Spec me a Below £500 Computer

Billy-Dane · 17 Oct 2013 at 15:34

Hey Guys,

A friend referred me here and said you are the nuts at giving ideas on great setups within a budget.

I have around £500 to play with, not much but then my needs are not astronomical.

I am currently running dual LG screens off a laptop (tucked away in a draw below my desk) and think its time for something more dedicated that i don't need to de-wire at the end of the day and is built to be on for long periods of time.

My current laptop set up consists of:

Intel i3-3227u @ 1.90GHz
6GB Ram
Windows 8.1 Preview, 64 Bit

This seems to be OK but can get bogged down.

Main tasks are multiple applications (Microsoft office, Browsers, Photoshop, Sublime text etc) with some more intensive apps ie SPSS. If possible, i would like to be able to run 3 monitors however, if its not feasible within this budget then its not vital.

Lastly, i need it to be as small and discreet as possible. Desk space is limited (hence the laptop in the draw, albeit with a cooling tray underneath)

Thanks!

Idleman · 17 Oct 2013 at 15:45

Do you require an OS, as this will take nearly 20% of your budget?

Billy-Dane · 17 Oct 2013 at 15:51

Idleman said:
Do you require an OS, as this will take nearly 20% of your budget?

Unfortunately yes, however, the price of the OS can be left out of the budget

T345 · 17 Oct 2013 at 15:53

I am guessing you are not much of a gamer? If so:
Product Name Qty Price Line Total
Intel Core i7-4770 3.40GHz (Haswell) Socket LGA1150 Processor - Retail Intel Core i7-4770 3.40GHz (Haswell) Socket LGA1150 Processor - Retail £239.99
(£199.99) £239.99
(£199.99)
Asus H81I-Plus Intel H81 (Socket 1150) DDR3 Mini ITX Motherboard Asus H81I-Plus Intel H81 (Socket 1150) DDR3 Mini ITX Motherboard £68.99
(£57.49) £68.99
(£57.49)
TeamGroup Elite Black 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C11 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (TED38GM1600HC11DC01) TeamGroup Elite Black 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C11 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (TED38GM1600HC11DC01) £47.99
(£39.99) £47.99
(£39.99)
Lian Li PC-Q07A Mini-ITX Cube Case - Silver Lian Li PC-Q07A Mini-ITX Cube Case - Silver £45.95
(£38.29) £45.95
(£38.29)
Seagate Barracuda 7200RPM 1TB SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache - OEM (ST1000DM003) HDD Seagate Barracuda 7200RPM 1TB SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache - OEM (ST1000DM003) HDD £44.99
(£37.49) £44.99
(£37.49)
OCZ CoreXtreme 500w '80 Plus' Power Supply OCZ CoreXtreme 500w '80 Plus' Power Supply £35.99
(£29.99) £35.99
(£29.99)
OcUK 20x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM OcUK 20x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £11.99
(£9.99) £11.99
(£9.99)
Akasa AK-CC7118HP01 K25 Low Profile CPU Cooler Akasa AK-CC7118HP01 K25 Low Profile CPU Cooler £11.99
(£9.99) £11.99
(£9.99)
Submit Sub Total : £423.22
Shipping cost assumes delivery to UK Mainland with:
DPD Next Day Parcel (Mon-Fri)
(This can be changed during checkout) Shipping : £10.00
VAT is being charged at 20.00% VAT : £86.64
Total : £519.86

Billy-Dane · 17 Oct 2013 at 16:02

T345 said:
I am guessing you are not much of a gamer? If so:
Product Name Qty Price Line Total
Intel Core i7-4770 3.40GHz (Haswell) Socket LGA1150 Processor - Retail Intel Core i7-4770 3.40GHz (Haswell) Socket LGA1150 Processor - Retail £239.99
(£199.99) £239.99
(£199.99)
Asus H81I-Plus Intel H81 (Socket 1150) DDR3 Mini ITX Motherboard Asus H81I-Plus Intel H81 (Socket 1150) DDR3 Mini ITX Motherboard £68.99
(£57.49) £68.99
(£57.49)
TeamGroup Elite Black 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C11 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (TED38GM1600HC11DC01) TeamGroup Elite Black 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C11 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (TED38GM1600HC11DC01) £47.99
(£39.99) £47.99
(£39.99)
Lian Li PC-Q07A Mini-ITX Cube Case - Silver Lian Li PC-Q07A Mini-ITX Cube Case - Silver £45.95
(£38.29) £45.95
(£38.29)
Seagate Barracuda 7200RPM 1TB SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache - OEM (ST1000DM003) HDD Seagate Barracuda 7200RPM 1TB SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache - OEM (ST1000DM003) HDD £44.99
(£37.49) £44.99
(£37.49)
OCZ CoreXtreme 500w '80 Plus' Power Supply OCZ CoreXtreme 500w '80 Plus' Power Supply £35.99
(£29.99) £35.99
(£29.99)
OcUK 20x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM OcUK 20x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £11.99
(£9.99) £11.99
(£9.99)
Akasa AK-CC7118HP01 K25 Low Profile CPU Cooler Akasa AK-CC7118HP01 K25 Low Profile CPU Cooler £11.99
(£9.99) £11.99
(£9.99)
Submit Sub Total : £423.22
Shipping cost assumes delivery to UK Mainland with:
DPD Next Day Parcel (Mon-Fri)
(This can be changed during checkout) Shipping : £10.00
VAT is being charged at 20.00% VAT : £86.64
Total : £519.86

