First Build advice needed thanks

[jamiemac1988]

basically this a computer to be used for internet surfing/light gaming/office tasks main thought is to make sure that I am able to get quick start up time as sick of having to wait for my laptop to boot up. Anyway just wondering if any one can advise different/better components than those listed below. Budget including o/s is £450. Included bluray drive so that I can watch blurays in my bedroom as well as the living room. All prices listed from amazon correct on 16/1/12

Processor: AMD ADX250OCGMBOX Athlon II X2 250 - 3.0 GHz AM3 CPU, Retail Packaged (£42.57)
Motherboards: ASUS M5A78L-M LX3 Motherboard Phenom II/ Athlon II/ Sempron AM3+ 760G uATX Gigabit LAN (Integrated ATI Radeon HD Graphics) (£39.28)
Ram: Corsair CMZ8GX3M2A1600C9 8GB 1600MHz CL9 DDR3 Vengeance Memory Two Module Kit (£39.90)
Optical Drive: LiteOn IHOS104-06 4x Internal BD-ROM Blu-ray Bare with Software (£38)
Hard Drive:Crucial 64GB M4 Solid State Drive 2.5 inch with Bracket (£56.09)
Case: CiT Vantage Midi Mesh Gaming Case with HD Audio, 4 Fans, Card Reader and No PSU - Black (£35.01)
PSU: Corsair CX750 Builder Series CX 750W ATX/EPS 80 PLUS Bronze PSU (£67.91)
O/S: Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium with Service Pack 1, 64-bit, English, 1 Pack, DSP OEI (PC) (This OEM software is intended for system builders only) (£59.90)

Total: £378.66

Just wanted to make sure that I hadnt forgotten anything and that all of the components will work with each other

Thanks In advance

[mikeo01]

I think you may be better served going with an AMD APU.

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

It's slightly more expensive but you get a decent integrated graphics chip with it for light gaming as you stated. Also the CPU chip should outperform that Athlon II x2 250.

Motherboards:
http://www.scan.co.uk/products/asus-...sub-dvi-d-matx
http://www.scan.co.uk/products/asroc...d-sub-dvi-matx

Budget wise I think you could save on money there and suggest these:
(8GB kit, 4GB x2): http://www.scan.co.uk/products/8gb-(...1-11-11-30-15v
OR buy two separately: http://www.scan.co.uk/products/4gb-c...1-11-11-30-15v

Power supply, that's a lot, you could get away with a quality 450W-550W depending on what you go with.
(made by seasonic)
450W: http://www.scan.co.uk/products/450w-...n-atx-v231-psu
550W: http://www.scan.co.uk/products/550w-...12v-fan-atx-v2

The money saved could go towards a better FM2 motherboard paired with a decent FM2 APU.

Personally I'd definitely look into the AMD APU series if you're after good CPU performance with some umf for light gaming should save you some money for a decent performing setup.

[Domestic_Ginger]

APU quite possibly . If you do; get the fastest ram you can.

For exceptionally fast startup times get a mobo with UEFI or whatever they call them instead of the traditional BIOS setup. Mine's is amazingly fast getting past the bios post.

350W PSU should be fine. If adding a GPU later then a slightly larger one maybe but 750W is an awful lot.

[Pob255]

I'd agree with mike, although I'd say go with this ram http://www.scan.co.uk/products/4gb-(...-9-9-9-24-150v
4gb is fine, the lower cas and paired sticks will show speed benefits with an A series amd cpu/apu

450w psu would be more than enough, you'd probably be able to use a 300w no issue, if you have to stick with corsair then get the cx430w v2 http://www.scan.co.uk/products/430w-...an-atx-v23-psu

I'm not a big fan of cit cases I'd say go with the casecom CS14 http://www.ebuyer.com/390899-casecom-cs-14-case-cs-14 and I'd also look at the huntkey jumper 300w http://www.anandtech.com/show/4069/h...0w-80plus-gold it's a really nice psu, ok granted it's not silent and it's the cheapest 80+ gold psu I know of
review here http://www.anandtech.com/show/4069/h...0w-80plus-gold

All money saved should be put into a larger ssd a 120gb can be got for around the £70-90 mark

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

Do you know you can get a upgrade copy of Windows 8 for around £25?? You will need to install the developer preview and upgrade from that,but the offer ends at the end of the month.

BTW,once you get upto 20 relevant posts you should be able to get free postage from Scan:

http://forums.hexus.net/scan-care-he...tup-guide.html

Scan also have special offers each weekday too:

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



That parts are from Ebuyer and I would get this SSD:

http://www.novatech.co.uk/products/c...paign=products

You might also need a mounting kit and you can get cashback from Top CashBack and Quidco on Novatech purchases too.

I have not included a dedicated storage drive - does the OP need one??

[jamiemac1988]

I was looking at the AMD APUs but wasnt sure if it would be better to get a motherboard with a graphics chip in it, I wasnt sure about the power needs as this is the first time Iv ever built a computer and thought bigger was better but due to posts on here now i see that I can save money on a smaller unit

Im going to avoid Win8 like the plague as I have only heard bad things about it and Win7 has always been very stable on my laptop. I dont need a dedicated storage drive as I have two 2TB USB3.0 external hard drives to use to store everything

Thanks for your help I would have quoted but Im still unable to post url's and as such cannot quote

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

The A8 and A10 CPUs are quad cores,so should be great for multi-tasking and the like,and the IGP is around HD6670 GDDR3 or HD6570 GDDR5 level on the A10. I would probably go with a larger SSD like the one I mentioned,as 64GB fills up quite quickly.

[Obscurity]

What's your maximum budget? How much further are you willing to go? Fast boot times require an SSD, but limit storage ofc.

Considering you are using it for office use/films/CASUAL gaming (key word casual), You could save a few pennies by going with an open source OS such as ubuntu or debian. (This will give faster boots, better performance, and greater storage available, as the OS is smaller than windows).

The PSU is excessive for your needs, you could EASILY shave 30-50 quid by getting a cheaper PSU.

Also, you probably don't need 8 gig of ram, you'd manage fine with 4 for your needs.

As far as APU's go, the graphics in the will be better than a motherboards integrated, as the integrated will have less latency and higher power. Intel HD Graphics are better than AMD graphics (and the CPU better also), but of course, the CPU is going to be more expensive.

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

Intel HD Graphics are better than AMD graphics

Nope. Even the HD4000 IGP paired with a Core i3 cannot beat the IGP in the £50 A6-5400K,and that is weaker than the A8 and A10. Anandtech also rated the IGP in the A10 as the best IGP they have seen for HTPC use.

Edit!!

Do you mean under Linux??

The A10 still seems faster:

http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?pag...vybridge&num=3

http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?pag..._hd7660d&num=2

[Bonebreaker777]

AMD IGP > Intel IGP (don't have to be necessary true for the pure CPU performance)

http://hexus.net/tech/reviews/cpu/47...0-5700/?page=7

http://techreport.com/review/23662/a...pus-reviewed/5

The configuration CAT suggested is good as it gets.

[Bonebreaker777]

This build looks very interesting and one of my technologically less advanced work colleagues asked me for a similar build with similar intentions to use it for and with similar budget.

My question would be, was there any reason to choose A10-5700 instead of A10-5800k? (difference of £3.19 for example on ebuyer). Lower TDP vs. non-necessity to overclock?

EDIT : Any real difference between A85x vs. A75 beside PCIe line support and number of SATA 3 ports? (difference of £10 between two cheapest motherboards of each chipset).