Yet another 'spec me a build for a friend' thread...!

A bloke at work is looking for a PC build, he's decided he doesn't want an off-the-shelf PCWorld job (yay!) so has asked for advice.

It sounds like he wants to spend around £500, probably upto £600.
Usage is mostly media, blu ray is a must, some gaming as well.

I'm not sure whether to recommend Sandy Bridge or not, they're obviously the best performers but for cost/usage I'm not sure whether to go with AMD?

SLI/OC ability isn't important.
No monitor/keyboard/mouse needed.
He'd like an SSD of some sort (probably be in conjunction with a large HDD for media purposes)

So basically I'm looking for ideas on a whole build including case/PSU/OS etc

Everyone loves these threads so fire away please guys!

Rob

OK, here's my attempt :)
Coolermaster Elite 430 with 500W PSU £58.
Asus M4A88T-M AMD 880G AM3 Motherboard £65.
AMD CPU Phenom II X4 840 Quad Core Processor £79 (it's really an Athlon, not Phenom, but is good value).
Corsair 2 x 2GB DDR3 1333 Mhz £35.
Kingston 64GB SSDNow V100 2.5" SATAII Read=250MB/sec, Write=145MB/sec - Desktop Bundle £82.
Samsung 2TB Spinpoint F4 Hard Drive £62.
LG Blu-Ray Writer £70.
XFX HD 5750 Graphics Card £84.

Total = £535.

You then add £75 for OEM Windows 7.

For me, this is a pretty-well balanced system focussing on media (i'm assuming video conversion, hence quad-core was essential). A 5750 will still game, and do quite well, however i'm waiting for some heat my way from people reminding me of Crysis 2 coming out... :mrgreen:

that looks good thanks :)

I was thinking Phenom (NB noted on the 840 though, doubt he'd even know!) Told him to decide on whether he wants or NEEDS an SSD/decent GFX already so could possibly cut some cost there. :D

Any suggestions for mATX? I've seen this on Scan http://www.scan.co.uk/products/asus-...-raid-matx-vga

Not sure on a decent SFF case though?

I have that particular Kingston SSD in my laptop now (see my sig), and it has transformed the laptop.
I'm strongly thinking of buying it for my desktop too.

I note that the CPU & BluRay are currently on 'Today Only' for about a quid off each.

In terms of graphics, you could cut out the additional graphics card completely, as the onboard 880G graphics will do light gaming (see here), but i'd probably caution against spending any less to get anything less than a 5750, or it's a false economy.

I'd found that bit tech article, he's thinking of SFF so athough the case/PSU is twice the price it saves on GFX power.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Rob_B

Any suggestions for mATX? I've seen this on Scan http://www.scan.co.uk/products/asus-...-raid-matx-vga

Not sure on a decent SFF case though?

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http://www.scan.co.uk/products/antec...bays-120mm-fan
It's a great case.
Be very wary of buying anything too cheap, especially a cheap PSU which could be ok, but also is likely to fry your components, and then your friend will give you personally a lot of hassle (i've been there, done that, and ended up doing alot of extra work that could have been avoided).

Yeah thats whay I've said already, he pointed towards one of the cheapo £40 incl 300W PSU cases, I did the obligatory "it would probably be ok but I wouldn't use it" ! :D

Yep, unfortunately people who aren't too tech-literate only see the bottom line, and are happy for the cheapest possible. My advice - give him the information to self-build, including the better and the cheaper PSU's & cases, and let him make his own decisions. But if he chooses the cheaper one, don't build it for him!

Can you persuade him to buy stuff second hand as that will improve the kit he could buy for his money.

nah, too risky for him i reckon. better getting warranty etc to be safe (hey maybe even Scansure! ;))

The Coolermaster Elite Power 500W uses a passive PFC so I would get a better PSU such as the following:

http://www.scan.co.uk/products/400w-...mm-fan-atx-12v

I got one a few weeks ago on Scan Today Only for around £34. Here are my thoughts on the PSU:

http://forums.hexus.net/hexus-hardwa...-thoughts.html

It is very similar to the CX400W.

