New student PC that can also do gaming.

[Zynced]

Hello all!

Me and a friend have started University/College studies, and we would like to purchase well budgeted PC's that can also do well with old/new games.

The budget is £450-500. We want to have PC's that can run any office task while multitasking with games, and also be able to run games at high settings on it's own when asked. In terms of purely gaming, I'm looking for: Max settings on WoW, SC2; high settings on Call Of Duty games (with very high fps), and anywhere from low-high settings on the new games such as BF3.

I have made a build on my somewhat mediocre knowledge of computers, feel free to criticize/change whatever is needed.

Also, this build is a bit over budget. Where is the best place to cut down? CPU? Hard drive? The most cost efficient answer would be greatly appreciated.

So here is what I have:
Case
STYLISH PIANO BLACK ENIGMA MICRO-ATX CASE + 2 FRONT USB
Processor (CPU)
AMD PHENOM II X4 QUAD CORE 955 (3.20GHz/8MB CACHE/AM3)
Motherboard
ASUS® M5A78L-M/USB3: M-ATX, USB 3.0, SATA 3.0Gb/s
Memory (RAM)
4GB SAMSUNG DDR3 DUAL-DDR3 1333MHz (2 X 2GB)
Graphics Card
1GB AMD RADEON™ HD6770 - DVI,HDMI,VGA - DX® 11
Memory - 1st Hard Disk
1TB SERIAL ATA 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
600W Quiet 80 PLUS Quad Rail PSU + 120mm Case Fan (£59)
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 - 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
FREE Microsoft® Office Starter 2010 (Limited functionality Word & Excel)
Anti-Virus
BULLGUARD INTERNET SECURITY - FREE 90 DAY TRIAL
Keyboard & Mouse
LOGITECH® K200 USB MEDIA KEYBOARD (£10)
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: £519.00 including VAT and delivery.

Thanks! Jack.

 

[NMEBowen]

sorry but its very hard to point you in a direction with that kind of budget not that were that elitist on the forums but as far as gaming goes we do recommend alot higher specs as far as dropping your price my only suggestion would be to go for a duel core rather than quad it should still be ok as far as multitasking and still run games fine. take a look at this thread you may get a better idea of what is a decent gaming build on a budget http://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/forum...g-rig-you-can-get-for-50000p&highlight=gaming

 

[Zynced]

I understand the budget is low, but that's just what current circumstances give us I'm afraid

Checking out the other thread, it seems like the build I've made would do the same, but of course I might be completely wrong (don't know much about the GTX550). Would the build I've made suffice what I want to do? £520 is payable, it's just about getting components that are definitely worth the price I'm paying.

 

[NMEBowen]

heres my view:

Case
STYLISH PIANO BLACK ENIGMA MICRO-ATX CASE + 2 FRONT USB
If your sharing the pc im guessing it would be on alot and with this type of case the airflow is very low leading me to belive your components may well overheat and die quite fast
Processor (CPU)
AMD PHENOM II X4 QUAD CORE 955 (3.20GHz/8MB CACHE/AM3)
perfectly fine for what your doing
Motherboard
ASUS® M5A78L-M/USB3: M-ATX, USB 3.0, SATA 3.0Gb/s
not very future proof
Memory (RAM)
4GB SAMSUNG DDR3 DUAL-DDR3 1333MHz (2 X 2GB)
the bare minimum for gaming and multitasking
Graphics Card
1GB AMD RADEON™ HD6770 - DVI,HDMI,VGA - DX® 11
Old tech but still a good card
Memory - 1st Hard Disk
1TB SERIAL ATA 3-Gb/s HARD DRIVE WITH 16MB CACHE (7,200rpm)
Slow but the best you can get with your motherboard choice
1st DVD/BLU-RAY Drive
24x DUAL LAYER DVD WRITER ±R/±RW/RAM
fine for dvd`s and games
Memory Card Reader
INTERNAL 52 IN 1 CARD READER (XD, MS, CF, SD, etc) + 1 x USB 2.0 PORT
could be dropped saving you a few quid if you dont need it
Power Supply
600W Quiet 80 PLUS Quad Rail PSU + 120mm Case Fan (£59)
not as reliable as the corsair but still fine
Processor Cooling
STANDARD AMD CPU COOLER
back to what i said about the case if you and your freind are using for prolonged time it will conciderably drop the lifetime of your processor
Sound Card
ONBOARD 6 CHANNEL (5.1) HIGH DEF AUDIO (AS STANDARD)
Perfectly fine if your not a audiophile
Network Facilities
ONBOARD 10/100/1000 GIGABIT LAN PORT - AS STANDARD ON ALL PCs
if your using a wired connection theres no point in getting anything else
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
may as well remove this and get a free security suite such as avira or avg
Keyboard & Mouse
LOGITECH® K200 USB MEDIA KEYBOARD (£10)
Warranty
3 Year Silver Warranty (1 Year Collect & Return, 1 Year Parts, 3 Year Labour) (£5)
well worth a fiver

so my conclusion is just spend that few quid more and get a decent case otherwise you and your freind are going to cook this pc in no time.

 

[Zynced]

Thanks for all the notes!

Just to clarify, I meant that we would both buy the PC separately and have one each, not share. My friend simply lacks a PC right now, and I need a new one. Sorry for not being clear

On the motherboard, in the section I was under it was the only available - is there another option available in a different section that would definitely be worth the upgrade if I cut back somewhere else? and if so should I rebuild from there?

 

[mantadog]

£500 is really more of a home, office or multimedia PC. It's not the processor that kills the budget its the GPU, which is where it's at for gaming.

How how likely is it you will have any money to buy upgrades in the short term? If you think you might be able to afford upgrades you could forget gaming all together at the moment, buy a solid base pc for your studying and in a couple of months when you get a few quid you can buy a dedicated GPU and slot it in.

Their is nothing to cut from that spec that would save you any sort of money, even down to duel core is only going to be a £10-£15 saving.