# New Build



## easyaddy (Dec 30, 2012)

Hi guys, I'm planning my first build at the moment and could really use some help. 

My budget is £300-£400 this has to cover CPU, GPU, PSU, Motherboard, RAM, Hard-drive (preferably SSD), and the Case. I'll probably get a monitor at a later date as I want quite a nice one eventually, however if you guys know of any cheap good ones feel free to mention them. 

I'm not bothered about brands at all, as long as they're reputable and do the job.

I've sourced some components already although I'm not too sure what I can expect from them. 

Here's as list: 

CPU - AMD 4.2GHz Quad-core FX-4170
Motherboard - Gigabyte GA-A55-DS3P AMD A75 FM1 7.1 channel HD Audio ATX (64gb) 
GPU - Asus GTX 550 Ti 1GB GDDR5 VGA DVI HDMI PCI-E
Hard-drive - SanDisk 120GB Extreme SSD
Case - Casecom Black ATX Mid tower case 
PSU - Alpine 600W 120mm 
RAM - couple of standard 4gb. 

I'm aiming for a gaming rig, I need to be able to play the latest games, not necessarily at top graphics though, just need a good FPS. As well as general computing tasks at a good speed. I don't need great local storage as i'll probably use external harddrives for most documents and stuff. Just need enough for the operating system and a few games. That reminds me ill also need an operating system, windows preferably, anyone know which one to go for and if I can get it cheaply? (Still legal though).

Don't worry about things like mouse and keyboard I'll deal with that. It's just the technical stuff I'm not so good at. 

Will this list of components be up to the job? Where can I diminish cost and where do I need to increase it? 
Or do I need a whole new rig? If my list is utter rubbish please say so and offer a better setup.

If I've missed any info you might need please say so, oh also I'm from the UK so components readily available over here would be preferable although if I can get deals abroad and can ship them cheaply then that's fine too, I'm not on a deadline. 

Thanks, 

Dan


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## gcavan (Aug 13, 2009)

Processor is incompatible with motherboard; you must match socket types.
In a low budget system such as this, choose a conventional hard drive instead of the SSD.
Power supply is junk.

Look here for example builds at various price points. Scroll down for UK links. Each may be modified to suit your specific requirements.
http://www.techsupportforum.com/for...ams-recommended-new-builds-2012-a-668661.html


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## greenbrucelee (Apr 24, 2007)

what he said ^


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## easyaddy (Dec 30, 2012)

Oh really? I didn't know that about the mother board and the processor thanks.

And yea I've had a gander at the list of builds but the cheapest of the builds use integrated graphics and aren't suitable for gaming however they may offer a good starting point.

Is it possible to achieve what I want to do for under £400?


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## greenbrucelee (Apr 24, 2007)

for a gaming rig that would be pushing it and most games would run at low to mid settings.


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## Tyree (May 10, 2009)

easyaddy said:


> And yea I've had a gander at the list of builds but the cheapest of the builds use integrated graphics and aren't suitable for gaming however they may offer a good starting point.
> 
> Is it possible to achieve what I want to do for under £400?


Our suggested build listings use top quality known compatible components. Going cheaper means sacrificing quality and that's something we never recommend. If you want to game it will cost more so saving your money until you have sufficient funds is your best option.


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## easyaddy (Dec 30, 2012)

I've had a look at the $800 intel build and changed, well most of it to be honest. 

Intel Core i5 3550 3.3GHz Socket 1155 6MB Cache Retail Boxed Processor	349025	£156.20

Gigabyte GTX 660 OC 2GB GDDR5 Dual DVI HDMI DisplayPort PCI-E Graphics Card	396967	£173.09

MSI B75MA-P45 Socket 1155 VGA DVI 8 Channel Audio ATX Motherboard	363618	£45.28

Coolermaster 600W GX Lite PSU	352621 £46.95

Casecom CB-191 Black Mid Tower Case 27834078 £10.18

Corsair 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 1600MHz Low Profile Vengeance Memory Kit CL9 1.5V £36.02

How does this build look, Is it all compatible?
Is there anywhere I'm over doing it? I'm thinking the RAM. 
Is there anywhere I'm under-shooting? I'm thinking the motherboard maybe. 
Also how is the pricing for these components? Would I be paying to much or are these pretty standard prices for these parts.

