Before buying PC please ask our advice first!

Original post by jackus93

Hi. I'm about to start uni and I'm looking to buy a laptop for under £400. I'll mainly be using it for web browsing, skype, video streaming and essays so nothing elaborate. I've been looking around and think the HP Pavilion G6-1334sa for £370 is my best bet. It's got 8gb ram, 750gb hard drive and an AMD Radeon HD 6380g discrete class graphics card. Are these the main specs for me to look at?
Basically shall I buy it!?!
Cheers.

HP have build issues, other than that the ram and hard drive are more than enough..........the graphics will meet your entertainment needs, but nothing like any gaming unless on low settings and even then it'll struggle. The processor may be an issue, it's quite old and wouldn't stand against an i3.

Reply 6762

Original post by thefunktopus69

Anyone have any thoughts/see any problems with this set up

For semi serious gaming (ie the new simcity/minecraft/the odd other strategy game/maybe a pc fps)
I don't need a monitor yet (got an old 1280x1024, not great but fine atm) and would like to stay as far below £400 as possible.

I was wondering whether a 6850 would be justifiable given the extra £20 cost?

Processors fine, just a bit old.

The xfx 6770 hd needs :
External Power - 6-Pins:1
Minimum Power Supply Requirement:500 Watt

So the 700Watt power supply is quite a lot unless your looking to expand in the future.
So you can get a 6850hd which requires the same amount of power.

So http://www.ebuyer.com/284386-his-hd-6850-1gb-gddr5-dual-dvi-hdmi-displayport-pci-e-graphics-card-h685fn1gd
HIS HD 6850 1GB would be good...........

but also take a look at http://www.dabs.com/products/asus-geforce-gtx-550-ti-900mhz-1gb-pci-express-hdmi-7NH9.html?src=2

Asus GeForce GTX 550 Ti which needs 400 watt plus.

Seeing as your ebuying from ebuyer did you look at this combo http://www.ebuyer.com/220863-coolermaster-elite-330-case-with-coolermaster-extreme-power-500w-psu-rc-330-kkpl-gp
I bought the one with 690 II case with 650 supply recently and turned out pretty good.

Reply 6763

NuclearFusion

2

Original post by DarkTitan

Has anyone tried comparing the Radeon 7850 OCed to over 1200 core to a Stock Gtx 580s? I've been told they're neck and neck...soo GTX 580 preformance for £196 sounds pretty good to me

That is a pretty hardcore overclock, that would only be perhaps possible with water cooling, so once you factor in the water blocks, pump etc. it won't be cheaper than a 580.

Reply 6764

NuclearFusion

2

Original post by Iqbal007

Seeing as your ebuying from ebuyer did you look at this combo http://www.ebuyer.com/220863-coolermaster-elite-330-case-with-coolermaster-extreme-power-500w-psu-rc-330-kkpl-gp
I bought the one with 690 II case with 650 supply recently and turned out pretty good.

I'm a little sceptical about how good that PSU would be, I highly doubt it will be an efficient, high quality PSU given that it is only £50 for both case and PSU.

Reply 6765

Original post by NuclearFusion

I'm a little sceptical about how good that PSU would be, I highly doubt it will be an efficient, high quality PSU given that it is only £50 for both case and PSU.

Yeah it's about 70+% efficient.......well he should get a 80plus bronze certified one at 500watt and get the 6850 or 550ti

Reply 6766

thefunktopus69

Original post by ELs123

Build looks fine. I would recommend swapping the CPU and mobo for intel versions though. Try and go for an i3 2100 as its better performance and upgrade path.
This will bump up the costs a bit (i3 2100 is around 90 quid I think and a 1155 mobo's start at around £60.) But I think this will be a better choice.

You got a disc drive to install windows? I almost forgot mine when I ordered my PC :biggrin:

As you want the rig primarily for gaming I would go for the 6850. This may make your budget tighter but a 700W PSU for a 6850 is overkill. Can maybe drop it to 500W or 550W to save a bit of cash.

Yeah I've got lots of old drives lying around (completely the wrong colours -that old yellowy plastic -but i'd take them out/cover them once windows is installed).

