Thinking of buying this computer

[rosgor]

Want to buy a new computer, a gaming computer. Well it should be able to multitask, handle new games on med-high quality settings.

I want to keep the budget under £500, and the current one im looking at is abit over Anything i can do to improve it, so that the price lowers without a big impact on the speed and stuff.

Specs:
Case COOLERMASTER ELITE 310 BLUE CASE
Processor (CPU) Intel® Core™i5-2500 Quad Core (3.30GHz, 6MB Cache) + HD Graphics
Motherboard ASUS® P8H67-M: M-ATX, DDR3, USB 2.0, SATA 6.0Gb/s, CrossFireX™
Memory (RAM) 4GB SAMSUNG DUAL-DDR3 1333MHz (2 X 2GB)
Graphics Card 1GB AMD RADEON™ HD6670 - DVI,HDMI,VGA - DX® 11
Memory - 1st Hard Disk 500GB SATA-II 3-Gb/s HARD DRIVE WITH 16MB 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 (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 INTEL SOCKET LGA1155 STANDARD CPU COOLER
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 4 x USB 2.0 PORTS @ BACK PANEL (MIN 2 FRONT PORTS) AS STANDARD
Modem NONE, I WILL BE USING BROADBAND
Operating System NO OPERATING SYSTEM REQUIRED
Office Software NO OFFICE SOFTWARE
Anti-Virus NO ANTI-VIRUS SOFTWARE
DVI-D & HDMI Monitor Cables 1 x 2 METRE DVI-D CABLE (£5)
Warranty 3 Year Standard Warranty (1 Month Collect & Return, 1 Year Parts, 3 Year
Labour)
Delivery SATURDAY DELIVERY TO UK MAINLAND (BEFORE 12 NOON) (£19)
Build Time Standard Build - Approximately 8 to 10 working days
Price Ex VAT £469.17
Price £563.00
Quantity 1
Total Order Price EX VAT £469.17
Total VAT Amount £93.83
Total Order Price £563.00

 

[Corfate]

I recommend this: Case
COOLERMASTER ELITE 310 BLUE CASE
Processor (CPU)
AMD A4-3400 APU (2.7GHz, 2 Cores) & AMD Radeon™ HD 6410D Graphics
Motherboard
ASUS® F1A55-M LE: FM1 A-SERIES, SATA 3.0GB/s, USB 2.0
Memory (RAM)
4GB SAMSUNG DUAL-DDR3 1333MHz (2 X 2GB)
Graphics Card
1GB NVIDIA GEFORCE GTX 550 Ti - DVI,HDMI,VGA - 3D Vision Ready
Memory - 1st Hard Disk
500GB SATA-II 3-Gb/s HARD DRIVE WITH 16MB 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 (XD, MS, CF, SD, etc) + 1 x USB 2.0 PORT
Power Supply
350W Dual Rail PSU + 120mm Case Fan
Processor Cooling
STANDARD AMD CPU COOLER
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 - inc DVD & Licence (£79)
Office Software
FREE Microsoft® Office Starter 2010 (Limited functionality Word & Excel)
Anti-Virus
BULLGUARD INTERNET SECURITY - FREE 90 DAY TRIAL
DVI-D & HDMI Monitor Cables
1 x 2 METRE DVI-D CABLE (£5)
Warranty
3 Year Silver Warranty (1 Year Collect & Return, 1 Year Parts, 3 Year Labour) (£5)
Delivery
SATURDAY DELIVERY TO UK MAINLAND (BEFORE 12 NOON) (£19)
Build Time
Standard Build - Approximately 8 to 10 working days
Quantity
1

Price: £500.00 including VAT and delivery.

Configure Here: http://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/computers/amd-llano-home-office/

Smack on budget, and better than what you specced You'll probably be looking at most settings on med, maybe a few on high with this budget.

 

[rosgor]

In what ways is it better?

Is the CPU better? I am not to keen on AMD CPUs.

Also having and OS installed on it is not on my lists of things it needs, so that could be removed to upragde to something. I could possibly need a new monitor as well, since my one is small and old.