Hey, thanks for the reply. I am but nothing graphic intensive. I have just paid for my XBox One so that will be fullfilling my gaming needs until i have enough £££ to make a good gaming rig thatll last.

Does the setup you mentioned cater for triple monitors?

T345 · 17 Oct 2013 at 16:09

No, I don't think so, I will check for a cheap Nvidia or AMD GPU that supports multiple displays, 1 sec

T345 · 17 Oct 2013 at 16:11

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-034-KF&groupid=701&catid=1914
That is all I can find that is branded for multiple monitors, I am sure someone else will find a cheaper one.

Indie · 17 Oct 2013 at 16:14

Maybe something like this, bit of room to add on another storage drive if required. (will take you slightly over budget but not by much!)

YOUR BASKET
1 x ASRock H87M-ITX Intel H87 (Socket 1150) DDR3 ITX Motherboard £89.99
1 x Intel Core i3-4130 3.40GHz (Haswell) Socket LGA1150 Processor - Retail £89.99
1 x Samsung 120GB SSD 840 EVO SATA 6Gb/s Basic - (MZ-7TE120BW) £86.99
1 x BitFenix Phenom Mini-ITX Cube Case - Midnight Black £69.95
1 x KFA2 GeForce™ GT 610 1024MB GDDR3 MDT Multi Monitor Graphics Card £61.99
1 x TeamGroup Elite Black 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C11 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (TED38GM1600HC11DC01) £47.99
1 x OCZ CoreXtreme 500w '80 Plus' Power Supply £35.99
Total : £482.88 (includes shipping : FREE).

Indie · 17 Oct 2013 at 16:16

god I love that case!

Billy-Dane · 17 Oct 2013 at 16:18

Indie said:
Maybe something like this, bit of room to add on another storage drive if required. (will take you slightly over budget but not by much!)

YOUR BASKET
1 x ASRock H87M-ITX Intel H87 (Socket 1150) DDR3 ITX Motherboard £89.99
1 x Intel Core i3-4130 3.40GHz (Haswell) Socket LGA1150 Processor - Retail £89.99
1 x Samsung 120GB SSD 840 EVO SATA 6Gb/s Basic - (MZ-7TE120BW) £86.99
1 x BitFenix Phenom Mini-ITX Cube Case - Midnight Black £69.95
1 x KFA2 GeForce™ GT 610 1024MB GDDR3 MDT Multi Monitor Graphics Card £61.99
1 x TeamGroup Elite Black 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C11 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (TED38GM1600HC11DC01) £47.99
1 x OCZ CoreXtreme 500w '80 Plus' Power Supply £35.99
Total : £482.88 (includes shipping : FREE).

This looks promising, thanks

Billy-Dane · 17 Oct 2013 at 16:19

Billy-Dane said:
This looks promising, thanks

as mentioned, i have the monitors, keyboard, mouse. Is this setup you have quoted all that is needed? no extra fans, cables etc?

ALXAndy · 17 Oct 2013 at 16:27

http://www.pcper.com/reviews/Proces...cessor-Review-Vishera-Breaks-Cover/Conclusion

From the closing comments..

The 6300 will walk all over the Intel products that exist at the $132 price point, and in fact is more competitive in terms of performance with the $185 Intel products. Again, we get a nice $50 discount for essentially the same performance. In these cases though, expect the AMD CPU to consume more power. Would it be enough to make one nervous about energy bills? Not really.

So that basically rules out any I3. I would price up a system based around the FX 6300 or 6350. I think you'll find you can then afford something like a 7850 2gb.

T345 · 17 Oct 2013 at 16:32

An i3 for the work you do? I don't think that will cut it, like ALXAndy says. I specced an i7, which will blow the i3 out of the water, I don't know about multiple monitors.