The i3 2100 is a bit too expensive for me unfortunately and I like the sound of the athlon i selected -I'm not sure the double (+mobo costs) cost would result in double the performance.

Original post by Iqbal007

Processors fine, just a bit old.

The xfx 6770 hd needs :
External Power - 6-Pins:1
Minimum Power Supply Requirement:500 Watt

So the 700Watt power supply is quite a lot unless your looking to expand in the future.
So you can get a 6850hd which requires the same amount of power.

So http://www.ebuyer.com/284386-his-hd-6850-1gb-gddr5-dual-dvi-hdmi-displayport-pci-e-graphics-card-h685fn1gd
HIS HD 6850 1GB would be good...........

but also take a look at http://www.dabs.com/products/asus-geforce-gtx-550-ti-900mhz-1gb-pci-express-hdmi-7NH9.html?src=2

Asus GeForce GTX 550 Ti which needs 400 watt plus.

Seeing as your ebuying from ebuyer did you look at this combo http://www.ebuyer.com/220863-coolermaster-elite-330-case-with-coolermaster-extreme-power-500w-psu-rc-330-kkpl-gp
I bought the one with 690 II case with 650 supply recently and turned out pretty good.

Yeah I might go for a 6850 if I could make the savings -I just thought it would be an overkill on my current monitor (1280x1024 2003 dell thing). I've not heard good about the 550ti and it doesn't appear that much better than the 6770 in cpu benchmark scores. Also if I were to pay an extra £10 to get the ti i'd rather throw in another tenner to get a 6850.

I did look at that combined case/psu but I was worried at the 500w psu -would be awful to get it and find it struggles powering the pc. Do you think it would be adequate? If so I could certainly then afford a 6850 and I could put away some to save up for a decent monitor.

Thanks for both your help, +rep added!

Reply 6767

Original post by thefunktopus69

Anyone have any thoughts/see any problems with this set up

For semi serious gaming (ie the new simcity/minecraft/the odd other strategy game/maybe a pc fps)
I don't need a monitor yet (got an old 1280x1024, not great but fine atm) and would like to stay as far below £400 as possible.

I was wondering whether a 6850 would be justifiable given the extra £20 cost?

I'd also recommend getting an intel. The i3-2100 is a much better CPU. I'd also recommend the 6850 GPU. Overclockers sell an Asus 6850 for £86, and I think you can find it elsewhere for a similar price. You can definitely save money on the PSU, 700W is overkill. I'm running an i5 2500K overclocked to 4.5GHz and an Asus 6850 overclocked to 950MHz all on a Corsair 430W PSU. Not really recommended, but it runs fine for me when gaming, however a 600W PSU will be the next upgrade.

Reply 6768

If you don't want the i3 2100, I'd still recommend an Intel at the moment, unless you have some irrational (don't mean that rudely) desire for an AMD processor.

Reply 6769

thefunktopus69

Original post by SMed

If you don't want the i3 2100, I'd still recommend an Intel at the moment, unless you have some irrational (don't mean that rudely) desire for an AMD processor.

Ha! I'm not sure why but I sort of do irrationally lean toward an AMD -even though everything I read seems to point otherwise.

In this case it was particularly the fact that the athlon 631 was £90 including mobo whereas an i3 2100 would be £150ish. Are there any intels at the £75 mark? (sorry, being lazy -i'm just going to log on to ebuyer now to check out the intels!)

Reply 6770

joey11223

20

I'm not a novice when it comes to building PC's, but I have a quick question as I'm considering (finances dependent) on upgrading my desktop this summer. Clearly if I don't upgrade until late summer I can't save a list now, as prices will fluctuate and new hardware may be released.

However I was weighing up the benefit of a SSD (most likely OCZ 60gb agility 3) to install the OS on, as well as a couple of games if possible, as well as a 2TB HDD, over pooling the £60 worth of SSD into a better GPU?

Reply 6771

Original post by thefunktopus69

Ha! I'm not sure why but I sort of do irrationally lean toward an AMD -even though everything I read seems to point otherwise.

Not sure what to say to that tbh, except that's is the exact opposite of how I try to live my life whenever possible and convenient.

In this case it was particularly the fact that the athlon 631 was £90 including mobo whereas an i3 2100 would be £150ish. Are there any intels at the £75 mark? (sorry, being lazy -i'm just going to log on to ebuyer now to check out the intels!)

