New Build Budget £700

thenameDS

thenameDS

thenameDS

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8 Jun 2012
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Cardiff
Hey guys, I just stumbled across this website the other day when looking for some computer parts and noticed there was also a forum!

I currently have a 32" Full HD and I'm thinking of plugging the built computer into it to save space in my room and not have a separate desk. For Christmas I will be getting a 50" 3D Plasma so would like the computer to be compatible with that so a graphic card with hdmi 1.4a support is crucial (not sure if they all have it).

The computer will be used for browsing the web, watching videos, doing assignments and university work and casual gaming (Mostly those free FPS games). I won't be playing games like Battlefield 3 as I play those on Xbox.

I realise £700 is overkill for what I need, so I'm open to ideas and you can even build a way cheaper computer.

Already have:
32" LCD 1080p
Windows 7 Ultimate so will use the 64-bit.
Keyboard and Mouse

Thanks :)
 
Something like this?


YOUR BASKET
1 x Intel Core i5-3570K 3.40GHz (Ivybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor (77W) - Retail £189.95
1 x Gigabyte Z77MX-D3H Intel Z77 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Micro ATX Motherboard £99.98
1 x Crucial RealSSD M4 128GB 2.5" SATA 6Gb/s Solid State Hard Drive (CT128M4SSD2) £99.95
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) £74.99
1 x Samsung Green (MV-3V4G3D/US) 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C11 1600MHz 30nm Dual Channel Kit £53.99
1 x Zalman Z9 Plus Tower Case with Fan Controller - Black £49.99
1 x Corsair Builder Series CX 500W V2 '80 Plus' Power Supply (CMPSU-500CXUKV2) £49.99
Total : £717.83 (includes shipping : £12.50).



If you could spare the extra £30 you could get a decent CPU cooler for overclocking, failing that save money on the RAM or Mobo.

Alternative RAM:
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MY-336-CS&groupid=701&catid=8&subcat=1517

Alternative Mobo:
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MB-202-MS&groupid=701&catid=5&subcat=2261

Alternative Case:
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CA-010-BX&groupid=701&catid=7&subcat=1850
 
Last edited:
Agreed on tamzzy with the monitor.

Heres an alternative build with a 24" monitor


YOUR BASKET
1 x Intel Core i5-3570K 3.40GHz (Ivybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor (77W) - Retail £189.95
1 x Samsung S24B300BS 24" Widescreen LED Monitor - Glossy Black £134.39
1 x MSI Z77A-G43 Intel Z77 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £77.38
1 x Seagate Barracuda 7200RPM 1TB SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache - OEM (ST1000DM003) £74.99
1 x Crucial RealSSD M4 64GB 2.5 SATA 6Gb/s Solid State Hard Drive (CT064M4SSD2) £67.99
1 x Corsair Builder Series CX 500W V2 '80 Plus' Power Supply (CMPSU-500CXUKV2) £49.99
1 x Corsair Vengeance Blue Low Profile 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (CML8GX3M2A1600C9B) £44.99
1 x Alpenföhn Brocken CPU Cooler (Socket 775/1156/1366/754/939/940/AM2/AM2+) £32.99
1 x MSI HD 6450 1024MB GDDR3 Low Profile PCI-Express Graphics Card £31.99
Total : £718.15 (includes shipping : £11.25).



I know most people would choose the 6850 because its the best budget GPU out there, but you didnt specify which games?
 
Ok thanks for the suggestions so far, so you wouldn't recomend a plasma tv with a pc? Would a LCD or LED be better? I really want to avoid getting a monitor because I would need a desk and I like my room spacey and not crampt
 
YOUR BASKET
1 x Sapphire HD 7850 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £191.99
1 x Intel Core i5-3570K 3.40GHz (Ivybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor (77W) - Retail £189.95
1 x Sandisk Extreme SSD 120GB 2.5" SATA 6Gb/s Solid State Hard Drive - (SDSSDX-120G-G25) £89.99
1 x MSI Z77A-G43 Intel Z77 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £77.38
1 x Cooler Master Silent Pro Modular 700W '80 Plus Bronze' Power Supply £64.99
1 x Zalman Z9 Plus Tower Case with Fan Controller - Black £49.99
1 x Crucial Ballistix Sport 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (BLS2CP4G3D1609DS1S00CEU) £38.39
Total : £717.67 (includes shipping : £12.50).



