Cheap but decent new Rig for a friend

[Azuka09]

Hey Guys.

So i need some advice here. A Friend of mine needs a new Rig but doesn`t have too much money. I came up with a new Rig and would like to know if you think it`s a decent upgrade or if it`s crap. If it`s crap please tell what i should get, he has about 550€(440 pounds)

So first his old Rig:

AMD Athlon II X4 630 @ 4x2,8ghz

4gb DDR3-1333

ASUS M4A78LT-M LE

HD5830

Western Digital Caviar Blue 250gb Sata2

Cooltek K2 Case (really sucks)

450W Super Flower SF450P14P Black Edition

No special coolers or anything.

The new Rig(not yet bought):

AMD Athlon II X4 651 4x 3.00GHz So.FM1 BOX

Gigabyte GA-A75M-D2H AMD A75 So.FM1

8GB Corsair XMS3 DDR3-1600 DIMM CL9 Dual Kit

1024MB Sapphire Radeon HD 6850 Aktiv PCIe 2.1 x16

500GB Western Digital Caviar Blue WD5000AAKX 16MB 3.5" Sata3

Sharkoon MS140 Mini Tower (Really like this case)

430W be quiet! Pure Power CM L8 80+

So what do you think?

 

[Pr3d4t0r]

lets list it then

athlon is a bad choice no days go for phenom x4 at minimum

a 200mhz is nothing, so thats not even worth upgrading, as said phenom,

corsair is cool but you can get jsut as good hyperx genesis for cheaper

6850, hmm i wonder if thats a huge improvement, the technology sure is diffrent but its not a huge step up

hdd is fine, unless he doesnt need more than that and he can use the previous one aswell

all of that in a mini tower? i wouldnt do that but i guess its possible. id go with a mid tower atleast for future

be quiet makes "good" psus but probably something liek corsair cx500 would be a wiser choice, just my prefernece over brand.

thats preety much it. the overall improvemnt is not a huge step up with current specs imho

 

[Pr3d4t0r]

me Qty Price Line Total

Sapphire HD 7770 1024MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £109.99

(£91.66) £109.99

(£91.66)

AMD Bulldozer FX-4 Quad Core 4100 Black Edition 3.60Ghz (Socket AM3+) Processor - Retail with FREE Deus Ex & Dirt Showdown PC Games £91.99

(£76.66) £91.99

(£76.66)

Gigabyte GA-970A-DS3 (Socket AM3+) DDR3 Motherboard £59.99

(£49.99) £59.99

(£49.99)

Western Digital Caviar Blue 500GB SATA 6Gb/s 16MB Cache - OEM (WD5000AAKX) £57.98

(£48.32) £57.98

(£48.32)

Corsair Builder Series CX 500W V2 '80 Plus' Power Supply (CMPSU-500CXUKV2) £49.99

(£41.66) £49.99

(£41.66)

Thermaltake VK90001N2Z Element T Case - Black £39.98

(£33.32) £39.98

(£33.32)

Patriot Viper Xtreme 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C8 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (PXD38G1600LLK) £37.94

(£31.62) £37.94

(£31.62) Sub Total : £373.23 Shipping cost assumes delivery to UK Mainland with:

DPD Next Day Parcel

(This can be changed during checkout) Shipping : £11.75 VAT is being charged at 20.00% VAT : £77.00 Total : £461.98

The budget is quite tough but how about this? VAT and Shipping are for UK

 

[Azuka09]

Ok with the Cpu i get it but i went with the FM1 platform cause there i could get USB3 and SATA3 without paying too much for the mainboard. Might consider the Phenom x4 anyway, cause he wouldn`t notice it in the near futur.

The kingston ram is much more expensive then the corsair ram over here in germany. ( I´m ordering from Mindfactory if you know that )

The graphics-card is a little problem. if i use some kind of magic i could make it a HD6870 but i don`t know if this is worth it.

He will use his old HDDs but he also needs a new one cause he needs more storage.

