Going for new build trying to keep to around £700

wildman · 17 Feb 2011 at 16:05

Ok after a bit of reading I went to OCUK store and tried to rustle up a build for as close to £700 as possible. From my current rig there is currently nothing that is actually salvagable as it is close to 5 years old. I could possibly slavage the optical drive but its got no blu ray, so the only bits I salavage are monitor, mouse and keyboard.

I need to include windows 7 in the build price

My first try

Case Coolermaster Elite 335 Black 33.7
Fans Antec Tri-Cool 3 speed 120mmFan 2.99
Cooler Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro Rev 2 CPU Cooler
Thermal Arctic Silver 5 Thermal Compound (3.5g) 6.73
PSU OcUK Crusade 650W Dual-Rail High Efficiency Power Supply 44.99
CPU AMD Phenom II X6 Six Core 1090T Black Edition 3.20GHz 179.99
Motherboard Asus M4A79XTD Evo (Socket AM3) DDR3 Motherboard 81.98
RAM OCZ Intel Extreme XMP 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 10666C7 1333MHz Low Voltage Dual-Channel Kit* 29.99 x 2 for total of 8gb
GFX MSI ATI Radeon HD 6850 Cyclone Power Edition 1024MB GDDR5 149.99
Optical drive LiteOn iHOS104-37 4x BD-ROM Drive / 8x DVD-ROM (Black) 41.99
HDD Seagate Barracuda Green 2TB SATA 6Gb/s Hard Drive 79.99
OS Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium 64-Bit - OEM 81.98
Total 727.62

Could i do better for the cash I am spending ?

Redmint · 17 Feb 2011 at 16:08

What're the main uses of the rig going to be?

stulid · 17 Feb 2011 at 16:08

Your basketProduct Name Qty Price Line Total
Asus ATI Radeon HD 6870 OC 1024MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £165.59
(£137.99) £165.59
(£137.99)
Intel Core i5-2400 3.10GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor - Retail £154.99
(£129.16) £154.99
(£129.16)
GeIL 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz VALUE PLUS Dual Channel (GVP38GB1600C9DC) £85.99
(£71.66) £85.99
(£71.66)
Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium 64-Bit - OEM (GFC-00599) £81.98
(£68.32) £81.98
(£68.32)
Foxconn H67A-S Intel H67 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Micro-ATX Motherboard - (Sandybridge) £79.98
(£66.65) £79.98
(£66.65)
BeQuiet Pure Power L7 530W Power Supply £41.99
(£34.99) £41.99
(£34.99)
LiteOn iHOS104-37 4x BD-ROM Drive / 8x DVD-ROM (Black) - OEM £41.99
(£34.99) £41.99
(£34.99)
Coolermaster Elite 370 Case - Black £33.70
(£28.08) £33.70
(£28.08)
Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 500GB SATA-II 16MB Cache - OEM (ST3500418AS) £28.99
(£24.16) £28.99
(£24.16)
Sub Total : £596.00
Shipping cost assumes delivery to UK Mainland with:
DPD Next Day Parcel
(This can be changed during checkout) Shipping : £10.50
VAT is being charged at 20.00% VAT : £121.30
Total : £727.80

Much faster!!!!

Also never skimp on the PSU, the bequeit above has two 6+2pin pci-e connectors for the 6870, I was going to spec the coolermaster Elite430 case with 500w psu, but its not good enough for the spec and the psu only has a single 6pin pci-e cable, the reviews of the Coolermaster elite psus are not that great for such a build, for a smaller budget build using a 5770 or similar they are ok.

Redmint · 17 Feb 2011 at 16:17

Bit different/cheaper to stulid's build, this one comes with more storage and a different case & PSU. Also this Blu ray drives lets you write DVDs if needed.

