First time buyer

SgtSteel

SgtSteel

Bronze Level Poster
First time buying a pc for mid-level gaming on a budget of £720 or less.

Case
STYLISH PIANO BLACK ENIGMA MICRO-ATX CASE + 2 FRONT USB
Processor (CPU)
AMD PHENOM II X4 965 (3.40GHz/8MB CACHE/AM3) - BLACK EDITION
Motherboard
ASUS® M4A78LT-M: mATX MAINBOARD, DDR3, USB 2.0, SATA 3.0Gb/s
Memory (RAM)
8GB SAMSUNG DDR3 DUAL-DDR3 1333MHz (2 X 4GB)
Graphics Card
1GB ATI RADEON™ HD5450 - DVI,HDMI,VGA - DirectX® 11
Memory - 1st Hard Disk
1TB SERIAL ATA 3-Gb/s HARD DRIVE WITH 16MB CACHE (7,200rpm)
1st DVD/BLU-RAY Drive
24x DUAL LAYER DVD WRITER ±R/±RW/RAM
Memory Card Reader
INTERNAL 52 IN 1 CARD READER (XD, MS, CF, SD, etc) + 1 x USB 2.0 PORT
Power Supply
350W Dual Rail PSU + 120mm Case Fan
Processor Cooling
STANDARD AMD CPU COOLER
Sound Card
ONBOARD 6 CHANNEL (5.1) HIGH DEF AUDIO (AS STANDARD)
Network Facilities
ONBOARD GIGABIT LAN & WIRELESS 802.11N 300Mbps PCI CARD (£17)
USB Options
4 x USB 2.0 PORTS @ BACK PANEL (MIN 2 FRONT PORTS) AS STANDARD
Operating System
Genuine Windows 7 Home Premium 64 Bit - inc DVD & Licence (£79)
Office Software
FREE Microsoft® Office Starter 2010 (Limited functionality Word & Excel)
Anti-Virus
BULLGUARD INTERNET SECURITY - FREE 90 DAY TRIAL
Monitor
24" Wide TFT Silver/Black 1920 x1080 2MS D-Sub, DVI, 23.6" Panel (£149)
Keyboard & Mouse
Logitech® Internet 350 USB Keyboard (£9)
Mouse
Black Logitech® Optical Wheel Mouse USB (£5)
Warranty
3 Year Standard Warranty (1 Month Collect & Return, 1 Year Parts, 3 Year Labour)
Delivery
STANDARD INSURED DELIVERY TO UK MAINLAND (MON-FRI)
Build Time
Standard Build - Approximately 9 to 13 working days
Quantity
1
 
C

CaseSensitive

Active member
Not wishing to rain on your parade but............

Keyboard and mouse for £14 ???

I'm one of those who believe that you get what you pay for !
 
bg92

bg92

Expert
This build would be better for gaming, but if you could get your budget up to anywhere between £750-£800 that would be really good.

Case
COOLERMASTER ELITE 310 BLUE CASE
Processor (CPU)
AMD PHENOM II X4 955 (3.20GHz/8MB CACHE/AM3) - BLACK EDITION
Motherboard
ASUS® M4A87TD/USB3: DUAL DDR3,SATA 6.0GB/s, USB 3.0
Memory (RAM)
4GB SAMSUNG DDR3 DUAL-DDR3 1333MHz (2 X 2GB)
Graphics Card
1GB ATI RADEON™ HD5770 - DVI,HDMI,VGA - DirectX® 11
Memory - 1st Hard Disk
500GB SERIAL ATA 3-Gb/s HARD DRIVE WITH 8MB CACHE (7,200rpm)
1st DVD/BLU-RAY Drive
24x DUAL LAYER DVD WRITER ±R/±RW/RAM
Power Supply
450W Quiet 80 PLUS Dual Rail PSU + 120mm Case Fan (£29)
Processor Cooling
STANDARD AMD CPU COOLER
Sound Card
ONBOARD 8 CHANNEL (7.1) HIGH DEF AUDIO (AS STANDARD)
Network Facilities
ONBOARD GIGABIT LAN & WIRELESS 802.11N 300Mbps PCI CARD (£17)
USB Options
6 x USB 2.0 PORTS @ BACK PANEL (MIN 2 FRONT PORTS) AS STANDARD
Operating System
Genuine Windows 7 Home Premium 64 Bit - inc DVD & Licence (£79)
Office Software
FREE Microsoft® Office Starter 2010 (Limited functionality Word & Excel)
Anti-Virus
BULLGUARD INTERNET SECURITY - FREE 90 DAY TRIAL
Monitor
22" Wide TFT Silver/Black 1920 x1080 2MS D-Sub, DVI, 21.6" Panel (£119)
Warranty
3 Year Silver Warranty (1 Year Collect & Return, 1 Year Parts, 3 Year Labour) (£5)
Delivery
STANDARD INSURED DELIVERY TO UK MAINLAND (MON-FRI)
Build Time
Standard Build - Approximately 9 to 13 working days
Quantity
1

