New build advice - £700-750 inc OS

JKing

JKing

JKing

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31 Aug 2010
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22
New build advice - Order is on its way :-)

Hi all,

I've been a visitor to the forum for a number of years now and have the bug to build a new system after my brother in law has just spent 2k on a GTX 480 based system. Also, I've just completed rennovating my house which now has a designated office space so I actually have space for a desktop system rather than struggling to use my laptop for everything.

My budget is £700-750 for the desktop exc monitor, keyboard etc and it must inc the OS (Win 7 Home premium).

The system will be used for editing photographs/movies, gaming and general web/music/file storage. I do have an external 1TB drive already for backup/storage. I would like a modular power supply if possible, purely to improve cable managment.

I've specced the following system as a starter but would value your opinion of anything which could be improved upon and keep within budget.

Thanks in advance:


OcUK Value GeForce GTX 460 1024MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £169.99
AMD Phenom II X4 Quad Core 965 Black Edition "125W Edition" 3.40GHz £123.36
Asus M4A87TD/USB3 AMD 870 (Socket AM3) DDR3 Motherboard £86.99
Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium 64-Bit £82.99
OCZ Gold 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 PC3-10666C9 1333MHz Low-Voltage Dual £66.96
Xigmatek Midgard Midi Tower - Black £52.99
OcUK Crusade 650W Dual Rail High Efficiency Modular Power Supply £46.99
Samsung SpinPoint F3 500GB SATA-II 16MB Cache £32.99
Samsung SH-S223C/BEBE 22x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter £13.99
Akasa Internal Media Card Reader (AK-ICR-07)£6.99
Sub Total :£582.34
Shipping cost assumes delivery to UK Mainland with: DPD Next Day Parcel Shipping : £12.50
VAT is being charged at 17.50% VAT : £104.10
Total : £698.94
 
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I know, wait until it's 20%!

How about a Cooler Master Silent Pro Modular 600W Power Supply. Slightly cheaper than the Corsair and its modular.

Also, is it worth holding off purchasing a GPU with the upcoming release of the 6000 series ATI's??
 
JKing said:
No plans for a GX470/480 no so I could save a few ££ and get the 500w Cooler Master :-)
Click to expand...
Cooler Master GX550W:
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CA-201-CM&groupid=701&catid=123&subcat=1103
Corsair VX 550W:
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CA-014-CS&groupid=701&catid=123&subcat=1084
OCZ ModXstream 500W:
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CA-037-OC&groupid=701&catid=123&subcat=1098

OCZModXStream has 50W less, but it is modular so it's better for cable tidying. Which one to get depend on your own preference.
 
My 2c would be to swap the phenom 965 for a 955 and save a few £ and put it to a coolermaster cm 690 case. Really dont like the xigmatek, and the 690 will provide better cooling aswell as not looking a bit naff (personal opinion). Just overclock the 955 a tad if the .2 is that important.
 
Great advice so far.

This is the spec I'm up to now. I agree with the Xigmetek case, the Cooler Master does look a lot better and looks very disgreet which is what I want.

Current Spec:

OcUK Value GeForce GTX 460 1024MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £169.99
AMD Phenom II X4 Quad Core 955 Black Edition "125W Edition" 3.20GHz £111.61
Asus M4A87TD/USB3 AMD 870 (Socket AM3) DDR3 Motherboard £86.99
Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium 64-Bit £82.99
Corsair XMS3 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 10666C8 1333MHz Dual-Channel (CMX4GX3M2A1333C8) £82.24
Cooler Master Silent Pro Modular 500W Power Supply £66.99
Coolermaster CM-690 II Lite Dominator Case - Black £62.99
Samsung SpinPoint F3 500GB SATA-II 16MB Cache - OEM (HD502HJ) £32.99
Samsung SH-S223C/BEBE 22x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £13.99
Akasa Internal Media Card Reader (AK-ICR-07) £6.99

Sub Total : £610.87
Shipping cost assumes delivery to UK Mainland with: £10.50
VAT is being charged at 17.50% VAT : £108.74
Total : £730.11

My only question now is it worth waiting for the 6000 series ATI's to be released before commiting to a GPU purchase?? I could purchase the Asus M4A88TD-V EVO/USB3 AMD 880G motherboard with built in GPU for the time being and wait to see if the ATI 5800 series cards drop drastically in price when the 6000's are released??
 