 

[Wozza63]

would personally get an i3 with GTX550Ti, good combo, cheapest i3 would be fine

 

[rosgor]

Im confused, also the budget could go up to 550ish now.

How about this?


Case
COOLERMASTER ELITE 310 BLUE CASE
Processor (CPU)
AMD A6-3650 APU (2.6GHz, 4 Cores) & AMD Radeon™ HD 6530D Graphics
Motherboard
ASUS® F1A55-M LE: FM1 A-SERIES, SATA 3.0GB/s, USB 2.0
Memory (RAM)
4GB SAMSUNG DUAL-DDR3 1333MHz (2 X 2GB)
Graphics Card
1GB NVIDIA GEFORCE GTX 550 Ti - DVI,HDMI,VGA - 3D Vision Ready
Memory - 1st Hard Disk
500GB SATA-II 3-Gb/s HARD DRIVE WITH 16MB 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 (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
STANDARD AMD CPU COOLER
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
NO OPERATING SYSTEM REQUIRED
Office Software
NO OFFICE SOFTWARE
Anti-Virus
NO ANTI-VIRUS SOFTWARE
Monitor
19" Widescreen TFT 1360 x 768 2MS, D-Sub, DVI, 18.5" Panel (£79)
DVI-D & HDMI Monitor Cables
1 x 2 METRE DVI-D CABLE (£5)
Warranty
3 Year Silver Warranty (1 Year Collect & Return, 1 Year Parts, 3 Year Labour) (£5)
Delivery
SATURDAY DELIVERY TO UK MAINLAND (BEFORE 12 NOON) (£19)
Build Time
Standard Build - Approximately 8 to 10 working days
Quantity
1

Price: £565.00 including VAT and delivery.

 

[Corfate]

I've just been searching online and found that the 6850 is actually better than the 550ti by about 5fps in the benchmarking they did, so thats better to put in than the 550ti.

Case
COOLERMASTER ELITE 310 BLUE CASE
Processor (CPU)
AMD A6-3670K APU (2.7GHz, 4 Cores) & AMD Radeon™ HD 6530D Graphics
Motherboard
ASUS® F1A55-M LE: FM1 A-SERIES, SATA 3.0GB/s, USB 2.0
Memory (RAM)
4GB SAMSUNG DUAL-DDR3 1333MHz (2 X 2GB)
Graphics Card
1GB AMD RADEON™ HD6850 - 2 DVI,HDMI, DP - DX® 11, Eyefinity 3 Capable
Memory - 1st Hard Disk
500GB SATA-II 3-Gb/s HARD DRIVE WITH 16MB 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 (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
STANDARD AMD CPU COOLER
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
NO OPERATING SYSTEM REQUIRED
Office Software
NO OFFICE SOFTWARE
Anti-Virus
NO ANTI-VIRUS SOFTWARE
Monitor
19" Widescreen TFT 1360 x 768 2MS, D-Sub, DVI, 18.5" Panel (£79)
DVI-D & HDMI Monitor Cables
1 x 2 METRE DVI-D CABLE (£5)
Warranty
3 Year Silver Warranty (1 Year Collect & Return, 1 Year Parts, 3 Year Labour) (£5)
Delivery
SATURDAY DELIVERY TO UK MAINLAND (BEFORE 12 NOON) (£19)
Build Time
Standard Build - Approximately 8 to 10 working days
Quantity
1

Price: £577.00 including VAT and delivery.

Configure Here: http://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/computers/amd-llano-home-office/

I also changed the CPU, as in my first spec for you, i forgot you didn't need any OS.

If you need to get it down to the £550 mark, drop the CPU to the A-3500 3 core CPU

 

[rosgor]

I've just been searching online and found that the 6850 is actually better than the 550ti by about 5fps in the benchmarking they did, so thats better to put in than the 550ti.

