Price of components

Dogboy73

Dogboy73

Dogboy73

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27 May 2004
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693
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Is it me or has the price of many PC components gone up a bit over the last couple of months? I specced a system on OcUK about that long ago but didn't buy. I've just looked again a similar build seems to be coming about around £100 more expensive it seems. I was looking at spending about £500 for a system including a half decent but budget gfx card & I need a copy of Windows 7 64-bit as well. I was hoping to put together an i5 quad core system but this now looks a little ambitious with the £500 budget.
 
Certain things have indeed increased over the past couple of months, but there are some good deals to be had aswell !!
 
The i5's have increased by about £20 on here, but I havent noticed any other rises....then again I dont really search.
 
Is an i3 (1155) dual core a worthwhile option for a budget system? Or should I really be looking to stretch to an i5? I don't play many games these days. Last game I bought was Crysis, which running on my current system got a bit sluggish towards the end even with medium settings. I'll probably by Portal 2 if I build a new system but other than that it will just be TF2 & maybe a bit of Counter Strike. Cheers ;)
 
well, its just when new hardware comes out.
New hardware is usually better and so costs more initially but they quickly drop back into prices you are used to
 
Prices fluctuate all the time. exchange rate and all that. However some things have really dropped, memory is about 1/2 the price it was when I build my i5 setup so it's all swings and roundabouts. Works out about the same in my eyes.
 
okay. Thanks for the replies. I just put together an i5 based system that came out only slightly more expensive than it did a couple of months back. So it looks like where you spend more in some areas you save in others.


Also put togethr this i3 based budget build. How does this look;

53079Untitled-1.jpg
 
YOUR BASKET
1 x Asrock Z68 PRO3 Intel Z68 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £99.98
1 x Sapphire ATI Radeon HD 6770 1024MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card with FREE DIRT3 Game £95.99
1 x Intel Core i3-2100 3.10GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor - Retail £89.99
1 x Microsoft Windows 7 Bundle - Home Premium 64 Bit £68.40
1 x Western Digital Caviar Blue 500GB SATA 6Gb/s 16MB Cache - OEM (WD5000AAKX) £32.99


1 x OCZ ModXStream Pro 500w Silent SLI Certified Modular Power Supply £52.99
1 x Cooler Master Elite 330 Midi Tower Case - Black £29.99
1 x Corsair XMS3 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (CMX4GX3M2A1600C9) £29.99
1 x Samsung SH-S222AL/BEBE 22x DVD±RW SATA Lightscribe ReWriter (Black) - OEM £16.99
Total : £517.31 (includes shipping : FREE).



For the extra few pounds, you'll get a much better build !!
 
I'd get the TP-550W over the OCZ.
I'd get the Gigabyte Z68XP-UD3.
I'd probably pick up another case as well :) Although for budget, you'd be stuck with something like a Ximatek Asgard Midi.

Components go up. There's been a raise in VAT not long ago. The OS takes a big chunk of the budget though. Without OS, you can get a better case and GPU. If you can somehow get a cheaper version of Win 7 (upgrade, student, or student friend / familly...).

This is looking more and more like £650 with 2500K really :( But then you'll get something solid.

YOUR BASKET
1 x OcUK ATI Radeon HD 6870 1024MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card with FREE Deus Ex PC Game £124.98
1 x Gigabyte Z68XP-UD3 Intel Z68 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard ** LOWEST UK PRICE ** £99.98
1 x Intel Core i3-2100 3.10GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor - Retail £89.99
1 x Microsoft Windows 7 Bundle - Home Premium 64 Bit £68.40
1 x Western Digital Caviar Blue 500GB SATA 6Gb/s 16MB Cache - OEM (WD5000AAKX) £32.99
1 x Antec TruePower New Modular 550W '80 Plus Bronze' Power Supply £53.99
1 x Kingston HyperX Blu 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (KHX1600C9AD3B1K2/4G) £29.99
1 x Xigmatek Asgard Midi Tower Case - Black £29.99
1 x Sony Optiarc AD-7280S 24x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £17.99
Total : £563.29 (includes shipping : £12.50).

 
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this will be much better than what youve got at the moment for a similar budget:


YOUR BASKET
1 x Intel Core i3-2100 3.10GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor - Retail £89.99
1 x OcUK GeForce GTX 460 768MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card - OEM £83.99
1 x Microsoft Windows 7 Bundle - Home Premium 64 Bit £68.40
1 x Western Digital Caviar Blue 500GB SATA 6Gb/s 16MB Cache - OEM (WD5000AAKX) £32.99
1 x MSI H67MA-E35 Intel H67 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Micro-ATX Motherboard - (Sandybridge) **B3 REVISION** £64.99
1 x Antec TruePower New Modular 550W '80 Plus Bronze' Power Supply £53.99
1 x BitFenix Merc Alpha Gaming Case - Black £32.99
1 x Corsair Value 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 PC3-10666C9 1333MHz Low Voltage Dual-Channel Kit £19.18
1 x Samsung SH-S222AL/BEBE 22x DVD±RW SATA Lightscribe ReWriter (Black) - OEM £16.99
Total : £463.50 (includes shipping: FREE).

if you were to upgrade anything i would go for the Z68 gigabyte board thats apparently the lowest price in the UK, then the PSU to either the OCZ ZS 650W or the 650W version of what i have chosen. this would give you an SLI ready motherboard and PSU

as for the price of components i've noticed a few things getting massive price hikes:
- all sandybridge processors
- GTX 480, GTX570, GTX580, HD 5870, HD 5850, HD 6970
- quite a few cases (although this will be down to the increasing value of metals and shipping costs)
- some PSU's, particularly XFX ones (i remember when the 850W was under £100)
- some AMD processors

however, some things have had nice drops in price
- GTX 460 (and probably other graphics cards)
- DDR3 RAM
 
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I've just put this system together minus a gfx card (which I'll buy at a later date). I'm less of a gamer these days so raw gaming performance would be total overkill. But I'm still partial to the odd bout on TF2 & some of the other Valve games. These days it's more about music applications so having a 64-bit system is becomming a necessity. How does this look? Many parts based on feedback from this post;

85422newbuild.jpg
 
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