£400 New Build

[Jimmy 2004]

I’m planning to build a new computer for a friend. At the moment he has a dodgy Tiny PC with a 3GHz P4 and a gig of ram. We’re going to keep the case and CD drives, but more or less everything else will be going. Although it’s not intended as a top-of-the-range machine, the new build does need a certain amount of gaming pedigree as it will be put to use for some gaming, but mostly to play a back catalogue of older and perhaps one or two new titles. Obviously it needs to be reasonably future proof but maxing out graphics on future games isn’t number one priory, as there is only so much we can spent.

The budget is a reasonably strict £400. For that I need a new processor, motherboard, ram, graphics card, power supply and hard drive, and that includes the cost of any extras like cables and cooling (although as the system will definitely not be overclocked at all stock will be fine, as long as I get a retail CPU).

At the moment I’m thinking:

• Zotac 512MB 8800 GT £100
• 250GB WD 16MB cache £33
• Intel E8200 £112
• 2GB OCZ 800MHz 4-4-4-15 £30
• Corsair VX 550W £55

All parts are from ebuyer and I would prefer any suggestions to be from there to avoid extra hassle, there’s enough stuff to chose from on there
Including a new sata cable this lot comes to £332.60, but that is minus a motherboard.

So I’m really looking for suggestions on:
a) which motherboard to go for
b) I’ve been out of the loop for a little while and noticed that AMD has launched the 4800 series, but I’m not sure whether it’s worth the extra £30 over a 8800 GT
c) I’m not completely sure on the E8200 – as the PC will largely be used for current games not future I think this is a better choice than the Q6600

Thanks for any help – we’ll probably order the parts this weekend, so that gives people a few days to give me a hand choosing them.

 

[cdawall]

swap to an e7200 and grab a HD4850 and any P35 mobo should work just fine

 

[erocker]

I agree with cdawall. I really like the DFI bloodiron, however, I don't think DFI and OCZ ram work very well together. If you can find some comparable Ballistix that would work well.

 

[oli_ramsay]

I would suggest the MSI P35 Neo2 FR, it's an awesome overclocker, and supports 45nm CPUs out of the box. http://www.ebuyer.com/product/140205

Can hit 560FSB on stock cooling http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/showthread.php?t=161618

and only £63

I also agree on the 4850, it's a sweet card and will last a long time.

 

[xu^]

i also got a friend to buy a HD4850 even tho im an nvidia fan ,he has same board/cpu as me and he`s getting frame rates of up to 80 - 120fps in race driver grid compared to my 80 - 100fps on the same settings with my 9800gtx.

seems like a damn good card tbh,and well worth the £130ish it costs.

 

[kylew]

You really need to stretch to a 4850, I'm building a friend a new PC, everything, including a monitor and keyboard, and I've basically forced them to buy a 4850 over a 3850 they were going to get before, I even said I'll pay the extra £25 over what the 3850 was priced at just to make sure he gets it . It was his birthday the other day though, so he just said count it as that

Oh, yeah, also, stretching to the Q6600 will be very beneficial too. You'd be looking at an extra say £35 so you could get a Q6600 and a 4850, if he's on a strict budget, stress heavily how much nicer it'd be with those components.

 

[InnocentCriminal]

swap to an e7200 and grab a HD4850 and any P35 mobo should work just fine

2nd! The 4850 is a far better purchase than the 8800GT - I'd also get a Zalman VF1000 so you get get stuck with the stock heatsink.

 

[Jimmy 2004]

Thanks for the input so far guys. Based on your advice here's the system I've got planned as things stand:

• Intel C2D E7200 - £82.95
• MSI P35 Neo2-FR - £63.70
• Sapphire HD 4850 512MB - £129.94
• Corsair VX 550W - £55.45
• OCZ 2GB DDR2 800MHz 4-4-4-15 Kit - £30.53
• WD 250GB SATA 16MB Cache - £33.19
• SATA Cable - £2.01

That gives a total of £397.77 which is bang on target. If I were to go up to a Q6600 that would push it to £434.70, so would it be best to stick to an E7200 given that it won't be used for hardcore gaming and the budget is really £400?

 

[InnocentCriminal]

Dude, screw the SATA cable off, I can send you a shit load if you need them, however, they are red.

Other than that, lookin' good - I would mention that OcUK have the Powercolour 4850 on sale atm but the price difference is only £3 and OcUK suck major ballage.

 

[kylew]

Thanks for the input so far guys. Based on your advice here's the system I've got planned as things stand:

• Intel C2D E7200 - £82.95
• MSI P35 Neo2-FR - £63.70
• Sapphire HD 4850 512MB - £129.94
• Corsair VX 550W - £55.45
• OCZ 2GB DDR2 800MHz 4-4-4-15 Kit - £30.53
• WD 250GB SATA 16MB Cache - £33.19
• SATA Cable - £2.01

That gives a total of £397.77 which is bang on target. If I were to go up to a Q6600 that would push it to £434.70, so would it be best to stick to an E7200 given that it won't be used for hardcore gaming and the budget is really £400?

Despite going over budget, a Q6600 would be very worth the price increase. It'll mean the system will 'last longer' in terms of upgrading, so my advice is to pay the extra £30 or so as you'll save money in the long run.

 

[InnocentCriminal]

Saying that though Kyle, he's not going to be a hardcore gamer and if he wasn't going to be doing a lot of multi-thread work, then they're wouldn't be much point. That extra £30 could go towards more RAM or a decent HSF.

 

[xu^]

he could always upgrade that 7200 at a later date if required ,if he gets a feel for gaming then he might decide to ,but until then a Q6600 may be wasted tbh.

 

[calvary1980]

hey jimmy where have you been?

. you probably should go with a Q6600 if your friend isn't interested in overclocking.

- Christine

 

[Jimmy 2004]

hey jimmy where have you been?

. you probably should go with a Q6600 if your friend isn't interested in overclocking.

- Christine

Just been pretty busy with life in general really, nothing in particular...

Just a couple more questions for everyone - which board is better, the Gigabyte GA-P35-DS3L or the MSI P35 Neo2-FR iP35 remembering that the system won't be used for overclocking? They're both about the same price, so I'm just wondering which board is better for default speeds?

And how loud are the stock coolers on Intel CPUs nowadays? Been a while since I used one.

 

[oli_ramsay]

I think the boards will perform equally to be honest, the MSI has better stock cooling.

Intel stock coolers are very quiet indeed http://www.frostytech.com/articleview.cfm?articleid=2132&page=3 2nd quietest they've tested.

 

[calvary1980]

they are both 4 phase, I think the Gigabyte board will be more friendly. the stock intel heatsinks can be a PITA to install they keep the processor alive thats about it

- Christine

 

[King Wookie]

I have the MSI, and have been very happy with it.
Saying which, the Gigabyte would be probably just as good.

As you are using the old case, make sure there is sufficient airflow to cool things.
It's so easy to forget the simple things in the joy of new hardware.

Hope your friend enjoys it!

 

[Jimmy 2004]

Thanks for all the advice everyone.

I spoke to the friend I'm building it for and we decided to go for the E7200 based on the fact it was £50 cheaper and gave similar performance in most current games. The final build will be a 512MB PowerColor HD 4850, an Intel E7200, the Gigabyte GA-P35-DS3L (based on the fact he won't be overclocking and it would make any BIOS settings easier for him as it's not such an enthusiast board), the Corsair VX 550W, 2GB OCZ RAM and a 500GB WD drive.