make/model of the PSU and case. i know you said its 450W, but theres more difference between 450W PSUs than there are between chalk and cheese. some of them i wouldnt trust to power a case fan whereas others will be fine for a half decent build.

i want to know what case you have just so i dont spec you anything that doesnt fit. if the worst comes to the worst just tell me if it will fit an ATX motherboard or only an mATX motherboard.

to help save you some money could you tell me if your current HDD and DVD drives are IDE (massive ribbon cable) or SATA (small flat cable). if they are SATA then you can recycle them
 
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CP-367-IN&groupid=701&catid=6&subcat=1671

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MB-364-GI

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MY-133-CR&groupid=701&catid=8&subcat=1517

more expensive but better than the amd bundle you chose, in the fututre when you have the money pop in a i2500k or similar and can over clock it(k series cpu + p67 or z68 motherboard allows for overclocking, h61/67 don't allow it) + a 3rd part cooler.
 
Thanks NinetyOne as Reaper says you do need a half decent spec graphics.

Sorry Reaper I understand I was very vague and misleading. I will need to find out on Sunday the exact specs, when i go pick up my old computer case (which i definitely know its an ATX fitment) and the power supply. Then i will update as appropriate.

I forgot to mention, I already own windows 7 full edition 32 bit and 64 bit available (joys of still being a uni student)

Can you assume I have a sufficient make and model power supply with my case which fits an ATX motherboard.

I now have a OCZ 60gb Sata II SSD hard drive and a Sata DVD drive + lots of leads etc.

I have a budget of around the £250 mark to buy a motherboard, processor + fan, ram and graphics card.
 
Your basketProduct Name Qty Price Line Total
Intel Core i5-2300 2.80GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor - Retail £145.99
(£121.66) £145.99
(£121.66)
OcUK GeForce GTS 450 1024MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £49.99
(£41.66) £49.99
(£41.66)
MSI H61M-E33 Intel H61 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard **B3 REVISION** £46.99
(£39.16) £46.99
(£39.16)
Corsair XMS3 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (CMX4GX3M2A1600C9) £23.99
(£19.99) £23.99
(£19.99)
Sub Total : £222.47
Shipping cost assumes delivery to UK Mainland with:
DPD Next Day Parcel
(This can be changed during checkout) Shipping : £9.50
VAT is being charged at 20.00% VAT : £46.39
Total : £278.36


The motherboard has two RAM slots, so get 8GB RAM now if you can.

Theres a fast quad core sandybridge CPU.

And a B grade 90 day warranty Nvidia card so you get CUDA support and some gaming is possible also.

Just hope your PSU is ok.

Does your PSU have a 6pin PCI-E connector?
 
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stulid said:
Does your PSU have a 6pin PCI-E connector?
Click to expand...

PASS on the psu, its brand new but 4 years old, it's probably going to be 4 pin knowing my luck! I will need to check when i get the computer in front of me on sunday morning.

Damn I'm useless to you guys at the moment, but i will certainly need to buy parts by Sunday evening, so i can get models ready by mid next week. Just so you can feel a bit of my pain, I've been rendering a 3d model on a laptop. So far it has taken 1 hour per wall, 20 walls to do plus odd bits and bobs when I illustrate cut throughs, I've been waiting 5 hours so far, and I'm just praying it doesn't crash.

I really appreciate all your guys advise so far.

p.s. Do you guys not sleep? :P
 
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Untitled-4.png



Thats my last try.

8GB RAM,

Fast CPU - http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/cpu/display/core-i3-2120-2100_6.html#sect1

The only questions to ask OCUK in the customer services section are,

1) does the b grade motherboard have its I/O shield plate? (the manual can be download and cables cost nothing/you said you had some)

2) does the b grade card include a molex to PCi-E 6pin adapter if your PSU doesn't have one.

3) does your monitor use a old style VGA/DSUB cable and does the card include a DVI to VGA adapter for this?
 
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stulid said:
Untitled-4.png



Thats my last try.

8GB RAM,

Fast CPU - http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/cpu/display/core-i3-2120-2100_6.html#sect1

The only questions to ask OCUK in the customer services section are,

1) does the b grade motherboard have its I/O shield plate? (the manual can be download and cables cost nothing/you said you had some)

2) does the b grade card include a molex to PCi-E 6pin adapter if your PSU doesn't have one.

3) does your monitor use a old style VGA/DSUB cable and does the card include a DVI to VGA adapter for this?
Click to expand...

I just tried buying this setup and graphics card was not avaiable. There is only one motherboard left so i would like to take your advise and buy it, so what other graphics card would you recommend
 
okay. i have finally done my build by screwing the budget and buying necessary parts which include

intel i5 2500k
8gb corsair ram 1600mhz
MSI Z68A-G43-G3 Intel Z68
Asus GeForce GTX 550Ti 1024MB
60gb ocz
BeQuiet Pure Power L8 430W


Any opionions or recommended changes?

ALSO now to decide the case

Typical Antec 300 or Fractal Design Core 3000???
 
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