Building for a friend

So I built my current computer back in August 2010, it was my first build experience and eventually it worked out ok. I feel fairly confident with building now, and my friends birthday is coming up in the next few weeks. He has a £500 GBP budget to spend on a PC, and so I'm going to be helping him pick parts and assemble it.

Please use www.ebuyer.com to make suggestions, I am from the UK therefore I cannot use newegg.

Here is what I have so far



Does anyone have any suggestions/recommendations with what I could change? Any incompatibility issues? I want to check in fear of getting the order wrong and having him waste his money, that'd be disastrous. Also, could you recommend a GPU around the £100 mark? The 560 seems unnecessary for what he is going to be using it for (mid-end games, expect WoW, COD, fallout, brink.. games of that nature). My Radeon HD 4670 plays WoW on ultra 60FPS and that cost me like £50 over a year ago, so I don't think a 560 will be needed..

Thanks.

 

Everything that you have looks alright.
If you'd save enough on newegg, you can ship the products to my house in US and I'll repackage and ship them to you in the UK, but you'll need to compensate me for the shipping.

 

Thanks for the offer, but from experience, US to UK shipping fees are absurd, so it will probably total out to be around the same price. Thanks anyway.

Do you have any recommendations for a ~£100 card?

 

Switch the case & PSU to this;
http://www.ebuyer.com/220862-cooler...-gx-650w-psu-special-offer-bundle-rc-692-kka3

And something like this for the GPU;
http://www.ebuyer.com/272568-powerc...mi-dvi-vga-pci-e-graphics-card-ax6770-1gbd5-h

Just picked the first 6770 i saw, pick which ever brand you like the best theyre all around 80-100.

PSU& case change are cos the other 2 sound like horse poop.

EDIT:
Also switch to this ram;
http://www.ebuyer.com/264746-g-skil...mory-kit-cl8-8-8-8-21-1-5v-f3-10666cl8d-4gbrm

You currently have 1 ram stick, and well, 2x2 is better cos it runs in dual channel.

 

What was it that you did not like about the case?

http://www.ebuyer.com/179122-compucase-6brb-black-mid-tower-case-no-psu-6brb

I chose the card you suggested, and swapped the RAM out. I didn't realise it was 1x4GB, I changed it from 8GB down to 4 for budget reasons, then clicked the first 4 G-skill I saw lol. I might go back up to 8GB though. I'll swap out to the PSU/case combo you chose too if you don't like that case^

 

Never heard of it before, plus the 690II is a lot better case anywyay.

 

Alright, does this look better?

Couple more questions, the motherboard is DEFINITELY compatible with all components, right?

And finally, would you recommend buying a couple of extra case fans? Or do you think the 2 included case fans + hyper 212 will do the job?

 

Rawr, get the newest P8H61: http://www.ebuyer.com/265969-asus-p...nnel-hd-audio-atx-motherboard-p8h61-usb3-r3-0

It has USB3.0 which is far faster than 2.0 and backwards compatible, and it's only like £1 more.

I would also recommend looking at something with SATA 6.0GB/s as they are starting to become the standard (and once again backwards compatible)... But that's truly optional.

As for compatability, your system looks fine - the only thing I don't see is a HDD/Disc Drive. Are you scrapping your old computer and taking the HDD/Disc Drive from that?

 

Thanks for that, I swapped it out.

I'm going to be giving him my old 7200RPM 320GB SATA II hard drive I think. Although I may look into just buying a 1TB as he will likely fill the 320 up fast. What do you think?

 

As this is a budget build, I would think that the 320 would be alright to start. When more money comes around you could get the 1TB. I personally am a fan of Hitachi Deskstars (I have several of them), but I am sure I will be critiqued on that. I have used Seagate as well and still am a much bigger fan of Hitachi (the Seagate broke on me -.-)

http://www.ebuyer.com/177466-hitach...sataii-7200rpm-32mb-cache-oem-hds721010cla332

Also, are you pulling the old CD/DVD drive from his other computer?

