Hello all, Would like some feedback on the system I'm planning to build. I have a budget of £400 (though this can be stretched if need be) and the system will be used for bit of everything. Cpu : intel Core 2 Duo E7500 - £89 Motherboard : Biostar TPower I45 - £102 Ram : Corsair twinx2048-6400C4 - £30 Gpu : Radeon HD 4650 512MB (taken from last pc) Case : Coolermaster elite 330 - £29 Psu : Be quiet dark power pro 650w - £100 Hard drive : WD 360gb (taken from last pc) Hsf : Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro - £15 DVD: taken from last pc Total - £365 My os will be xp, though I intend to upgrade to windows 7 later on. Any tips or suggestions are appreciated. Thanks
looks pretty good, but it seems like you should be able to get a bit more for that sort of money. and the PSU is definitely overkill.
there's nothing wrong with the biostar, and P45 is definately the way to go Your PSU is WAY overkill, you should be more then fine with a 400-450W unit. Quite a few pounds can be saved there. I'd advise to upgrade the RAM to 4GB. Costs almost nothing. Streching to an E8400 might also be worth it, and buying one or two good casefans is always a nice idea. what kind of monitor will you be using?
As the others have said, the PSU is well over the top. Try Amazon for Corsair 400w units for about half the price. If you're spending 190 quid for a mobo/cpu have you thought about going the AMD route - you could pick up a low end AM2+ mobo and equivalent CPU for about the same price (if not less) and leave yourself some room for expansion to AM3 when DDR3 settles down a bit.
Hi Thanks for the comments. I've made some changes based on what's been suggested. Cpu : intel Core 2 Duo E8400 - £125 Motherboard : Biostar TPower I45 - £102 Ram : Corsair twinx2048-6400C4 4Gb - £40 Gpu : Radeon HD 4650 512MB (taken from last pc) Case : Coolermaster elite 330 - £29 Psu : Ocz modxstream 500w - £58 Hard drive : WD 360gb (taken from last pc) Hsf : Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro - £15 DVD: taken from last pc Casefan: £12 Total - £381 Is it worth changing the biostar for the gigabyte motherboard? To be honest I haven't given much consideration to the AMD route as ive always had intel pcs. Without starting a debate, is there a vast difference in performance between the two?? Thanks
Looks like a solid PC there mate, you'll enjoy it thouroughly for the money For 1280x1024 that card will also be a nice little kicker, and the processor will go a long way to maxing it out. Gaming should be very possible as long as you dont expect any miracles. About the motherboard... where are you ordering from? There's a cheaper alternative to the Biostar: http://www.scan.co.uk/Index.aspx?NT=1-0-92-548-0
Thanks for the help all, xtrafresh, the motherboard is from scan, £101.76. Were you recommending one in particular as your link took me to the main motherboard page?
lol, i didn't notice that. On that page, filter for Biostar mobos. There's a 75 pound board, that can do pretty much everything that the 100 pound one can, it's just slightly more crude. http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/Bios...DDR2-1066-12006-667-800-SATA-II-SATA-RAID-ATX
