Spec please

mcast123

mcast123

mcast123

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Joined
8 Feb 2006
Posts
1,322
Budget around £1000
no monitor
no OS
no overclocking
6gb+ memory is a must
a good SSD would be very very nice
as quiet as possible
EDIT: used for casual gaming, vmware and want it nippy around the desktop for excel etc.

EDIT: so this is what looks like my final spec with 8gb ram, anyone see any problems or improvements?

Intel Core i5 750 2.66Ghz (Lynnfield) (Socket LGA1156) - Retail £163.99
Sapphire ATI Radeon HD 5770 Vapor-X 1024MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £139.99
Crucial M225 64GB 2.5" SATA-II Solid State Hard Drive (CT64M225) £139.99
Antec P183 Super Midi Tower Case - Gun Metal Black £99.99
Gigabyte GA-P55-US3L Intel P55 (Socket 1156) DDR3 Motherboard £80.99
Patriot G Series 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 PC3-10666C9 1333MHz Dual Channel (PGS34G1333ELK) x2 £159.98
OCZ ModXStream Pro 500w Silent SLI Certified Modular Power Supply £54.99
Samsung SpinPoint F3 500GB SATA-II 16MB Cache - OEM (HD502HJ) £40.98
Sony Optiarc AD-7241S 24x DVD±RW SATA Lightscribe Optical Drive (Black) - OEM £18.99
Logitech M115 Optical Mouse (910-001268) £10.99
Total : £910.90
 
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Product Name Qty Price Line Total
Intel Core i7 930 2.80Ghz (Bloomfield) (Socket LGA1366) - Retail £239.99
(£204.25) £239.99
(£204.25)
Sapphire ATI Radeon HD 5850 1024MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £229.99
(£195.74) £229.99
(£195.74)
Gigabyte GA-X58A-UD3R Intel X58 (Socket 1366) DDR3 Motherboard £158.99
(£135.31) £158.99
(£135.31)
Crucial M225 64GB 2.5" SATA-II Solid State Hard Drive (CT64M225) £139.99
(£119.14) £139.99
(£119.14)
OCZ Obsidian 6GB (3x2GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600Mhz Triple Channel Kit (OCZ3OB1600LV6GK) £119.99
(£102.12) £119.99
(£102.12)
OCZ StealthXStream 600w Ready Power Supply £54.99
(£46.80) £54.99
(£46.80)
Antec 300 Three Hundred Ultimate Gaming Case - Black £42.99
(£36.59) £42.99
(£36.59)
Samsung SpinPoint F3 500GB SATA-II 16MB Cache - OEM (HD502HJ) £40.98
(£34.88) £40.98
(£34.88)
Samsung SH-S223C/BEBE 22x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £14.99
(£12.76) £14.99
(£12.76)

Sub Total : £887.59
Shipping cost assumes delivery to UK Mainland with:
DPD Next Day Parcel
(This can be changed during checkout) Shipping : £11.75
VAT is being charged at 17.50% VAT : £157.38
Total : £1,056.72

A bit over budget but if you're going for 6GB memory then an i7 build makes sense and I don't see much point in going for an SSD smaller than 60GB. (Also any prebuild with those kind of specs will most likely come out a fair bit more)
 
Redmint said:
snip
Click to expand...

I just bought another monitor, so spec is down to £800, would this spec work? why did you spec a £160 mobo instead of a £90?

Intel Core i5 750 2.66Ghz (Lynnfield) (Socket LGA1156) - Retail £163.99
OCZ Obsidian 6GB (3x2GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600Mhz Triple Channel Kit (OCZ3OB1600LV6GK) £119.99
Sapphire ATI Radeon HD 5770 1024MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £119.98
Crucial M225 64GB 2.5" SATA-II Solid State Hard Drive (CT64M225) £139.99
Gigabyte GA-P55M-UD2 Intel P55 (Socket 1156) DDR3 microATX Motherboard £86.99
OCZ StealthXStream 600w Ready Power Supply £54.99
Antec 300 Three Hundred Ultimate Gaming Case - Black £42.99
Samsung SpinPoint F3 500GB SATA-II 16MB Cache - OEM (HD502HJ) £40.98
Sony Optiarc AD-7241S 24x DVD±RW SATA Lightscribe Optical Drive (Black) - OEM £18.99
Total : £794.89

Will this work? I need it to be 100% compatible and stable, with no overclock.
 
Strawberry said:
Are you sure you want a microATX?..
Click to expand...

no lol that's why I'm here! I know I want the i530, what's the most regular compatible with that for a standard size case?

setter said:
Thats a triple memory kit, (only supported on X58 chipsets) for P55 you'll need a dual channel DDR3 memory kit.
Click to expand...

Ah that clears that up, so I need to buy pairs instead, probably two 2x2gb for 8gb. So the i7 must have a different architecture to the i5?
 
PhoenixUK said:
6gb+ mem for casual gaming and excel??
Will you be using one or more monitors ? what's the res you gaming at ?
Click to expand...

