9 replies to this topic

[Revorocks]

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Spec Me! Questionnaire
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1) What's your budget and in which Currency?

£550

2) When are you going to buy your PC?

5th October

3) What is your computer type?

Desktop


4) What's the main purpose of the PC?

Gaming

5) When do you intend to upgrade your PC?

Graphics card when needed

6) Do you want to keep any component that you already own?
- If so, specify which component you have and ignore the question about it.


7) Do you prefer any brand or manufacturer (Intel/AMD, NVidia/ATI, Asus/Gigabyte,...)?
- If so, specify why.

Not really, just want best performance I can get for the money

8) Are you going to overclock?

Yes a bit

9) Where are you going to buy the components from? Do you have any preference over some store?

Ebuyer.com or Scan.co.uk

10) Will you be assembling the system yourself or will it come pre-built?

Assembling myself.

21) Do you need an operative system?

Already got Windows 7

Budget doesn't include peripherals
I am aware that now isn't the best time to buy a GPU, but this is for my 8 year old brother, so he doesn't need a super GPU anyway.
I was thinking of buying a second hand GPU or GTX460 off eBay, he can always upgrade next year if needed.

[Challenger]

I'd suggest one of the i5 2500k bundles from this page: http://3xs.scan.co.u...erCategoryID=38

Stick it in a case of your choosing, Add a 650-700w psu and get a gtx460 for the time being. The cpu setup will last quite a long time and you are free to upgrade your gpu at a later date if you wish. You may however want to look at a bigger psu maybe 750-900w if you are planning on getting like a gtx670 or something so you'll have headroom

[Revorocks]

Challenger, on 29 September 2011 - 12:56 PM, said:

I'd suggest one of the i5 2500k bundles from this page: http://3xs.scan.co.u...erCategoryID=38

Stick it in a case of your choosing, Add a 650-700w psu and get a gtx460 for the time being. The cpu setup will last quite a long time and you are free to upgrade your gpu at a later date if you wish. You may however want to look at a bigger psu maybe 750-900w if you are planning on getting like a gtx670 or something so you'll have headroom

I have looked at those bundles, but I can get the same components for £15 cheaper on Ebuyer...


How is this?

Antec 300
Corsair CX 600W
Asus P8H67 Motherboard
Intel Core i5 2500k
Corsair 8GB DDR3 1333MHz
Western Digital 500GB HDD
Noctua NH-U12P

Total: £471.70

GPU we can worry about later.
Only thing I'm unsure about is, will that ram work with the mobo (I think it will), and will the cooler fit in the case?

[Challenger]

Revorocks, on 29 September 2011 - 04:52 PM, said:

Only thing I'm unsure about is, will that ram work with the mobo (I think it will), and will the cooler fit in the case?

The ram will work fine. TBH I also just look at the bundles then go buy separately as well The advantage with the bundles is they are cherry picked CPUs.

One thing I would suggest is get a higher wattage PSU as although it will cost more in the short term in the long term you won't have to upgrade if you get a new gpu. If someone could confirm I think 600w + 460 is cutting it close.

[Derbixrace]

[dirtylarryuk]

If you buy a bundle 2500k (cooler mobo ram and cpu) Scan build it , OC it, test it, then ship it all you do is screw it in the new or old case ad a corsair builder PSU (good warrenty) HDD and a GTX 540 or better (look for deal on 460-6770-6870 etc etc) job done the GPU on 2500k is ok for media, GPU drivers can be a issue for games and ALL the igp's are only good for 720p.

Both my rigs are either full system build or bundle from Scan, hence the 3xs in my sig.

[Revorocks]

Challenger, on 29 September 2011 - 06:37 PM, said:

The ram will work fine. TBH I also just look at the bundles then go buy separately as well The advantage with the bundles is they are cherry picked CPUs.

One thing I would suggest is get a higher wattage PSU as although it will cost more in the short term in the long term you won't have to upgrade if you get a new gpu. If someone could confirm I think 600w + 460 is cutting it close.

Ok thank you, and yeah I was thinking about that.
Would be nice to know I can overclock it in the future should things start slowing down.

Higher wattage it is, gone for a Corsair TX 750 now.

So what about this?

