Hi, I'm looking for some advice on whether the below system is worth £600 or not. I was thinking of attempting to build my own PC for the first time, but then got recommended a guy who will do it for me. Are the below specs worth £600 or could I get it cheaper elsewhere? Would it be worth me getting the parts individually and attempting a build myself (considering I've never attempted a build before)? AMD Athlon II x4 640 AM3 3GHz Processor 16GB 1333Mhz DDR3 RAM 1TB (1000GB) Hard drive Asrock N68 GE3 UCC Motherboard DVD RW Coolermaster Elite 335 Gaming Case GeForce GTS 250 Graphics Wireless Network Card Xigmatek 400W Power Supply Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium Any feedback/advice is appreciated Thanks
For that amount of cash you can get a far better setup. Build your own IMO, it's not as daunting as it may seem. There are plenty of people on here willing to give you advice. What will you be using it for by the way? 16Gb RAM is overkill for starters and all the comp and most of the other components are budget parts really.
+1 on that brother. As adidan says 16GB is way way too much. Even 8GB is taking the piss but acceptable! Have a look at what Bit-Tech recommends here... http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/buyers-guide/2011/03/10/pc-hardware-buyer-s-guide-march-2011/3
I think you could do much better for your money to be honest. If you give a little more info on what your going to use the rig for I'm sure people will be able to help you work out a great little machine for that money. Also i'm guessing you already have a monitor?
You could get an i5 sandybridge system for that price. You dont need 16gb ram that is seriously overkill (unless you have very specific needs). If you're not confident to build your own system (as I wasn't), you can look here at a decent sandybridge system for that price - just add the gfx card you want in the drop down box and 8gb ram - http://www.easypc-uk.com/photography-systems/36-core-i5-750-4gb-ddr3-500gb-9500gt-1gb.html
Agreed. 16 Gb of ram is wasted on that system. Go for go for 8gb of 1600mhz and a better cpu. If you want to stay with an AMD based system go for the 955 or th 965. Theres nothing wrong with the 640, I've got a 620 in my media rig, but it lacks the L3 cache of the better CPU's.
OK thanks for the responses. Mainly it will be used for gaming and watching movies. Not sure why I looked at 16GB of RAM, just thought that more is better I do have a monitor btw. I am tempted to try a build myself, especially if I could get a better system for the same price. I'll do some serious research before making a decision. Thanks again.
Is the original OP still in need of a PC? If your intrested i have this on ebay atm. http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=320674464116&ssPageName=STRK:MESELX:IT Jazzed it up a little but its a really good computer still. Could possibly adjust the price a little.
OK I've decided to attempt a build myself. For £600 what should I be looking to put together? I'll go with 8GB RAM, and the rest I'm not sure about! I'm not too bothered about sound quality so I wont need a soundcard, and also I'm not bothered about jazzy cases. I'd like to build a system that I can use for gaming and watching movies. I'm not a hardcore gamer but would like a system that won't struggle to run games like Supreme Commander, The Sims (not for me ), FM11 etc. I've got a monitor, Windows Vista, keyboard, mouse, speakers. So will just need all the internal "stuff". Am I being unrealistic in setting by budget at £600? Sorry for the basic questions.
Thats a decent rig for the money Spanky. Better for what you want than the one mentioned in the first post. You will have a lot more fun building your own from scratch though.
Dan's right. Hell even I built one with some help from some very nice guys on here. And now I'm building a new one for me (with ... lol ) Be warned though, they always try to spend more of your money, in your best interest of course apparently
above 6gb ram is actually detrimental to the running of win7. there is definitely no need for 16gb. i spent less on my all singing all dancing rig base unit. I could build a system with that cpu and include an ssd and monitor for that price!!
Corsair 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 1333MHz XMS3 Memory Kit CL9 unbuffered £38.19 Asrock 939A790GMH 790GX Socket 939 GB LAn DVI VGA HDMI Out 8 Channel Audio mATX Motherboard £59.14 AMD Athlon II X4 640 Socket AM3 3GHz 2MB L2 Cache Retail Boxed Processor £72.93 Coolermaster Elite 330 Case With Coolermaster eXtreme Power 500W PSU £49.98 Kingston 64GB SSDNOW V100 - SATA-II 2.5" - Read 250MB/s Write 145MB £78.80 LG W2246S-BF TFT LCD 21.5" VGA Monitor £101.99 Western Digital WD10EARS 1TB Hard Drive SATAII 5400rpm 64MB cache £39.28 Asus GTX 460 Direct CU TOP 768MB GDDR5 Dual DVI Mini HDMI Out PCI-E Graphics Card £119.99 Microsoft Wireless Desktop 3000 - BlueTrack £31.66 a complete system for a tenner less. remove the ssd and add win7 if you need it
OK I've decided to attempt a build myself. For £600 what should I be looking to put together? I'll go with 8GB RAM, and the rest I'm not sure about! I'm not too bothered about sound quality so I wont need a soundcard, and also I'm not bothered about jazzy cases. I'd like to build a system that I can use for gaming and watching movies. I'm not a hardcore gamer but would like a system that won't struggle to run games like Supreme Commander, The Sims (not for me), FM11 etc. I've got a monitor, Windows Vista, keyboard, mouse, speakers. So will just need all the internal "stuff". Am I being unrealistic in setting by budget at £600? Sorry for the basic questions.
OK going off Sonicgroove's post, I've made a few changes as I don't need a monitor or mouse. Can you guys see what you think of the below setup, and let me know if there's anything I should/could change? Corsair XMS3 8 GB : 4 x 2 GB Memory - DIMM 240-pin - 1600 MHz ( PC3-12800 ) - £58 ASUS M4A89GTD PRO/USB3 - motherboard - ATX - AMD 890GX - Socket AM3 - £90 AMD HDZ965FBGMBOX Phenom II X4 965 - 3.4 Ghz AM3 Black Edition CPU, Retail Packaged - £118.61 Coolermaster Elite 330 Case With Coolermaster eXtreme Power 500W PSU - £50 Western Digital WD10EARS 1TB Hard Drive SATAII 5400rpm 64MB cache - £40 Gigabyte R685D5-1GD HD 6850 1GB Ati AMD Radeon Graphics Card - £142 Sony DRU-880S, Black, 24x DVD±R, 12x DVD±DL, DVD+RW x8/-RW x6, RAM x12, SATA,Retail Labelflash - £20 Windows 7 - £65 Total - £583.61 Thanks
