Out of the Loop.... Help with Build?

Yesam

Yesam

Yesam

Associate
Joined
19 Jun 2007
Posts
95
Location
Midlands UK
Hey Guys,

So its been almost two years since my last build so there for i'm a bit out of the loop with chipsets, GPU's and by the looks of it, even the new CPU's!

I'm looking at a secondary cheap work-based machine. £400 tops really for a tower.

Use is for applicaitons such as AutoCad, office, some other drawing utils.

Because of this focus is on CPU, Memory and storage (I'd like as much as possible for backups). Is quad-core possible on this budget? If not dual core will have to suffice.

This will be rigged up to quite allot of USB's, so as many as possible would be great, with front panel ones in a case being a bonus.

Really need some help with this guys! I'd prefer an Intel system as I've always built Intel...

Don't need OS in this budget! Nor any other accessories..

Thanks in advance!
 
Product Name Qty Price Line Total
HD-053-SA_60.jpg
Samsung SpinPoint F1 1TB SATA-II 32MB Cache - OEM (HD103UJ) £71.99
(£82.79) £71.99
(£82.79)
MB-126-GI_60.jpg
Gigabyte GA-EP43-DS3L Intel P43 (Socket 775) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard £69.99
(£80.49) £69.99
(£80.49)
CP-251-IN_60.jpg
Intel Pentium Dual-Core E5200 "LGA775 Core 2" 2.50GHz (800FSB) - Retail £53.99
(£62.09) £53.99
(£62.09)
CA-006-CS_60.jpg
Corsair VX 450W ATX PSU (CMPSU-450VXUK) £51.99
(£59.79) £51.99
(£59.79)
GX-103-OK_60.jpg
OcUK GeForce 9500 GT 512MB DDR2 HDTV/DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail (NE29500THHD51-PM8796) £41.99
(£48.29) £41.99
(£48.29)
MY-086-OC_60.jpg
OCZ 4GB (2x2GB) PC2-6400C5 Dual Channel Vista Gold Series DDR2 (OCZ2G8004GK) £28.99
(£33.34) £28.99
(£33.34)
CA-160-CM_60.jpg
Coolermaster Elite 335 Case - Black (No PSU) £26.99
(£31.04) £26.99
(£31.04)
CD-099-SA_60.jpg
Samsung SH-S223F/BEBE 22x DVD±RW SATA Dual Layer ReWriter (Black) - OEM £13.99
(£16.09) £13.99
(£16.09) Sub Total : £359.92 Shipping cost assumes delivery to UK Mainland with:
DHL Select Next Day (Delivered Mon-Fri)
(This can be changed during checkout) Shipping : £12.99 VAT is being charged at 15% VAT : £55.94 Total : £428.85
 
@ icey_haj : Please, not to fussed about high quality. Cheap and cheerfull!

Cheers Kenny, I think in the region of ~500GB would be sufficient (maybe split across two discs in RAID?).

Is the P43 chipset good? I previously built two P35 and have been impressed - i'm guessing this is old school now? How times change!
 
Yesam said:
@ icey_haj : Please, not to fussed about high quality. Cheap and cheerfull!

Cheers Kenny, I think in the region of ~500GB would be sufficient (maybe split across two discs in RAID?).

Is the P43 chipset good? I previously built two P35 and have been impressed - i'm guessing this is old school now? How times change!
Click to expand...

yeah P43 is quite outdated now but will do the job for what you stated,....:p

and for backups.? why raid.? more chance of data loss, unless raid 1 or raid 5 with parity, which you would need 3 or more Hard drives... could always just use like an 80Gig for os and 500gig for backups and storage :p

well thats what i do anyway :)
 
Kennysevenfold said:
yeah P43 is quite outdated now but will do the job for what you stated,....:p

and for backups.? why raid.? more chance of data loss, unless raid 1 or raid 5 with parity, which you would need 3 or more Hard drives... could always just use like an 80Gig for os and 500gig for backups and storage :p

well thats what i do anyway :)
Click to expand...

I believe you can have raid1 without parity, which would suffice.
I also see in your spec that you have quoted him for a single 1TB drive, whats he backing up on? He would be better of with two 500gb drives mirrored in raid1 so he wouldnt have to worry about backing up or one drive failing.
 
Heres a quick build that should suffice for what you need it for (office work)

