Budget: £400 initially Main uses of intended build: desktop, internet/films/tv. In future may upgrade and game on BF3 Parts required: no optical needed currently on scan today only, and most likely will be again soon: i3-2100 ~£87 For power/heat efficiency, much better than amd, plus will cope with games, see below Gigabyte GA-H67MA-D2H-B3 £80 usb3 for external hd, and sata6Gb/s for ssd, plus enough expansion slots and 7.1 output WD caviar green 1TB £43 Plenty of storage, by the time I fill it there will be better drives, no point wasting money on more 1 x 4GB corsair xms3 ddr3 1600 MHz £36 1 stick rather than 2, can always add another for gaming Antec earthwatts 380W ea £38 Good enough for current low power uses, if I add an ssd and gpu, will have to upgrade, but for a low idle power system, 380W is great Total = £284 Previous build information (list details of parts): none Monitor resolution: 1920 x 1080, hdmi/vga/dvi Storage requirements: 1TB. will you be overclocking: no Any motherboard requirements (no. of USB, Xfire/SLI, fan headers): usb3 for external hd, and sata6Gb/s for ssd, plus enough expansion slots and 7.1 output Extra information about desired system: In future I will most likely and an ssd, unless you think the price drop isn't worth the wait and moving the OS across. I also might decide to game on it, when battlefield 3 comes out, plus some fifa if I dont have my ps3, so researched on tomshardware, where i3 was on par with the amd quad cores, and only 10-20% lower framerates than an i5, as GPU will make the most difference.
If I was to suggest anything then it would be that you can get a better HDD in that pricerange: Samsung F3 1TB it's even on sale atm: http://www.scan.co.uk/products/ss1t...3-sata-3gb-s-7200rpm-32mb-cache-89-ms-ncq-oem also, spend a tiny bit more and get a PSU that will run a GPU in the future, wont say changing it is worth the hassle or the money. either http://www.scan.co.uk/products/600w...0-plus-83-eff-sli-crossfire-eps-12v-135mm-fan or, if you're sure you don't need it to be modular: http://www.scan.co.uk/products/500w-corsair-cmpsu-500cxuk-builder-series-80-eff-120mm-fan-single-rail-atx
Thanks, I went with the caviar green because its quiet and low power, is the speed increase likely to be noticeable and worth a little more noise? I had a look on the extreme psu calculator site and even with a video card (choose a 5770, no idea which i'll end up with), ssd and blu ray drive I'm still only using 220W, or is that innaccurate?
You do know that the Western Digital Caviar Green are SUPER SLOW HDD and 5400RPM. They are designed for large backup storage for home, not day to day usage in a computer. Get the Caviar Black series which is not only 7200RPM HDD, but it provides a high performance. The Caviar Black 1TB is close to the same performance as the Samsung Spinpoint F3 1TB, on benchmarks. In real world usage they are the same speed. So pick the brand you prefer. I have the Western Digital Caviar Black, and it's VERY quiet (for an HDD). Using a case with silicon mount will also significantly reduce system noise (will absorb all vibrations)
Yeah I would look at a F3, its quicker and cheaper than the WD youve highlighted. And I agree with wira, if your going to game your guna need a higher rated psu. One of the two in their post look good.
You don't need a more powerful PSU, as it seams you will use Intel GPU to play your 2 generation old games, or last gen games ate minimum settings. Intel graphic solution doesn't require much power.
he will need a bit more juice if he wants to add a dedicated GPU later on, but possibly not a full 500 watt (or 600 watt in one case). still, a bit of wattage headroom is always nice and your PSU is stressed less in daily tasks. If you take a look at the non modular PSU I linked, it's only a few pounds more, from Corsair, and is rated at 500 Watts
Thanks for the help, will most likely go with an F3, and will look at the PSUs, will check to see what I can fit in my case. The corsair looks good value, but says max efficiency in only 80%, suggesting its efficiency its genrally going to be lower than that 90% of the time
it probably wont make any major difference to you, especially as the wattage is comfortably above your min. req.
