£600 rig ideas

[Wilty]

Hi, I'm new here and I would like some advice on the parts for a new rig for a friend of mine. He has a budget of £600 and I have compiled a list of parts for it. I was wondering if anyone thought any of it could be changed for the better or generally what people thought of the rig. The specs are:

CPU: Intel i5 760

Motherboard: MSI P55-GD65

Memory: 4GB OCZ gold DDR3 1333Mhz

Graphics: MSI GeForce GTX 460 HAWK

PSU: OCZ ModXStream Pro 500w

HDD Seagate Barracuda 500GB 7200rpm

Case: Zalman Z7 PLUS

Optical Drive: Sony 24xDVD-RW

Cooling: Scythe Mugen 2 Rev.B

All replies welcome.

Thanks,

Will

 

[alienware]

Power supply = crap

Memory = crap

Cooling = for what that costs get a Frio, or, something better. But the Mugen will cut you.

Case = yeah I kinda like those.

Rest = seems fine to me. But FFS don't get an OCZ psu unless it's not made by them (hint - only the Fatal1ty 750w is made by Highpower USA, all the others are taiwanese tat) and avoid their memory. There are other, better memory solutions on the market (hint - all of them but OCZ).

 

[Wilty]

Thanks Alien, what don't you like about the Scythe Mugen because all the reviews i've read say it's a good performer for a budget. Also, what would you think if I changed the power supply to a Corsair CX500 and the memory to Mushkin 4GB DDR3 1333Mhz?

 

[Aurus_OC]

Thanks Alien, what don't you like about the Scythe Mugen because all the reviews i've read say it's a good performer for a budget. Also, what would you think if I changed the power supply to a Corsair CX500 and the memory to Mushkin 4GB DDR3 1333Mhz?

He will be eternally grateful.

About the Scythe Mugen, well I can't tell you much about it because I have never used but everbody is using and recommending Noctua coolers for a reason. They are the best air coolers on the planet atm.

 

[Stryker64]

I wouldn't get a Frio, since it's a louder than a blacksmith, but if noise isn't an issue for you, it would be a good cooler since it does cool extremely well.

Mushkin Silverline is a good choice of RAM.

 

[SnW]

http://www.overclock3d.net/reviews/systems/how_to_build_a_600_gaming_pc/1

 

[Wilty]

Thanks guys. Any other cheap air coolers I should look at or some that I should steer clear of?

 

[MeltedDuron]

I'd avoid thermaltake like the plague. a Noctua would be a much better investment than any other part of the spec, hell get rid of the dvdrw and use the £20 you save towards the Noctua.

I'd say you're fine with that PSU for that spec, there's way too much hype about Corsair going on when they're all rebranded Seasonics. At one time OCZ made the best PSU's on the market, the 500w OCZ will be fine, or a nice Enermax. Anything that isn't bottom drawer generic crap will handle the rig fine.

Have a look at TTL's excellent £600 gaming rig guide here: http://www.overclock3d.net/reviews/systems/how_to_build_a_600_gaming_pc/1 for ideas, I would definitely ditch the OCZ RAM though. Mushkins would be a much better investment.

 

[alicarve]

I wouldn't get a Frio, since it's a louder than a blacksmith, but if noise isn't an issue for you, it would be a good cooler since it does cool extremely well.

Mushkin Silverline is a good choice of RAM.

it's only loud if you have the fans at full whack then its like an aeroplane but on lowest i can't hear it at all and all my temps on my i7 920 oc 3.8ghz stay under 70 degrees at full load but doesn't handle 4ghz well, i would just go for the noctua nh-d14, its not that much more and will out perform the rest

corsair psu are reliable and mushkin ram are good oc they are the key choice for people at the moment