If you go with a full ATX motherboard you can get one with SATA3.0 for around £59:

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/255180

I got the i3-540 over the AMD - Anandtech did a very helpful comparison of the budget processors a few months back. Basically for most stuff the i3 was on parity with, or better than, the AMD chips and it overclocks well.

i3-540
Asus P7H55-M/USB3.0 (mATX and has Sata 3 (6GB/s) and USB3.0 plus a cracking BIOS, no RAID though)
LG BluRay R/W
GTX560 Ti or failing that a GTX460
60GB OCZ Vertex (one of the older sandforce ones if you can get it)
1TB Seagate 7200.12 - they are QUIET and do well against the pack - see PCPro reviews.
4GB corsair 1600 9-9-9-24

Case, take your pick. I went for the BitFenix Survivor and it is sweeeeeeeet

I use all the above and am quite happy with my budget standby until the new sockets come out this autumn. Compared to my old P4 rig it goes like the clappers.

All of these items repeatedly come up in Scan's Today Only offers, and in fact yesterday for just £273.84 you could get all of the above minus the graphics card and bluray, but including a DVD RW drive, card reader, PSU etc. (Dif case though) - oh and no SSD needless to say

For me there are three main reasons to build your own system (in order of benefit) ...

1) If you want specific components (i.e. you're fussy about the case and the Mobo and the PSU and the colour of the fans, etc ....
2) You want to really understand your PC, be happy about upgrading it in the future (including OCing), like doing lots of research (specs and cost) and see strange hardware failures as an interesting challenge and learning opportunity (not an "Oh no, it's broken" moment).
3) Save yourself a little bit of money. Actually what am I talking about. Building your own always costs you more because you end up lusting after better components :p

Sure, help your friend, but I wouldn't build it for him. If you do you'll also become his support contact :surprised:

So my advice, if he wants to build his own system but is a little bit scared (we all were the first time), then go for one of the bare bones systems on Scan Today Only and top it up with other Today only bits. Scan sales people are very helpful with what he'll need (in my experience).

If that doesn't appeal then consider Scan's 3XS Smart systems.
http://3xs.scan.co.uk/Category.asp?S...rCategoryID=18
Here's one for just over £500 http://3xs.scan.co.uk/ShowSystem.asp?SystemID=1011
But as the page says "Blah blah ... Scans Fixed specfication range blah blah, If you would like to configure your own 3XS i3 OC please visit the 3XS Custom Shop"

The trouble is that gets you into the "costing more than you intended" territory I mentioned in (3) above :clapping:

Rob_B - I just realised that you've been on this site for like 100 years and have posted a zillion times and probably know everything I wrote. So I was about to delete the post when I thought naa, what the heck. This might not be news to you but it might be useful to one of the lurkers that read (but never post) on these forums.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by ik9000

I got the i3-540 over the AMD - Anandtech did a very helpful comparison of the budget processors a few months back. Basically for most stuff the i3 was on parity with, or better than, the AMD chips and it overclocks well.

i3-540
Asus P7H55-M/USB3.0 (mATX and has Sata 3 (6GB/s) and USB3.0 plus a cracking BIOS, no RAID though)
LG BluRay R/W
GTX560 Ti or failing that a GTX460
60GB OCZ Vertex (one of the older sandforce ones if you can get it)
1TB Seagate 7200.12 - they are QUIET and do well against the pack - see PCPro reviews.
4GB corsair 1600 9-9-9-24

Case, take your pick. I went for the BitFenix Survivor and it is sweeeeeeeet

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Before i do anything else, I want to be clear that i'm not having a go at you buddy, and that all opinions are welcome here! Taking the time to suggest something to help someone out is a great thing, plus alternatives to my ideas are good to stimulate debate...
And now i'm going to say why I think your suggestions are not so good :rolleyes:

In terms of the actual specs, the i3-540 (whilst a viable option) isnt as good as the Phenom X4 840.
Consider that the 840 is really like an Athlon II X4, but at 3.2 Ghz.
Looking at your reference of Anandtech, and considering what the OP has requested ("mostly media, blu ray is a must, some gaming")
Scroll down halfway to Sony Vegas Pro 8: BluRay Disc Creation. Admittedly, they are close though. Also the Sorenson.
The media transcoding stuff, the i3 does well, but the Athlon equally or better.
Gaming is more of a mixed bag, and i'd probably give it to the Intel chip, on average, in those games.

Moving on to cost though... (im using scan, please do say if you have seen cheaper elsewhere as i dont want to misrepresent you)

i3-540 £88.25
Asus P7H55-M/USB3.0 £73.86
LG BluRay R/W £70.76
GTX560 Ti £190
60GB OCZ Vertex £89.64
1TB Seagate 7200.12 Today only £35.99
4GB corsair 1600 9-9-9-24 £39.74
BitFenix Survivor £83.98 (USB 3.0 version).

