Spec help for £450 PC

cawill

cawill

cawill

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Joined
1 Jun 2007
Posts
126
Hi All,

A friend of mine asked me for advice on specs for a new computer but as I haven't built a PC years I'd appreciate help with the specs.

He already has OS, mouse, keyboard & monitor. Additionally he has a dvd drive & secondary hard drive to use.

With a budget of £450 - £500 for normal work / internet use plus minor gaming (Mainly football manager) I came up with this:

Intel Core i5-3450 3.10GHz (Ivybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor (77W) - Retail £146.99
Samsung 128GB SSD 830 Desktop Series SATA 6Gb/s KIT with Norton Ghost - (MZ-7PC128D/EU) £89.99
Gigabyte B75M-D3H Intel B75 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Micro ATX Motherboard £64.99
Corsair Builder Series CX 430W V2 '80 Plus Bronze' Power Supply (CP-9020046) £36.98
Xigmatek Asgard Pro Gaming Case - Black £32.99
Asus HD 6450 SILENT EDITION 1024MB GDDR3 Low Profile PCI-Express Graphics Card £31.99
Patriot Viper "Black Mamba" Generation 3 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (PV38G160C9K) £26.39
Akasa AK-CBSA05-15BL Super slim SATA rev 3.0 data cable with securing latches - 15cm, Blue £2.99
Sub Total : £361.09
Shipping : £11.75
VAT : £74.57
Total : £447.41

He discussed the possibility of a budget graphics card now, and then upgrading it at a later date if he decides to play more graphically intensive games.

Would he benefit with a AMD CPU instead for his needs and/or budget?

I would appreciate any advice on the setup above. Or a different configuration within budget.

Thank you.
 
YOUR BASKET
1 x Intel Core i5-3570K 3.40GHz (Ivybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor (77W) - Retail £179.99
1 x Gigabyte Z77-D3H Intel Z77 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £89.99
1 x Crucial RealSSD M4 128GB 2.5" SATA 6Gb/s Solid State Hard Drive (CT128M4SSD2) £83.99
1 x XFX Pro 450W Core Edition '80 Plus Bronze' Power Supply £43.99
1 x Xigmatek Asgard Pro Gaming Case - Black £32.99
1 x GeIL Black Dragon 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C11 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (GD38GB1600C11DC) £23.99
Total : £454.93 (includes shipping : FREE).



Just a bit over, but this will be perfectly fine for Football Manager and when/if he decides to play more intensive games he can simply buy a graphics card and put it in. A graphics card isn't necessary for Football Manager, as he can run it on medium settings in 3D mode perfectly with this build.
 
Following on from the advice from LukieBoy007, my friend is planning to order today.

This is his revised system spec:
Intel Core i5-3570K 3.40GHz (Ivybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor (77W) - Retail £179.99
Samsung 128GB SSD 830 Desktop Series SATA 6Gb/s KIT with Norton Ghost - (MZ-7PC128D/EU) £89.99
Gigabyte Z77-D3H Intel Z77 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £79.99
Xigmatek Asgard Pro Gaming Case - Black £32.99
TeamGroup Elite 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C11 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (TED38GM1600HC11DC01) £23.99
LG GH24NS95 24x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £18.98
Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro Rev 2 CPU Cooler (Socket 939/AM2/AM3/775/1155/1156/1366) £15.98
Arctic Cooling MX-2 Thermal Compound (4g) £6.98
2 x Akasa AK-CBSA05-30BL Super slim SATA rev 3.0 data cable with securing latches - 30cm, Blue £6.58

Sub Total : £379.56
Shipping : £11.75
VAT : £78.26
Total :£469.57

A power supply is missing from this list, and as the 2 power supplies listed above are out of stock, can anyone recommend a supply for this build? And that will also support a medium range graphics card in the future?

Build now requires a CD drive, and I choose the Samsung SSD as the write speed was higher, will this make much of a difference?

I appreciate any advice anyone can give me as to whether this build will work together or any alternative parts to use instead.

Budget has been expanded slightly to £500.

Thank you.
 
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