First Custom Desktop

dandec

New member
Hello all, I've been working all summer (I'm a student at university) in order to fund a new custom built desktop. It's need to be able to run very complicated and demanding financial market programmes so a good CPU and RAM are a must I don't play many games but I am fan of Football Manager and strategy games so I'm not sure about the graphics card. What do you all think of this set up? Any improvements or possibly any downgrades as I'm a bit naive when it comes to computers but I have been doing alot of research, would like to keep the price around £800. Thanks in advance for any replies.



Case
STYLISH PIANO BLACK ENIGMA CASE + 2 FRONT USB
Processor (CPU)
Intel® Core™i5-760 Quad Core (2.80GHz, 8MB Cache)
Motherboard
ASUS® P7H55D-M EVO: MICRO ATX, USB 3.0 & SATA 3.0GB/s
Memory (RAM)
4GB CORSAIR XMS3 DUAL-DDR3 1600MHz (2 x 2GB KIT)
Graphics Card
1GB ATI RADEON™ HD 5570 PCI EXPRESS - 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 (READS XD, MS, CF, SD, etc)
Power Supply & Case Cooling
450W Quiet 80 PLUS Dual Rail PSU + 120mm Case Fan (£29)
Processor Cooling
SUPER QUIET 22dBA TRIPLE COPPER HEATPIPE CPU COOLER (£19)
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
Monitor
19" Wide TFT Silver/Black 1440 x 900 5MS, D-Sub, DVI, 18.5" Panel (£89)
Keyboard & Mouse
Logitech® Wireless Desktop® MK250 Keyboard and Mouse Combo (£19)
Surge Protection
Belkin 4 Socket 2M Surge Protector with £25,000 Protection! (Special Offer £6)
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 8 to 10 working days
Quantity
1

Price: £779.00 including VAT and delivery.
 
Last edited:

dandec

New member
Should of mentioned that I have a 1TB external hard drive, but you're right it is very cheap to do so I might. What about the rest, any other suggestions? Thanks for the reply
 

Sleinous

Author Level
Id also possibly move the external HDD into the new PC providing you dont use it for a laptop or something else, and providing it isnt one of those small 2.5" HDDs
 

PCS

Administrator
Staff member
Welcome to our forums. You've put together a very well balanced specification there and there is not much I would suggest you change. You may wish to consider a SATA 6GB/s hard drive, but it is not essential and will not make a huge difference to the PC's operation.
 

dandec

New member
Thanks for the reply, at the moment I have a netbook for lectures so I don't think I'd benefit from puttingthe external hard drive into the new PC. What about the AMD Phenom X6 as opposed to the i5 quad core, which is better and why? I've seen that they are similar prices but I'm not well versed on AMD processors.

Many thanks
 

Sleinous

Author Level
Also i wouldnt recommend installing games etc onto that external HDD ( if its a usb one ) as they are much slower than internal hdds as all data has to be converted from sata to slower usb2.0 standard before being sent to pc, id recommend using it for backups,work, storage but not heavy buffer/read/write tasks
 
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