Critique My £700 Build

memphisto

memphisto

memphisto

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17 Oct 2002
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with £700 to spend for a new rig, wanted mainly for gaming use for such games as Football Manager , Dawn of War series and the upcoming diablo 3

wanting it to last at least 2-3 years playing games such as above what do you think ?





any changes to make ? was thinking of going for 8Gb of Genesis ram but on reading around doesnt seem worth it ?

all help appreciated. This will be insalled with Vista 64bit if that helps at all.


oh and I will be overclocking as soon as I work out how to on new hardware :)

current spec E6600 @ 3.2 GHZ, 150Gb Raptor, 8800GT


oh and last thing currently have a thermaltake toughpower 700W modular PSU which will be used in the new rig if it will still be compatible the 500W above is to go in my current rig for when i sell it on :)
 
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OCZ PSUs aren't the best by any means. I would try and go XFX (their 550W is cheaper, and can actually put out more power than the OCZ due to more amperage on the 12v rails - or, if it's for an E6600 and 8800GT you can go for the BeQuiet L7.

RAM is overkill and unfortunately will foul with the cooler, which brings me onto another point - the A50 (currently on sale for a meagre £24) will be more than adequate for cooling SB.

That HDD is very expensive for 1TB, and is infact slower than HDDs (such as Seagate Barracuda and Samsung F3 that are both significantly cheaper).

The money saved can then go towards a beefier graphics card, or you can get the HD5850 currently on offer for £107 and save the money :)

Something like this: (N.B. Alternatives for the graphics is a HD6950 (slower - but near enough matches the speed of the GTX480 when flashed to a HD6970, but cooler and quieter) or a GTX560Ti (slower, but cooler and quieter).

YOUR BASKET
1 x Gigabyte GeForce GTX 480 "Special Edition" 1536MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £199.98
1 x Intel Core i5-2500K 3.30GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor - Retail with FREE Shogun 2 Game £167.99
1 x MSI P67A-C45 Intel P67 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard - (Sandybridge) ** B3 REVISION ** £104.99
1 x XFX Pro 550W Core Edition Power Supply £50.99
1 x Zalman Z9 Plus Tower Case with Fan Controller - Black £44.99
1 x Corsair XMS3 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (CMX4GX3M2A1600C9) £38.39
1 x Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 1TB SATA-II 32MB Cache - OEM 1yr Warranty (ST31000528AS) £37.99
1 x Corsair A50 High-Performance CPU Cooler (Socket AM2/AM3/LGA775/LGA1155/LGA1156/LGA1366) £23.99
1 x Sony Optiarc AD-5260S 24x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £14.98
1 x Arctic Cooling MX-3 Thermal Compound (4g) £7.14
Total : £704.02 (includes shipping : £10.50).
 
expensive ram.

expensive hard drive.

cheap PSU.

Cookeh build has everything you need and then some.

I removed my build as I'm not confident of the Toughpower. Rest was pretty much the same anyway.
 
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Cookeh said:
OCZ PSUs aren't the best by any means. I would try and go XFX (their 550W is cheaper, and can actually put out more power than the OCZ due to more amperage on the 12v rails - or, if it's for an E6600 and 8800GT you can go for the BeQuiet L7.

RAM is overkill and unfortunately will foul with the cooler, which brings me onto another point - the A50 (currently on sale for a meagre £24) will be more than adequate for cooling SB.

That HDD is very expensive for 1TB, and is infact slower than HDDs (such as Seagate Barracuda and Samsung F3 that are both significantly cheaper).

The money saved can then go towards a beefier graphics card, or you can get the HD5850 currently on offer for £107 and save the money :)

Something like this: (N.B. Alternatives for the graphics is a HD6950 (slower - but near enough matches the speed of the GTX480 when flashed to a HD6970, but cooler and quieter) or a GTX560Ti (slower, but cooler and quieter).

YOUR BASKET
1 x Gigabyte GeForce GTX 480 "Special Edition" 1536MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £199.98
1 x Intel Core i5-2500K 3.30GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor - Retail with FREE Shogun 2 Game £167.99
1 x MSI P67A-C45 Intel P67 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard - (Sandybridge) ** B3 REVISION ** £104.99
1 x XFX Pro 550W Core Edition Power Supply £50.99
1 x Zalman Z9 Plus Tower Case with Fan Controller - Black £44.99
1 x Corsair XMS3 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (CMX4GX3M2A1600C9) £38.39
1 x Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 1TB SATA-II 32MB Cache - OEM 1yr Warranty (ST31000528AS) £37.99
1 x Corsair A50 High-Performance CPU Cooler (Socket AM2/AM3/LGA775/LGA1155/LGA1156/LGA1366) £23.99
1 x Sony Optiarc AD-5260S 24x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £14.98
1 x Arctic Cooling MX-3 Thermal Compound (4g) £7.14
Total : £704.02 (includes shipping : £10.50).
Click to expand...

liking that build but as i feel tha Gcard would be overkill and due to what the gentleman below you said would i be better off keeping the 6850 and spending more on a better qualiy PSU ?
 
