New Machine £400

Jonny L

Jonny L

Jonny L

Associate
Joined
10 Nov 2006
Posts
1,859
Location
Lincoln
Hi guys,

I'd like a new computer, don't need any peripherals just the box and an OS.

I'm out of touch with the tech these days but am confident enough to build it.

It will be used predominantly for email, internet, word processing and some of the less taxing games - WOW, Total War/ Mount & Blade etc.

All your help in picking the components is much appreciated.

Jonny
 
Your basketProduct Name Qty Price Line Total
Xenon AMD Phenom II X4 840 3.20GHz Bundle - Quad Core £156.00
(£130.00) £156.00
(£130.00)
Microsoft Windows 7 Bundle - Home Premium 64 Bit £68.40
(£57.00) £68.40
(£57.00)
Options applied to the above product:
Western Digital Caviar Blue 500GB SATA 6Gb/s 16MB Cache - OEM (WD5000AAKX) £32.99
(£27.49) £32.99
(£27.49)
Coolermaster Elite 430 Windowed Case - Black (with 500w Elite Power PSU) £64.99
(£54.16) £64.99
(£54.16)
Sony Optiarc AD-5260S 24x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £15.98
(£13.32) £15.98
(£13.32)
Sub Total : £281.97
Shipping cost assumes delivery to UK Mainland with:
DPD Next Day Parcel
(This can be changed during checkout) Shipping : £12.50
VAT is being charged at 20.00% VAT : £58.89
Total : £353.36
 
Heres another with a decent graphic card.

Your basketProduct Name Qty Price Line Total
Sapphire ATI Radeon HD 5830 Extreme 1024MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card **OcUK Exclusive** £89.99
(£74.99) £89.99
(£74.99)
Microsoft Windows 7 Bundle - Home Premium 64 Bit £68.40
(£57.00) £68.40
(£57.00)
Options applied to the above product:
Western Digital Caviar Blue 500GB SATA 6Gb/s 16MB Cache - OEM (WD5000AAKX) £32.99
(£27.49) £32.99
(£27.49)
Coolermaster Elite 430 Windowed Case - Black (with 500w Elite Power PSU) £64.99
(£54.16) £64.99
(£54.16)
AMD Athlon II X3 Tri Core 450 3.20GHz (Socket AM3) - Retail £59.99
(£49.99) £59.99
(£49.99)
Gigabyte GA-M68MT-S2 (AM3) Motherboard - Retail £39.98
(£33.32) £39.98
(£33.32)
Corsair XMS3 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (CMX4GX3M2A1600C9) £35.99
(£29.99) £35.99
(£29.99)
Sony Optiarc AD-5260S 24x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £15.98
(£13.32) £15.98
(£13.32)
Sub Total : £340.26
Shipping cost assumes delivery to UK Mainland with:
DPD Next Day Parcel
(This can be changed during checkout) Shipping : £11.25
VAT is being charged at 20.00% VAT : £70.30
Total : £421.81

the Tri core cpu is decent, heres it compared against a quad core athlon - http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/189?vs=188

the motherboard offers the chance to unlock cores too, so you could end up with a quad core cpu.
 
Thanks mate, could probably stretch to 450 to get both the card and the quad core. Any other changes you'd make if I went that far?
 
Your basketProduct Name Qty Price Line Total
Sapphire ATI Radeon HD 5830 Extreme 1024MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card **OcUK Exclusive** £89.99
(£74.99) £89.99
(£74.99)
AMD Phenom II X4 Quad Core 955 Black Edition "125W Edition" 3.20GHz (Socket AM3) - Retail £89.99
(£74.99) £89.99
(£74.99)
Microsoft Windows 7 Bundle - Home Premium 64 Bit £68.40
(£57.00) £68.40
(£57.00)
Options applied to the above product:
Western Digital Caviar Blue 500GB SATA 6Gb/s 16MB Cache - OEM (WD5000AAKX) £32.99
(£27.49) £32.99
(£27.49)
Coolermaster Elite 430 Windowed Case - Black (with 500w Elite Power PSU) £64.99
(£54.16) £64.99
(£54.16)
Gigabyte GA-M68MT-S2 (AM3) Motherboard - Retail £39.98
(£33.32) £39.98
(£33.32)
Corsair XMS3 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (CMX4GX3M2A1600C9) £35.99
(£29.99) £35.99
(£29.99)
Sony Optiarc AD-5260S 24x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £15.98
(£13.32) £15.98
(£13.32)
Sub Total : £365.26
Shipping cost assumes delivery to UK Mainland with:
DPD Next Day Parcel
(This can be changed during checkout) Shipping : £11.25
VAT is being charged at 20.00% VAT : £75.30
Total : £451.81
 
Thanks for all your help guys, I'm just looking at that motherboard stulid and wondering if i should spend a little more to get a bit more future proofing - i.e. more ram slots and better facilities and overclocking capability?

The MSI 870A-G54 AMD 870 (Socket AM3) DDR3 Motherboard seems reasonable, would this be a good choice?

If so I'll get this ordered today :)

Thanks again guys!

Jonny


edit: also, just thought, if I buy the OEM optical drive, will I need to purchase another SATA cable?

Cheers
 
Last edited:
Jonny L said:
Thanks for all your help guys, I'm just looking at that motherboard stulid and wondering if i should spend a little more to get a bit more future proofing - i.e. more ram slots and better facilities and overclocking capability?

The MSI 870A-G54 AMD 870 (Socket AM3) DDR3 Motherboard seems reasonable, would this be a good choice?