Oh, and the motherboard comes with 2 - Sata II Cables, at least if it's New In Box... Not sure if you remembered/knew that.

 

That's odd. The 320GB IS a Hitachi Deskstar, haha. I also have bad experience with Seagate, personally I'm a western digital fan, and I found this:

http://www.ebuyer.com/270739-wd-1tb-caviar-green-3-5-sata-iii-6gb-s-hard-drive-64mb-wd10earx

Seems like a good deal?

CD/DVD drive is coming from his old computer, yes. I probably should of mentioned that also..

Forgot that mobo's usually come with SATA cables, I'll remove that from the cart. Thanks.

 

Yeah it seems like a pretty good deal. Nice find! Good luck with the build dude!

 

Alright, one thing.

You have a h61 mobo, you need a p67, or z68 motherboard to be able to overclock the 2500k, if you don't plan on overclocking, just get a 2500 non k and keep the motherboard.

http://www.ebuyer.com/279242-gigaby...hannel-hd-audio-atx-motherboard-ga-p67-ds3-b3
Something like that.


I would suggest a Samsung Spinpoint F3 1tb for the drive, but they didn't have it listed.

 

Don't plan on overclocking, is the 2500k not compatible with that mobo then?

 

It is, but theres no point getting the 2500k if you arent overclocking, the 2500k has an unlocked multi that allows OCing, the 2500(non k) doesn't allow OCing so if you don't plan to you can save a little bit of cash.

 

Decided to go with the 2500k as it was only £10 more and he said he may consider overclocking in the future.

The case and PSU bundle you suggested went out of stock I think. Well, it disappeared from my basket and I can no longer find it on the site. What else would you suggest? What kind of PSU would be required for a 5770 and i5 2500k?

Hows this one:
http://www.ebuyer.com/220861-cooler...ase-with-coolermaster-gx-550w-psu-rc-502-kka1

 

Well if you plan on OCing get the MOBO I linked, H61, H67 can't OC, p67 & z68 can.

S'okay, could also go something like the Antec 300 + a 650w PSU(corsair, coolermaster, antec) and it'd come out a bit more.
Don't ever skimp on a PSU tho.

 

That's all good in my opinion. If you plan on adding and extra optical drives, gpu's, or whatever it may help to get a bigger psu, but that is a cheap upgrade that can be made at a later time.

About the gpu though, I have the 6770 and it's a pretty decent card. Honestly though if you have the extra hundred for the 560, I'd do it. I can make my 1x 6770 lag but the 560 is a better card and priced as such. 6770 plays Crysis 2 on extreme with no/minimal lag so it can pretty much handle 99% of games.

Another opinionated paragraph..

I would never buy a Hitachi hard drive. I have a huge stack of drives at home, some old and some new. The ONLY ones that have failed on me are the Hitachi and Samsung. (One fujitsu but it was almost the oldest one I had). I would stick with a Western Digital, Cisco, or Lenovo for mechanical drives and intel, Patriot, or Corsair for SSD. Personal preference though.

If you need anything specific, just ask.

 

Samsung make excellent drivers, seagate is pretty decent aswell Dank.

Every brand can fail, but hitachi are shit imo.

 

I also agree that Hitachi is awful. I'm more of a fan of WD. If he's not going to be making videos/downloading them, or huge files, then why spring for the bigger hard drive? He could always go out and buy an external one a bit cheaper anyways if he needed it , I've done it.

I don't really know about the overclocking idea, because it looks to me (I could have read it wrong) that you only have a single core processor. There isn't a WHOLE lot you can do to make it go much faster. Most overclocking is done on quad core, and if you have enough money 8 or 12 core. I've seen some cheap people go on dual though lol, worked alright for what its worth.

Lastly, if you plan to give the old hard drive, make sure its completely wiped. I mean, yes, trust your friend... but personal info is personal. Keep it that way.