500e MAX PC!

finlaycm

Hey guys,
My old man's PC blew up recently and I told him I'll build him one but finding difficult in getting it under 500e, which is the ABSOLUTE limit. Want a decent rig with an OK graphics card (for when I get home at the odd weekends, TF2 Mass effect, nothing too extreme.) HD need a 500GB-1000GB no idea on what to get a better CPU or GPU. Stopped following hardware trends about 4 years ago so i'm no longer an expert

1. What is your budget?
400-500e

2. What will be the main purpose of the computer?
Family multimedia, moderate/light gaming

3. Do you need a copy of Windows?
Nope, if I can figure a way to transfer it to the new HD

4. Can you use any parts from an old computer?
Hmmm, case possibly but PSU is only 300W, Disk drive bust. Will use old HD as a slave to keep files

5. Do you need a monitor?
Nope.

5b. If no, what resolution is your current monitor and do you plan to upgrade in the near future?
Think its a 22" 1050 no plan to upgrade

6. Do you need any of these peripherals?
Nope

7. Are you willing to try overclocking?
Historically I've never bothered with my own rigs

8. How can you pay?
Anyway

9. When are you purchasing?
ASAP

10. If you need help building it, where are you based?
should be fine

Procrastastudy

Whats the urgency on this? Trinity (AMDs APU) is hitting October and looks be be pretty awesome.

I'll do you a couple of specs - one Llano based (which is the current AMD APU) and an Intel system with a discrete GPU. €500 is loads these days.

Item|Price
8GB-Kit G.Skill PC3-10667U CL9|€35.52
Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 1TB SATA 3 6GB/s|€74.80
BitFenix Merc Beta|€32.49
Antec BasiQ VP350|€34.47
SAPPHIRE HD 7750 1GB GDDR5 PCI-E HDMI / DVI-I / DP (Lite Retail)|€98.60
ASRock H61DE/S3, Sockel 1155, ATX|€59.19
Intel Core i3-2120 Box, LGA1155|€111.88
Shipping|€18.99
Total|€465.94

Leave you a few quid to either get a better motherboard, GPU or perhaps both.

Item|Price
4GB Corsair Vengeance DDR3 1600 MHz CL9|€23.28
Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 1TB SATA 3 6GB/s|€74.80
BitFenix Merc Beta|€32.49
Antec BasiQ VP350|€34.47
ASRock A75 PRO4/MVP, FM1, ATX|€77.31
AMD A8-3870K APU mit AMD Radeon HD 6550D Grafikeinheit, Sockel FM1, boxed|€99.90
Shipping|€18.99
Total|€361.24

This is really a placeholder for Trinity although decent performance can be gained with a little overclocking.

I've not included an optical drive as you can normally find one lying around - seems you don't need it for install anyway. They're less than €20 from HWVS is you need one.

ED E

finlaycm wrote: »

3. Do you need a copy of Windows?
Nope, if I can figure a way to transfer it to the new HD

Pointing out the obv here, but if his old machine was OEM then this is a non runner.

finlaycm

Wow guys thanks,

couple of questions is 350W really enough to run all that? once I add an extra drive and a optical drive. Maybe GPUs draw a lot less power these days. The old case has a 300W PSU anyway.

Not sure about the difference between an APU and GPU?

Also as a matter of reference because I know more about nVidia GPU - what is the rough nVidia equivalent of the Radeon's you posted?

Procrastastudy

APU is a fancy name for a CPU with good integrated graphics. All CPUs, generally, have integrated GPUs these days - the AMD APUs are just the best of them imo.

Not really sure what would be the equivalent to the 7750 - if its the older 5 series then yep you'd need a better PSU the older nVidia chips are thirsty little beggars. EDIT: http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/gaming-graphics-card-review,3107-7.html

You might get away with the current 300W PSU depends on make etc. There's quite a bit of fibbing when it comes to PSU power outputs. Wattage requirements have come down a lot recently.

finlaycm

Oh any also I bought a W7 upgrade a few years ago so I should be able to transfer that over, right?

Procrastastudy

finlaycm wrote: »

Oh any also I bought a W7 upgrade a few years ago so I should be able to transfer that over, right?

Its against boards.ie T&Cs to discuss the various methods for using upgrades as clean installs or even link you to one of the many many tutorials on it.

IrishMetalhead

Procrastastudy wrote: »

Item|Price
8GB-Kit G.Skill PC3-10667U CL9|€35.52
Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 1TB SATA 3 6GB/s|€74.80
BitFenix Merc Beta|€32.49
Antec BasiQ VP350|€34.47
SAPPHIRE HD 7750 1GB GDDR5 PCI-E HDMI / DVI-I / DP (Lite Retail)|€98.60
ASRock H61DE/S3, Sockel 1155, ATX|€59.19
Intel Core i3-2120 Box, LGA1155|€111.88
Shipping|€18.99
Total|€465.94

I'd go with this with one exception and thats to spend the 3 quid and get the OC'd version of the 7750 by MSI:

http://www2.hardwareversand.de/1024+MB/56095/MSI+R7750-PMD1GD5+OC%2C+1024MB+DDR5%2C+PCI-Express.article

Edit: also nvidia have not released a decent low end gpu this generation as of yet and wouldn't be worth getting a previous gen model as it'll be more power hungry and would be less future proof.
basic rule of thumb for this generation is anything sub €300 go with AMD anything over €300 go wit NVIDIA.
Also if your concerned about the power supply (even tho it should be plenty of power for the system) you could spend an extra tener and get a 530W:
http://www2.hardwareversand.de/500+-+600+Watts/53224/Thermaltake+Smart+Power+530W.article