New pc build. Recommendations on a budget?
September 1st, 2013
I’m going to be building a new rig during the January sales and would like some recommendations for parts. I need only a new CPU motherboard and ram, all the other parts can wait or be salvaged from my current computer. Got a budget of around £200 however, plus £50 or so perhaps – thus why I’m asking so as to find the best bang for my buck.
It’s going to be mainly used to video rendering and gaming, so an Intel i-core is a must. Preferably a i5 but an i3 will do, i7 would be shiny but totally unrealistic at my budget. 2.6GHz to 3GHz would do nicely.
Motherboard wise – it must be full size atx, support 8GB or more ram and have two PCI-16x slots for further SLI expansion. SATA, plenty of usb ports etc and the usual bells and whistles.
RAM, I’m not fussed about. 8GB if possible, but at a stretch I can take 4GB and upgrade at a later date
Overclocking potential and brand names are nice bonuses, but not something I am particularly worried about. I will be buying all parts either second hand, new from eBay or wherever I can find them cheapest.
Recommendations? (Particularly for motherboard)
That budget wont get you anything. Sure it’s 200 not 2000?
-paroxysM^ replied: That budget wont get you anything. Sure it's 200 not 2000?
Yes, perfectly sure
It might be £2000 for a brand new shop bought PC, but not for a self-built computer and certainly not if graphics, storage and the like are allready catered for. I can pick up all these parts for £200 with a quick ebay search, but would like to get the most for my money.
Allright, let me rephrase the question.
What is the cheapest sandybridge ATX board I can get, with 2 PCI-16x slots?
Oops, double post. Misclicked >.> Sorry
If your budget is between £250 to £350; you can get the most bang for your buck with a used PC.
A new system, will cost you at least £400 to get an i3.
About £600 to get a good i5 that will last you…
EDIT: Sorry, late post.
Do you wanna do SBE an x79,
or an i7-2700K z68 system?
An SBE build would go something like this on the cheap side, about £1,500:
http://secure.newegg.com/WishList/PublicWishDetail.aspx?WishListNumber=22341967
Ack…
Allright, lets throw out an example to prove it is indeed possible.
http://www.ebuyer.com/254976-intel-core-i3-2100-3-10ghz-socket-1155-3mb-l3-cache-retail-boxed-bx80623i32100 Socket 1155 i3 2100 @ 3.1GHz
http://www.ebuyer.com/261401-asus-p8h61-m-intel-h61-motherboard-matx-revision-3-0-90-mibf20-g0eay0gz-p8h61-m-r3-0 Asus PH61 Sandybridge board (not SLI, but SLI boards are availible for a few quid more…too lazy to find them again)
http://www.ebuyer.com/172949-kingston-8gb-2x4gb-ddr3-1333mhz-i5-memory-kit-non-ecc-cl9-1-5v-kvr1333d3n9k2-8g Value ram, again – better stuff for a few quid more. Being lazy and picking first on the list etc
Total £171.40
Thats the cheapest parts on ebuyer, ebay can get about £30 off that total so yes, it is possible and it’s how i’ve been building my machines (and keeping them moderately competitive, albeit not in brand names / overclocking potential) for ten years Remember I have all other parts, which can be salvaged from my current setup.
Lets forget the budget, forget i mentioned it – Best sandybridge ATX, with SLI capabilities at or around £100?
I’ve coded the link(s) for you this time – if you don’t know how to do it, please check the sticky thread in the helpdesk section.
Red Devil
Ths sabertooth has SLI capabilitys.
It’s a odd looking board with that shroud lol.
http://www.scan.co.uk/products/asus-sabertooth-p67-rev3-intel-p67-s1155-pci-e-20-ddr3-1866-sata-6gb-s-sata-raid-atx
A nicer choice might be the Gigabyte p67 board wich also has SLI.
http://www.scan.co.uk/products/gigabyte-ga-p67x-ud3-b3-intel-p67-s-1155-ddr3-sata-iii-6gb-s-raid-sata-vga-on-board-atx
Cheers jock_juffalo exactly what I was looking for. Someone had recommended me the Gigabyte before but I had forgotten about it. Will shop around a bit but likely going to pick one up. Either that or a Asrock Z68 Extreme3 Gen3, but that would make me go waaay over budget
Thanks again!