Price: £715.00 including VAT and delivery.

Configure Here: http://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/computers/amd-top-spec-pc/
 
SgtSteel

SgtSteel

Bronze Level Poster
bg92 said:
This build would be better for gaming, but if you could get your budget up to anywhere between £750-£800 that would be really good.

Case
COOLERMASTER ELITE 310 BLUE CASE
Processor (CPU)
AMD PHENOM II X4 955 (3.20GHz/8MB CACHE/AM3) - BLACK EDITION
Motherboard
ASUS® M4A87TD/USB3: DUAL DDR3,SATA 6.0GB/s, USB 3.0
Memory (RAM)
4GB SAMSUNG DDR3 DUAL-DDR3 1333MHz (2 X 2GB)
Graphics Card
1GB ATI RADEON™ HD5770 - DVI,HDMI,VGA - DirectX® 11
Memory - 1st Hard Disk
500GB SERIAL ATA 3-Gb/s HARD DRIVE WITH 8MB CACHE (7,200rpm)
1st DVD/BLU-RAY Drive
24x DUAL LAYER DVD WRITER ±R/±RW/RAM
Power Supply
450W Quiet 80 PLUS Dual Rail PSU + 120mm Case Fan (£29)
Processor Cooling
STANDARD AMD CPU COOLER
Sound Card
ONBOARD 8 CHANNEL (7.1) HIGH DEF AUDIO (AS STANDARD)
Network Facilities
ONBOARD GIGABIT LAN & WIRELESS 802.11N 300Mbps PCI CARD (£17)
USB Options
6 x USB 2.0 PORTS @ BACK PANEL (MIN 2 FRONT PORTS) AS STANDARD
Operating System
Genuine Windows 7 Home Premium 64 Bit - inc DVD & Licence (£79)
Office Software
FREE Microsoft® Office Starter 2010 (Limited functionality Word & Excel)
Anti-Virus
BULLGUARD INTERNET SECURITY - FREE 90 DAY TRIAL
Monitor
22" Wide TFT Silver/Black 1920 x1080 2MS D-Sub, DVI, 21.6" Panel (£119)
Warranty
3 Year Silver Warranty (1 Year Collect & Return, 1 Year Parts, 3 Year Labour) (£5)
Delivery
STANDARD INSURED DELIVERY TO UK MAINLAND (MON-FRI)
Build Time
Standard Build - Approximately 9 to 13 working days
Quantity
1

Price: £715.00 including VAT and delivery.

Configure Here: http://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/computers/amd-top-spec-pc/
Click to expand...

This is difficult to understand as its all new to me! But thanks for the help. Just trying to keep under £720 so i can actually afford it. Looking for it just to run as fast as possible :p
 
C

CaseSensitive

Active member
universalmaniac said:
Like i said, first time buyer, advice from more experienced would be nice.
Click to expand...

I'm sorry..... I didn't mean to sound harsh.

If you spend just £14 on a keyboard/mouse combi then I think you will get a very very basic piece of kit.

There are some, including my eldest son, who have spent what I'd call silly money on them but I'd suggest doing what I did this last weekend. I'm going to be ordering soon and so I went out looking at mouse/keyboard units in Currys and PC World. Just so that I knew what the latest ones were like (my rig here is over 8 years old lol). Go to a big store and you can get the feel of them as they have them on display.