I forgot to say I'm running multiple vmware sessions also, so I need more than 4gb.

Revised spec....

Asus P7P55D LE Intel P55 (Socket 1156) DDR3 Motherboard £104.99
Intel Core i5 750 2.66Ghz (Lynnfield) (Socket LGA1156) - Retail £163.99
Patriot G Series 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 PC3-10666C9 1333MHz Dual Channel (PGS34G1333ELK) x2 £159.98
Sapphire ATI Radeon HD 5770 vapor-X 1024MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £119.98
Crucial M225 64GB 2.5" SATA-II Solid State Hard Drive (CT64M225) £139.99
OCZ StealthXStream 600w Ready Power Supply £54.99
Antec 300 Three Hundred Ultimate Gaming Case - Black £42.99
Samsung SpinPoint F3 500GB SATA-II 16MB Cache - OEM (HD502HJ) £40.98
Sony Optiarc AD-7241S 24x DVD±RW SATA Lightscribe Optical Drive (Black) - OEM £18.99

Total £865.85

Will this work?
 
What res you gaming at?
You also have access to members market, could pick up 2nd hand 4850 or 4870 for ¬50-60quid, will save you 60-70 over 5770 ?
Other than that looks good apart from the case which I hate with passion : ).
Could save few quid on a cheaper mobo as well and get aftermarket cooler instead so you could OC it a bit, otherwise it will be a bit of waste : ).
 
Phoenix, he says he won't be overclocking lol

OP, you don't need such a powerful psu, your spec won't draw much more than 350-400W absolute maximum, I'd suggest a modular one like the ModXStream 500W for the same price (£54.99). The modular cables would come in handy in a small case like the 300
 
Seems like a waste of the i5 if he doesn't OC.
Again, what res is it you'll be gaming at ?
Might be better off with 955 if he doesn't OC, simply up multi for 3.6ghz with stock cooler and no settings change.

Will save him a bit of cash for larger SSD or more HDD space, maybe a raid setup or better GPU if gaming at high res ( or multi monitor ). Would be nice to have a normal case as well, A300 is pretty rubbish, but then some ppl don't care about silence nor case features I guess.
 
Phoenix, you haven't recommended a cheaper mobo or better case, so I'm not sure what you have in mind. I want to stick with the i530.

Shroomz, thanks updated the PSU.
 
i5 750 you mean ?
Any of the cheaper mobos will do if you don't OC.

Like this:
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MB-207-GI&groupid=701&catid=5&subcat=1495

and case, depends, I myself would pick something bigger because the antec is a bit of a midget. a lot of choice in the 60-80 range starting with some decent and cheap thermaltake, more expensive coolermaster, the fractal design ones or maybe even antec p183 @ 100quid for great soundproofing if you want it very quiet.

Also the other possibilty I was mentioning with AMD build would be something like this:

Phenom II - 955BE 135
Asus M4A785TD-V Evo AMD 785G - 75
Geil Value 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit x2 = 170
-------------------------------------
380 for cpu+mobo+8gb ram.

That leaves you with 420 for case/psu/hdd/dvd and whatever else you might want.

Lets say we take the following:
Coolermaster Storm 'Scout' Gaming Case - Black - 70
Spinpoint F3 1TB - 65
CZ ModXStream Pro 500w Silent SLI Certified Modular Power Supply - 55
Crucial M225 64GB 2.5" SATA-II Solid State Hard Drive (CT64M225) £140
*insert random dvd* - 20
---------------
That's 730 total, now depending on res you game at, I'd look at either 2nd hand 4850, 4870 or 4890, which is either 40-65 for the first two or ¬80-100 for 4890.

This gets you better larger and better cooled case and more storage and unless you OC the i5 then 955 @ 3.6 (simply change the multi for this speed, don't need to change anything else ) should give you a slight edge too. You also get the possibility for cheapo upgrade to incoming 6-8cores if you ever will need to which might be nice step for the future considering that you'll be running multiple VMs and such.

Either way, both setups are good and so it's up to you, but I would say that i5 left at stock is a bit of waste of cash tbh.
 
If not overclocking then amd would be a good suggestion. Intel core i5 would be a little wastes if not overclocking. What about checking out the official i5 overclocking thread?

EDIT
coolermaster cm690 is a good case for mid range budget. I've got the pure black dominator version n it'd very good. Excellent air cooling, looks great n its not too big either.
 
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shadow_boxer said:
EDIT
coolermaster cm690 is a good case for mid range budget. I've got the pure black dominator version n it'd very good. Excellent air cooling, looks great n its not too big either.
Click to expand...

I was looking at that earlier, it doesn't have any windows or lights does it? (other than standard leds) I'm torn between this and the antec 183.

stulid said:
This week special offers has a antec902 and a antec new truepower650 psu bundle.
Click to expand...

I hate cases with windows/flashy lights/patterns, but thanks.
 
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