Well, how old is the Thermaltake?

It's certainly got enough amps!

I'd consider going down the route of HD5850 for £107 atm -faster than the HD6850 and ofc cheaper!

Could drop the g-card down to that and then drop £65 on an XFX 650W Modular PSU I suppose.
 
well is been in my system for about 3 years so not ancient but not young either :p

hmm definite food for thought here if i went for the 5850 tha would free up money maybe for a SSD as i was put off due to not being able to incorporate one into my original plan.



?
 
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The Thermaltake has quad 12V rail (virtual), each at 18W. So it would be adequate, I'm just not sure about the power distribution abd how much it can actually feed to the graphics card. GTX 480 is power hungry.

My HX620 is about the same age, and I would definitely use that for a future build.
 
memphisto said:
well is been in my system for about 3 years so not ancient but not young either :p

hmm definite food for thought here if i went for the 5850 tha would free up money maybe for a SSD as i was put off due to not being able to incorporate one into my original plan.



?
Click to expand...

Yeah, if you feel a 2nd tier graphics card will do the job, a SSD is a nice addition. It is a nice build, but I would not take that OCZ. I would use the toughpower instead on a 5850. That also free you another £40 that you can spend elsewhere, for example on the case. Lots of nice stuff around £80 (lancool PC-K62 would be my pick).
 
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thanks for all yer help mate, i do at this point think it would be ok to get the 5850 alhough not ideal, Im off the upgrading ype that doesnt mind upgrading things such as Gcards, however not of the main system components once bought.

therefore as I dont play massively power hungry games the 5850 should be ok i would think for 12-18 months when i could upgrade it if needs be. Also i only game at 1600 by 1050 at present which i should have mentioned prviously.

also the only reason im taking the powersupply is as i need one for the rig im using att the moment :) on your advice ill keep tthe toughpower for the new rig.
 
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Tazzfalcon said:
What you really need is Windows 7. Vistas gonna kill you otherwise!
Click to expand...

true. You can see how it gets along with Vista, I would hate to have to compromise on the current build, as it's a good pick.

I game on a 5850 + 1055T and haven't felt the need to upgrade yet.

If you do want a PSU, replace the OCZ with the Be Quiet L7 530W. Well worth a fiver.
 
is win7 a significant improvement over vista in regards to install size memory usage etc ? if **** worth it i could drop the SSD and take win 7 instead, with everyones help ive chopped enough money off in order to incorporate that and maybe raid 2 barracudas instead of going for a SSD ?
 
I've hardly ever used Vista. I jumped form XP to Win 7. But win 7 is great.

If I had to choose between Win 7 and a SSD, I'd take Win 7, with reluctance :) Love my SSD but you can live without.

I wouldn't bother with RAID. Maybe a Bluray drive? better case? better PSU?
 
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YOUR BASKET
1 x Intel Core i5-2500K 3.30GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor - Retail with FREE Shogun 2 Game £167.99
1 x Sapphire ATI Radeon HD 5850 Extreme 1024MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card **OcUK Exclusive** £107.99
1 x MSI P67A-C45 Intel P67 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard - (Sandybridge) ** B3 REVISION ** £104.99
1 x Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium 64-Bit - OEM (GFC-00599) £79.99
1 x Samsung SH-B123L/BSBP 12x BluRay ROM DVDRW DL & RAM Lightscribe SATAII Optical Drive - OEM Black £54.98
1 x Zalman Z9 Plus Tower Case with Fan Controller - Black £44.99
1 x BeQuiet Pure Power L7 530W Power Supply £42.98
1 x Corsair XMS3 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (CMX4GX3M2A1600C9) £38.39
1 x Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 500GB SATA-II 16MB Cache - OEM (ST3500418AS) £29.99
1 x Corsair A50 High-Performance CPU Cooler (Socket AM2/AM3/LGA775/LGA1155/LGA1156/LGA1366) £23.99
1 x Arctic Cooling MX-3 Thermal Compound (4g) £7.14
Total : £716.02 (includes shipping : £10.50).



Had to downgrade to a 500GB drive to fit it all in :)
 
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memphisto said:
is win7 a significant improvement over vista in regards to install size memory usage etc ? if **** worth it i could drop the SSD and take win 7 instead, with everyones help ive chopped enough money off in order to incorporate that and maybe raid 2 barracudas instead of going for a SSD ?
Click to expand...

Anecdotally and from personal but unscientific research Windows 7 annihilates Vista. It might not be worth it for you but I'd never go back in a month of Sundays.
 
memphisto said:
.

therefore as I dont play massively power hungry games the 5850 should be ok i would think for 12-18 months when i could upgrade it if needs be. Also i only game at 1600 by 1050 at present which i should have mentioned prviously.
Click to expand...


With regards to the gpu. I have a 5850, and i can max out everything at that res. It is a very good card:)
At that res, i can play the Crysis games, Batman, Battlefield etc, at max settings with around 4xAA, so for the games you mentioned it will be fine, and will probably be ok for games like that for a good while yet.;)

Looking to be a very nice build for £700 there
 
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