Question: PC Build - Help - Advice

elliottlock

elliottlock

elliottlock

Associate
Joined
8 Jul 2007
Posts
26
Hi,

As you have guessed I'm looking to build a new PC. But would like some help/advice on the parts I have chosen so far. To help give you an understanding of what I'm trying to achieve let me give you the following info:

What am I using my rig for?
Gaming

Budget (including tax and shipping)?
£2000

Where do I live?
Surrey, England

What parts do I need?
Motherboard
CPU
RAM
Graphics Card
Hard Drive
PSU
Case
CPU Cooler
Optical Drive

Am I overclocking?
No

Reused parts?
Monitor

Monitor size?
24", Native Resolution 1920x1200

When do I plan on buying / building my pc?
Within the next month

Required features?
I'd like to be USB 3.0 ready and have the ability for SLI/Crossfire

OS?
I already have a Windows 7 (64bit) licence. Which I will be migrating to this new PC

So with all that in mind here's my current list of the part:

Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-X58A-UD7 Intel X58 (Socket 1366) DDR3 Motherboard
CPU: Intel Core i7 930 2.80GHz (Bloomfield) (Socket LGA1366) - OEM
RAM: Corsair XMS3 6GB (3x2GB) DDR3 10666C9 (1333MHz) Tri-Channel (CMX6GX3M3A1333C9)
Graphics Card: Sapphire ATI Radeon HD 5870 1024MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card
Hard Drive (Boot): OCZ Vertex 2E 120GB 2.5" SATA-II Solid State Hard Drive (OCZSSD2-2VTXE120G)
Hard Drive (Storage RAID): (2x = 2TB) Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB SATA-II 32MB Cache - OEM (WD10EALS)
PSU: Corsair HX 750W ATX Modular SLI Compliant Power Supply (CMPSU-750HXUK)
Case: Coolermaster RC-1100 Cosmos S "Sport" Silent Full Tower Case - Black
CPU Cooler: Corsair H50-1 High-Performance CPU Watercooler (Socket LGA775/1156/1366/AM2/AM3)
Optical Drive: Samsung SH-B083L/BSBP 8x BluRay ROM / 16x DVD±RW Drive - Black (OEM)

That brings my current total to £1929.68 (parts bought from http://www.overclockers.co.uk)

So my question is. Are there any parts you would change and if so why?

Many Thanks,

EL
 
Looks like a very nice spec.

I would suggest you have a look at the UD3R board instead of the UD7. It is £120 cheaper and for overclocking with a H50 cooler does just as well. It also supports USB3 and SATA 6G.

Also, if it is for gaming, you may want to drop (or downgrade) the SSD and get a second 5870 - as crossfire scales rather well these days.
 
Good point I don't know why I put that motherboard in there :/

Anyway, I've changed that to the UD3R now so the spec reads as follows:

Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-X58A-UD3R Intel X58 (Socket 1366) DDR3 Motherboard
CPU: Intel Core i7 930 2.80GHz (Bloomfield) (Socket LGA1366) - OEM
RAM: Corsair XMS3 6GB (3x2GB) DDR3 10666C9 (1333MHz) Tri-Channel (CMX6GX3M3A1333C9)
Graphics Card: Sapphire ATI Radeon HD 5870 1024MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card
Hard Drive (Boot): OCZ Vertex 2E 120GB 2.5" SATA-II Solid State Hard Drive (OCZSSD2-2VTXE120G)
Hard Drive (Storage RAID): (2x = 2TB) Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB SATA-II 32MB Cache - OEM (WD10EALS)
PSU: Corsair HX 750W ATX Modular SLI Compliant Power Supply (CMPSU-750HXUK)
Case: Coolermaster RC-1100 Cosmos S "Sport" Silent Full Tower Case - Black
CPU Cooler: Corsair H50-1 High-Performance CPU Watercooler (Socket LGA775/1156/1366/AM2/AM3)
Optical Drive: Samsung SH-B083L/BSBP 8x BluRay ROM / 16x DVD±RW Drive - Black (OEM)

With a grand total price of £1,811.67

Reference your SSD/Graphics card suggestion cmndr_andi. I was looking to crossfire later on when the 5870 required a boost so I thought I'd invest in a more powerful SSD for now. Also I was thinking it might be a good idea in the future to buy an additional OCZ Vertex 2E 120GB (when it's cheaper) which I could then RAID with my original.
 
you wont need to RAID ssd's, they are so fast, its pointless.

choice of components is more sensible looking now.
 
elliottlock said:
Ok but would I be better then getting a cheaper SSD and a 5970 with the intention to crossfire in the future. Or just crossfire 5870's now?
Click to expand...

Good question, not really sure of an answer, I personally would get the smaller ssd and 5970.

but the other option of a big ssd and two 5870 is good too.
 