With the Case i could go to the larger Sharkoon Vaya but i haven`t used that until now so i don`t know the Build-quality. But your right the Mini-Tower would be pretty cramped.

With the PSU i went with the BeQuiet one cause it has Cable-Management, this depends on the case i use.

Thanks for the input so far. I`ll go see if i can round up a better rig for about the same price.

Wow your list looks good. Gonna look up the prices over here in germany

 

[Pr3d4t0r]

the 7770 is pretty much exact same performer as 6850/70 but it does pack the new manufacturing and some other handy features, and its actually cheaper, and if he upgrades to a xfire in future the 7xxx series is the way to go about it as the new amd cards almost double the performance unlike previously where they wouldnt be as efficient.

the sata 3 and usb3 can be easily implemented and aslong as the board was made within last 2 years it'll probably have them.

if i recall the prices in germany are pretty much same if not better in fact

I know saitek mouses are cheap there lol

 

[seumasbeathan]

I really don't get this, other than his graphics card and cpu his current system is pretty decent, get an extra 4gb of ram and a new gpu and a new cpu

 

[Azuka09]

Ok checked the prices and your setup really scratches the budget but it fits. I had to change RAM and Case cause the ones you suggested aren`t available over here. Case now is a ANTEC ONE and Ram is 8GB TeamGroup xtreem DDR3-1600 DIMM CL9 Dual Kit. Everything should be compatible and the parts are spot on the budget.

@So long:

He wants a new Rig cause he`s going back to school soon and won`t earn anymore money so he wants to be at least somewhere near up-to-date with his Rig.

 

[seumasbeathan]

Ok checked the prices and your setup really scratches the budget but it fits. I had to change RAM and Case cause the ones you suggested aren`t available over here. Case now is a ANTEC ONE and Ram is 8GB TeamGroup xtreem DDR3-1600 DIMM CL9 Dual Kit. Everything should be compatible and the parts are spot on the budget.

@So long:

He wants a new Rig cause he`s going back to school soon and won`t earn anymore money so he wants to be at least somewhere near up-to-date with his Rig.

Why not just keep his current ram? 4gb is still enough for gaming

 

[Pr3d4t0r]

I really don't get this, other than his graphics card and cpu his current system is pretty decent, get an extra 4gb of ram and a new gpu and a new cpu

thats pretty much what i said in first reply, that unless he's going for a better overall rig then theres really no point.

@Azuka09

Antec One, was one of my other choices for case in the price range but the therlamtake has great looks

Antec always had great build quality so you can expect alot from them.

with that he should be easy able to handle bf3 and other games without much problem,

 

[Pr3d4t0r]

Why not just keep his current ram? 4gb is still enough for gaming

I assume he isnt like us that will use anything lying around and plonk it into the rig, he basically wants the feeling of a whole new computer, you shouldnt judge fetishes lol

 

[Big WigglyStyle]

Why not just keep his current ram? 4gb is still enough for gaming

I think he'd be better with 8GB. I'm not sure about others but when I run bf3 I use up 6GB of ram.

 

[Azuka09]

@Predator

Yeah i`m gonna stick with the setup you posted, looks decent.

Thank you very much.

By the way, yeah i`m not a fan of the patchwork-computer. I always prefer a complete new rig over a update.

 

[Pr3d4t0r]

I think he'd be better with 8GB. I'm not sure about others but when I run bf3 I use up 6GB of ram.

i only, use around 4 to 6 aswell but i use some hdd caching and run few background apps on top of that. but 4 gigs is still considered a normal amount for casual gaming, but its slowly turning higher and higher

 

[Pr3d4t0r]

@Predator

Yeah i`m gonna stick with the setup you posted, looks decent.

Thank you very much.

you got me thinking for a second there

my nick is actually Pr3d4t0r and i can jsut change the title to whatever such as right now its Invaders must die lol.

but anyways im glad i could help you out :]