Home PC - £400

Hmm, still having a full warranty is of value to me personally I'm sure they would rather I was building with brand new parts. honosuseri's second spec for £454 build is looking the best bet at the moment so I'll put forward justification for the £4 extra :P
 
YOUR BASKET
1 x AMD A8-3870K 3.00GHz (Socket FM1) APU Processor (AD3870WNGXBOX) **£10 Cashback** £99.95
1 x Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 64-Bit - OEM (GFC-02050) £83.99
1 x Western Digital Caviar Blue 500GB SATA 6Gb/s 16MB Cache - OEM (WD5000AAKX) £57.98
1 x OCZ ZS Series 550W '80 Plus Bronze' Power Supply £49.99
1 x Asus F1A55-M LK AMD A55 (Socket FM1) DDR3 Motherboard ** WINDOWS 8 READY ** FREE NEXUIZ GAME ** £37.99
1 x BitFenix Merc Alpha Gaming Case - Black £29.99
1 x Kingston HyperX Genesis Grey 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (KHX1600C9D3X2K2/4GX) £23.99
1 x OcUK 22x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £12.98
Total : £410.96 (includes shipping : £11.75).



AMD quad core with very powerful intergrated graphics (enough for sims and more)
550W PSU so theres room for a small upgrade
Motherboard comes with a free game you could take (or give) to enjoy :D
Processor comes with £10 cash back
Not sure about HDD, but just included it in because of its good reviews.

The APU even gives a good go at BF3 on low settings - so if her children ever wanted to do some mild gaming they have some options.
 
YOUR BASKET
1 x AMD A8-3870K 3.00GHz (Socket FM1) APU Processor (AD3870WNGXBOX) **£10 Cashback** £99.95
1 x Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 64-Bit - OEM (GFC-02050) £83.99
1 x Western Digital Caviar Blue 500GB SATA 6Gb/s 16MB Cache - OEM (WD5000AAKX) £57.98
1 x OCZ ZS Series 550W '80 Plus Bronze' Power Supply £49.99
1 x Asus F1A55-M LK AMD A55 (Socket FM1) DDR3 Motherboard ** WINDOWS 8 READY ** FREE NEXUIZ GAME ** £37.99
1 x BitFenix Merc Alpha Gaming Case - Black £29.99
1 x Kingston HyperX Genesis Grey 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (KHX1600C9D3X2K2/4GX) £23.99
1 x OcUK 22x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £12.98
Total : £410.96 (includes shipping : £11.75).



AMD quad core with very powerful intergrated graphics (enough for sims and more)
550W PSU so theres room for a small upgrade
Motherboard comes with a free game you could take (or give) to enjoy :D
Processor comes with £10 cash back
Not sure about HDD, but just included it in because of its good reviews.

This is worse in games than honeseries build and much worse in terms of games and normal usage against my build. Your motherboard only supports SATA 2 so no use of 6gb/s hard drive at all.

But it is cheaper.

http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/289?vs=399
 
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This is worse in games than honeseries build and much worse in terms of games and normal usage against my build.

http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/289?vs=399

The i3 costs about the same but has much worse integrated graphics.

I suggested the APU because it's more of a lower powered option than having a graphics card plus, in her usage (web browsing and skype) she would notice little difference. The bonus of having powerful graphics, in a low powered CPU at the cost of a little less processing power seems much better to me if it's not going to be used heavily.
 
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This is best I can do for you, I think B grade Z77 motherboard is vital because it offers many upgrade options later on... This motherboard is relatively new so I expect that there would be about 2 years warranty for you.


YOUR BASKET
1 x Intel Core i3-2100 3.10GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor - Retail £89.99
1 x MSI HD 6850 "Dual Fan Edition" 1024MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £83.99
1 x Seagate Barracuda 7200RPM 1TB SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache - OEM (ST1000DM003) £65.99
1 x **B Grade** MSI B75A-G43 Intel Z77 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £65
1 x GeIL Dragon 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C11 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (GD38GB1600C11DC) £33.59
1 x OCZ CoreXtreme 500w '80 Plus' Power Supply £32.99
1 x BitFenix Merc Alpha Gaming Case - Black £29.99
1 x OcUK 22x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £12.98
Total : £414.52 (includes shipping : FREE).

 
The i3 costs about the same but has much worse integrated graphics.

I suggested the APU because it's a more low powered option than having a graphics card plus, in her usage (web browsing and skype) she would notice little difference. The bonus of having powerful graphics, in a low powered CPU at the cost of a little less processing power seems much better to me if it's not going to be used heavily.

Problem is, that we included 560 and 6850 in our builds which would destroy the amd APU.. If he goes for my build (Z77 mobo), he will be able to switch to i3 IGP which will be more than enough for browsing and will save power.
 
Hmm, true. However what is the true definition of the B-grade line? Have the items been used? Or just returned due to an error with someones order? I'd rather have lower end parts and have a longer warranty and actually know what is coming along with the components. And the GTX 690 is a silly example ;)

If it was a sealed item they could resell it at full price. Once opened, by law it cant be sold for the full RRP. So yes these are returned open items, they do state if items are recondition parts if that's your concern. There is a clear warning stating the warranty and that parts could be missing.