Asus ATI Radeon HD 6870 OC 1024MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £165.59
(£137.99) £165.59
(£137.99)
Intel Core i5-2400 3.10GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor - Retail £154.99
(£129.16) £154.99
(£129.16)
Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium 64-Bit - OEM (GFC-00599) £81.98
(£68.32) £81.98
(£68.32)
Foxconn H67A-S Intel H67 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Micro-ATX Motherboard - (Sandybridge) £79.98
(£66.65) £79.98
(£66.65)
Coolermaster Elite 430 Windowed Case - Black (with 500w Elite Power PSU) £64.33
(£53.61) £64.33
(£53.61)
Samsung SpinPoint F4 EcoGreen 2TB SATA-II 32MB Cache - OEM (HD204UI) £60.98
(£50.82) £60.98
(£50.82)
Samsung SH-B123L/BSBP 12x BluRay ROM DVDRW DL & RAM Lightscribe SATAII Optical Drive - OEM Black £44.39
(£36.99) £44.39
(£36.99)
OCZ Intel Extreme XMP 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 10666C7 1333MHz Low Voltage Dual-Channel Kit (OCZ3X1333LV4GK) £29.99
(£24.99) £59.98
(£49.98)

Sub Total : £593.52
Shipping cost based on delivery to with:
FREE SHIPPING (DPD Next Day)
(This can be changed during checkout) Shipping : FREE
VAT is being charged at 20.00% VAT : £118.70
Total : £712.22

wildman · 17 Feb 2011 at 16:27

forgot to add main uses will be gaming, WoW, Eve, FPS, Strategy games like C&C etc, also use it for photoshop work and the usual playing music, videos.

Redmint · 17 Feb 2011 at 16:28

Either build posted should be fine for all of those then (well they are pretty similar

).

jakejacob0 · 17 Feb 2011 at 16:28

Redmint said:
Bit different/cheaper to stulid's build, this one comes with more storage and a different case & PSU. Also this Blu ray drives lets you write DVDs if needed.

Asus ATI Radeon HD 6870 OC 1024MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £165.59
(£137.99) £165.59
(£137.99)
Intel Core i5-2400 3.10GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor - Retail £154.99
(£129.16) £154.99
(£129.16)
Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium 64-Bit - OEM (GFC-00599) £81.98
(£68.32) £81.98
(£68.32)
Foxconn H67A-S Intel H67 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Micro-ATX Motherboard - (Sandybridge) £79.98
(£66.65) £79.98
(£66.65)
Coolermaster Elite 430 Windowed Case - Black (with 500w Elite Power PSU) £64.33
(£53.61) £64.33
(£53.61)
Samsung SpinPoint F4 EcoGreen 2TB SATA-II 32MB Cache - OEM (HD204UI) £60.98
(£50.82) £60.98
(£50.82)
Samsung SH-B123L/BSBP 12x BluRay ROM DVDRW DL & RAM Lightscribe SATAII Optical Drive - OEM Black £44.39
(£36.99) £44.39
(£36.99)
OCZ Intel Extreme XMP 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 10666C7 1333MHz Low Voltage Dual-Channel Kit (OCZ3X1333LV4GK) £29.99
(£24.99) £59.98
(£49.98)

Sub Total : £593.52
Shipping cost based on delivery to with:
FREE SHIPPING (DPD Next Day)
(This can be changed during checkout) Shipping : FREE
VAT is being charged at 20.00% VAT : £118.70
Total : £712.22

a lot faster than you specced go for this one

stulid · 17 Feb 2011 at 16:28

wildman said:
forgot to add main uses will be gaming, WoW, Eve, FPS, Strategy games like C&C etc, also use it for photoshop work and the usual playing music, videos.

Well a 2400cpu is faster for gaming, photoshop wont be a issue either

http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/cpu/display/core-i5-2500-2400-2300_7.html#sect0

wildman · 19 Feb 2011 at 22:44

One of the reason I went with the pheno black edition is becasue it is unlocked. I didn;t think the i5-2400 sandy's were unlocked ?

