Out of the loop for a while - £500 budget

reefoid

reefoid

reefoid

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Its been about 5 years since I built my last PC so I'm well out of the loop on current components. Looking to put together a system over the coming weeks. Mainly going to be used for web design, so Photoshop and Illustrator will be the most intensive apps I will use. No gaming at all. So going to need the following:

Case
Mobo
CPU
RAM
PSU
GFX (if onboard won't be up to the job)
Windows

Already have HDD's, DVD and monitor and have a £500 budget, although if I could get a monitor (maybe the BenQ G2222HDL) as well as everything else for under £600 that could be do-able.

Thanks.
 
For overclocking:

2s0n89f.jpg


For not overclocking (or light overclocking):

rjqipx.jpg


The IGP on that board will be fine.

Probably better to get this RAM to save a bit more cash.

I would probably go for the second one and use the money you save to get an SSD. I think you will see more performance difference from faster hard drive than from faster CPU in your applications.
 
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L55gx.png


Basically the same as egnshane's build, except this one uses the 555 dual core, which is easy to unlock to a quad core in the bios and has the motherboard with 880G chipset and 850 south bridge which supports SATA 6Gbps.
 
Since he actually needs a quad for this build I would not recommend getting a 555 and hoping for it to unlock. Not all of them do unlock stably.
 
Thanks guys. Will take a closer look when I get home later, will probably have some more questions for you.

Cheers.
 
OK, I'm ready to order today. I've decided not get get a monitor at the moment so this is what I am looking to get:

AMD Phenom II X4 Quad Core 955 Black Edition 3.20GHz (Socket AM3) - Retail £135.99
Patriot Viper 4GB (2x2GB) PC3-10666 1333MHz Dual Channel (PVS34G1333ELK) £88.99
Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium 64-Bit - OEM (GFC-00599) £76.99
Asus M4A785TD-V Evo AMD 785G (Socket AM3) DDR3 Motherboard £74.99
OCZ StealthXStream 500w Silent Power Supply £46.99
Antec 300 Three Hundred Ultimate Gaming Case - Black £44.99

Sub Total : £399.10
Shipping : £11.75
VAT is being charged at 17.50% VAT : £71.90
Total : £482.75

Couple of questions:


  • The 955 OEM is out of stock so going with the retail. How loud is the stock cooler? Don't mind a bit of noise but if its mentally loud will get another CPU cooler.

  • Windows 7 OEM - I take it this is OK for me? It will only be installed on this machine and I rarely upgrade.

If someone could confirm, then I'm good to go. Unless anyone can suggest anything else.

Thanks guys.
 
Looks like a nice build.

Never used the stock cooler on my phenom so no idea on volume I am afraid. Although I would say that there is not much point forking out for a black edition CPU if you are not planning to overclock and there is not much point trying to overclock if you are using the stock cooler. Okay so maybe this is a slight exaggeration, you can still get a slight overclock with the stock cooler but I would not recommend it.

Windows 7 - if you have an old copy of XP or vista that you are not using any more (on any machine ever) then buy the upgrade licence. It is cheaper. You dont have to have the copy of the OS on the machine you are installing it on. Google 'windows 7 upgrade clean install' and you will find instructions - it is very easy.
 
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Thanks eddyc, I'm not going to overclock so I'll stick with the stock cooler for now.

I currently have XP Professional, so will change to W7 upgrade.

Off to order now.
 
bah. Go on. Do a little overclock! Bet you can get to 3.5 without changing any voltages and with acceptable temps. :D

Have fun building.
 
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