Around £500 PC Build

M

morinehtar

New Member
I'm looking into buying computer components so I can build my own PC, my budget is around £500. This will be my first computer build so I'm not sure if I would want to go and buy the processor and motherboard separate because putting it together along with thermal paste, heatsink and fan seems very daunting. Although if purchasing this separate reduces the cost alot I may reconsider.

I will want to use this PC for mmorpg's and games such as dragon age 2, football manager and leave open options for the future. Also I will be using this for video conversion, downloading and streaming to my hdtv.

I am upgrading my broadband to 50mbs so I hope this will be sufficient and it comes with Virgin's new superhub.

I already have a keyboard, mouse, monitor, DVD drive and Windows 7 so they need not be included in the budget. I am also looking to buy a new sound system for around £200 so I will need this PC to be compatible with certain sound formats.

I am not overly fussed whether the case looks good just that it serves its purpose well and is maybe small but still be easy to install components.

Can you please post your advice and builds so I can decide on what to buy, ideally these components should come with a warranty unless your confident the product is good. Also please include any cables/fans etc I'd also need to buy.

Thank you in advance for any advice given I will post back with anything else that I've forgotten soon.
 
Athlon II X4 640 - £76
GA-880GM-UD2H - £60
2 x 2GB Corsair XMS3 1600MHz - £39
MSI GTX460 1GB Cyclone - £144
Samsung SpinPoint F3 1TB - £40
SeaSonic Modular 520W - £72
NZXT Beta Evo - £35
SATA DVD - £12
ACF7PR2 - £15
(Only nessecary if you will overclock at some point, installation guide here
Comes to £493. Do you want a sound card? Here's a great one for the price
or if you want to spend a little more on sound card, switch CPU to Athlon II X3 and get Xonar DX

The GTX460 will smash through the games mentioned above, might even be overkill. You won't get a big hit by downgrading to a GTS450/HD5770 for games like football manager. DA is a little more demanding, but nothing a £300 rig couldn't handle playably.
 
Thank you for the post, it will take me a while to research all these parts so I can make an informed decision on whether I should buy. I am not currently thinking about overclocking partly because I have little knowledge in that area although it would be nice for it to be an option in the future.

I imagine when I buy my new sound system it will probably only be 5.1 surround sound so anything that offers more I doubt I'd need, I don't know alot about sound cards; do they offer much better and noticeable results than built in motherboard sound output?

I've heard that rpm speed of hdd's can really provide better performance is this true? and should I look for a hdd with 10k or 15k rpm rather than 7.2k?

Confirmation on whether this is a really good build or suggestions on how it could be improved from other users would be greatly appreciated. Not trying to undermine your opinion as I'm sure your far more adept than me but I would like to make sure it is a good build before I go out and buy. Thank you again.
 
fastdude said:
Athlon II X4 640 - £76
GA-880GM-UD2H - £60
2 x 2GB Corsair XMS3 1600MHz - £39
MSI GTX460 1GB Cyclone - £144
Samsung SpinPoint F3 1TB - £40
SeaSonic Modular 520W - £72
NZXT Beta Evo - £35
SATA DVD - £12
ACF7PR2 - £15
(Only nessecary if you will overclock at some point, installation guide here
Comes to £493. Do you want a sound card? Here's a great one for the price
or if you want to spend a little more on sound card, switch CPU to Athlon II X3 and get Xonar DX

The GTX460 will smash through the games mentioned above, might even be overkill. You won't get a big hit by downgrading to a GTS450/HD5770 for games like football manager. DA is a little more demanding, but nothing a £300 rig couldn't handle playably.
Click to expand...

+1

An option would be to keep the x4 and try the ob sound when you get the sound system. If you want better after that, you'll know what sound you have to better pick your card.
 
Just been researching and I keep coming across this offer, alot of people are raving about:http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819103849

Does this offer a big gap in performance? how much would my set-up be if I chose this processor? Would I also need a new motherboard? Is there a good deal out there that offers processor - motherboard combo? I think I will choose onboard sound to begin with and then choose to upgrade if I feel its needed.
 
IMO, for the use you described: the 640 x4 is enough for future demands. The 1090T would be overkill and there wouldn't be a difference since you wouldn't be utilizing 4 cores, let alone 6.
If you want a black processor, the next move up is the 955.
http://www.aria.co.uk/Products/Components/CPUs+%2F+Processors/AMD+Phenom+II/AMD+Phenom+II+X4+Quad+Core+955+Black+Edition+125W+C3+%28Socket+AM3%29+Processor+-+Retail+?productId=39930
But if you really want the 1090T, then yes, I would upgrade the mb too.
 
fastdude said:
Athlon II X4 640 - £76
GA-880GM-UD2H - £60
2 x 2GB Corsair XMS3 1600MHz - £39
MSI GTX460 1GB Cyclone - £144
Samsung SpinPoint F3 1TB - £40
SeaSonic Modular 520W - £72
NZXT Beta Evo - £35
SATA DVD - £12
ACF7PR2 - £15
(Only nessecary if you will overclock at some point, installation guide here
Comes to £493. Do you want a sound card? Here's a great one for the price
or if you want to spend a little more on sound card, switch CPU to Athlon II X3 and get Xonar DX

The GTX460 will smash through the games mentioned above, might even be overkill. You won't get a big hit by downgrading to a GTS450/HD5770 for games like football manager. DA is a little more demanding, but nothing a £300 rig couldn't handle playably.
Click to expand...

