PC Build - Games and 3D Art compromise needed for £1000

[stulid]

That's really nice

 

[Varsh]

I would have thought you would be better off going for an i7 considering the uses you're looking at.

Getting a similar system would cost me more and I can't afford an i7, as much as I'd want one. If you're able to piece one together for me that has a better performance and around the £1000 mark then I'll be heavily considering it.

The OP should have a look at the Lian-Li PC-P50 too:

http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/2009/05/29/lian-li-pc-p50-review/1

Ok that Lian-Li is very nice! They did mention problems with Modular PSUs in that case though cable management wise. I'll definitely put this case as a possibility though.

 

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

I just realised that you don't need Crossfire and probably won't be overclocking.

Hence this cheaper motherboard will do the job:

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MB-355-AS&groupid=701&catid=5&subcat=1481

It still has an 8+2 phase VRM and decent VRM cooler.

More money saved on the build!

 

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

This looks like a good provisional build spec:

CPU: AMD Phenom II 955BE (£122)
GPU: Gainward GTX 260 Golden Sample 1792MB (£174)
Motherboard: Asus M4A785TD-V Evo (£73)
RAM: Corsair XMS3 8GB DDR3 PC3-10666C9 (£170)
PSU: Seasonic X650(£104)
Case: Lian-Li PC-P50 (£107)
Optical: LG BH08LS20 8x Blu-Ray-RW/DVD±RW (£144)
HDD: Samsung F3 1TB(£70)
HDD: Samsung F3 500GB(£41)

The total comes to around £1005 excluding and delivery costs.

 

[Varsh]

Hmm not sure about the motherboard as it has an IGP, wouldn't it be further cheaper to get one without an IGP? Having said that it would allow for another monitor but then it would also disable PhysX. Or I could just disable it in the BIOS I suppose. Also isn't the new chipset 790?

 

[stulid]

That specs great, I use a 955 with a 260gtx(gainward) and my msi g-65 has onboard graphics, but its never ever been turned on.

 

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

Hmm not sure about the motherboard as it has an IGP, wouldn't it be further cheaper to get one without an IGP?

Not necessarily for some reason for AMD motherboards!!

The following 770 motherboards have an 8+2 phase VRM too but are around the same price:

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MB-358-AS&groupid=701&catid=5&subcat=1481

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MB-198-GI&groupid=701&catid=5&subcat=1481

However for some reason they lack any sort of VRM coolers!

Having said that it would allow for another monitor but then it would also disable PhysX. Or I could just disable it in the BIOS I suppose. Also isn't the new chipset 790?

If you don't install the drivers for the IGP there would be no probelm AFAIK.

The 785G is actually a newer chipset than the 790GX. The HD4200 IGP in the 785G motherboards is basically the same HD3300 IGP in the 790GX motherboards but with a slower clockspeed and improved media decoding abilities.

The main advantage of the 790 series motherboards is that they have the SB750 southbridge which has RAID 5 which is not found in the SB710 in the 770 and 785G motherboards. However the SB710 will do RAID 0,1,10 and JBOD.

 

[Varsh]

I'm pretty much thinking that I might go for that too. I think I will ditch the 1TB drive for the time being and opt-in with a slot loading BD reader if I can find one anywhere. Who manufactures the OcUK drives?

I've factored in the HSF for backup purposes if I find that the default HSF drives me up the wall with being loud (I love the quietness of my P180 and Zalman CNPS7500. ). If I shop around I think I can get this close to the £950 mark.

Edit: Ah you posted before me. Well I guess in that case I'll keep with the mobo, would've thought that IGPs on them would cost more, even if AMD manufacture both.

 

[stulid]

Just avoid the place opposite kwik-fit, or by the side of barclays bank.

 

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

I'm pretty much thinking that I might go for that too. I think I will ditch the 1TB drive for the time being and opt-in with a slot loading BD reader if I can find one anywhere. Who manufactures the OcUK drives?

It is made by Forworld Electronics:

http://www.cdrlabs.com/forums/forworld-pony-bhlr001a-slot-loading-rom-drive-t24551.html

There is also a Sony slot loading drive too but both drives have a very similar model number and supposedly have the same manufacturer:

http://www.networkedmediatank.com/showthread.php?tid=29322&page=4

I've factored in the HSF for backup purposes if I find that the default HSF drives me up the wall with being loud (I love the quietness of my P180 and Zalman CNPS7500. ). If I shop around I think I can get this close to the £950 mark.

Edit: Ah you posted before me. Well I guess in that case I'll keep with the mobo, would've thought that IGPs on them would cost more, even if AMD manufacture both.