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Do we actually have an eta on the new amd gfx cards? If not then I would say its not worth the wait. By the time they are released then we will be hearing about the new nvidias and then would it be worth the wait again for those? Its quite an endless cycle. the gtx460 will serve you very well for a long time. The only thing I might suggest is just keep and eye on the 'todays deals' and 'this weeks deals' and you should be able to get a better named card with better cooling and possibly pre overclocked for around the same price (even one of these 3 things would be a bonus).
 
I was looking at the Gigabyte 460 and wondered if it was worth the extra but if it's going to be considerably quieter then its worth the extra to me. I guess waiting for the next new hardware is always the way with PC's so thanks for the advice.
 
Also noticed the Asus M4A88TD-M EVO/USB3 AMD 880G is slightly cheaper than the 87TD and comes with integrated GPU. It's MicroATX so doesn't offer as many PCI slots but seems to offer the same as the 87TD in terms of USB 3.0 and SATA 6Gbps support
 
You would be saving a few £ on the gigabyte and the phenom 955 if you bought by next tuesday as they on on this weeks deals.

Are you planning on doing any overclocking? If so then you will also need an aftermarket cooler such as the titan fenrir which is also on offer by coincidence xD

Edit: If you are only running with 0-1 pci cards then the matx board will serve you nicely but will limit your expandability.
 
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I won't be running any additional PCI cards other than the GPU so I'll go with the M4A88TD I think. As for overclocking, no plans at present so I'll leave the aftermarket cooler for now I think. Hopefully ordering before next Tuesday so nice to save a few ££ :-)

Also noticed that the Samsung F3 1TB is only £10 more this week so might as well go for double the capacity.
 
The 955BE is good if you overclock, cause they pretty much overclock the same as the 965BE, however, if you are not overclocking, then it may be worth consider the 965BE paying £12 extra for the extra 200MHz over the Phenom II 955BE.
 
Still deliberating over which Mboard to buy:

Asus M4A88TD is cheapest but Micro ATX is concerning me in regards future upgrades.
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MB-403-AS&groupid=701&catid=5&subcat=1782

Asus M4A87TD Evo or M4A87TD USB 3.0 (both are listed as supporting USB 3.0 though and are the same price??
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MB-410-AS&groupid=701&catid=5&subcat=1782
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MB-408-AS&groupid=701&catid=5&subcat=1782
 
for only £4 more then you may aswell get the full atx board and save the worry incase you do want to expand. £4 for peace of mind isnt much really.
 
To be honest though, I think the slots on the Asus M4A88TD-M EVO/USB3 880G are more than enough.
1xPCI-E X16
2xPCI-E X1
1xPCI

I don't think anyone use more than 1 PCI device these days...hell, the last time I used a PCI device was years ago. People that still use PCI slot these days are probably just for the older Sound Cards.
 
Podmonkey said:
My 2c would be to swap the phenom 965 for a 955 and save a few £ and put it to a coolermaster cm 690 case. Really dont like the xigmatek, and the 690 will provide better cooling aswell as not looking a bit naff (personal opinion). Just overclock the 955 a tad if the .2 is that important.
Click to expand...

Just for the record, the Xigmatek Migard actually has better cooling than the CM690 II

Midgard (low fan speed) 42/51 degrees C GPU/CPU
CM 690 II (low fan speed) 44/53 degrees C GPU/CPU

Although the 690 II will accept water cooling a lot easier if you ever plan to go that route. And probably slightly edges the Midgard on build quality.
 
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