Spec £400 Build for my son

ShaunusBrownus

ShaunusBrownus

ShaunusBrownus

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Joined
27 Jul 2008
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12
Hi people,

I'm looking to build a base unit for my son (approx £400) perhaps little bit over.

Basically what he wants it for is general and be able to game.

I'm not sure about the processor whether cheaper amd or to go for intel 2 core,.

I think for the case antec 300 and arctic freezer pro 7.

Hard Drive at least 300 gb to start him off.

Any recommendations would be greatly appreciated as he's paying for it, i would like to get as much as possible for the money.

Many Thanks

Shaun
 
Sorry i should have been more specific.

I think vista for the os, i can pay for this for him so basically£400 plus for hardware.

He likes games such as call of duty, gears of war and has mentioned crysis if that is of any help. He's not after a top of the range card and obviously won't for the money but something that would play these at a half decent rate.

Shaun
 
To be honest with you it is worth while going for an upgradeable rig - especially if he's under 18. Get a decent motherboard and psu that will let you xfire/sli. These core components mean that when your son needs to adapt his PC for a new game (wacking in another graphics card/upgrading processor) he has the option to do so. A good base is the most important thing in my opinion and can save you money in the long run.
 
A very important question would be what resolution monitor will this be used with. There is a balance between CPU & GPU. At higher resolutions you need a better GPU, whilst at lower resolutions the money would be better spent on a better CPU.
 
It was sub-£400 before the shipping!

naergoth-Spec.JPG


Case is still antec, but it includes the PSU, and antec PSUs are nice.

Standard RAM, solid mobo, cooler as requested. Slightly bigger HDD than requested, but the difference is tiny and this one is more cost effective.

Awesome graphics, could be swapped for 8800/9800GT with a saving of £20 or so.

CPU is always a tricky point. If you were willing to do a bit of light overclocking (which I assume you are given the non-stock cooler) then the 5200 is a beauty. I got mine to 4Ghz, with it getting around 3.3Ghz on stock volts.
 
id go with xp if your only having 2 gigs of ram, the above spec is the best so far imo. This would play the games your son wants to (even crysis on medium settings but you need to spend quite a bit more to play it on anything higher) id pay a lil bit more and get 4 gigs of ram with the above spec, my only concern is whether a 380w psu will be enough to power it.
 
Similar to above except:

P31 mainboard. Only supports 2 x Dimms but with 4 GB you won't need any more for a long while. The MSI P31 is a good overclocking board should the need arise. Every bit as good as the P35 boards in this respect but without excesses like fire wire and lots of SATA controllers.

E7200 @ 2.53Ghz. This is a 1066FSB CPU so a little trip into the BIOS and a change to 1333FSB will give you and easy 3.16Ghz. Either speed is plenty for most common games. Many games benifit from CPU cache above 1MB

Case... I have two of these. Nice quiet cases, the black one looks best though. Not good for huge overclocking but for a standardish system, it's nice and neat, the PSU is quite hardy and will easily deal with the system below which should take a little over 200W from the wall socket.
I have a Q6600 , P31 with an 2900XT (very power hungry) in one and I'm using the spare psu to power a Q6600 with 2 x 8800GTS 512MB ... though I am pushing my luck a little @ 90% rated output with this one.

Should be no need to an extra cooler. The stock coolers is pretty good for mild overclocking.



