£500 new pc build budget

Marty_J

saadz2k5 wrote: »

thats actually exactly what i said to her but she was insistant on 8!

How much RAM does she currently have?

How much of that RAM does she currently use?

Money_Grabber13579

I just put 4GB into mine, and the computer has been on continuously for over a week, with loads of programs open (about 7 or 8 - one of which is google chrome with 14 tabs open) and I've still got 2GB free! The computer will be about 15 years old before you'll really need 8GB or RAM and I don't see the rest of the components lasting that long!

[Deleted User]

We've got enterprise servers serving 1000s of people with 4GB of RAM, and less in quite a few cases!

timbim_2

If you pay the extra for 8gb now, you'll actually damage the performance of the system, as you'd have to cut corners elsewhere to keep in budget. You'll be paying double for 8gb over 4gb, as you won't find a bundled 8gb kit. That extra £40 could make all the difference elsewhere in the system.

saadz2k5

she currently has 4gb ddr2 but wants 8gb ddr3 for future compatibility

ive had a look at the other gaming pc thread, and this is what i have come up with so far:

Qty Product QuickFind Stock Price Line Total
MSI 770-C45 AMD 770 AM3 140W DDR3 Support 8 channel Blu-ray Audio GB LAN ATX Motherboard 165438 4 in stock £59.99
2 x OCZ 4GB KIT (2 x 2GB) DDR3 1600Mhz PC3 12800 GOLD SERIES DUAL CHANNEL KIT (8-8-8-26) 146058 10 in stock £125.98
2 x Western Digital 1TB Hard Drive SATAII 7200rpm 32MB Cache - OEM Green Power 150245 174 in stock £129.98
Antec Sonata III Piano Black Quiet Mid Tower Case - With 500W EarthWatts PSU 128045 23 in stock £94.65
Samsung SH-S223F 22X DVD±RW/RAM/DL Serial ATA Black Bare Drive - OEM 145450 21 in stock £16.20
ASUS 9600GT 1GB DDR3 Dual DVI HDTV out PCI-E Graphics Card 152937 2 in stock £75.00
this brings me to about £501, so what would be a good processor? could i get a great one for around 80 quid?

saadz2k5

and by "great" i mean with a high speed etc of course! (without getting TOO technical )

4743hudsonj

saadz2k5 wrote: »

she currently has 4gb ddr2 but wants 8gb ddr3 for future compatibility

ive had a look at the other gaming pc thread, and this is what i have come up with so far:

Qty Product QuickFind Stock Price Line Total
MSI 770-C45 AMD 770 AM3 140W DDR3 Support 8 channel Blu-ray Audio GB LAN ATX Motherboard 165438 4 in stock £59.99
2 x OCZ 4GB KIT (2 x 2GB) DDR3 1600Mhz PC3 12800 GOLD SERIES DUAL CHANNEL KIT (8-8-8-26) 146058 10 in stock £125.98
2 x Western Digital 1TB Hard Drive SATAII 7200rpm 32MB Cache - OEM Green Power 150245 174 in stock £129.98
Antec Sonata III Piano Black Quiet Mid Tower Case - With 500W EarthWatts PSU 128045 23 in stock £94.65
Samsung SH-S223F 22X DVD±RW/RAM/DL Serial ATA Black Bare Drive - OEM 145450 21 in stock £16.20
ASUS 9600GT 1GB DDR3 Dual DVI HDTV out PCI-E Graphics Card 152937 2 in stock £75.00
this brings me to about £501, so what would be a good processor? could i get a great one for around 80 quid?

ok so for future compatibility you may want DDR3 but still not 8gb of it! trust us, your on here for advice, you only need 4 gb

as for processor you could do with dual core but i expect you may want quad so any intel quad will do fine

for the uses you mentioned most things will suffice and you budget allocation is overkill in some areas


your better off getting a very good psu and base, 4gbddr3 memory, a good dual core/quadcore processor and integrated or low end dedicated graphics

timbim_2

You'll need quite a big PSU to power that lot, the GFX is definitely overkill for photoshop work.

Mobeer

Why not DDR2 - you could spend £40 on 4GB of ram (and specify a DDR2 compatible motherboard) and save a lot of money to put towards a better processor.

-edit: I think 4743hudsonj should have said an AMD processor given your choice of motherboard

timbim_2

Even better, take the 4gb DDR2 out of the old system and use it in the new, if the old system is being stepped down to more mundane tasks, then you could replace that with 2gb or even 1gb, saving even more cash. Reuse, Reduce, Recycle! Green MSE.