First Time New Build. Moderate Gaming/Multitasking/PS. £400-500

Stowski

Honorable
Jul 12, 2012
2
0
10,510
Approximate Purchase Date: Within a Month, but no particular rush.

Budget Range: £400-500

System Usage from Most to Least Important: Multitasking, Gaming (CIV,
FM, MW - although primarily strategy games rather than graphic intense
games).

Are you buying a monitor: No, I have a 22" monitor already, although
possibly buying a second monitor for dual-screen.

Parts to Upgrade: None

Do you need to buy OS: No, but will be Windows 7.

Preferred Website(s) for Parts: Novatech/Dabs

Location: UK

Parts Preferences: Intel

Overclocking: Probably not.

SLI or Crossfire: No.

Additional Comments: This will be my first build from scratch.
I have updated elements of past PCs so have a basic understanding of
everything that goes into my PC and what goes where. The PC is not
aimed at being some kind of gaming beast (if you hadn't already
guessed by the pricetag). I've started doing some preliminary research
into the build, but I've come to a couple of stumbling points where
threads posted by others dont quite offer the appropriate info that I
need. I could stretch the budget to £500, but anything under that
would be a bonus.

And most importantly, why are you upgrading: Essentially I am
upgrading for the understanding and enjoyment factor of simply doing
it all myself. Whilst I wouldn't claim to be any kind of profound
technological geek. I like to think I have a decent enough
understanding to build a PC myself. The experience should be good, and
it will give me a better understanding of the whole system. It should
also allow me to be able to upgrade components easier in the future.
And all round enjoyment of actually planning and building a PC.

Here is a list of components that I have been looking at so far. I'm
pretty much set on an intel processor, SSD, 8gb of RAM, and an AMD
graphics card. Full details below:


CPU

Up until today I was really only considering the i3 (priced at £89).
So my first question would be whether the i5 is really worth the extra
£53 price tag?

2nd Generation Intel® Core™ i3 2120 3.3GHz Socket LGA1155 .

http://www.novatech.co.uk/products/components/processors/intel2ndgencorei3,i5andi71155socket/bx80623i32120.html

2nd Generation Intel® Core™ i5 2400 3.10GHz Socket LGA1155

http://www.novatech.co.uk/products/components/processors/intel2ndgencorei3,i5andi71155socket/bx80623i52400.html


Mobo

£70 on the Mobo seems appropriate. The number of SATA connections on
this is appropriate as I plan to have DVD, SSD and additional HDD.

ASUS P8H61-M Pro Intel H61 (Socket 1155) Motherboard

http://www.novatech.co.uk/products/components/motherboards/intel1155h61chipsetmotherboards/90-mibf30-g0eay0dz.html


GPU

The main GPU I have been looking at is the Radeon 6770. I would like
to keep the price of the GPU under £100 and so far this looks like one
of the best “bang for your buck” GPU’s out there in this price range.
I have looked at the 7770, but is it really worth the extra ££’s?

Asus AMD Radeon HD 6770 1024MB GDDR5

http://www.novatech.co.uk/products/components/atiradeongraphicscards/amdhd6770series/eah6770di1gd5.html


Storage

I am looking at 120GB SSDs for this. This won’t be enough storage
space for too long, however I can easily put up with it for a while,
and buy a supplementary HDD when I have some spare change.

Decent value 120GB SSD:

OCZ OCZSSD2-1VTX120G 120 Gb Vertex Series SATA II 2.5 Inch SSD Drive

http://www.amazon.co.uk/OCZ-OCZSSD2-1VTX120G-Vertex-Series-Drive/dp/B001NPCTBO/ref=sr_1_11?s=computers&ie=UTF8&qid=1342101933&sr=1-11


Memory

8gb or RAM (2x4GB)

Corsair Vengeance 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit

http://www.novatech.co.uk/products/components/memory-pc/ddr3-pc3-12800/1600mhz/cmz8gx3m2a1600c9.html

As for the rest of it.

Optical drive I will pick up cheap, I barely use them so won’t be spending much on one.

PSU – I didn’t want to pick this out until I know the rest of the list, as I read somewhere that you should calculate your power consumption, then perhaps add 100w to allow for upgrades.

Case – Again, I didn’t want to choose this until I knew the rest of the specs (don’t want to get a case too small or poorly fitting) although any advice on this would be well received.


If I’ve made any colossal errors in judgement, please let me know (nicely!).

Thanks very much,

Stowski
 
It's a tight budget, here's what I suggest

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: Intel Core i5-3450 3.1GHz Quad-Core Processor (£145.10 @ Ebuyer)
Motherboard: MSI B75MA-P45 ATX LGA1155 Motherboard (£48.98 @ Novatech)
Memory: Kingston HyperX Grey 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory (£38.16 @ Scan.co.uk)
Hard Drive: OCZ Agility 3 120GB 2.5" Solid State Disk (£71.98 @ Amazon UK)
Video Card: MSI Radeon HD 6770 1GB Video Card (£74.00 @ Scan.co.uk)
Case: Xigmatek Asgard II Black ATX Mid Tower Case (£29.99 @ Overclockers.co.uk)
Power Supply: Corsair 430W ATX12V Power Supply (£35.32 @ Scan.co.uk)
Total: £443.53
(Prices include shipping and discounts when available.)

I figure the Ivy i5 will likely last you for years while the i3 might beg for an upgrade sooner. Otherwise I pretty much followed what you already had picked.