Need help with a cheap i5 build

whymantime

whymantime

whymantime

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26 Apr 2011
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6
Hello all, I'm having a bit of a hard time putting together an i5 build for around 500 GBP.

I already have:
HDD
Graphics card (4870 1gig - will upgrade this in a couple months, possibly a 6950)
Monitor, speakers, keyboard, mouse
DVD drive
Sound card

The PC will be used for some light office work, movies but mostly games.

After reading a few threads here the following parts look good:

Intel Core i5-2500K 3.30GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor with FREE Operation Flashpoint Red River Game - 162 GBP (shame it's not shogun 2!)

MSI P67A-C45 Intel P67 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard - (Sandybridge) ** B3 REVISION ** - 100GBP

Not sure what memory. I think 4gigs will be plenty. Are the 2133MHZ sticks worth it?


What I'm stuck choosing is the PSU and case.

I'm not sure what PSU will be good for my specs, bearing in mind I'll do some light overclocking. I don't want to overspend nor do I want to cheap out! My old Hiper Type R psu of 5ish years just died.


And the hardest part is the case. I want it to be as small and light as possible because I'm taking this PC to university in September. I had a look at those micro ATX gaming builds but they look a bit too tricky as I've only built 1 PC before. I can deal with a normal size case if its more practical/cheaper. I don't like the flashy gamer cases, I like it simple.

A small SSD would be nice, but not needed.



Anyways thanks for any advice. :)
 
4GB certainly isn't plenty these days. I've been running a minimum of 8GB now for well over 12 months. There are many games and apps out there that will happily consume over the amount of "free" RAM windows will leave you with after only having 4GB as a starting point.

Certainly with the mindset of wanting to overclock, and the obvious like for gaming (shame it's not shogun 2!), it would seem rather pointless crippling your CPU (and in a few months, GPU) by skimping on the RAM now.
 
There is no reason that it wouldn't all fit, but I'm not sure I could bring myself to buy such a flawed and cheaply built case. You'll most likely find that it won't fit most high-end GPUs, so you may have upgrade trouble further down the line.
 
If you're looking for a small case then this one looks ok. I would recomend filling quite a few of those fan spaces with 4 case fans, these looked cool at a fiver each.
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=FG-011-EN&groupid=701&catid=57&subcat=819

Also for a small form case I would recomend a modular PSU cause you're not gonna have a lot of room so all the cables you are not gonna use can be removed. This one is a bit pricey at £70 but it is the best one that is in stock

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CA-166-CM
 
I'd spend a bit on on the mobo - a GD65 would be better for overclocking. Wait a week for the Z68 launch and hopefully P67 prices will drop.

Memory is very cheap now, so invest in a decent 8GB kit - Corsair Vengeance 1600MHz can be had for around £80. 2133MHz is really for serious overclocking and benchmarking, not gaming - and costs ~50% extra or more. Save your cash for a small SSD which will make a much bigger difference.
 
Very late reply but just wanted to thank everyone for their input.

Ended up with:
i5 2500k
8gigs XMS 1600mhz RAM
MSI motherboard
6950 2gig
Coolermaster 600 watt silent gold PSU
Coolermaster 370 case

I want to invest in an SSD sooner or later but I'm very content for now. Surprised that Crysis runs smooth at maximum!

Thanks again! :)
 
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