Lil over but that's what I would aim for.

Z77 mobo allows overclocking of the i5K, lucid MVP uses the IGP to boost the GPU performance and quick sync uses the IGP to help boost video encoding tasks. It's not a Xfire/SLI mobo but that single 7850 is all you need. You don't need that samsung RAM on this socket. 1600Mhz is the sweet spot, the OC of the CPU is done via the CPU multiplier. Low profile RAM helps fit aftermarket heatsinks with ease.

Case has 4 120mm fans, fan controller with digital temp display and cablemanagement. The PSU is OTT but a bargain at that price and it is modular, the 600W unit is the same price ;) Unit has more than enough power to OC the CPU and OC the GPU, the 7850s seem to overclock very well. You won't go back to the Xbox, I promise you.

Added a good sized and speed SSD. Enough for the OS, apps and a few games certainly. You should consider using the hibernate feature, when the PC powers off it dumps what's in the RAM to the SSD, next time you power on the machine it recovers to what you were doing when it hibernated. Being an SSD it will boot the OS much faster than a mechanical drive :)

I have an LED 40 inch 3DTV. When using HDMI 1.4 you have to remember the FPS are locked to the refresh rate of the screen. At 1080P in 3D mode the refresh rate will most likely be 24Hz, which means FPS no higher than 24.....not good! I had to drop the xbox360 to 720P and set my games to run at 720P on the HTPC. At that resolution the refresh rate is 60hz and you get much better frame rates. Quality is still pretty good even at that res, if you don't use the 3D mode for gaming you won't have this problem.
 
Thanks honosuseri, I do like the latest build you have provided and will most likely use it. Yea I definitely wanted the SSD for the OS and my most used apps and games, I could probably go a size down though since the only game that I will play more and have on the SSD is "Soldier Front" and the size of the folder when installed is under 3GB. Like I said I'm not much of a pc gamer.

I don't tend to use the hibernation feature much, I just generally switch off the pc at night and during the day when I'm not using it I leave it on sleep.

I will most likely avoid the plasma idea due to the burn in, since after being told I've researched the issue today. I will get 42-46" LED. As for the 3D it won't be used whilst on the Xbox. Depending on prices I may not even get a 3D tv as I don't have much use for it but will see when Christmas or January comes around :).
 
thenameDS said:
Thanks honosuseri, I do like the latest build you have provided and will most likely use it. Yea I definitely wanted the SSD for the OS and my most used apps and games, I could probably go a size down though since the only game that I will play more and have on the SSD is "Soldier Front" and the size of the folder when installed is under 3GB. Like I said I'm not much of a pc gamer.

I don't tend to use the hibernation feature much, I just generally switch off the pc at night and during the day when I'm not using it I leave it on sleep.

I will most likely avoid the plasma idea due to the burn in, since after being told I've researched the issue today. I will get 42-46" LED. As for the 3D it won't be used whilst on the Xbox. Depending on prices I may not even get a 3D tv as I don't have much use for it but will see when Christmas or January comes around :).
Click to expand...