£334 bundle from scan, 2500k oc'd to 4.4ghz , 8gb ram and mobo
Same case and HDD
Corsair TX 750W

Total:£501

So it works out at an extra £30 for cherry picked cpu and 750W psu instead of 600. That's nice!

Forgot to add optical drive so add another £14.
http://www.ebuyer.com/product/268621

Does that sound ok?
Best performance for the money?

Excluding GPU obviously...

Edited by Revorocks, 29 September 2011 - 10:35 PM.

[dirtylarryuk]

Revorocks, on 29 September 2011 - 10:34 PM, said:

Ok thank you, and yeah I was thinking about that.
Would be nice to know I can overclock it in the future should things start slowing down.

Higher wattage it is, gone for a Corsair TX 750 now.

So what about this?

£334 bundle from scan, 2500k oc'd to 4.4ghz , 8gb ram and mobo
Same case and HDD
Corsair TX 750W

Total:£501

So it works out at an extra £30 for cherry picked cpu and 750W psu instead of 600. That's nice!

Forgot to add optical drive so add another £14.
http://www.ebuyer.com/product/268621

Does that sound ok?
Best performance for the money?

Excluding GPU obviously...

Don't forget 28nm GPus are sooner than later so you can either add a 28nm gpu i suspect a £100 28nm will be like a £200 40nm! or buy a older 40nm very cheap second hand, I forsee GTX 460's at £50-60 second hand even new when 28nm strike! Intel IGP are fine for blueray and flash media and some games but you will need a proper GPU for games at a later date.

But it's amazing the amount of PC, £500 notes buys now!

Some people say you don't need 2500k or 2600k 32nm (or Bulldozer) goodness at 4GHZ-5GHZ+ to them I say.

"The big challenge that's going to be coming up next is scaling up to tons of CPU cores," Tim Sweeney CEO Epic games told IGN. He said Unreal Engine 3 tended to divide the CPU's work between two cores. "But once you have 20 cores, you can't easily say this one is going to be for animation and this one is going to be for details on the face of the character, because all these parameters change dynamically as different things come on screen and load as you shift from scene to scene."

Unreal engine 4 is due from late 2013, thats your £500 PC* is still gaming in 2013-14 anything less might bloody not be!

*With a extra GTX 460 or better.

Edited by dirtylarryuk, 30 September 2011 - 05:14 AM.

[Revorocks]

dirtylarryuk, on 30 September 2011 - 05:13 AM, said:

Don't forget 28nm GPus are sooner than later so you can either add a 28nm gpu i suspect a £100 28nm will be like a £200 40nm! or buy a older 40nm very cheap second hand, I forsee GTX 460's at £50-60 second hand even new when 28nm strike! Intel IGP are fine for blueray and flash media and some games but you will need a proper GPU for games at a later date.

But it's amazing the amount of PC, £500 notes buys now!

Some people say you don't need 2500k or 2600k 32nm (or Bulldozer) goodness at 4GHZ-5GHZ+ to them I say.

"The big challenge that's going to be coming up next is scaling up to tons of CPU cores," Tim Sweeney CEO Epic games told IGN. He said Unreal Engine 3 tended to divide the CPU's work between two cores. "But once you have 20 cores, you can't easily say this one is going to be for animation and this one is going to be for details on the face of the character, because all these parameters change dynamically as different things come on screen and load as you shift from scene to scene."

Unreal engine 4 is due from late 2013, thats your £500 PC* is still gaming in 2013-14 anything less might bloody not be!

*With a extra GTX 460 or better.

Well, at the end of the day my brother is 8 years old lol, so he is being very spoilt as it is.
It's got a good CPU and decent amount of ram, so that should last a good few years.
Since new GPU's are just round the corner, I don't want to spend masses on one now, just needs to tidy him over for a couple of months.
I could do with a bit of an upgrade myself, might buy a GTX 460 2nd hand and give him my 4850.

[Revorocks]

Ok, ordering very soon, hopefully by the end of next week.

Here is the current spec list:



And a Coolermaster Hyper 212 from Scan.

GPU wise I found a 4870 on eBay for £40 so I got that and gave him my 4850.

Turns out, £500 was the max budget, and I had to order a few extra things too, so I think for the money it's a pretty good build.