Cheap Computer for late November?!!

CrazyArsedMonky

CrazyArsedMonky

CrazyArsedMonky

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Joined
13 Jul 2012
Posts
166
Hello all,

I am building my dad a gaming rig for his Birthday / Christmas; not latest gen but going back no further than Z77 territory. (he was recently ripped off and paid £200 for a terribad Dell Optiplex that struggles with World of Tanks - on lowest settings :/)

My problem is that my usual source (Overclockers :cool:) do not stock antiquated kit!

Does anyone have any of this stuff for sale 2nd hand? I refuse to buy stuff from ebay etc as i have no idea of its pedigree / history but would gladly buy components that have been removed for upgrading by OC forum members.

My budget is £400, so you see how tight this is going to be...

Thank you for reading!
 
If the system he has already comes with Windows 7, he should be able to re-use the key on these builds:

YOUR BASKET
1 x MSI GeForce GTX 950 OC 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £119.99
1 x Kingston 240GB SSDNow V300 Drive SATA 6Gb/s 3 2.5" (7mm height) Solid State Hard Drive - (SV300S37A/240G) £59.99
1 x AMD Piledriver FX-4 Quad Core 4300 3.80GHz (Socket AM3+) Processor - Retail £59.99
1 x MSI 970A-G43 AMD 970 (Socket AM3+) DDR3 ATX Motherboard £46.99
1 x Silverstone Strider Essential Bronze - 500W (SST-ST50F-ESB) £39.95
1 x Zalman R1 Midi Tower - Black £33.95
1 x TeamGroup Elite Black 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C11 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (TPKD38G1600HC11DC01) £29.99
Total : £404.94 (includes shipping : £11.75 Ex.VAT).




YOUR BASKET
1 x EVGA GeForce GTX 750Ti SC 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card (02G-P4-3753-KR) £99.95
1 x Intel Core i3-4160 3.60GHz (Haswell) Socket LGA1150 Processor - Retail £99.95
1 x Kingston 240GB SSDNow V300 Drive SATA 6Gb/s 3 2.5" (7mm height) Solid State Hard Drive - (SV300S37A/240G) £59.99
1 x MSI H81M-E34 Intel H81 (Socket 1150) DDR3 Micro ATX Motherboard £38.99
1 x EVGA 500W 80 Plus Power Supply (100-W1-0500-KR) £36.95
1 x TeamGroup Elite Black 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C11 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (TPKD38G1600HC11DC01) £29.99
1 x Fractal Design Core 1000 Micro-ATX Case - Black £29.99
Total : £405.40 (includes shipping : £8.00 Ex.VAT).

 
WoT is quite lightly threaded, so something like a G3528 might be perfect.
I personally think an AMD CPU wouldn't be appropriate because of low IPC.
 
CrazyArsedMonky said:
Thanks for the replies fellas!



Link - What is MM access? Never heard of it!!

CEUOTC - Thats immense! I hadn't looked at AMD processors. How would the FX-4 compare to an Intel Core i5-3570K? Looks very promising, thank you :D
Click to expand...

http://www.anandtech.com/bench/product/1367?vs=700

That is a comparison of an FX 4300 vs i3 4360.

Both are capable chips for low end gaming, WoT will prefer a higher single threat score however both are more than enough with either a GTX 750Ti or GTX 950 to run WoT at 1080p at a higher fps than the system already bought.

It wont beat the Kessel run, however it will do. The Intel build does give a better upgrade path for faster non K CPU's, the AMD build is cheap, however is pretty EOL imo.
 
Delving into the B Grade section l can get this:

YOUR BASKET
1 x Intel Core i5-4460 3.20GHz (Haswell) Socket LGA1150 Processor - Retail £152.98
1 x **B Grade** Gigabyte GeForce GTX 750Ti "Low Profile" 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card (GV-N75TOC-2GL) £79.99
1 x Kingston 240GB SSDNow V300 Drive SATA 6Gb/s 3 2.5" (7mm height) Solid State Hard Drive - (SV300S37A/240G) £59.99
1 x TeamGroup Elite Black 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C11 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (TPKD38G1600HC11DC01) £29.99
1 x Xigmatek Maverick 400W '80 Plus Bronze' Semi Modular Power Supply £29.99
1 x **B Grade** Asus H81M-PLUS Intel H81 (Socket 1150) DDR3 Micro ATX (MB-582-AS) £24.98
1 x Zalman T1 Plus Mini-Tower USB 3.0 - Black £19.99
Total : £411.41 (includes shipping : £11.25 Ex.VAT).



Or this:

YOUR BASKET
1 x Intel Core i3-4160 3.60GHz (Haswell) Socket LGA1150 Processor - Retail £99.95
1 x **B Grade** Gigabyte GeForce GTX 750Ti "Low Profile" 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card (GV-N75TOC-2GL) £79.99
1 x Kingston 240GB SSDNow V300 Drive SATA 6Gb/s 3 2.5" (7mm height) Solid State Hard Drive - (SV300S37A/240G) £59.99
1 x SuperFlower FX 450W '80 Plus Bronze' Power Supply - Black £38.99
1 x Zalman R1 Midi Tower - Black £33.95
1 x TeamGroup Elite Black 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C11 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (TPKD38G1600HC11DC01) £29.99
1 x **B Grade** Asus H81M-PLUS Intel H81 (Socket 1150) DDR3 Micro ATX (MB-582-AS) £24.98
Total : £381.94 (includes shipping : £11.75 Ex.VAT).



