First cheap build advice/spec

If you want to go cheap, AMD really is the way forward. A 955BE is on par with that i3 2100 (i'll add a link so you can compare benchmarks of cpus).

The Gigabyte GA-M68MT-S2 is £40
A phenom II 955BE is £90 (you can make this into a 965BE through the bios and will save you £15)
The xfx 550W psu makes sense too has enough power for your needs.

Forget the 5770, you want/need atleast a 5830. Perferably the 5850 and seeing as both the 5830 and 5850 are the same price you go with the later (I know I don't understand the pricing on the sit either)

I'm not knocking hybrids' spec just pointing out options. You really need to save some £s to get a decent gpu.

http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/102?vs=289
 
Stoner81 said:
YOUR BASKET
1 x Gigabyte H67A-UD3H-B3 Intel H67 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard - (Sandybridge) ** B3 REVISION ** £109.98
1 x Intel Core i3-2120 3.30GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor - Retail £99.98
1 x XFX Pro 550W Core Edition Power Supply £50.99
1 x Hitachi Deskstar 7K1000.C 1TB SATA-II 32MB Cache - OEM (0F10383) £42.98
1 x Kingston HyperX Blu 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 PC3-10666C9 1333MHz Dual Channel Kit (KHX1333C9D3B1K2/4G) £35.99
1 x Cooler Master Elite 430 Windowed Case - Black £33.98
Total : £386.51 (includes shipping : £10.50)
Click to expand...

I like this one with the non-modular PSU. Just to double check! The PSU is definitely enough to handle a graphics card if I buy one in a few months down the line?
 
Ok i'll assume you are completely ruling out an amd build :/

I can see a reason for opting with a sandybridge rig but you said cheap and putting a quarter of the budget on the mobo!!

Any who, yes that 550W psu will run a single card fine. Double check it's connectors though, i'm sure it will come with 2 PCI-E power cables but best to check now as not all cards come with the molex adapter if it doesn't.

You can check the gfx card website and check their recommended spec. They will say 500W minimum and that's erring on the side of caution.

Good luck with the build, any more questions or probs you know where we are

*edit* the golden rule with psu's is too avoid cheapo nasty brands and go with a decent brand. You can compromise on some parts but do that with the psu and it will end in tears
 
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Just to be clear, I recommended an Intel processor because the OP asked for one. Performance wise, the i3 2100 (vs the X4 955) ranges from quite a lot better (games only optimised for two cores) to very slightly worse (games designed for 3-4 cores), as hono's link points out.

550W is plenty for running a good sized graphics card like the 5850. Don't worry about the motherboard- the P8H67-M is plenty reliable, and you don't want to be throwing away an extra £20 of your very slim budget on a motherboard upgrade with no discernible extra features. Micro-ATX is by no means a performance or feature loss.

On a 1680x1050 monitor, a 5770 is plenty enough to (nearly) max out settings, but a 5850 is stonkingly good value for money at £100. Don't buy a 5830, as they don't present great value performance. Also, ignore Stoner's suggestion on the GTS450. NVidia have been sincerely trumped price/performance-wise in this sector of the market, and going with them "because I don't like ATi" really is no excuse for poor value. ATi have had criticisms over their drivers, but so have NVidia, and they're largely fixed now on both sides.

As honosuseri says, we're all here if you need more help.
 
honosuseri said:
Ok i'll assume you are completely ruling out an amd build :/

I can see a reason for opting with a sandybridge rig but you said cheap and putting a quarter of the budget on the mobo!!

Any who, yes that 550W psu will run a single card fine. Double check it's connectors though, i'm sure it will come with 2 PCI-E power cables but best to check now as not all cards come with the molex adapter if it doesn't.

You can check the gfx card website and check their recommended spec. They will say 500W minimum and that's erring on the side of caution.

Good luck with the build, any more questions or probs you know where we are

*edit* the golden rule with psu's is too avoid cheapo nasty brands and go with a decent brand. You can compromise on some parts but do that with the psu and it will end in tears
Click to expand...

I haven't ruled it out, i'll look more into it when I get home from work. I did think the intel processors were more powerful though, but i'll check the link you posted
 
honosuseri said:
If you want to go cheap, AMD really is the way forward. A 955BE is on par with that i3 2100 (i'll add a link so you can compare benchmarks of cpus).

The Gigabyte GA-M68MT-S2 is £40
A phenom II 955BE is £90 (you can make this into a 965BE through the bios and will save you £15)
The xfx 550W psu makes sense too has enough power for your needs.

Forget the 5770, you want/need atleast a 5830. Perferably the 5850 and seeing as both the 5830 and 5850 are the same price you go with the later (I know I don't understand the pricing on the sit either)

I'm not knocking hybrids' spec just pointing out options. You really need to save some £s to get a decent gpu.

http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/102?vs=289
Click to expand...

+1

for a budget system go down the amd route, get a nice overclock and and decent graphics card you'll be eating those games all day long lol
 
Like i said fella wasn't knocking your spec.

You were doing what was asked of you. Yes the AM3 platorm is at the end of it's life as opposed to the sandybridge but we are talking bang for buck here and that really should be AMD's motto.....in latin obviously :P

*edit When you compare the cpu's don't do 955 vs i3 2100! Do 965BE, you literally just up the multiplier by 1 and you have a 965 from a 955 purchase (that's why i set that comparison already in the link). This is why we buy black edition cpus ;) Any which way that link is helpful you can compare amd to amd or intel to intel aswell to help "justify" expense on the choice of cpu.
 
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