Spec Check !

Vogon · 31 Mar 2010 at 23:11

Ok guys, its been a while out of the loop for me, but a mate wants a new pc/monitor and gave me a budget of £620 absolute max including OS.

We have decided on Win 7 home premium 64 bit, so that leaves me £540 for the hardware, less £100 on a 20" monitor so I have £440 to build the tower.

Pc will be used for gaming (mostly WOW) and general use.

I think best bet for the money is:

AM3 770 mobo
X2 240
4gb 1333 DDR3
ATI 5770 1gb

with a suitable PSU, HDD, DVD Drive, Case, PSU, mouse and keyboard I can scrape that in budget.

Would you say thats the best option for the budget, and if not what would you build ?

Redmint · 31 Mar 2010 at 23:44

You can pick up the 425 X3 for only a few £ more if you have a look around.

stulid · 31 Mar 2010 at 23:56

That's a tough budget without speccing rubbish items.

I get to this.

ASUS M4A79XTD EVO £88.99
OCZ OBSIDIAN 4Gb DDR3 £89.99
COOLERMASTER ELITE 335 CASE £29.99
CORSAIR CX400 PSU £39.99
SAMSUNG F3 500Gb £43.99
SONY OPTIARC AD-7240s £15.99
ASUS HD5770 cucore £127.99

That lot is £436.99inc VAT

Still have to pick a CPU and keyboard/mouse.

AMD ATHLON IIX2 240 is £49.98

So once you got keyboard and a mouse too, your at £500.

But its all quality stuff.

Kill_Phil · 1 Apr 2010 at 00:09

that budget is a real toughie as the above guy has said, id possibly look at a) getting you hands on some 2nd hand parts such as a decent q6600 or b)telling your mate to try and wait a month or 2 and save as much as poss, as doing so will be worth it in the long run as you can get more future proof parts

Fallen god · 1 Apr 2010 at 01:20

I think you could drop down to a 4850, sure it doesnt come with DX11 but it really wouldnt need it for WOW now and it think it would be faster than a 5770 in generally right?

XFX ATI Radeon HD 4850 1024MB - £88.88 inc VAT

Not a half bad saving I think.

stulid · 1 Apr 2010 at 01:31

No its slower, only the 4870,4890 are a little faster.

And there is a xfx4850 in the clearance section for £69.99 but that's still to much for that old slow tech.

Fallen god · 1 Apr 2010 at 03:29

stulid said:
No its slower, only the 4870,4890 are a little faster.

And there is a xfx4850 in the clearance section for £69.99 but that's still to much for that old slow tech.

Ohh my bad XD

CAT-THE-FIFTH · 1 Apr 2010 at 04:24

If you are not looking to go Crossfire I would look at the following motherboard:

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MB-242-GI

It has an 8+2 phase VRM, USB 3.0, SATA 3.0 and all solid capacitors.

You maybe able to include an X2 255 within the budget if you go for the Gigabyte motherboard:

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CP-264-AM

The X2 255 is also a C3 stepping CPU meaning it has better idle power consumption.

Vogon · 1 Apr 2010 at 07:51

It is a tough budget, but I managed to stick to it with:

Coolermaster Elite 330 Black Mid Tower Case
Western Digital WD2500AAJS 250GB Hard Drive SATAII 7200rpm 8MB Cache - OEM
Samsung SH-S223 22X DVD±RW/RAM/DL Serial ATA Black Bare Drive - OEM
Microsoft Wired Desktop 600
AMD Athlon X2 240 2.8GHz Socket AM3 2MB Cache Retail
MSI 770-C45 AMD 770 AM3 DDR3 ATX Motherboard
OCZ 400W Stealth XStream PSU
HIS HD 5770 1GB GDDR5 PCI-E Graphics Card
Corsair 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 1333MHz Memory Kit CL9

That came to £437
Add a monitor @ £90
and Win 7 @ £82
Total £609

Still looking to see were I can improve things ....

Vogon · 1 Apr 2010 at 09:39

Asus ATI Radeon HD 5770 CuCore 1024MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £127.98
OCZ Obsidian 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 Dual Channel £89.99
Acer P193W 19" Widescreen LCD Monitor Acer P193W 19" Widescreen LCD Monitor £84.98
Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium 64-Bit - OEM £81.99
Gigabyte GA-MA770T-ES3 MA770 (Socket AM3) DDR3 Motherboard £64.99
AMD Athlon II X2 Dual Core 240 2.80GHz (Socket AM3) - Retail£49.98
Samsung SpinPoint F1 320GB SATA-II 8MB Cache - OEM (HD321HJ) £32.99
OCZ StealthXStream 400w Silent Power Supply £32.99
Xigmatek Asgard Midi Tower Case £28.99
Samsung SH-S223C/BEBE 22x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £14.99
Logitech S96 PS/2 Optical Wheel Mouse Black - OEM £5.99
Logitech Internet 350 Keyboard - OEM £5.99

Sub Total : £529.25
FREE SHIPPING (DPD Next Day)
VAT : £92.62

Total : £621.87

Close as I can get at OcUK