Build Advice Please!

Khrest

Khrest

Khrest

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Joined
26 Jul 2003
Posts
1,368
Location
Loughborough
My son's PC is now 7 years old and badly needs upgrading; however I cant really see any components that I can salvage from a 512mb P4 based system to put into a modern one!

So I thought about recycling a few of my current components into a new system. It needs to be able to play modern games, but certainly not at maximum levels (I have the PC in my Sig for that :D). He plays a lot of web games but also is wanting to play stuff like SM Railroads! and Cricket games. So we are looking at DX9 level graphics or low level DX10.

I was looking at an i3 based system but wondered what others would come up with given that budget is limited (£300 probably). I already have the following to donate to it:

HD5850 Sapphire Card
500gb Samsung Drive
DVD rewriter

I appreciate the OS is going to be a bit of an issue price wise, but what would others put to this build?
 
Your basketProduct Name Qty Price Line Total
Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium 64-Bit - OEM (GFC-00599) £82.24
(£69.99) £82.24
(£69.99)
Coolermaster Elite 430 Windowed Case - Black (with 500w Elite Power PSU) £62.99
(£53.61) £62.99
(£53.61)
AMD Athlon II X3 Tri Core 445 3.10GHz (Socket AM3) - Retail £60.99
(£51.91) £60.99
(£51.91)
Asus M4A78LT-M 760G (Socket AM3) DDR3 Motherboard £48.99
(£41.69) £48.99
(£41.69)
OCZ Gold 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 PC3-10666C9 1333MHz Low-Voltage Dual Channel (OCZ3G1333LV4GK) £37.59
(£31.99) £37.59
(£31.99)
Sub Total : £249.19
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 17.50% VAT : £45.36
Total : £304.55

add the other parts to this and you have a excellent system with win7.
 
Only thing I can see wrong with Stulid's build is the horrible nasty, cheap OCZ ram.

I would swap it out for some Corsair XMS3 ram CLICK ME (tried and tested ram, with some of the best reviews around).

Granted, it will push you slightly over budget, but a copy of Home Basic will take it back into budget, and I can't see your son missing the three of four extra features in premium
 
Last edited:
Cookeh said:
Only thing I can see wrong with Stulid's build is the horrible nasty, cheap OCZ ram.

I would swap it out for some Corsair XMS3 ram CLICK ME (tried and tested ram, with some of the best reviews around).
Click to expand...

I know, but was thinking of the budget, you know that this is the first time in about 9 months I have suggested OCZ gold ram!!!
 
stulid said:
I know, but was thinking of the budget, you know that this is the first time in about 9 months I have suggested OCZ gold ram!!!
Click to expand...

I know! You're normally more adamant than I am about how crap it is :p

Price wise, you can get the XMS3 stuff from a well known e-retailer (what's the opposite of an e-seller? :p) for the same £38.
 
Thanks lads. So you think an i3 build is over the top, budget wise here? I havent had an AMD for years so I am well out of touch with them, performance wise; are we saying that the X3 445 wont be a bottle neck for a single 5850?

What are we losing between Premium and Basic? I assume it will still network fine with my W7 Premium for LAN gaming?

Also, what about dropping to 2gb RAM to help the budget? Or is that false economy.

Many thanks lads, I'm good building PCs where budget isn't much of an issue (to my wife's disgust LOL), but poor at getting the price down value wise !!!
 
Not over the top, just not good enough really. Plus its much more expensive, with less upgrade routes :p

X3 445 won't be a bottle-neck in the slightest.

RE 2GB instead of 4, 4 is generally the best bet, as its unlikely you'll use it all, whereas with 2GB you can quite easily use it all up, making it a bottleneck.
 
Only issue I can see with that board then is the lack of xfire if I want to pass another of my 5850s down to him in a year or so maybe?
 
Khrest said:
Only issue I can see with that board then is the lack of xfire if I want to pass another of my 5850s down to him in a year or so maybe?
Click to expand...

By that time, AM3+ will be out, as will new graphics cards, so I don't think it will matter too much.

Besides, I think you'll struggle to find a decent CrossFire board within your budget :)
 
Any reason not to use 64 bit Windows 7? I always understood drivers were hard to find for 64 bit but again I might be behind the times. Any performance improvements?
 
Khrest said:
Any reason not to use 64 bit Windows 7? I always understood drivers were hard to find for 64 bit but again I might be behind the times. Any performance improvements?
Click to expand...

No reason at all. I'd be surprised if anything less than 75% of the users on this forum were using 64-bit with no issues :p
 
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