YOUR BASKET
1 x Intel Core i3-2120 3.30GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor - Retail £99.95
1 x Seagate Barracuda 2TB 7200RPM SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache - OEM (ST2000DM001) £83.99
1 x MSI HD 6850 "Dual Fan Edition" 1024MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £83.99
1 x Cooler Master Silent Pro Modular 700W '80 Plus Bronze' Power Supply £64.99
1 x Samsung SH-B123L/RSBP 12x BluRay ROM / DVDRW DL & RAM Lightscribe SATA-II Optical Drive - Black (Retail) £61.99
1 x Samsung 64GB SSD 830 Desktop Series SATA 6Gb/s KIT with Norton Ghost - (MZ-7PC064D/EU) £53.99
1 x Zalman Z9 Plus Tower Case with Fan Controller - Black £49.99
1 x Gigabyte H61MA-D3V Intel H61 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £47.99
1 x Crucial Ballistix Sport 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (BLS2CP4G3D1609DS1S00CEU) £38.39
Total : £600.26 (includes shipping : £12.50).



i3 CPU is cheaper, you can't OC it so I have used a H61 mobo which is much cheaper, you still get sataIII and USB3. The i3 still has quick sync to help you rip your movie collection to that 2TB storage drive. I added a bluray player so you could rip HD movies to the drive as well.

Although the i3 cant be OC'd the 6850 can very easily be OC'd to nigh on 6870 performance. I use the nvidia 460 in my HTPC which is the rough equivalent of the 6850.
 
Great stuff, I may go for a i5 though since I kinda want the PC to be a little future-proof wont be looking to upgrade it for a few years.

A friend of my dad has just given me another suggestion of a build and I will post it here, if you could just tell me how to post the links and images like you do. Then if possible could you give me the opinion on the suggested build.
 
Thanks BigChief!

YOUR BASKET
1 x AMD Bulldozer FX-8 Eight Core 8150 Black Edition 3.60Ghz (Socket AM3+) Processor - Retail with FREE Deus Ex & Dirt Showdown PC Games £184.99
1 x Asus Sabertooth 990FX AMD 990FX (Socket AM3+) DDR3 Motherboard £134.98
1 x G.Skill RipJawsZ 16GB (4x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual/Quad Channel Kit (F3-12800CL9Q-16GBZL) £94.99
1 x Asus GeForce GTX 550Ti 1024MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £84.95
1 x Seagate Barracuda 2TB 7200RPM SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache - OEM (ST2000DM001) £83.99
1 x OCZ Agility 3 60GB 2.5" SATA 6Gb/s Solid State Hard Drive (AGT3-25SAT3-60G) £59.99
1 x Corsair Builder Series CX 600W V2 '80 Plus' Power Supply (CMPSU-600CXUKV2) £56.99
Total : £712.87 (includes shipping : £10.00).



This is what he recommended me, it works out cheaper due to a bundle being available of the processor, motherboard and ram.
 
http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/288?vs=434

Avoid AMD at all costs. That CPU runs hot and is power hungry, bulldozer is a joke. That is the "old" sandybridge i5 vs that bulldozer CPU in the link. Ivybridge is better than sandybridge so go with the i5 3570K.

16GB of RAM is overkill for what you are suggesting the use of the machine for. That RAM isn't low profile either which i discussed earlier. The 550ti isn't a great GPU, I would go with the 6850 and OC it.

http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/539?vs=541

The OCZ SSD is rubbish, storage drive is the same i spec'd earlier. The PSU has less power than the CM I spec'd and it's also not modular, the CM silent pro i suggested earlier is. In short I'm not impressed with the suggested spec.
 
Last edited:
thenameDS said:
Thanks BigChief!

YOUR BASKET
1 x AMD Bulldozer FX-8 Eight Core 8150 Black Edition 3.60Ghz (Socket AM3+) Processor - Retail with FREE Deus Ex & Dirt Showdown PC Games £184.99
1 x Asus Sabertooth 990FX AMD 990FX (Socket AM3+) DDR3 Motherboard £134.98
1 x G.Skill RipJawsZ 16GB (4x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual/Quad Channel Kit (F3-12800CL9Q-16GBZL) £94.99
1 x Asus GeForce GTX 550Ti 1024MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £84.95
1 x Seagate Barracuda 2TB 7200RPM SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache - OEM (ST2000DM001) £83.99
1 x OCZ Agility 3 60GB 2.5" SATA 6Gb/s Solid State Hard Drive (AGT3-25SAT3-60G) £59.99
1 x Corsair Builder Series CX 600W V2 '80 Plus' Power Supply (CMPSU-600CXUKV2) £56.99
Total : £712.87 (includes shipping : £10.00).



