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Thread: Cheap spec advice please

  1. #1
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    Cheap spec advice please

    Hi,
    Have been asked to put together a new machine for me mate, with 2 main points.
    1. Needs to be cheap
    2. Needs to be decent
    Buget is £400 or as near as, and is to be used for a bit of everything.
    This is the best I could come up with.

    PSU OCZ 400w stealth xstream Ebuyer 152505 £30
    http://www.ebuyer.com/product/152505

    MOBO ASUS M4A785TD-M EVO 785G Socket AM3 Ebuyer 170277 £69.39
    http://www.ebuyer.com/product/170277
    - or -
    Asus M4A785TD-V EVO 785G Socket AM3 Ebuyer 169532 £70.94
    http://www.ebuyer.com/product/169532

    CPU AMD Athlon II 425 X3 Socket AM3 Ebuyer 176042
    http://www.ebuyer.com/product/176042

    RAM Crucial 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 1333MHz/PC3-10600 Memory Kit CL9 1.5V Ebuyer 166995 £ 92.99
    http://www.ebuyer.com/product/166995

    GPU Sapphire HD 5670 512MB GDDR5 HDMI DVI DisplayPort Ebuyer 190132 £70.34
    http://www.ebuyer.com/product/190132

    CASE Casecom 6788 Black Mid Tower Case Ebuyer 172779 £29.99
    http://www.ebuyer.com/product/172779

    DVD R/W Samsung SH-S223 22X DVD±RW/RAM/DL Ebuyer 145450 £14.99
    http://www.ebuyer.com/product/145450
    Total cost from Ebuyer £362.11
    - plus -
    HDD Samsung F3 500gb (why don't Ebuyer stock these?) around £40.00

    Just over £400

    Please would someone have a look over this and let me know of any mistakes or better alternatives for around the same price-ish and does anybody know if the psu cables are long enuff for the case

    Thanks
    Jason

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    Re: Cheap spec advice please

    Do you need integrated graphics??

    How much gaming are you doing with the computer??

    Are you overclocking the CPU??

    Do you need to buy all the parts from Ebuyer??

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    Re: Cheap spec advice please

    Cat
    thanks for the very quick reply.

    Don't need integrated graphics. Just seems like a good board that happens to have the feature and it may come in usefull at some time.

    It will be used for a good bit of gaming, on hdtv as well as monitor.

    I will overclock the cpu but not to stupid levels, just nice and stable.

    Would prefer to buy all the parts from Ebuyer as I dont have have any am3 or dd3 parts to troubleshoot with if it arrives with a faulty component

    Thanks once again, any advice will be gratefully recieved

    Jason

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    Re: Cheap spec advice please

    You could probably go for a cheaper motherboard but the Asus M4A785TD-V is a nice motherboard and the VRMs are cooled so it should help during overclocking.

    I would also look at getting the 9800GT over an HD5670:

    http://www.ebuyer.com/product/169143

    The 9800GT I linked to is a bus powered Green Edition version but most of them can be overclocked to around the same stock clockspeeds as a normal 9800GT AFAIK.

    However I would try to get this HD4850 1GB if you can stretch the budget a bit:

    http://www.dabs.com/products/best-va...-dvi-6JF3.html

    If the HD4850 1GB is not in stock I would consider this HD4850 512MB:

    http://www.svp.co.uk/technology/xfx-...hics-card.html

    It is a much faster graphics card than either an HD5670 or 9800GT.

    You should be able to overclock the X3 425 a bit on the stock heatsink but an aftermarket heatsink my prove useful at some point. Of course if you are lucky you maybe able to unlock the processor to a quad core.

    Of course I do assume you have a copy of 64 bit Windows XP,Vista or 7 to hand.

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    Re: Cheap spec advice please

    If you're not going to use onboard graphics then look at the 770chipset +710sb for the motherboard.
    Cheapest option here is the MSI 770-G45 http://www.ebuyer.com/product/185913
    ALthough the Gigabyte GA-770T_UBS3 http://www.ebuyer.com/product/196300 (USB3 and firewire) or the Asus M4A77TD Pro U3S6 http://www.ebuyer.com/product/190021 (Sata 6Gb/s and USB3 via add in card) are also worth looking at.
    Depends on if you will use these extra features or plan to in the future.

    For graphics card, I'd look at the 9800gt as it is a bit faster for the same price
    http://www.ebuyer.com/product/169143 Inno3D 9800GT Esave Edition £72
    Or go up the the 7570 at least http://www.ebuyer.com/product/179681 £93

    Not sure about the x3 425 TBH the x2 250 might be a better buy, faster at stock, more cache and the possibility of unlocking cores for a couple of £ less http://www.ebuyer.com/product/166519

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    Re: Cheap spec advice please

    Thanks once again Cat.
    Most of the spec came from reading your previous posts.
    Think i will try to get hold of a 1gb 4850 if poss.
    D'ont suppose you know if the OCZ 400w stealth xstream cables will be long enough for the Casecom 6788 case with the psu being mounted at the bottom ?

    Thanks
    jason
    Last edited by surk8; 28-03-2010 at 08:52 PM.

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    Re: Cheap spec advice please

    Thanks also Pob
    Will look into your suggestions.
    Think its gonna be a late nite...

    Thanks
    jason

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    Re: Cheap spec advice please

    Here is a review of the PSU:

    http://www.hardwaresecrets.com/article/794

    Regarding the X3 425 it is actually not bad for gaming. In games which are more dependent on single threaded performance the Athlon II X2 will edge ahead but with any game which can take advantage of multiple cores the X3 will be much faster.

    Here are some reviews of the X3 425:

    http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/A...X3_425/10.html

    http://ixbtlabs.com/articles3/cpu/am...25-435-p3.html

    In many instances a slower clocked Athlon X3 is similar or faster in games when compared to the Athlon X2.

    The Asus M4A785TD-V is one of the cheapest AMD motherboards which an 8+2 phase VRM and also has cooling of the VRMs too.
    Last edited by CAT-THE-FIFTH; 28-03-2010 at 09:05 PM.

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    Re: Cheap spec advice please

    Think i'm pretty much sold on The Asus M4A785TD-V, X3 425 & OCZ 400w stealth xstream.
    Seems a shame not to get HD 5750 but it aint my budget, tho i might try to convince my friend otherwise.

    Thanks
    jason

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    Re: Cheap spec advice please

    Quote Originally Posted by surk8 View Post
    Think i'm pretty much sold on The Asus M4A785TD-V, X3 425 & OCZ 400w stealth xstream.
    Seems a shame not to get HD 5750 but it aint my budget, tho i might try to convince my friend otherwise.

    Thanks
    jason
    The same CPU can be used with DDR2 memory with only a very slight performance hit. This allows a cheaper motherboard, and cheaper RAM. That might push you up to the next range of graphics cards and give you an overall big performance win.

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    • chris_argyle's system
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    Re: Cheap spec advice please

    Just incase its been missed, there has been no mention of an OS. I guess you are getting a copy of windows 7 outside the £400 budget?

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