Some advice needed :)

akount

akount

akount

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20 May 2010
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61
Hi, I need a bit of help. My wife's computer is getting a bit outdated, and we were looking to give it a bit of an upgrade. She plays a few games, so we're going to need a good budget graphics card.

She doesn't need a hard drive, keyboard/mouse/monitor, and we've already decided which case she wants. Budget is around £250-300. Hopefully you guys can spec us something :)


This is what we managed to come up with so far:

AMD Bulldozer FX-4 Quad Core 4100 Black Edition 3.60Ghz (Socket AM3+) Processor - Retail with FREE Deus Ex PC Game [FD4100WMGUSBX] - £86.99

PowerColor HD 6770 1024MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card [AX6770 1GBD5-H]
Zoom - £79.99

Gigabyte GA-78LMT-S2P 760G (Socket AM3+) DDR3 MicroATX Motherboard [GA-78LMT-S2P] - £35.99

OcUK Galaxy III Tower Case - Black (450W PSU) [CA-017-OP] - £34.99

Crucial 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-10600C9 1333MHz 240-Pin Kit (CT2KIT51264BA1339) [CT2KIT51264BA1339] - £32.99

OcUK Swift 500W V2 Silent Power Supply [CA-062-OP] - £18.98

Total: £289.93



We won't be overclocking. And we won't be going over our budget.

Thanks.
 
YOUR BASKET
1 x Intel Core i3-2100 3.10GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor - Retail £89.99
1 x Sapphire HD 7750 1024MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £79.99
1 x MSI H61M-P31-G3 Intel H61 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £35.99
1 x Corsair Builder Series CX 430W V2 '80 Plus' Power Supply (CMPSU-430CXUKV2) £34.99
1 x OcUK Value 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-10666C9 1333MHz Low-Voltage Dual Channel Kit £29.99
1 x OcUK Flamingo FM-12A Midi Tower Case - Black/Blue £21.98
Total : £307.03 (includes shipping : £11.75).




or


YOUR BASKET
1 x Sapphire HD 7770 1024MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £109.99
1 x Intel Pentium G620 2.60GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor - Retail £43.19
1 x MSI H61M-P31-G3 Intel H61 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £35.99
1 x Corsair Builder Series CX 430W V2 '80 Plus' Power Supply (CMPSU-430CXUKV2) £34.99
1 x OcUK Value 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-10666C9 1333MHz Low-Voltage Dual Channel Kit £29.99
1 x OcUK Flamingo FM-12A Midi Tower Case - Black/Blue £21.98
Total : £290.23 (includes shipping : £11.75).

 
doomspeed, can u please try and not post and run, explain to the guy why u choose those parts over his.

akount,
an i3 is better for roughly the same price.

the psu u selected are cheap and nasty and can destroy ur system if they blow.

for another £20 have a look at the ocuk branded 6850. scrap that for some reason they dont do them anymore.
YOUR BASKET
1 x Sapphire HD 6850 1024MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £115.99
Total : £125.89 (includes shipping : £8.25).

 
opstrat said:
doomspeed, can u please try and not post and run
Click to expand...

Yeah, i gotta see someone about that.

The i3 is dual core (yes) but on-par (if not better) than the 4100.

The G620 is also a very good chip for the price and will free up a bit of extra cash for a big GPU. [Though it may bottleneck if used with a 6850]

A good brand PSU is well worth buying, corsair is a great brand and this PSU is a great price.

The 7*** series are newer, so use lower power and produce the same results. For a simular price.
 
Wow, very fast replies.. didn't think i'd hear anything for a while. I'm leaning towards the second spec you gave me. But could you explain.. why Intel Pentium G620 over the bulldozer? And why a 6850 and not 7770? Sorry for the questions, just aren't really up to date with components anymore.
 
akount said:
Wow, very fast replies.. didn't think i'd hear anything for a while. I'm leaning towards the second spec you gave me. But could you explain.. why Intel Pentium G620 over the bulldozer? And why a 6850 and not 7770? Sorry for the questions, just aren't really up to date with components anymore.
Click to expand...

