£600 Mid-range spec

[Dekks]

Looking to replace my wife's ancient PC (As in a AMD XP 2400+, 1.5GB ram, 50GB hd) with something a bit more modern, we like to play some online/lan games together but it wouldn't be used for anything too heavy duty game-wise, that said being able to play Diablo 3 (On mid-range settings) would be nice, Source games like Portal 2 and possibly the odd MMO is crucial. Budget is around £600 and I'm pretty realistic so don't expect to be able to play Crysis 2 maxed out or anything but would like the squeeze the most performance out of the price point.

We don't watch any Blurays so a normal DVD writer is fine, 5 in 1 card reader is worth the £5 as can never find our bloody USB reader when we need it, a new keyboard and mouse would be helpful as hers is pretty old but normal wired is fine.

For comparison, I'm using a E6750 Core duo, 4GB Ram with a Radeon 4850HD and 500GB hd and while getting a bit long in the tooth, can play Skyrim on medium settings with decent framerates etc so not looking for 60fps on the latest FPS at maxed settings or anything, just a mid-range computer that can play modern(ish) games on medium settings. I know that Intel rule the roost again as far as performance goes, but if we're talking only a 5%-10% performance difference for the sake of £50 then I'd rather go with AMD.

The £600 price point is pretty much a must unless we're talking real performance gains for only a small difference. Already have decent speakers and monitor. Edit: If there is any wiggle room at all, a quieter cpu fan is always nice).

Cheers.

[Fear]

For your budget this is about the best spec i can come up with, if you need to keep the price at £600 then you can either drop the CPU cooler back to the standard or drop the mouse and keyboard if the existing ones you have will do for the time being.

CaseCOOLERMASTER ELITE 310 BLUE CASE
Processor (CPU)AMD BULLDOZER QUAD CORE FX-4100 (3.60GHz/4MB CACHE/AM3+)
MotherboardASUS® M5A97: AM3+ PLATFORM, DUAL DDR3, SATA 6.0GB/s, USB 3.0
Memory (RAM)4GB SAMSUNG DUAL-DDR3 1333MHz (2 X 2GB)
Graphics Card1GB AMD RADEON™ HD6870 - 2 DVI,HDMI,2 mDP - DX® 11, Eyefinity 4 Capable
Memory - 1^st Hard Disk500GB 3.5" SATA-III 6GB/s HDD 7200RPM 16MB CACHE
1^st DVD/BLU-RAY Drive24x DUAL LAYER DVD WRITER ±R/±RW/RAM
Memory Card ReaderINTERNAL 52 IN 1 CARD READER (XD, MS, CF, SD, etc) + 1 x USB 2.0 PORT
Power Supply450W Quiet 80 PLUS Dual Rail PSU + 120mm Case Fan (£29)
Processor CoolingSUPER QUIET 22dBA TRIPLE COPPER HEATPIPE AMD CPU COOLER (£19)
Sound CardONBOARD 8 CHANNEL (7.1) HIGH DEF AUDIO (AS STANDARD)
Network Facilities10/100/1000 GIGABIT LAN PORT - AS STANDARD ON ALL PCs
USB Options6 x USB 2.0 PORTS @ BACK PANEL (MIN 2 FRONT PORTS) AS STANDARD
Operating SystemGenuine Windows 7 Home Premium 64 Bit w/SP1 - inc DVD & Licence
Office SoftwareFREE Microsoft® Office Starter 2010 (Limited functionality Word & Excel)
Anti-VirusBULLGUARD INTERNET SECURITY - FREE 90 DAY TRIAL
Keyboard & MouseLOGITECH® MK250 WIRELESS KEYBOARD & MOUSE COMBO (£21)
Warranty3 Year Silver Warranty (1 Year Collect & Return, 1 Year Parts, 3 Year Labour) (£5)
DeliverySTANDARD INSURED DELIVERY TO UK MAINLAND (MON-FRI)
Build TimeStandard Build - Approximately 10 to 12 working days
Quantity
1

Price: £618.00 including VAT and delivery.

[bigben]

I managed to get fairly close.

