Spec help (£400)

Fadelity

Fadelity

Fadelity

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Joined
23 Jun 2009
Posts
22
I havn't built a PC in about 4 years and looking at my AMD 2800+ (1.6 GHz) I think I'm somewhat out of touch with more modern spec components.

Budget about £400

Components needed:

  • Graphics Card (I don't know if HD output is standard these days but I just bought a new HD tv and I'd like to use it :P)
  • Motherboard
  • PSU
  • CPU
  • Memory
  • Hard Drive

I'd like to say "Spec me a gaming beast" but with such a budget I'd be so lucky so instead I'll ask the specs to be as Gamer-Friendly as posible with probable room for upgrading at a later time ;)

Any component advice and/or help would be apreciated
x
 
 
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A bit over:

GX-120-XF_60.jpg
XFX ATI Radeon HD 4870 1024MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £114.99
(£99.99) £114.99
(£99.99)
MB-187-GI_60.jpg
Gigabyte GA-MA780G-UD3H AMD 780G (Socket AM2+/AM3) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard £79.99
(£69.56) £79.99
(£69.56)
CP-249-AM_60.jpg
AMD Phenom II X2 Dual Core 550 3.10GHz Black Edition (Socket AM3) - Retail £79.99
(£69.56) £79.99
(£69.56)
CA-006-CS_60.jpg
Corsair VX 450W ATX Power Supply (CMPSU-450VXUK) £54.99
(£47.82) £54.99
(£47.82)
MY-192-CS_60.jpg
Corsair XMS2 4GB (2x2GB) DDR2 PC2-8500C5 TwinX Dual Channel (TWIN2X4096-8500C5C) £37.00
(£32.17) £37.00
(£32.17)
HD-057-SA_60.jpg
Samsung SpinPoint F1 320GB SATA-II 16MB Cache - OEM (HD322HJ) £34.99
(£30.43) £34.99
(£30.43) Sub Total : £349.53 Shipping cost assumes delivery to UK Mainland with:
DPD Next Day Parcel
(This can be changed during checkout) Shipping : £10.50 VAT is being charged at 15% VAT : £54.00 Total : £414.03
 
ATI 1GB 4890 - http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-103-PC
Gigabyte AM2/AM3 mobo - http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MB-180-GI
OCZ 500W PSU - http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CA-037-OC
AMD 2.8Ghz Dual Core CPU - http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CP-246-AM
Seagate 500GB HDD - http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=HD-206-SE
4GB Corsair DDR800 - http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MY-190-CS

Total £378 inc VAT

This is a good choice because the mobo will let you upgrade to full AM3 when you wish to, the PSU is excellent and the graphics card is superior to the rest youve been specced. Also the HDD has a 500GB platter so will give you better performance.

Hawker
 
Here come the ATI fan boys peddling their card that is also a heater for the winter and noise machine to keep the house awake - the 48xx. The 260 is a perfect mid level gaming card and is better than the 4870, even more so being an Asus TOP. Or for £15 more you can get the 275 which is better than the 4890
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-205-AS&groupid=701&catid=56&subcat=1410

that seagate drive is terrible only 16mb of cache and slower than the WD black with random reads (which gaming uses a lot of)

What NVIDIA cards can do with PhysX that ati can't
 
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Well that was a venomous post, sit down, you may call me an ATI fanboy. But I never said anything factually wrong, the 4890 is a more powerful card than any of the previously posted ATI or Nvidia cards. Its a hugely popular card and can be set easily to run cool and quiet. The 275 is an EQUAL card, there is no real world performance difference and the jury is still out on PhysX, we may all need to move over to Havok soon, no one knows. As for the seagate drive, for general performance in windows, boot times etc etc it is quicker because of the higher platter density and point of fact it is quieter and cooler running, so its swings and roundabouts. I didnt slate your post just offered another option with my opinion on why it was a good choice.

Hawker
 
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An alternative to the other builds posted. I would have preferred two 4670s, but that will do. You can also upgrade later, to two 4770s or something like that.

Oh, and nVidia cards are barely ever as powerful as equivalent ATI cards and when they are they're always overpriced horribly.
 
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