First build - advice please ;)

Ordinarytom

Ordinarytom

Ordinarytom

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14 Dec 2011
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265
Location
England - Doncaster
Hi guys firstly I know nothing about compatibility and technical jargon that you guys use.. well very limited... which is embarrassing as i've got a b-tech in I.t and also a 2:1 degree in i.t and business hahaha.

Firstly i have the Corsair sp2500 2.1 gaming speakers... so i want a sound-card that can bring out the full potential of these speakers.

My GPU at the moment is - nividia geforce 9600 GT ( i would like to use this in the new build but i doubt its compatible with a completely different card using SLI?)

I have a spare 1gb ram stick though its DDR2 so i doubt im going to be using it in the new build.

Anyway.... I'm looking to spend around 500 - 700 on this new build. I'm wanting to be able to play Skyrim on the best possible graphics so i guess that will give you an idea of the spec I'm looking for.

My pc will mainly be a gaming machine.

I'm still debating whether or not i want a water cooling system and mods to make it look awesome and personalised, so Ive not considered this in the build's cost.

Could you guys give me some hardware choices n costings(with short explanation as to why it would be suited for me). as well as links to modding,cases etc that i can ahve a look at.

p.s i create beats and so on, and music is a big part of my everyday usage of th ecomputer.. so any idea of a certain operating system or software that can customize my pc into a proper media centre.

Thanks, i appreciate:D your time and effort put into answering this post ;)
 
1st of all... no bumping... read the rules if you are uncertain about anything, or ask another member in the new members section or similar.

Next get rig of that old rig!

DDR2 memory is old and don't use it.

Sp2000 speakers are good.

Rig for £700...(you are asking a lot here with all the questions, i will answer just the system specs if thats ok)


YOUR BASKET
1 x Asus GeForce GTX 560Ti DirectCU II 1024MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £169.99
1 x Intel Core i5-2500K 3.30GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor - OEM £161.99
1 x MSI Z68A-G43-G3 Intel Z68 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £94.98
1 x Samsung SpinPoint F3 500GB SATA-II 16MB Cache - OEM (HD502HJ) £85.99
1 x BitFenix Shinobi Gaming Windowed Case - Black £56.99
1 x Corsair Builder Series CX 500W V2 '80 Plus' Power Supply (CMPSU-500CXUKV2) £52.99
1 x Gelid Tranquillo CPU Cooler (Socket 754/939/940/AM2/AM2+/AM3/LGA775/LGA1155/LGA1156/LGA1366) £25.99
1 x Crucial Ballistix Sport 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C10 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (BL2KIT25664BA160A) £22.99
1 x Asus Xonar DG 5.1 PCI Sound Card with built in Headphone Amp - OEM £18.98
1 x Sony Optiarc AD-7280S 24x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £17.99
Total : £725.39 (includes shipping : £13.75).



Sporting the BEST gaming cpu in the world that will overclock to 4ghz on just the multiplier and hit 4.5ghz upping the volts a little, 4gb of some decent ddr3 1600mhz memory, a nice z58 chipset board, an awesome GTX560Ti graphics card and a decent little sound card that will miles better than the crappy onboard version for just over £700.

The cooler is a great addition and many use it to cool the i5-2500k when overclocked.

The case is one of my favourite cases (as i own one) and you can add lots of lighting and case fans to it to make it light up inside. On my shinboi I have resprayed the mesh blue including the tool less plastic pins and the back plates to make it stand out a little.

Cannot complain
 
do you happen to have an old sata hard disk you can reuse? would save you a quite a bit of money as the current prices are a joke.

do you need an os or do you already have windows 7/can get it from elsewhere(student etc)?

but any way I'd say something like


YOUR BASKET
1 x MSI ATI Radeon HD 6970 2048MB Twin Frozr III GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card **Supplied with Dirt 3 & Deus Ex PC Games** £269.99
1 x Intel Core i5-2500K 3.30GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor - OEM £161.99
1 x Gigabyte Z68AP-D3 Intel Z68 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £79.98
1 x Samsung SpinPoint F3 250GB SATA-II 16MB Cache - OEM (HD253GJ) £69.98
1 x Cooler Master Silent Pro Modular 600W '80 Plus Bronze' Power Supply £59.99
1 x Cooler Master HAF 912 Case - Black £49.98
1 x Cooler Master Hyper 212 Evo CPU Cooler (Socket Intel® Socket LGA1366/1156/1155/775/AMD Socket FM1/AM3+/AM3/AM2+/AM2) £26.99
1 x Corsair Vengeance Low Profile 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (CML4GX3M2A1600C9) £23.99
1 x Samsung SH-S222AB/RSMS 22x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black/Silver/Biege) - Retail £19.99
Total : £776.38 (includes shipping : £11.25).



