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

Yes @Little*Freak, of course. Sorry for the late response.

I built the system last week.

(Perhaps) somewhat embarrassingly, I went for the exact components that were recommended to me in this thread!

They were:

Antec GX300 Combat Ready Windowed Midi Tower Gaming Case

SK Hynix 128GB SSD SH910A SATA 6Gb/s Solid State Drive (HFS128G32MNB-2201A)

"Xenon H81M" Configurable Intel Pentium / Core i3 / i5 Micro ATX Home PC Bundle

CHOSEN OPTION
No Upgrade - Intel Stock Cooler (None overclocked systems) £0.00 1 £0.00
CHOSEN OPTION
Intel Core i5-4440 3.10GHz (Haswell) Socket LGA1150 Processor - Retail £122.49 1 £122.49
CHOSEN OPTION
Standard Build Laptops - Approximately 3 to 5 working days £0.00 1 £0.00
CHOSEN OPTION
TeamGroup Elite Black 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C11 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (TPKD38G1600HC11DC01)

EVGA 500W 80 Plus Bronze Power Supply (100-B1-0500-KR)

Yes this was all slightly over my budget, but it was the i5 that did it. I felt that I might as well get a mid-range CPU to make the system last that bit longer.

It runs very nicely and is very quiet. I haven't put in my old 8800GT card and I am using the onboard Intel HD graphics. Was contemplating adding my old 8800 into the system but the machine is so quiet, I wondered whether it would be worth it in terms of the 2007-8 card's performance? One thing I did totally overlook was the lack of small PCI-E slots. I also thought that my old WIFI 802.11n card from my previous machine was PCI-E, but it was standard PCI, and this board has no PCI slots, so I have no wireless card for it currently. Would it be better to use a wireless card or a dongle? Reason I ask is a friend has a PCI-E graphics card which is much better than my old 8800GT but it is a "2 slot" card and will take up one of my small PCI-E bays. Leaving me with only one, which my sound card is in currently!! Do wireless LAN dongles use more CPU power etc? I'd rather use an internal card but may not have much choice if I end up getting this graphics card.

Thanks!
 
Hi Alex_ncfc, thank you very much for posting what you'd bought, just curiosity on my part, i don't get a cut or anything :) It's just for my own interest. I'm sorry about the network thing, i should have asked that question before suggesting something (need to write a checklist or something).

I don't know much about wireless networking so i'd suggest that you start another Thread asking for advise on what is the best option for you. I've looked around and there is a LOT of contradictory information out there, mostly opinions and guess's, with not much in the way of definitive fact.

Briefly, someone starts a thread somewhere and the people who reply start arguing among themselves, kind of like the GPU section here :)

I might start a thread myself, it's something i've never thought of & now i'd like to know for sure.

Wish i could give you a better reply, sorry.
 
Alex, i've just asked the question in the networking section.

If there is a performance problem (i really don't think there will be but i don't know for sure!), then i will send you an ATX Gigabyte Z97 board so you can use your network card and sound card.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom