Need a computer for around £300?

Well I need to build a computer for myself, i have saved just under £350 to mess around with and wanted it to be fairly decent.
I need the computer for college work, like website design, and coding. But as well as gaming and general use.

I don't really have a clue what to get because i keep looking at all the expensive things, which overruns my budget a lot, i think the cheapest i got to was around £500

Some things i defiantly want:
1TB Hard drive
4gb Ram (Preferably DDR3)
And a graphics card with stand alone ram?

Any ideas? Any suggestions or comments are welcome :)
Cheers

Case: Coolermaster Sileo Mid Tower (http://www.scan.co.uk/products/coole...aster-500w-psu)
Motherboard: Asus M4A88T-M (http://www.scan.co.uk/products/asus-...board-graphics)
CPU: AMD Athlon II X3 450 (http://www.scan.co.uk/products/amd-a...mhz-95w-retail)
RAM: 4GB Corsair XMS3 DDR3 1600MHz (http://www.scan.co.uk/products/4gb-c...-9-24-xmp-165v)
GPU: NVIDIA GTS 450 1GB (http://www.scan.co.uk/products/1gb-p...i-i-d-sub-hdmi)
HDD: 1TB Samsung SpinPoint F3 7200RPM (http://www.scan.co.uk/products/ss1tb...-89-ms-ncq-oem)
PSU: 500W Coolermaster included with case
Optical: Sony Optical DVD Writer (http://www.scan.co.uk/products/sony-...sata-black-oem)

This should come to about £370, but if you really needed to stick to £350 get a cheap case of your choice and pair it with http://www.scan.co.uk/products/430w-...-rail-atx-ps-2

I'm presuming monitor and Windows aren't required

I just had a look at what you put up, and i like it. But i was looking at the processor and was wondering will that 1.5mb cache effect it?

And yes the monitor and windows aren't needed.
Also the ram you offered is 1600 mhz i think and the motherboard doesnt take this speed apparently?

You can get the coolermaster 430 with the 500w psu for less http://www.ebuyer.com/product/235611
However the psu isn't great, Passive PFC (it's 230v mains only) only 70% efficiency, is rated at 30amp on 12v rails maximum probably a bit lower for continuous load.
http://www.coolermaster.com/product....tegory_id=3575
Review here http://www.hardwaresecrets.com/artic...y-Review/728/1
This is actually an ok 400w but not one I'd go out of my way to buy.

That said for the build Skulltrail listed it should be fine.
I'd also change the motherboard to this http://www.scan.co.uk/products/msi-8...-sata-raid-atx
Swap the ram to a dual channel kit http://www.scan.co.uk/products/4gb-%...s-9-9-9-24-15v

Did you need mouse and keyboard?

If you don't mind 2nd hand look for an ati 5770 you should be able to pick one up for under £70
Or an nvidia gts250 or even a ati 4850 ok no amazing nor dx11 but you should be able to snag one for £50

Yes, definatedly go dual channel - that was just be me being lazy and not looking properly.

Thanks for all the support :)
I do need a keyboard and mouse, i do have one spare but there not very good not even usb i dont think..
And i dont mind second hand if i can get one thats cheap and good and will work for a couple of years.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi...Ps-2-ports.jpg

I think all motherboards still come with the PS/2 sockets for older devices. May be worth re-using what you have for a while.

I would consider these components:

AMD Athlon II X3 450 ~ £57

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/238326

4GB 1600MHZ DDR3 ~ £37

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/239260

Biostar TA870 ~ £59

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

Has the SB850 with SATA3.0 and supports 125W CPUs.

OR

Biostar TA870U3+ ~ £61

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/259268

Has SB850 southbridge with SATA3.0,USB3.0,VRM cooling and supports 125W CPUs. However,it has less back panel connectors than the Biostar TA870 and a worse integrated sound card.

HIS HD 5750 iCooler 1GB ~ £85

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/222088

Samsung F3 1TB ~ £40

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/173804

SATA DVD rewriter ~ £12

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/176026

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/145450

Casecom K5-9388 ~ £30

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

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

Be Quiet 530W Pure Power PSU ~ £47

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/190751

OR

OCZ Stealth Xstream II 500W PSU ~ £48

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/204355

The total comes to around £367 to £370.

