Wisely spent monies?

MeAnBoY

MeAnBoY

MeAnBoY

Soldato
Joined
20 Oct 2002
Posts
3,501
Location
Hampshire
Hey guys, after a long time of using laptops I've decided to finally get myself another desktop and just use my lappy purely for work, so I'm here to pick your minds :)

So what do I need to do with my pc? Well what I'm looking at is just the usual crack and some gaming too. To be fair I don't really play any high end games as they are normally shooters/action games which my PS3 does just fine. However what I do love is playing RPG's/strategy games which obviously consoles aren't as good at. Saying that though it would be nice to have 'too much' power for what I need rather than be left wanting.

On to the spec list:


Intel Core i5-2500K 3.30GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor with FREE Operation Flashpoint Red River Game Intel Core i5-2500K 3.30GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor with FREE Operation Flashpoint Red River Game £155.99
(£129.99) £155.99
(£129.99)
Sapphire ATI Radeon HD 5850 Extreme 1024MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card **OcUK Exclusive** Sapphire ATI Radeon HD 5850 Extreme 1024MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card **OcUK Exclusive** £124.99
(£104.16) £124.99
(£104.16)
MSI P67A-C45 Intel P67 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard - (Sandybridge) ** B3 REVISION ** MSI P67A-C45 Intel P67 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard - (Sandybridge) ** B3 REVISION ** £99.98
(£83.32) £99.98
(£83.32)
Coolermaster Elite 430 Windowed Case - Black (with 500w Elite Power PSU) Coolermaster Elite 430 Windowed Case - Black (with 500w Elite Power PSU) £64.99
(£54.16) £64.99
(£54.16)
Western Digital Caviar Black 500GB SATA 6Gb/s 32MB Cache - OEM (WD5002AALX) Western Digital Caviar Black 500GB SATA 6Gb/s 32MB Cache - OEM (WD5002AALX) £45.98
(£38.32) £45.98
(£38.32)
Corsair XMS3 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (CMX4GX3M2A1600C9) Corsair XMS3 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (CMX4GX3M2A1600C9) £35.99
(£29.99) £35.99
(£29.99)
OcUK 24x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM OcUK 24x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £17.99
(£14.99) £17.99
(£14.99)
OcUK Value 150Mbps Wireless-N PCI-Express Adapter OcUK Value 150Mbps Wireless-N PCI-Express Adapter £15.98
(£13.32) £15.98
(£13.32)

Total is £575 including DPD next day.

Few questions I've got;

  • Do I need to get a CPU cooler or is it included? - If not which is decent?
  • I'm pretty sure people have mentioned the mobo I've chosen can be used to overclock, anyone confirm?
  • Will I have the option to SLI/Crossfire in future?
  • Do I need seperate wireless adapter as per spec or does the mobo have one built in?
  • Mobo has built in soundcard right?

Pretty much all I can think of at the moment, will add if I can think of anything before I purchase...aaaand finally can anyone think of areas where I can save money? Was orignally looking at £500 budget but I'm ok with spending this extra if it will keep me good for a few years.


Over to you fellas.
 
Last edited:
stulid said:
Thats good, there is a SONY DVD re-writer for £2 less.

This HDD is as fast - http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=HD-247-SE&groupid=701&catid=14&subcat=940

• Cooler included.
• It can overclock, the cpu can too.
• NO, you need the GD53 at £109 for that, a better PSU too.
• Need a card
• Yes.
Click to expand...

Ta for the response pal. Is the cooler that's included nice and quiet? What's a GD53 and why is it £109? :D I'm fairly sure I'll stay to single cards so maybe I'll just stick to the list for the time being.

edit: Just seen you updated with a link to the GD53 - nicely done
 
Nicely done I will certainly be pushing the cpu to at least 4ghz, hopefully it still runs nice and cool (Couldn't stand old desktop computers that were loud).
 
the i5 is plenty fast at stock. The good thing is that overclocking is easy, and adding a 3rd party cooler is a bit of a picnic nowadays. So it's always a cheap option for the future (plenty of good coolers under £30 to go past 4.4GHz safely). I wouldn't go too far on the stock cooler, but I'd try to keep a max temp around 65-70C (should be around 4.1, 4.3GHz). The limit is around 80C, so you can push it a bit more if you are brave.
 
olivier renault said:
the i5 is plenty fast at stock. The good thing is that overclocking is easy, and adding a 3rd party cooler is a bit of a picnic nowadays. So it's always a cheap option for the future (plenty of good coolers under £30 to go past 4.4GHz safely). I wouldn't go too far on the stock cooler, but I'd try to keep a max temp around 65-70C (should be around 4.1, 4.3GHz). The limit is around 80C, so you can push it a bit more if you are brave.
Click to expand...

Cheers for the info, like I was saying I'm likely to run at 4ghz for stability on stock cooler. The last desktop CPU I had was an AMD 1.3ghz Thunderbird! At the time a lot of people were worried about cracking cores etc because they didn't have the large metal shim on that most seem to nowadays.

Does the stock cooler with the cpu come with any thermal paste?
 
The stock cooler will come with pre-applied paste so you litterally just have to fit the cooler to the mobo.

However, if you want to overclock and are worried about noise I suggest you take a look at aftermarket coolers. They'll keep your temp and noise down much better :D
 
SpoonedurI said:
The stock cooler will come with pre-applied paste so you litterally just have to fit the cooler to the mobo.

However, if you want to overclock and are worried about noise I suggest you take a look at aftermarket coolers. They'll keep your temp and noise down much better :D
Click to expand...

Good stuff. Thanks for the advice, I reckon I'll stick just with the stock setup and push the speed up to a sensible amount until I get bored or need more performance :)
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom