Want to build a budget i3 build - what's a good price?

alex_ncfc

alex_ncfc

alex_ncfc

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I hope somebody can offer me some advice here.

My desktop PC is now getting very old (and is very noisy!) and I want to replace the internals of my case pretty much completely - motherboard (and CPU and RAM obviously) and also the PSU - I think the PSU is the main source of noise in the case. I have a PCI-E 8800GT card which also has a fan which I can live with for now in a new build, but the main priority is the motherboard, CPU, RAM and PSU.

Does anybody know of any good deals? I want a decent quality PSU, the quieter the better, which doesn't cost the earth. My current one is a 550W but I don't think it's of the best quality and there is a high pitched sound sometimes coming from the PC (probably inaudible to most people apart from me and dogs!) which is very annoying and it comes from the PSU and CPU area (hard to tell as they are very close)

I would like an i3 processor and 4GB RAM would be fine for now as long as it could be upgraded in future (same applies to the CPU). I also have IDE DVD-ROM/writer drives which could pose a problem as many boards I have seen no longer have an IDE port (hardly surprising but still!)

Any advice? :)

Thank you
 
Hi, you can get prebuilt bundles that come with a 24 Month warranty if you do not want to build it yourself.

Prebuilt Bundle with an i3-4130 @ 3.4GHz with an Asus H81 motherboard and 8GB of 1600MHz Ram for £187.

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=BU-240-OK&groupid=2833&catid=2512&subcat=2686 <select your cpu in the drop down section.

Antec TruePower Classic 550w '80 Plus Gold' Power Supply £56
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CA-202-AN&groupid=701&catid=123&subcat=2463

*you might easily get away with a cheaper PSU but at least you would be fine if you were to upgrade your GPU in the future etc.

Also would you need a SATA DVD-Rom/Writer?

LG 24x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM GH24NSC0.AUAA10B £14
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CD-118-LG&groupid=701&catid=10&subcat=951

*mind if i ask why an i3?
 
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Cheapest build with a Z97 board, an i3 and 4GB of dual-channel ram is about £194.

Intel Core i3-4130 3.40GHz £95 http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CP-492-IN&groupid=701&catid=6&subcat=567

Corsair XMS3 4GB £36 http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MY-203-CS&groupid=701&catid=8&subcat=1517

Gigabyte Z97P-D3 Intel Z97 £63 http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MB-498-GI&groupid=701&catid=5&subcat=2811

A Z97 board for upgrades. You can get a cheaper H81 motherboard ofc.

Something like this?
 
Thanks for the replies "Little*Freak".

The first one you linked to for £187 looks a very good option. Is that Asus board a good one? It seems to be the board of choice in a lot of bundles across the web.

As for why an i3, I don't mind you asking at all :) I don't really have an answer as such, I guess it is just a budget thing (anything i5 or i7 will cost a lot more and I don't intend to be gaming) Also, I have been out of the PC building scene for many, many years - I don't really know what's good and what's not these days. Obviously the general putting a mobo/CPU/RAM together side of things hasn't changed really but the technology has so I don't really know what I am looking out for. I just fancy a decent upgrade on a budget! Had a friends PC apart at the weekend and caught the bug again, as such.

To put it in some sort of perspective, I don't really use my desktop much anymore, more of my laptop - but the desktop PC I do have is my 2005 build (Asus A8N SLI Deluxe, Socket 939 AMD Athlon 4200+, 3GB RAM) which has been pretty much maxed out (to be fair, it was about 8 years ago!) and I guess any upgrade I do will be a massive difference in performance over this current build.
 
If you are just using this for basic use I'd go with one of the bundles posted and add an SSD. It's a massive difference and makes everything much snappier
 
Ah yes that's another thing I forgot to mention, would be wanting to add an SSD. 120GB would be fine, as I will store the OS and my program files on that only, maybe my user folder too. Like I said I don't need anything out of this world. I think one of the things I am most concerned with this time around is getting a decent PSU as well as a mostly quiet one. The one I have is so noisy. My PC sounds like it is about to take off when powered up.
 
If I go ahead with the upgrade, I will be keeping my 320GB SATA HDD, I have a DVD reader and a DVD writer which are both IDE so they will probably have to go. However, I don't see this as a problem and may not even bother replacing them - all of my boot/rescue disks are now on USB, as are my Windows 8 installation files. I've had this laptop for 18 months and have still yet to even once use the ROM drive :)
 
Ive not used a DVD for ages now.

YOUR BASKET
1 x SK Hynix 128GB SSD SH910A SATA 6Gb/s Solid State Drive (HFS128G32MNB-2201A) £49.99
1 x "Xenon H81M" Configurable Intel Pentium / Core i3 / i5 Micro ATX Home PC Bundle £44.00
- 1 x TeamGroup Elite Black 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C11 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (TPKD38G1600HC11DC01) £47.99
- 1 x No Upgrade - Intel Stock Cooler (None overclocked systems) £0.00
- 1 x Intel Core i3-4130 3.40GHz (Haswell) Socket LGA1150 Processor - Retail £94.99
- 1 x Standard Build Laptops - Approximately 3 to 5 working days £0.00
1 x EVGA 500W 80 Plus Bronze Power Supply (100-B1-0500-KR) £43.99
Total : £290.57 (includes shipping : £8.00).

 
Okay cool, so if you use some of the parts from little*freaks spec


YOUR BASKET
1 x Intel Core i3-4130 3.40GHz (Haswell) Socket LGA1150 Processor - Retail £94.99
1 x Antec TruePower Classic 550w '80 Plus Gold' Power Supply £55.99
1 x SK Hynix 128GB SSD SH910A SATA 6Gb/s Solid State Drive (HFS128G32MNB-2201A) £49.99
1 x Asus H81M-K Intel H81 (Socket 1150) DDR3 Micro ATX Motherboard £37.99
1 x TeamGroup Elite 4GB (1x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C11 1600MHz Single Channel Module (TED34GM1600C1101) £23.99
Total : £272.56 (includes shipping : £8.00).



Is that possibly too much? The DVD writer is probably not needed these days anymore, even windows can be installed from a USB stick
Is your case ATX or mATX?
 
Stulid, I also can't remember the last time I used an optical disc.

(BTW Stulid, didn't see there was also links on your post, last time I saw it, it just said about the DVD. That also looks like a very good deal)

Wow thanks Shivy011 (and Little*Freak of course) for collating that list. I think that price would be the *absolute* maximum, it probably is bordering on too much, I think maybe the PSU price is quite hefty, however, I would want something reliable and good quality so maybe that is the price I'd have to pay, and the fact you have factored in an SSD drive in there too doesn't make it actually look that bad a deal, £280 for the lot. Also, do those components all together provide much scope for future expansion? Say for example if I wanted to bump it up to 16GB RAM at some point in the very distant future, then is it a PC I could still be using in 5 years time (pretty much like my trusty old Asus A8N based system!)

Thank you
 
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alex_ncfc said:
Stulid, I also can't remember the last time I used an optical disc.

Wow thanks Shivy011 (and Little*Freak of course) for collating that list. I think that price would be the *absolute* maximum, it probably is bordering on too much, I think maybe the PSU price is quite hefty, however, I would want something reliable and good quality so maybe that is the price I'd have to pay, and the fact you have factored in an SSD drive in there too doesn't make it actually look that bad a deal, £280 for the lot. Also, do those components all together provide much scope for future expansion? Say for example if I wanted to bump it up to 16GB RAM at some point in the very distant future, then is it a PC I could still be using in 5 years time (pretty much like my trusty old Asus A8N based system!)

Thank you
Click to expand...

Yep absolutely

You could put in an i5k/i7k inside in the future (but not necessarily overclock with it), a graphics card, you could go up to 8GB RAM with another same stick but for 16GB you would have to replace the stick as it only has two DIMM slots and you have 4GB
 
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Thanks guys for the advice.

Also noticed Stulids build contains 8GB RAM! Which sounds very tempting!

I currently have a PCI-E graphics card, and two small PCI-E cards - a Creative Soundblaster something or other (I really can't remember the model off hand!) and my 802.11n wireless card. Would these three cards operate just fine in that motherboard?

Thanks again, you have all definitely given me some top ideas and something to think about.
 
Thne board has a long 16X slot where you will put the GFX card.

It also has two 1X slots underneath, if your GFX card is dual slot think or greater then you may only be able to use the lower 1X slot.
 
alex_ncfc said:
Does anybody know of any good deals? I want a decent quality PSU, the quieter the better, which doesn't cost the earth.
Click to expand...

You can get a totally fanless PSU. OCUK sell the fanless Silverstone 400W for £100. The Seasonic version is the same price, or £105 for the 460W version, and £125 for the 520W version.

I do suggest you get an optical drive, for emergency use, but make it an external USB one. This Samsung DVD drive costs £22.
 
If this is just a basic PC with no optic drive or powerfull gaming graphics card, you really do not need a huge PSU.

