New (& 1st) PC build. Advice needed please..

Ineedhelpplease

Ineedhelpplease

Ineedhelpplease

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Hi
I am about to embark on my first pc build and could really do with some advice from your knowledgable selves. I have looked through the guides and reviews but am suffering from information overload and would really appreciate it if you could give me a bit of help here..

My PC will be used for games and digital art using Corel Painter and similar. My aim is to be able to play existing games at high settings and to look forward to forthcoming releases (Battlefield3, Skyrim, etc) knowing I can play them as they are supposed to be.
While I want games to run well at high settings I am not bothered if one card gives 80fps while another gives 85. I don't want to get too bogged down in stats if you see what I mean, just as long as things look good and work smoothly.

My present pc doesnt have much I can salvage, although I am hoping to be able to use the PSU (OCZ Modstream 450W) to save a bit of money and maybe the hard drive.

So what I am looking at at the moment is something like
Asus M4a77t motherboard (Or similar £60ish board I want a full size atx for reasons I am not sure of)
AMD Phenom 2 x4 quad core 955 processor
about 4 gb ram (to be honest I just plucked this from the sky)
gtx 460 or HD6950 (seem good at around £140 and could be doubled up in future?)
Antec 300 case (simple and only £45)

Or maybe the Intel equivalent i5 processor and whatever motherboard comes in at around £60.

I am hoping to build something that I can upgrade in future with new graphics cards or a bit more ram rather than needing new processors and motherboards for a good while. I was set on the AMD from a price and upgrade point of view but some things I have read lead me to believe that I would be better off with intel for a bit more money.

Anyway. I hope this makes sense (my 1st post on anything ever). If anyone can help me set my mind on at least a few components then I think I can work from there although I will probably have many more questions as things progress...
Thanks in advance...:)
 
A few pointers for you.

Antec 100 case is cheaper and similar.

A 790GX/FX or 890GX/FX chipset is needed for symmetrical Crossfire on a AMD motherboard.

A Intel i3 2120 - http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=cp-366-in&groupid=701&catid=6&subcat=1671 - is faster at stock speeds for gaming than a amd 955be - http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/cpu/display/core-i3-2120-2100_5.html#sect0

With the sort of budget you have , getting a crossfire/sli motherboard and a PSU that has enough juice for two graphic cards will be difficult.
 
If you can get your hands on a HD6950 2GB Reference card you will be able to unlock it to a HD6970 which will run the lastest games very nicely.
 
Thank you very much for the advice, Stulid.

I have just looked up the Antec 100 and there doesn't seem to be any difference at all apart from the cheaper price, so thanks! That's now the official case.

So does a motherboard need specific support for SLI? doesn't having 2 or more pci-e slots cover it? I suppose I could stick with one card. There will always be single cards that can handle current games after all.

So Intel is the platform to go for? Do you know which are the more popular intel boards in the £60ish range? Other than finding the matching socket set and looking at the number of slots I am pretty clueless with motherboards.

Thanks again..
 
You will need to state a total budget?

Do you want just a complete base unit? do you want a copy of win7?

Do you need a DVD drive+harddrive?
 
Simbady and Surveyor,- Thanks for the advice.

Stulid,- I think my total budget is going to be in the region of £400 (i will have to add Windows to this cost). It's a bit flexible. My aim is to achive my requirements at a decent price but not necessarily going budget all the way.

My current PC has intel4 3.2ghz, old motherboard, ATI 1800xtx, 2x200gb harddrive (windows xp installed), 450w PSU, DVD drive, cramped battered case.

I had originally intended to keep the psu, hard drive and dvd drive but now, as they are only about £40, I am thinking of just getting a new hard drive and I suppose that means buying windows 7 as well. I can usde the old dvd drive and PSU though although I suppose my choice of graphic card will decide if the psu is still usable.

Thanks again
 
Hi Simbady,

I just checked out the HD6950 2Gb and at £200+ it is a fair bit above what I am looking at paying at the moment. I am aiming more at £130-150 maximum.

Cheers for the advice though,
 
For £400 I keep getting this build.

