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Super Budget PC- £300

S

Spurs986

Member
Hello Boys and Girls,

I've gone and decided to build my own PC, most likely using overclockers.com (not sure if theres any better, recommendations welcomed.

I want a PC - primarly for Football Manager and a few odd games and x264 movies.

My budget is £300, I don't need a dvd drive as already have one in old PC.

I'm looking for dual core, 2gb, 160-250gb harddrive with a ati 3850 graphics card.

My main concerns are cooling and power supply needed, otherwise I should be okay.

Please help guys... need to buy it tonight!! 🙂
 
What's a few odd games? If it's games like football manager you could get away with the following motherboard, which has some pretty decent onboard graphics.

http://overclockers.co.uk/show...t.php?prodid=MB-122-GI = mobo

This way you don't need a videocard. It can decode high def movies no problemo with it's onboard gpu. 60, 240 left. I think 2gb of ram is enough, so take this: http://www.overclockers.co.uk/...20Kit%20(GX22GB6400DC)

That's 210 left. Case + PSU: http://www.overclockers.co.uk/...t.php?prodid=CA-073-AN 80 so 130 left. HDD, http://www.overclockers.co.uk/...%20-%20OEM%20(HD502IJ) plenty of space, pretty fast and quiet too. 50, so 80 left.

CPU = you could buy anything from 2.4 to 3.0ghz. This is all assuming you don't need a 3850, which is OVERKILL for football manager 😛

Otherwise, well, you could save 20 on the HDD. And well, that's it I'm afraid. No way to really skimp on the mobo, you could have save 30 if you buy a not so fast CPU. Ram is as cheap as it gets, and I doubt you'll find a case + psu for less money, unless you go with a crappy case and an even crappier PSU. A HD3850 is 70 so I bet you can squeeze it in if you find some good deals.
 
Assuming you have a case, along with your optical drive...

E7200
Board
2GB DDR2
250GB SATA drive
Corsair VX550 PSU
Powercolor 3850

About 318 quid, so slightly over. I've advised a single stick of RAM because given how cheap RAM is, you might like to eventually run 4GB in dual channel by getting a 2nd stick next month. Otherwise, take 2 x 1GB sticks and run dual channel, it's pretty much the same price.

That would at least get you up and running for a friendly price. If you want to overclock, this chip can be good at that. Mine's running at 3.8Ghz and is fast enough for my needs. But overclocking's a personal preference, this set up would also be pretty good (for the cash) without overclocking.


The parts above would easily run Football Manager and give you a bit of a chance of running newer titles, depending on the resolution you run games at.


Edit: I'm liking Mark's case and PSU recommendation, would definitely go that route if I have assumed wrongly, and you don't have a case.
 
Thanks guys, I'll have a look.

Im drawing up a shortlist tonight so your help is appreciated. I have a PS3 so don't tend to play games unless its a Command and Conquer type game, but like thought of having a half decent graphics card just incase (I'm weird lol)

Anyway if anyone else has any input - I won't be buying until 11pm.

Thank you MarcVenice and Mancunian.
 
Hello,

I've gone with the scan route as seems a little cheaper and has the E7200 - if I gone with everything else from otherclockers would have had to pay two delivery charges.


E7200
Gigabyte GA-P31-S3G
2GB Geil DDR2
250GB SATA drive
Corsair VX550 PSU
Powercolor 3850

I do have a case but its scratched up - I will get another one in the future but for now use the old one.

I am not planning on overclocking, will I need any cooling elements? Is the 3850 the best graphics card for price/performance ratio?

What sort of games will this play? My current comp was only able to play Sims2 barely... lol.

I have a 19inch (not widescreen) lcd monitor so resolution should be 1080x800 max

I'll let you know how i get on building it - bet i manage to screw something up lol... really looking forward to trying though.

 
I think your resolution is 1280*1024?

At that resolution you will be able to play pretty much any game at medium settings or so. Did you get a 512mb HD3850? If you can somehow squeeze in a HD4850 you will have a powerfull gaming rig. In holland a HD4850 costs 140 euro's, I think that's roughly 100 pounds?
 
Hello Marc,

Ive built a new topic, with detailing of two PC's im considering, one with a slight modification on your suggestion.

I cancelled order and decided to read up some more

Please let me know

Thanks for your help.
 
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