How about this one

Quote:

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Coolermaster Elite 330 Black/Silver 1 £24.29
2GB Corsair DDR3 XMS3, PC3-10666 (1 2 £16.10
Asus M4A87TD EVO, AMD 870, S AM3, P 1 £65.87
500Gb Western Digital WD5000AAKX Ca 1 £22.59
512MB XFX HD 5450, PCI-E 2.1 (x16), 1 £23.53
430W Corsair CMPSU-430CX Builder Se 1 £29.43
Logitech S120, Black, 2.0Ch Multime 1 £6.19
Samsung SH-S223C/BEBE 22x DVD±R, 12 1 £10.44
120mm Akasa AK-174BK-S Black Case F 1 £3.99
AMD Phenom II X4 955 Black, Deneb C 1 £84.55
Coolermaster Vortex Plus CPU Cooler 1 £15.38
43cm Scan Serial ATA Cable SATAII ( 1 £0.52
BLAZE Black 2.4GHZ wireless Mouse w 1 £10.98
----------------------------------------------------------
Net Total £329.96
Carriage £0.00
VAT £65.99
Total £395.95

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*Ignore the Mouse at £11
*Ignore £6.19 Speakers
* 2GB RAM DDR3 is x 2 so you could deduct £16.10

Quote:

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Originally Posted by zain

How about this one


*Ignore the Mouse at £11
*Ignore £6.19 Speakers
* 2GB RAM DDR3 is x 2 so you could deduct £16.10

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Do you have links?

The HD5450 is not that great for most modern games. I would probably avoid the CX430W until at least the V2 version comes out.

To be honest im not good with all this stuff. I'm going to write down CTF's specs now and then on Saturday when i go the computer fair see if i can pick anything up for cheaper or if i can find something better or close to it for cheaper than that price if not i will buy it online i think unless i can find anything better tonight.

Be careful with the 880G motherboards though. Some of them have the earlier SB710 southbridge which lacks SATA3.0 and RAID 5. Make sure that the motherboard can support 125W TDP CPUs too.

Also,avoid the Corsair CX430W. I would consider the Be Quiet 530W and OCZ 500W PSU better than the Corsair CX 500W too.

Personally I would invest in a new case, decent power supply, hard disk, optical drive and then hit eBay for the motherboard/CPU/RAM/Graphics...

You might be able to find a quad core, reasonable motherboard etc, so long as you aren't bothered about the latest USB3 etc

I'm in this market too. Cat's build above looks about the best.
I'm hoping that some sort of bundle deal will come up based on either the X3 450 or the X4 640.

Well im going to the computer fair this weekend, and am going to see if i can get any of these parts cheap . If i do manage to find any i will let you know what i have bought and what still needs to be bought. and how much money i have left over.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Cornie

To be honest im not good with all this stuff. I'm going to write down CTF's specs now and then on Saturday when i go the computer fair see if i can pick anything up for cheaper or if i can find something better or close to it for cheaper than that price if not i will buy it online i think unless i can find anything better tonight.

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Whilst I am sure you can undercut Cat's selection at a computer fair, I am also sure it will be at the cost of quality.

If you want to bring the price down, how about:

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/237554 £42.94 Dual core X2 3.0GHz
http://www.ebuyer.com/product/190138 £58.89 HD 5670 512MB GDDR5

Today's prices that brings the system down by about £40. It is a slower machine, but faster than the one my wife is still happy with :)

I'm sure you could get a cheaper motherboard as well, but that would be at the expense of limiting CPU choice to 95W, only USB2 etc and if you want to upgrade in the future it is a pain. Most people never upgrade a machine once built though, so perhaps this is an option.

I wouldn't want a cheaper hard drive, you would lose too much performance.

How much cost do you need to lose from Cat's suggestion to get to a happy place?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Cornie

Do you have links?

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Yes all on Scan website.

On second thoughts if you do decide to get that, pick a different mouse as these wireless are a bit unreliable so I have a wired mouse also connected.

So i went to the computer fair on Saturday.
I went with CAT's list and had a custom built computer with the same specs for £370 your price.
But...
He put a quad core 3.0 ghz instead of triple core 3.2 ghzz .
Also swapped the graphics card to a ati XFX 5670 1gb GDDR5.
With an as rock motherboard.
Only problem i had with it is that when i opened it up after trying to install windows 7 like 8 times, is that he gave me one crucial 2gb ddr3 and one SUM 2gb ddr3 ram. The Sum one doesn't work and blue screens my computer if its in. So this weekend i need to go back and see if he will trade it otherwise im in a loss. But other than that it all worked out fine.
Thanks for all the support and help . It was much appreciated.