1st pc build, DOW2, uni work...?

[zoROBSTARoz]

Been looking at this site on and off for a year now, now really thinking about getting one, not a complete pc n00b but inexperienced lol
Space is lacking hence the mini pc, also the portability is useful.
The "biggest" game I want to play on MAX is Dawn of war 2,
I use a lot of editing programmes for uni, animating, 3d modelling, graphics tablet ect
So the pc specs =] Budget is up to £500 student lol but as cheap as can be (i may be able to get an os hence specs without it)
Case
Inwin Mini-ITX BP655 Case + 200W PSU
Processor (CPU)
AMD ATHLON II X2 260 (3.20GHz/2MB CACHE/AM3)
Motherboard
ASUS® M4A88T-I DELUXE: 880G Chipset, 2x DDR3, 2 x USB 3.0, 6 x USB 2.0
Memory (RAM)
8GB SAMSUNG 1333MHz SODIMM DDR3 MEMORY (2 x 4GB)
Graphics Card
1GB NVIDIA GEFORCE GT 430 - DVI,HDMI,VGA
Memory - 1st Hard Disk
500GB WD CAVIAR BLACK WD5002AALX, SATA 6 Gb/s, 32MB CACHE (7200rpm)
Sound Card
ONBOARD 8 CHANNEL (7.1) HIGH DEF AUDIO (AS STANDARD)
Network Facilities
INTEGRATED GIGABIT LAN & WIRELESS 802.11N CARD (AS STANDARD)
USB Options
8 x USB 2.0 PORTS @ BACK PANEL (MIN 2 FRONT PORTS) AS STANDARD
Bluetooth & Infrared Options
Integrated V2.0 Bluetooth Adapter + EDR Capability
Operating System
NO OPERATING SYSTEM REQUIRED
Office Software
NO OFFICE SOFTWARE
Anti-Virus
NO ANTI-VIRUS SOFTWARE
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: £399.00 including VAT and delivery.

Any help is much appreciated, thank you.

 

[Wozza63]

get a better graphics card, and get a 750gb caviar black for the double cache, the price difference is very little

 

[zoROBSTARoz]

Sweet on the 750gb, never even noticed =]

What kind of graphics card? Seems I'll need a bigger case to hold any other graphics card =/

 

[Wozza63]

does a GTS450 work ok?

also im assuming you need the 8GB RAM for your university course?

is there a budget i can work too as well?

 

[Wozza63]

also just realized that your motherboard does not support 6gb/s HDDs meaning there is no point in a Caviar Black, I'd recommend a caviar green as its more efficient that the standard ATA drive, but if you only want 500GB get the standard one, the speed will be fine anyway as long as you dont need super access speeds

 

[Wozza63]

*sorry didnt realize you originally said about budget...

 

[Fear]

also just realized that your motherboard does not support 6gb/s HDDs meaning there is no point in a Caviar Black, I'd recommend a caviar green as its more efficient that the standard ATA drive, but if you only want 500GB get the standard one, the speed will be fine anyway as long as you dont need super access speeds

You will still get a better speed from using a Caviar Black drive regardless of if it's a 3GB/s or 6GB/s port as only some SSD's make use of higher and always go for a Black as primary boot drive as the green are more just for extra drives for storage.

 

[Wozza63]

You will still get a better speed from using a Caviar Black drive regardless of if it's a 3GB/s or 6GB/s port as only some SSD's make use of higher and always go for a Black as primary boot drive as the green are more just for extra drives for storage.

just a question, how will speed be improved over a standard ATA drive (not mentioning cache) if they are both 7,200RPM (not green drive)

 

[zoROBSTARoz]

Cant fit that graphics card in =/ Seems only the low powered graphics cards fit, I'll need a new case if I can get the GT450. Would i really need it for DOW2 max?

The 8gb ram was put in because I could lol but if i need a more expensive card and case then 4 should be ok.

 

[Fear]

just a question, how will speed be improved over a standard ATA drive (not mentioning cache) if they are both 7,200RPM (not green drive)

[rollinglaugh] Well you might find that they spin at the same speed but that does not mean in any way at all that they can read/write at the same speed :whistling:

 

[Wozza63]

how is this? also if you could afford a quad core, it may be worth it but its £50 more

Case
Silverstone SG01-F Mini-ITX Case + 450W PSU

Processor (CPU)
Intel® Core™i3-2120 Dual Core (3.30GHz, 3MB Cache) + HD Graphics

Motherboard
ASUS® P8H61-I: Mini-ITX, LG1155, USB 3.0, SATA 3GBs

Memory (RAM)
8GB SAMSUNG DDR3 DUAL-DDR3 1333MHz (2 X 4GB)

Graphics Card
1GB NVIDIA GEFORCE GTS 450 - DVI,HDMI,VGA - 3D Vision Ready

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

Sound Card
ONBOARD 10 CHANNEL (7.1) HIGH DEF AUDIO (AS STANDARD)

Network Facilities
ONBOARD 10/100/1000 GIGABIT LAN PORT - AS STANDARD ON ALL PCs

USB Options
2 x USB 3.0 PORTS + 4 x USB 2.0 PORTS AS STANDARD

Operating System
NO OPERATING SYSTEM REQUIRED

Office Software
NO OFFICE SOFTWARE

Anti-Virus
NO ANTI-VIRUS SOFTWARE

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

you can always drop to 4gb, it wouldnt matter, especially at the lower settings youll be playing games at (probably medium on most new games), you could then get a caviar black although imo i dont think it would make any difference speed wise, or you could try for a quad core, or a 520/550ti, probably best to upgrade graphics card if you can that would improve performance most

 

[zoROBSTARoz]

So you'd recommend a bigger case for better graphics card? That case wouldn't be portable for lumping into uni if push came to shove? lol might not be a big deal though.

Looks like a good build, Thanks for you're help =]

Also noticed Intel over AMD? any benefit?

 

[Corfate]

So you'd recommend a bigger case for better graphics card? That case wouldn't be portable for lumping into uni if push came to shove? lol might not be a big deal though.

Looks like a good build, Thanks for you're help =]

Also noticed Intel over AMD? any benefit?

AMD you get more bang for your buck in my opinion It's cheaper, but just as good as Intel, if not better in some instances.

 

[Wozza63]

i managed to find a better deal on the intels considering it went from 2core to 6 core on AMD with nothing inbetween whereas intel had a higher clocked i3 with bigger cache as well i think