This is what he recommended me, it works out cheaper due to a bundle being available of the processor, motherboard and ram.
Click to expand...

As mentioned, I would avoid the 8150, it not only costs more than the 3570k, but it performs worse in games, sometimes by a very significant margin. It also uses a lot more power. The GTX 550Ti isn't very good for the price, a 6850 will be quite a lot better for the same price. £95 for 16Gb Ram is a waste for gaming purposes you'll only need 16Gb for doing loads of photo and vide editing etc. £40 for a good 8Gb set will give the same performance in games. Corsair make good PSUs, but be careful about the CX600, because although it is rated for 600W, it can only output 480W on its 12V rail, so bear that in mind because the 12V rail is what makes the biggest difference for whether a PSU can run a system or not. Also, I'd recommend a Samsung 830 over that OCZ, much more reliable (I hear of quite a few issues with SSD performance deteriorating on some of OCZ's Sandforce controlled drives) plus it's £6 cheaper from this site.
 
Last edited:
thenameDS said:
I won't be playing games like Battlefield 3 as I play those on Xbox.
Click to expand...

Are you sure? Anyways, I would get this


YOUR BASKET
1 x Sapphire HD 7850 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £191.99
1 x Intel Core i5-2500K 3.30GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor - Retail £179.99
1 x Gigabyte Z77-D3H Intel Z77 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £89.98
1 x Seagate Barracuda 7200RPM 1TB SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache - OEM (ST1000DM003) £74.99
1 x OCZ ZS Series 550W '80 Plus Bronze' Power Supply £49.99
1 x Zalman Z9 Plus Tower Case with Fan Controller - Black £49.99
1 x Crucial Ballistix Sport 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (BLS2CP4G3D1609DS1S00CEU) £38.39
1 x OcUK 22x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £17.99
Total : £708.30 (includes shipping : £12.50).



or this

YOUR BASKET
1 x Intel Core i5-3570K 3.40GHz (Ivybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor (77W) - Retail £189.95
1 x Sandisk Extreme SSD 120GB 2.5" SATA 6Gb/s Solid State Hard Drive - (SDSSDX-120G-G25) £89.99
1 x Gigabyte Z77-D3H Intel Z77 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £89.98
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) £74.99
1 x OCZ ZS Series 550W '80 Plus Bronze' Power Supply £49.99
1 x Zalman Z9 Plus Tower Case with Fan Controller - Black £49.99
1 x Crucial Ballistix Sport 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (BLS2CP4G3D1609DS1S00CEU) £38.39
1 x OcUK 22x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £17.99
Total : £700.25 (includes shipping : £12.50).

 
Last edited:
and if you want a small, sleek looking sytem, maybe something like this?

YOUR BASKET
1 x Intel Core i5-3570K 3.40GHz (Ivybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor (77W) - Retail £189.95
1 x Asrock Z77E-ITX Intel Z77 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Mini ITX Motherboard £119.99
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) £74.99
1 x OCZ ZT 550W '80 Plus Bronze' Modular Power Supply £63.98
1 x BitFenix Prodigy Mini-ITX Cube Case - Midnight Black £59.99
1 x Crucial Ballistix Sport 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (BLS2CP4G3D1609DS1S00CEU) £38.39
1 x OcUK 22x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £17.99
Total : £661.86 (includes shipping : £10.50).



or

YOUR BASKET
1 x Intel Core i5-3570K 3.40GHz (Ivybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor (77W) - Retail £189.95
1 x MSI Z77MA-G45 Intel Z77 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Micro-ATX Motherboard £92.75
1 x MSI HD 6850 "Dual Fan Edition" 1024MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £83.99
1 x Silverstone TemJin TJ08B-E Midi Tower Case - Black (SST-TJ08B-E USB 3.0) £82.99
1 x Seagate Barracuda 7200RPM 1TB SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache - OEM (ST1000DM003) £74.99
1 x OCZ ZT 550W '80 Plus Bronze' Modular Power Supply £63.98
1 x Samsung 64GB SSD 830 Desktop Series SATA 6Gb/s KIT with Norton Ghost - (MZ-7PC064D/EU) £53.99
1 x Crucial Ballistix Sport 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (BLS2CP4G3D1609DS1S00CEU) £38.39
1 x OcUK 22x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £17.99
Total : £713.11 (includes shipping : £11.75).







Can also go Fractal R3. Which wont limit you to m-atx, and they look inconspicuous and roomy. Not mentioning silent.

YOUR BASKET
1 x Intel Core i5-3570K 3.40GHz (Ivybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor (77W) - Retail £189.95
1 x Gigabyte Z77-D3H Intel Z77 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £89.98
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) £74.99
1 x Fractal Design Define R3 Midi Tower Case - Silver Arrow £69.98
1 x Cooler Master Silent Pro Modular 700W '80 Plus Bronze' Power Supply £64.99
1 x Samsung 64GB SSD 830 Desktop Series SATA 6Gb/s KIT with Norton Ghost - (MZ-7PC064D/EU) £53.99
1 x Crucial Ballistix Sport 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (BLS2CP4G3D1609DS1S00CEU) £38.39
1 x OcUK 22x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £17.99
Total : £700.74 (includes shipping : £13.75).



This would be verging on a full blown gaming PC. You can get away with a i3 and H61 for most stuff.
 
Last edited:
Thanks for all your awesome suggestions guys! I will be going for i5 3570, 8GB RAM, 64GB SSD, 2TB hard drive and I'll decide on the graphics card after depending how much I want to spend. I will probably add a bluray and the iHAS 124 I already have here at home.
 
Would recommend the 6850, The 7850 is massivley OTT if you want to play free FPS games, He's not wanting to play crysis guys, Just browse the web and play some free games from what the OP has said, Even if he did want to play BF3 he could easily play it on a 6850.

Put the extra money to good use and get a shiny case or a decent monitor and a VESA wall mount or arm? :)


YOUR BASKET
1 x Intel Core i5-3570K 3.40GHz (Ivybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor (77W) - Retail £189.95
1 x Gigabyte Z77-D3H Intel Z77 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £89.98
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) £74.99
1 x Corsair Builder Series CX 600W V2 '80 Plus' Power Supply (CMPSU-600CXUKV2) £56.99
1 x BitFenix Shinobi "Core" USB3.0 Gaming Windowed Case - Black £54.98
1 x Samsung 64GB SSD 830 Desktop Series SATA 6Gb/s KIT with Norton Ghost - (MZ-7PC064D/EU) £53.99
1 x Crucial Ballistix Sport 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (BLS2CP4G3D1609DS1S00CEU) £38.39
Total : £655.85 (includes shipping : £10.50).

 
Bezzaboy1234 said:
Would recommend the 6850, The 7850 is massivley OTT if you want to play free FPS games, He's not wanting to play crysis guys, Just browse the web and play some free games from what the OP has said, Even if he did want to play BF3 he could easily play it on a 6850.
Click to expand...

Warface will be using cryengine3 which is the graphics engine for crysis 2. That is a free to play FPS because he isn't buying the games it helps justify spending a lil more on a GPU that will run these games comfortably in high res at high settings. The 7850 has more VRAM for a start than the 6850, 2GB is quickly becoming the standard and future games will start to expect this.

The 6850 for £80 is a great budget GPU, on a Z77 mobo it will get a boost from lucid MVP and it can be overclocked to nigh on 6870 performance. I would consider it the bare minimum for a gaming rig, if the OP can afford to get a 7850 (which overclock very well btw) I doubt he would regret it.
 
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