+1

But I probably suggest go for Phenom IIx 4 955 with slight cheaper Antec PSU, mobo get something with AMD 870/ 880G with SB850

http://www.scan.co.uk/products/520w...nze-135mm-quiet-fan-atx12v-23-eps12v-v291-psu
http://www.scan.co.uk/products/amd-...-s-am3-32ghz-8mb-cache-ht-3600mhz-125w-retail
 
Sorry I haven't replied in so long but I've been really busy at work. I now have some free time so I'd like to go ahead and purchase these parts, I think I'm gonna go ahead with the original build although maybe I should replace the PSU? Is there anything else here that needs to be included like cables, screws, power leads, thermal paste and a hdmi lead to connect to my
samsung LE32A436T1DXXU so I'm not missing anything when I try and set it up. Are you certain that these sites are 100% reliable? and each part is compatible with each other? You only mentioned buying a fan if I plan on overclocking which I don't atm so is it ok for me to not have a fan? Will the motherboard and PSU fit perfectly in this case? as soon as I get confirmation with all this I'm ready to order so I want to thank you all for your great help and support.
 
fastdude said:
athlon ii x4 640 - £76
ga-880gm-ud2h - £60
2 x 2gb corsair xms3 1600mhz - £39
msi gtx460 1gb cyclone - £144
samsung spinpoint f3 1tb - £40
seasonic modular 520w - £72
nzxt beta evo - £35
sata dvd - £12
acf7pr2 - £15
(only nessecary if you will overclock at some point, installation guide here
comes to £493. Do you want a sound card? here's a great one for the price
or if you want to spend a little more on sound card, switch cpu to athlon ii x3 and get xonar dx

the gtx460 will smash through the games mentioned above, might even be overkill. You won't get a big hit by downgrading to a gts450/hd5770 for games like football manager. Da is a little more demanding, but nothing a £300 rig couldn't handle playably.
Click to expand...

+1
 
ACF7PR2 - £15
This ^ , like said, isn't necessary if your not going to overclock.

http://www.scan.co.uk/products/520w...nze-135mm-quiet-fan-atx12v-23-eps12v-v291-psu
And this ^ , like said, is also a good PS fo a little less.

http://www.aria.co.uk/Products/Comp...DDR3+PCI-Express+Motherboard+?productId=40261
With the saved $, get this ^. Has more features and a newer chipset.

The mb will come with 2 data cables.
PS has all the power cables.
Other than an HDMI cable if you need one, everything else will come with the other parts.
fastdude and daisymtc know where to go for good pricing and customer service so reliability isn't an issue.
Everything is very compatible and will fit like a glove
 
All the components have just come through the post and I'm slowly putting it all together just a quick question on attaching the GPU to power connecters, must I use the cables that came with the GPU or can I use the pci-e power cables the antec psu provides. I have them currently plugged in but it took abit of effort bending the cables into the right position because their quite rigid, the 2 connectors lie on the same cable is it ok to use it this way or should I use the extra cables provided from the GPU?
 
also i have the PSU fan facing upwards towards the motherboard is this ok or should it be towards the bottom of the case where the filter is - case is BETA Evo - NZXT
 
I have everything up and running working beautifully thank you so much for all your advice, total cost was just under £500 including delivery. I'm very happy with my new computer.

Great Work Guys!!!
 
Sorry I don't want you to feel unappreciated but I don't own a camera apart from my 3mp phone which I lost the usb cable for, I also wouldn't know how to upload the photos I'm guessing you'd have to upload it to the web first and register at that site...this is all abit too much hassle at the moment as I work all day but when I have alot of free time I'll upload some pics. :)
 
morinehtar said:
Sorry I don't want you to feel unappreciated but I don't own a camera apart from my 3mp phone which I lost the usb cable for, I also wouldn't know how to upload the photos I'm guessing you'd have to upload it to the web first and register at that site...this is all abit too much hassle at the moment as I work all day but when I have alot of free time I'll upload some pics. :)
Click to expand...

No problem glad it's worked out!
 
Component Details Subscore Base score
Processor AMD Athlon(tm) II X4 640 Processor 7.3 5.9
Determined by lowest subscore

Memory (RAM) 4.00 GB 7.3
Graphics NVIDIA GeForce GTX 460 7.5
Gaming graphics 2814 MB Total available graphics memory 7.5
Primary hard disk 781GB Free (932GB Total) 5.9

thought i'd share with you the windows 7 score :)
 
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