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How to Build a Desktop Tower for £450 ?

Dumfy

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Posted March 11, 2013 at 7:59PM

Hi All,

I've been tasked by a best mate to build him a Win 7 based system for around £450. Not sure if a quality machine can be had for this price, but I said I'd give it a go. He just needs a new tower and the existing optical drives are to be re-used from his old system.

It's not to be a games machine but will have to cope with photo,video and sound editing as a minimum. On board sound from the mobo will suffice I think, but he'd like a separate graphics card. It also needs to be very quiet when running (Fan noise to a minimum. Something like a Big Boy fan in an Antec case perhaps)

So if possible, I'm looking for suggestions based around the following . .

OS => Windows 7 x32 or x64 which is best? Is x64 necessary? Which version - Home/Premium etc

1TB HDD

Processor - Intel/AMD

CPU cooler/fan

Motherboard

Memory - 8Gb required

Graphics card

Tower/Case/PSU

It's been about three years since I built a PC and things have now doubt moved on. I'm just looking for some up to date suggestions please.

Many Thanks

Dumfy

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Chronos the 2nd

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Posted March 12, 2013 at 9:37AM

Have a look at this. Scan computing. This was just a quick component put together and of course you can tweak it. I have used one of these cases and are very quiet. There is also no need of a separate CPU cooler as for your purposes the stock cooler is fine.

To keep the price within your budget I have selected Windows 7 OEM 64BIT hence 8GB RAM.

This is £11 over your budget and you may need to add thermal paste if you cannot get the small amount you need elsewhere.

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Dumfy

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Posted March 12, 2013 at 10:30AM

Hi Chronos the 2nd

Many thanks for the feedback. However, I'm having problems opening the link to Scan Computing that you provided. Unfortunately I can't see what's in the shopping basket - it's coming back as empty.

Am I doing something wrong? Would love to see your recommendations. £11 over budget certainly won't break the bank!

Thanks again

Dumfy

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Chronos the 2nd

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Posted March 12, 2013 at 11:21AM

My apologies for the rubbish link,this forum does not make it easy to post links ETC. Try this screen-shot instead.

Any questions do not hesitate to ask.

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chub_tor

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Posted March 12, 2013 at 3:04PM

* Chronos the 2nd* forgive the interruption but I don't see a tower case in your list

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Chronos the 2nd

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Posted March 12, 2013 at 3:44PM

chub_tor

Dam, well spotted and no need to apologise feel free to add anything.

Case. I know it adds another £30 but I am not sure where I would really want to shave any more of the spec. You could halve the cost of a video card and get a GTX 630 perhaps?

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Dumfy

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Posted March 12, 2013 at 7:58PM

Thanks for the inputs guys.

I think I do need to shave some pounds off this though as I know budget is limited for him

He asked for 8GB ram, but is 4GB enough to do the job?

Halving the cost of graphics card would help for sure. Is this any good?

http://www.scan.co.uk/products/2gb-asus-gt-630-40nm-1820mhz-gddr3-gpu-810mhz-shader-1620mhz-96-cores

Also how about this slightly cheaper processor instead? Will it suit . . .

http://www.scan.co.uk/products/amd-fx-4100-black-edition-orochi-core-s-am3plus-36ghz-8mb-total-cache-ht-3200mhz-95w-retail-10-cashb

Also looking at the Antec 300 case at £45. My last build was an Antec and am pleased with it - it's very quiet. Any ideas if this set up will be as well?

Cheers

Dumfy

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Chronos the 2nd

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Posted March 13, 2013 at 8:40AM

"He asked for 8GB ram, but is 4GB enough to do the job?"

If installing the 32BIT version of Windows the 4GB of RAM is all you need and more importantly all Windows will use.

"Halving the cost of graphics card would help for sure. Is this any good?"

This one has a better cooler so will run a little mose quieter but there is not that much to choose between them.

"Also how about this slightly cheaper processor instead? Will it suit?"

Yes it will, I have checked the CPU support list and the CPU you have chosen is fine.

"Also looking at the Antec 300 case at £45"

In my opinion this case is far to big for this build and why pay for something you will not use most of. The one I linked to earlier is a very quite I had mine in the living room.

Others to look at.

Coolermaster Elite 342

Xigmatek Helios XTK231

IN-WIN EN036

Ace Ecco 250 Soundproofed

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mart7

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Posted March 13, 2013 at 12:07PM

Nowadays there are a lot of quality pc systems prebuilt,ive stopped building my own because such is the price of these units which can be customised it negates my need to build my own anymore example http://www.palicomp.co.uk/gaming-pcs/amd-showdown.html

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