Help speccing a new pc

My budget is around £400-500 for CPU, mobo, memory and GPU any advice/reccomendations is appreciated especially regarding the plethora or cpu types out there.

I don't play many games, though it would be nice to run armed assault 2. Aside from that there's nothing I do which is cpu intensive minus a few HD movies. I'd like a decent spec because I probably won't bother buying a new one for another 5+ years. My current desktop is a AMD xp1800 for example.

What I've come up with so far (picking a mobo at random):
Intel i5 750 2.66GHz £150
Asus P7P55D LE P55 £100
4GB DDR3 1600MHz RAM £90
ATI HD 5770 1GB £120
total = £460

Intel Core 2 Duo E8400 3GHz £130
ASUS P5QL PRO £60
4GB DDR2 1066MHz RAM £75
ATI HD 5770 1GB £120
total = £385

you'll want a board which will take DDR3 definetly. Seeing as DDr3 will run up to 16gb memory shouldn't be too much of a worry right now.

try ebuyer.com for bits and see what's on offer and go for it.

[keith_d]

For a similar budget to yours I recently built myself:

Quad Core Phenom II
MSI motherboard
4Gb DDR3 (2 x 2Gb)
GTS250 Graphics card
Mirrored 1Tb hard disks
Blu-ray reader

If I was more interested in video games I'd have budgeted for a faster graphics card, and I'll probably upgrade to 8Gb sometime. But at the moment it's running Windows 7 very nicely.

Originally Posted by thefallenangel

you'll want a board which will take DDR3 definetly. Seeing as DDr3 will run up to 16gb memory shouldn't be too much of a worry right now.

try ebuyer.com for bits and see what's on offer and go for it.

ehh wt you on about lol

first of all all i7/i5 builds only use ddr3 (so all compatible motherboards use dr3 memory (there is phisical difforence in size compared to ddr2)

secondly you can use up to 32gb (depends on motherboard) of ddr2 as well not just ddr3 but to use over 3.25gb of ram you must be using a 64bit OS (eg win 7 64bit) most operating systems use a maximum of 4gb for general usage

thirdly there are 2 types of DDR3 there is dual channel and Tripple channel the names state the obvious dual channel is 2 sticks triple is 3 sticks the x58 chip set uses tri channel and the p55 chip set uses dual channel (althogh the x58 can also use dual channel)

both builds are good but the first is a lot better due to the quad core and the i7 die and onboard memory controler make them faster ghz vs ghz of the e8400 (i have the e8400 running at 4.5ghz and a i7 at 4.5ghz only using 1core vs 1 core will kill the e8400 out right lol )

ohh and its not the ddr3 that add to the performance its the proccesor that does (you can get ddr3 boards for the e8400 but the proccesor is not fastenough to gain from it )

now the i7 is fairly power hungry so if you dont have a good branded PSU like corsar OCZ or enermax then you will need to invest in one 650w should surfice, the next thing is cooling the i7 been faster also makes them hotter so you will need a good cooler look at the corsair h50

other than they few bits above you should be good to go

hope some of that helps :P

[hindle8907]

Originally Posted by Zombie Jesus

My budget is around £400-500 for CPU, mobo, memory and GPU any advice/reccomendations is appreciated especially regarding the plethora or cpu types out there.

I don't play many games, though it would be nice to run armed assault 2. Aside from that there's nothing I do which is cpu intensive minus a few HD movies. I'd like a decent spec because I probably won't bother buying a new one for another 5+ years. My current desktop is a AMD xp1800 for example.

What I've come up with so far (picking a mobo at random):
Intel i5 750 2.66GHz £150
Asus P7P55D LE P55 £100
4GB DDR3 1600MHz RAM £90
ATI HD 5770 1GB £120
total = £460

Intel Core 2 Duo E8400 3GHz £130
ASUS P5QL PRO £60
4GB DDR2 1066MHz RAM £75
ATI HD 5770 1GB £120
total = £385

you will need a new PSU too your looking at £50-£60 for a decent one have you accounted for this ?

if not let me know you new price range and i will help you out dude.
Also the 5770 is a big card you need a good PC case to fit that in .

with a low budget i would be looking at the AMD 995 cpu's too.

[Littlepeahead]

This is like the shipping forecast: it's broadcast in English but I haven't a clue what it's going on about.

If you're not planning on buying another PC for 5 years, then I'd spend the extra and get the Core i5, as the Core Duo is getting a bit long in the tooth now.

Thanks for the tips

I can't really find a cpu that benchmarks better for the price range than the intel i5 750 although the AMD phenom 965 comes close. It seems the next step up is the £200+ range likewise with the GPU. The best alternative I could find was the Gforce GTS 260 which benchmarks slightly better and is slightly more expensive.

I also need case/psu/hdd but I didn't include them in my budget because the price doesn't scale with performance.

Id say the i5 750 would be a great CPU for a fair few years. I've got a E6600 and Q6600 machine and both are standing up very well, the E6600 now must be goin on 4 years old (and the q6600 not far off that)! Still both more than good enough so I think you'll be safe

As to cooling, if you plan on running it at stock speed then the standard cooler intel provide should be fine for that tbh.

They are right, get a good PSU, nothing worse than one of those going pop and you losing a whole system!!!

I have a 9800GTX (pretty much the same card as the 250) and it will play pretty much any modern game on top settings. A 260 will be a little better, but tbh if you dont play games then i wouldnt worry too much as a 250/5770 will be more than enough... But ill ask, why not play games? PC gaming is the dogs!

dont for get the higer rez ure monitor is the more gpu or cpu power you need EG 1240x1024 need a better CPU but 1920x1200 will need a better gpu lol hell i have 2x 9800gtx+ :P