Help Buying new PC/Hardware

[Wazzerphuk]

Hi guys,

Time has come for me to build (or buy) a new machine. I'm very well far out of hardware goings-on, so would appreciate your advice wherever possible. Looking at a budget of around £400-500 to get something that will be able to play good games and stay fairly decent for as long as possible, obviously.

I deffo need advice on a graphics card and motherboard, and processors/fans - and the power required to run it all so I know what kind of PSU/case I need.

Will almost certainly be getting a 1TB drive, ~4Gb RAM (maybe more if advised to?), card reader etc.

If anyone had a spare moment and could take a look at HP Gold Partner (probably where I'll be buying it all from) and shoot me with their knowledge I would be most appreciative. Cheers!

 

[Bodhi]

Not familiar with the seller you linked to so cannot comment on that, however I've recently put together a new machine for 320 notes using bits from Overclckers, and it flies. I bought

AMD Phenom X2 550 BE
Asus M4A785TD-M Evo AM3 Motherboard
4Gb Patriot Sector 5 DDR3 RAM
500 Gb WD Caviar Black HDD
Corsair CX400W PSU

I reused my Coolermaster case, DVD Burner and a couple of HDD's. I haven't fitted a graphics card yet (just using the onboard for now), but I'm looking at a Radeon 5770 in the next couple of months.

As far as cases go I'd look at Antec as the 300 seems particularly good value at the moment. The cooler that comes with the Phenom is fine, tad noisy perhaps but keeps it icy cool (26 - 47C according to CPUID).

I've just done a config with OCuK for you, it has the above hardware plus

Antec 300 Case
Samsung F3 1Tb Drive
LG DVD Rewriter
Sapphire Radeon 5770

Oh and a subtly different model of motherboard (I believe tis the -L variant, same as mine but with Crossfire support), but comes to 512 all in.

Any other questions give me a shout.

 

[Kryten]

I'd side with the above.

HDD choice is spot on, the F3 is second to none in price/performance.
5770 is a great choice also for all round oomph and futureproofing.
Antec 300 isn't a bad case but it does attact dust like no tomorrow - if you live in a fairly dusty environment I'd suggest looking at a second filter - ransacking someones tights.

Just get some prices from varying sites like ebuyer, scan and dabs etc to make sure you're getting the best deal possible.

 

[Wazzerphuk]

Can we stick to the website I stated? They're a supplier to work so I can get discounts there which makes it cheaper than looking elsewhere.

Also, if we could stick to Intel stuff instead of AMD processors that'd be great, and please don't recommend cases: they're too personal in my experience, for example, the case stated above is horrendously ugly.

 

[Kryten]

Ouch, i hope you get one hell of a discount then, you'll need it for there! Getting past the laughable site, they don't list anything recent which will already hold you back. Do they stock anything else they don't list there, i.e. over a telephone?

I can't spec up memory from the site, they don't list anything modern. You'd need a pair of 2gb modules, and they only appear to do those in Kingston which is an instant no-go for anything high-powered.
The choice of motherboards is so long winded it's like reading an OEM's pricelist. Nearest "cheap but decent" I can pick out is http://www.port-p.com/SpecPage.aspx?ProductKey=Z097588
Processor : Although it's very "last season", already old news, the best deal THEY provide is : http://www.port-p.com/SpecPage.aspx?ProductKey=A000964
Case won't be too much of an issue, as you stated it is (sort of) personal preference. No point getting a spinky case if it'll slowly bake your hardware or won't fit...
PSU: again their choice is very stifled, but maybe : http://www.port-p.com/SpecPage.aspx?ProductKey=B000729
Graphics : holy hell : http://www.port-p.com/SpecPage.aspx?ProductKey=J904346 - thats £50 more than other people charge.

In whole, that supplier is a fairly bad choice going from what they have there. Even the few bits above would topple your budget once you add graphics and a hard drive, and you'd need one hell of a discount as I said.

 

[Wazzerphuk]

Hmmm okay that's good to know.

Sounds like I'm open to suggestions all-round then.

 

[Bodhi]

Can we stick to the website I stated? They're a supplier to work so I can get discounts there which makes it cheaper than looking elsewhere.

Also, if we could stick to Intel stuff instead of AMD processors that'd be great, and please don't recommend cases: they're too personal in my experience, for example, the case stated above is horrendously ugly.

1) Speaking as somone who works for a system builder, no I can't help with your website. Never heard of them, hence cannot recommend them.

2) For your budget, Intel suck balls. Really kind of big donkey balls. I had a similar kin of budget to you, after looking at a review or two I have ended up with a Phenom X2. If you want to stick with Intel you'll hhave a PDC for your budget. They strike me as being nowhere as good as a Phenom.

3) I was asked for a case suggestion I gave one. If you're going to be such a picky bastard, I might suggest not asking on t'internet?

 

[Cemeterygates]

I'd side with the above.

HDD choice is spot on, the F3 is second to none in price/performance.
5770 is a great choice also for all round oomph and futureproofing.
Antec 300 isn't a bad case but it does attact dust like no tomorrow - if you live in a fairly dusty environment I'd suggest looking at a second filter - ransacking someones tights.

Being serious, does that actually work? and how would you advise using such a system on an Antec 900?

 

[Kryten]

the tights as filters? Yeah, it's helped quite a lot. I don't believe they'd be too great on their own but over the top of existing filters they do make a difference without impeding airflow too much.

 

[Wazzerphuk]

3) I was asked for a case suggestion I gave one. If you're going to be such a picky bastard, I might suggest not asking on t'internet?