ALXAndy · 17 Oct 2013 at 16:36

T345 said:
An i3 for the work you do? I don't think that will cut it, like ALXAndy says. I specced an i7, which will blow the i3 out of the water, I don't know about multiple monitors.

For more than one monitor the I3 or locked I5 aren't going to cut it. For that you need a dedicated GPU. I'm pretty certain that you could knock together a pretty decent little mid ranged gaming rig based on the 6300 or 6350 with either a 650ti Boost ! or 7850 2gb. At which point it will literally blow away both the onboard IGPU on the Intel or the GT 610 specced earlier in the thread.

I'll see what I can do to spec one up

ALXAndy · 17 Oct 2013 at 16:47

IMO.

And add an SSD later. Will absolutely smash any I3 based rig.

Indie · 17 Oct 2013 at 17:32

Billy-Dane said:
as mentioned, i have the monitors, keyboard, mouse. Is this setup you have quoted all that is needed? no extra fans, cables etc?

No extra cables/fans required. everything comes with it. If you really wanted you could add some extra case fans, but I don't see the point for the work you are doing.

But no need to have a gaming GPU either tbh. If your just wanting multiple monitors than my spec is fine.

If you want AMD that can be put into the budget too, but my personal preference is i3. With the i3, you also have the opportunity to upgrade at a later date to an i5/i7 should your requirements change.

My missus has an old i3 in her rig, runs multiple monitors (currently 2 but has had 3 in the past) perfectly fine with a crappy GTX 460 in there. She uses hers for mainly gaming too.

EDIT:

Here you go, here's an AMD build.

YOUR BASKET
1 x AMD Piledriver FX-6 Six Core 6300 Black Edition 3.50GHz (Socket AM3+) Processor - Retail £89.99
1 x Samsung 120GB SSD 840 EVO SATA 6Gb/s Basic - (MZ-7TE120BW) £86.99
1 x BitFenix Phenom Mini-ITX Cube Case - Midnight Black £69.95
1 x KFA2 GeForce™ GT 610 1024MB GDDR3 MDT Multi Monitor Graphics Card £61.99
1 x Gigabyte 970A-DS3P AMD 970A (Socket AM3+) DDR3 Motherboard £53.99
1 x TeamGroup Elite Black 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C11 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (TED38GM1600HC11DC01) £47.99
1 x Seagate Barracuda 7200RPM 1TB SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache - OEM (ST1000DM003) HDD £44.99
1 x OCZ CoreXtreme 500w '80 Plus' Power Supply £35.99
Total : £491.87 (includes shipping : FREE).

you could even take the hard drive out, you have more room to play about with

Modular PSU would be nice inside one of these cases, just to keep it tidy! (i'm a cable tidy freak)

Heres a few you could choose:

YOUR BASKET
1 x Corsair Builder Series CX 500w Modular '80 Plus Bronze' Power Supply (CP-9020059-UK) £55.99
1 x Akasa Venom 550w Modular '80 Plus' Power Supply £53.99
Total : £109.98 (includes shipping : FREE).

I've used this motherboard and processor in the last build I did for a friends Daughter so she could play Sims 3 and Guild Wars 2 - Quite nice I must say, runs really nice... if Sims is your thing

Billy-Dane · 17 Oct 2013 at 17:52

Indie said:
No extra cables/fans required. everything comes with it. If you really wanted you could add some extra case fans, but I don't see the point for the work you are doing.

But no need to have a gaming GPU either tbh. If your just wanting multiple monitors than my spec is fine.

If you want AMD that can be put into the budget too, but my personal preference is i3. With the i3, you also have the opportunity to upgrade at a later date to an i5/i7 should your requirements change.

My missus has an old i3 in her rig, runs multiple monitors (currently 2 but has had 3 in the past) perfectly fine with a crappy GTX 460 in there. She uses hers for mainly gaming too.

EDIT:

Here you go, here's an AMD build.

YOUR BASKET
1 x AMD Piledriver FX-6 Six Core 6300 Black Edition 3.50GHz (Socket AM3+) Processor - Retail £89.99
1 x Samsung 120GB SSD 840 EVO SATA 6Gb/s Basic - (MZ-7TE120BW) £86.99
1 x BitFenix Phenom Mini-ITX Cube Case - Midnight Black £69.95
1 x KFA2 GeForce™ GT 610 1024MB GDDR3 MDT Multi Monitor Graphics Card £61.99
1 x Gigabyte 970A-DS3P AMD 970A (Socket AM3+) DDR3 Motherboard £53.99
1 x TeamGroup Elite Black 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C11 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (TED38GM1600HC11DC01) £47.99
1 x Seagate Barracuda 7200RPM 1TB SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache - OEM (ST1000DM003) HDD £44.99
1 x OCZ CoreXtreme 500w '80 Plus' Power Supply £35.99
Total : £491.87 (includes shipping : FREE).

you could even take the hard drive out, you have more room to play about with Modular PSU would be nice inside one of these cases, just to keep it tidy! (i'm a cable tidy freak)

Heres a few you could choose:

YOUR BASKET
1 x Corsair Builder Series CX 500w Modular '80 Plus Bronze' Power Supply (CP-9020059-UK) £55.99
1 x Akasa Venom 550w Modular '80 Plus' Power Supply £53.99
Total : £109.98 (includes shipping : FREE).