The provisional build spec looks like this:

CPU: AMD Phenom II 955BE (£122)
GPU: Gainward GTX 260 Golden Sample 1792MB (£174)
Motherboard: Asus M4A785TD-V Evo (£73)
RAM: Corsair XMS3 8GB DDR3 PC3-10666C9 (£170)
PSU: Seasonic X650(£104)
Case: Lian-Li PC-P50 (£107)
Optical: Blu-Ray reader(£53)
HDD: Samsung F3 500GB(£41)
CPU cooler: Titan Fenrir(£33)

The total comes to around £877 excluding delivery costs. You could probably still include the Blu-Ray writer or the additional 1TB hard disk and still be under budget.

Looks like the Scythe Zipang, Scythe Mine Rev. B or the Scythe Zipang are probably better choices for the cooler for a similar price:
http://www.frostytech.com/top5heatsinks.cfm

 

[Azuse05]

I dont understant the 260, even massively overclocked. At stock speed a 5770 has equal performance while being cheaper, using less power, making less noise and running 3 screens out of the box. A vapor-x one can be overclocked to the same level of performance :S

Anyway, there arn't any in stock and and balck edition is cheaper and faster. If you're getting close too £200 and really are needing a powerful card get a 5850. If you really need that much video ram buy a pair of 5770s and crossfire them :s

 

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

I dont understant the 260, even massively overclocked. At stock speed a 5770 has equal performance while being cheaper, using less power, making less noise and running 3 screens out of the box. A vapor-x one can be overclocked to the same level of performance :S

Anyway, there arn't any in stock and and balck edition is cheaper and faster. If you're getting close too £200 and really are needing a powerful card get a 5850. If you really need that much video ram buy a pair of 5770s and crossfire them :s

I think the OP wants a GTX260 with loads of video RAM since the applications they work with have CUDA acceleration.

 

[stulid]

CUDA! Adobe programs make full use of the cards encoding power, a lot of other programs use it to.

You will never get a ATI card to match that! That's why folding seems to be absent still!

 

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

I tend to prefer ATI cards myself for gaming purposes but if the applications you run use CUDA then Nvidia is the best choice.

Nvidia also has the resources to invest in these sorts of things too although the first use of a folding client on a GPU was for ATI cards in 2006.

 

[Varsh]

Cat, I meant to have both the BD-RW and the Slot BD.

It looks as though I'm pretty much sorted on the parts I'm going to get now and it also seems that the Slot BD is having problems with BD playback? According to that site anyway which is referring to the C200... whatever that is.

And yup, CUDA and texture memory with extreme poly editing requires a stupendous amount of VRAM and a few other things. A Quadro I would get as a second card for this purpose but that would cost the same amount as this PC.

 

[stulid]

What I missed? Just been to papa's

 

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

Cat, I meant to have both the BD-RW and the Slot BD.

It looks as though I'm pretty much sorted on the parts I'm going to get now and it also seems that the Slot BD is having problems with BD playback? According to that site anyway which is referring to the C200... whatever that is.

And yup, CUDA and texture memory with extreme poly editing requires a stupendous amount of VRAM and a few other things. A Quadro I would get as a second card for this purpose but that would cost the same amount as this PC.

Tell us how the build goes especially with regards to how quiet the computer is!!

 

[Varsh]

Nothing much but one thing's for sure, no I'm not going to the dodgy bank behind Barclay's/Superdrug, I'm not going to get cheap parts from the place opposite K&K Computers either, and PC World here is a ripoff so local shops are a no-no.

Ok I've decided on this - but slap me if I should really change:

• CPU: AMD Phenom II 965BE (£143)
• GPU: Gainward GTX 260 Golden Sample 1792MB (£174)
• Motherboard: Asus M4A785TD-V Evo (£73)
• RAM: 2x Corsair 4GB DDR3 PC3-10666C9 1333MHz (£170)
• PSU: Seasonic X-650 (£105)
• Optical: LG BH08LS20 8x Blu-Ray-RW/DVD±RW (£124)
• HDD: Samsung F3 500GB (£37)
• Total: ~£826

And I'll be grabbing this at a later date:

• Case: Lian-Li PC-P50 (£113)
• Optical: Blu-Ray reader (£53)
• CPU cooler: Titan Fenrir (£33)
• Total: ~£199

A total of ~£1025.

I've put in the best prices I've found so far, so it's not looking too bad I guess and I've decided to go with the 965BE as I think I'll need that little extra - it's only an extra £20. For the time being I think I'll skip the slot drive completely and wait for later in the year to pick it up, this PC I'm using I'll put it in my spare ancient PC mid tower case for now (Chenbro Gaming Bomb - RAH!) and put the new parts into this P180, that's assuming this PC fits snuggly into that case which I have some doubts about. The HSF is also dependant on the HSF of the default.

Edit: Well I need to see if I can get this earlier than before my payday as my dad will have to pay for it till my pay comes through on the 18th, ugh! Freelance work is a pain when waiting for money.

 

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

Look a bit harder for the X4 965 125W.

 

[Varsh]

Wow I managed to find it for £127, that just made it even better. I didn't know they made a 125W version as I thought they were all 140W. Thanks for the UPS.