First time build - Advice welcomed!

Gudge

Gudge

Gudge

Associate
Joined
22 Sep 2010
Posts
56
Location
Oxfordshire
Hi All

First time builder just want to check with you Zen :cool: masters to whether this is a decent set of parts for:

1: a decent fairly future proof PC (at least 3-4 years for processor/mem/motherB).
2:A stable system with future experiments in over-clocking (again a first time challenge).
3: Decent Games platform - not looking to run an FPS at 95 FPS or anything - just something that will get CIV IV/V running nicely, possibly Star Craft II or DoW II.
4: Basic office capabilities & basic music/film capabilities.
5: With a Budget of about £1000 (Less if possible!) - plus OS & Security software (prob Win 7 & Kepersky).

I would cut & past but my account won't let me yet:

i7 950 3.06GHz (Bloomfield) (Socket LGA1366) - Retail £217.36
(£184.99)
- deal for the week - only makes it £5 more then the I7 930 otherwise would pick the 930

Asus P6X58D-E Intel X58 (Socket 1366) DDR3 Motherboard Asus P6X58D-E £149.99 (£127.65)

Patriot Viper 6GB (3x2GB) DDR3 12800C8 1600MHz Low Latency Triple Channel (PVT36G1600LLK) £111.61 (£94.99)

Sapphire ATI Radeon HD 5670 1024MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £88.11 (£74.99)

Antec 900 Nine Hundred Ultimate Gaming Case - Black Antec 900 Nine Hundred Ultimate Gaming Case - Black (£63.82)

Samsung SpinPoint F3 1TB SATA-II 32MB Cache - OEM (HD103SJ) £44.99 (£38.29)

OcUK Crusade 650W Dual-Rail High Efficiency Power Supply £42.99 (£36.59)


Total : £744.74 (Incl VAT)

Plus a couple of dust filters for the Fans

Am using Scott Mueller's 'Upgrading & Repairing PCs (19th Edition)' as my guide but would rather have some advice from people with first time experience then reading the text of a heavy tome.

All advice will be greatfully received, anything to stop me crying into a smoking pile of bits or vexed :confused: at boot issues will be appreciated

Cheers
Gudge
 
The graphics card and power supply aren't too impressive. You should aim for at least a 5770, and a good brand name PSU like Corsair or OCZ.
 
Would only change the gfx and the psu. Get a better branded psu if you intend to game etc. Something along the lines of a corsair, antec, seasonic or even ocz. A decent 500w unit will suffice or 620or so if you want to sli some mid range cards (a lot of people plan on this but it doesnt always happen for most).

On to the card.If your playing at any decent resolution 16:10 or above then that card will hamper it especially if you want some longevity for your money. £30 more will get you the ocuk gtx460 768mb if you only want light gaming. Based on the cpu you would be better with the 1gb model or a ati 5850.
 
I was hoping to save a bit of cash, the £1k was the absolute max limit but figured that the PSU would be one of the better places to slice a few £££'s off as all in all they are fundamentally the same aren't they except for the ability of the built in cooling.

I was expecting some discussion on the Graphics card so am open to suggestions with that, but figured the HD5670 was decent for the price. Also in the future I would think about adding a second with a x-fire (that right?).

@RJC
Does that PSU work better with the Case? I know the Antec 900 (will be the case for any future builds for the next decade I think!) stacks the PSU at the bottom of the stack so I'm hoping that that fan works fine there.

Cheers for the advice so far tho :)
 
Don't bother with Kaspersky either, a decent freeware firewall (Comodo), freeware anti-virus (Avast) and common sense is all that you need.
 
The Corsair psu that RJC suggested is a very high quality product, best to never skimp on the psu, particularly when overclocking or running high end gpu's. The psu is probably the single most important component in the system.
 
setter said:
The Corsair psu that RJC suggested is a very high quality product, best to never skimp on the psu, particularly when overclocking or running high end gpu's. The psu is probably the single most important component in the system.
Click to expand...

Its also along with the case itself the most likely to last you. Invest in it now as you will likely have it longer than the other components. If it works then it can keep chugging along nicely for a long time.

In terms of the gfx a £30 for a lot more performance is good value. Once again if you get good parts now then they will last longer than if you get something that 'will just do the job'.
 
@setter - will definitely look into the corsair then. Just couldn't understand why there were PSUs going for £100 when I checked the shop site, figured that they were for the hardcore mods

@Morlock
How do your suggestions compare to the basics that come with W7 ? as I understand that they are fairly good; I will be using a bit of bit torrent so if Comodo & Avast come with a good review then will definitely scope them out.

Common sense? damn might be stuck with that one.... ;)
 
id push for a 5850 rather than crossfire on a 5670, your still under your budget and you can play games at a decent level now and are safe for future when you crossfire it
 
RedStarRiot said:
id push for a 5850 rather than crossfire on a 5670, your still under your budget and you can play games at a decent level now and are safe for future when you crossfire it
Click to expand...

With Crossfiring - does it have to be with a card of the same; 5850+5850 or could it be across two different cards; 5850+5770 ? or even across brands with matching a 5770 with a similar Nvidia card ?
 
The W7 firewall is not too bad, but not as configurable as Comodo or some other free firewalls, W7 does not have any anti-virus capability so an additional program is needed.

My point was more that Kaspersky does nothing that cannot be achieved with good quality freeware, it is a waste of money.
 
@RJC
Cheers for that will take a gander.

@Morlock
OK,since I am one of the masses I still think that I need a well branded/ print recommended anti virus software to be safe when surfing; have tried freeware before but not been as reassured.
Saying that I am using Norton at the moment which is sucking the life out my pc like you wouldn't believe so any efficient, good working anti-v software will be investigated on your recommendation.
 
I would look toward the 460 1gb personally as the performance is great. A suggestion for the case would be the Coolermaster 690 II lite edition which is on offer

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CA-212-CM&groupid=701&catid=7&subcat=29


Otherwise do you really need the i7 or would an i5 suffice. Obviously an i7 is better but for the uses you have decribed I can't see why you would need the extra power. Either way any real future proofing would mean Sata and usb 3 upgrades as there is going to be socket changes on either AMD or intel platforms. The decision really is up to you on this though. I wanted a decent performing pc to play games and also for uni work and i'm chuffed to bits with mine.

You might like to read

http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?t=18060182
http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?t=18046396

I found these really helpful in general for my build.
 
Payed for/branded software does not necessarily mean better, in fact, a lot of the time it is actually worse than good freeware. Companies like Avast and Avira provide free home user licenses to promote their corporate products.

They are very high quality, and both are highly regarded AV software providing much the same fuctionality as both Kaspersky and Norton without the expense. Similarly with Comodo firewall, a free home user license is granted, in the hope that it will attract corporate investment.

Most IT savvy users will not touch Kaspersky or Norton with a barge pole, knowing that they offer nothing that freeware can't and are generally bloated.

I am sure someone amongst all of the IT gurus here will back me up...
 
Gudge said:
@RedStarRiot

From your tag it appears that you run a 5870 - what made you go for that over the 5770 ?
Click to expand...


i like to max out my games, i was lucky enough to have a large enough budget at the time and blew it all on my rig!, i love my 5870 and plan on using 3 monitor eyefinity, im way to into dawn of war 2!. read a lot of good things though about the 5770 and its decent value. you thought of going nvidia? 460 would do the job nicely and not much more really
 
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