Help a newbie with a budget PC

Jason85

Jason85

Jason85

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Joined
1 Aug 2012
Posts
53
Hi All at OCUK

Im a complete novice to computers and to me they are just like others perceptions of cars get from A-B.

However my current PC of 10 years (bought in 2002)

AMD Athlon XP 2000+
512 RAM
80GB HDD
64MB GPU

has decided to go kaput on me so my friend on here said he would builld me one.

The PC will be used mainly for browsing/Iplayer and potentially light gaming so I specced up the below as a compromise so that it's relatively futureproof as well as giving me options to upgrade in the future.

What are your thoughts on the below?

Intel Core i3-2120 3.30GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor - Retail £101.99

Gigabyte Z77-D3H Intel Z77 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £82.99

Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 500GB SATA 6Gb/s 16MB Cache - OEM (ST500DM002) £49.99

Corsair Vengeance Blue Low Profile 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (CML4GX3M2A1600C9B) £25.99

OcUK 22x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £13.99

Antec 302 Three Hundred Two Ultimate Gaming Case - Black £54.98

Corsair Builder Series CX 430W V2 '80 Plus' Power Supply (CMPSU-430CXUKV2) £36.98

Total £366.92 excl OS

I was going to opt for the H77 board however the price difference is negligible - my only concerns is that reading this forum there seems to be a few issues with this board and the better versions....my pal is adament Asus should be my choice?

Cheers
 
Jason85 said:
I was going to opt for the H77 board however the price difference is negligible - my only concerns is that reading this forum there seems to be a few issues with this board and the better versions....my pal is adament Asus should be my choice?

Cheers
Click to expand...

The only issues are people using very early BIOS versions and so experiencing a few random glitchs, there is a discussion thread here - http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?t=18424906 - with links to reviews, BetaBIOSes.

The spec you have posted is solid for the budget, add a cheapish GFX card in the future (ATI 6850@£100 for example) and it will be a nice little system.
 
That Gigabyte board is fine, you'll have no problems with it. What are you using the PC for?

EDIT: I'm blind, couldn't see the light gaming part :p. Hmm... not sure I would want to game on the HD 2000.
 
Thanks guys - to be fair i've not gamed on a PC for a long time and it will probably never happen.

I was close to speccing an i5 with SSD just so that I can gloat about a better PC but I've come to my senses and cut the spec by about £300!

My pal said If i was to go budget why dont I just get a Intel Pentium G840 with a H61 board, that would cost me £200 max any thoughts?
 
The Pentiums have the HD1000 GFX core, the i3 2120 has a HD2000 GFX core.

Now, what I will say is I have tried some gaming on the HD2000 core and thought it was pants, but my expectations/monitor resolution/game graphic settings may be higher than what you enjoy.

If I thought the HD2000 core was naff, I hate to think what I would make of the HD1000 core found in the Pentiums.


In this Llano review I did,

http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?t=18338581

You will see side by side gaming of Llanos GFX core vs HD2000 (as found in a i5 2500K)
 
Jason85 said:
Thanks guys - to be fair i've not gamed on a PC for a long time and it will probably never happen.

I was close to speccing an i5 with SSD just so that I can gloat about a better PC but I've come to my senses and cut the spec by about £300!

My pal said If i was to go budget why dont I just get a Intel Pentium G840 with a H61 board, that would cost me £200 max any thoughts?
Click to expand...

The G840 isn't a bad budget CPU at all. It's cheaper than the i3 and you can use that money "saved" towards a budget gaming GPU. At £50 for the CPU it's easier to justify "writing it off" to drop in an i5K when they are common second hand much much later.

YOUR BASKET
1 x MSI HD 6850 OC 1024MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £99.95
1 x Gigabyte Z77-D3H Intel Z77 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £82.99
1 x Intel Pentium G840 2.80GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor - Retail £56.99
1 x Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 500GB SATA 6Gb/s 16MB Cache - OEM (ST500DM002) £49.99
1 x BitFenix Shinobi USB3.0 Gaming Case - Black £49.99
1 x Cooler Master Silent Pro Modular 500W '80 Plus Bronze' Power Supply £49.98
1 x Kingston HyperX Genesis Grey 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (KHX1600C9D3X2K2/4GX) £23.99
1 x Sony Optiarc AD-5280S 24x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £14.99
Total : £443.87 (includes shipping : £12.50).



The G840 doesnt support quicksync like the i3 but having a dedicated GPU you can use that to accelerate video encoding tasks. The 6850 is the minimum i would recommend. It easily surpasses what current consoles can achieve for gaming.
 
Last edited:
I agree mate, you defo need a graphics card for your light gaming, who knows, maybe you will get back into it proper!

My vote would still go to i5 though!!
 
 
stulid said:
Of course you could always just get a Llano setup and enjoy decent gaming performance straight away.

YOUR BASKET
1 x AMD A6-3670K 2.70GHz (Socket FM1) APU Processor (AD3670WNGXBOX) **£10 Cashback** £85.99
1 x Gigabyte A75M-D2H A75 (Socket FM1) DDR3 Micro ATX Motherboard ** FREE NEXUIZ GAME ** £59.99
1 x Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 500GB SATA 6Gb/s 16MB Cache - OEM (ST500DM002) £49.99
1 x Corsair Builder Series CX 430W V2 '80 Plus' Power Supply (CMPSU-430CXUKV2) £36.98
1 x Xigmatek Asgard Pro Gaming Case - Black £34.99
1 x TeamGroup Elite 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C11 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (TED38192M1600HC11DC) £29.99
1 x OcUK 22x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £13.99
Total : £326.03 (includes shipping : £11.75).

Click to expand...

I did toy with doing a Llano spec, as you mentioned the socket earlier. It would indeed cover his needs well from the sound of it.

I went intel as there are a broader range of upgrade options he could do much later on. I did try to balance the spec out and give a good base from which to build from. It's always worth discussing the options :D
 
However, he did want to upgrade later on, so moving to Llano, while it would give good gaming performance out of the box, will cut out his upgrade path since Trinity is on FM2.

YOUR BASKET
1 x MSI HD 6850 OC 1024MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £99.95
1 x Gigabyte Z77-D3H Intel Z77 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £82.99
1 x OCZ ZS Series 550W '80 Plus Bronze' Power Supply £49.99
1 x Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 500GB SATA 6Gb/s 16MB Cache - OEM (ST500DM002) £49.99
1 x Intel Celeron G530 2.40GHz Socket LGA 1155 Processor - Retail £34.99
1 x Xigmatek Asgard Pro Gaming Case - Black £34.99
1 x TeamGroup Elite 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C11 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (TED38192M1600HC11DC) £29.99
1 x OcUK 22x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £13.99
Total : £411.89 (includes shipping : £12.50).



A nice PSU and a Z77 board so you can drop in an i5/i7 and a high end GPU later on.


That Llano is pretty hard to beat price/performance wise though ;).
 
Orcvader said:
However, he did want to upgrade later on, so moving to Llano, while it would give good gaming performance out of the box, will cut out his upgrade path since Trinity is on FM2.

YOUR BASKET
1 x MSI HD 6850 OC 1024MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £99.95
1 x Gigabyte Z77-D3H Intel Z77 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £82.99
1 x OCZ ZS Series 550W '80 Plus Bronze' Power Supply £49.99
1 x Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 500GB SATA 6Gb/s 16MB Cache - OEM (ST500DM002) £49.99
1 x Intel Celeron G530 2.40GHz Socket LGA 1155 Processor - Retail £34.99
1 x Xigmatek Asgard Pro Gaming Case - Black £34.99
1 x TeamGroup Elite 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C11 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (TED38192M1600HC11DC) £29.99
1 x OcUK 22x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £13.99
Total : £411.89 (includes shipping : £12.50).



A nice PSU and a Z77 board so you can drop in an i5/i7 and a high end GPU later on.


That Llano is pretty hard to beat price/performance wise though ;).
Click to expand...

Similar to my suggestion bud, just using cheaper components. I'm not complaining ;)

With my own money I'd pay more for the intel 1155 socket. There are plenty of free to play gaming titles and it's becoming a growing trend (The starwars MMO is switching to free to play). In my eyes it makes sense to have the 6850 which beats the Llano IGP for gaming.
 
Update my pal dan2kx is a legend!

I bought all the parts and he build it all, here's the base spec

Intel i3 2120 3.3ghz
Gigabyte Z77 DEH motherboard
2x2gb Kingston Blue Dual Channel RAM 1600mhz
500GB Seagate Barracuda HDD
Corsair CX 430 PSU
Samsung DVDRW drive
Antec 302 case

Dan put on win8 release preview for me and lent me a 19" square monitor and all the fonts appear blurry, tested on his 24" hi def monitor and all is fine, so I think I'm going to buy a new monitor.

Also did something silly today, after testing the monitor I brought it back home and plugged the power cable in and PC turned on automatically but the screen wasn't responding, turned the PSU off on the switch and the PC was dead....wouldn't turn on at all, I panicked and thought it's because I plugged the PSU in with the switch on and somehow shorted something because I heard static....

Thanks to Dan at 1am for telling me to unplug everything, take CMOS battery out and reset it, I prayed and it worked!

He is a legend
 
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