triforce_keeper Posted May 12, 2010 Posted May 12, 2010 Hey guys! I'm in need of a new PC after having this one for about 6 years and it starting to crash every 20 minutes and just being generally slowwwwwwwwwwwww. So! I knew I could come here and ask you techies on some advice! I have around £500 - £600 to spend, and only need a tower, no extras! I need something that thats obviously quite speedy, and can pull off decent graphics. Would be great if anyone could suggest some sites or find some PC's for me?! Thankyou!
Nolan Posted May 12, 2010 Posted May 12, 2010 About to go to school, but when I get back I'll post something.
RoadKill Posted May 12, 2010 Posted May 12, 2010 (edited) It's a pain in the ass to find a prebuilt machine with anything but crap graphics, this is where having someone who puts PCs together is useful because it saves you money.. For example, I put together a spec in a few minutes which is probably the best you'll find for the money (from ebuyer): http://vgmcentral.com/images/600quidpc.png I didn't budget for the OS, but if you go to school, you'd be silly not to buy a student discounted copy of Windows 7 http://students.pugh.co.uk/ If you really don't have anyone who could put a machine together, just go ahead and buy a machine from Dell: http://www1.euro.dell.com/uk/en/home/inspiron-560_headless_rec/fs.aspx?refid=inspiron-560_headless_rec&s=dhs&cs=ukdhs1 and maybe see if you can toss a better graphics card in later. Edited May 12, 2010 by RoadKill
triforce_keeper Posted May 12, 2010 Author Posted May 12, 2010 Wow thats a pretty great spec for the money, I just don't know how to build a PC or know anyone close who can :/ And looking at DELL the spec is dire compared too the one you put together...hmm. Any in between options?!
Nolan Posted May 13, 2010 Posted May 13, 2010 http://www.cyberpowersystem.co.uk/ Has some pretty good deals for the price. In fact, This but change the GPU to a 5770 is £531 with VAT, but before shipping. It defaults to a 450W PSU and they(cyberpower) recommend 600W for the 5770, the 600W brings it to £547. That's with a 500GB HDD instead of 1TB, but you switch to 1TB for £24. It's also with an OS, which Vista Ultimate is £55 (32bit) and 7 Home is £70. Standard Shipping to UK mainland is £25. If that comes out to too much, the CPU is AMD's new 6-core model, so dropping that to an older (but just as capable) Quad or Dual can shave off anywhere from £12-£102.
Ashley Posted May 13, 2010 Posted May 13, 2010 Wow thats a pretty great spec for the money, I just don't know how to build a PC or know anyone close who can :/ And looking at DELL the spec is dire compared too the one you put together...hmm. Any in between options?! I think the PC shop next to the sex shop in Cradley will do it, or at least will have the parts to custom make you one. Probably the same of places closer to you but I don't know of those places :p Can check in next time I'm passing if it helps.
RoadKill Posted May 13, 2010 Posted May 13, 2010 (edited) It defaults to a 450W PSU and they(cyberpower) recommend 600W for the 5770, the 600W brings it to £547. I'm always wary of PSUs unless it mentions the brand. You don't really need 600w for a 5770. I run a Core 2 Duo @ 3.4GHz, a Radeon 4890 (I used to run a 2900XT, which uses more power) and 4 hard drives on a Corsair hx520, and even that is slight overkill, I only peak at about 350w~ on the AC side, which, assuming 80% efficiency, is 280w on the DC side (what PSUs are rated at). Obviously you want a bit of headroom and about 60% load is pretty ideal, so 520 is about right (60% being 312w). That said, the AMD CPUs tend to be using a lot more power at idle than Core i series CPUs, and a lot under load too, so that might make up the difference Edited May 13, 2010 by RoadKill
Nolan Posted May 13, 2010 Posted May 13, 2010 I'm wary of no-names as well, and if going with a no name it'd be best to have as much overhead as possible. Even if it seems like overkill. Also, Phenom II's are generally lower at idle and load than Core i7, but not Core i5 (which is the more affordable line).
triforce_keeper Posted May 13, 2010 Author Posted May 13, 2010 Hey thanks for the replies guys! Just built this one at the site Nolan suggested...seem okay? Configuration CPU: AMD Athlon™ II X4 635 Quad-Core CPU w/ HyperTransport Technology ***Overclockable XXX*** [-71] HDD: Single Hard Drive (500GB SATA-II 3.0Gb/s 16MB Cache HDD) MOTHERBOARD: ASUS M4N68-T NF630A AM3 DDR3/1066 SATA PCI-Express MBoard w/GbLAN, USB2.0, &7.1Audio MEMORY: 4GB (2x2GB) PC10666 DDR3/1333mhz Dual Channel Memory (Corsair Value Select or Major Brand) SOUND: HIGH DEFINITION ON-BOARD 7.1 AUDIO VIDEO: ATI Radeon HD 5770 PCI-E 16X 1GB DDR5 Video Card [+70] Thats for £561 btw
Nolan Posted May 13, 2010 Posted May 13, 2010 Looks good, but I'm curious did you change something else? I can't quite figure out how you got it to £561.
triforce_keeper Posted May 13, 2010 Author Posted May 13, 2010 Ah I added Windows 7, changed the PSU to 600w, and added a wireless network card!
