HELP PLEASE!!... Newbee.... budget build!

[benno1976a]

Hi all,

I'm looking to replace my Dell C521 as it has pack up....

Never built a pc before, but have replaced/upgraded RAM, HDD, and DVD drive before. I'm confident I have the ability, just not sure about compatability of parts.
I have done a bit of research and am hoping the parts I have spec'd will be OK.

I Use the PC for general home use.... EG: Web surfing, ITunes, Kids homework (MS Office)etc. Also stream movies via Servio to my PS3 and Xbox.

It would be nice if it could be upgraded for minor Gaming at a later date, but not a deal breaker!

So Here we go......(Parts are from Ebuyer)

Coolermaster Elite 330 Case With Coolermaster eXtreme Power 500W PSU £49.98

Asus M5A78L-M LE Socket AM3+ 760G Onboard VGA DVI 8 Channel Audio mATX Motherboard £42.81

AMD Athlon II X2 260 3.2 GHz Socket AM3 2MB Cache Retail Boxed Prcessor £52.98

Corsair 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 1333MHz Memory Kit Unbuffered CL9 £18.60

I Have a Hitachi 500gb hdd from the old dell..... model No. HDP725050GLA360

Also Hitachi DVD drive should be ok from the Dell....... model No. GSA-H31N

I have Windows 7 (Its 32bit so I assume any more than 4gb of Ram is pointless)

I assume I will need some fans?
Will I need any wiring or fixings?( I have the old dell, I can rob from!). Do I need to buy thermal paste or will it come with Processor?

Sorry I'm a bit Green, but we all have to start somewhere.....

Hope I haven't missed anything....

Thanks in advance

[Biscuit]

Coolermaster Elite 330 Case With Coolermaster eXtreme Power 500W PSU £49.98

should be ok

Asus M5A78L-M LE Socket AM3+ 760G Onboard VGA DVI 8 Channel Audio mATX Motherboard £42.81

AMD Athlon II X2 260 3.2 GHz Socket AM3 2MB Cache Retail Boxed Prcessor £52.98

For a little bit more i think i would opt for the Fusion option

http://www.scan.co.uk/products/msi-a...-on-board-matx

http://www.scan.co.uk/products/amd-a...mhz-65w-retail

Will give you decent gaming as it is and better all round performance

Corsair 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 1333MHz Memory Kit Unbuffered CL9 £18.60

I would get a single 4GB stick, it should be around the same cost. If you are going for the fusion it might be worth getting higher speed as the GPU benefits from it
http://www.scan.co.uk/products/4gb-c...-9-24-xmp-165v

I Have a Hitachi 500gb hdd from the old dell..... model No. HDP725050GLA360

Also Hitachi DVD drive should be ok from the Dell....... model No. GSA-H31N

Yeah both should work fine. Perhaps look towards an SSD in the future, if you are keeping budgets low now it obviously isn't appropriate but the differences they make day to day are phenomenal.

I have Windows 7 (Its 32bit so I assume any more than 4gb of Ram is pointless)

At the moment yes, although RAM is cheap at the moment and it doesnt hurt to have more than you need. If its the windows 7 you got with the Dell, it will be registered to that motherboard and wont work with you're new one. If its a full version you have bought separately then you are ok

I assume I will need some fans?

You can buy them later, you might find what you have as standard is ok, as long as you are not overclocking

Will I need any wiring or fixings?( I have the old dell, I can rob from!). Do I need to buy thermal paste or will it come with Processor?

Wires should come with the motherboard, you might need to grab a couple more but you should be ok.
Paste usually comes on the CPU cooler, although there is no harm in picking up a small tube just incase

Sorry I'm a bit Green, but we all have to start somewhere.....

Hope I haven't missed anything....

Thanks in advance

I think you got off to a good start, and this is a good place to get going. Im sure someone will pop in with alternative suggestions to me any time now

Have a look at the options available in FM1 rather than AM3, i think it would be much better suited to your needs.