I did see some very cheap ones at or around the price of the combi you have mentioned and boy.... were they cheap and nasty ! I will probably be buying either a M$ or Logitech combi. They were around £40 ish.

I'll let other more experienced member advise you on the rest of your rig. I'm sure you'll love it when it comes.

CS
 
SgtSteel

SgtSteel

Bronze Level Poster
bg92 said:
You can change the graphics card to amd 6850. But the build will cost you £757
Click to expand...

5770 is enough for me as im not going to game that much, just mid-range. I have a few choices to add. 500gb to my hard drive (already have a 2tb at home) or a sound blaster audigy sound card.
 
Last edited:
SgtSteel

SgtSteel

Bronze Level Poster
Case
COOLERMASTER ELITE 310 BLUE CASE
Processor (CPU)
AMD PHENOM II X4 955 (3.20GHz/8MB CACHE/AM3) - BLACK EDITION
Motherboard
ASUS® M4A87TD/USB3: DUAL DDR3,SATA 6.0GB/s, USB 3.0
Memory (RAM)
4GB SAMSUNG DDR3 DUAL-DDR3 1333MHz (2 X 2GB)
Graphics Card
1GB ATI RADEON™ HD5770 - DVI,HDMI,VGA - DirectX® 11
Memory - 1st Hard Disk
500GB SERIAL ATA 3-Gb/s HARD DRIVE WITH 8MB CACHE (7,200rpm)
1st DVD/BLU-RAY Drive
24x DUAL LAYER DVD WRITER ±R/±RW/RAM
Memory Card Reader
INTERNAL 52 IN 1 CARD READER (XD, MS, CF, SD, etc) + 1 x USB 2.0 PORT
Power Supply
450W Quiet 80 PLUS Dual Rail PSU + 120mm Case Fan (£29)
Processor Cooling
STANDARD AMD CPU COOLER
Sound Card
Sound Blaster® Audigy™ SE (£19)
Network Facilities
ONBOARD GIGABIT LAN & WIRELESS 802.11N 300Mbps PCI CARD (£17)
USB Options
6 x USB 2.0 PORTS @ BACK PANEL (MIN 2 FRONT PORTS) AS STANDARD
Operating System
Genuine Windows 7 Home Premium 64 Bit - inc DVD & Licence (£79)
Office Software
FREE Microsoft® Office Starter 2010 (Limited functionality Word & Excel)
Anti-Virus
BULLGUARD INTERNET SECURITY - FREE 90 DAY TRIAL
Monitor
22" Wide TFT Silver/Black 1920 x1080 2MS D-Sub, DVI, 21.6" Panel (£119)
Keyboard & Mouse
Logitech® Internet 350 USB Keyboard (£9)
Mouse
Black Logitech® Optical Wheel Mouse USB (£5)
Warranty
3 Year Standard Warranty (1 Month Collect & Return, 1 Year Parts, 3 Year Labour)
Delivery
STANDARD INSURED DELIVERY TO UK MAINLAND (MON-FRI)
Build Time
Standard Build - Approximately 9 to 13 working days
Quantity
1

Just re-posting my new specs, tell me what you think :)
 
Rakk

Rakk

The Awesome
Moderator
Make sure you pick up the silver warranty for a fiver, well worth it.

Also see if you can go for a hard drive with a bigger cache.
 
A

APotter

Member
Im also a first time buyer.
I think you've done a good thing bumping up the cash to go with bg92.

I've just purchased a Primarily Video Editing Computer - anyone know if Nvidia Geforce GT 430 will cope with many games that well?
I'm not a Hardcore gamer, but do enjoy things like Sims or Mafia once in a while.
 
SgtSteel

SgtSteel

Bronze Level Poster
Was about to ask the same myself, what do you think will be better, ATI 5770 or GTS 450? Also, is that power supply ok for that build, it checks out as ok but just making sure.
 
Last edited:
Phoenix

Phoenix

Prolific Poster
No the GT430 won't be very good for gaming, the Radeon HD5770 is better than the GTS450 and is a good entry level gaming card.
 
Phoenix

Phoenix

Prolific Poster
A 450w power supply will be fine for the build you posted above with an upgraded western digital hard drive.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top