To be pedantic, no I didn't: I asked to be told how much power they'd be taking up to make the decision on my own.

 

[cHodAX]

2) For your budget, Intel suck balls. Really kind of big donkey balls. I had a similar kin of budget to you, after looking at a review or two I have ended up with a Phenom X2. If you want to stick with Intel you'll hhave a PDC for your budget. They strike me as being nowhere as good as a Phenom.

Bodhi is pretty much spot on with that, in your price range you get a bit more by going AMD unless you are prepared to step back a generation with Intel and go for something like the Q6600 (if you can track one down for £110 or so) which delivers great performance, has cheap motherboards and even cheaper memory.

 

[Wazzerphuk]

So what kind of budget do people think would accommodate a good new Intel CPU?

 

[cHodAX]

The problem is the motherboards really, good boards for the i7 are overly expensive and personally I don't rate the i5 as good value for money. As I said before though, step down a generation and you can get a good Intel system for your money but still be faster than a similarly priced AMD system. The only thing this won't offer you is future upgradeability, for that you really need to go the i7 route and spend an extra £100-150.

 

[Ch3tan]

Whereas the AMD option offers you future upgradability at a low price.

I'm a fairly strict Intel only guy, but if I had to buy right now it would be AMD.

 

[Billargh]

Not familiar with the seller you linked to so cannot comment on that, however I've recently put together a new machine for 320 notes using bits from Overclckers, and it flies. I bought

AMD Phenom X2 550 BE
Asus M4A785TD-M Evo AM3 Motherboard
4Gb Patriot Sector 5 DDR3 RAM
500 Gb WD Caviar Black HDD
Corsair CX400W PSU

I reused my Coolermaster case, DVD Burner and a couple of HDD's. I haven't fitted a graphics card yet (just using the onboard for now), but I'm looking at a Radeon 5770 in the next couple of months.

As far as cases go I'd look at Antec as the 300 seems particularly good value at the moment. The cooler that comes with the Phenom is fine, tad noisy perhaps but keeps it icy cool (26 - 47C according to CPUID).

I've just done a config with OCuK for you, it has the above hardware plus

Antec 300 Case
Samsung F3 1Tb Drive
LG DVD Rewriter
Sapphire Radeon 5770

Oh and a subtly different model of motherboard (I believe tis the -L variant, same as mine but with Crossfire support), but comes to 512 all in.

Any other questions give me a shout.

I'm thinking of stealing this setup just for ease, you lot seem to know what you're talking about and it saves me making a new thread just for you to tell recommend me the exact same thing. Just one question, why that specific case? Would it be alright to simply stick to a cheaper case?

Oh also assuming I just bought all of what you suggested, would I need absolutely anything else? Ribbon cables etc?

 

[cHodAX]

Cheaper case will be fine, no oversized parts listed there from what I can see. Cables should all come with the motherboard.

 

[Billargh]

Cheaper case will be fine, no oversized parts listed there from what I can see. Cables should all come with the motherboard.

Why thank you good sir, I'm trying to cut it down cuz' I have a limit of just under 500 quid currently, and I'm impatient.

 

[cHodAX]

No worries bud feel free to ask away.

 

[Wazzerphuk]

Hmmm okay, will consider AMD too now I think having heard all that. See, this is why I asked, never rely on outdated knowledge

 

[Insane]

I would have to say be careful with cheap cases

Especially when you buy one with really poor airflow, before you know it your spankingly new machine is having to thermally throttle itself right back due to overheating.

If you invest in a decent case at the start, it'll be around longer than your components might be. You might even find it'll still be home to your 4th or even 5th upgrade if its sturdy enough.

 

[Kryten]

Plenty of decent cases around that won't break the bank too, coolermaster and antec are decent bets.

 

[Wazzerphuk]

Aye, my current case is an ArcticCooling jobby, not hugely expensive and very... cool. Might go with them again, might not. Who knows? I'll decide! Will probably look to order my bits on Friday, so if anyone else has anything to add please do before then. Ta!

 

[dysfunction]

What have you decided on then?

 

[Wazzerphuk]

I'll tell you when I've ordered, no decisions made yet.

 

[Billargh]

Regarding Bodhi's choice of RAM

4Gb Patriot Sector 5 DDR3 RAM

I'm finding it pretty difficult to actually find the stuff of most websites, Scan and eBuyer don't seem to have it, and it's sold out on OcUK. Would anyone be able to suggest an alternative?

 

[dysfunction]

OCZ is very good or Corsair

 

[Billargh]

Scan.co.uk: CMX4GX3M2A1600C9 - 4GB (2x2GB) Corsair XMS3 DDR3, PC3-12800 (1600), 240 Pin, Non-ECC Unbuffered, CAS 9-9-9-24, XMP

Yay or nay?

 

[Bodhi]

Scan.co.uk: CMX4GX3M2A1600C9 - 4GB (2x2GB) Corsair XMS3 DDR3, PC3-12800 (1600), 240 Pin, Non-ECC Unbuffered, CAS 9-9-9-24, XMP

Yay or nay?

I looked at that instead of the Patriot stuff I got, but the Patriot was about 6 quid cheaper so I got that. Doubt you'll go far wrong with Corsair or OCZ however.

 

[Wazzerphuk]

This has taken my eye, seems like a good solution for my budget? Anyone have any comments?

 

[Billargh]

I looked at that instead of the Patriot stuff I got, but the Patriot was about 6 quid cheaper so I got that. Doubt you'll go far wrong with Corsair or OCZ however.

Where'd you buy the Patriot stuff then, Bodhi?