Your basketProduct Name Qty Price Line Total
Intel Core i3-2120 3.30GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor - Retail £99.98
(£83.32) £99.98
(£83.32)
Sapphire ATI Radeon HD 5830 Extreme 1024MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card **OcUK Exclusive** £76.79
(£63.99) £76.79
(£63.99)
Asus P8H61 Intel H61 Chipset (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard **B3 REVISION** £66.98
(£55.82) £66.98
(£55.82)
BeQuiet Pure Power L7 530W Power Supply £42.98
(£35.82) £42.98
(£35.82)
Corsair XMS3 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (CMX4GX3M2A1600C9) £39.98
(£33.32) £39.98
(£33.32)
Coolermaster Elite 370 Case - Black £32.99
(£27.49) £32.99
(£27.49)
Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 500GB SATA 6Gb/s 16MB Cache - OEM (ST3500413AS) £27.98
(£23.32) £27.98
(£23.32)
Sony Optiarc AD-7260S 24x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £15.59
(£12.99) £15.59
(£12.99)
Sub Total : £336.07
Shipping cost assumes delivery to UK Mainland with:
DPD Next Day Parcel
(This can be changed during checkout) Shipping : £10.50
VAT is being charged at 20.00% VAT : £69.31
Total : £415.88

I dont think you can use the old DVD drive as the motherboard doesnt have the old style IDE connector.

I have also included a new PSU.
 
Wow, thanks very much for that, stulid! I really appreciate your help.

I think I shall stick with the Antec 100 case (there is just something I like about it) but aside from that I think I shall go with your recommendations. I hadn't expected such detailed assistance and it is most welcome!

Is that a standard HD5830? It seems a lot cheaper that the £200 ish versions I have seen on sale before. Would that be a better card than the GTX460 or HD6950?
 
Ineedhelpplease said:
Is that a standard HD5830? It seems a lot cheaper that the £200 ish versions I have seen on sale before. Would that be a better card than the GTX460 or HD6950?
Click to expand...

No. its slower, unless you can find more money for a 6950 1GB or 5870 or 5850

5870 - http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-147-XF&groupid=701&catid=56&subcat=1711

6950 1GB - http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-028-HS&groupid=701&catid=56&subcat=1752

5850 - http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-259-SP&groupid=701&catid=56&subcat=1711

----------------------------------------------------------

these are how the cards compare,

5830 vs 5870 - http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/171?vs=162

5830 vs 5850 - http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/171?vs=164

5870 vs 6950 1GB - http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/294?vs=331 - (I cant select a 5830 vs 6950 1GB with this newer benchmark, but hopefully you get the idea)


But you budget goes out of the window.
 
Thanks. Those comparisons are useful.
I think I might leave the graphics card purchase until the end and see what sort of money i have got available to spend at the time.

Thank you again for your help.
 
You can still use the PC without a graphics card.

The CPU has an inbuilt GPU which H61/67 chipset motherboards can pass through to connections on the back.

That particular motherboard has the old type VGA connector.
http://www.asus.com/Motherboards/Intel_Socket_1155/P8H61/#specifications
pasuBrmfd9yzqGWe_500.jpg


If you can get a cheap H67 chipset motherboard, these usually have more types of connectors and also 4 ram slots if you ever wanted to upgrade by adding more ram.
 
At this price point I would agree with that i3 build, should give better performance day to day and can be overclocked nicely. As stulid said, you don’t need a GPU to use the computer but you will struggle to run almost any game without one, it may be worth buying the PC and saving up a little extra for a GPU if you don’t quite have the money right now but of course it’s up to you.
 
stulid said:
You can still use the PC without a graphics card.

The CPU has an inbuilt GPU which H61/67 chipset motherboards can pass through to connections on the back.

That particular motherboard has the old type VGA connector.
http://www.asus.com/Motherboards/Intel_Socket_1155/P8H61/#specifications
pasuBrmfd9yzqGWe_500.jpg
Click to expand...

That's a serial port on the back of the motherboard not a VGA connector.

I don't see any facility to use the built in graphics on that motherboard.

Seems daft on a H61 chipset board but they don't tend to provide for built in graphics on full size ATX boards.
 
Last edited:
Simbady - I will be buying a graphics card but i will not be buying all of my components in one go. I have around £200 for the in initial batch of stuff, then I will spend another £150 or so the next month and the final bits the month after that. What I meant was that i will probablt leave the gfx card choice to the final stage incase of discount offers and maybe I will end up adding a few quid to the budget at the end.

Cheers
 
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