Point me in the right direction.....

RabbitHutch

RabbitHutch

RabbitHutch

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24 Sep 2011
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58
Afternoon all,

I'm going to get my brother several PC components for christmas, so he can build his own rig.

Purely by chance I managed to get a fantastic deal on some RAM yesterday, and ended up with 8gb (2x4GB) of this;

http://www.kingston.com/anz/hyperx/products/t1_ddr3.asp

It's the dual channel one, not the triple channel. The only concern I have about it is that I believe it has fairly large fins, and don't want to have problems fitting everything together.

I'm fairly hopeless when it comes to these things, so don't want to make a mess of it or buy something which is incompatible.

At the moment I'm thinking about getting him the i5 2500k.

He just uses the PC for general bits and bobs. Perhaps sometimes he may dabble in some basic image editing. He'll probably end up playing Skyrim on this when it's out, but I certainly can't afford to build it to run on the very highest settings. Other than that it will be a general use PC.

Ideally I'd like a motherboard under £100, and a GPU under £100. He will not overclock this PC whatsoever.

Can anyone suggest a CPU, GPU, Mobo, PSU and anything else which they think may be required?

Many thanks,

John.

Edit: In regards to a hard drive, I'll most likely pull something off another PC and stick it in there until prices return back to sane levels. Alternatively I might just try and find the cheapest 160gb available and run the important stuff off that, then he can use an external drive for work etc.
 
whats your total budget for all the parts you need.

the memory should be fine, will just need to use specific slots on the motherboard to make sure it doesn't catch on the cooler.

is the hard drive sata connection ?

as its a new build take it he will also need an operating system, case, monitor, keyboard & mouse ?
 
If you can pull a HDD of another pc for the time being ( as they've shot up in price too! D: ), and with the RAM you've got - I'd go for something around this base:

speccc.jpg


- The 750w is cheaper than the 650w, and has headroom for future upgrades and possible use.
- All there is latest tech, and i've heard good things about that board!
- I've left you to decide possible case, as well as Keyboard, Mouse, Monitor, Speakers, Internal Cards, ....
 
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Now that we're getting closer to christmas I'm going to give this a bit of a bump! I can't help but think that £119.99 for a motherboard is more than I need spend, given that he won't ever be overclocking it. I'm also (and most likely wrongly) a little hesitant to buy an AMD GPU, mostly because when I was last 'in the game' AMD were perhaps a little unreliable/non-compatible with numerous things as opposed to nVidia who are a little easier to get on with?

This opinion may be completely outdated, I'd welcome it if someone were to correct me on this.

This is what I have so far. Can someone give me some input? Ignore the RAM (I already have that) and HDD (will pull one from another PC);

The RAM is Kingston HyperX T1 - Dual channel, 2x4GB.

Capture.png


I don't care what the case looks like. It can be ugly as sin as long as it's fairly cool and quiet. Is the Shinobi a good option? Is there something cheaper which would do just as well? I assume everything will most likely fit?

As for the GPU, I'd rather not spend a lot more than £100. If it's really worth jumping up to the 560 for £40 more then I suppose I could. The most graphically intensive game I'd like this to be able to handle is Skyrim at 1080p, preferably on high settings at least.

Feedback is welcome. Bear in mind that I'm not the most knowledgable person when it comes to this kind of thing.
 
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fowler002 said:
skyrim on high you'll be wanting at least the 560ti http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-247-AS&groupid=701&catid=1914&subcat=
Click to expand...

Is that by my definition of high or the Overclockers forums definition of high?

My definition is settings on 'high' (not ultra), at 1080p, at about a relatively constant FPS of 35 or so.

Overclockers forums definition seems to be settings on 'ultra' on a 6000x4700 monitor at 120fps.

I'd be happy with the first. Could the 550ti not hack that?
 
PapaLazaru said:
Save some money on the case as there is no overclocking.

This - http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CA-002-XG&groupid=701&catid=7&subcat=

Or even the new version - http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CA-012-XG&groupid=701&catid=7&subcat=
Click to expand...

Ooh, they look nice and practical. I could spend the remainder of the money on either;

a) A couple of quieter fans
b) some foam feet etc for vibration reduction
c) put it towards a better GPU.

Thanks.
 
