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William-Mathew

William-Mathew

William-Mathew

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Joined
7 Mar 2014
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831
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Bucks
Hey guys


So someone has asked me to build them a good pc to be used in their office and as a general pc. The customer has asked for windows 7, 1tb HHD, 8gb of ram and a good processor as the computer needs to last for a while(I was thinking of a good i3 as it has hyperthreding. They would like the case not to be too big but not too small, it also needs to look good. They would also like the PC to run as quietly as possible so an after-market heatsink is needed. They don't really have a price in mind but the max is £500, so it would be great if you guys could list a few different ones for different price ranges.

Thank you in advance for suggestions.

Will
 
Went a little mad:

YOUR BASKET
1 x Intel Core i3-4330 3.50GHz (Haswell) Socket LGA1150 Processor - Retail £91.99
1 x Crucial M500 240GB SATA 6Gb/s Solid State Hard Drive - (CT240M500SSD1) £84.2
1 x Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 64-Bit - OEM (GFC-02733) £73.99
1 x TeamGroup Vulcan GOLD 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-17100C11 2133MHz Dual Channel Kit (TLYD38G2133HC11ADC01) £65.99
1 x Gigabyte Z97P-D3 Intel Z97 (Socket 1150) DDR3 ATX Motherboard £65.99
1 x SuperFlower Golden Green HX 550W "80 Plus Gold" Power Supply - Black £46.99
1 x Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache WD10EZEX - OEM ** Single Platter ** HDD £41.98
1 x Raijintek Agos Midi Tower - Black £39.95
Total : £520.68 (includes shipping : £8.00).



or

YOUR BASKET
1 x Intel Core i3-4330 3.50GHz (Haswell) Socket LGA1150 Processor - Retail £91.99
1 x Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 64-Bit - OEM (GFC-02733) £73.99
1 x Gigabyte Z97P-D3 Intel Z97 (Socket 1150) DDR3 ATX Motherboard £65.99
1 x TeamGroup Vulcan GOLD 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-17100C11 2133MHz Dual Channel Kit (TLYD38G2133HC11ADC01) £65.99
1 x Intel 320 Series 120GB Internal SSD SATA 3GB/s 2.5" 7mm (SSDSA2BW120G3) £54.98
1 x SuperFlower Golden Green HX 550W "80 Plus Gold" Power Supply - Black £46.99
1 x Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache WD10EZEX - OEM ** Single Platter ** HDD £41.98
1 x Raijintek Agos Midi Tower - Black £39.95
1 x Raijintek Themis Direct Contact CPU Cooler £17.99
Total : £509.45 (includes shipping : £8.00).

 
Does 'general PC' include gaming? If not, RJC's second spec looks bang on (except perhaps change the PSU to an equally good one as the cables are an **** to route if there is little space behind the motherboard)
 
 
RJC said:
Went a little mad:

YOUR BASKET
1 x Intel Core i3-4330 3.50GHz (Haswell) Socket LGA1150 Processor - Retail £91.99
1 x Crucial M500 240GB SATA 6Gb/s Solid State Hard Drive - (CT240M500SSD1) £84.2
1 x Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 64-Bit - OEM (GFC-02733) £73.99
1 x TeamGroup Vulcan GOLD 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-17100C11 2133MHz Dual Channel Kit (TLYD38G2133HC11ADC01) £65.99
1 x Gigabyte Z97P-D3 Intel Z97 (Socket 1150) DDR3 ATX Motherboard £65.99
1 x SuperFlower Golden Green HX 550W "80 Plus Gold" Power Supply - Black £46.99
1 x Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache WD10EZEX - OEM ** Single Platter ** HDD £41.98
1 x Raijintek Agos Midi Tower - Black £39.95
Total : £520.68 (includes shipping : £8.00).