use the code CMDOUBLE will knock £20 off so £756.38 I now its a bit over budget but basically better graphics card(2gb vram will be useful in bf3 plus its much more powerful than the 560ti 1gb anyway), psu and ram then what cinderftw speced and only £30 more

detail on the coolermaster case+psu offer http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?t=18347004
 
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fowler002 said:
do you happen to have an old sata hard disk you can reuse? would save you a quite a bit of money as the current prices are a joke.

do you need an os or do you already have windows 7/can get it from elsewhere(student etc)?

but any way I'd say something like


YOUR BASKET
1 x MSI ATI Radeon HD 6970 2048MB Twin Frozr III GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card **Supplied with Dirt 3 & Deus Ex PC Games** £269.99
1 x Intel Core i5-2500K 3.30GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor - OEM £161.99
1 x Gigabyte Z68AP-D3 Intel Z68 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £79.98
1 x Samsung SpinPoint F3 250GB SATA-II 16MB Cache - OEM (HD253GJ) £69.98
1 x Cooler Master Silent Pro Modular 600W '80 Plus Bronze' Power Supply £59.99
1 x Cooler Master HAF 912 Case - Black £49.98
1 x Cooler Master Hyper 212 Evo CPU Cooler (Socket Intel® Socket LGA1366/1156/1155/775/AMD Socket FM1/AM3+/AM3/AM2+/AM2) £26.99
1 x Corsair Vengeance Low Profile 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (CML4GX3M2A1600C9) £23.99
1 x Samsung SH-S222AB/RSMS 22x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black/Silver/Biege) - Retail £19.99
Total : £776.38 (includes shipping : £11.25).



use the code CMDOUBLE will knock £20 off so £756.38 I now its a bit over budget but basically better graphics card, psu and ram then what cinderftw speced and only £30 more

detail on the coolermaster case+psu offer http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?t=18347004
Click to expand...

Top end budget is £700 dude... the 6970 is too over powered and too overpriced for what he needs. The GTX560Ti will play Skyrim on the fullest of graphics and even BF3 on ultra. No need for that card. Too expensive!

Could save a tenner with the case, but the case is on personal taste. The HAF is a bit ugly in my mind and too many people have it plus the inside isn't even painted and is ugly silver!

The cooler I don't think is as good as the tried, tested and much loved tranquillo and its cheaper than the hyper 212. It may not be fully black, but it does the job better. A lot of overclockers use the tranquillo and it gives some of the best temps around on an overclocked i5-2500k for it's price.

Also fowler, the motherboard you have chosen, unlike mine doesn't support PCI-E3.0 which will become standard within the next year or so when Nvidia/ATI finally release there new cards which makes the board more future proof than yours, equalling saving more money in the future.

The hard disk is too small for most needs these days. 500GB is enough for any gigabyte hogger!
 
CinderzFTW said:
Top end budget is £700 dude... the 6970 is too over powered and too overpriced for what he needs. The GTX560Ti will play Skyrim on the fullest of graphics and even BF3 on ultra. No need for that card. Too expensive!

Could save a tenner with the case, but the case is on personal taste. The HAF is a bit ugly in my mind and too many people have it plus the inside isn't even painted and is ugly silver!

The cooler I don't think is as good as the tried, tested and much loved tranquillo and its cheaper than the hyper 212. It may not be fully black, but it does the job better. A lot of overclockers use the tranquillo and it gives some of the best temps around on an overclocked i5-2500k for it's price.

Also fowler, the motherboard you have chosen, unlike mine doesn't support PCI-E3.0 which will become standard within the next year or so when Nvidia/ATI finally release there new cards which makes the board more future proof than yours, equalling saving more money in the future.