My 6850 is coping with Skyrim just about fine on max. Honestly I wouldn't go lower then that for Skyrim. And these days AMD is just as good as Nvidia, just ignore the fanboys and get what's best for cash ;). Here's an idea what FPS you'll get with the 6850: http://media.bestofmicro.com/7/J/315199/original/FXAA 1920.png

Link to full review here: http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/skyrim-performance-benchmark,review-32318.html

Basing it around on Ryan's spec...

Change the board to this Gigabyte Z68AP-D3 for £84.98 inc VAT : http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MB-364-GI&groupid=701&catid=5&subcat=1990

OCZ ZS Series 550W £54.98 inc VAT (The 750w jumped up in price): http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CA-055-OC&groupid=701&catid=123&subcat=

The 6850 is now £119.99 inc VAT. This is for MSI, HIS and Sapphire but the MSI is faster clocked compared to the other two.

The 2500K is now £167.99 inc VAT, so it dropped in price by £2. In total this comes to £439.94 inc VAT and delivery. About £40 saved compared to Ryan's original spec.

As for the case, how about the BitFenix Merc Beta?: http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CA-011-BX&groupid=701&catid=7&subcat=
 
RabbitHutch said:
Is that by my definition of high or the Overclockers forums definition of high?

My definition is settings on 'high' (not ultra), at 1080p, at about a relatively constant FPS.

Overclockers forums definition seems to be settings on 'ultra' on a 6000x4700 monitor at 120fps.

I'd be happy with the first. Could the 550ti not hack that?
Click to expand...

well going by your account of the ocuk forum definition of high you'll be wanting quad sli/xfire and even then it'll struggle.

1080p high(not ultra) the 550ti will struggle.
 
This is my take on it. If you want to save some money get a cheaper CPU / mobo and a better GPU. He WILL get a better gaming experience than using a good CPU and crap GPU.

I know you were unsure of AMD but there are no problems with them at all. It has also been proven that with BF3, for instance, the GPU is king.

get a 955, cheapish mobo and a 560ti. Or even stick with Intel and get an i3.

just a thought.
 
PapaLazaru said:
SB with a much worse GPU will be worse for gaming than that. :p
Click to expand...
the i3 2120 will be better than the equivalently priced phenom, especially if the OP wont be overclocking, and gives the possibility of upgrading. there isnt really any upgrade for the phenom X4 because the X6 is barely an improvement and the bulldozer is worse gaming wise

in answer to your question, the 550Ti will really struggle. my GTX 460 is ~10% faster than the 550Ti and i doubt it could run skyrim at high at 1080p

the main questions i have now are: are the old hard drives and DVD drives SATA? if they are you can recycle them, if they arent then you will need new ones
what make/model PSU do you have
do you need anything other than the case and what goes inside it (mouse, keyboard, OS, monitor, etc)

and, most importantly, whats your budget for the entire build?
 
Reaper 392 said:
the i3 2120 will be better than the equivalently priced phenom, especially if the OP wont be overclocking, and gives the possibility of upgrading. there isnt really any upgrade for the phenom X4 because the X6 is barely an improvement and the bulldozer is worse gaming wise
Click to expand...

Won't disagree with that. I did post that an i3 is a suitable alternative to free up cash for the GPU. I think we can both agree that the GPU needs to be better than the original spec. :)
 
In terms of what he will be doing with it;

- General internet browsing and use
- Little bit of photoshopping
- Little bit of video editing
- Little bit of gaming, Skyrim for the meantime. Perhaps he will pick up a few more titles but he's not a serious gamer. I think the last game he spent any serious time on was Oblivion. Chances are he'd spend a lot of time on Skyrim but wouldn't even bother with anything like BF3 etc.

It has to be quiet, functional and very reliable. I think I'd be hesitant to go AMD processor-wise. I know he likes Intel chips and I don't particularly see a good reason not to get him one.

I'm not sure that he'd ever use what a 2500k has to offer, but I would like to give him sufficient headroom should he ever need that power. He is a university student and will be for perhaps 5 years or so. This rig has to get him through that. He's a heavy PC user.

Please note however this does not mean that I'm building him a completely futureproof PC - clearly I don't have that budget. However, I would like something with some longetivity.

Things I don't need;

- Peripherals
- OS
- Monitor

How about the 2500k and a 6870. Is that a reasonable choice?

Edit: I've just been reading the Skyrim benchmarks on Tom's Reviews. http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/skyrim-performance-benchmark,3074-5.html

Surely, based on the page I have linked to and the one after then the 6870 is more than sufficient!? Even the 6850!?
 
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