trying to build a family pc for 300 quid

gatlin · 9 Oct 2009 at 15:37

I have been lurking on these forums for a while now as i plan to get an i5 gaming rig on the go at the end of the month (student loans

), anyway my family computer has died and is now 6 years old. It has stopped posting and i tried all the usual solutions on here and to no avail. I have only been checking up on i5/i7 setups and amd quadcores so I am not too sure about dual core pentium processors and their mobos.

The system will be mainly used for surfing the web, listening to music, and playing the odd computer game COD4/5 and my brother plays wow.

Basically im wanting to spend around £300 on this new system which is a tower only no OS and no peripheralsand no monitor. I have come up with this but I am not sure on a few things if I am honest. The mobo, are there better options available? The ram same again or should I be looking to get 4 gig instead of 2? and finally the graphics card, will this run COD4/wow.
Will i need a thermal compound with this aswell?

Thanks in advance

alex24 · 9 Oct 2009 at 15:38

Looks fine to me. An AMD setup would probably be cheaper, but if you feel more comfortable going with what you know that's not a problem.

There are better mobos, of course. Depends what you want to use it for. Same goes with the RAM. If your family play crysis, I might recommend another 2GB and several other upgrades, otherwise it's not really worth it at the moment. COD4 and WoW would run. COD4's engine is ancient now, that shouldn't be a prob, and WoW is more CPU orientated, and the dual core there should manage it fine.

You'll get a thermal pad on the stock cooler, but since you've put a freezer 7 on there get youself some Arctic Silver 5 to go with it. Make sure you follow the instructions precisely when you apply it though.

gatlin · 9 Oct 2009 at 15:47

Im not that fussed on intel or AMD to be honest, and thanks for the artic silver 5 advice mate.

Lemin · 9 Oct 2009 at 17:23

Id loose aftermarket cooler if not overclocking the cpu & get a

Sapphire ATI Radeon HD 4670 512MB GDDR3 TV-Out/DVI/HDMI (PCI-Express) - Retail [11138-00-20R]
£54.04 inc VAT
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-184-SP&groupid=701&catid=56&subcat=1274

& 4 gig of ram if you use a 64bit OS.

EpicCarnage · 9 Oct 2009 at 21:04

or if your spending 50 pounds on a gpu get a high 8 series card for cheap of the MM

Lemin · 9 Oct 2009 at 21:07

EpicCarnage said:
or if your spending 50 pounds on a gpu get a high 8 series card for cheap of the MM

He will have to start doing lots of posts first, to qualify.

PermaBanned · 9 Oct 2009 at 21:17

And wait 3 months?

EpicCarnage · 9 Oct 2009 at 21:27

o i didnt notice if that the case then there is a well known auction site also but if your not doing a lot of next gen gaming it dont matter

PermaBanned · 9 Oct 2009 at 21:31

If you just want the card for stuff like Aero to run better then i'd go for the 3450, since it supports HD Video Acceleration.

freddie64 · 10 Oct 2009 at 09:03

Check out the 500gb hdd, you can get one for only a few quid more.

I would still get an aftermarket cooler (stock coolers can be noisey). This is very good for the money, although can be a bit of a pain to fit.

Think that mobo only supplies 1.8v to the RAM, so you may not get 4-4-4-15 Timings.
Also if you do get that mobo, it only has 2 slots for RAM so you may be better getting 4gig now