Run your eye over this spec

MarcLister

MarcLister

MarcLister

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Joined
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A mate at work has asked me to spec his son a PC for his GCSE courses starting in September. It's just for basic use such as beginner programming and Office work etc. I've been set a budget of £500. How does the below spec look. Can it be improved on? Will all the parts work together?

No graphics card is needed so will use onboard VGA. I chose an SSD for the speed boost. Is 4GB RAM sufficient for W8.1/10? I kind of wonder if I should suggest breaking through the £400 to get 8GB.

Product NameQtyPriceLine Total
SW-164-MS_60.jpg
Microsoft Windows 8.1 Pro 64-Bit DVD - OEM (FQC-06949)£116.99
(£97.49)£116.99
(£97.49)
CP-572-IN_60.jpg
Intel Core i3-4170 3.70GHz (Haswell) Socket LGA1150 Processor - Retail£104.99
(£87.49)£104.99
(£87.49)
HD-403-WD_60.jpg
Western Digital Caviar Green 2TB SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache - OEM (WD20EZRX) HDD£67.99
(£56.66)£67.99
(£56.66)
HD-051-KS_60.jpg
Kingston 120GB SSDNow V300 Drive SATA 6Gb/s 3 2.5" (7mm height) Solid State Hard Drive - (SV300S37A/120G)£47.99
(£39.99)£47.99
(£39.99)
MB-138-AK_60.jpg
Asrock H81M-DGS R2.0 Intel H81 (Socket 1150) DDR3 Micro ATX Motherboard£37.99
(£31.66)£37.99
(£31.66)
MY-287-CS_60.jpg
Corsair XMS3 4GB (1x4GB) DDR3 PC3-10666C9 1333MHz Single-Channel Module (CMX4GX3M1A1333C9)£35.99
(£29.99)£35.99
(£29.99)
CA-014-EA_60.jpg
EVGA 430W 80 Plus Power Supply (100-W1-0430-KR)£33.95
(£28.29)£33.95
(£28.29)
CA-194-AN_60.jpg
Antec VSK3000E Micro ATX Case£21.95
(£18.29)£21.95
(£18.29)
CD-162-SA_60.jpg
Samsung SH-224FB/BEBE 24x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM M disc compatible£14.99
(£12.49)£14.99
(£12.49) Sub Total :£402.35Shipping cost assumes delivery to UK Mainland with:
UPS Access Point Ex.VAT
(This can be changed during checkout)Shipping :£8.00 Ex.VATVAT is being charged at 20.00%VAT :£82.07 Total :£492.42
 
That should all work together.

Might as well go for 8GB 1600MHz RAM as it's only £8 more than 4GB 1333MHz. He may come across some application or task that will benefit from it.

YOUR BASKET
1 x Crucial BX100 120GB SSD SATA 6Gbps 7mm Solid State Drive (CT120BX100SSD1) £46.99
1 x Crucial Ballistix Sport 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (BLS2CP4G3D1609DS1S00CEU) £43.99
1 x EVGA 500W 80 Plus Power Supply (100-W1-0500-KR) £31.99
Total : £132.58 (includes shipping : £8.00 Ex.VAT).



Specced an alternative SSD to the Kingston V300. http://www.anandtech.com/show/7763/an-update-to-kingston-ssdnow-v300-a-switch-to-slower-micron-nand

The 500W version of that PSU is cheaper than the 430W just now (till tomorrow Wednesday around noon), so might as well.
 
No problem. And if you don't have some spare Sata cables laying around you may want to add one as I suspect that motherboard will just bring two like most budget mobos do, and that spec will need three.
 
My mate has decided to up the budget for this to £650-700 and will make it the family PC and give his son a laptop.

He would like to take some of the external hard drive disks out of their holders and put them into the case. Consequently we need a motherboard with more SATA ports, a bigger case and possibly a more powerful PSU? Could anyone respec for a budget for £700?
 
Case - if he likes it, then why not. At the end of the day, go with something you like looking at! Especially if it's in somewhere like a living room.

As an alternative, the Phanteks Enthoo Pro is really good. I've got the Titanium green version with window and the build quality is amazing. The black version with no window is slightly cheaper.

https://www.overclockers.co.uk/phanteks-enthoo-pro-mid-tower-case-black-ca-003-pt.html

Motherboard - I've used Asrock before and they're actually pretty decent boards. As an alternative though:

https://www.overclockers.co.uk/giga...cket-1150-ddr3-atx-motherboard-mb-498-gi.html

https://www.overclockers.co.uk/giga...cket-1150-ddr3-atx-motherboard-mb-497-gi.html

If you don't need an M.2 slot, then one of these would be just as good. Gigabyte have a UK-based RMA centre as well.

PSU - You could use one of these:

https://www.overclockers.co.uk/seasonic-s12g-550-550w-80-plus-gold-power-supply-ca-048-ss.html. I ran one of those for two years before I upgraded and gave it to my dad.

If colour isn't an issue: https://www.overclockers.co.uk/supe...0-plus-gold-power-supply-white-ca-043-sf.html. That's on special offer until Wednesday I think.

https://www.overclockers.co.uk/supe...0-plus-gold-power-supply-black-ca-003-sf.html

I'm using a 550W Golden Green in a small G3258 build. It's a great PSU, but the ATX/CPU cables may be a little on the short side for that case. All these PSUs are also gold rated and will easily power that system.
 
Thanks Borealis. :) An M.2 slot is not needed.

I'll get my colleague to have a look at some cases and choose one he likes. We'll be using 2 SATA ports for the SSD running Windows and the DVD drive. The third HDD in the original spec was going to be for files but I guess if we're changing the use of the system from one for my colleague's son to for the whole family then I guess we'd use some of the external HDDs my colleague wants inside the PC and have 1 x SSD, 1 x DVD and 4 x HDD.
 
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