Given the graphics, we're also going to need a good quality PSU.
As a minimum, a quality 500W. £59.98.
Also the OS for £75.

The total comes to £807.20.
A little out of budget, and not exactly meeting his requested needs.
Not that it's a bad system (its not, it's pretty good actually), but it looks like something that you would want, not the O.P.

Here is a comparison of a 3.1GHZ Athlon II X4 and a 3.06GHZ Core i3:

http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/188?vs=143

For video encoding the Athlon II X4 is around 10% to 30% faster although the Core i3 has the edge for gaming.

billy - Yeah I'm not building it for him :D He may bring the parts into work & we'll build it up in here, gives me something to take my mind off redundancy!

MSIC - Very true, although if I was spending over £800 to be fair I'd want more than a measly i3!

CAT - I looked at the benchies when that chip was first mentioned. I looked at the Phenom 955 & took off approx 10% for gaming. Still good in comparison.

I think the spec is settled on (at least he's happy)

Case + PSU £58
http://www.scan.co.uk/products/coole...elite-500w-psu

Motherboard £72 (mATX in case he wants to get a smaller case in the future)
http://www.scan.co.uk/products/asus-...-raid-matx-vga

Quad core 3.2Ghz CPU £79
http://www.scan.co.uk/products/amd-p...mhz-95w-retail

4GB RAM £35
http://www.scan.co.uk/products/4gb-(...-9-9-9-24-150v

1TB HDD £40
http://www.scan.co.uk/products/ss1tb...-89-ms-ncq-oem

Blu Ray reader - £39
http://www.scan.co.uk/products/liteo...m-inc-software

Win7 64bit OEM - £75
http://www.scan.co.uk/products/micro...tem-single-oem

= £398

A couple of things have been seen cheaper ie the case for £50 on ebuyer, 2GB sticks for £15 on Play.com so it will probably end up being less than £398. Also probably an ATX mobo so another £10-£15 knocked off that price. Possibly a blu ray drive wity DVDRW which adds another £10

It's not going to be overclocked to hell nor even have a GFX card for the moment so I reckon this will suit him.

Like I said, fish around for specials like the Scan TodayOnly offers and you'll get it for much cheaper.

If you'd looked at the Today Only offers on Monday 14th Feb - the day you posted the query - you could have got most of the components I listed in the No-Brainer special for under £300 including case and 450W PSU and easily done the whole system for under £600 by adding the following.

BR reader £40
GPU £150
OS £75

Hope the build goes well whatever you choose.

I would still get a better PSU. The Elite Power 500W has a passive PFC.

This PSU is made by Seasonic and looks to be the same as the Corsair CX400W:

http://www.scan.co.uk/products/400w-...mm-fan-atx-12v

This PSU is slightly lower quality but is still a decent PSU for the price:

http://www.scan.co.uk/products/530w-...ail-atx12v-v23

The Asus M4A88T-M/USB3 still uses the older SB710 southbridge so I would go for one of the following motherboards which use the SB850 southbridge which has SATA3.0:

http://www.scan.co.uk/products/gigab...sata-raid-matx

http://www.scan.co.uk/products/msi-8...sata-raid-uatx

This motherboard is also worth considering as it uses the faster HD4290 IGP:

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/255177

PSU - Tricky to push it upto the price of the current case/PSU (you all know the drill there!)

As for mobo, to be fair anything will probably do, looking at the £40 AM3 boards on ebuyer/Scan they'd do as long as they have onboard video with HDMI out :)

If you want to save some money I would look at the following motherboards:

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/244433

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/255178

These both have the HD4250 IGP which has UVD2. The 760G motherboards have the HD3000 IGP which lacks UVD or UVD2 meaning it has poorer video abilities.

Regarding the PSU, getting a cheap one now is just a short term saving IMHO.

You can get one of the following cases and one of the PSUs I listed for around £71 to £73:

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/239240

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/239238

The Casecom cases tend to better quality than the lower end Coolermaster cases,are better designed and have a pair of fans included too.

Cheers Cat, I'll pass the message on but it's not my money so he might just go for cheapness ;)

Also make sure that you check the Scan Today Only and Shop Offers web pages too:

http://www.scan.co.uk/todayonly/index.aspx

http://www.scan.co.uk/shopoffers/index.aspx