Trim my budget!

addylad

addylad

addylad

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Joined
14 Aug 2007
Posts
447
Hi, here's my spec so far:

Intel Core i5 750 2.66Ghz (Lynnfield) (Socket LGA1156) - Retail
£159.99

Samsung T220 22" Widescreen LCD Monitor
£139.99

Gigabyte GA-P55-UD3R Intel P55 (Socket 1156) DDR3 Motherboard £106.98

XFX ATI Radeon HD 4870 1024MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card
£105.98

OCZ Gold 6GB (3x2GB) DDR3 PC3-10666C9 Low-Voltage Triple Channel (OCZ3G1333LV6GK)
£102.35

Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium - Retail
£72.99

Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 1TB SATA-II 32MB Cache - OEM (ST31000528AS)
£66.99

Corsair VX 450W ATX Power Supply (CMPSU-450VXUK)
£55.99

Antec 300 Three Hundred Ultimate Gaming Case - Black (No PSU)
£46.99

Microsoft Wireless Optical Desktop 1000 - Retail (BV3-00007)
£24.99

Samsung SH-S222L/BEBE 22x DVD±RW IDE Dual Layer Lightscibe Drive (Black) - OEM
£19.99

Sub Total: £785.42
Shipping cost assumes delivery to UK Mainland with:
DPD Next Day Parcel
Shipping: £14.50
VAT is being charged at 15% VAT: £119.99
Total: £919.91

My budget is ~£700-750.

A few points:
A decent graphics card would be nice but not essential.
Fast (Intel) processor is preferable.
Not too sure about motherboards so I chose the Gigabyte.
Not too sure about the PSU or case either.
I'd like the fastest HDD I can get.
Could I get dual monitors on this budget?

Used mainly for office use.

Thanks!
 
That's a gaming PC, completely overkill for office use. Look at Phenom II Dual/Tri Core AM3 setups and drop down to a 4850/250 graphics (or lower!)
 
Right, most importantly don't get tripple channel memory for the Intel Core i5 750, since it's on the 1156 socket. I can suggest this RAM:
G.Skill Ripjaw 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C7 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit - £84.99

That should save you about £20, the rest of the spec looks pretty good, I ordered a very similar spec but went for the MSI GD-65 Motherboard since I heard it's good for overclocking. I also have the same monitor and it is very good.:cool:
 
What sort of office use? If its just desktop stuff rather than CAD, you can drop the fancy gfx card. Also the Intel i5 requires dual channel DDR2 not triple channel.
 
sldsmkd said:
That's a gaming PC, completely overkill for office use. Look at Phenom II Dual/Tri Core AM3 setups and drop down to a 4850/250 graphics (or lower!)
Click to expand...

It won't be completely for office use (music, DVDs, light gaming but not much). However, if getting a lesser graphics card, cheaper (but reliable) PSU and so on, I wonder whether I could get two decent 19" monitors in?

Cheers.
 
Thanks Yatezy, that was helpful. :)

Duke, it will be more desktop use although I have used CAD in the past and may come back to some. Aside from that, it could be spreadsheets, Word documents, music, DVDs, and Web design. It'll probably be on and off, so a fast bootup would be nice!

Also, what graphics card can cope easily with two 19" monitors? Not sure if I should cut costs in this area.
 
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Duke said:
What sort of office use? If its just desktop stuff rather than CAD, you can drop the fancy gfx card. Also the Intel i5 requires dual channel DDR3 not triple channel.
Click to expand...

It uses DDR3 not DDR2, just thought i would correct the error there so not to confuse.
 
Thanks for that, I'll check it out.

Think I forgot to mention, I want to do some music production, and I'd like to run two 19"/20" monitors. If I'm not doing ANY gaming or CAD, what is the cheapest graphics card could I get away with?

Edit: and a cheaper PSU? Thanks. :)
 
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