£600 to spend - What would you go for?

[Warpy1]

I've got £600 to spend on a new base unit . What would you recommend?

I basically need everything that goes into a base unit including the case itself. I have a 22" Widescreen ready for this, and like to play games.

Thanks chaps!

[ed^chigliak]

Given the ridiculous price of Intel core i7 on the x58 platform I would go with the AMD Phenom II X3 720 Black Edition on AMD 780 or 790 motherboard. Probably a mATX board size in a silverstone aluminum mini tower case. 1GB hard drive with 2 No. 500GB platters else a 640GB drive with 2 No. 320GB platters. EVGA GTX260 on Novatech is £157 with bundled game mirrors edge. Alternatively cheap 1Gb 4870 due to recent price drops. Seasonic 500W PSU or silverpower PSU (made by seasonic) available at scan for £45. If you look at the review site photos the internals in the silverpower PSU are exactly the same as the much more expensive Seasonic.

[MSIC]

It's been a few months since i've done this and crickey! The falling value of the pound is now really noticeable I reckon you'll be paying 10 to 20% higher than 6 months ago.
Anywho...

Case: Antec 300 £50
PSU: 450W Corsair VX £51
Mobo: Gigabyte GA-EP43-S3L £64
CPU: Intel Q8200 £139
CPU HSF: Akasa AK 975 £15
RAM: 2 x 2GB Corsair TwinX DHX £49
Hard Drive: 640GB W.D. 'Black' £64
Optical Drive: Any will do £15
OS: Only gaming choice £70
Graphics: AMD Radeon 4850 £110.

Total = £645, although that includes postage (so remove £10).
Plus you need keyboard, mouse, speakers etc on top.

TBH i'm a bit disappointed with that, and there are savings to be made if the budget is really firm. You can get looser timing RAM and save £15, or a dual core CPU and save £40 ish.
Or re-use an old copy of WinXP, and not worry about the really rather rubbish DX10

Edit: Of course the other thing is to keep an eye out for 'Today Only' items, which in fact the above RAM is on for £37 in fact.

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

I would go for:

Phenom II X3 720 ~ £119

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/159071

Asus 780G motherboard ~ £64

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/150278

4gb DDR2 RAM ~£35

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/130429

Antec 300 case ~ £46

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/143854

Samsung 640gb hard disk ~ £50

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/158688

DVD writer ~ £15

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/154810

OCZ 500w PSU ~ £46

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/135159

Vista Basic ~ £70

http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/Micro...t-1Pk-OEM-(DVD)

HD4870 512mb ~ £144

http://www.novatech.co.uk/novatech/s....html?SAP-4870

The Phenom II X3 720 has got excellent reviews:

http://techreport.com/articles.x/16382/4

http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/cpu...710-am3-cpus/5

http://www.guru3d.com/article/amd-ph...-review-am3/25

With its unlocked multiplier you should be able to get the processor to 3ghz+ quite easily!!

I would definitely try getting an HD4870 into the build as some games like Crysis and Crysis Warhead will benefit from the extra power even at resolutions of 1680x1050 and below. The HD4870 is around 20% to 30% faster than an HD4850 so it is worth spending the extra cash. For example in Crysis under DX10 using very high settings at 1280x1024 with 2X AA the HD4870 is 30% faster than an HD4850. The HD4850 only has an average framerate of around 23fps whereas the HD4870 has an average framerate of around 29fps:

http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/I...GTX_260/9.html

Remember that Ebuyer has free postage for orders over £49.99 and so does Novatech. Scan has free postage for members with 20+ useful posts! Also check the Today Only webpage on the Scan website for further offers!

The total comes to £650.61!

[ed^chigliak]

Low multi on the Q8200 makes for a difficult overclock. Stock clock speed isn't that great and the Quad doesn't benefit many games. I'd go either really cheap E5200 dual CPU and clock it 3Ghz+ OR try like buggery to squeeze a Q9650 into the build and cut everything else to a minimum ie £70 GPU, 250/320Gb HDD, 2Gb RAM. A balanced spec is preferable however low multi CPUs are worth avoiding IMO.

3 cores will make GTA IV run smooth where dual core will struggle. Supreme Commander is the only other game I can think of that you might want more than dual cores.

[Nobull]

At that price range this is what I'd go for...

CPU: AMD PII 920 X4 £166
MOBO: ASUS M3A78-T £102
GFX: ATI HD4850 (should be fine at 1680*1050) £110
RAM: 4GB Corsair 800mhz CL5 £35
HDD:Hitachi 640GB HDD on today only at scan is only £43, bargain!
DVD: Samsung DVDRW £15
Case/PSU: Coolermaster Elite 330 with Coolermaster eXtreme power 460W PSU bundle £53, I've built 3 PCs of similar spec to yours with this PSU and no problems, I know people might slag it but 460W of a decent brand (with CM is) should be ample so long as you don't plan to crossfire at a later date or add like 3 more HDDs (would have space for 1 more comfortably)

Total: £524 leaving £76 spare for your OS or if you don't need an OS i'd go with a 4870 at at roughly £150 and spend a bit more on higher wattage PSU. Even without these upgrades it ^^^ would be a bloody powerful gaming and general use rig on a 22" monitor.