or

YOUR BASKET
1 x Intel Core i3-4330 3.50GHz (Haswell) Socket LGA1150 Processor - Retail £91.99
1 x Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 64-Bit - OEM (GFC-02733) £73.99
1 x Gigabyte Z97P-D3 Intel Z97 (Socket 1150) DDR3 ATX Motherboard £65.99
1 x TeamGroup Vulcan GOLD 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-17100C11 2133MHz Dual Channel Kit (TLYD38G2133HC11ADC01) £65.99
1 x Intel 320 Series 120GB Internal SSD SATA 3GB/s 2.5" 7mm (SSDSA2BW120G3) £54.98
1 x SuperFlower Golden Green HX 550W "80 Plus Gold" Power Supply - Black £46.99
1 x Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache WD10EZEX - OEM ** Single Platter ** HDD £41.98
1 x Raijintek Agos Midi Tower - Black £39.95
1 x Raijintek Themis Direct Contact CPU Cooler £17.99
Total : £509.45 (includes shipping : £8.00).

Click to expand...

Thanks for the suggestion.

Shivy011 said:
Does 'general PC' include gaming? If not, RJC's second spec looks bang on (except perhaps change the PSU to an equally good one as the cables are an **** to route if there is little space behind the motherboard)
Click to expand...


I was looking at one around the £400 mark, I was thinking of the Pentium Anniversary and overclocking a bit? Or would it not be powerful enough. There is not a lot of need for an SSD as it will mostly be photos stored on the computer.
 
RJC said:
Another option:

YOUR BASKET
1 x "Recon iX44" Intel Core i5-4440 3.1GHz (3.3GHz Turbo) Quad Core Value Gaming Bundle £259.99
1 x Standard Build Laptops - Approximately 3 to 5 working days £0
1 x Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 64-Bit - OEM (GFC-02733) £73.99
1 x SuperFlower Golden Green HX 550W "80 Plus Gold" Power Supply - Black £46.99
1 x Seagate Barracuda 7200RPM 1TB SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache - OEM (ST1000DM003) HDD £38.99
1 x Antec One Gaming Case - Black £29.99
1 x Raijintek Themis Direct Contact CPU Cooler £17.99
Total : £482.94 (includes shipping : £12.50).

Click to expand...

That's clever and will work well.
 
 
stulid said:
An APU will be more than up to it.


YOUR BASKET
1 x Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 64-Bit - OEM (GFC-02733) £73.99
1 x TeamGroup Vulcan RED 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-17100C11 2133MHz Dual Channel Kit (TLD38G2133HC11ADC01) £65.99
1 x SuperFlower Golden Green HX 550W "80 Plus Gold" Power Supply - Black £46.99
1 x Gigabyte F2A88XM-HD3 AMD A88X (Socket FM2+) DDR3 Micro ATX Motherboard £46.99
1 x AMD A6-6400K 3.90GHz (Socket FM2) APU Richland Dual Core Processor (AD640KOKHLBOX) £44.99
1 x Seagate Barracuda 7200RPM 1TB SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache - OEM (ST1000DM003) HDD £38.99
1 x Antec One Gaming Case - Black £29.99
1 x Raijintek Themis Black Heatpipe CPU Cooler PWM - 120mm £17.99
Total : £380.02 (includes shipping : £11.75).

Click to expand...

Thanks for that it really helped. Are you certain that it will be able to handle office tasks easily? Would it be worth adding in a 30gb ssd for the OS or just upgrading to an SSHD?
 
William-Mathew said:
Thanks for that it really helped. Are you certain that it will be able to handle office tasks easily? Would it be worth adding in a 30gb ssd for the OS or just upgrading to an SSHD?
Click to expand...

It will handle office tasks just fine, a SSD is always nice but try a 256GB SSD on its own inside of a HDD altogether?

YOUR BASKET
1 x Samsung 250GB SSD 840 EVO SATA 6Gb/s Basic - (MZ-7TE250BW) £99.98
1 x Crucial M500 240GB SATA 6Gb/s Solid State Hard Drive - (CT240M500SSD1) £84.20
1 x Crucial MX100 256GB SATA 2.5” 7mm SSD + 9.5mm Adapter (CT256MX100SSD1) £82.99
Total : £276.78 (includes shipping : £8.00).



