My friend's build again

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1

So I made a thread here a while ago asking for sudgestions on my friends build which, at the time, was a Phenom II x4 965 BE build. I got advice from Gigabuster which really helped but I had one problem with it, it went slightly over the overall budget.

His PC will be used for gaming and recording (for youtube gameplay/commentaries) but he doesn't mind getting something with a better gpu and a worse cpu at the moment (as he's upgrading in 3/4 months).

This is what I've made for him:

CPU – i3 3220 Sandybridge dual core processor £87.98 (Aria.co.uk)

Mobo - Asus P8H61-MX USB3 Motherboard £41.53 (Scan.co.uk)

RAM - Corsair Memory XMS3 8GB DDR3 1600 MHz CAS 9 Dual £26.99 (Scan.co.uk)

GPU – HD 7870 IceQ GHz edition £199.99 (Overclockers.co.uk)

ODD – LG 24x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter £13.47 (Amazon.co.uk)

CPU Cooler - Hyper 212 evo Cooler £24.99 (amazon.co.uk)

HDD - Seagate 1TB SATA 3 Performance Hard Drive £59.69 (Scan.co.uk)

PSU - OCZ ZS Series 650w '80 Plus Bronze' £55.76 (Amazon.co.uk)

Case - Xigmatek Asgard III Midi Tower Case £29.99 (Overclockers.co.uk)

Total - £540.39

Acer V223HQVb 21.5 inch Widescreen LCD Monitor – Black £79.97 (Overclockers.co.uk)

Mouse – Ozone Radon 3K 3200DPI Laser Advanced Gaming Mouse £29.99

Keyboard - OcUK USB Keyboard £4.99 (Overclockers.co.uk)

Total - £114.95

Overall - £655.34

 

He wants to be able to play all games on high-max settings with decent frame rates. I know I don't need the 212 EVO in there but he's getting a 2500k in a bit so I thought to put that in to save him the hassle later. I also watched Logan's video on the IceQ 7870 and decided he'll need something along the lines of that for what he's asking.

£660 is the maximum he wants to spend on everything, so he can only spend £550 or less on the tower. If you want to sudggest a part please use a link to a UK site.

Thanks.

 

2

I'll get to these eventually making builds for other countries is hard when you're tired after work at 2am

3

*bump*

4

I would really suggest getting a Z77 motherboard. Other than that, it looks good to me.

5

May I suggest you swap it for a Ivy Bridge i3? Also, the 2500k is being discontinued. 

I'd just like to add, have you seen novatech.co.uk? They have some good parts and prices, as well as great support.

 

 

6

Wow, thanks for the insta-feedback! I've tried swapping out the CPU and MOBO but there doesn't seem to be anything in the same price range that's any good. Other CPUs in the same price range are:

FX-6100

FX-4170

Phenom II X4 965 BE

I thought that since the phenom is out of date and is outperformed by the 3220 90% of the time and that bulldozer sucks (except the 8120 which is only £20 more than the 3220) that it would be a good idea to go for the 3220. He also says that he's "gonna start up a youtube channel and I want my vids to render fairly quick" so that seems to make me question which CPU I should get

7

I would just keep what you have right now, and then have your friend upgrade to the i5 later.

8

I was thinking of trying to get him to add make his overall budget £700 and getting him a i5-3450 but cant find any reviews on it that aren't on youtube (North Wales is experiencing a huge storm that's really f-ing up my internet connection) so can I have someone's opinion on that please?

9

That would be fine as long as he's not going to be overclocking.

10

that would be a great CPU you'd have to have like 2 680s before it would bottleneck it in the slightest

11

Thats a great CPU for the price. That's what I will be choosing or the 3470, just depending on the time of purchase. I know .4Ghz overall isn't much of a difference but still :D. 

There might not be any reviews on websites but you can check out benchmarks on websites like cpubenchmarks.net (they also do video card benchmarks). 

May I also suggest you look at gameplay using the CPU so you can get a sense of it's performance. 

12

thanks for the quick replies everyone! So yeah he's going for the 3450 as it is only £20 more than the 3220 at the moment  :) happy days

@vortex88 he wont be overclocking

13

I know you're probably now bored of me asking questions but the Trinity APUs released very recently and I was looking at reviews online and everyone says they're good. So I was thinking of going with the A10-5800K with an A75 motherboard (http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MB-421-GI&groupid=701&catid=1903&subcat=2399 this one as it is the only one in stock) with Corsair Memory Vengeance Blue 8GB DDR3 1866 Mhz  RAM. So what do you think?  

14

nope, stick with ivy also I would go with a cosair, coolermaster, or seasonic PSU around the same price doesn't matter if its a lower wattage, the system won't use that much, and I just gennereally stay away from OCZ