I was tempted by a B grade 460 a while back (identical to mine), I could have run 2 460s in SLI to up my performance. The warranty didn't bother me that much, even if it failed out of warranty the other 460 has a 3 year warranty or more. I would have abused the card anyway with overclocking lol

As you can see the offers can affect things, if you want to be super crafty and get things for the best price, exploit your free P&P and grab the best kit that's on offer over a couple of weeks or a month as they change in price.

Start with a good case and PSU on offer (shame you missed the CM 500W modular PSU), GPU can certainly be done last as you get an IGP to get it up and going. It's more faff and you have to watch you budget carefully not to go over but you can potentially get a much better system for the cash and still have a great warranty.

Problem is, that we included 560 and 6850 in our builds which would destroy the amd APU.. If he goes for my build (Z77 mobo), he will be able to switch to i3 IGP which will be more than enough for browsing and will save power.

Trouble is you and Tammzy forgot the OS, so you need to find another £80. Yes you can use the developers copy of windows 8 for free but that's only delaying the purchase.

Llano is an option kind off. The IGP is definately better but FM1 is an almost dead/limited socket type. The intel 1155 mobos take a wide range of CPUs leaving the machine open to upgrades much later. I think it's best to play safe with the 6850, as I said GPU acceleration is pretty common in software so it helps boost the G840 CPU.
 
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we've all had our fair share of
robS1.jpg

moments xd
 
So B75 lacks the features of Z77 but is better than H61.. never did quite understand the placement of B75. Although Windows unfortunately necessary otherwise Lazder's build with a non-B grade board would be way. So honosuseri's build is still looking good.
 
So B75 lacks the features of Z77 but is better than H61.. never did quite understand the placement of B75. Although Windows unfortunately necessary otherwise Lazder's build with a non-B grade board would be way. So honosuseri's build is still looking good.

My last try :( it is an over-spend though by quite a bit, so if you`re not prepared to dish out cash for future-proof and better CPU honosuseri last build is the way to go. Windows ruins everything :(


YOUR BASKET
1 x Intel Core i3-2100 3.10GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor - Retail £89.99
1 x MSI HD 6850 "Dual Fan Edition" 1024MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £83.99
1 x Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 64-Bit - OEM (GFC-02050) £83.99
1 x MSI Z77A-G43 Intel Z77 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £79.99
1 x Seagate Barracuda 7200RPM 1TB SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache - OEM (ST1000DM003) £65.99
1 x GeIL Dragon 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C11 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (GD38GB1600C11DC) £33.59
1 x OCZ CoreXtreme 500w '80 Plus' Power Supply £32.99
1 x BitFenix Merc Alpha Gaming Case - Black £29.99
1 x OcUK 22x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £12.98
Total : £513.49 (includes shipping : FREE).

 
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or, depending on how much hassle you think it is, you could use the windows 8 preview and put off purchasing an os right now, so it frees up 80 quid to invest in hardware
 

Forget about the i3

YOUR BASKET
1 x Intel Core i3-2100 3.10GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor - Retail £89.99
1 x Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 64-Bit - OEM (GFC-02050) £83.99
1 x MSI HD 6850 "Dual Fan Edition" 1024MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £83.99
1 x Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 500GB SATA 6Gb/s 16MB Cache - OEM (ST500DM002) £52.99
1 x Gigabyte H61MA-D3V Intel H61 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £47.99
1 x XFX Pro 450W Core Edition '80 Plus Bronze' Power Supply £41.99
1 x Xigmatek Asgard Midi Tower Case - Black £26.99
1 x Kingston HyperX Genesis Grey 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (KHX1600C9D3X2K2/4GX) £23.99
1 x OcUK 22x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £12.98
Total : £464.89 (includes shipping : FREE).



That's a close as I could get including the i3 and as I said it hampers the spec. You guys are concentrating on the gaming aspect far too much it's for a girl to play the sims 3 not BF3 lol

or, depending on how much hassle you think it is, you could use the windows 8 preview and put off purchasing an os right now, so it frees up 80 quid to invest in hardware

I mentioned this earlier (sighs)

Trouble is you and Tammzy forgot the OS, so you need to find another £80. Yes you can use the developers copy of windows 8 for free but that's only delaying the purchase.
 
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Forget about the i3

YOUR BASKET
1 x Intel Core i3-2100 3.10GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor - Retail £89.99
1 x Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 64-Bit - OEM (GFC-02050) £83.99
1 x MSI HD 6850 "Dual Fan Edition" 1024MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £83.99
1 x Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 500GB SATA 6Gb/s 16MB Cache - OEM (ST500DM002) £52.99
1 x Gigabyte H61MA-D3V Intel H61 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £47.99
1 x XFX Pro 450W Core Edition '80 Plus Bronze' Power Supply £41.99
1 x Xigmatek Asgard Midi Tower Case - Black £26.99
1 x Kingston HyperX Genesis Grey 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (KHX1600C9D3X2K2/4GX) £23.99
1 x OcUK 22x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £12.98
Total : £464.89 (includes shipping : FREE).



That's a close as I could get including the i3 and as I said it hampers the spec. You guys are concentrating on the gaming aspect far too much it's for a girl to play the sims 3 not BF3 lol



I mentioned this earlier (sighs)

Well might as well get AMD-3300 if its for minecraft? :D

Is 840 really worth it against 530?

My iphone 4s handles minecraft as a breeze....
 
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