Do you think 256Gb would be enough?
 
I'm just going to wade in here as I think you are being fairly overspecced for your needs :p

YOUR BASKET
1 x Intel Core i3-4330 3.50GHz (Haswell) Socket LGA1150 Processor - Retail £91.99
1 x Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 64-Bit - OEM (GFC-02733) £73.99
1 x TeamGroup Vulcan GOLD 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-17100C11 2133MHz Dual Channel Kit (TLYD38G2133HC11ADC01) £65.99
1 x Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache WD10EZEX - OEM ** Single Platter ** HDD £41.98
1 x Kingston 60GB SSDNow V300 Drive SATA 6Gb/s 3 2.5" (7mm height) Solid State Hard Drive - (SV300S37A/60G) £34.99
1 x MSI H81M-P33 Intel H81 (Socket 1150) DDR3 Micro ATX Motherboard £33.95
1 x BitFenix Comrade Midi-Tower - Black £29.99
1 x Antec VP450P 450W '80 Plus' Continuous Power Supply £19.99
1 x Raijintek Rhea Heatpipe CPU Cooler - PWM - 92mm £12.79
1 x Arctic F12 PWM Case Fan - 120mm £4.39
Total : £423.55 (includes shipping : £11.25).



I'm powering a 4330 based ITX build on a 120w PSU, so a 450w would be fine, no need to pay more than double for a 550w when this doesn't even have a dedicated graphics card.
The 4330 has an HD 4600 which is again perfectly fine for normal usage.
Extra front fan can be ignored if you want to save a bit more.
SSD is fine, I run my OS drive on a 64GB Samsung and have no issues, and it being a Kingston doesn't matter, even the cheapest SSD will offer significant OS snappiness over a normal SATA drive.
 
I think for future 'upgradeability', you'd want an Intel setup (krooton's looks excellent)
On the other hand, the APU will take some beating at games (stulid's spec on this side) and won't need a discreet GPU etc, but as it is a general PC, I agree with krooton and think the 4600 GPU (which in my experience is actually good enough to play some games!) will be more than enough - the customer would also be able to put an i5 or i7 in the future if they wished or get yourself to put one in

Just one thing though krooton, get the 1600Mhz kit as a pose to the 2133Mhz as it's cheaper and the H81 board doesn't support the 2133 speed, though it might be worth spending the extra few quid just in case :)
 
Shivy011 said:
Just one thing though krooton, get the 1600Mhz kit as a pose to the 2133Mhz as it's cheaper and the H81 board doesn't support the 2133 speed, though it might be worth spending the extra few quid just in case :)
Click to expand...

Good point, I didn't change the RAM after downgrading the mobo, doh!
 
krooton said:
I'm just going to wade in here as I think you are being fairly overspecced for your needs :p

YOUR BASKET
1 x Intel Core i3-4330 3.50GHz (Haswell) Socket LGA1150 Processor - Retail £91.99
1 x Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 64-Bit - OEM (GFC-02733) £73.99
1 x TeamGroup Vulcan GOLD 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-17100C11 2133MHz Dual Channel Kit (TLYD38G2133HC11ADC01) £65.99
1 x Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache WD10EZEX - OEM ** Single Platter ** HDD £41.98
1 x Kingston 60GB SSDNow V300 Drive SATA 6Gb/s 3 2.5" (7mm height) Solid State Hard Drive - (SV300S37A/60G) £34.99
1 x MSI H81M-P33 Intel H81 (Socket 1150) DDR3 Micro ATX Motherboard £33.95
1 x BitFenix Comrade Midi-Tower - Black £29.99
1 x Antec VP450P 450W '80 Plus' Continuous Power Supply £19.99
1 x Raijintek Rhea Heatpipe CPU Cooler - PWM - 92mm £12.79
1 x Arctic F12 PWM Case Fan - 120mm £4.39
Total : £423.55 (includes shipping : £11.25).