I tried putting another build together using some of the componets shown in the build by Stulid and Redmint, except I am using a 955BE instead

Asus ATI Radeon HD 6870 OC 1024MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £165.59
(£137.99) £165.59
(£137.99)
AMD Phenom II X4 Quad Core 955 Black Edition "125W Edition" 3.20GHz (Socket AM3) - Retail £109.99
(£91.66) £109.99
(£91.66)
Coolermaster CM-690 II Nvidia Edition Advanced Dominator Case - Black/Green £89.99
(£74.99) £89.99
(£74.99)
Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium 64-Bit - OEM (GFC-00599) £79.99
(£66.66) £79.99
(£66.66)
Gigabyte GA-MA770T-UD3 MA770 (Socket AM3) DDR3 Motherboard £59.99
(£49.99) £59.99
(£49.99)
Corsair Hydro H50-1 High-Performance CPU Watercooler (Socket LGA775/1155/1156/1366/AM2/AM3) £51.98
(£43.32) £51.98
(£43.32)
Samsung SH-B123L/BSBP 12x BluRay ROM DVDRW DL & RAM Lightscribe SATAII Optical Drive - OEM Black £44.39
(£36.99) £44.39
(£36.99)
Samsung SpinPoint F3 1TB SATA-II 32MB Cache - OEM (HD103SJ) £42.98
(£35.82) £42.98
(£35.82)
BeQuiet Pure Power L7 530W Power Supply £41.99
(£34.99) £41.99
(£34.99)
GeIL 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz VALUE PLUS Dual Channel (GVP34GB1600C9DC)

Total = 722.88

stulid · 19 Feb 2011 at 22:52

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MB-424-AS&groupid=701&catid=1903&subcat=1481

will save £15, unless you really need all the extra expansion slots a full ATX motherboard has?

Apart from that, good stuff!!!

The reason Redmint and I specced the same cpu, is not just that we are both super intelligent. But the 2400 cpu even at stock beats all AMD cpus at gaming, and you would need to overclock a AMD 955BE to nearly 3.8GHZ to match it.

wildman · 19 Feb 2011 at 23:26

stulid said:
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MB-424-AS&groupid=701&catid=1903&subcat=1481

will save £15, unless you really need all the extra expansion slots a full ATX motherboard has?

Apart from that, good stuff!!!

The reason Redmint and I specced the same cpu, is not just that we are both super intelligent. But the 2400 cpu even at stock beats all AMD cpus at gaming, and you would need to overclock a AMD 955BE to nearly 3.8GHZ to match it.

With a H50 cooler would getting it to 3.8 be reachable or should I just give up on the AMD idea and go straight for the 2400 ? The only thing holding me back though is that if I go for the 2400 when I look at my basket at checkout, I will just go in for a penny in for a pound and change it over for a 2500K and a board like Gigabyte P67A-UD3.

I am trying to keep to the 700ish range as I need to keep myself in check

I have a tendency to go wild on purchases and my missus will have a fair few things to say about that

My downfall is i like to tinker and if I get a new CPU and MoBo I am going to want to start seeing how far I can push it. I am a sucker for running benchmarks

stulid · 19 Feb 2011 at 23:29

A H50-1 will cope with the heat generated at that speed easily.

Sasahara · 20 Feb 2011 at 00:01

I think the i5-2500k route would be better for the games you want to play.

Graphics Asus GeForce GTX 460 Direct CU TOP 768MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £119.99
CPU Intel Core i5-2500K 3.30GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor - OEM [BX80623I52500K] £173.99
Heatsink Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro Rev 2 CPU Cooler (Socket 939 / AM2 / AM3 / 775 / 1155/ 1156 / 1366) £19.39
RAM OCZ Intel Extreme XMP 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 12800C8 1600MHz Low Voltage Dual Channel Kit (OCZ3X1600LV4GK £35.99
OS Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium 64-Bit - OEM £79.99
Mobo Gigabyte P67A-UD3 Intel P67 Chipset (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard - (Sandybridge) [4719331842161] £104.98
PSU Antec High Current Gamer 520W Power Supply - With FREE 3D Mark 2011 Advance £61.99
Optical LiteOn iHOS104-37 4x BD-ROM Drive / 8x DVD-ROM (Black) - OEM £41.99
Case Antec 100 One Hundred Ultimate Gaming Case - Black £43.99
HDD Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 1TB SATA-II 32MB Cache - OEM (ST31000528AS) £43.99

Total £726.29

Graphics card is a tad slower, but the CPU with overclocking will more than make up for it.

