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- Joined
- 13 Jan 2010
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- 2,032
- Location
- A box in the Astral Plane
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).
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).