Case
COOLERMASTER ELITE 310 BLUE CASE
Processor (CPU)
AMD A6-3670K APU (2.7GHz, 4 Cores) & AMD Radeon™ HD 6530D Graphics
Motherboard
ASUS® F1A55-M LE: FM1 A-SERIES, SATA 3.0GB/s, USB 2.0
Memory (RAM)
4GB SAMSUNG DUAL-DDR3 1333MHz (2 X 2GB)
Graphics Card
1GB AMD RADEON™ HD6850 - 2 DVI,HDMI, DP - DX® 11, Eyefinity 3 Capable
Memory - 1st Hard Disk
500GB SATA-II 3-Gb/s HARD DRIVE WITH 16MB 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 (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
STANDARD AMD CPU COOLER
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
NO OPERATING SYSTEM REQUIRED
Office Software
NO OFFICE SOFTWARE
Anti-Virus
NO ANTI-VIRUS SOFTWARE
Monitor
19" Widescreen TFT 1360 x 768 2MS, D-Sub, DVI, 18.5" Panel (£79)
DVI-D & HDMI Monitor Cables
1 x 2 METRE DVI-D CABLE (£5)
Warranty
3 Year Silver Warranty (1 Year Collect & Return, 1 Year Parts, 3 Year Labour) (£5)
Delivery
SATURDAY DELIVERY TO UK MAINLAND (BEFORE 12 NOON) (£19)
Build Time
Standard Build - Approximately 8 to 10 working days
Quantity
1

Price: £577.00 including VAT and delivery.

Configure Here: http://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/computers/amd-llano-home-office/

I also changed the CPU, as in my first spec for you, i forgot you didn't need any OS.

If you need to get it down to the £550 mark, drop the CPU to the A-3500 3 core CPU

I could squeeze in £577.00. Thanks for your help, I should order this computer either end of today or tomorrow.

Just to check, this would handle games with good FPS and quality. As long as everyday tasks, like browsing, multitasking (Work, WMP, Itunes etc etc)

 

[Corfate]

I could squeeze in £577.00. Thanks for your help, I should order this computer either end of today or tomorrow.

Just to check, this would handle games with good FPS and quality. As long as everyday tasks, like browsing, multitasking (Work, WMP, Itunes etc etc)

Jolly good

Yes, it will

 

[rosgor]

Jolly good

Yes, it will

Cool, Thanks for all your help

This computer set up should be with me soon

 

[Corfate]

No problem, make sure we get some pictures when you get it!

 

[rosgor]

No problem, make sure we get some pictures when you get it!

Will do

 

[rosgor]

Just out of curiosity what is the AMD A6-3670K equivalent or similar intel cpu?

 

[Corfate]

Im not sure sorry, but it's one of the better AMD chipsets

 

[rosgor]

Im not sure sorry, but it's one of the better AMD chipsets

Yeah, ive realised its fairly new in the market.

Would you think its better than a Intel i3? Or Close to an i5?

 

[Wozza63]

if its an Llano chip then probably not, from what ive read these chips are all pretty poor and worse value atm than intels i3 which are much better

 

[rosgor]

I found this while searching up the AMD cpu

'Performance wise, a series of leaked slides that have popped up the last week show the APUs coming pretty much on par with Intel Core i3-2120, apart from graphics tasks where the integrated Radeon HD core is much powerful that Intel’s HD 2000 GPU.'

And what your saying is that i would be better off getting this set up?

