Improve/knock £70 off this £900 spec

Audigex

Audigex

Audigex

Associate
Joined
3 Feb 2009
Posts
2,246
Hey

I'm speccing up a build for my brother, budget £900. Use will be mainly gaming but some video encoding, photoshop use etc; so I'm trying to go for a fairly balanced PC which will handle anything on at least medium settings. I'm intending to give the CPU a moderate overclock, nothing excessive, so I don't need the most extreme parts, but they have to accept an overclock.

I've specced up the below which I really like the look of, but it's a little over budget.

So, the 4-part question
1) How can I knock £70 off without too much compromise?
2) Have I missed anything obvious (incompatibilities, missing component etc)
3) Could I improve anything significantly for the same/similar price?
4) Will this be decent for gaming? (I've not built a PC for 5 years, or upgraded my GPU for a couple of years, so I'm a little out of the loop.

I'd like to keep the case, watercooling (ideally still the 240mm radiator), black PCBs, module PSU intact - but I'm willing to compromise if necessary. Would dropping back to Ivybridge save any significant amount, or would it lose too much performance/upgradability for too little saving?

If necessary I'll drop the 1TB HDD and DVD-RW - I've got an external USB DVD-RW and I'll just tell him to keep his disk tidy in the name of speed :p

YOUR BASKET
1 x Intel Core i5-4670K 3.40GHz (Haswell) Socket LGA1150 Processor - OEM with FREE Grid 2 PC Game £187.99
1 x MSI GeForce GTX 660 Black Knight 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £155.99
1 x Crucial RealSSD M4 256GB 2.5" SATA 6Gb/s Solid State Hard Drive (CT256M4SSD2) £134.99
1 x Gigabyte Z87-HD3 Intel Z87 (Socket 1150) DDR3 ATX Motherboard £95.99
1 x Microsoft Windows 8 64-Bit DVD - OEM (WN7-00403) £79.99
1 x Corsair Hydro H100 Extreme Performance Liquid CPU Cooler (Socket 775 / 1150 / 1155 / 1156 / 1366 / 2011 / AM2 / AM3) (CWCH100) £71.99
1 x Patriot Viper "Black Mamba" Generation 3 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-17000C11 2133MHz Dual CHannel Kit (PV38G213C1K) £65.99
1 x XFX Pro 650W Core Edition '80 Plus Bronze' Power Supply £64.00
1 x Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 1TB SATA 6Gb/s 32MB Cache - OEM (ST31000524AS) HDD £49.99
1 x BitFenix Shinobi USB3.0 Gaming Case - White/Black £49.99
1 x OcUK 20x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £16.99
Total : £973.90 (includes shipping : FREE).

 
Last edited:

Idleman

Idleman

Idleman

Soldato
Joined
14 Apr 2011
Posts
12,281
Location
Newark
Smaller ssd, refurbished cooler, better Gpu and better case.

YOUR BASKET
1 x Intel Core i5-4670K 3.40GHz (Haswell) Socket LGA1150 Processor - OEM with FREE Grid 2 PC Game £187.99
1 x MSI HD 7870 Black Knight 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card (R7870-2GD5T/OC) £167.99
1 x Gigabyte Z87-HD3 Intel Z87 (Socket 1150) DDR3 ATX Motherboard £95.99
1 x Microsoft Windows 8 64-Bit DVD - OEM (WN7-00403) £79.99
1 x Plextor M5S 128GB Solid State Drive - (PX-128M5S) £74.99
1 x Patriot Viper "Black Mamba" Generation 3 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-17000C11 2133MHz Dual CHannel Kit (PV38G213C1K) £65.99
1 x Corsair Carbide 200R Compact ATX Case - Black £49.99
1 x Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 1TB SATA 6Gb/s 32MB Cache - OEM (ST31000524AS) HDD £49.99
1 x Thermaltake Smart Series 530w Modular '80Plus Bronze' Power Supply £49.99
1 x Corsair Hydro H100 Extreme Performance Liquid CPU Cooler *Manufacturer Refurbished Unit - 90 Day Warranty £39.95
1 x OcUK 20x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £16.99
Total : £892.45 (includes shipping : £10.50).



edit; as you get free shipping you could get the Corsair 300R instead.
 
