Build Advice New Computer Build Help£800 Budget

Greetings all, I am new to the forum and I just wanted to see who would be kind enough to give me some advice on a new build and somebody local (Bradford-Shipley) to build it for me?

Budget: £800 ish

Main computer use: Gaming, internet, watching films etc. I play LOL, CS:GO, and some older games. I want it to be able to play the likes of new games with no issues.

The spec of my current PC is:

CPU: Intel(R) Core(TM)2 Duo CPU E8400 @ 3.00GHz (2 CPUs), ~3.0GHz
GPU: GeForce 8800GT
RAM: 3GB - COrsair, not sure what spec
Mobo: MSI - not sure
Nothing special standard HDD
Not sure what PSU

I think my current PC is atleast 3-4 years old so I am not bothered about re-using parts, I would rather have something new.

Resolution: I havent bought a new monitor yet and I dont need to include it within this budget, so a monitor suggestion would be nice. Currently I am playing on a CIBOX LCD screen at 1440 x 900 with a standard dell LCD screen as my 2nd monitor.

Overclocking: I won't be over-clocking because I wouldn't have a clue. never done it before!

Storage Space: I don't need tons and tons of space. I would like a quick SDD though as the boot drive. I was looking at the Cruicial M4 256GB ones???

No real motherboard requirements, USB3 would be nice.

Case: I will need a new case - I like the Antec P280!

I will need an OS. Currently running VISTA!

So basically I need everything, but I will buy the monitor separate from this budget If somebody could recommend a good one, it would be a bonus if I could plug in my PS2 to the monitor too for occasional retro gaming!

Thanks in advance

Gavin

 

I just checked my RAM and its 3 x 1GB Corsair XMS 800Mhz thats in my existing PC. Thanks

 

Any response guys?

 

I don't feel best placed to help you but seeing as no one else is I'll venture something to get you started. I can say that after a fair bit of research I'm going with an

i5-3570k
ASRock Extreme4
8GB Ram
GTX 660

That's hitting about £550. £650 with your case and you've hit your £800 by the time you factor in a decent screen. Then you're just short the SSD you need. I'd imagine the best way to save money would be to downgrade the gpu, but you'll have to wait for one of our gaming friends on this board to sort that out for you. You could easily save £50 or more by swapping the i5 for an i3 if you don't fancy the 2 extra cores. It's my understanding that you probably don't need a proper quad for video games.

EDIT - Just noticed you're happy to buy the monitor separate. That's within your budget then. I've always believed that you should spend good money on screens etc though so don't overlook it. We spend gazillions on shiny things that go in black boxes that we never actually see. Nobody actually USES a pc. We use the mouse, keyboard, monitor, speakers, etc etc etc. Don't overlook them.

 

This just falls in budget and includes everything you would need, money could be saved if you want atx rather than m-atx and this basket is based on the fact you have a good power supply left over from your previous build as 3-4 years isn't that long.

scan basket.

 

Antec P280 Mid Tower Case Gun Metal Black with USB 3.0
Microsoft Windows 8 64bit DVD OEM
Intel CPU Core i5 3470 Quad Core Processor
Asus P8B75-M LX Intel B75 Socket 1155 Motherboard
Corsair Memory Vengeance Jet Black Low Profile 2x4GB DDR3 1600 MHz CAS 9 XMP
be quiet! Pure Power L8 630W CM Power Supply BN182 Modular 80+ Bronze
Crucial 128GB RealSSD M4 SSD - Solid State Drive
1TB Western Digital Caviar Green SATA III - 6Gb/s Hard Drive
Gigabyte Radeon HD 7850 OC Windforce 2X

just under £800 from scan.

 

As its not going to be anything other than a complete overhaul look at scan bundles and add in what ever else you need.
Either way you should probably be looking for an i5 (something like a 3570k)
8gb of ram
Some sort of cheap aftermarket cooler
For a graphics card either a gtx 570 or above or one of the newer 7 series amd cards.

 

Windows 7 or windows 8 guys? Thanks for the help so far

 

Go with Windows 7, not belittling Win8 as I personally like it but there are 1 or 2 probs (not everyone has them btw)

 

Personally windows 8 as long as you are willing to relearn a few tricks. If not then windows 7.

 

Windows 7 is better for desktops, but windows 8 with start 8 installed is even better as you get speed of windows 8 and it still looks exactly like windows 7 in desktop mode!

You should also be able to just get an upgrade dvd for windows 8 and upgrade your vista which could be a bit cheaper.

 

7. Windows 8 ties with vista for the worst os.

 

Why? Because 8 is fast and light?

 

I actually just upgraded recently because I got it free from uni before I left and I didn't have access to 7.

The interface is abolsute naff. Worst thing in the world, but my boot times seem to have been slashed with my new z77 board. UEFI and fast boot enabled you get a scarily quick boot. I counted 11 secs until login.

I just play games on mine so I'm not working daily on it, but I can confirm that if you move to the desktop and stay there its not all that bad! I reckon if I worked on it and didn't just play games I would get more annoyed probably. If only metro wasn't there it would be bloody good.

Sent from my GT-I9300 using Tapatalk 2

 

I don't understand what's so bad about the Metro thing. It's just a full screen start menu. The functionality is the exact same as in previous start menus, but the buttons are bigger.

 

This, plus I believe you can boot straight to desktop if the metro UI annoys you that much.

 

I don’t like it, its built for touch and I would much prefer a start menu and task bar, just like I have on my Linux install with KDE that I use for my work. But like I said I play games on my machine so its fine. I see it when I boot up and that’s it. If I can boot straight to desktop I might see about getting that set up.

 

You'll have to mod it for that, and reset the file associations away from full-screen-metroapps (again as stated, only if it annoys you)

 

I think I will settle on Windows 8 but use that mod to make it look like Windows 7, I cant be without my start button and I would want to do away with the Tile Screen, awful.

 

Be careful, quite often windows plays silly balls when you try to mess with the os files. My partners new windows 8 laptop wont let me change them from read only at all. Not that windows 7 is any better.
And yes i've changed the permissions taken ownership used the hidden admin account etc.

At the moment more than a few programs have issues with windows 8 including a few voip programs like mumble.