Hi, I have two PCs to build, one for my dad(1) and one for brother (2). Any advise would be really welcome. At the moment for pc1 I'm caught between towards getting an AMD Athlon II X3 and an i3 540 for pc2 I'm really stumped, possibly a Phenom II X6 1055T. Got several bits left over from old PCs Build 1 Budget: £200-300 Main uses of intended build: Standard office stuff, maybe the odd game in the future. Parts required: Case, psu, Mobo, cpu, ram (Assuming On Board graphics) Monitor resolution: Not exactly sure it's not mine (sorry), widescreen. However would only plan to use onboard for the time being. Storage requirements: none, already got a hard drive Will you be overclocking: yes Any motherboard requirements (no. of USB, Xfire/SLI, fan headers): ide connection for an old DVD RW Extra information about desired system: no Build 2 Budget: £400 Main uses of intended build: Photoshop, CAD/solidworks (3D drawing), gaming Parts required: Mobo, cpu, ram, Graphics card Monitor resolution: 1280 x 1024 Storage requirements:1TB Will you be overclocking: yes Any motherboard requirements (no. of USB, Xfire/SLI, fan headers): ide connection for an old DVD RW Extra information about desired system: already have a HX520 psu, which should be sufficient. Thanks
Why don't you just buy a premade computer for your dad (or a laptop/netbook/tablet maybe depending on what he uses it for) and push any extra money you have from that into your build? That way you can use all the potentially reusable parts from your old build on one machine, and you can get 1 pretty decent build together. Right now builds on budgets that small are going to be kinda week and not very future proof.
You've got to do most of the work yourself sorry James. We'll help guide your choices, but you have to go to read some buyers guide (new one should be soon) and search online stores to fit your budget. Read: http://forums.bit-tech.net/showthread.php?t=183202 and http://forums.bit-tech.net/showthread.php?t=182284
Looking at basing the systems on the following: AMD Phenom II X6 Six Core 1055T 2.80GHz (Socket AM3) - Retail 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit Asus M4A88T-M AMD 880G (Socket AM3) PCI-Express DDR3 Motherboard Asus GeForce GTX 460 1024MB DirectCU GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card 1TB F3 although I think I need to scale back on the cpu and RAM AMD Athlon II X3 Tri Core 445 3.10GHz (Socket AM3) - Retail 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C8 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit Gigabyte GA-880GM-UD2H AMD 880G (Socket AM3) microATX DDR3 Motherboard Any comments?
You realise this is going to be well over budget? CPU; £135 RAM; £75 MOBO; 85 GPU; £140 HDD; £40 Total; £475. Also, you will need a decent CPU cooler if you plan to overclock a Hexicore. Cut down on the RAM, 4Gb should be plenty for gaming. The same goes for the CPU; 6 cores will not be touched by games. Have a look at a 555 Black Edition. They're great for overclocking and should be able to unlock to a tri core in the least.
The budgets roughly £400 so it's not that far over. I'm wondering if I should scale back to a single 4gb then if it's struggling for ram drop in another stick. I'm just not entirely sure what's required for cad etc
Check your brother's software required spec, and see what hardware it works best with. For instance, many Gfx people like to buy Nvidia because Adobe packages are Cuda accellerated. Look into that sort of thing, Autodesk Inventor needs 6Gb RAM and a workstation-class graphics card.
+1 to this. The 555BE is a great chip for the money. Don't do this. Dropping back to 4GB of RAM, yes definitely, considering the budget. But you want to get a 2x2GB kit instead of a single 4GB stick. The board has 4 DIMM slots after all.
I have cad running perfect on a stock i370M and 2GB RAM at work in a laptop so it doesn't take a great deal.
At school we have CAD running on some classic C2D's running at about 1.8GHz, and [I think] 7600GT's, it takes nothing to run.
Well solidworks only recommend: Minimum: 1GB RAM Recommended: 6GB RAM or more on Windows 7 x64 operating system and a certified gfx card. (won't be having one due to the gaming requirements. Sorry this is short, thought I should quickly post be I leave for work.
id say for PC 1 your looking at a AMD X2 250 and for pc 2 your looking at a AMD phenom X4 955. MSI C45 870 4GB of 1600mhz decent 400-500W PSU and make use of your old one too. a 460GTX 1GB if you can stretch it if not the 768MB version samsung 1TB F3 and use the old HDD too in one of them.
For £309 I was able to buy: - Phenom II X2 555 BE - unlocks in my case to a Tri Core but clocks like an animal. - MSI 870A-G54 (can unlock the 555BE) - 4GB DDR3 (2x2GB) - BeQuiet L7 530W PSU - Win 7 HP x64 - DVD-RW OEM I must say I am finding the initial post a little hard to follow in terms of what is actually required. OP Could you please re-word your opening post into a structure that clearly shows what you need for both PCs (like a spec run down for each). As a quick guide for your Dad's PC I would build something around a Athlon X2 250 or G6950. Both processors will offer more than enough grunt for its intended purpose and should be quite cheap to build. Get a MB with onboard VGA (or in the G6950's case a H55 board) and you don't require a discrete GPU (one could always be added in the future). For build 2 I would base the build around a Phenom X4 955BE (or 555BE if you fancy your chances of an unlock). Couple that with a decent 87(8)0 based MB, 4GB of memory and a GTX460 and you are good to go with either CAD work or gaming (up to and including 1920x1080 resolutions).
Hi xaser04, I've read done my first post so hopefully it should be clearer now. How about this selection? Asus GeForce GTX 460 1024MB DirectCU GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £137.99 AMD Phenom II X2 Dual Core 555 3.20GHz Black Edition (Socket AM3) - Retail £71.99 Asus M4A78LT-M 760G (Socket AM3) DDR3 Motherboard £44.99 OCZ Special OPS 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C8 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (OCZ3SOE1600LV4GK) £31.19 Total : £297.55 The Mobo seems to be capable of unlocking the 555 BE
http://www.asus.com/product.aspx?p_id=exjl00uovtjadqxr Asus site doesnt mention core unlocking, probably because it's too low end
check out this bargin http://www.aria.co.uk/Systems/Bundl...Pre-Built+Overclocked+Bundle+?productId=43094 £189 a real bargin plus its overclocked straight out the box...
Your first post is now much better, thanks for ammending it. My previous suggestions still stand but I agree with your part build above except the MB. You get the best chance of unlocking (and to get USB3.0 / SATAIII) you need to look at either a 870 or 880 board with the 750 or 850 (IIRC) southbridge. These boards have the neccessary Advanced clock calibration logic that allows unlocking. My MSI 870A-G54 was only £70 and there are Gigabyte and Asus boards that offer equivilant specs for around £70-80 so you don't have to spend big money to get one with all the features required.