If so I'll get this ordered today :)

Thanks again guys!

Jonny


edit: also, just thought, if I buy the OEM optical drive, will I need to purchase another SATA cable?

Cheers
Click to expand...


Motherboards will come with two SATA cables at least.

Go for the MSI for the SATA and USB3.0
 
The mobo will come with sata cables and you can use old ones of your current pc if you need more.

:EDIT:

GOD DAMNIT STULID! (had the page open for ages so didn't know you'd already replied)
 
Me again guys (sorry), I got this all ordered yesterday, I originally placed the order on Saturday but there was a delay due to OcUK's security check (which i was actually very impressed with). The customer services team were brilliant and really friendly. The last time I dealt with OcUK was a few years ago and if anything they have improved.

So I blew the budget and ended up ordering:


Sapphire ATI Radeon HD 5830 Extreme 1024MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card **OcUK Exclusive** £74.99 1 £74.99
AMD Phenom II X4 Quad Core 955 Black Edition "125W Edition" 3.20GHz (Socket AM3) - Retail £74.99 1 £74.99
Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 64-Bit - OEM (GFC-00599) £66.66 1 £66.66
MSI 870A-G54 AMD 870 (Socket AM3) DDR3 Motherboard £58.32 1 £58.32
Coolermaster Elite 430 Windowed Case - Black (with 500w Elite Power PSU) £54.16 1 £54.16
Corsair XMS3 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (CMX4GX3M2A1600C9) £29.99 1 £29.99
Western Digital Caviar Blue 500GB SATA 6Gb/s 16MB Cache - OEM (WD5000AAKX) £27.49 1 £27.49
Sony Optiarc AD-5260S 24x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £13.32 1 £13.32
Arctic Cooling Keyboard - Black £8.32 1 £8.32
TP-Link 300Mbps Wireless-N USB Adapter (TL-WN821N) £8.32 2 £16.64
Zalman CNPS10X Flex CPU Cooler (Socket 754/939/AM2/AM2+/AM3/775/1155/1156/1366) £23.82 1 £23.82

Order Total: £538.44

And I noticed the case only comes with one fan so I popped to the shop and grabbed an akasa amber 120mm (I have a few of these at home and they're great but I'm currently at uni so two fans will have to do for now :))

Oh and the second wireless dongle is for my mate.

What I wanted to ask is would I be better off putting the fan as an outtake fan or on the CPU cooler which is a passive Zalman with two 120 mm fan fixings. And also, which way up would I be best to face the cpu cooler, blowing towards the rear outtake or blowing towards the top outakes (considering I will be fitting fans there eventually).

Also I intend to regain my lost overclocking skills and hit 3.8 ghz maybe 4 if I'm lucky :D

Thanks,

Jonny
 
your gonna need a fan for the zalman flex. it doesnt come with one so they can reduce the cost of it a bit for those who are going to be replacing the fan anyway
 
Jonny L said:
Sapphire ATI Radeon HD 5830 Extreme 1024MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card **OcUK Exclusive** £74.99 1 £74.99
AMD Phenom II X4 Quad Core 955 Black Edition "125W Edition" 3.20GHz (Socket AM3) - Retail £74.99 1 £74.99
Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 64-Bit - OEM (GFC-00599) £66.66 1 £66.66
MSI 870A-G54 AMD 870 (Socket AM3) DDR3 Motherboard £58.32 1 £58.32
Coolermaster Elite 430 Windowed Case - Black (with 500w Elite Power PSU) £54.16 1 £54.16
Corsair XMS3 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (CMX4GX3M2A1600C9) £29.99 1 £29.99
Western Digital Caviar Blue 500GB SATA 6Gb/s 16MB Cache - OEM (WD5000AAKX) £27.49 1 £27.49
Sony Optiarc AD-5260S 24x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £13.32 1 £13.32
Arctic Cooling Keyboard - Black £8.32 1 £8.32
TP-Link 300Mbps Wireless-N USB Adapter (TL-WN821N) £8.32 2 £16.64
Zalman CNPS10X Flex CPU Cooler (Socket 754/939/AM2/AM2+/AM3/775/1155/1156/1366) £23.82 1 £23.82

Order Total: £538.44
Click to expand...

looks great, make sure you post up some pics when your done :)
 
Will do. I'm at work all day tomorrow but my house mate is staying in to take delivery. Building will commence at 6pm when I get back. I'm going to attempt to braid the cables. I bought some heat shrink and stuff from the shop today. Should improve air flow a bit.
 
Posting from my new computer :D It's super speedy compared to my laptop.

Had a few issues yesterday (motherboard only came with 1 sata cable and the cpu cooler was a nightmare to fit as my mate and I had never fit one before) but we got there in the end this morning, all installed and ready to go.

Now to get some games installed :D

Thanks for all your help and support guys, will post back at some point with pictures. The cable management is nigh on non-existant though, which will be rectified but not just yet, too mmany hours at work this week.

Thanks again.

Jonny
 
Building pc's efficiently is always a learning process. Your next pc will be a lot easier. Out of curiosity, did you forget to flick the switch on the psu and think your pc had died when you pushed the power button and nothing happened? I still do that every time and I've built 5 of them :P.
 
Ha, yes I did, I also forgot to plug the 4 pin cable for additional cpu power in and wondered why it wouldn't boot, that took hours of head scratching.
 
So you have,

Installed windows,

Motherboard chipset drivers,

Latest ATI drivers for the card from the ATI website,

Audio driver,

Windows updates, Internet, firewall, virus guard?

Then run the windows experience index, but ignore the score it gives you.
 
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