Case
COOLERMASTER ELITE 310 BLUE CASE
Processor (CPU)
AMD BULLDOZER QUAD CORE FX-4100 (3.60GHz/4MB CACHE/AM3+)
Motherboard
ASUS® M5A97: AM3+ PLATFORM, DUAL DDR3, SATA 6.0GB/s, USB 3.0
Memory (RAM)
4GB SAMSUNG DUAL-DDR3 1333MHz (2 X 2GB) will be sufficient for games for a while, fairly cheap and easy to fit in the future if you want to upgrade
Graphics Card
1GB AMD RADEON™ HD7750 - DVI,HDMI,DP - DX® 11, Eyefinity 3 Capable powerful enough to play skyrim on high-ultra settings (Link showing performance)
Free Item
FREE DIRT SHOWDOWN GAME with any AMD 7000 Series GPU!
Memory - 1st Hard Disk
500GB WD CAVIAR BLACK WD5002AALX, SATA 6 Gb/s, 32MB CACHE (7200rpm) High performance hard drive, definitely recommend
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
CORSAIR 650W ENTHUSIAST SERIES™ TX650 V2-80 PLUS® BRONZE (£69) Good quality PSU, will last a long time and be very reliable
Processor Cooling
SUPER QUIET 22dBA TRIPLE COPPER HEATPIPE AMD CPU COOLER (£19)
Sound Card
ONBOARD 8 CHANNEL (7.1) HIGH DEF AUDIO (AS STANDARD)
Network Facilities
10/100/1000 GIGABIT LAN PORT - AS STANDARD ON ALL PCs
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 w/SP1 - inc DVD & Licence
Office Software
FREE Microsoft® Office Starter 2010 (Limited functionality Word & Excel)
Anti-Virus
NO ANTI-VIRUS SOFTWARE Install AVG free
Keyboard & Mouse
LOGITECH® K200 USB MEDIA KEYBOARD (£10)
Mouse
LOGITECH® OPTICAL USB MOUSE (£5)
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 10 to 12 working days
Quantity
1

Price: £623.00 including VAT and delivery.

Configure Here: http://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/quotes...pc/_m_xS6FKpA/

[Dekks]

I managed to get fairly close.

Case
COOLERMASTER ELITE 310 BLUE CASE
Processor (CPU)
AMD BULLDOZER QUAD CORE FX-4100 (3.60GHz/4MB CACHE/AM3+)
Motherboard
ASUS® M5A97: AM3+ PLATFORM, DUAL DDR3, SATA 6.0GB/s, USB 3.0
Memory (RAM)
4GB SAMSUNG DUAL-DDR3 1333MHz (2 X 2GB) will be sufficient for games for a while, fairly cheap and easy to fit in the future if you want to upgrade
Graphics Card
1GB AMD RADEON™ HD7750 - DVI,HDMI,DP - DX® 11, Eyefinity 3 Capable powerful enough to play skyrim on high-ultra settings (Link showing performance)
Free Item
FREE DIRT SHOWDOWN GAME with any AMD 7000 Series GPU!
Memory - 1st Hard Disk
500GB WD CAVIAR BLACK WD5002AALX, SATA 6 Gb/s, 32MB CACHE (7200rpm) High performance hard drive, definitely recommend
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
CORSAIR 650W ENTHUSIAST SERIES™ TX650 V2-80 PLUS® BRONZE (£69) Good quality PSU, will last a long time and be very reliable
Processor Cooling
SUPER QUIET 22dBA TRIPLE COPPER HEATPIPE AMD CPU COOLER (£19)
Sound Card
ONBOARD 8 CHANNEL (7.1) HIGH DEF AUDIO (AS STANDARD)
Network Facilities
10/100/1000 GIGABIT LAN PORT - AS STANDARD ON ALL PCs
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 w/SP1 - inc DVD & Licence
Office Software
FREE Microsoft® Office Starter 2010 (Limited functionality Word & Excel)
Anti-Virus
NO ANTI-VIRUS SOFTWARE Install AVG free
Keyboard & Mouse
LOGITECH® K200 USB MEDIA KEYBOARD (£10)
Mouse
LOGITECH® OPTICAL USB MOUSE (£5)
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 10 to 12 working days
Quantity
1

Price: £623.00 including VAT and delivery.

Configure Here: http://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/quotes...pc/_m_xS6FKpA/

Looks good, Might go with the 450w PSU as wouldn't be upgrading in the next few years and will have to get Saturday delivery (We both work) so adds another £19 to the cost but other than that looks pretty much exactly what I was looking for.

[Fear]

Just to point out that although it is good and well recommended by most of us on here to get a caviar black drive i would not drop down on the GPU to fit one into the build on a lower budget spec such as this even though the HD6870 is one of the last generation GPU's it well outperforms the HD7750 for gaming and will give you much better performance for a longer period of time.

[vanthus]

Agree with Fear, the HD6870 far outperforms the HD7750,unfortunately numbers can be quite confusing far as AMD GPU'S go.My 5870 outperforms both of them.
http://www.hwcompare.com/11771/radeo...adeon-hd-7750/
http://www.hwcompare.com/6023/radeon...adeon-hd-6870/

[Fear]

Yeah the HD5870 was better than the newer HD6870 but if i remember correctly the HD6870 was brought in to replace the HD5850 or it was around the same price bracket at least

[bigben]

Yeah the HD5870 was better than the newer HD6870 but if i remember correctly the HD6870 was brought in to replace the HD5850 or it was around the same price bracket at least

urghh. how confusing...