Spec check

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I might be building an i3 rig for a friend, he's been given a quote for an i3 machine at £480, I know I can make a good quality one, with an antec 600 case and the xfx 650 modular psu for around £390.

This might not be low enough for him though, so considering to swap from a i3 530 to the i3 pentium, he doesn't want to overclock (maybe one day he will). £20 for the tiny amount of power the 530 gives seems stupid to me, and the 1mb cache.

I could get him the Asgard case saving him £22, and a Corsair 400W saving another £35. I'm not sure what motherboard to get him, ideas welcome (under £70 if poss).

The spec I sent him had the Sammy F3 1tb, but changing that to a F4 320gb would mean a faster drive, and £12 off the price too.

There are quite a few cuts that i COULD make, not sure which ones I SHOULD make though.

He's fine with onboard graphics (he only plays football manager). Unsure how much space he wants (HDD). 4gb memory is plenty. He doesn't want to overclock now, he said maybe when it becomes a couple of years older.

He also wants something upgradable in the future (sandybridge coming out on 1156 I think?) Plus I think a 1156 Mobo should come with PCI-E 2.0 running at x16, if I'm not mistaken that is.

He's determined to have an i3. He also wants a keyboard and mouse (I'm assuming cheap £5 each is sufficient for him tbh).



Very open to your ideas/thoughts.

I'm thinking of getting the following, to keep it a bit futureproof, but also not too cheap:



Intel Pentium Dual-Core G6950
Gigabyte GA-H55M-UD2H
Corsair XMS3 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit
Samsung F3 1TB or F4 320GB
Samsung SH-S223C/BEBE DVD Drive
Xigmatek Asgard Case
Then either the Coolermaster GX 650W, XFX 650W XXX Modular Edition, or the Corsair CX 400 (if it's not worth buying a 650W PSU).

Stock cooler/case fans (or maybe buy some cheapish £4-8 fans).
 
Right gents, what d'ya think?

Ah damn, it has only got 2 threads..

looks like it's the 530 for sure.

What about the other components. Case/PSU/Mobo? I'm still unsure what I should do with the PSU, a Corsair 400W would power this system, but not if it had a new cpu next year and a ati 6xxx series card or similar.
 
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You sure it's reliable/safe to use? I know next to nothing about PSU's..Didn't even check the Sapphire range that OCUK sell tbh. :p

What about the case and motherboard? Is the £55 H55 Asrock worth looking at? Gigabyte GA-H55M-UD2H?
Asus P7P55-M?

AFAIK there will be some Sandybridge models that work on the P55 socket, but not the H55/H57 sockets, Any truth to this? Should
I just be looking at a P55 motherboard and rule out H55/H57 alltogether?
 
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the Sapphire psu are rebranded Enermax psu, so will be good.

sandybridge is socket 1155, so no current board H55 or P55 will work.
 
Oh ha! Thought it was 1156 :P (Will anything come out for the X58 platform, SB or not?)

So I guess a H55 should be ok then. Still - which board? :D

I'll leave the choice of case down to him, as it's a choice of looks or lower price.
 
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