Oh and last thing, I pretty much plucked the graphics card out of no-where so if you could recommend a good one to go with this build that would be awesome.

Just a quick reminder, I want to be able to play pretty much any game, but not necessarily at top graphics. As well as perform normal computing tasks, bit of multi tasking, Internet browsing... All that.


Thanks 

Dan


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## Burto87 (Aug 24, 2011)

I had a GTX 560 in my old rig and it played Crysis 2 on max settings, I can't see the 660 having much difficult for most games at the moment


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## gcavan (Aug 13, 2009)

Items are compatible. Prices look competitive.
Memory: 8GB doesn't give a lot of benefit over 4GB, but it's dirt cheap right now; go with the 2 x 4GB kit.
Power supply: A better choice than the one from your first post, but still leaves much to be desired. Saving money is fine but don't try to scrimp here. Look for a Seasonic or a Seasonic made unit such as an XFX Core series or PC Power and Cooling Silencer Mark III. 600-650 watt will be sufficient

XFX P1-650S-UKB9 Pro Series Core Edition 650W Power Supply (PSU) - Scan.co.uk


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## Tyree (May 10, 2009)

Same as above on the PSU.
Use the Mobo in the suggested build list or some other Asus or Gigabyte for quality, reliability and support.


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## easyaddy (Dec 30, 2012)

Ah okay thanks, will the mobo in the $500 intel build work in my proposed set-up? The one in the $800 build seems very expensive (for my budget).

Same question for the power supply aswell? 

Sorry about these simple questions i'm just trying to find the most cost effective way to get what i need and I'm really not very experienced in this field... I appreciate your help.


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## Tyree (May 10, 2009)

That Mobo will work.
The PSU would not be recommended.
The PSU is the last thing you want to cut on sufficient power and quality.

XFX Pro Series Core Edition P1-550S-UKB9 550W Power Supply (PSU) - P1-550S-XXB9 - Scan.co.uk


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## easyaddy (Dec 30, 2012)

I'm just wondering whether I should buy a pre built tower and just add ram and graphics cards as I need to upgrade them? 


What would I need to upgrade with this tower?

Ebuyer Mobile


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## greenbrucelee (Apr 24, 2007)

pre built systems often use low quality parts and charge top dollar prices. The same goes for companies who will build a system for you.

The only way to ensure quality parts and quality build is to buy the parts yourself and build yourself.

I will never buy a prebuilt until I am old and my fingers are knackered.


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## easyaddy (Dec 30, 2012)

Haha, fair enough that's pretty definitive, thank you


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## Tyree (May 10, 2009)

greenbrucelee said:


> pre built systems often use low quality parts and charge top dollar prices. The same goes for companies who will build a system for you.
> 
> The only way to ensure quality parts and quality build is to buy the parts yourself and build yourself.


Ditto !


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## easyaddy (Dec 30, 2012)

Alright I've got two builds in mind, both are loosely based on the $800 intel build and the $600 AMD build, 

Here are the two builds:

Intel Build, comes to about £550:

Intel Core i5 3550 3.3GHz Socket 1155 6MB Cache Retail Boxed Processor	349025	£156.20

Casecom CB-191 Black Mid Tower Case	278340	76 £10.18

Corsair 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 1600MHz Low Profile Vengeance Memory Kit CL9 1.5V	274035	53 £35.85

Xfx Proseries 550w Power Supply Unit (core Edition)	413805	218 £51.50

Gigabyte GA-B75M-D3H Socket 1155 VGA DVI HDMI 8 Channel Audio mATX Motherboard	351614	£58.08

Gigabyte GTX 660 OC 2GB GDDR5 Dual DVI HDMI DisplayPort PCI-E Graphics Card	396967 £173.09

SanDisk 128GB Pulse SSD - 2.5" SATA-III - Read 490MB/s Write 380MB/s	£70


AMD Build, comes to about £370

Gigabyte GA-970A-DS3 Socket AM3+ 7.1 Channel Audio ATX Motherboard

AMD FX-4 4100 Black Edition 4 Core 3.6Ghz Socket AM3+ 8MB L3 Cache Retail Boxed Processor

EVGA GTX 650 SuperClocked 1024MB GDDR5 Dual DVI Mini HDMI PCI-E Graphics Card

Corsair 4GB DDR3 1600Mhz Vengeance Memory

Casecom 6788 All Black Case

Xfx Proseries 550w Power Supply Unit (core Edition)

Seagate 500GB Barracuda Internal Hard Drive

My questions are...
How will these two builds perform for gaming? 
Are there any upgrades I could make to the AMD build to bring it up to the performance of the intel build, or will I even need to? 

