New bulid advice on budget PC

[combae]

Approximate Purchase Date: July

Budget Range: 400-500 €

System Usage: Movies, Internet, Intensive use of office 2010 (Excel simulations), Photography, Occasional Gaming (Flatout, NFS)

Parts Not Required: keyboard, mouse, DVD-RW
Preferred Website: www.conrad.com
Country: Germany (www.conrad.de)

Parts Preferences: Intel (I found it to have a Better balance in performance in Office task and Multimedia . Suggestions are also welcome on this!)


Overclocking: Not interested now. Maybe later after a CPU upgrade in future.

SLI or Crossfire: Maybe as I said in future

Monitor Resolution: I have 27" monitor with 1920x1080 Resolution

Comments: I would prefer to have later upgrade options.

Any advice on the compatibility of the following parts and also on budget reduction with not much reduction in quality and later upgrading possibilities are welcome. Thank you..............

1. CPU- Intel®pentium 2x 2600 MHz Dual Core :60€
http://www.conrad.com/2x-2600-MHz-Dual-Core.htm?websale7=conrad-int&pi=873648&ci=SHOP_AREA_17697_0414060

2, MOBO - ASRock Z68 Pro3 motherboard So. 1155: 90€
http://www.conrad.com/ASRock-Z68-Pro3MotherboardPC-base-Intel%26reg%3b-1155-Chipset-type-Intel%26reg%3b-Z68.htm?websale7=conrad-int&pi=873637&Ctx={ver/7/ver}{st/3ec/st}{cmd/0/cmd}{m/websale/m}{s/conrad-int/s}{l/int/l}{sf/%3Cs1%3E873637%20-%2062%20%3C/s1%3E/sf}{p1/9a70bf0ae60121c26e3bb519f37fc35b/p1}{md5/909c98785cae8a9ee61dc90041efd83f/md5}

3, RAM Corsair Vengeance Cerulean Blue PC RAM 8 GB Kit DDR3 1600 MHz 50€
http://www.conrad.com/Corsair-Vengeance-Cerulean-BlueRAM-8-GB-%28%29-DDR3-RAM-1600-MHz-9-9-9-24-240-pin-DIMM.htm?websale7=conrad-int&pi=873765&ci=SHOP_AREA_17691_0412076

4, HDD SeagateHard disk ST31000524AS 1 TB 3.5 " SATA-III (600 MB/s) 7200 rpm 32 MB 8,9 ms 70€ http://www.conrad.com/SeagateHard-disk-ST31000524AS-1-TB-3.5-%26quot;-SATA-III-%28600-MB%2fs%29-7200-rpm-32-MB-8,9-ms.htm?websale7=conrad-int&pi=414456&ci=SHOP_AREA_20564_0413092

5, PSU Thermaltake SP-430PCWEU PC power supply 430 W 45€
http://www.conrad.com/Thermaltake-SP-430PCWEU-PC-power-supply-430-W.htm?websale7=conrad-int&pi=918826&ci=SHOP_AREA_17129_0414020

6, CASE- Cooler Master Elite Rc-330U Pc-Midi 45€
http://www.conrad.com/Cooler-Master-Elite-Rc-330U-Pc-Midi.htm?websale7=conrad-int&pi=986243&ci=SHOP_AREA_17129_0414010 OR

http://www.conrad.com/Silverstone-SST-PS04B-PC-housing-Precision.htm?websale7=conrad-int&pi=975405&ci=SHOP_AREA_17129_0414010

7, Monitor- Asus VE228 21.5 " monitor 130€
http://www.conrad.com/Asus-VE228-21.5-%26quot;-monitor.htm?websale7=conrad-int&pi=414273&ci=SHOP_AREA_17155_0413023

 

[randomkid]

Mobo only have 1 PCIe slot so there is no "maybe in the future for SLI/Crossfire" unless you plan on changing mobo.

Otherwise, it is good. The Z68 will allow you to overclock when you upgrade to a "K" class processor.

No discrete graphics card?

 

[smorizio]

if your going to put in a gpu at a later date you want a min of a 650w ps. a goofd 550w will do a mid range gpu fine with a little head room.

 

[PCgamer81]

Go with Intel no matter what.

 

[combae]

Mobo only have 1 PCIe slot so there is no "maybe in the future for SLI/Crossfire" unless you plan on changing mobo.

Otherwise, it is good. The Z68 will allow you to overclock when you upgrade to a "K" class processor.

No discrete graphics card?

Thanks for the advice. Right now I have no plan of using a discrete graphics card. I decided to opt for the onboard graphics. Still if i need later, ( yes,indeed) I can add one to the mobo. Yes, the sad part is SLI/Crossfire is impossible.
The review (http://www.techradar.com/reviews/pc-mac/pc-components/motherboards/asrock-z68-pro-3-965847/review/page:1#articleContent) claim that
"To recap, the Z68 has all the overclocking features of previous high-end boards, but can do two things no other chipset can. It has Intel's Smart Response Technology (SRT), which enables you to use a small, high-speed SSD as a cache drive, and Lucid's Virtu software on board too.
That software layer, uniquely, enables you to use a discrete graphics card in the PCI-Express slot and still take advantage of Intel's awesome GPU video encoding booster, QuickSync."

This was the base for my decision. So are there better mobos which will be in my budget and will give me the option for this kind of upgrade?

if your going to put in a gpu at a later date you want a min of a 650w ps. a goofd 550w will do a mid range gpu fine with a little head room.

Also in such case should i need a better psu of 550 w for a mid range gpu? May be i need to think again on my psu then .

 

[smorizio]

both the lucent gpu and the intel ssd cache features are a joke. i have both on my z77 sabertooth from asus (ib-3540 and 8g and a 560ti video card my boot drive is 128g intel 520 ssd. the video thing from lucent is a joke. it does work for some games and programs but it buggy as hell. I had my system lock up hard when upgrading nvidia drivers with the lucent software installed and turned on. in a few years they may get it to work 100 percent but for now it should be a non selling item for a budget build. the ssd cashe is another joke selling item. ssd have a set live for writes...why would you use it to cache a slower hard drive and wear it out faster then having it as the main drive...where you install your software once then do most of the saving and running of slower games and apps from a data drive?? with windows 8 and my boot ssd takes less then 10 sec from cold boot to im on the net.
with power supplys the trick is not to over load them..even the good ones. the weak spot on all power supplys is the 12v plus rail. that rail used for the cpu... hard drives and video cards. so you have to do this if your cpu is 77w have to divide it by 12.
that 6.41amps. then if your video card uses 150w that 12.5 amps. then you have to add them together. (19 amps). if the low end power supply has one 12v rail and it 18 amps your pulling more amps then the ps is rated for. if there more then one rail you have to find out how it wired. good one will have the cpu and hard drives on one rail and the two one one 6/8 pin pci power connector on another rail. also as power supply age they do drop a little on there output so it better to over size a power supply then get random lock up or bsod. most good ps will last for years.

 

[randomkid]

It has Intel's Smart Response Technology (SRT), which enables you to use a small, high-speed SSD as a cache drive...

I have the same consideration when I purchased a Z68 motherboard instead of a P67 one. But I was not able to take advantage of it after all.
The SRT used to be a viable technology when SSD is prohibitively expensive. Nowadays, a 128GB SSD is within reach & if your timing is right, could be purchased at great bargains. I ended up having a 128SSD boot disc. set up was nothing out of the ordinary & works flawlessly.