Can more power be achieved for £450?

[huntrail]

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: AMD Phenom II X4 965 Black 3.4GHz Quad-Core Processor (£69.55 @ Scan.co.uk)
Motherboard: MSI 760GM-E51 Micro ATX AM3 Motherboard (£45.55 @ CCL Computers)
Memory: Corsair XMS3 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1333 Memory (£29.76 @ Scan.co.uk)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 500GB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive (£43.99 @ Overclockers.co.uk)
Video Card: Sapphire Radeon HD 7750 1GB Video Card (£79.75 @ CCL Computers)
Case: Fractal Design Core 1000 MicroATX Mini Tower Case (£32.38 @ Scan.co.uk)
Power Supply: OCZ ModXStream Pro 500W 80 PLUS Certified ATX12V / EPS12V Power Supply (£56.50 @ Ebuyer)
Optical Drive: Sony AD-7280S-0B DVD/CD Writer (£16.72 @ CCL Computers)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 (OEM) (64-bit) (£71.28 @ CCL Computers)
Total: £445.48
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2012-12-04 20:10 GMT+0000)

No monitor needed an OS is and it's for gaming.

 

[Sret43rg]

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: AMD Phenom II X4 965 Black 3.4GHz Quad-Core Processor (£69.55 @ Scan.co.uk)
Motherboard: MSI 760GM-E51 Micro ATX AM3 Motherboard (£45.55 @ CCL Computers)
Memory: Corsair Vengeance 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory (£29.76 @ Scan.co.uk)
Storage: Seagate Barracuda 500GB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive (£39.99 @ Ebuyer)
Video Card: Gigabyte Radeon HD 7770 GHz Edition 1GB Video Card (£90.92 @ Scan.co.uk)
Case: BitFenix Merc Alpha ATX Mid Tower Case (£29.99 @ Overclockers.co.uk)
Power Supply: Corsair Builder 600W 80 PLUS Certified ATX12V Power Supply (£52.78 @ Ebuyer)
Optical Drive: Lite-On iHAS124-04 DVD/CD Writer (£12.92 @ Scan.co.uk)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 (OEM) (64-bit) (£71.28 @ CCL Computers)
Total: £442.74
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2012-12-04 21:17 GMT+0000)

Here you go, changed the PSU to a 600W and put a 7770 in there for you instead

 

[quilciri]

If this is for gaming, can do better for less. G860 + Hd 7850 + 1 TB barracuda. You can use the extra money for an ssd

http://pcpartpicker.com/uk/p/qVEt

 

[jtenorj]

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: AMD Phenom II X4 965 Black 3.4GHz Quad-Core Processor (£69.55 @ Scan.co.uk)
Motherboard: ASRock 880GM-LE FX Micro ATX AM3+ Motherboard (£44.39 @ Amazon UK)
Memory: Corsair Vengeance 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory (£29.76 @ Scan.co.uk)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 500GB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive (£43.99 @ Overclockers.co.uk)
Video Card: Sapphire Radeon HD 7770 1GB Video Card (£89.99 @ Amazon UK)
Case: Fractal Design Core 1000 MicroATX Mini Tower Case (£32.38 @ Scan.co.uk)
Power Supply: XFX 550W 80 PLUS Bronze Certified ATX12V / EPS12V Power Supply (£49.98 @ Novatech)
Optical Drive: Lite-On iHAS124-04 DVD/CD Writer (£12.92 @ Scan.co.uk)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 (OEM) (64-bit) (£71.28 @ CCL Computers)
Total: £444.24
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2012-12-04 22:26 GMT+0000)

I'd rather have 4 phenom cores you can OC than 2 locked down intel cores.

went with 880 chipset (8GB max ram but several OCing features). switch back to 760 chipset if you want(16GB limit and simple overclocking).

vengeance low profile is really good ram. stayed with you wd caviar blue 500(better user reviews).

sapphire hd7770 that overclocks very well. hd7850 doesn't leave room in the budget for windows, which you need.

I actually like the fractal better than the bitfenix, mainly because of the front dust filter.

cheaper better psu compared to modstream and cx600. not modular, but you can put the extra cables in the empty optical bay.

a cheap dvd burner and the OS round out the build.

 

[quilciri]

I'd rather have 4 phenom cores you can OC than 2 locked down intel cores.

That's fair, and for a general use computer, I would agree with you, but that fails to address the gaming performance of the rig.

In games, an G860/7850 combo will outperform a 965BE/7770. If you game on low graphics settings, then the CPU gains more influence over framerates, but who wants to do that? The only games where the 965/7770 will beat the 860/7850 combo at med-to-high graphics settings is skyrim, and the multiplayer part of BF3; notoriously CPU dependent games.

 

[jtenorj]

We should ask the OP what kind of games they want to play. Also, what res? OP needs win 7 in price btw.

 

[quilciri]

We should ask the OP what kind of games they want to play. Also, what res? OP needs win 7 in price btw.

The types of games would matter if were were talking nvidia vs. amd video cards. That's a fairly close competition where the specific games you want to play would matter, but we're talking about 99% of games versus 1% when speaking of a 860/7850 vs a 965/7770.

as far as win7, the rig I suggested, as built, is 388, win 7 only puts it 10 over.

 

[huntrail]

OK well for games I do occasionally play skyrim and battlefield I might try GTA4 but I have that on PS3 and Xbox (my brothers) so I don't need that but I do play GTA San Andreas frequently but for that I don't need any high end hardware anyway.

