Not another build advice thread..

mouthus

mouthus

mouthus

Associate
Joined
25 May 2012
Posts
6
Hi, this will be my first build and I'm thinking of a compact (mATX board), up to £450 budget system. Intended use will mostly be gaming, but obviously not on ultra settings. I'd like it to be smooth and pretty though. I will probably get a 22" monitor separately.

The following is the result of some initial tinkering. Please feel free to highlight any major booboos or present a different build altogether. Being a first build I didn't want to spend too much but certain things, like the PSU, I'd want to keep for the possibility of a better, future build. Likewise the gfx card, I could potentially double up and use in SLI with a different motherboard (and tower) later on. I'd appreciate any thoughts/suggestions/ridicule! If it serves me better, I can move away from the mATX idea. Thanks.


YOUR BASKET
1 x AMD Bulldozer FX-4 Quad Core 4100 Black Edition 3.60Ghz (Socket AM3+) Processor - Retail with FREE Deus Ex PC Game £86.99
1 x Asus GeForce GTX 550Ti 1024MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £81.95
1 x Cooler Master Silent Pro Modular 600W '80 Plus Bronze' Power Supply £65.99
1 x Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 500GB SATA 6Gb/s 16MB Cache - OEM (ST500DM002) £56.99
1 x Asus M5A78L-M/USB3 AMD 760G (Socket AM3+) DDR3 MicroATX Motherboard £51.98
1 x Fractal Design Core 1000 Midi Tower Case - Black £32.99
1 x Xigmatek Gaia CPU Cooler (Socket LGA775/1155/1156/1366/AM2/AM3/FM1) £19.99
1 x GeIL Dragon 4GB (1x4GB) DDR3 PC3-10666C9 1333MHz Single Module (GD34GB1333C9SC) £17.99
1 x Samsung SH-S222BB/BEBE 22x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £14.99
Total : £444.85 (includes shipping : £12.50).

 
Hi and Welcome :)

I've re-done the spec for you below, the i3 beats the FX-4, especially in gaming.

i3 2100 vs FX-8150
[That's a more expensive FX than you chose, too. See the gaming benchmarks near the bottom]

  • The 550Ti is an okay graphics card, but a 6850 is better :)
  • Case is a good choice for microATX
  • You want dual channel RAM, as its faster
  • This PSU is actually more power on the 12V rail than the CoolerMaster

550Ti review.

YOUR BASKET
1 x MSI HD 6850 "Dual Fan Edition" 1024MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £84.95
1 x Intel Core i3-2120 3.30GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor - Retail £83.99
1 x Seagate Barracuda 7200RPM 1TB SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache - OEM (ST1000DM003) £68.99
1 x OCZ ZT 550W '80 Plus Bronze' Modular Power Supply £63.98
1 x Gigabyte H61MA-D3V Intel H61 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £47.99
1 x Corsair XMS3 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (CMX8GX3M2A1600C9) £41.99
1 x Fractal Design Core 1000 Midi Tower Case - Black £32.99
1 x Samsung SH-S222BB/BEBE 22x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £14.99
Total : £454.86 (includes shipping : £12.50).

 
Last edited:
Thanks very much for the response. The benchmark comparison is really useful. I did have my doubts about the processor and graphics, so I'm glad you cleared that up. I suppose I will need to add a CPU cooler to your build, but that should be fine cost-wise. Cheers!
 
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