[benno1976a]

Sorry for my ignorence.... what do you mean by fusion option?...

what are the benefits for me of the FM1 over the AM3?

thanks

[Biscuit]

Sorry for my ignorence.... what do you mean by fusion option?...

what are the benefits for me of the FM1 over the AM3?

thanks

Fusion (FM1 and M1) is AMDs name for their new breed of low power APUs (Accelerated Processing Units). These are basically a CPU with a GPU integrated onto the same chip.
Intel have done the same thing with their Sandybridge (socket 1155) range of chips, however, because AMD also owns (what used to be called) ATI, it means their GPU is quite a bit more powerful.
Admittedly the Sandybridge CPU part is more powerful than the AMDs CPU part, but that probably wont matter for your suggested usage, the AMD would be more than sufficient.

In terms of CPU power, the FM1 range on chips are little different to the AM3 Athlon IIs however overall, as a full platform it should be more efficient and offer you better chances at an upgrade path in the future.

[Phage]

They're a whole new range of processors from AMD. They have a quite reasonable GPU on the same die as the CPU. Hence 'Fusion', and a new socket/motherboard is required, called FM1.

http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/190?vs=403

the charts above show a similar performance between the CPUs, but one gives you a GPU as well.

EDIT: Beaten to it. Must type faster.

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

I would get this PSU if you don't intend to upgrade the computer with a higher end GPU:

http://www.ebuyer.com/267860-huntkey...ed-jumper-300g

It is 80+ Gold rated.

Here is a review:

http://www.hardwaresecrets.com/artic...ly-Review/1362

If you intend to upgrade to a graphics card like an HD6850 1GB or HD6870 1GB I would get the one of the following PSUs:

http://www.ebuyer.com/245670-antec-4...761345-06201-5

http://www.ebuyer.com/264381-xfx-450...u-p1-450s-u2b9

The Coolermaster Elite series is not that great IMHO. The higher GX series is the minimum Coolermaster PSU range I would start with.

Regarding the CPU,I would look at either an Athlon II X3 455 or 460 for around £60 or an Intel Pentium if you intend to add a card like an HD6850 1GB or HD7770 1GB at a later date.

However,for light gaming the A6 3500 has an IGP which is much faster than the HD3000 IGP found in £100+ Intel CPUs.

Edit!!

Here is a review of the A6-3500:

http://www.f-paper.com/?i988201_9

The IGP is around twice as fast as the IGP found in the Intel Pentium CPUs.

[g8ina]

and welcome to HEXUS

[benno1976a]

@ David..... Thanks for the welcome!....

I like the idea of the fusion route, seems perfect for what im after.... Will I still be able to upgrade to a better GPU later, if I take this route?

@ CAT-THE-FIFTH..... Thanks for the PSU advice.
Thinking the XFX 450W Core Edition Pro PSU (only because its higher power for little money more)

Case????..... Do I need a specific case for the FM1 board?.... Any Ideas for the case?..... What makes a Good Case?.....

I Quite like the look of the piano black cases, but its going to sit under my desk, so its not that important?...

Just wanted to say, Thanks sooo much for putting up with me
I know I must be a pain!... I just really fancy having a go at building a PC for myself.

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

This case is worth considering if you want a practical one:

http://www.ebuyer.com/289021-bitfeni...rc-100-kkx1-rp

It can take quite long graphics cards.

[benno1976a]

So how does this sound?.....

XFX 450W Core Edition Pro PSU £39.98 (Ebuyer)

Bitfenix Merc Alpha Case £31.28 (Ebuyer)

MSI A75MA-P35 AMD A75 Socket FM1 Motherboard £51.38 (Scan)

AMD APU A6 - 3500 Triple Core Processor £56.82 (Scan)

Corsair Memory XMS3 4GB DDR3 1600 MHz CAS 9 XMP Dual Channel £19.68 (Scan)

Plus my Old HDD and DVD Drive

Thanks

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

Don't forget the free postage you get from Scan on orders over £24 after 20 posts.

