Hexus monthly buyers guide

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

Basically the last effort petered out a bit:

http://forums.hexus.net/hexus-hardwa...pc-sticky.html

However,in this thread Domestic_Ginger suggested having two different builds:

http://forums.hexus.net/hexus-hardwa...-2010-a-6.html

The first would be a £300 build which has the potential to be upgraded at a later date and the other a £500 gaming build.

This sounds like quite a good suggestion. Another suggestion by watercooled would be to put this in a public section which make it easier to find in Google.

If we can keep this thread for any build suggestions it would be a good idea.

[Domestic_Ginger]

Is it possible to have a google spreadsheet visible that can be viewed in the forum and updated by a number of users?

Share your thoughts on how this would work.

[Phage]

+1 Like this very much.
However, it would require a lot of work from someone to maintain it. That someone would have to be an expert.

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

I will make some suggestions for the builds circa the middle of March. Perhaps for each component give a reason for its choice.

£500 Hexus gaming build

CPU - Athlon II X3 450

Cost: £55 ~ £60

The AMD Athlon II X3 is our choice for the CPU this month. Running at 3.2GHZ across its three cores it offers excellent performance for under £60.

Modification potential- The Athlon II X3 is based on harvested Athlon II X4 and Phenom II X4 CPUs. AM3 motherboards with ACC have the potential to unlock an Athlon II X3 to an Athlon II X4 or Phenom II X4. With aftermarket cooling expect overclocks in the 3.5GHZ to 3.8GHZ range.

Motherboard - Biostar TA870+ or Asus M4A87TD/USB3

Cost: £65 ~ £70

Both these motherboards support 140W CPUs and use the SB850 southbridge meaning SATA 3.0 support. They also have USB3.0 too.

Modification potential- Both motherboards have ACC meaning core unlocking is possible.

RAM - 4GB 1600MHZ DDR3

Cost: £35 to £40

Case - Casecom K5-9388

Cost: £30

This case is our recommendation for this month as it offers excellent cooling for a budget price and comes with provision for both 120MM and 140MM fans.

Hard Disk - Samsung F3 500GB

Cost:£30 to £35

With it single platter design and low cost the Samsung F3 500GB is our choice for this month.

Power Supply - Antec HCG 520W

Cost: £56

Based on the Seasonic S12-II design this PSU also comes complete with a pair of PCI-E power connectors. It also boats high effiency, a solid 12V line and UK RMA.

Graphics card - MSI HD6850 Cyclone Power Edition OC or MSI GTX 460 Cyclone OC Edition

Cost: £135 to £140.

Offering large factory overclocks and a quiet cooler the MSI Cyclone editions get our vote this month.


SATA DVD rewriter

Cost: £12

Operating System - Windows 7 Home Premium 64 bit

Cost: £75


£300 Hexus Office build

CPU - Athlon II X2 250

Cost:£40 to £45

The Athlon II X2 250 is our choice for CPU this month. With a pair of cores running at 3GHZ it offers plenty of processing power for general purpose tasks and light gaming.

Modification potential - With aftermarket cooler expect to hit 3.5GHZ to 3.8GHZ with this CPU.

Motherboard - Gigabyte GA-MA78LMT-US2H

Cost:£48

The Gigabyte GA-MA78LMT-US2H is our motherboard choice this month. Supports 140W TDP CPUs.

Modification potential- The motherboard has ACC meaning core unlocking is possible.

RAM - 4GB 1600MHZ DDR3

Cost: £35 to £40

Case - Casecom K5-9388

Cost: £30

This case is our recommendation for this month as it offers excellent cooling for a budget price and comes with provision for both 120MM and 140MM fans.

Hard Disk - Samsung F3 500GB

Cost:£30 to £35

With it single platter design and low cost the Samsung F3 500GB is our choice for this month.

Power Supply - Antec 380W EarthWatts Green

Cost: £35 to £40

Based on the Seasonic S12-II design this PSU also comes complete with a PCI-E power connector. It also boats high efficiency, a solid 12V line and UK RMA.

SATA DVD rewriter

Cost: £12

Operating System - Windows 7 Home Premium 64 bit

Cost: £75

[Phage]

Spot on.
Minor niggle. Given that there can be weird issues between the mainboard and types of ram I think iot would be very helpful to list the 'known good' types that work with each.

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

It might possible to fit in a Core i3 or an Athlon II X4 into the build with a cheaper PSU,motherboard and a GTX460 768MB.

ATM,I am not sure which is the best way to go.

[Tattysnuc]

Great to see some AMD products being recommended. I'm so far out of the loop with AMD, it's usually easier for me to stick with the Intel kit... Familiarity breeds contempt they say...

Any chance of some Linkys to the products so that we can get the exact model? Say on Scan, or Ebuyer or Aria....

As I think someone else said, Would it be possible to lay out in a spreadsheet format with columns of information?

Personally, I usually check the forums on a manufacturers site for Memory compatibility before buying, so that might be too much to try an maintain. It'd be handy to have, but bear in mind it's usually tied to a bios version, you may come unstuck trying to do too much.

This is a buyers guide, not a compatibility test, but it would be great to see what memory is not only recommended, but known to work with the board/processor.

[Phage]

Cat - Pigeons.
http://www.scan.co.uk/products/therm...3-5-25-w-o-psu

[MSIC]

I like the spirit of this idea, and am willing to contribute.
We would presumably start a whole new thread for each month? (Else we'd quickly have a very long and unwieldy thread with lots of back-and-forth opinions, with occasional whole-pc specs.)

[Phage]

I like the spirit of this idea, and am willing to contribute.
We would presumably start a whole new thread for each month? (Else we'd quickly have a very long and unwieldy thread with lots of back-and-forth opinions, with occasional whole-pc specs.

+1.
Wouldn't be too hard to cut/paste from the tail of the previous month.

[MSIC]

One further question for all - do we link to (r)etailers? Obviously this faces criticism about favouritism, and if so, how 'official' would such a thing be (ie i'm suggesting that it be made clear at the start that this is a forum contribution, that Hexus as an organisation may not necessarily support organisation x)

[Domestic_Ginger]

The last two intel generations have been ram limited due to voltage. AMD chips have not had this problem but are still on 45nm fab.

Do we need to move the goal posts?

6870 CuCore is on scan at 156 today btw.

[Domestic_Ginger]

May have to named the non-official hexus build. We could offer sponsership deals?

[Homeking]

Brilliant thread - best I've seen on a forum in a long time.

Can I nominate Cat as our reviewer and tester for these builds? Parts supplied on loan from Scan or Hexus perhaps.

[ERU]

an excellent thread! Just what I was looking for! Thanks and Reped!

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

How do we go about making a sticky then??