First PC build review.

[Akdude110]

Hello all. I've recently been looking at the "Steam Box" projects people have been doing, which aim for around the £300 price bracket and I thought why not? Now bare in mind this is my first PC build and while I feel confident I can assemble it, I'm not much of a spec guy. My friend gave me a list on everything I may need however I'm not sure whether or not this is a good build.

• XFX Core Edition Radeon HD 7770 AMD Graphics Card 1GB
• Intel CPU Pentium G860 Socket 1155 Dual Core Processor
• MSI H61M-P31 (G3) Motherboard -
• 4GB Corsair Value DDR3 PC3-10600 (1333)
• CiT Recon Micro ATX Case All Black In/Out with 500W PSU
• Cooler Master Elite CM-RS500-PSAPJ3-IT 500W Power Supply (PSU)
• Edimax EW-7612PIn 300Mbps Wireless 802.11 b/g/n PCI-e Adapter

Altogether this comes to £270 which to me, is a good deal. Now I'm aware there is no hard drive since I'll be using one I already have and I don't plan to use a disk drive since most of my gaming will be via steam and I will be borrowing one just to install the network card drivers. So since I'm new to this for the price I am paying, is this a good build?
Thanks all - Josh

[kmac]

For a start you are going to end up with two PSUs so you might as well get a case without PSU and either save some bucks or get a better case

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

Do you have a copy of Windows??

[Akdude110]

Ah ok, didn't realize that. I'll make sure to do that cheers.

[Akdude110]

Do you have a copy of Windows??

Yes I have one spare.

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

You will need Vista,Windows 7 or Windows 8 to get DX11.

Is the HDD SATA??

Unless you make a bootable USB disk,you will need to an optical drive to install Windows.

What is you maximum budget??

[Akdude110]

You will need Vista,Windows 7 or Windows 8 to get DX11.

Ok, I've got a Windows 7 spare and I'm sure even a Vista one if need be. Cheers.

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

I would check out this build I suggested in another thread:

http://forums.hexus.net/desktops/283...ml#post2906517

If you take out the HDD,DVD drive,monitor and copy of Windows the build will be around £250 to £260.

Edit!!

What HDD do you have??

I assume it is a 3.5" SATA one??

What is the capacity of the HDD??

[Akdude110]

Yes the HDD is SATA.
Also I didn't realize that, so I will add a optical drive to the build then. The one I was going to use already had everything on it (files etc), But I'm to believe you can't copy windows across to another pc right?
My maximum budget is £300 but by removing the PSU then I'm currently at £240 now not including the optical drive.

Edit:

Yes the HDD is 3.5" and it's 750gb.

Also I'll check out the thread cheers.

[DanceswithUnix]

I think the suggestion was to change the case to one without a PSU, not to ditch the PSU.

It is very rare to get a good PSU bundled with a case, and a bad PSU is a potential source of problems and in the worst case destruction as the protection circuits tend to be inadequate or non existent.

Edit to add: I tend to install from USB drive these days, so although DVD and even blu-ray drives are quite cheap these days I wouldn't see one as necessary. I also have a USB DVD drive for use with my netbook, perhaps you can borrow one of those if you know someone that has one?

[Akdude110]

I think the suggestion was to change the case to one without a PSU, not to ditch the PSU.

It is very rare to get a good PSU bundled with a case, and a bad PSU is a potential source of problems and in the worst case destruction as the protection circuits tend to be inadequate or non existent.

Edit to add: I tend to install from USB drive these days, so although DVD and even blu-ray drives are quite cheap these days I wouldn't see one as necessary. I also have a USB DVD drive for use with my netbook, perhaps you can borrow one of those if you know someone that has one?

Ah I must of misread then, silly me. I'll have to change it then. Also I will look into getting/borrowing a USB DVD drive, sounds handy.
Cheers.