You probably don't need more than 4 GB of ram.

wildman · 24 Feb 2011 at 12:11

did a bit more reading on forums, looked at a few options, have now filled my basket with the following

MSI ATI Radeon HD 5850 Twin FrozR II 1024MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £134.39
(£111.99) £134.39
(£111.99)
AMD Phenom II X4 Quad Core 955 Black Edition "125W Edition" 3.20GHz (Socket AM3) - Retail £101.99
(£84.99) £101.99
(£84.99)
Asus M4A88TD-V EVO/USB3 AMD 880G (Socket AM3) DDR3 Motherboard £91.99
(£76.66) £91.99
(£76.66)
Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium 64-Bit - OEM (GFC-00599) £79.99
(£66.66) £79.99
(£66.66)
Coolermaster CM-690 II Advanced Dominator Case - All White £69.98
(£58.32) £69.98
(£58.32)
OcUK Battle 850W Dual Rail High Efficiency Modular Power Supply £59.99
(£49.99) £59.99
(£49.99)
Seagate Barracuda 7200.11 1.5TB SATA-II 32MB Cache - OEM (ST31500341AS) £51.98
(£43.32) £51.98
(£43.32)
Corsair Hydro H50-1 High-Performance CPU Watercooler (Socket LGA775/1155/1156/1366/AM2/AM3) £51.98
(£43.32) £51.98
(£43.32)
OCZ Platinum 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Ultra Low Voltage Dual Channel Kit (OCZ3P1600C9ELV4GK) £29.99
(£24.99) £29.99
(£24.99)
OcUK 24x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £11.99
(£9.99) £11.99
(£9.99)
Sub Total : £570.23
Shipping cost based on delivery
FREE SHIPPING (DPD Next Day)
(This can be changed during checkout) Shipping : FREE
VAT is being charged at 20.00% VAT : £114.05
Total : £684.28

Opted for an 850W PSU because I am thinking of maybe going crossfire with another twinfrozr later in the year.

Changed motherboard to one that has proper 16x 16x crossfire support ( I think this board does it, I looked at specs and it had 16x listed on both PCIe slots)

Hovering over the buy button, but want to see if this can be improved anymore in the same price range.

anuraj · 24 Feb 2011 at 12:20

Product Name Qty Price Line Total
Asus ATI Radeon HD 6870 OC 1024MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £169.99
(£141.66) £169.99
(£141.66)
Intel Core i5-2400 3.10GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor - Retail £154.99
(£129.16) £154.99
(£129.16)
Antec Sonata IV Quiet Case - Black (620W PSU) £139.99
(£116.66) £139.99
(£116.66)
MSI H67MA-E45 Intel H67 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Micro-ATX Motherboard - (Sandybridge) £79.99
(£66.66) £79.99
(£66.66)
Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium 64-Bit - OEM (GFC-00599) £79.99
(£66.66) £79.99
(£66.66)
Samsung SpinPoint F3 1TB SATA-II 32MB Cache - OEM (HD103SJ) £39.98
(£33.32) £39.98
(£33.32)
OCZ Special OPS 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C8 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (OCZ3SOE1600LV4GK) £27.59
(£22.99) £27.59
(£22.99)
Pioneer 24x Internal S19LBK DVD Rewriter including Labelflash SATA Retail £21.98
(£18.32) £21.98
(£18.32)
Sub Total : £595.43
Shipping cost assumes delivery to UK Mainland with:
DPD Next Day Parcel
(This can be changed during checkout) Shipping : £12.50
VAT is being charged at 20.00% VAT : £121.59
Total : £729.52
That psu you chose isn't good.