I would prefer the 4 overclock capable cores from AMD to the I3 processor.

I was originally going to go with the HD7770 as the GPU but I wasn't sure that it would make much of a difference in gaming performance.

I would like 16gb RAM to be an option in the future because I use photoshop and if I need to go bigger adding more RAM would make it easier.

I think modular PSU's are a better option because of the limited airflow in the smaller case.

would I need an after-market cooler? because I've heard that the stock one on the phenom ii is a little weak.

Also thanks for helping

 

[huntrail]

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: AMD Phenom II X4 965 Black 3.4GHz Quad-Core Processor (£69.55 @ Scan.co.uk)
Motherboard: MSI 760GM-E51 Micro ATX AM3 Motherboard (£45.55 @ CCL Computers)
Memory: Corsair Vengeance 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory (£32.16 @ Scan.co.uk)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 500GB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive (£43.96 @ CCL Computers)
Video Card: XFX Radeon HD 6870 1GB Video Card (£119.58 @ CCL Computers)
Case: Fractal Design Core 1000 MicroATX Mini Tower Case (£32.38 @ Scan.co.uk)
Power Supply: OCZ ModXStream Pro 500W 80 PLUS Certified ATX12V / EPS12V Power Supply (£56.50 @ Ebuyer)
Optical Drive: Sony AD-7280S-0B DVD/CD Writer (£16.72 @ CCL Computers)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 (OEM) (64-bit) (£71.28 @ CCL Computers)
Total: £487.68
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2012-12-05 17:05 GMT+0000)

Would this build be preferable if I went over budget slightly and compensated by spending less on a keyboard?

 

[djangoringo]

Best performance/price with option to upgrade latter on to i5 ivybridge or i7 cpu.


PCPartPicker part list: http://pcpartpicker.com/uk/p/r3mO
Price breakdown by merchant: http://pcpartpicker.com/uk/p/r3mO/by_merchant/
Benchmarks: http://pcpartpicker.com/uk/p/r3mO/benchmarks/

CPU: Intel Pentium G860 3.0GHz Dual-Core Processor (£49.84 @ Ebuyer)
Motherboard: MSI B75MA-P45 Micro ATX LGA1155 Motherboard (£45.30 @ Scan.co.uk)
Memory: Corsair Vengeance 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory (£31.39 @ Scan.co.uk)
Storage: Seagate Barracuda 500GB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive (£39.99 @ Ebuyer)
Video Card: XFX Radeon HD 7850 1GB Video Card (£126.94 @ Scan.co.uk)
Case: Fractal Design Core 1000 MicroATX Mini Tower Case (£32.38 @ Scan.co.uk)
Power Supply: XFX ProSeries 450W 80 PLUS Bronze Certified ATX12V / EPS12V Power Supply (£35.00 @ Ebuyer)
Optical Drive: Lite-On iHAS124-04 DVD/CD Writer (£12.92 @ Scan.co.uk)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 (OEM) (64-bit) (£71.28 @ CCL Computers)
Total: £445.04
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)


But if you want an amd build (more cheape but with less gpu power) :

PCPartPicker part list: http://pcpartpicker.com/uk/p/r3pS
Price breakdown by merchant: http://pcpartpicker.com/uk/p/r3pS/by_merchant/
Benchmarks: http://pcpartpicker.com/uk/p/r3pS/benchmarks/

CPU: AMD Phenom II X4 965 Black 3.4GHz Quad-Core Processor (£69.55 @ Scan.co.uk)
CPU Cooler: Zalman CNPS5X Performa CPU Cooler (£14.76 @ Amazon UK)
Motherboard: ASRock 960GM/U3S3 FX Micro ATX AM3+ Motherboard (£43.23 @ Amazon UK)
Memory: Kingston Blu 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory (£29.77 @ Amazon UK)
Storage: Seagate Barracuda 500GB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive (£39.99 @ Ebuyer)
Video Card: Gigabyte Radeon HD 7770 1GB Video Card (£76.99 @ Amazon UK)
Case: Fractal Design Core 1000 MicroATX Mini Tower Case (£32.38 @ Scan.co.uk)
Power Supply: XFX ProSeries 450W 80 PLUS Bronze Certified ATX12V / EPS12V Power Supply (£35.00 @ Ebuyer)
Optical Drive: Lite-On iHAS124-04 DVD/CD Writer (£12.92 @ Scan.co.uk)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 (OEM) (64-bit) (£71.28 @ CCL Computers)
Total: £425.87
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)

I put in there a aftermarket cooler since you're gonna overclock, it fits the case and for it's price, it's a good one (much better than the stock cooler).
Also put in the best micro-atx mobo(available/price) with usb3 and a better psu for your needs.

 

[Tavo_Nova]

well IMO would go with the 965 my friend here has a similar system and works nice but not better than mine XD but works wonders too. I have a G860 system with a 7870 and its also good, either of the 2 shall give great performance (didn't test it with a 7850 as I got no 7850) most radeon cards I have are reference XD except on those mid to lower range cards

 

[tiny voices]

I have a 965 build. (see sig) Its overclocked and it is very useable for every day stuff as well as gaming with the 7770. I get high settings in mostly all games including skyrim.

 

[Motopsychojdn]

975Be here @4.5GHz with two 6950's, yet to find a game I can't play maxed,
7770 would see you fine but a 79xx when funds allow will give you more longevity
**Edit, although 4GHz is more likely on a 965, still a good clock**
Moto