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Ant84

Ant84

Ant84

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Joined
20 Feb 2007
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Hi, so I managed to stretch my budget to £500 for a new system, and this is what I've come up with so far. Any advice is very welcome.

i3 530
Gigabyte UD2H H55 mobo
4gb Corsair XMS3 DDR3
1tb Samsung F3
Zalman Z7 case
Corsair 450w modular PSU
Pioneer DVR S18L drive/writer

Don't need any dedicated graphics yet as I don't play games. Also plan to upgrade to an i5 750 plus P55 mobo in a few months, hoping the rest would be perfectly compatible with that set up?

Any thoughts?
 
Can't you scretch another £60 ish and get the i5 750 and a P55 board...and may be around £20~£25 for a 4350 for now?

It just seem too much hassle to change the motherboard and the CPU together later...plus, you will loses money on selling the i3 530 and the H55 board...

If you are planning on leaving the upgrade till next year for something better than a i5 750, then that's different.
 
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Any upgrade would likely be at least 6 months away. i5 plus P55 was the original plan but I just can't stretch to it yet.

I was planning to keep a look out on the members market for any cheap, low end graphics cards.
 
the spec aint half bad.

nice case, decent psu, good ram and excellent harddrive.

what sort of graphics card you thinking of?
 
Don't really have any graphics in mind at the moment. I'm aware that when I do add a dedicated graphics card, I'll likely need a bigger PSU.

Just some more food for thought, I've had another look and an x4 Phenom 955 is only an extra £30 over the i3. Coupled with the (usually) cheaper AM3 boards, would this make a much better alternative at very little extra cost?

Also, would the Phenom require a bigger PSU than the Corsair 450w, even without the graphics card, or would it be ok?
 
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If you had another dvd/rw drive elsewhere, and only used a 250gb hdd for now, you could probably get a p55 setup :)
 
Just below £480 with shipping, £25 more than your build:

42365213.png


BTW, there's no problem with running Core i5 750 on that board you chose. No need to upgrade it ;)
 
Well those comments have certainly thrown a spanner into the works! I assume the general consensus is that the i5 is well worth the extra expense?

Edit: Mr Krugga - would that board plus i5 be ok for integrated graphics? Probably a stupid question, but I'd hate to make a glaring mistake!
 
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Ant84 said:
Well those comments have certainly thrown a spanner into the works! I assume the general consensus is that the i5 is well worth the extra expense?

Edit: Mr Krugga - would that board plus i5 be ok for integrated graphics? Probably a stupid question, but I'd hate to make a glaring mistake!
Click to expand...

it wont work.

the i5 750 doesnt have an integrated graphics core, only the i3 and i5 6** series do
 
Corsair XMS3 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (CMX4GX3M2A1600C9) £99.98
Asus M4A88TD-V EVO/USB3 AMD 880G (Socket AM3) DDR3 Motherboard £93.99
AMD Phenom II X2 Dual Core 555 3.20GHz Black Edition (Socket AM3) - Retail £84.99
Corsair VX 450W ATX Power Supply (CMPSU-450VXUK) £63.99
Samsung SpinPoint F3 1TB SATA-II 32MB Cache - OEM (HD103SJ) £56.99
Zalman Z7 Plus Midi Tower Case - Black £42.99
Pioneer DVR-S18L 22x DVD±RW SATA Labelflash ReWriter - Black (Retail) £18.99

Comes to £476.60 incl shipping

This board has core-unlocker so you may be able to get triple or quad core for < £100.

When you save up enough you could then add 1055T Hex core or 5830 GPU as an upgrade.

Going marginally over budget would get you the 955 now without having to sell anything in 3-4 months.
 
Ant84 said:
Thanks for the suggestion.

How would that Phenom build compare to the i3 and i5 builds suggested?
Click to expand...

that i5 build just won't work without a graphics card, plus the motherboard is not as feature rich, it doesnt have SATA and USB 3.0, crossfire at 8X/8X.
 
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stulid said:
that i5 build just won't work without a graphics card, plus the motherboard is not as feature rich.
Click to expand...

Not any worse than the one he proposed tbh. He would need to get a graphics card for it, if he's on a budget, going for Phenom II (whether it's 555, 955 or 1055T) or Core i3 would be a right choice.

86733864.png
 
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Mr Krugga said:
Not any worse than the one he proposed tbh.
Click to expand...

its pants.

AMD is the way togo if you want onboard graphics for a few months untill you can get a graphics card.

The AMD bulldozer range of CPUs will work in AM3 motherboards, making it far more future proof.

Intel are changing all their sockets soon, the 1156 is being binned for 1155
 
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Thanks to everyone for your replies so far. i5 seems like a non starter given the lack of integrated GPU, unfortunately.

Which leaves the i3, H55 UD2H and 1tb Samsung F3. On the other hand is the Phenom x4 955, AM3 UD3H and 500gb Barracuda. AMD certainly seems the future proof and marginally more powerful choice, falling somewhere between the i3 and i5 in terms of performance. I was, however, quite surprised at how well the i3 fared against the 955 in those benchmarks.

Which of the two combos do people think is the logical choice?
 
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