Cube Posted May 13, 2010 Posted May 13, 2010 I don't know if it's worth carrying on this thread or to make a new one. I haven't bought a PC in years (I think mine is four years old) so I haven't been paying much attention to what's good for what price. I've had a quick look around and found two at Dell: http://www.dell.co.uk/home/laptops I was thinking of either the £549 while paying £70 for a 1080p screen (although that depends on if it's also an input like Samsung's laptops) or the £579. I'd like to spend under £600 and I'd quite like a non-integrated video card (512MB). Oh, and it can't be an Acer. Does anyone have any ideas?
Nolan Posted May 13, 2010 Posted May 13, 2010 MSI £479 with VAT It's got an average CPU 4GB of RAM a 16" screen (1366x768 unfortunately, it's become so common) and a dedicated ATI 4330 with 512MB of DDR2 RAM. The card isn't anything special(but look at the price) it will however play Source games pretty well and even more demanding games like Fallout 3, but not as well and the settings take some tweaking. Toshiba £590 with VAT The CPU is a slight step down from the MSI, and it has 3GB of RAM and a smaller HDD. A 17" screen at 1600x900, it also has 64-bit Windows 7 (the MSI has 32-bit), and the GPU is a 4570 which is a nice step above the 4330 and it should fair much better in games and has faster GDDR3 RAM. Those are the big hardware differences in the two, and both are suppose to have Free Shipping.
Cube Posted May 13, 2010 Posted May 13, 2010 Thanks for the suggestions. I quite like the look of the Tosiba.
Nolan Posted May 13, 2010 Posted May 13, 2010 I have a Toshiba myself, it's a couple yeas old now, but before my screen broke(a result of being knocked off a table, not hardware fault) I took it everywhere with me. Even now it's still my main PC, and the build quality is grand. The biggest downside is that Toshiba and I think Sony are the only Manufactures that have opted out of allowing AMD/ATI to supply their own Drivers. Toshiba still wants us to use theirs, which they haven't updated in the 2 years I've had my laptop. Not a huge deal since if you really want to update graphics drivers, there is a nice simply tool that can do it. It's not withour issues though, my 3470 is only recognized as a 3450 after the modded drivers. But no biggie.
McPhee Posted May 14, 2010 Posted May 14, 2010 It might be worth taking a look at the Sony E-Series on the Sony site. You can configure it yourself and the pricing options are really reasonable.
Cube Posted May 14, 2010 Posted May 14, 2010 (edited) It might be worth taking a look at the Sony E-Series on the Sony site. You can configure it yourself and the pricing options are really reasonable. Hmm.... Intel® Core i5 Processor Genuine Windows® 7 Home Premium Black 500 GB Serial ATA (5400 rpm) 3 GB 1066MHz DDR3-SDRAM ATI MobilityRadeonHD5470 512MB 39.4 cm LCD, 1920x1080, webcam (15.5") Blu-ray Disc player No Software £676.05 inc. Postage and VAT. Sounds reasonable, especially with the Blu-Ray and 1080p screen. Edit: I may stretch to this: http://www.play.com/PC/PCs/4-/13568895/Sony-VAIO-EB1-Z0E-B-Core-i5-430M-2-26GHz-4GB-500GB-Blu-ray-BD-ROM-Combo-15-5-Windows-7-Home-Premium-64-Bit-Laptop-Notebook-Black/Product.html It's a bit more expensive, but it has better stats and doesn't involve a near 2-month wait. Edited May 14, 2010 by Cube
RoadKill Posted May 14, 2010 Posted May 14, 2010 (edited) Hey thanks for the replies guys! Just built this one at the site Nolan suggested...seem okay? Configuration CPU: AMD Athlon™ II X4 635 Quad-Core CPU w/ HyperTransport Technology ***Overclockable XXX*** [-71] HDD: Single Hard Drive (500GB SATA-II 3.0Gb/s 16MB Cache HDD) MOTHERBOARD: ASUS M4N68-T NF630A AM3 DDR3/1066 SATA PCI-Express MBoard w/GbLAN, USB2.0, &7.1Audio MEMORY: 4GB (2x2GB) PC10666 DDR3/1333mhz Dual Channel Memory (Corsair Value Select or Major Brand) SOUND: HIGH DEFINITION ON-BOARD 7.1 AUDIO VIDEO: ATI Radeon HD 5770 PCI-E 16X 1GB DDR5 Video Card [+70] Thats for £561 btw That'll serve you just fine. Edited May 14, 2010 by RoadKill
triforce_keeper Posted May 15, 2010 Author Posted May 15, 2010 That'll serve you just fine. Yeah? Thanks for the confirmation! Looks like I will be ordering that baby next week Thankyou guys!
Recommended Posts