Last edited:

Audigex

Audigex

Audigex

Associate
OP
Joined
3 Feb 2009
Posts
2,246
I saw the refurb H100's, but they aren't due for another 4-5 weeks - fine for an upgrade but useless for a new build. I'm building it for him then taking it to him, too, so it's not like I can put a cheap stock cooler on (not that the CPU comes with one) and then upgrade it later. Similarly Windows 8 is out of the question, this isn't the usual "build the core then complete it later" thing I go for, he won't be spending any money on it for at least 12 months.

Knocking the SSD down could make sense as the alternative to losing the 1TB drive, however - I'll see which option he prefers, as well as the Corsair vs Bitfenix - I like the quality of the Corsair (although it seems less prevalent at the bottom end of the range) but the looks of the Bitfenix.

How about the Thermaltake vs XFX PSU? I've always tried to go for reasonable PSU's, and I've heard some of the XFX are actually Seasonic OEM, which I've always seen as a good brand: but is there any issue with the Thermaltake? I'd happily spend the extra £16 there on the GPU.

So we're now looking at something like this (with potentially the case going to the Corsair 200/300, or swapping the 1TBHDD+128SSD for a 256SSD), coming in just under budget, which is looking great. I've killed the optical drive to make way for the non-refurbished cooler.

Any incompatibilities left here, upgrades to the tune of £10-30 which would be worthwhile?
Edit: Looks like the H100 doesn't fit in either the 200R, 300R or Shinobi cases - does anyone have a recommendation for a decent case in the £50-70 range?

YOUR BASKET
1 x Intel Core i5-4670K 3.40GHz (Haswell) Socket LGA1150 Processor - OEM with FREE Grid 2 PC Game £187.99
1 x MSI HD 7870 Black Knight 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card (R7870-2GD5T/OC) £167.99
1 x Gigabyte Z87-HD3 Intel Z87 (Socket 1150) DDR3 ATX Motherboard £95.99
1 x Microsoft Windows 8 64-Bit DVD - OEM (WN7-00403) £79.99
1 x Plextor M5S 128GB Solid State Drive - (PX-128M5S) £74.99
1 x Corsair Hydro H100 Extreme Performance Liquid CPU Cooler (Socket 775 / 1150 / 1155 / 1156 / 1366 / 2011 / AM2 / AM3) (CWCH100) £71.99
1 x Patriot Viper "Black Mamba" Generation 3 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-17000C11 2133MHz Dual CHannel Kit (PV38G213C1K) £65.99
1 x Thermaltake Smart Series 530w Modular '80Plus Bronze' Power Supply £49.99
1 x BitFenix Shinobi USB3.0 Gaming Case - White/Black £49.99
1 x Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 1TB SATA 6Gb/s 32MB Cache - OEM (ST31000524AS) HDD £49.99
Total : £894.90 (includes shipping : FREE).

 
Last edited:

Idleman

Idleman

Idleman

Soldato
Joined
14 Apr 2011
Posts
12,281
Location
Newark
My bad, did`nt realise they were`nt due for a few weeks. You could use the Thermalright Macho, same price and a fairly decent cooler.
I would have specced the XFX 550W but sadly it is not in stock. The Thermaltake is a good modular Psu for the price and will have no problems powering the system. If you feel better with the XFX 650W, I think you can just about fit it in the budget, as you get free shipping.
I`m not a big fan of the Bitfenix cases, I just think they look cheap and lack quality, with the Prodigy being the exception. But case preference is personal, so each to their own.

YOUR BASKET
1 x XFX Pro 650W Core Edition '80 Plus Bronze' Power Supply £64
1 x Thermalright HR-02 Macho CPU Cooler (Socket 775 / 1150 / 1155 / 1156 / 1366) £39.98
Total : £115.08 (includes shipping : £9.25).

 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom