Solid Cheap PC Needed.

[oliver2601]

Hi,
My mate is looking for a cheap PC that he will be plugging into his TV and using for music, netflix, youtube and just general use.

He doesn't know much about computers, but he will just want something that will run smoothly and won't give him any problems.

I've got a 60GB SSD I will be using and he has an old hard drive we will be using as a secondary.

This is what I've currently spec'd:

YOUR BASKET
1 x MSI GeForce GTX 650 Black Knight OC 1024MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £79.99
1 x AMD Piledriver FX-4 Quad Core 4300 3.80GHz (Socket AM3+) Processor - Retail £79.99
1 x Asus M5A78L-M/USB3 AMD 760G (Socket AM3+) DDR3 MicroATX Motherboard £52.99
1 x Corsair Builder Series CX 430w Modular '80 Plus Bronze' Power Supply (CP-9020058-UK) £37.99
1 x Cooler Master Elite 344 Micro ATX Case - Black/Silver £32.99
1 x Corsair XMS3 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 PC3-10666C9 1333MHz Dual Channel Kit (TW3X4G1333C9A) £32.99
Total : £331.04 (includes shipping : £11.75).



Included a cheap graphics card as opposed to onboard in-case he wants to play games in the future.

What do you guys think of it?

Cheers,
Oliver

 

[ShivP]

Looks mostly good, you may want a non-modular PSU and maybe slightly higher power (probably not needed though) - maybe a 500w Corsair Builder Edition (non-modular.) Generally you don't need the modular system for cheaper builds

 

[kefan77]

you can get FX6300 for £10 more and if you haven't missed it, HD7850 2GB for another £10 more.

CX series is meh, but ok, if you're on budget.
get 1x4GB stick so you can add another one later.

you also want aftermarket cooler.

 

[Danny75]

Bear in mind that the Cooler Master Elite 344 Micro ATX Case doesn't appear to bring a rear exhaust fan, nor 2.5" internal bays/caddies for the SSD.

And for £13 more in total you can get him a better processor, 900 chipset mobo (instead of 700), a decent 1600MHz 4GB stick of RAM and a 2GB video card:

YOUR BASKET
1 x AMD Piledriver FX-6 Six Core 6300 Black Edition 3.50GHz (Socket AM3+) Processor - Retail £89.99
1 x Sapphire Radeon R7 250 Boost 2048MB GDDR3 PCI-Express Card £77.99
1 x MSI 970A-G46 AMD 970A (Socket AM3+) DDR3 Motherboard £64.99
1 x EVGA 500W 80 Plus Bronze Power Supply (100-B1-0500-KR) £39.95
1 x Corsair Vengeance 4GB (1x4GB) DDR3-PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Single Channel Module (CMZ4GX3M1A1600C9) £35.99
1 x Aerocool V3X Evil Black Edition Midi-Tower - Black/Orange £25.99
Total : £344.50 (includes shipping : £8.00).



Cooler if wanted:

YOUR BASKET
1 x Xigmatek Apache III CD903 CPU-Cooler - 92mm £10.99
Total : £10.99.

 

[kefan77]

1GB GDDR5 GTX650 > 2GB GDDR3 R7 250

 

[Danny75]

1GB GDDR5 GTX650 > 2GB GDDR3 R7 250

Maybe, but there's not much difference imo, except for the 2GB which will be more helpful in some games. Still, all depends on what he ends up playing (if anything).

 

[kefan77]

uhm, there is quite a bit of difference.

so you're saying that say 2GB GTX770 will perform worse than 4GB GT640, because of the amount of VRAM? really?

also that cooler is a joke and waste of money.

 

[Danny75]

uhm, there is quite a bit of difference.

so you're saying that say 2GB GTX770 will perform worse than 4GB GT640, because of the amount of VRAM? really?

No I'm not. VRAM amount doesn't make a difference, beyond a certain point. Some games do recommend a minimum amount of VRAM.

Personally, I'd choose 2GB nowadays, even if it's a bit slower. You wouldn't perhaps, and that's ok.

also that cooler is a joke and waste of money.

Never had one myself but I've heard from several people that it does the job nicely. You've had a bad experience with it?

 

[kefan77]

I think you need to spend "bit" more time building rigs and educating yourself, before trying to give "advice" to people who are spending actual money based on stuff they read here.

OP, if you want a cooler, you should be looking at Hyper 212 Evo and likes.

 

[Danny75]

I think you need to spend "bit" more time building rigs and educating yourself, before trying to give "advice" to people who are spending actual money based on stuff they read here.

You're interpreting everything I say as negatively as possible lol. I meant that I've never had that cooler, not that I've never had "a" cooler.

And about the VRAM, I used to have a 512MB card in the past which always kept running out of memory and crashing some games. Games these days tend to require a lot more than they used to, even if 2GB is enough for all of them.

You shouldn't assume so much. Also, you didn't answer my question.

Hyper 212 EVO is definitely a better cooler, yes, and £16 more expensive. Still a great cooler for that price, but so is the Xigmatek Apache for its even lower price - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iufbmFDsRNc