Just any advice regarding the two builds would be greatly appreciated

Thanks


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## greenbrucelee (Apr 24, 2007)

the intel build is better and I would go for that.


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## easyaddy (Dec 30, 2012)

I assumed the intel build would be better as its using higher cost components, but how much better is the intel build? 

What can I expect the difference in performance to be like?


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## Masterchiefxx17 (Feb 27, 2010)

Remove the SSD in the Intel build as SSDs are not a great value at this time and don't offer anything extra then faster boot times.

I would change the cases to either Corsair, Cooler Master, NZXT or Antec.



> How will these two builds perform for gaming?


They will both do just fine for gaming. I personally would pick the Intel build.

Although change the Intel Build's GPU to either EVGA or Asus.



> Are there any upgrades I could make to the AMD build to bring it up to the performance of the intel build, or will I even need to?


Give the AMD build 8GB of RAM and not 4GB of RAM.


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## Tyree (May 10, 2009)

The choice pretty much comes down to what you want to spend. Both builds are gaming capable but I would also suggest adding 2x4GB of RAM to the AMD build.


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## easyaddy (Dec 30, 2012)

Thanks for the info, i also thought the 4GB RAM was a bit small but i was unsure if the set-up would make use of the 8GB.


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## Tyree (May 10, 2009)

4GB is usually more than plenty. We recommend using 2x4GB primarily because RAM is cheap.


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## Akto (Dec 31, 2012)

For an AMD gaming budget build, you could go with the new APU's. The quad core A-10-5800K is only about $130 and you can pair it with a $100 6670 to run hybrid crossfire, not sure what the price conversion is. I prefer AMD, but Intel's do tend to have a better FPS, but since most games are GPU not CPU dependent, there's a lot of them that you wouldn't really notice a difference in. Other than my 2 cents, i agree with what everyone else has said.


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## easyaddy (Dec 30, 2012)

Yea I am leaning more towards AMD, it's just a case of trying to get the cheapest possible parts that are still going to be up to the task, without sacrificing too much quality. 

What do you guys think of this? Will it be total rubbish? 500W is probably too low.

Coolermaster Elite 330 Case With Coolermaster eXtreme.. | Ebuyer.com


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## Tyree (May 10, 2009)

The case is fine, the PSU is not.
The XFX 550 you listed in Post#17 is top quality.


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## tanveerahmed2k (Jan 25, 2011)

EasyAddy you do realise a $800 build
is way over £400? infact it's like £700-£800 for us due to VAT and such...
for £400 and lower

AMD Build:

Antec All Black 300 Three Hundred Two Case | Ebuyer.com

A10 APU (+AMD Radeon HD 7660D )
AMD A10 5800K Black Edition 3.8GHz Socket FM2 4MB L2.. | Ebuyer.com

Or 
BD FX4300
AMD FX-4300 3.8GHz Socket AM3+ 8MB Cache Retail Boxed.. | Ebuyer.com

G.skill 8gb DDR3 RAM

Xfx Proseries 550w Power Supply Unit (core Edition) | Ebuyer.com

Seagate 500GB 3.5" SATA-III 6Gb/s Barracuda Hard.. | Ebuyer.com


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## Masterchiefxx17 (Feb 27, 2010)

If you scroll down on our build sticky you will see Europe builds.


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## tanveerahmed2k (Jan 25, 2011)

Can we get away with using antec psu's ?? Xfx is to expensive if u ask me


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## helios19 (Nov 25, 2008)

Antec HCG 420, 520 and 620 are the only Seasonic manufactured ones. I own both the 520 and 620 and have had no issues so far!


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## Masterchiefxx17 (Feb 27, 2010)

Stick with the Antac 620W if you cant get XFX.


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## Tyree (May 10, 2009)

tanveerahmed2k said:


> Can we get away with using antec psu's ?? Xfx is to expensive if u ask me


Top quality/warranty = higher price.
XFX PSU's are actually quite economical.
The Antec HCG and Neo-Eco series are SeaSonic made but only have a 3 yr. warranty.


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