Tythus · 24 Feb 2011 at 13:01

wildman said:
did a bit more reading on forums, looked at a few options, have now filled my basket with the following

MSI ATI Radeon HD 5850 Twin FrozR II 1024MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £134.39
(£111.99) £134.39
(£111.99)
AMD Phenom II X4 Quad Core 955 Black Edition "125W Edition" 3.20GHz (Socket AM3) - Retail £101.99
(£84.99) £101.99
(£84.99)
Asus M4A88TD-V EVO/USB3 AMD 880G (Socket AM3) DDR3 Motherboard £91.99
(£76.66) £91.99
(£76.66)
Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium 64-Bit - OEM (GFC-00599) £79.99
(£66.66) £79.99
(£66.66)
Coolermaster CM-690 II Advanced Dominator Case - All White £69.98
(£58.32) £69.98
(£58.32)
OcUK Battle 850W Dual Rail High Efficiency Modular Power Supply £59.99
(£49.99) £59.99
(£49.99)
Seagate Barracuda 7200.11 1.5TB SATA-II 32MB Cache - OEM (ST31500341AS) £51.98
(£43.32) £51.98
(£43.32)
Corsair Hydro H50-1 High-Performance CPU Watercooler (Socket LGA775/1155/1156/1366/AM2/AM3) £51.98
(£43.32) £51.98
(£43.32)
OCZ Platinum 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Ultra Low Voltage Dual Channel Kit (OCZ3P1600C9ELV4GK) £29.99
(£24.99) £29.99
(£24.99)
OcUK 24x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £11.99
(£9.99) £11.99
(£9.99)
Sub Total : £570.23
Shipping cost based on delivery
FREE SHIPPING (DPD Next Day)
(This can be changed during checkout) Shipping : FREE
VAT is being charged at 20.00% VAT : £114.05
Total : £684.28

Opted for an 850W PSU because I am thinking of maybe going crossfire with another twinfrozr later in the year.

Changed motherboard to one that has proper 16x 16x crossfire support ( I think this board does it, I looked at specs and it had 16x listed on both PCIe slots)

Hovering over the buy button, but want to see if this can be improved anymore in the same price range.

I agree with all of that except the PSU I would up it to a branded power supply like a corsair

Ste59w · 24 Feb 2011 at 13:25

You wont want that PSU, thats for sure.

Trusting that PSU to run a standard build with only 1 graphics card would be risky business, but to run a crossfire/sli setup in future would almost be touching on madness!

Psu's like that are cheap for a reason. If you want to trust your brand new equipment to run safely on that psu then go for it, but i wouldnt.

And again like suggested going to i5 route would probably be better in the long term.

anuraj · 24 Feb 2011 at 13:27

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CA-004-XF&groupid=701&catid=123&subcat=1497
You would be better off with these that oc uk just restocked on.

smiley1987 · 24 Feb 2011 at 14:08

Asus ATI Radeon HD 6950 OC 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £213.59
(£177.99) £213.59
(£177.99)
AMD Phenom II X6 Six Core 1055T 2.80GHz (Socket AM3) - Retail £139.99
(£116.66) £139.99
(£116.66)
Gigabyte GA-890GPA-UD3H AMD 890GX (Socket AM3) DDR3 Motherboard £106.99
(£89.16) £106.99
(£89.16)
XFX Pro 650W Core Edition Power Supply £68.99
(£57.49) £68.99
(£57.49)
LiteOn iHOS104-37 4x BD-ROM Drive / 8x DVD-ROM (Black) - OEM £41.99
(£34.99) £41.99
(£34.99)
Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 1TB SATA-II 32MB Cache - OEM 1yr Warranty (ST31000528AS) £37.99
(£31.66) £37.99
(£31.66)
OCZ Platinum 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Ultra Low Voltage Dual Channel Kit (OCZ3P1600C9ELV4GK) £29.99
(£24.99) £29.99
(£24.99)
Akasa AK-CC017V2 Freedom Tower CPU Cooler (Socket AM2 / AM3 / 775 / 1155/ 1156 / 1366) £29.99
(£24.99) £29.99
(£24.99)
Xigmatek Asgard Midi Tower Case - Black £29.60
(£24.67) £29.60
(£24.67)
Sub Total : £582.60
Shipping cost assumes delivery to UK Mainland with:
DPD Next Day Parcel
(This can be changed during checkout) Shipping : £12.50
VAT is being charged at 20.00% VAT : £119.02
Total : £714.12

What about this for a build it allows for a better gpu then all the above .