MSI P31 Neo2-FR Intel P31 (Socket 775) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard £39.99
(£46.99) £39.99
(£46.99)
LiteON DH-20A4P-21C 20x DVD±RW IDE Dual Layer ReWriter (Black) - OEM £12.99
(£15.26) £12.99
(£15.26)
Antec NSK 4480 Mini Tower Case (Silver) - 380W Earth Watts PSU £54.99
(£64.61) £54.99
(£64.61)
HIS ATI Radeon HD 4850 512MB GDDR3 TV-Out/Dual DVI/HDMI (PCI-Express) - Retail £95.99
(£112.79) £95.99
(£112.79)
Seagate Barracuda 7200.11 500GB SATA-II 32MB Cache - OEM (ST3500320AS) £37.99
(£44.64) £37.99
(£44.64)
Intel Core 2 Duo E7200 LGA775 'Wolfdale' 2.53GHz (1066FSB) - Retail £74.99
(£88.11) £74.99
(£88.11)
G.Skill 4GB DDR2 PQ PC2-6400C5 (2x2GB) CAS5 Dual Channel Kit (F2-6400CL5D-4GBPQ) £44.99
(£52.86) £44.99
(£52.86)
Sub Total : £361.93
Shipping cost assumes delivery to UK Mainland with:
City Link Parcel Next Day (Delivered Mon-Fri)
(This can be changed during checkout) Shipping : £10.95
VAT is being charged at 17.5% VAT : £65.25
Total : £438.13
 
HD-057-SA_60.jpg
Samsung SpinPoint F1 320GB SATA-II 16MB Cache - OEM (HD322HJ) £32.99
(£38.76) £32.99
(£38.76)
MB-247-AS_60.jpg
Asus P5K-VM Intel G33 Micro ATX (Socket 775) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard £56.99
(£66.96) £56.99
(£66.96)
CP-251-IN_60.jpg
Intel Pentium Dual-Core E5200 "LGA775 Core 2" 2.50GHz (800FSB) - Retail £49.99
(£58.74) £49.99
(£58.74)
MY-019-GS_60.jpg
G.Skill 4GB DDR2 PQ PC2-6400C5 (2x2GB) CAS5 Dual Channel Kit (F2-6400CL5D-4GBPQ) £44.99
(£52.86) £44.99
(£52.86)
GX-103-HT_60.jpg
HIS ATI Radeon HD 4670 IceQ Turbo 512MB GDDR3 TV-Out/Dual DVI/HDMI (PCI-Express) - Retail £57.99
(£68.14) £57.99
(£68.14)
CA-093-AN_60.jpg
Antec NSK 4480B Mini Tower Case (Black) - 380W Earth Watts PSU £49.99
(£58.74) £49.99
(£58.74)
CD-063-PO_60.jpg
Pioneer DVR-216DBK 20x DVD±RW SATA Dual Layer ReWriter (Black) - OEM £13.49
(£15.85) £13.49
(£15.85)
SW-037-MS_60.jpg
Microsoft Windows Vista Home Premium SP1 64-Bit - OEM (66I-01939) £62.99
(£74.01) £62.99
(£74.01)
HS-017-AR_60.jpg
Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro CPU Cooler (Socket LGA775) £14.99
(£17.61) £14.99
(£17.61) Sub Total : £384.41 Shipping cost assumes delivery to UK Mainland with:
City Link Parcel Next Day (Delivered Mon-Fri)
(This can be changed during checkout) Shipping : £10.95 VAT is being charged at 17.5% VAT : £69.19 Total : £464.55
 
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380w will be plenty, I don't think it'll even be 50% used.

I'd maintain that money can be saved by going for 2GB of unbranded RAM. Chucking an extra 2GB is a cheap upgrade at a later date if it's deemed necessary, which I doubt it would be. Deffo no point in paying extra for the brand in a system like this either.
 
Hi,

Not sure whether to go for the e5200 or the e7200 processor and the motherboard to compliment these. I would be looking to overclock slightly, the e5200 seems quite favourable.

Thanks

Shaun
 
ShaunusBrownus said:
Hi,

Not sure whether to go for the e5200 or the e7200 processor and the motherboard to compliment these. I would be looking to overclock slightly, the e5200 seems quite favourable.

Thanks

Shaun
Click to expand...

The e5200 has the big advantage of the 12.5 multipler ie 4gig only requires 320mhz fsb also it has a 2mb L2 cache not 1mb as advertised on this site .A good match for a matx mboard which alway have good resale value or a place in a htpc in a year or two.
 
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