Budget performance PC

TheKeir

TheKeir

Bright Spark
Hi,

At the start of december, my laptop basically broke, and after it going to the IT repair guy twice in 3 weeks, I have decided to replace it with a desktop. Due to getting different monies at different times this year, I will be able to afford an extreme, £1.5k gaming computer in the summer, so I would like a fairly low-end computer to use for the next 8 months. I would like to keep the costs as low as possible, but I would like to be able to game at a reasonable framerate. My old laptop was really quite terrible, so almost anything is an improvement to it.

Here's my current plan of what to buy, it currently sits at £433:

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 GT 520 - DVI,HDMI,VGA - 3D Vision Ready
Memory - 1st Hard Disk
1TB SATA-II 3-Gb/s HARD DRIVE WITH 32MB 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
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

I'm most worried about the CPU and GPU here. My old 512 radeon 4570 was a piece of crap, and it played Minecraft on its lowest settings at 10 fps. So I'm hoping the GF GT520 will be an improvement - does anyone know if this card - or a card similar to it, in terms of price - is any good? Nvidia only show the performance of their cards on their website, of the GTXs (I assume this means the other cards are embarrassing).

The processor is not a big improvement on my old one, which was a dual 2.2, this one is a dual 2.7. But I don't imagine that it will make a huge difference.

Any help on improving the computer to be as good as it can be, under £450, would be gratefully received.
 
Corfate

Corfate

Author Level
I'd change the GPU to a AMD HD 6670. I have it? It's a great card for the price. I get about 60fps on high with minecraft, 90fps on mw2, 45-50 high on dead island :) the 520 isn't a great gaming card. The CPU should be fine to last for the summer :) also, get silver warranty for a fiver :) maybe consider a caviar black HDD for your 1st HDD :) if you can afford it :) 2tb is cheaper than the 1tb one ATM :)
 
W

Wozza63

Biblical Poster
Case
STYLISH PIANO BLACK ENIGMA MICRO-ATX CASE + 2 FRONT USB

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™ HD6670 - DVI,HDMI,VGA - DX® 11

Memory - 1st Hard Disk
250GB SATA-II 3-Gb/s HARD DRIVE WITH 8MB CACHE (7,200rpm)

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

Power Supply
350W Dual Rail PSU + 120mm Case Fan

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
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 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

forgot to add silver warranty which will make it £465.00 and it will perform much better in every way
 
TheKeir

TheKeir

Bright Spark
Thanks for the replies.

I noticed you only put a 250gb hdd on your spec Wozza365, and I'd need 1tb. I think I'll stick with the AMD cpu instead, since it's a bit cheaper. Actually, thinking about it, I'd probably only need 500gb since it only has to last me to the summer.

Another question:

What do I need to select on the networking option, since I need to connect it (wireless) to my BT homehub router.

Thanks
 
W

Wozza63

Biblical Poster
if you drop to the pentium and up to a 500GB its exactly £450, which is still much better

you'll need to order a wireless card although i personally recommend homeplugs, ive been having a lot of trouble with my wireless card
 
TheKeir

TheKeir

Bright Spark
I believe the Gigabit LAN & Wireless 802.11N 300Mbps PCI-E Card should do the trick... however, when I click Proceed it says:

The graphics card you have selected is a performance graphics card, and it occupies 2 slots on your motherboard. Unfortunately this means that you have one less PCI-E slot available, giving you a total of 0 PCI-E slots.

You have currently selected 1 PCI-E devices:

GIGABIT LAN & WIRELESS 802.11N 300Mbps PCI-E CARD (£16)

Please reduce the selection to 0 PCI-E devices, or alternatively select a lower performance graphics card that occupies only one slot.

-----

Do I need a different motherboard then?
 
Corfate

Corfate

Author Level
Yes, it sounds like you do. Like wozza suggested, get some homeplugs. They will last you for years and give you a good wired connection. Much better than wireless :) also, you won't need a new mobo if you get some :)
 
TheKeir

TheKeir

Bright Spark
So if I get these homeplugs, does that mean I don't have to worry about getting the extra networking card? I'm assuming not.

There aren't any other options for motherboards on this £300 AMD configurator, and even if there were I wouldn't know which one to get.

Help needed please! :)
 
Last edited:
W

Wozza63

Biblical Poster
follow my suggestion about the getting the pentium, it will still be faster than the AMD chip, although an i3 would improve a lot more due to hyperthreading
 
TheKeir

TheKeir

Bright Spark
Fantastic! :)

I was actually considering getting homeplugs anyway, since I don't get any internet signal in a couple of rooms in my house, and am thinking about moving my computer into one of those rooms.

I shall get the homeplugs you first linked.

Thanks very much for all the help, I'm now ready to buy the computer. :)
 
W

Wozza63

Biblical Poster
but intel is faster clocks and generally faster compared to AMD, and the intel includes much better graphics card
 
TheKeir

TheKeir

Bright Spark
I don't mind about the AMD being a bit slower, I don't have a huge budget so want to keep the costs low. And I'm not using integrated graphics so that doesn't matter.
 
TheKeir

TheKeir

Bright Spark
Oh, I didn't say this - I'm going with the AMD cpu + 6670, thought you meant intel integrated graphics :p
 
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