Well the G620 is half the price and offers enough performance you will need for your uses. performance vs price wise, its better. It also increases your GPU budget, which is important.

I don't think theres a huge amount of difference between the 6850 and the 7770. The 7770 is less power hungry. I think the 6850's performace is a bit better. Though for your budget and use the 7770 should do you fine.
 
YOUR BASKET
1 x Intel Core i3-2120 3.30GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor - Retail £91.99
1 x **B Grade** EVGA GeForce GTX 460 Superclocked 1024MB GDDR5 PCI-Express G (GX-160-EA) £80.00
1 x OCZ ZS Series 550W '80 Plus Bronze' Power Supply £49.99
1 x Gigabyte H61MA-D3V Intel H61 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £47.99
1 x BitFenix Outlaw Gaming Case - Black £36.98
1 x Kingston HyperX Genesis Grey 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (KHX1600C9D3X2K2/4GX) £23.99
Total : £343.55 (includes shipping : £10.50).



i3 is the best bang for buck budget CPU. Uses less power than the AMD cpus and is just as good if not better than the quad core AMD cpus. i went for the 2120 as it is clocked slightly higher for not much more.

Mobo gives you USB3 also has a PCI-EXPRESS 3 slot, so will take the ivybridge CPUs as an upgrade later if you wanted.

GPU is B grade but you get a lot of bang for the buck. I have that card and it can be easily overclocked for more performance. You will get 850mhz easy and that is nigh on 6870 performance. Nvidia also has HBAO occlusion lighting over AMD and you also get cuda support, providing a speed increase to applications that support it.

PSU has plenty of power should you upgrade the GPU later. Case is personal preference but that outlaw would be my choice.

Hope this helps. Any questions or problems feel free to ask us
 
Hey, we're a bit confused about something..

We wanted to get Corsair Builder Series CX 430W V2 '80 Plus' Power Supply (CMPSU-430CXUKV2), but the 7770 requires a minimum of 500W PSU? Will this still work? If not, is there any other PSU's below £40 worth getting? Help is appreciated, thanks.

Edit: We've changed our list of components.. here's our new setup. Just wanted to know what you guys think, and if it's all compatible.

Intel Pentium G620 2.60GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor - Retail - £43.19
MSI H61M-P31-G3 Intel H61 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard - £35.99
OcUK Galaxy III Tower Case - Black (450W PSU) - £34.99
OcUK Value 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-10666C9 1333MHz Low-Voltage Dual Channel Kit - £29.99
Lepa N-Series 600W Power Supply - with FREE LEPA Hard Drive Enclosure - £44.99
**B Grade** EVGA GeForce GTX 460 Superclocked 1024MB GDDR5 PCI-Express G (GX-160-EA) - £80.00

Total: £283.25
 
Last edited:
akount said:
Hey, we're a bit confused about something..

We wanted to get Corsair Builder Series CX 430W V2 '80 Plus' Power Supply (CMPSU-430CXUKV2), but the 7770 requires a minimum of 500W PSU? Will this still work? If not, is there any other PSU's below £40 worth getting? Help is appreciated, thanks.
Click to expand...

I thought it was a lot lower power than that. Oh..

anyway, this for £45 (i can't really reccomend one any cheaper) : http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CA-034-CS&groupid=701&catid=123&subcat=
 
akount said:
Is there much difference between these two

EVGA GeForce GTX 460 Superclocked 1024MB
Sapphire HD 7770 1024MB?
Click to expand...

http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/542?vs=536

You can see the 460 is better but note its clock speed @675mhz. The 460 I spec'd is @763mhz, mine runs @900mhz but 850mhz is easy to get with MSI afterburner. Obviously at these speeds it will pull even further ahead.

I know my build was slightly over. If you want to bring it back to the £300 budget you could swap the i3 for the pentium G 840.
 
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