Product Name Qty Price Line Total
Gigabyte GA-EP43-DS3L Intel P43 (Socket 775) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard Gigabyte GA-EP43-DS3L Intel P43 (Socket 775) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard £69.99
(£80.49) £69.99
(£80.49)
Intel Pentium Dual-Core E5200 "LGA775 Core 2" 2.50GHz (800FSB) - Retail Intel Pentium Dual-Core E5200 "LGA775 Core 2" 2.50GHz (800FSB) - Retail £53.99
(£62.09) £53.99
(£62.09)
Western Digital Caviar Green 500GB SATA-II 16MB Cache - OEM (WD5000AACS) Western Digital Caviar Green 500GB SATA-II 16MB Cache - OEM (WD5000AACS) £44.99
(£51.74) £89.98
(£103.48)
OcUK 4GB (2x2GB) PC2-6400C5 800MHz DDR2 Dual Channel Kit OcUK 4GB (2x2GB) PC2-6400C5 800MHz DDR2 Dual Channel Kit £29.99
(£34.49) £29.99
(£34.49)
Antec Basic 350W PSU Antec Basic 350W PSU £28.99
(£33.34) £28.99
(£33.34)
Coolermaster Elite 330 Midi Tower Case - Black (No PSU) Coolermaster Elite 330 Midi Tower Case - Black (No PSU) £25.99
(£29.89) £25.99
(£29.89)
OcUK GeForce 8400 GS 256MB DDR2 HDTV/DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail OcUK GeForce 8400 GS 256MB DDR2 HDTV/DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail £21.99
(£25.29) £21.99
(£25.29)
Sony NEC Optiarc DDU1615S 16x SATA DVD-ROM (Beige) - OEM Sony NEC Optiarc DDU1615S 16x SATA DVD-ROM (Beige) - OEM £9.99
(£11.49) £9.99
(£11.49)
Sub Total : £330.91
Shipping cost assumes delivery to UK Mainland with:
DHL Select Next Day (Delivered Mon-Fri)
(This can be changed during checkout) Shipping : £9.99
VAT is being charged at 15% VAT : £51.14
Total : £392.04

That brings you £8 under your budget.

You also have two 500gb drives so you can raid1 etc...
TBH you can get cheaper, equipment elsewhere if your looking for a cheap office build... its more enthusiasts equipment here.
The cheapest graphics card here is £30 elsewhere ive seen £10
Cheaper cases can be had aswell which could save you an extra £50 plus an extra £50 towards your budget on top of that could see you with a Q6600
 
Last edited:
True, maybe it would make more sense to have a smaller sized disc and just to ad-hoc backing up instead of RAID.

Alternatively a smaller sized disc, i think realistically two ~250GB's might do hte trick.

Can anyone better Kennysevenfold? Looking to order this in the next couple of days

EDIT Cheers Mattyy, Are Antec PSU's reliable? I've always gone for Corsair but they do cost a premium, willing to change if they are reliable though!
 
Yesam said:
True, maybe it would make more sense to have a smaller sized disc and just to ad-hoc backing up instead of RAID.

Alternatively a smaller sized disc, i think realistically two ~250GB's might do hte trick.

Can anyone better Kennysevenfold? Looking to order this in the next couple of days

EDIT Cheers Mattyy, Are Antec PSU's reliable? I've always gone for Corsair but they do cost a premium, willing to change if they are reliable though!
Click to expand...

I was going to post the exact same spec as kenny (apart from the gfx card), but I had to ask you about the case. So, no I can't better it. :p

It should run everything you need it for with ease.
 
If your going to go for two 250gb discs then your going to save money there.

If you go for the following -

Samsung SpinPoint F1 320GB SATA-II 16MB Cache - OEM (HD322HJ) X2

There good drives and getting two of them instead of the 500gb ones will save you a further £23 so then you can put that towards a better PSU like the corsair.
 
Last edited:
ct Name Qty Price Line Total
Gigabyte GA-EP43-DS3L Intel P43 (Socket 775) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard Gigabyte GA-EP43-DS3L Intel P43 (Socket 775) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard £69.99
(£80.49) £69.99
(£80.49)
Intel Pentium Dual-Core E5200 "LGA775 Core 2" 2.50GHz (800FSB) - Retail Intel Pentium Dual-Core E5200 "LGA775 Core 2" 2.50GHz (800FSB) - Retail £53.99
(£62.09) £53.99
(£62.09)
Corsair VX 450W ATX PSU (CMPSU-450VXUK) Corsair VX 450W ATX PSU (CMPSU-450VXUK) £51.99
(£59.79) £51.99
(£59.79)
Samsung SpinPoint F1 320GB SATA-II 16MB Cache - OEM (HD322HJ) Samsung SpinPoint F1 320GB SATA-II 16MB Cache - OEM (HD322HJ) £34.99
(£40.24) £69.98
(£80.48)
OCZ 4GB (2x2GB) PC2-6400C5 Dual Channel Vista Gold Series DDR2 (OCZ2G8004GK) OCZ 4GB (2x2GB) PC2-6400C5 Dual Channel Vista Gold Series DDR2 (OCZ2G8004GK) £28.99
(£33.34) £28.99
(£33.34)
Coolermaster Elite 335 Case - Black (No PSU) Coolermaster Elite 335 Case - Black (No PSU) £26.99
(£31.04) £26.99
(£31.04)
OcUK GeForce 8400 GS 256MB DDR2 HDTV/DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail OcUK GeForce 8400 GS 256MB DDR2 HDTV/DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail £21.99
(£25.29) £21.99
(£25.29)
Sony NEC Optiarc DDU1615S 16x SATA DVD-ROM (Beige) - OEM Sony NEC Optiarc DDU1615S 16x SATA DVD-ROM (Beige) - OEM £9.99
(£11.49) £9.99
(£11.49)
Sub Total : £333.91
Shipping cost assumes delivery to UK Mainland with:
DHL Select Next Day (Delivered Mon-Fri)
(This can be changed during checkout) Shipping : £14.99
VAT is being charged at 15% VAT : £52.34
Total : £401.24

There you go the same as Kenny but I have changed the drives and GPU

Only £1 over ;)


EDIT: Changed spec, only just realised that the OCZ ram is actually cheaper than OCUKs own brand =S
 
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