That said, an Nvidia 750 series MiniITX size requires no extra PSU cables, and could still probably run off a 350w model psu.

I think Stulids package with 8gb is the best option, I doubt you will need any more than 8, but I have seen Windows 10 state memory running low in a 4gb build.

If your not heavily into games, but want to watch movies and play the occasional game an Nvidia 750 is probably the most power efficient, as some have no need for 6pin PCI-E cables, just plug them into the PCI-E slot.
There is also a passive cooled model, silent. Something to consider in future, as it allows you to worry less about the PSU being over 500w and I guess you want a quiet PC.

For an SSD I would try and look at the read and write speeds, warranty and reliability, weighed up against cost. They seem pretty robust these days.

If you have no need for optical media, nor many HDD's, you could also consider a newer case with better air flow and cooling designed with no optic bays, the NZXT Source 340 for example can take 120mm to 140mm fans in front with a dust filter, and comes with a ceiling/rear fan, these could be put in front or exchanged for near silent fans.

In my experience the Intel stock cooler can be audible when the CPU is under load, personally if I was intending on a long term PC I would choose a Seasonic/Superflower/EVGA PSU and Noctua CPU cooler, they are very well made with decent guarantee's and support. Never had an issue with mine, worth the extra money as are a few things in PC's, such as quality cases with filters and no superfluous additions such as optic bays you will never need. And reliable HDD/SDD with a decent waranty and reputation.

YOUR BASKET
1 x Palit GeForce GTX 750 KalmX SILENT 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £99.95
1 x Kingston 120GB SSDNow V300 Drive SATA 6Gb/s 3 2.5" (7mm height) Solid State Hard Drive - (SV300S37A/120G) £46.99
1 x "Xenon H81M" Configurable Intel Pentium / Core i3 / i5 Micro ATX Home PC Bundle £44.00
- 1 x TeamGroup Elite Black 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C11 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (TPKD38G1600HC11DC01) £47.99
- 1 x No Upgrade - Intel Stock Cooler (None overclocked systems) £0.00
- 1 x Intel Core i3-4130 3.40GHz (Haswell) Socket LGA1150 Processor - Retail £94.99
- 1 x Standard Build Laptops - Approximately 3 to 5 working days £0.00
1 x Antec VP350P 350W 85% Efficient Continuous Power Supply £31.99
1 x Raijintek Themis Black Heatpipe CPU Cooler PWM - 120mm £19.99
Total : £395.51 (includes shipping : £8.00).



Of course it does not do any harm to look at a potentially near silent small powerfull PC with some reasonable components.

YOUR BASKET
1 x Samsung 250GB 850 EVO SSD 2.5" SATA 6Gbps 32 Layer 3D V-NAND Solid State Drive (MZ-75E250B/EU) £106.99
1 x Seasonic 400w FANLESS '80 Plus Platinum' Modular Power Supply £99.95
1 x Palit GeForce GTX 750 KalmX SILENT 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £99.95
1 x Intel Core i3-4130 3.40GHz (Haswell) Socket LGA1150 Processor - Retail £94.99
1 x Asus H81I-Plus Intel H81 (Socket 1150) DDR3 Mini ITX Motherboard £58.99
1 x BitFenix Phenom Mini-ITX Cube Case - Midnight Black £52.99
1 x TeamGroup Vulcan GOLD 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-17100C11 2133MHz Dual Channel Kit (TLYED38G2133HC11ADC01) £50.99
1 x Noctua NH-U9S PU Cooler - 92mm £47.99
Total : £633.36 (includes shipping : £17.10).

 
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Pretty gutted, wrote a big reply on here and then pressed post and it said my token had timed out :(

Thanks for the further suggestions, sastusbulbas and Quartz. That GTX 750 would bump my costs up massively, though :) however, at some point in the future I would be wanting to install a silent graphics card (my current 8800GT has a fan and I am wondering if this would be a source of a lot of the noise. I guess the only way I could find out is by starting the machine without the gfx card inserted and with the case fully closed?)

The more and more I look into this the more I am thinking, should I just increase my outlay slightly and go for the i5 quad core option (3.1Ghz) rather than the dual core i3? Would there be a massive difference between these?

Thanks again everybody.
 
alex_ncfc said:
The more and more I look into this the more I am thinking, should I just increase my outlay slightly and go for the i5 quad core option (3.1Ghz) rather than the dual core i3? Would there be a massive difference between these?
Click to expand...

There will in graphics. The upcoming DX12 has been shown to make good use of the extra cores.
 
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