Please help! Pc for bf!

carol

carol

carol

Associate
Joined
19 May 2011
Posts
8
Heya guys!

I'm hoping you can help me, its my boyfriends birthday coming up and he's been moaning about his computer so I thought i would be a lovely girlfriend and buy him one.

He currently has has....

E6500
gigabyte ga p43 es3g p43
4gb ram

All above was a oc bundle about 2/3 years ago and he also has a HD 4670 which is what he is moaning about.

I know that he wants to play battlefield? that comes out this year. ive had a look at some pre built computers and it does say that you can change them.

He would like
blue-ray
needs win 7

Those 2 are a must i was thinking about this

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=FS-277-OK&groupid=43&catid=1270&subcat=

or this

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=FS-210-OK

then the cheapest option was just to just buy him a graphics card, but would it fit into the case? measurements are

50cm width 41 cm height and 18.5 cm depth

there's about 8/9 cm space between the edge of the card and the hard drive if that helps

Many thanks for your help! thank you
 
Hi Carol welcome to the forums,

What would be a great amount of help is if you tell us your budget (hard to gauge as those two pre-built models are quite different in price) and let us know whether or not your boyfriend would enjoy building his PC himself - quite a lot of us do so he might get the satisfaction of being able to build it as well.
 
Thanks for quick reply, Ahh sorry about that, basically as cheap as possible, properly around 300/400 I know that one computer was expensive but that was with his money he just doesn't know that yet :) I'm sure he would be able to build himself I will point him to the guide at the top, sorry or the wall of text I'mppsting on a phone thank you

O and probs need a new power thingy I'm bot the technical, he is a pc world one which is probs a but rrubbish

Thank you
 
Hey Carol,

I'm guessing your (max?) budget is £700, as that's what the prebuilt inclusive of a graphics card costs.

I'm assuming he's cool to build a system together from an OC bundle, as you seem to say that's what he did in the OP, so I'd get:
Radon Torosaur £430
Corsair TX 650W £75
MSI ATI Radeon HD 6950 Twin Frozr II 2GB £198

Just £703, and you get a guaranteed overclock with a fantastically better processor- he just needs to stick it in his old case.
 
This is probably the best you could do for around £700 with a graphics card, case and everything you said in the op

YOUR BASKET
1 x Intel Core i5-2500K 3.30GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor £164.99
1 x Asus GeForce GTX 560 1024MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £151.99
1 x MSI P67A-GD53 Intel P67 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard - (Sandybridge) ** B3 REVISION ** £109.99
1 x Microsoft Windows 7 Bundle - Home Premium 64 Bit £68.40
1 x Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB SATA 6Gb/s 32MB Cache WD10EALX - OEM £48.98
1 x Cooler Master Elite 430 Windowed Case - Black (with 500w Elite Power PSU) £64.99
1 x LiteOn iHOS104-37 4x BD-ROM Drive / 8x DVD-ROM (Black) - OEM £41.99
1 x OCZ Platinum 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 PC3-10666C7 1333MHz Dual Channel Kit (OCZ3P1333LV4GK) £27.95
1 x Corsair A50 High-Performance CPU Cooler (Socket AM2/AM3/LGA775/LGA1155/LGA1156/LGA1366) £23.99
Total : £716.77 (includes shipping : £11.25).
 
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Ah, if it's a PC World one and you're looking to upgrade for ~£400, the best thing to do would be to buy:

880GM-UD2H £55
Phenom II X4 955 £84
Corsair XMS3 4GB £40
OcUK GTX 460 1GB £125
Corsair TX 650W £75
Total: £380

You could swap the PSU for a cheaper one to allow enough money for a new case and hard drive, if you want to start afresh. Anything above 500W will do, although I hesitate to recommend cheap PSUs.
 
I think this would make his day personally:

Argon Intel Core i3 550 3.20GHz @ 4.00GHz Overclocked Bundle Argon Intel Core i3 550 3.20GHz @ 4.00GHz Overclocked Bundle £229.98
(£191.65) £229.98
(£191.65)
Sapphire ATI Radeon HD 5830 Extreme 1024MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card **OcUK Exclusive** Sapphire ATI Radeon HD 5830 Extreme 1024MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card **OcUK Exclusive** £99.98
(£83.32) £99.98
(£83.32)
Cooler Master Elite 430 Windowed Case - Black (with 500w Elite Power PSU) Cooler Master Elite 430 Windowed Case - Black (with 500w Elite Power PSU) £64.99
(£54.16) £64.99
(£54.16)
Western Digital Caviar Blue 500GB SATA 6Gb/s 16MB Cache - OEM (WD5000AAKX) Western Digital Caviar Blue 500GB SATA 6Gb/s 16MB Cache - OEM (WD5000AAKX) £29.99
(£24.99) £29.99
(£24.99)
Sony Optiarc AD-5260S 24x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM Sony Optiarc AD-5260S 24x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £15.98
(£13.32) £15.98
(£13.32)
Sub Total : £367.44
Shipping cost assumes delivery to UK Mainland with:
DPD Next Day Parcel
(This can be changed during checkout) Shipping : £10.50
VAT is being charged at 20.00% VAT : £75.59
Total : £453.53
 
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Sapphire ATI Radeon HD 5830 Extreme 1024MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card **OcUK Exclusive** Sapphire ATI Radeon HD 5830 Extreme 1024MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card **OcUK Exclusive** £83.32
(£99.98) £83.32
(£99.98)
AMD Phenom II X4 Quad Core 955 Black Edition "125W Edition" 3.20GHz (Socket AM3) - Retail AMD Phenom II X4 Quad Core 955 Black Edition "125W Edition" 3.20GHz (Socket AM3) - Retail £69.99
(£83.99) £69.99
(£83.99)
Microsoft Windows 7 Bundle - Home Premium 64 Bit Microsoft Windows 7 Bundle - Home Premium 64 Bit £57.00
(£68.40) £57.00
(£68.40)
Options applied to the above product:
Western Digital Caviar Blue 500GB SATA 6Gb/s 16MB Cache - OEM (WD5000AAKX) £24.99
(£29.99) £24.99
(£29.99)
Foxconn A7DA-S 3.0 AMD 790GX (Socket AM3) DDR3 Motherboard Foxconn A7DA-S 3.0 AMD 790GX (Socket AM3) DDR3 Motherboard £45.82
(£54.98) £45.82
(£54.98)
BeQuiet Pure Power L7 530W Power Supply BeQuiet Pure Power L7 530W Power Supply £35.82
(£42.98) £35.82
(£42.98)
Corsair XMS3 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (CMX4GX3M2A1600C9) Corsair XMS3 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (CMX4GX3M2A1600C9) £33.32
(£39.98) £33.32
(£39.98)
Cooler Master Elite 430 Windowed Case - Black Cooler Master Elite 430 Windowed Case - Black £28.32
(£33.98) £28.32
(£33.98)
Samsung SH-D163C/BEBE SATA 16x DVD-ROM (Black) - OEM Samsung SH-D163C/BEBE SATA 16x DVD-ROM (Black) - OEM £12.49
(£14.99) £12.49
(£14.99)
Sub Total : £391.07
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 : £80.46
Total : £482.78

thats the cheapest i could do if you do buy the blu ray you are looking >£500
 
It's £500 (+shipping), so over your budget, but it is a good gaming rig (overclockable quad core + 5850 card).

If he has a retail version of Win 7, that's a big chunk of the budget we don't have to worry about, but I've added OS in case.

Your basket
Product Name Qty Price Line Total
Sapphire ATI Radeon HD 5850 Extreme 1024MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card **OcUK Exclusive** £119.99
(£99.99) £119.99
(£99.99)
AMD Phenom II X4 Quad Core 955 Black Edition "125W Edition" 3.20GHz (Socket AM3) - Retail £83.99
(£69.99) £83.99
(£69.99)
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) £29.99
(£24.99) £29.99
(£24.99)
Gigabyte GA-880GM-UD2H AMD 880G (Socket AM3) microATX DDR3 Motherboard £54.98
(£45.82) £54.98
(£45.82)
BeQuiet Pure Power L7 530W Power Supply £42.98
(£35.82) £42.98
(£35.82)
Silverstone SST-PS03B Precision Midi Tower Case - Black £40.84
(£34.03) £40.84
(£34.03)
Corsair XMS3 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (CMX4GX3M2A1600C9) £39.98
(£33.32) £39.98
(£33.32)
Cooler Master Hyper 212 Plus CPU Cooler (Socket AM2/AM2+/AM3/775/1155/1156/1366) £19.99
(£16.66) £19.99
(£16.66)
Sub Total : £417.62
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 : £86.02
Total : £516.14

Would be best you give us a fixed budget once you know a bit more what you need, so we can get the best value for money, or you'll get £400, £500 and over £700 valuations. For a Battlefield build, a 5850 and quad-core would be ideal on a budget, for £400 you will have to compromise a lot.

Note that you can also shop around for price and possibly cut £30 off the budget. But it's best to buy everything from one place.

EDIT : Forgot the optical drive. Probably replace the CPU cooler and stay at stock speed, or salvage the optical drive from old computer. The motherboard has IDE legacy support, so even an old crummy DVD drive will do.
 
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It's worth noting that a Blu Ray drive often doesn't provide great value for money. OEM (as opposed to retail) drives aren't bundled with software, and even retail ones typically come with fairly rubbish software that needs updating, and new software is expensive. You're better off buying a dedicated BluRay player, or even a PS3.
 
Perhaps the greatest girl friend of all time.

Are you buying him the parts for him to put together or are you putting it together your self or are you just going to get a premade jobby?

As currently people are only suggesting separate parts. Also blue ray is not worth it. Most people pirate them anyway and therefore don't even need a blueray drive haha.
 
With that system (P43 + 4GB DDR2) you may want to consider doing a CPU-only upgrade by buying a Q6600 second-hand (~£70) and buying an aftermarket heatsink like this. This will give a nice performance boost in modern games and leave a fair chunk of cash left over for a new PSU, graphics card, Win 7 and Blu ray drive.

6600.png


Add in this case (or this one) if a big graphics card just won't fit in the existing case.
 
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Lovely girlfriend indeed. :)

Just to clarify, does he actually need a new case, power supply and such things or is he fine on what he's got (hence just needing the standard four components)?
 
So many replys thank you, he doesn't need a blue ray just wants 1 I'm guessing he can use the cd drive he has? Would prefer a pre build, but he should be able to put it together, just whatever is the cheapest option, but best for money

Thank you
 
Sapphire Radeon HD 5850 Extreme - £119.99

Asus M4A88TD-V EVO/USB3 AMD 880G - £84.98

Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit - £79.99

Corsair TX 650W V2 Power Supply - £74.99

AMD Phenom II X2 555 - £65.99

Corsair XMS3 4GB RAM - £39.98

Cooler Master Elite 370 Case - Black - £32.99


Total cost: £511.51 including shipping. This is not a pre-built I'm afraid, and it does not have a Bluray drive. Other than that though, fast graphics card, quality power supply and the processor's more or less guaranteed to be unlockable to a quad-core. I'll try working on a pre-built over my lunchbreak. :)
 
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