Yes definitely. You can get one of the Sandybridge 1155 socket Pentium CPUs for £45-70. Get the Gigabyte GA-Z68AP-D3 motherboard and it will give you the option to upgrade in the future to an i5 2500K or even an Ivybridge CPU later on; and you'd be able to overclock those on that motherboard. I got the same motherboard for £75 a few months ago; just checked, it's still £75.

Pretty sure that at the moment, Intel beat AMD at every price point when it comes to benchmarks, even if the stats on paper don't.

Reply 6772

Original post by thefunktopus69

Yeah I might go for a 6850 if I could make the savings -I just thought it would be an overkill on my current monitor (1280x1024 2003 dell thing). I've not heard good about the 550ti and it doesn't appear that much better than the 6770 in cpu benchmark scores. Also if I were to pay an extra £10 to get the ti i'd rather throw in another tenner to get a 6850.

I did look at that combined case/psu but I was worried at the 500w psu -would be awful to get it and find it struggles powering the pc. Do you think it would be adequate? If so I could certainly then afford a 6850 and I could put away some to save up for a decent monitor.

Thanks for both your help, +rep added!

Forget the monitor, but if your trying to get the best detail from gaming then getting a better graphics will be a good thing. Well I would say the 550ti is better than the 6770, but pound for pound performance 6850 is always top of the list, especially even more now since their price drop, just depends on which make you get cos some have a better cooling system. HIS or Sapphire will do.

Yeah the power supply might struggle cos reading it says 70%+ efficient, so getting at least a 500watt+ 80plus bronze certified will be enough, nothing wrong with a bit more like 600 watt, etc for future expansion.

Reply 6773

username951095

I dont have time to check so sorry but I believe that the G850 is still a socket 1155 chip and still similar performance to the AMD. (dont quote me on this :tongue:

) this will still mean you get the nice upgrade path.

a 6850 would be overkill for your monitor but it would mean you would not have to upgrade your GPU for a very long time. as for the 550ti I don't really recommend it over the 6850, as you said its only a tenner difference :smile:

Reply 6774

username951095

Original post by joey11223

However I was weighing up the benefit of a SSD (most likely OCZ 60gb agility 3) to install the OS on, as well as a couple of games if possible, as well as a 2TB HDD, over pooling the £60 worth of SSD into a better GPU?

What are your current specs? if you already have a good GPU then you could put the money to an SSD and get a nice snappy OS and a few programs.

Performance wise I don't think an SSD offers much benefit over getting a brand new GPU but should offer a faster system overall :smile:

Reply 6775

jackus93

So do you think there is a better model than the HP for under £400 and if so what would you recommend? Cheers

Reply 6776

Original post by jackus93

So do you think there is a better model than the HP for under £400 and if so what would you recommend? Cheers

http://www.ebuyer.com/288874-toshiba-satellite-pro-c660-2f8-laptop-psc1me-01g00ken

Toshiba Satellite Pro C660-2F8 Laptop
Intel Core i3 2330 2.2GHz
- 6GB RAM + 640GB HDD

The processor is a 2nd generation i3 processor which will outperform the old one on the hp, but just no discrete graphics card.

or

http://www.tesco.com/direct/dell-inspiron-n5050-laptop-intel-core-i5-4gb-500gb-156-display-black/215-1022.prd?skuId=215-1022&pageLevel=

Intel Core i5, 4GB, 500GB, 15.6" Display

Reply 6777

thefunktopus69

Original post by ELs123

I dont have time to check so sorry but I believe that the G850 is still a socket 1155 chip and still similar performance to the AMD. (dont quote me on this :tongue:

) this will still mean you get the nice upgrade path.

a 6850 would be overkill for your monitor but it would mean you would not have to upgrade your GPU for a very long time. as for the 550ti I don't really recommend it over the 6850, as you said its only a tenner difference :smile:

Thanks -I see what you mean about getting a socket 1155 as I'll be able to go right up to an i5 2500k and dabble in oc'ing should i wish.

I'm still not sure though -I'll wait till exams are over so I don't distract myself with a shiny new pc!

Reply 6778