New PC £350 Budget

[toberemembered]

Hiya I would like to ask you guys what you think of this as a sub £350 build.

I cant afford to spend more than £350, and honestly my main usage will be gaming

So far all the parts are available at scan, today only or otherwise.

Core i3 2100 £87.59
Asus P8H67-M LE Rev3, Intel H67, S1155, PCI-E 2.0 x16, DDR3 1333, SATA 6Gb/s, RAID, MATX, VGA £70.79
Coolermaster Elite 430 Case + Elite 500w PSU £47.99
1TB Samsung f3 £37.79
2*2GB Corsair XMS3 Classic DDR3 10666 £35.99
Pioneer DVR s19 £14.39
512mb Sapphire HD 5670 £58.07
TOTAL £352.61

I had originally been looking at buying a bundle with the i3 540 cpu and slightly faster ram for £10 less but decided i'd rather the newer and more powerful i3.

I dont want to procrastinate too long over what parts to get, im really looking forward to getting on and building the thing.

What I would like to know if anyone has the time and doesnt mind helping is:
1- Is this build well rounded and ok for playing modern games up to 720p resolution?
2-Would I be better off considering Athlon CPU's at this budget?
3-Would it be better to spend say £40 more on a 5770 and go for a cheaper athlon cpu?

Its been about 4 years since i last built a system so any help is much appreciated, I know scans today only offers will be changing tomorrow so hoping to make up my mind asap.

Thanks!

[gavbon]

first of all

it really depends on the games your going to play, and how well you want them to perform

personally, i feel the best bang for buck card atm is the nvidia GTX460, but your looking at £130-140 alone

im sure the processor will be ample aswell

do you intend to overclock the system at all?

[toberemembered]

As far as games go I have an Xbox360 but have been missing PC gaming, particularly strategy games.

I cant shift on the budget unfortunately, although i'd love to spend more like £500.

Im open to ideas as far as overclocking goes, I guess I just figured that AM3 Mobos that support overclocking and buying an aftermarket cooler may be too expensive.

Is the i3 2100 a good chip? I know there are quad core Athlons available for similar money

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

TBH,games tend to more GPU limited than CPU limited. With your budget I would go with an Athlon II X3 and a better graphics card. I would also look at a better PSU too.

Once you get to 20 posts you can get free postage from Scan:
http://forums.hexus.net/scan-care-he...-delivery.html

Considering strategy games both versions of Supreme Commander and Civilisation V will still run fine on a dual core as many of my friends play these games.

[toberemembered]

Can you recommend a solid AM3 motherboard that supports overclocking?
USB3 would be a plus but not too important
Edit: sorry i'm asking lots of questions!

I'm looking at the athlon II X3 450 for £58

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

I would consider this build:

AMD Athlon II X3 450 ~ £56

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

MSI 870-C45 ~ £50

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/241003

This is the newer version of the MSI 770-C45 which is one of the better budget AM3 motherboards for overclocking. It also supports core unlocking. If you do manage to unlock the Athlon II X3 to a Phenom II X4 I would not overclock with this motherboard though. It is more suited to the 95W TDP processors for overclocking purposes.

Kingston 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 1600MHz HyperX Blu Memory Kit ~ £37

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/241003

Corsair 430W CX PSU ~ £35

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/240998

Not the best quality PSU but it is much better than the Coolermaster Elite 500W.

SATA DVD rewriter ~ £12

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

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

PowerColor HD 5770 1GB GDDR5 ~ £98

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/248749

Samsung SpinPoint F3 500GB ~ £32

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/146252

Casecom K5-9388 ~ £30

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

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


The total comes to around £353 including free delivery.

If you want USB3.0 and/or SATA3.0 you will need to spend between £60 to £70 on the motherboard especially if you intend to overclock.

If you could spend another £25 to £35 you could get a better PSU and a GTX460 768MB or GTX460 1GB graphics card.

[toberemembered]

Hey thanks,that looks like a good trade off, the processor gets a lower passmark score than the i3 2100 (3064ish compared to 3874). Does that mean much in real terms?

I guess the graphics card will probaby make a bigger difference in games like you say. And unlike the i3 the X3 can be overclocked/unlocked. When you said not to overclock did you mean dont overclock it at all with this mobo or only if you unlock the 4th core?

