New to building computers, need help!

M

minorthreat461

New Member
Hi, i've been doing a bit of research into building a computer from scratch for the first time but i think if i can get some constructive advice i can put it into practice.

Basically i'm looking to build a relatively low budget entertainment computer to watch blu rays, listen to music and play shogun 2 when it comes out.

So i need some advice on what mobo and processor etc. are going to be cheap..ish and suit my needs

The recomended system reqs for shogun are:
- 2nd Generation Intel® Core™i5 processor (or greater), or AMD equivalent
- 2GB RAM (XP), 4GB RAM (Vista / Windows7)
- AMD Radeon HD 5000 and 6000 series graphics cards or equivalent DirectX 11 compatible graphics card
- 1280x1024 minimum screen resolution
- 20GB free hard disk space

cheers in advance for any help :)
 
Need some more info we need your budget and location.

I would prob say sandy bridge is the way to go unless your on a real tight budget you can go amd and save some as you wont need a i5 second gen or better to get that particular game running on full specs.
 
So I don't have a definite budget yet but ideally I wouldn't like to spend more than let's say £350.. like I said though this isn't necessarily a MAX budget so if a bit more needs to be spent I am willing if it will benefit me.
I'm starting from scratch so I need everything, apart from a monitor and a graphics card cos I already have them.
also I'm thinking about using xp because then I need less RAM right?
Cheers guys
 
XP uses less. Doesn't mean you need less.
I didn't check out your game, if it needs 5xxx-6xxx card, 7 may be needed(at least for good performance.)
 
minorthreat461 said:
So I don't have a definite budget yet but ideally I wouldn't like to spend more than let's say £350.. like I said though this isn't necessarily a MAX budget so if a bit more needs to be spent I am willing if it will benefit me.
I'm starting from scratch so I need everything, apart from a monitor and a graphics card cos I already have them.
also I'm thinking about using xp because then I need less RAM right?
Cheers guys
Click to expand...

Its pointless to go with xp to save ram as you will be building a ddr3 system and ddr3 prices are real low atm and you will prob need 4GB ram as standard, pluse it will benefit performance, i'll just see what i can come up with with that budget range.
 
Build:

I5 2400 (sandy bridge) 3.1 Ghz £148.98: http://www.ebuyer.com/product/251595

G Skill Ripjaws 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 1600mhz £40.00 quid (my god ddr3 has dropped in price recently): http://www.ebuyer.com/product/240501

Gigabyte GA-H67M-D2 H67 £76.95: http://www.ebuyer.com/product/247120

Sapphire HD 6850 1GB GDDR5 £139.43: http://www.ebuyer.com/product/244431

Samsung SH-S223 22x DVD±RW £11.75: http://www.ebuyer.com/product/145450

Samsung HD103SJ Spinpoint F3 1TB £39.99: http://www.ebuyer.com/product/173804

This is a list of cases from ebuyer, up to you which one you choose.

http://www.ebuyer.com/search?page=1&limit=10&store=2&cat=23

Antec 520W High Current Gamer PSU £56.61: http://www.ebuyer.com/product/245671



Do you need an os? are you planning on overclocking? (you'll need to change the cpu if you are and ensure the case you choose has good airflow)

Total: £513.71 and i think you'll get free shipping as well

Ways you can save: You can drop to 2GB ram but you will only save £10-15 and it is an upgrade you will end up doing later anyway and i would recommend the 4GB.

You can drop to a smaller hard drive and again save around £10-15.

Theres another Antec psu that is £10.00 cheaper and is a basiq unit rated at 500w

You could save more (£70.00 upwards) if you went amd as you wont need a sandy bridge i5 to run it on full.

It is also worth noting that intel has got a problem with the 6 series chipsets atm and it causes the sata II ports to degrade over time, they are fixing the flaw but the new boards are not going out to around march (i think) and intel is allowing companies to sell the flawed boards, i choose the above board because it is the cheapest one from a brand i trust, usually i dont recommend micro atx, i prefer full atx :)
 
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