I'm doing a PC build for the first-time and am looking at the following system: Budget: Under £500 Main uses of intended build: Gaming - Starcraft II, SSF IV, Supreme Commander series, C&C series, Transformers - War for Cybertron Parts required: Processor: AMD Athlon II X2 255 - 3.1 GHz Mobo: Asus M4A87TD/USB3 AM3 AMD 870 PSU: CiT Silent Technology 480UB / 480W / PSU Monitor: Arianet Cream 22" Widescreen LCD Monitor - Black Memory: G-Skill 2GB DDR3 PC3 10666 1333MHz Memory Card: Sapphire ATI Radeon HD 5770 Vapor-X 1024MB GDDR5 PCI-E The HD5770 comes highly recommended by many mags and it's at the very top-end of my budget for the build. However, as long as it can play Supreme Commander 2, Starcraft 2, and SSFIV I'll be pretty happy. I'll admit that I'm swayed by the reviewers but if others have good cheaper recommendations, I'm all ears. Case: CiT 1004 CSCIT1004 Screwless HDD: Seagate 500GB Barracuda (7200RPM, SATA, 16MB Cache) Previous build information (list details of parts): Monitor resolution: 1920x1080 Storage requirements: Not fussy over HDD space so the Seagate 500GB was pretty much the cheapest HDD over 250GB that I could find at £35. Already have an external 1TB HDD. Will you be overclocking: Probably not. Any motherboard requirements (no. of USB, Xfire/SLI, fan headers): I'd like a little future-proofing for this build so USB3 and DDR3 are highly-desirable. Esp DDR3 1600 compatible boards. I'm tempted by Gigabytes marketing which claims greater USB3 transfer rates and power. Extra information about desired system: The Arianet monitor seems to be the cheapest 22" with a response time of <2. Can't find many reviews though other than what's on aria.co.uk. In terms of the mobo, I'm looking at a board with good features and comes with DDR3 and USB3. Thanks to the rest of the components above, I'm looking to stinge on the PSU and the casing - CiT's offerings set me back £53 (hmmm maybe that's not so cheap after all....) So far, this whole setup promises to set me back just over £485 inc. VAT. Comments? At this price, I'm tempted to buy a bundle setup and upgrade a little later (but the 2011 VAT increases scare me).
You might want to consider buying a more power PSU as that one is at the minimum required just for the graphics card. Also Corsair in my opinion is always the RAM to go for as it has a life time guarantee. p.s if you have over 20 posts on this forum then you can get free delivery at www.scan.co.uk click here to get instructions.
Dont ever skimp on a PSU! have a look at the recommended PSU thread for some much better options. A good case will aid cooling but tbh if monies tight just get the cheapest that'll fit the build, you can always upgrade it later and a cheap case is less likely to kill something than the PSU.
Processor: decent choice if your not overclocking Mobo: switch it to the MSI C45 very good board PSU: dont opt for a rubbish PSU - grab decent 500-550W like corsair, be quiet, seasonic etc Monitor: dont buy cheapo rubbish monitor - look for a decent TN panel like a samsung or viewsonic also with your budget dont go for a 1920x1080 panel look for a 1680x1050. you also dont need to have 2ms or less repsonse as you wont tell the difference with a 5 8 or 12 really. Memory: id try to get 4GB 1333mhz if gaming is your choice as 2GB will defo bottleneck your system GPU: the 5770 is a good choice but not for 1920x1080 it more suited to 1680x1050 and below. if your budget is tight lower the res so you can keep graphics turn up nice and high switch the HDD to the samsung 500GB F3 or 1TB as these are one of the best HDD going at the moment. additional why the need for usb 3 ? since almost no devices are out and do you intend to buy a USB3 external HDD ? or transfer 1000's of photos from usb 3 enabled cameras ?
A GTX 460 at £197? Ouch.... Nice but budget won't permit such niceness... £100 is about as high as I'll go. http://www.expertreviews.co.uk/graphics-cards/1279042/nvidia-geforce-gtx-460-1gb
you can get cheaper 460s for 170 or a bit less. i would change the psu get a nice 500w -550w and make sure it has 2x 12 rails on it with a good ampage on each rail eg ocz.Corsair . you can get good psu for £50 or just over
did a quick price up of what i think you need all from scan with free del. CASE: coolermaster elite 330 £29.26 - nice little cheap case PSU: 500W Antec earthwatts £55.03 - good PSU HDD: 500GB Samsung F3 £33.45 - one of the best around MOBO: MSI 770-C45 £52.64 - one of the best on a budget AMD rig GPU: 1GB HD5770 £129.92 - good for 1680x1050 or below MON: Viewsonic 20" VA2013BW 1600x900 £94.34 - standard TN monitor from a good brand CPU: AMD Athlon 255 £54.78 - good if your not overclocking RAM: 4GB DDR 1333 Corsair £72.97 - 4GB is really a must for gaming 2GB will bottleneck TOTAL: £522.38 only £22.38 over budget which is much better than the system you listed and good quality components too.
Cool! Thanks! What do you guys rate my chances of getting a better deal on some of these parts (perhaps the mobo + CPU?) by bargaining at one of the shops on Tottenham Court Rd or the computer fair there?
i have just found this psu for £44 OCZ StealthXStream 500W Silent SLI/Crossfire Ready ATX2.2 Power Supply from aria or this one OCZ StealthXStream 600W Silent SLI/Crossfire Ready ATX2.2 Power Supply for 58.74
Someone found this 4890 recently at Aria. If you don't care about DX11, then this card is both faster and cheaper than the 5770. Just something to consider ...
Hmm... looks good on paper but slightly troubled by the heat and noise issues of this range of cards.
Good Spec up but 3 things 1.) CM 335 is probably the best sub £30 case 2.) The earthwatts is good but nothing better, and that doesn't really justify spending £25 more than this absolute cheapest PSU worth buying 3.) With the money you save on the PSU go for a proper gaming CPU http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/AMD-...l-Core-S-AM3-32GHz-7MB-Total-Cache-80W-Retail Other than that the 5770 is an excellent choice and is probably the cheapest gaming GPU worth buying Welcome to BT Btw Also a noiser and more power hungry
didint see the 335 so yeah thats better personally for me 400W is a little low and does not allow you to upgrade to a beefier GPU as this would defo require an upgrade to the PSU too. for a 5770 its fine but a 4890 it isnt which is a better deal if you can get one. if your not upgrading the GPU in around 1 years time to something better grab the 400W as said. If the budgets tight the phenom just is too expensive to consider since its over £25 more and offers little extra in real performance for games. (4mb extra cache and 100mhz speed). wonder what the actual FPS difference is hmmm ?
Tbh I went looking for benchmarks to prove you wrong but turns out there's no difference at low res gaming, maybe at higher resolutions but tbh bagpuss is right, pocket the difference