I've used this motherboard and processor in the last build I did for a friends Daughter so she could play Sims 3 and Guild Wars 2 - Quite nice I must say, runs really nice... if Sims is your thing

Great idea. I like the AMD setup. Can i load the OS onto the SSD? Modular will definitely work well, im a tidy freak too.

Indie · 17 Oct 2013 at 17:54

Of course, that's the idea, you'll have a boot up time of like 10 seconds

tis wonderful.

In the old days I used to turn my PC on and then put the kettle on, have ****/**** then it will be loaded!.. now I have no time!! lol

oceaness · 17 Oct 2013 at 18:05

The Asus H81I-Plus has HDMI, DVI and VGA, could you not run three monitors off that, pretty sure Haswell is capable of running three screens?

This is basically T345's spec with a better quality PSU and the 3.5GHz i7 as it's the same price as the 3.4.

YOUR BASKET
1 x Intel Core i7-4771 3.50GHz (Haswell) Socket LGA1150 Processor - Retail £239.99
1 x Asus H81I-Plus Intel H81 (Socket 1150) DDR3 Mini ITX Motherboard £68.99
1 x TeamGroup Elite Black 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C11 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (TED38GM1600HC11DC01) £47.99
1 x Lian Li PC-Q07B Mini-ITX Case - Black £45.95
1 x Seagate Barracuda 7200RPM 1TB SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache - OEM (ST1000DM003) HDD £44.99
1 x Antec VP350P 350W '80 Plus' Continuous Power Supply £32.99
Total : £494.39 (includes shipping : £11.25).

Edit: Prefer T345s case allows for a full size optical drive, and an SSD to be added at a later date.

ALXAndy · 17 Oct 2013 at 18:07

Indie said:
No extra cables/fans required. everything comes with it. If you really wanted you could add some extra case fans, but I don't see the point for the work you are doing.

But no need to have a gaming GPU either tbh. If your just wanting multiple monitors than my spec is fine.

If you want AMD that can be put into the budget too, but my personal preference is i3. With the i3, you also have the opportunity to upgrade at a later date to an i5/i7 should your requirements change.

My missus has an old i3 in her rig, runs multiple monitors (currently 2 but has had 3 in the past) perfectly fine with a crappy GTX 460 in there. She uses hers for mainly gaming too.

EDIT:

Here you go, here's an AMD build.

YOUR BASKET
1 x AMD Piledriver FX-6 Six Core 6300 Black Edition 3.50GHz (Socket AM3+) Processor - Retail £89.99
1 x Samsung 120GB SSD 840 EVO SATA 6Gb/s Basic - (MZ-7TE120BW) £86.99
1 x BitFenix Phenom Mini-ITX Cube Case - Midnight Black £69.95
1 x KFA2 GeForce™ GT 610 1024MB GDDR3 MDT Multi Monitor Graphics Card £61.99
1 x Gigabyte 970A-DS3P AMD 970A (Socket AM3+) DDR3 Motherboard £53.99
1 x TeamGroup Elite Black 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C11 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (TED38GM1600HC11DC01) £47.99
1 x Seagate Barracuda 7200RPM 1TB SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache - OEM (ST1000DM003) HDD £44.99
1 x OCZ CoreXtreme 500w '80 Plus' Power Supply £35.99
Total : £491.87 (includes shipping : FREE).

you could even take the hard drive out, you have more room to play about with Modular PSU would be nice inside one of these cases, just to keep it tidy! (i'm a cable tidy freak)

Heres a few you could choose:

YOUR BASKET
1 x Corsair Builder Series CX 500w Modular '80 Plus Bronze' Power Supply (CP-9020059-UK) £55.99
1 x Akasa Venom 550w Modular '80 Plus' Power Supply £53.99
Total : £109.98 (includes shipping : FREE).

I've used this motherboard and processor in the last build I did for a friends Daughter so she could play Sims 3 and Guild Wars 2 - Quite nice I must say, runs really nice... if Sims is your thing

That board won't fit the case you've specced mate. You've specced ITX, there are no AMD boards on ITX for Piledriver.