£800 budget PC coming in

SOHCAHTOA

Member
Hello this is my first time using PCS. I am in the rather tough position of having to order myself a gaming PC that can play very high settings in high rez in most of today's games. I spent about 2 weeks learning all I could from the internet about PC components etc... and I think I probably learnt more than I did doing my AS levels in that time :p. Anyway my budget was very tight so I chose to go with AMD based as I can get a superior quad-core Phenom II X4 945 for a lesser price than getting a weaker Intel i3-5xx (probably because of the MBD?). Anyway here are my spec's:

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

Processor (CPU)
AMD PHENOM II X4 945 (3.00GHz/8MB CACHE/AM3)

Motherboard
ASUS® M4A78LT-M LE: mATX MAINBOARD, DDR3, USB 2.0, SATA 3.0Gb/s

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

Graphics Card
768MB NVIDIA GEFORCE GTX460 GDDR5 PCI EXPRESS - DirectX® 11

2nd Graphics Card
NONE

Memory - 1st Hard Disk
640GB WD CAVIAR GREEN WD6400AARS, SATA 3 Gb/s, 64MB CACHE

2nd Hard Disk
NONE

RAID
NONE

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

2nd DVD/BLU-RAY Drive
NONE

Memory Card Reader
INTERNAL 52 IN 1 CARD READER (READS XD, MS, CF, SD, etc)

Power Supply & Case Cooling
CORSAIR 650W PSU (TX650) 80+ ULTRA QUIET (£76)

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

USB Options
4 x USB 2.0 PORTS @ BACK PANEL (MIN 2 FRONT PORTS) AS STANDARD

Modem
56KBPS INTERNAL V92 DATA/FAX/VOICE MODEM (Special Offer! £6)

Floppy Disk Drive
NONE

Firewire & Video Editing
NONE

TV Card
NONE

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

Monitor
IIYAMA E2271HDS 22" LED WIDESCREEN, HDMI/DVI-D FULL HD 1920x1080 (£149)

2nd Monitor
NONE

DVI Cable
NONE

Keyboard & Mouse
Logitech® Internet 350 USB Keyboard (£9)

Mouse
NONE

Speakers
NONE

Webcam
NONE

Headsets (VOIP)
NONE

Surge Protection
Belkin 4 Socket 2M Surge Protector with £25,000 Protection! (Special Offer £6)

Printer
NONE

External Hard Drive
NONE

Home Installation
NONE

Warranty
3 Year Standard Warranty (1 Month Collect & Return, 1 Year Parts, 3 Year Labour)

Data Recovery
NONE

Delivery
STANDARD INSURED DELIVERY TO UK MAINLAND (MON-FRI)

Build Time
Standard Build - Approximately 9 to 12 working days


One of the things that bugged me was the case, I chose the cheapest one because I couldn't see much different between them up to those which were £50 more expensive. I was a bit worried about how much cooling such a case could provide as I only saw 1 cooling vent inside it. Will this be a problem?
Also since I am taking a monitor I had to sacrifice the 1GB GTX460 in favour of the 700MB version, and I heard that at very high resolutions the card could start getting bottlenecks. The reason I would rather have a monitor is because my old one is 17" and low res. (8 years ago it was the bomb tho) so it would be no point to have a good GPU. What do you think?
The computer is gonna be aimed at mainly gaming: Dawn of War II, Starcraft 2, Diablo 3 and other such games. I usually don't buy game like Crysis which are meant to simply push pc's over the limit but in the game that I DO buy I would like for my PC to be able to run them at Very High Settings with bigger resolutions.
 

Sleinous

Author Level
17" is still a very nice size, I would ditch the monitor, and go for the 2GB GTX 460, then, wait for a deal or something on ebuyer/amazon/tvspecialist and snap it up. Otherwise youll regret buying the cheaper card. Also silver warranty for £5 mroe would be advised.

Very nice choice on the HDD, 64mb cached 640GB is best choice out there, well the 1TB is better for only a few pounds more but its still really good :)

Do you need the 56kbps modem? Are you plugging a fax machine in or something? Or are you stuck to dialup?

I would seriously advise on a better case though, that really isnt designed for gaming or anything moderately intensive usage. I mean you could get away with the case if you upgraded teh cpu cooler but still, airflow for me is a priority as it will prolong the life of your parts by a conisderable amount.
 
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Phoenix

Prolific Poster
You could get the Maelstrom T900 Case for £30.00 more which would be better suited to gaming if you can afford it. Alternatively the CoolerMaster Elite 310 is only £6.00 more if your budget is really tight.
 
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LDUK

Master Poster
You could get the Maelstrom T900 Case for £30.00 more which would be better suited to gaming if you can afford it. Alternatively the CoolerMaster Elite 310 is only £6.00 more if your budget is really tight.

I agree with this. My brother has this case and it does the job exceptionally well.
 

Meds

Moderator
Moderator
Hey,

1. I would upgrade the case to the CM 310 Blue. The cooling in this case will be sufficient for the specification you have put together.

2. You could drop from a Corsair TX650 PSU to a standard 600W PSU, this will easily power this specification.

3. Rather than can the monitor full stop, why not go for a standard 22" Monitor. I think they are around £119?

4. With the changes you have made, you could be able to upgrade to teh 1GB GTX460. No need to go for the 2GB GTX460, the performance increase isn't all that big.

The rest; CPU, RAM, Mobo, HDDs etc are all fine.
 

Sleinous

Author Level
Thats a good point, as I think youd save quite a bit from the 650W to the 600W ye? £30 saved on monitor. the 1GB GTX 460 isnt even £30 more so the extra money you can put for the CM 310 Blue :D
 

SOHCAHTOA

Member
Thanks for the advice guys. One of the reasons I took the 650W PSU is because I'd heard that no-name PSU's are dangerous and since a faulty PSU can destroy a whole system I thought it would be better not to risk it.
Also I chose the monitor because it has full-HD and more res. but I'm having second thoughts about it. I will change the Case to a coolermaster or something better.
 

Gorman

Author Level
What's a HAF 922?

Coolermaster%20HAF%20922.jpg


This is a HAF 922. http://www.coolermaster.com/product.php?product_id=6606
 

Meds

Moderator
Moderator
I took the 650W PSU is because I'd heard that no-name PSU's are dangerous and since a faulty PSU can destroy a whole system I thought it would be better not to risk it

Our standard PSUs are all manufactured by FSP, one the largest PSU manufacturers in the world. They actually manufacture PSUs for some of the leading brands such as OCZ.
 
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