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

If you forego the SATA3.0 and USB3.0 ports you can this motherboard with four RAM slots:

http://www.ebuyer.com/279248-gigabyt...d-ga-a55m-s2hp

[Biscuit]

If you want to stick to a single supplier than ebuyer do some cost effective fusion boards too

http://www.ebuyer.com/279249-gigabyt...rd-ga-a75m-s2v

CPUs are more but the postage costs (assuming you dont wait till 20 posts to get scan free shipping before ordering) might negate that.

http://www.ebuyer.com/272285-amd-lla...-ad3650wngxbox

Ram is also a bit more for a single high speed stick

http://www.ebuyer.com/247676-corsair...x4gx3m1a1600c9

If you forego the SATA3.0 and USB3.0 ports you can this motherboard with four RAM slots:

http://www.ebuyer.com/279248-gigabyt...d-ga-a55m-s2hp

Personally i would have said USB3 and SATA 6 are more useful to have on a mATX board (smaller with less expansion slots) than an extra load of RAM slots, especially when you can buy 4GB chips so cheaply at the moment. I cant see the OP needing more than 4GB, but as long as there is space for another 4GB stick if its needed i think 2 slots are fine.

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

Personally i would have said USB3 and SATA 6 are more useful to have on a mATX board (smaller with less expansion slots) than an extra load of RAM slots, especially when you can buy 4GB chips so cheaply at the moment. I cant see the OP needing more than 4GB, but as long as there is space for another 4GB stick if its needed i think 2 slots are fine.

The motherboard I suggested is mATX and if the OP needs SATA3.0 and USB3.0,this motherboard looks quite decent:

http://www.ebuyer.com/275727-msi-a75...udes-a75ma-g55

With the £5 Tesco gift voucher it is essentially £62. Anyway,I only made the suggestion if the OP wanted a motherboard which had more RAM expansion possibilities.

Running the RAM in single channel with Llano negates any advantage it has over the SB Pentium CPUs. The HD6530D IGP having 320 shaders,needs decent bandwidth to perform well and even the CPU section still needs a reasonable amount of bandwidth to perform optimally. The A8 3850 does show improvement in CPU performance with faster RAM:

http://www.techspot.com/review/418-a...apu/page8.html

The A6-3500 is probably a less extreme case,but still there will be a reasonable performance loss. Llano needs memory bandwidth unlike SB.

I have a mini-ITX motherboard in my main computer and it is a real pain upgrading the RAM.

On top of this I am not sure how long cheap DDR3 is going to be viable though. Elpida is under bankruptcy protection and many of the companies who make modules are struggling financially(it seems in many cases the RAM modules are being sold at a loss). Still,4GB in dual channel should be OK at least for the time being.

[Biscuit]

The motherboard I suggested is mATX and if the OP needs SATA3.0 and USB3.0,this motherboard looks quite decent:

http://www.ebuyer.com/275727-msi-a75...udes-a75ma-g55

With the £5 Tesco gift voucher it is essentially £62. Anyway,I only made the suggestion if the OP wanted a motherboard which had more RAM expansion possibilities.

Running the RAM in single channel with Llano negates any advantage it has over the SB Pentium CPUs. The HD6530D IGP having 320 shaders,needs decent bandwidth to perform well and even the CPU section still needs a reasonable amount of bandwidth to perform optimally. The A8 3850 does show improvement in CPU performance with faster RAM:

http://www.techspot.com/review/418-a...apu/page8.html

The A6-3500 is probably a less extreme case,but still there will be a reasonable performance loss. Llano needs memory bandwidth unlike SB.

I have a mini-ITX motherboard in my main computer and it is a real pain upgrading the RAM.

On top of this I am not sure how long cheap DDR3 is going to be viable though. Elpida is under bankruptcy protection and many of the companies who make modules are struggling financially(it seems in many cases the RAM modules are being sold at a loss). Still,4GB in dual channel should be OK at least for the time being.

Fair point i hadnt considered that. In which case its probably worth going all out and getting the full 8GB ram straight off the bat

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/ws/eBayISA...ht_2826wt_1270

Is there a budget to work on?

[benno1976a]

Wow........ its getting a bit complex for me..... I need simple layman terms... sorry!

Ive not got a Budget really.... I was gonna buy a off the shelf cheapo dell for £300.
My posted Build would have been under £200 as ive HDD from old PC..... be nice to stay around £200-£250 mark....
I dont mind spending more if I need to, but its just for home use really, Would like the option to upgrade for gaming as my son enjoys a bit of gaming when we visit my brother in law (he has an all singing set up!!!)