P.S. if you can hold out a week or 2 to buy the Graphics card I hear the 4870 is due for a price drop when the 4890 gets released. My see prices as low as £125-£135, which would be a bargain....

[MSIC]

On reflection i'd generally favour the other's suggestions over my own, especially CATs, and swap the 4870 to a 50 if budget requires.
It'd be a shame however to have to keep the standard CPU HSF, when £10 to £15 will get you something quieter and more efficient.

[staffsMike]

I'd mirror CAT's suggestions I think, perhaps swapping the power supply for this newer OCZ
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showpr...23&subcat=1098

It's modular allowing for easier cable tidying and airflow etc.. and it's only a few quid more really.

If you get a uATX motherboard I'd take advantage of that and get a smaller case like the Coolermaster Elite 340 instead. It will work as well if not better in terms of cooling and noise with the added bonus of being much smaller.

[Warpy1]

Thanks so much for the posts so far. I appreciate it. I like the look of CAT's spec, does the PhenomII clock well? How do they compare to the i7?

[Warpy1]

By the way, I've never had a mATX board - is there anything different apart from size?

[Sputnik]

I think the AMD spec is the way to go. (I have to say that because I was talked into building yet another AMD machine).

The 720 is a great CPU by all reports. But, have just read that the cooler that comes with it is 'cheap and nasty' looking.

I've got a 720 on order myself.

Note the stock levels at Ebuyer are very low now!

[scaryjim]

The Phenom II's have a reputation for clocking phenominally well - an X3 720 should go some way beyond 3GHz on air.
There's no difference at all building on an mATX board as opposed to an ATX - you may find that one or two things aren't *quite* as easy to get to but if you're building in a full ATX case you may actually find the opposite, because you'll have plenty of room in the case next to the "bottom" of the board! The only good reason I can see to go with an ATX board is if you a) are dead set on crossfire or SLi, or b) plan on adding several expansion cards (putting a high end graphics card on an MATX board general means you've only got 2 usable expansion slots).

Either CAT or MSIC's build would do nicely (with one change: if you go the Intel route I'd recommend the E8400 - about the same price as the Q8200, but with a much higher clock: and most current games will utilise GHz better than cores!), but personally I might be tempted to go a different route and pick a graphics card to start with: for instance, dedicate £200 to getting a GTX260 (or even £260 for a 4850 X2) then build the rest of the computer into that budget. I recently built a machine around a 4850 and managed to bring the whole thing in at £350, so it's definitely possible...

[Warpy1]

The i7's do seem quite expensive. What seems to be the case is that Intel release their high end versions first whilst AMD do it the opposite way. I'm just wondering if getting a core 2 duo chip would be a better option and then I might be able to get a better GPU? I've had a C2D before and they clock amazingly well, I could easily pickup a good one cheap enough

[Sputnik]

Or go the AMD route with a 7750+ and you will able to drop a better CPU in the board at a later date. Remember the AM3's are going to be backward compatible. (for a while at least).

[scaryjim]

I'm just wondering if getting a core 2 duo chip would be a better option and then I might be able to get a better GPU?

Did we cross post?

As I said, the E8400 strikes me as a good gaming CPU, and I believe they are meant to overclock well too (it's currently £135 on ebuyer). That would be my choice if you're looking for an overall performance system. If you just want something that can drive a high-end graphics card for blistering frame-rates, then I'd echo whoever it was who said go for the E5200. It's proper Core2-bred processor, just with a slower bus and lower cache, and it's only £58 at the moment. If you're going to be gaming at the maximum res of your 22" monitor, get one of those and put the extra £75 into your graphics card. If you want something in between, ebuyer are doing the E7400 for just under £100 which puts it in direct competition with the Phenom II X3 710... again, not a terrible choice for a balanced system...

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

The Phenom II X3 720 is not only a good overclocker but you are getting an extra core too. With some X3 processors you can actually unlock the fourth disabled core too and at least one Hexus user has done this with their PhenomII X3 720.

Games which take advantage of multiple cores will run faster on a Phenom II X3 BTW.


The newer OCZ PSU can be had at Ebuyer too:

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/152009

The modular design will be better as it will make sure that unnecessary cables do not clog up the case!
I would also look at getting an mATX case like the Elite 340 too:

Here are some user reviews with pictures of the inside and outside of the case:

http://www.silentpcreview.com/forums...ic.php?t=45193

http://www.hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1232853


Here is a review of the case:

http://www.upgraderguides.com/index.php?type=5&id=95