Out of touch and in need of advice!

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24 Oct 2014
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Hi all,
It's been a number of years since I last built a PC and I'm in need of a little advice please.
My son has recently started college and would like a desktop system on which to do his college work and a little casual gaming, including World of Warcraft, I know WoW can be more than casual gaming but his mother will make sure his college work will not suffer. Anyway, I digress, I told him that I'd sort him a system and I dug this beast, from which I'm typing, out of the loft as I dabbled myself in WoW back in 2007 and this system ran it well enough - AMD Athlon XP 2800+, 1 GB RAM, 128 Mb FX 5200 gfx.
Oh what a fool I was to think that this system had any chance of fulfilling his needs and after his observation that this system is probably older than him, my son decided to decline the offer.
So, after promising him a system I have a few options, shop bought new, second hand, self built, etc. As I am unfortunately working on a very tight budget, £400 max *cough*, I have priced up a few bits for the self built option.
Any and all useful advice on this matter will be greatly appreciated and taken on board, thanks in advance, spec is :-

AMD Piledriver FX-4 Quad Core 4350 4.20GHz (Socket AM3+) Processor - Retail - £76.99 (or AMD Piledriver FX-6 Six Core 6300 Black Edition 3.50GHz (Socket AM3+) Processor - Retail - £79.99 ?)
Asus M5A97 LE R2.0 AMD 970 (Socket AM3+) DDR3 Motherboard - £55.99
MSI HD 7770 GHz Edition 1024MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card - £65.99
Western Digital Caviar Green 1TB SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache - OEM **SINGLE PLATTER** HDD - £41.95
Kingston HyperX Fury White 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-14900C10 1866MHz Dual Channel Kit - £71.99
Aerocool GT Black Edition Mid tower - Black - £23.99
SuperFlower Golden Green HX 550W "80 Plus Gold" Power Supply - Black - £49.99
Microsoft Windows 8.1 64-Bit DVD - OEM (WN7-00614) - £77.99
LG GH24NSB0 24x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM - £13.99
Total = £478.87 (too much for my liking but manageable, just)

Any thoughts before I click the "Buy" button? Intel didn't seem an option with working on a budget, but I am a lot out of date with tech. Thanks for any advice!
 
Hi, that system should run what you need reasonably well, but I'd cut the 8GB of memory to 4 and use the money saved to get a better GPU. Not that its an awful GPU (I have the OC edition of that) but its getting quite outdated now)
 
As a student he might be eligible for the Microsoft student win 8.1 pro offer for £50. Just need a valid academic email. It does require downloading, not sure if you can request physical media for additional cost.
 
YOUR BASKET
1 x AMD Piledriver FX-6 Six Core 6300 Black Edition 3.50GHz (Socket AM3+) Processor - Retail £79.99
1 x Microsoft Windows 8.1 64-Bit DVD - OEM (WN7-00614) £77.99
1 x MSI HD 7770 GHz Edition 1024MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £65.99
1 x TeamGroup Elite Black 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C11 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (TPKD38G1600HC11DC01) £59.99
1 x Gigabyte 970A-DS3P AMD 970A (Socket AM3+) DDR3 Motherboard £50.99
1 x SuperFlower Golden Green HX 550W "80 Plus Gold" Power Supply - Black £49.99
1 x Seagate Barracuda 7200RPM 1TB SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache - OEM (ST1000DM003) HDD £39.95
1 x Silverstone Redline RL01 Gaming Case - Black (SST-RL01B USB 3.0) £22.99
1 x LG GH24NSB0 24x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £13.99
Total : £471.47 (includes shipping : £8.00).




Free delivery - http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?t=18630207


Or,

YOUR BASKET
1 x Microsoft Windows 8.1 64-Bit DVD - OEM (WN7-00614) £77.99
1 x MSI HD 7770 GHz Edition 1024MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £65.99
1 x Gigabyte Z97P-D3 Intel Z97 (Socket 1150) DDR3 ATX Motherboard £61.99
1 x TeamGroup Xtreem LV "Frost Edition" 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-21300C11 2666MHz Dual Channel Kit £59.99
1 x SuperFlower Golden Green HX 550W "80 Plus Gold" Power Supply - Black £49.99
1 x Intel Pentium K Anniversary G3258 Socket LGA1150 Processor - Retail £49.99
1 x Seagate Barracuda 7200RPM 1TB SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache - OEM (ST1000DM003) HDD £39.95
1 x Silverstone Redline RL01 Gaming Case - Black (SST-RL01B USB 3.0) £22.99
1 x LG GH24NSB0 24x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £13.99
Total : £452.47 (includes shipping : £8.00).




The CPU can be overclocked and Z97 is more future proof, you can drop a K series CPU into it and Broadwell CPUs are rumored to work on Z97 also.

If he cant get a student copy of windows he could try the Win10 preview - http://windows.microsoft.com/en-gb/windows/preview


One more,

YOUR BASKET
1 x Microsoft Windows 8.1 64-Bit DVD - OEM (WN7-00614) £77.99
1 x MSI HD 7770 GHz Edition 1024MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £65.99
1 x "Xenon H81M" Configurable Intel Pentium / Core i3 / i5 Micro ATX Home PC Bundle £44.00
- 1 x Standard Build Laptops - Approximately 3 to 5 working days £0.00
- 1 x Intel Pentium G3220 3.0GHz (Haswell) Socket LGA1150 Processor - Retail £41.99
- 1 x No Upgrade - Intel Stock Cooler (None overclocked systems) £0.00
- 1 x TeamGroup Elite Black 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C11 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (TPKD38G1600HC11DC01) £59.99
1 x SuperFlower Golden Green HX 350W "80 Plus Gold" Power Supply - Black £41.99
1 x Seagate Barracuda 7200RPM 1TB SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache - OEM (ST1000DM003) HDD £39.95
1 x Silverstone Redline RL01 Gaming Case - Black (SST-RL01B USB 3.0) £22.99
1 x LG GH24NSB0 24x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £13.99
Total : £418.48 (includes shipping : £8.00).



350W probably is enough.
 
Thanks for the help...but here has been a change of direction. My son has acquired a 1TB drive and will get Windows 8.1 cheaper, thanks Eddyr ;) So, new spec is as follows, again, any helpful advice appreciated:

MSI Radeon R9 280 Gaming 3072MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £149.99
AMD Piledriver FX-6 Six Core 6300 Black Edition 3.50GHz (Socket AM3+) Processor - Retail £79.99
TeamGroup Elite Black 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C11 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit £59.99
SuperFlower Golden Green HX 650W "80 Plus Gold" Power Supply - Black £59.99
MSI 970A-G46 AMD 970 (Socket AM3+) DDR3 Motherboard £53.99
Kingston 120GB SSDNow V300 Drive SATA 6Gb/s 3 2.5" Solid State Hard Drive £44.99
Aerocool GT Black Edition Mid tower - Black £23.99
Total : £482.52

Don't know how to link to Basket, sorry. Is the PSU overkill, would a 550W do?

Thanks!
 
You could use some parts from your old system to make it cheaper, like the case, dvd drive, hard drive and possibly the PSU provided its a good quality one and not been used for a long time
 
Last edited:
Much better gpu so will give him more choice in games and the SSD will help with loading new areas I WOW so that looks much better.
 
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