Best use of £550-600 budget?

[mantadog]

I have got a budget that tops out at £600 though obviosuly i would like to spend less if possible.

I have posted a few questions before and have come up with this spec to see what you guys think.

I don't play any new games, partly due to not being able to with my current equipment, and partly due to time. So i what im looking for is a solid computer that is responsive even with a few programs open and with a little bit of room for an upgrade in the future (gpu wise) should the need arise.

Case
COOLERMASTER ELITE 310 BLUE CASE
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)
4GB SAMSUNG DDR3 DUAL-DDR3 1333MHz (2 X 2GB)
Graphics Card
1GB NVIDIA GEFORCE GT430 PCI EXPRESS - DirectX® 11
Memory - 1st Hard Disk
640GB WD CAVIAR GREEN WD6400AARS, SATA 3 Gb/s, 64MB CACHE
1st DVD/BLU-RAY Drive
24x DUAL LAYER DVD WRITER ±R/±RW/RAM
2nd DVD/BLU-RAY Drive
4x BLU-RAY ROM DRIVE, 16x DVD ROM (£35)
Memory Card Reader
INTERNAL 52 IN 1 CARD READER (XD, MS, CF, SD, etc) + 1 x USB 2.0 PORT
Power Supply & Case Cooling
450WQuiet 80 PLUS Quad Rail PSU + 120mm Case Fan (£29)

Total of £570


Now feel free to post an alternitive spec - would be interested in what a comparible intel would be.

I have specd the 2 drives above for the reason that they dont cost much more than 1drive to do the same, and will save me a good bit of time as i sometimes need to burn from disk to disk.

Bit worried about the psu if i was to upgrade to a gtx460 or even higher not sure it would cope.

Lastly im presuming it would be foolish to go with the cheapest case if i was looking to upgrade in the future as its not designed for anything more than office use by the looks of it.

 

[Phoenix]

For that budget to include the blue-ray drive I'd go with something like this:

Case
COOLERMASTER ELITE 310 BLUE CASE

Processor (CPU)
AMD PHENOM II X4 955 (3.20GHz/8MB CACHE/AM3) - BLACK EDITION

Motherboard
ASUS® M4A78LT-M: mATX MAINBOARD, DDR3, USB 2.0, SATA 3.0Gb/s

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

Graphics Card
1GB ATI RADEON™ HD 5770 PCI EXPRESS - DirectX® 11

Memory - 1st Hard Disk
640GB WD CAVIAR GREEN WD6400AARS, SATA 3 Gb/s, 64MB CACHE

1st DVD/BLU-RAY Drive
24x DUAL LAYER DVD WRITER ±R/±RW/RAM

2nd DVD/BLU-RAY Drive
4x BLU-RAY ROM DRIVE, 16x DVD ROM (£35)

Memory Card Reader
INTERNAL 52 IN 1 CARD READER (XD, MS, CF, SD, etc) + 1 x USB 2.0 PORT

Power Supply & Case Cooling
450W Quiet 80 PLUS Dual Rail PSU + 120mm Case Fan (£29)

Processor Cooling
STANDARD AMD CPU COOLER

Sound Card
ONBOARD 6 CHANNEL (5.1) HIGH DEF AUDIO (AS STANDARD)

Network Facilities
ONBOARD 10/100/1000 GIGABIT LAN PORT

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

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: £597.00 including VAT and delivery.

This build will allow you to upgrade to a GTX460 and a phenom 6 core in the future, it's a better idea to go with the coolermaster case because not only is it bigger giving you more room for upgrades it also keeps your hardware cooler. A comparable intel build won't allow you to upgrade the CPU as far and will be more expensive.

 

[mantadog]

Thanks for the reply Phoenix.

I can never make up my mind on anything... Now thinking of dropping the blu ray and throwing the money at the GPU insted. Got about a few weeks to think it over tho and no doubt i will be back asking for more advice before long...

Might even be able to up the budget a little if i get lucky with a little wager that will be decided next weekend. So probably best not to decide 100% yet but thanks for your reply

 

[Meds]

The spec Phoenix has put together look good to me, for your reference the Intel equivalent is below;

Case
COOLERMASTER ELITE 310 BLUE CASE
Processor (CPU)
Intel® Core™i5-760 Quad Core (2.80GHz, 8MB Cache) + Turbo Boost
Motherboard
ASUS® P7P55 LX: USB 2.0 & SATA 3.0Gb/s, CrossFireX™ SUPPORT
Memory (RAM)
4GB SAMSUNG DDR3 DUAL-DDR3 1333MHz (2 X 2GB)
Graphics Card
1GB ATI RADEON™ HD 5770 PCI EXPRESS - DirectX® 11
Memory - 1st Hard Disk
640GB WD CAVIAR GREEN WD6400AARS, SATA 3 Gb/s, 64MB CACHE
1st DVD/BLU-RAY Drive
24x DUAL LAYER DVD WRITER ±R/±RW/RAM
2nd DVD/BLU-RAY Drive
4x BLU-RAY ROM DRIVE, 16x DVD ROM (£35)
Memory Card Reader
INTERNAL 52 IN 1 CARD READER (XD, MS, CF, SD, etc) + 1 x USB 2.0 PORT
Power Supply & Case Cooling
450W Quiet 80 PLUS Dual Rail PSU + 120mm Case Fan (£29)
Processor Cooling
INTEL SOCKET LGA1156 STANDARD CPU COOLER
Sound Card
ONBOARD 6 CHANNEL (5.1) HIGH DEF AUDIO (AS STANDARD)
Network Facilities
ONBOARD 10/100/1000 GIGABIT LAN PORT
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
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

Price: £678.00 including VAT and delivery.

 

[mantadog]

Thanks for the intel spec, i have no idea about intel processors these days but from what i have seen they seem to be a bit over my budget/performance ratio.

Woud the intel spec be any faster or is it just costing more for the same. Would i only see a faster pc if it was being pushed to the limit or somehting?

 

[Phoenix]

The i5-760 is faster but unless you're doing some pretty intensive video editing or something I don't think you'd notice the difference.

 

[Sleinous]

Id still stick with the AMD 965 over the 955 for £10 more.