And finally this:

YOUR BASKET
1 x MSI GeForce GTX 950 OC 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £119.99
1 x Intel Core i3-4160 3.60GHz (Haswell) Socket LGA1150 Processor - Retail £99.95
1 x Kingston 240GB SSDNow V300 Drive SATA 6Gb/s 3 2.5" (7mm height) Solid State Hard Drive - (SV300S37A/240G) £59.99
1 x Silverstone Strider Essential Bronze - 500W (SST-ST50F-ESB) £39.95
1 x TeamGroup Elite Black 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C11 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (TPKD38G1600HC11DC01) £29.99
1 x **B Grade** Asus H81M-PLUS Intel H81 (Socket 1150) DDR3 Micro ATX (MB-582-AS) £24.98
1 x Zalman T1 Plus Mini-Tower USB 3.0 - Black £19.99
Total : £408.34 (includes shipping : £11.25 Ex.VAT).

 
Last edited:
Thanks folks, sorry i am only just acknowledging your replies, not ingratitude, simply been busy at work :/

RJC - thanks - I will not be getting MM access any time soon!

MickyFlinn / CEUOTC - Awesome comparison!! I see the Intel is definitely the way forward...

I can't believe a 670GTX (what i have) out performs a 950GTX; the numbering system is bonkers!!

Thanks for all the info, it is definitely enough to be getting on with. I will go and do a bit more research myself and see what is going to work best.

I fear in the end, i will be better giving him my current rig and upgrading my own. This presents two problems: -

--- I can't settle on cheap stuff in my rig, spending money i haven't planned

--- I was hoping to give him a 'brand new' computer, rather than it look like my cast offs!

In the end however, what matters is he gets a capable rig.

Will report back soon,
Thanks again!
 
Exactly which Dell Optiplex does he currently have? Because they're usually decent pieces of kit within their specifications. You may find that just upgrading the RAM or GPU or SSD will more than do the job.
 
Mr Quartz - I am not sure which one as the guy he bought it from had tinkered with its internals. I do however know that it performs like a dead horse, hence why i am writing it off!

Maybe i am being too quick to judge, however i can not examine the machine. We are 400 miles apart and the new machine is hopefully going to be a surprise.

I like the lateral approach though - especially with the budget!
 
Hello folks,

I would like to present my own research to the 'simple' community, i put myself in that category :D

I noticed people suggesting MoBos with 'H' denominations, i was intrigued what the 'H' meant as i have always bought 'Z's.

-- H means no overclocking + single GPU support only (no SLI / XFire)
-- MoBo numbers are simply generations of technology as you would expect

Source

I mentioned that i was confused by the NVidea card naming convention. I roughly understood that there was a family number (currently 9) and then the higher the 2nd/3rd digit was, the more powerful the card. I thought that a new family of cards would mostly eat the previous family in terms of performance; this isn't the case!

Source

I was particularly surprised by this comparison. I know its benchmarks, not real world performance, but still very strong evidence towards buying the right card, not just the highest number - something i hadn't fully appreciated previously.


I have been looking to update my GPU since a my recent 4k monitor upgrade and have now decided to upgrade to a 970GTX which will allow me to use my existing 670GTX in my dads build. It is an awesome card, and runs anything i throw at it, though the framerates are dropping @ 4K. I have never OCd the card so it should last for many moons yet.

I just need to decide on a MoBo / CPU now, the rest will become clear after that!

Sorry for the wall of text, i can already hear the cries of 'NOOB' etc but i only look into new tech when upgrading so several generations typically pass me by!
 
CrazyArsedMonky said:
Maybe i am being too quick to judge, however i can not examine the machine. We are 400 miles apart and the new machine is hopefully going to be a surprise.
Click to expand...

Do a TeamViewer session to your Dads machine, find out the spec for CPU, RAM and Gfx. Then you have a base position to start from.

It may be that putting a mid range gfx card in there will solve his World of Tanks issue.
 
Threepwood said:
970 is a weak card for 4K, if you are going to be gaming.
Click to expand...

Guybrush - I am getting that a lot, people are saying go for the 980Ti. 2 things put me off taking the plunge,

-- The 980GTX Ti is £590, i could get an MOTd car for that!
-- My current 670GTX is not that bad!
-- The 980GTX Ti is £590, i could get an MOTd car for that!

Things that make me want to take the plunge,

-- Buy it once, buy it proper. Means when i come to upgrade the rest of my rig i don't have to buy another GPU.
-- This and This
-- Forum people telling me to do it :p

I know great kit costs a premium, but really - is the 980Ti really £600 good?
 
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