£450 gaming/video/photi editing pc for friend

[DavidTJ]

(to those who've helped me in previous threads this will not contain as much pointless text, hopefully none other than this 1st sentence. Sorry for misspelling of photo in title but I seem to be only able to use quick edit)

APPROXIMATE PURCHASE DATE: October (however he wants to know what he can get for his money now)

BUDGET RANGE: £450 (£500 including os would be more realistic I feel

SYSTEM USAGE FROM MOST TO LEAST IMPORTANT: gaming, video/photo editing (games known to play: wow Team Fortress 2,Half life 2 , cs source

PARTS NOT REQUIRED: keyboard, mouse, monitor, speakers

PREFERRED WEBSITE(S) FOR PARTS: www.Ebuyer.com www.aria.co.uk www.amazon.co.uk (I like www.overclockers.co.uk at times)

OVERCLOCKING: Maybe SLI OR CROSSFIRE: Maybe but not now since budget wont stretch

MONITOR RESOLUTION: His current monitor is less than 1600x1200 but he wants to buy new one when he gets more money

PARTS PREFERENCES:I think ATI 4800 series and and amd phenom 2 x3 720 or x4 955be would be good. He has pre ordered windows 7 for price listed below

ADDITIONAL COMMENTS: he dosen't care about look want best performance for money.

Heres what he chose
http://www.ebuyer.com/product/166518- CPU £74.13
AMD Phenom X2 550 Black Edition 3.1GHz 6MB L3 Chche Socket AM3 Retail Boxed Processor

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/169532- Motherboards £72.94
Asus M4A785TD-V EVO Socket AM3 onboard DVI VGA HDMI 8 channel audio

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/168123- Hard Drive £56.99
Asus M4A785TD-V EVO Socket AM3 onboard DVI VGA HDMI 8 channel audio

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/168453- Graphics Card £86.99
XFX HD 4850 1GB DDR3 Dual DVI HDCP HDTV out PCI-E Graphics Card

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/131128- RAM £34
Extra Value 4GB Kit (2x2GB) DDR2 667MHz/PC2-5300 Extra Value Ram Unbuffered Non ECC

http://www.aria.co.uk/Products/Components/Cases/MIDI+Tower/New+Ferrari-+500w+Midi+ATX+-+Red+?productId=24552&page=1&rqcType=CASE/PSU
New Ferrari- 500w Midi ATX - Red £42.54 with shipping

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Microsoft-Windows-Home-Premium-PC/dp/B002DUCMT2/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1249493204&sr=8-1
Windows 7 £64.98
Overall £432.59

Now I didn't really like this build that much but the build I came up with was far too expensive £501.32 on www.overclockers.co.uk and that was without windows 7, so I thought you could help to make the build above better. I think £500 including the OS would be fine. If you want to see what I chose just ask but I decided not to include my build to decrease post length.

 

[batuchka]

I would hit at least a P2X3 710, and clock it if needed at the very least. Extremely easy to clock these btw hehe Maybe a 790GX and a HD4850on the cheap now before the bigger better cards hit the scene soon? For a card like HD 4850 if you have to pay a premium for 1GB video ram IMO its not worth it Throw in an 80+ certified 650+ watter PSU with PFC for good measure?

 

[DavidTJ]

Here's what I've come up with slightly modified version of my original £501 list and its still over the budget

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CP-238-AM
AMD Phenom II X3 Tri Core 720 Black Edition 2.8GHz (Socket AM3) - Retail

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-111-HT
HIS ATI Radeon HD 4850 1024MB GDDR3 PCI-Express Graphics Card - OEM
(What does an oem card mean, Do you have to purchase a cooler and cables or does it just mean it doesn't come in a box and has a lesser warranty)

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MB-358-AS
Asus M4A77TD Pro AMD 770 (Socket AM3) PCI-Express DDR3 Motherboard

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MY-165-OC
OCZ Platinum AMD Edition 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C7 1600MHz Dual Channel

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=HD-246-WD
Western Digital Caviar Green 1TB SATA-II 32MB Cache - OEM (WD10EADS)

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CA-023-OC
OCZ StealthXStream 600w Silent SLI Ready Power Supply

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CA-160-CM
Coolermaster Elite 335 Case - Black (No PSU)

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=HS-056-AK
Akasa AK-FN057 Apache Super Silent 120mm Fan - 4 Pin PWM

Which comes to £467.43

 

[obsidian86]

if you need a 1tb drive this is at a better price http://www.ebuyer.com/product/150256/show_product_reviews

 

[DavidTJ]

Great find, I've also swapped fan and motherboard to ebuyer to reduce the overall cost to £457.56

Changes
http://www.ebuyer.com/product/171664 same motherboard for £1.86 less

Antec TriCool 120mm fan £1.37 less
http://www.ebuyer.com/product/82253

Hitachi DeskStar 1TB Hard Drive SATAII 7200rpm 16MB Cache - OEM £5.99 less
http://www.ebuyer.com/product/150256

 

[obsidian86]

and getting a case with a psu is a waste when you already getting a psu an should drop the price more

 

[obsidian86]

and a you can get mid tower for under £30 but if he wats something red hows this http://www.ebuyer.com/product/134826/show_product_reviews

 

[obsidian86]

or this http://www.ebuyer.com/product/150298/show_product_reviews

 

[DavidTJ]

In his build he didnt include an extra psu, in my build I chose a case without psu and a psu to go with it to make sure on psu quality

 

[obsidian86]

ok next option if he only gonna run one graphics card you could drop to a 500 watt power supply http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CA-026-OC&groupid=701&catid=123&subcat=

 

[DavidTJ]

Which would bring the build price down to £451.56 which is basically the price point wanted, and for £450 it seems a very nice pc, though I myself would be tempted to push up the budget to icluse a better card and a future proof psu.

If he doesn't listen to me about getting a branded PSU he will save another £32, which would meant it would only be £50 more than his original build, which considering were getting very good dd3 memory instead of value dd2 and better processor seems pretty good