Multi purpose PC for £750 (ovno)

[Phube]

Right I might actually be able to get about £750 for a new PC (with Speakers) for PC-ing, Internetting, some decent(ish) gaming (Half Life 2 plus ep., GTA IV) but nothing crazy and some photo editing (not RAW yet).

I would like an Intel as they seem to do a lot better for most tasks, but I'm still not sure about the Hard-drive (see Green vs Black thread in "Desktop Forum"), motherboard, PSU and GC.

My best so far is:


Case - COOLERMASTER ELITE 310 BLUE CASE
Processor (CPU) - Intel® Core™i5-2400 Quad Core (3.10GHz, 6MB Cache) + HD Graphics
Motherboard - ASUS® P8P67 LE: USB 3.0, SATA 6.0GB/s, CrossFireX™
Memory (RAM) - 8GB SAMSUNG DDR3 DUAL-DDR3 1333MHz (2 X 4GB)
Graphics Card - 1GB AMD RADEON™ HD6850 - 2 DVI,HDMI, DP - DX® 11, Eyefinity 3 Capable
Memory - 1st Hard Disk - 1TB WD CAVIAR BLACK WD1002FAEX, SATA 6 Gb/s, 64MB CACHE (7200rpm)
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 - 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 - 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 - inc DVD & Licence (£79)
Speakers - LOGITECH S220 2.1 SILVER/BLACK SPEAKER SYSTEM (£18)
Warranty - 3 Year Silver Warranty (1 Year Collect & Return, 1 Year Parts, 3 Year Labour) (£5)


Standard Build - Approximately 10 to 12 working days


Price: £725.00 including VAT and delivery.

 

[Fear]

With your budget i would go for an AMD CPU i know you said you would like an intel set up but you will get better spec on the AMD and GTA4 is quite a demanding game anyway have a look below and if you could spend a little more i would look at getting a better cooling case.

Case
COOLERMASTER ELITE 310 BLUE CASE
Processor (CPU)
AMD PHENOM II X4 955 (3.20GHz/8MB CACHE/AM3) - BLACK EDITION
Motherboard
ASUS® M5A87: AM3+ PLATFORM, DUAL DDR3,SATA 6.0GB/s, USB 3.0
Memory (RAM)
8GB SAMSUNG DDR3 DUAL-DDR3 1333MHz (2 X 4GB)
Graphics Card
2GB AMD RADEON™ HD6950 - 2 DVI,HDMI,2 mDP - DX® 11, Eyefinity 4 Capable
Memory - 1[SUP]st[/SUP] Hard Disk
750GB WD CAVIAR BLACK WD7502AAEX, SATA 6 Gb/s, 64MB CACHE (7200rpm)
1[SUP]st[/SUP] 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 (£72)
Processor Cooling
SUPER QUIET 22dBA TRIPLE COPPER HEATPIPE CPU COOLER (£19)
Sound Card
ONBOARD 8 CHANNEL (7.1) HIGH DEF AUDIO (AS STANDARD)
Network Facilities
ONBOARD 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 - inc DVD & Licence (£79)
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: £749.00 including VAT and delivery.

 

[Teaz]

Or you could consider this:

Case
COOLERMASTER ELITE 310 BLUE CASE

Processor (CPU)
AMD PHENOM II X4 965 (3.40GHz/8MB CACHE/AM3) - BLACK EDITION

Motherboard
ASUS® M5A87: AM3+ PLATFORM, DUAL DDR3,SATA 6.0GB/s, USB 3.0

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

Graphics Card
1GB NVIDIA GEFORCE GTX 560 Ti - 2 DVI,HDMI,VGA - 3D Vision Ready

Free Item
FREE Batman Arkham City with any Nvidia® GeForce GTX560 or above!

Memory - 1st Hard Disk
1TB WD CAVIAR BLACK WD1002FAEX, SATA 6 Gb/s, 64MB CACHE (7200rpm)

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 (£72)

Processor Cooling
SUPER QUIET 22dBA TRIPLE COPPER HEATPIPE CPU COOLER (£19)

Sound Card
ONBOARD 8 CHANNEL (7.1) HIGH DEF AUDIO (AS STANDARD)

Network Facilities
ONBOARD 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 - inc DVD & Licence (£79)

Speakers
LOGITECH S220 2.1 SILVER/BLACK SPEAKER SYSTEM (£18)

Warranty
3 Year Silver Warranty (1 Year Collect & Return, 1 Year Parts, 3 Year Labour) (£5)

Total: 769

A tad over budget but it should be good for your photo editing when you move into the raw stage

The 560Ti is near matching to the 6950 so youre in good hands with it. I picked the nvidia card for its cuda technology for extra support power

Op for a caviar black. better choice for the drive.

 

[Phube]

Thanks for your replies.

Decisions, decisions...

So you're both saying it would be better to go for an AMD (with my buget)? Am I just being swayed by 'pointless' benchmark tests... and with a better AMD I could hope to see a reasonable performance to match the i5?

Also my worry is with the ASUS® M5A87 you only get 4 USB ports at the back, or can USB 3.0's be used as USB 2.0's as well?

 

[patmcg]

See my recent build thread : http://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/forums/showthread.php?8754-Gaming-rig-under-%A3750

This does not include speakers though and came to £744 inc VAT+delivery.

I chose the quad core AMD due to budget but it does more than I needed it too.

I use it for Steam games, all maxed out ( BFBC2/CS/DoD Source etc ) along with IL2 Cliff of Dover ( on medium to high settings ) and it runs those brilliantly.

I also use Photoshop and Canon Digital Photo pro for post processing raw files from my DSLR with no issues whatsoever.

USB 3 is backward compatible with USB 2. Just transfers at a slower rate.

 

[Teaz]

Thanks for your replies.

Decisions, decisions...

So you're both saying it would be better to go for an AMD (with my buget)? Am I just being swayed by 'pointless' benchmark tests... and with a better AMD I could hope to see a reasonable performance to match the i5?

Also my worry is with the ASUS® M5A87 you only get 4 USB ports at the back, or can USB 3.0's be used as USB 2.0's as well?

Yup, amd has a fair price performance ratio and aren't far behind in performance with intel so youre in good hands with amd
Benchmarks does show intel are currently better but that doesnt really show any good facts to how its to actually help you apart from distinguishing whos in the lead. amd will perform just as well as intel.

The usb 3 ports are compatible with usb 2 so its fine to plug any usbs into it.

The 965 cpu should have alot of power to manage your work. the nvidia cuda cores will work in conjuction with the cpu to help make things a little faster

The spec i provided or fears spec is a good deal for what youre getting. it will knock pretty much any pc off the shelf PC World has to offer.