Case
COOLERMASTER ELITE 310 BLUE CASE
Processor (CPU)
Intel® Core™i3-2120 Dual Core (3.30GHz, 3MB Cache) + HD Graphics
Motherboard
ASUS® P8H61-M LE/USB3 (NEW REV 3.0): M-ATX, USB 3.0, SATA 3.0Gb/s
Memory (RAM)
4GB SAMSUNG DUAL-DDR3 1333MHz (2 X 2GB)
Graphics Card
1GB AMD RADEON™ HD6850 - 2 DVI,HDMI, DP - DX® 11, Eyefinity 3 Capable
Memory - 1st Hard Disk
500GB SATA-II 3-Gb/s HARD DRIVE WITH 16MB 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 (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
INTEL SOCKET LGA1155 STANDARD CPU COOLER
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
4 x USB 2.0 PORTS @ BACK PANEL (MIN 2 FRONT PORTS) AS STANDARD
Operating System
NO OPERATING SYSTEM REQUIRED
Office Software
NO OFFICE SOFTWARE
Anti-Virus
NO ANTI-VIRUS SOFTWARE
Monitor
19" Widescreen TFT 1360 x 768 2MS, D-Sub, DVI, 18.5" Panel (£79)
DVI-D & HDMI Monitor Cables
1 x 2 METRE DVI-D CABLE (£5)
Warranty
3 Year Silver Warranty (1 Year Collect & Return, 1 Year Parts, 3 Year Labour) (£5)
Delivery
SATURDAY DELIVERY TO UK MAINLAND (BEFORE 12 NOON) (£19)
Build Time
Standard Build - Approximately 8 to 10 working days
Quantity
1

Price: £590.00 including VAT and delivery.

For an additional £13 pounds?

 

[Wozza63]

i3 has much room for improvement as it includes hyperthreding, meaning its 2 cores can handle 4 cores pretty much, but not many programs or games currently use this feature properly but in the next few months, games will include this feature seeing as the top i7 processors include this

 

[rosgor]

Okay so Im willing to drop the monitor, for maybe a intel CPU. Also the Graphics card could be put down a notch if you need to.

Any suggestions?

What about this?

Case
STYLISH PIANO BLACK ENIGMA MICRO-ATX CASE + 2 FRONT USB
Processor (CPU)
Intel® Core™i5-2500 Quad Core (3.30GHz, 6MB Cache) + HD Graphics
Motherboard
ASUS® P8H61-M LE/USB3 (NEW REV 3.0): M-ATX, USB 3.0, SATA 3.0Gb/s
Memory (RAM)
8GB SAMSUNG DUAL-DDR3 1333MHz (2 X 4GB)
Graphics Card
1GB AMD RADEON™ HD6670 - DVI,HDMI,VGA - DX® 11
Memory - 1st Hard Disk
500GB SATA-II 3-Gb/s HARD DRIVE WITH 16MB 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 (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
INTEL SOCKET LGA1155 STANDARD CPU COOLER
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
4 x USB 2.0 PORTS @ BACK PANEL (MIN 2 FRONT 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
SATURDAY DELIVERY TO UK MAINLAND (BEFORE 12 NOON) (£19)
Build Time
Standard Build - Approximately 8 to 10 working days
Quantity
1

Price: £528.00 including VAT and delivery.

 

[Wozza63]

i would get an i3 with a 6850 personally as most games wont utilize four cores atm (and when they do properly you will be able to make good use of it) but games will make a lot of difference between a 6670 and a 6850

 

[rosgor]

What about having both of them?

Case
STYLISH PIANO BLACK ENIGMA MICRO-ATX CASE + 2 FRONT USB
Processor (CPU)
Intel® Core™i5-2500 Quad Core (3.30GHz, 6MB Cache) + HD Graphics
Motherboard
ASUS® P8H61-M LE/USB3 (NEW REV 3.0): M-ATX, USB 3.0, SATA 3.0Gb/s
Memory (RAM)
4GB SAMSUNG DUAL-DDR3 1333MHz (2 X 2GB)
Graphics Card
1GB AMD RADEON™ HD6850 - 2 DVI,HDMI, DP - DX® 11, Eyefinity 3 Capable
Memory - 1st Hard Disk
500GB SATA-II 3-Gb/s HARD DRIVE WITH 16MB 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 (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
INTEL SOCKET LGA1155 STANDARD CPU COOLER
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
4 x USB 2.0 PORTS @ BACK PANEL (MIN 2 FRONT 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
SATURDAY DELIVERY TO UK MAINLAND (BEFORE 12 NOON) (£19)
Build Time
Standard Build - Approximately 8 to 10 working days
Quantity
1

Price: £556.00 including VAT and delivery.

Also would the case be okay? in keeping it cool and stuff.