New SB work/gaming build. £500 Budget.

Oberon

Oberon

Oberon

Associate
Joined
27 Jul 2004
Posts
544
Location
Milton Keynes
Hey guys,

I've been on these forums a while but have only ever built one PC way back in 2005. That was the build you can see in my sig. However, I am going back to Uni for the last six months of my course then I will be graduating. I feel its time to invest in a new PC for my future career as a software engineer and some gaming on the side.

I've got £500 to spend tops and have budgeted to make sure I can still get out of my Uni house for a few pints and to feed myself (the latter is nowhere near as important as the foremost). So to business then. I've got myself a little preliminary spec drawn up. I would greatly appreciate any advice/criticism you lovely people can provide.

So here its then:



Uploaded with ImageShack.us

I haven't included a graphics card as I have my old 8800GT for now and I will be upgrading that around May time.

Thanks for reading.
 
I would personally opt for this board:
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MB-312-GI&groupid=701&catid=5&subcat=1906

Over your current one listed. I have never liked MSI and seen a few post's on here about the boards being RMA'd.

Plus, the Giga-Byte board supports xfire, I realise you won't be using that but it's a nice feature to have for future reference.

For an extra 6 quid... to have the support and brand name of gigabyte behind me, it's a no brainer.

The rest of it look's great :)
 
That Gigabyte board may well be better than the MSI one, but not because it supports crossfire. The second slot is x4, which I'm sure you know is not the ideal speed to install a graphics cards into. Altho I don't think there's any real reason to single out MSI, I'm sure every other board manufacturer have had customers have problems with their boards, including Asus and Gigabyte, it's just luck.

Oberon, I noticed you have two 500GB harddrives, may I ask why you have not gone for a single 1TB drive?

Everything else looks fine to me as well.
 
Aretenon said:
That Gigabyte board may well be better than the MSI one, but not because it supports crossfire. The second slot is x4, which I'm sure you know is not the ideal speed to install a graphics cards into. Altho I don't think there's any real reason to single out MSI, I'm sure every other board manufacturer have had customers have problems with their boards, including Asus and Gigabyte, it's just luck.

Oberon, I noticed you have two 500GB harddrives, may I ask why you have not gone for a single 1TB drive?

Everything else looks fine to me as well.
Click to expand...

Actually, you'll never notice the difference with Crossfire.

Its a 1-2% difference in frame rates, so you if you have a 16x16x board, and you're getting 100 fps, you'll be getting 98 on a 16x4x board - hardly a big issue.

It just gives more flexibility.

RE the HDDs, I would imagine its for raid? ;)

I would swap the PSU out for this personally :)
 
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Cookeh said:
Actually, you'll never notice the difference with Crossfire.

Its a 1-2% difference in frame rates, so you if you have a 16x16x board, and you're getting 100 fps, you'll be getting 98 on a 16x4x board - hardly a big issue.
Click to expand...
It is x8 that's lose 2-3%...

There was a review (can't remember if it was on Tomshardware or techspot) that tested a GTX480 at various PCI-E speed on different games...at PCI-E 2.0 x4, some game it lost only around 2% speed, another game which lost around 9% speed, and in Modern Warfare it lost like 50% speed. So how much speed does a card loses on a PCI-E 2.0 x4 is pretty much game dependent.
 
Ive had two cosrair TX650s fail on me form new. Had teh ANtec Truepower for a couple of months now and the psu is much nicer, also came out tops in most reviews and is semi-modular so you can have a better go at cable management. You'll need it with that case.

Having also had that case I would splash out about £15 more and get a better one.

Personally aswell, I would consider the AMD route given the budget. The money you'd save could get you a shiney new gfx card?
 
welshdragon said:
Ive had two cosrair TX650s fail on me form new. Had teh ANtec Truepower for a couple of months now and the psu is much nicer, also came out tops in most reviews and is semi-modular so you can have a better go at cable management. You'll need it with that case.

Having also had that case I would splash out about £15 more and get a better one.

Personally aswell, I would consider the AMD route given the budget. The money you'd save could get you a shiney new gfx card?
Click to expand...

Oh right :confused: Ah well, go with the Truepower then!

AMD would be a good bet, indeed. Even if it is completely trumped in everything :(
 
Depends what kind of work Oberon is doing. Any answer Oberon?
And how much he wants a better case and/or a new graphics card now. It is fairly easy to replace graphics card, certainly compared to putting everything into a new case.
 
Yes i would go for a better case in any eventuality. However regards Intel they are the clear winner but just thought AMD is still a strong contender for those on a budget.

WHilst on paper my AMD 965 could not compete, in the real world it flies through games and most tasks I send it. Guess it depends if the op is going to be rendering/processing vast amounts of data?
 
Hey guys, had a long journey back to Uni today so hence no response until now. Well, thanks for the info guys. I think I'll go with the Asus P8P67 LE since people seem to have less problems with their boards.

I have considered the AMD route, but as I said, I will be upgrading in May sometime or even could nab a batter card on the MM for cheap, plus you have to admit the i5-2500K will do me a while.

I will be doing a variety of programming for Java, C++ and some will be in 3D for OpenGL. The gaming will be stuck to WoW for now, so the 8800GT will do me. I did notice today however they hiked up the price on the processor. Yes the 2x 500's are for RAID, but I could save some cash there. But I would really like the added performance of RAID0.

Either way, its getting done tonight to save some cash as it now sits at £508.
 
Hey Zaim,

I'll be sticking with a single GPU solution for now, but thank you for the advice. That looks a great deal compared to other SLI boards ;)
 
Right,

I ordered all my stuff today. Will be using this thread for my build pics and help if I need any. Which I probably will considering it has been 5 years since I last done this for myself :P

EDIT: Just thought I would put on here. I went for the ASUS P8P67 LE and the GeIL 4GB RAM. Other than those two swap outs, the build will be the same. Thanks again for the advice.
 
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!!!UPDATE!!!

Ok, got all the system all rigged up and ready to go.

Press power button.

Turns on, then off.

Boots, 3 beeps.

Whats wrong? The manual is useless, nothing about the beeps to decribe what is wrong.

No signal from the GFX card to the Monitor either.
 
Oberon said:
!!!UPDATE!!!

Ok, got all the system all rigged up and ready to go.

Press power button.

Turns on, then off.

Boots, 3 beeps.

Whats wrong? The manual is useless, nothing about the beeps to decribe what is wrong.

No signal from the GFX card to the Monitor either.
Click to expand...


RAM issue
 
Right, tried 1 stick in channel A (Black socket), dimm slot 1. Not working.
Tried in channel B (Blue Socket), dimm slot 3. Same result, its a dud.

Trying the other stick now.
 
Tell a lie!

It's 4 Beeps.

1 Long, 3 short. Any ideas?

Tested the Second stick on its own in all sockets. The motherboard DRAM light is giving a single red flash and booting.

EDIT: Google search provided several references all correlating to the Graphics Card in some manner. Oh dear.
 
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Make sure its plugged in properly, and you have enough pwoer going to it.

Make sure its not shorting out on anything (so check no wires lying on it, and that its not touching any other metal than the board/expansion slot).
 
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