I'm powering a 4330 based ITX build on a 120w PSU, so a 450w would be fine, no need to pay more than double for a 550w when this doesn't even have a dedicated graphics card.
The 4330 has an HD 4600 which is again perfectly fine for normal usage.
Extra front fan can be ignored if you want to save a bit more.
SSD is fine, I run my OS drive on a 64GB Samsung and have no issues, and it being a Kingston doesn't matter, even the cheapest SSD will offer significant OS snappiness over a normal SATA drive.
Click to expand...

That's a great spec, I will properly go for the 60gb Kingston drive as it is fairly cheap and will get much better performance. I will just set the hard drive to be for the storage.
Shivy011 said:
I think for future 'upgradeability', you'd want an Intel setup (krooton's looks excellent)
On the other hand, the APU will take some beating at games (stulid's spec on this side) and won't need a discreet GPU etc, but as it is a general PC, I agree with krooton and think the 4600 GPU (which in my experience is actually good enough to play some games!) will be more than enough - the customer would also be able to put an i5 or i7 in the future if they wished or get yourself to put one in

Just one thing though krooton, get the 1600Mhz kit as a pose to the 2133Mhz as it's cheaper and the H81 board doesn't support the 2133 speed, though it might be worth spending the extra few quid just in case :)
Click to expand...

The customer won't be playing any games, but the i3 has hyper threading which is an improvement on the APU
 
Ah okay, however in the future the upgrade options are still there :) I think an APU is more suited for general work and gaming together, the i3 builds are more than plenty in my opinion for general/office work
 
I have come up with these two builds:

Intel build:

YOUR BASKET
1 x Intel Core i3-4330 3.50GHz (Haswell) Socket LGA1150 Processor - Retail £91.99
1 x Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 64-Bit - OEM (GFC-02733) £73.99
1 x TeamGroup Vulcan GOLD 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-17100C11 2133MHz Dual Channel Kit (TLYD38G2133HC11ADC01) £65.99
1 x Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache WD10EZEX - OEM ** Single Platter ** HDD £41.98
1 x Kingston 60GB SSDNow V300 Drive SATA 6Gb/s 3 2.5" (7mm height) Solid State Hard Drive - (SV300S37A/60G) £34.99
1 x MSI H81M-P33 Intel H81 (Socket 1150) DDR3 Micro ATX Motherboard £33.95
1 x BitFenix Comrade Midi-Tower - Black £29.99
1 x Antec VP450P 450W '80 Plus' Continuous Power Supply £19.99
1 x Raijintek Rhea Heatpipe CPU Cooler - PWM - 92mm £12.79
1 x Arctic F12 PWM Case Fan - 120mm £4.39
Total : £423.55 (includes shipping : £11.25).



APU Build:

YOUR BASKET
1 x Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 64-Bit - OEM (GFC-02733) £73.99
1 x TeamGroup Vulcan RED 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-17100C11 2133MHz Dual Channel Kit (TLD38G2133HC11ADC01) £65.99
1 x Gigabyte F2A88XM-HD3 AMD A88X (Socket FM2+) DDR3 Micro ATX Motherboard £46.99
1 x AMD A6-6400K 3.90GHz (Socket FM2) APU Richland Dual Core Processor (AD640KOKHLBOX) £44.99
1 x Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache WD10EZEX - OEM ** Single Platter ** HDD £41.98
1 x Kingston 60GB SSDNow V300 Drive SATA 6Gb/s 3 2.5" (7mm height) Solid State Hard Drive - (SV300S37A/60G) £34.99
1 x BitFenix Comrade Midi-Tower - Black £29.99
1 x Antec VP450P 450W '80 Plus' Continuous Power Supply £19.99
1 x Arctic F12 PWM Case Fan - 120mm £4.39
Total : £376.80 (includes shipping : £11.25).



Both builds will be more than enough for the customer. Should I go with a better power supply or keep this one?
 
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