Thanks for taking the time to put a bundle together

[shakerist]

That is a good looking case, link for the ram is wrong

this is link for ram:
http://www.ebuyer.com/product/239260

I feel rather ripped off i paid £80 last year for OCZ ram and these were £90 could of got 8gb

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

Hey thanks,that looks like a good trade off, the processor gets a lower passmark score than the i3 2100 (3064ish compared to 3874). Does that mean much in real terms?

I guess the graphics card will probaby make a bigger difference in games like you say. And unlike the i3 the X3 can be overclocked/unlocked. When you said not to overclock did you mean dont overclock it at all with this mobo or only if you unlock the 4th core?

Thanks for taking the time to put a bundle together

A socket 1155 Core i3 or a Phenom II X4 would be more powerful but a gaming PC is dependent on both the CPU and GPU so a balance is needed.

If you unlock the processor to a Phenom II X4 you are consuming more power as the L3 cache has been activated. If you unlock the processor to an Athlon X4 you can get away with a small overclock.

One of my mates managed to unlock their X3 435 to a 2.9GHZ Phenom II X4. They also use an HD5770 1GB and can run games like WoW,SC2,Dragonage,UT3,Supreme Commander,Supreme Commander 2 and Civilisation V at decent settings on a 1600X1200 screen.

If you cannot unlock the processor you can get away with a larger overclock.

Of course overclocking and unlocking is not guaranteed but for the price the Athlon II X3 450 has decent performance.

[toberemembered]

Hey that sounds good, that corsair psu seems to get criticised on here a fair bit, it it much of an improvement over the coolermaster? Im only asking as that other case+psu bundle on scan was £48 and the one you suggested comes to £65ish. I dont mean to sound ungrateful.

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

The Corsair CX430W is not as good as the PSU is replaced which was the Corsair CX400W. However,it is the cheapest PSU that I can find on Ebuyer which I would consider for a low end gaming build.

OTH,I consider it still a better PSU than the Coolermaster Elite 500W. Going from the reviews of the 350W and 460W versions the CX430W still looks better.

There is also the Novatech PowerStation 400W modular PSU for around the same price delivered as the CX430W:

http://www.novatech.co.uk/novatech/b...=0&y=2&z=0&v=0

It supposed to be made by the same company which makes some of the OCZ PSUs. It is more efficient than the CX430W,has a bigger fan and has modular cabling. However,it supplies less power on the 12V line than the CX430W.

This unit is better in quality than the CX430W IMHO:

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/185183

However,it does not come with a power plug so it will be nearer to £40 when you add one.

This unit is basically the same unit as the CX400W:

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

I recently bought it for a mate:

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

This PSU is slightly lower quality than the Silverpower but is still very good for the price:

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

[ik9000]

Don't worry too much about getting USB3 on the motherboard. Sure it's nice to have but it can be added using a PCIe card without too much expense - and that cost can be delayed into the future. There's not that much needing USB3.0 at the moment so waiting until the next birthday/Christmas present might save you on the motherboard.

[toberemembered]

Okay so i've had a think and im no longer in such a hurry to put this system together. I think I can probably stretch to £400 also.

So now I am looking at upgrading from a HD 5770 to a GT460 or a HD 6850 and will need a psu up to the job. I like the msi 870-C45 motherboard you suggested but its out of stock where I am looking to buy my other parts, is this http://www.scan.co.uk/products/gigab...-sata-raid-atxan ok alternative?

Edit: I can get a generic 6850 for ~£120 from pixmania is this a good deal?

[toberemembered]

Anyone know if an antec earthwatts 380w PSU will be up to powering a 6850 and an X3 450?

I have a feeling i'd need something more powerful but fancy a good brand like antec

[Phage]

It gets good reviews,
http://www.anandtech.com/show/3902/a...d-green-380w/9
But I'd recommend using a power calclator site to check what pwer you'd need. I have a feeling that 380w would be a tad light. 400-500w is my guess.

[ik9000]

Edit: I can get a generic 6850 for ~£120 from pixmania is this a good deal?

Not sure how your warranty sits when you buy from Pixmania - as a grey importer I think there is a difference compared to when buying from a regular UK based store.