Interesting Redmint. It's faster but cheaper. WTF? LOL

Thats confused me :/

But I've added it to the spec now so thanks very much, here is the update:

Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-X58A-UD3R Intel X58 (Socket 1366) DDR3 Motherboard
CPU: Intel Core i7 930 2.80GHz (Bloomfield) (Socket LGA1366) - OEM
RAM: Corsair XMS3 6GB (3x2GB) DDR3 12800C9 (1600MHz) Tri-Channel (CMX6GX3M3A1600C9)
Graphics Card: Sapphire ATI Radeon HD 5870 1024MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card
Hard Drive (Boot): OCZ Vertex 2E 120GB 2.5" SATA-II Solid State Hard Drive (OCZSSD2-2VTXE120G)
Hard Drive (Storage RAID): (2x = 2TB) Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB SATA-II 32MB Cache - OEM (WD10EALS)
PSU: Corsair HX 750W ATX Modular SLI Compliant Power Supply (CMPSU-750HXUK)
Case: Coolermaster RC-1100 Cosmos S "Sport" Silent Full Tower Case - Black
CPU Cooler: Corsair H50-1 High-Performance CPU Watercooler (Socket LGA775/1156/1366/AM2/AM3)
Optical Drive: Samsung SH-B083L/BSBP 8x BluRay ROM / 16x DVD±RW Drive - Black (OEM)

With a grand total price of £1,798.67
 
Oh, I would suggest going for this graphics card instead. It costs £5 more, is slightly stock overclocked, comes with 1 year more warranty and it allows the use of "voltage tweak" which is great for further overclocking the card.
 
Argh cmndr_andi your asking a lot of me there. Asus for motherboards I wouldn't hesitate but for graphics cards i've always trusted Sapphire for ATI. I'll bear it in mind for now. But great bit of info. I would have never spotted that. Cheers.
 
I'd upgrade the Graphics Card to this one adding your basket to look like this:

Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-X58A-UD3R Intel X58 (Socket 1366) DDR3 Motherboard
CPU: Intel Core i7 930 2.80GHz (Bloomfield) (Socket LGA1366) - OEM
RAM: Corsair XMS3 6GB (3x2GB) DDR3 12800C9 (1600MHz) Tri-Channel (CMX6GX3M3A1600C9)
Graphics Card: XFX ATI Radeon HD 5970 Black Edition 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card [HD-597A-CNB9]
Hard Drive (Boot): OCZ Vertex 2E 120GB 2.5" SATA-II Solid State Hard Drive (OCZSSD2-2VTXE120G)
Hard Drive (Storage RAID): (2x = 2TB) Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB SATA-II 32MB Cache - OEM (WD10EALS)
PSU: Corsair HX 750W ATX Modular SLI Compliant Power Supply (CMPSU-750HXUK)
Case: Coolermaster RC-1100 Cosmos S "Sport" Silent Full Tower Case - Black
CPU Cooler: Corsair H50-1 High-Performance CPU Watercooler (Socket LGA775/1156/1366/AM2/AM3)
Optical Drive: Samsung SH-B083L/BSBP 8x BluRay ROM / 16x DVD±RW Drive - Black (OEM)

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-154-XF which adds £215 (approx) but you will not need to upgrade that GPU for more then 4-5 years because it will outrun nearly all the GPU's that become available in the near future (with the exception of a few)
 
Humm that will take me over the £2000 mark. Is it really that worth it? Why do you think the 5970 is that much greater than the 5870?

I can kind of see the pay off but I just wanted to get more info for your reason for doing this?

What do other people think to?

Cheers.
 
with a 24" monitor, keep the 5870, and when it starts to get slow in future game releases, buy another
 
Well, that is only an option, that 5870 will play pretty much all games at 1920x 1080 but if you want to go beyond that in the future with a bigger monitor, the 5970 will be useful. Having said that, the 5870 will do the job you want perfectly. If your not a Hardcore gamer, who plays 24/7..there's no point. I have a 5850 and it plays games beautifully, and even that 5870 will play them nicer. it's your choice at the end of the day

This is another question:

Do you really need that Blu-Ray drive??you could save £35-£40 on a cheap one like this:

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CD-046-OT&groupid=701&catid=10&subcat=951

.....and then upgrade one of your components further... e.g.

I wouldn't buy that

-OCZ Vertex 2E 120GB 2.5" SATA-II Solid State Hard Drive

in my opinion I would wait a few weeks/months for this beast...the write/read speeds are almost double which would be amazing..

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=HD-051-OC&groupid=701&catid=14&subcat=1427

and that's where the extra money could go towards if you chose not to get a Blu-Ray drive..and then you'd still have £150 (and maybe a bit more) for some games or even a second monitor.

I recently spent £750 on some PC Components and the perform like a beast..

It's your money, but once you turn your computer off at the end of the day.. you don't have your £2000 to spend.

My system:

Intel i5 750 (not overclocked)
HIS Icooler ATI Radeon 5850 (not overclocked)
MSI P55-GD55 Intel P55 (Socket 1156) DDR3 Motherboard
Patriot Viper 1333MHz DDR3 RAM
Samsung Spinpoint F1 250GB Hard Drive Disk (from my old PC-Will be upgrading around XMAS)
Xigmatek Asgard Midi Tower Case
ocUK 650W Dual-Rail High Efficiency Power Supply

Windows Experience Index-Score: (Windows 7)

CPU-7.3
Memory-7.4
Graphics-7.7
3D Graphics-7.7
Hard Drive Disc-5.6
 
WiryRocketeer said:
snip...
Click to expand...

Some very good points well made.

I suppose with a £2000 budget the temptation is to use all of it, but you are ofcourse right that for almost all modern games a single £230 5850 will power games as quicky as you need. If the OP truly wants a long-term PC, he should go for the system in post #10 but use a 5850 graphics card. Then keep the money saved on graphics in your bank account (or invested) and spend it in a year or so and get another £250 card then which will blow the 5970 out of the water.

As for going for a standard DVD drive over Blu-Ray, I suppose it depends if you intend to watch HD moview. I for one can't go back to DVDs, 1080p video is just so much better. For the price of £40 for this upgrade I think its a bargain TBH.
 
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