The hard disk is too small for most needs these days. 500GB is enough for any gigabyte hogger!
Click to expand...

well in respect to the pci-e 3.0 gigabyte will be releasing a bios update that will give pci-e 3.0 to the first slot when you pop in an ivybridge cpu.

the top £700 is an issue with your spec as well as its £25 over budget so you may want to sort yours out instead of having a go at mine ;)

I chose the 212 evo as its coolermaster to go with the case and psu, otherwise would have suggested the tranquilo. the evo is ment to be similar performance to the 212+ which it replaces, from the benchmarks I've seen the 212+ and tranquilo perform similarly so you can't clain that the trquilo is better(the other cooler is the corsair a50 which also costs about the same and performs about the same.

the graphics card maybe overpowered for skyrim but it'll be more future proof than the 1gb 560ti, you may want to look again at the bench marks for bf3 with 1gb vs 2gb 560ti ;) also it comes with 2 games which if the op doesn't want he can sell the codes and get some money back.

hard disk prices currently are over the top, I'm sure the op can hold out for a few months with 320gb till the prices fall and get another bigger drive. going with the 500gb version will put the spec even over budget.

well if you want 500gb then http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=HD-252-SE&groupid=701&catid=14&subcat=940 not samsung tho and I've not had personal experience with seagate.

the case is a personal matter, the op can choose another coolermaster case to still get the £20 off the psu if he doesn't like the 912.
 
Most games use 2 cores
Get a SSD until prices for HDD return to sensible
Easy upgrade by adding 4gb and spu cooler (Tranquilo)
A great graphics card and you can play or sell the bundled games
MB sound is fine, most people can't tell the difference

This includes an OS which I assume you dont have, if you do have an OS consider a
gtx 570

YOUR BASKET
1 x Asus ATI Radeon HD 6950 DirectCU II 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card **Supplied with Battlefield 3 & Deus Ex PC Games** £239.99
1 x Intel Core i3-2120 3.30GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor - Retail £101.99
1 x Crucial RealSSD M4 64GB 2.5" SATA 6Gb/s Solid State Hard Drive (CT064M4SSD2) £86.99
1 x Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 64-Bit - OEM (GFC-02050) £79.99
1 x Gigabyte Z68AP-D3 Intel Z68 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £79.98
1 x BitFenix Shinobi Gaming Case - Black £48.98
1 x BeQuiet Pure Power L7 530W '80 Plus' Power Supply £39.98
1 x Crucial Ballistix Sport 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C10 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (BL2KIT25664BA160A) £22.99
1 x Sony Optiarc AD-7280S 24x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £17.99
Total : £732.98 (includes shipping : £11.75).

 
jpod said:
Most games use 2 cores
Get a SSD until prices for HDD return to sensible
Easy upgrade by adding 4gb and spu cooler (Tranquilo)
A great graphics card and you can play or sell the bundled games
MB sound is fine, most people can't tell the difference

This includes an OS which I assume you dont have, if you do have an OS consider a
gtx 570

YOUR BASKET
1 x Asus ATI Radeon HD 6950 DirectCU II 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card **Supplied with Battlefield 3 & Deus Ex PC Games** £239.99
1 x Intel Core i3-2120 3.30GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor - Retail £101.99
1 x Crucial RealSSD M4 64GB 2.5" SATA 6Gb/s Solid State Hard Drive (CT064M4SSD2) £86.99
1 x Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 64-Bit - OEM (GFC-02050) £79.99
1 x Gigabyte Z68AP-D3 Intel Z68 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £79.98
1 x BitFenix Shinobi Gaming Case - Black £48.98
1 x BeQuiet Pure Power L7 530W '80 Plus' Power Supply £39.98
1 x Crucial Ballistix Sport 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C10 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (BL2KIT25664BA160A) £22.99
1 x Sony Optiarc AD-7280S 24x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £17.99
Total : £732.98 (includes shipping : £11.75).

Click to expand...

what is your fascination with completely ruining a decent spec and using a i2120 when the i2500k can fit in the budget? this is not the first one you've done it to if I recall correctly. to make matters worse here the spec is still coming in £30 or so over budget.
 
Last edited:
fowler002 said:
what is your fascination with completely ruining a decent spec and using a i2120 when the i2500k can fit in the budget? this is not the first one you've done it to if I recall correctly. to make matters worse here the spec is still coming in £30 or so over budget.
Click to expand...

You had better sit down. Your i5 rig didn't fit in the budget of £700 and it won't work without an OS.

Number 1
The Op wants to play games and very shortly a load of people are going to post saying how good their i3 gaming machines are at playing BF3.

Number 2
Your spec was even more over budget! You spent all the budget on your i5 and since it doesn't includes an OS your rig won't will boot up Christmas Day. That's 2 points really.

Number 3
Mine includes a fab gfx card (games remember) and £40 quids work of games to play or hawk on ebay, one of which I am sure the OP will play on their gaming rig, that costs £30 so all in all my rig costs £700 unlike your offering at £776 + £80 for Windows 7 = £856.

Fowler I accept your apology :p

If the OP has a sata HDD they can omit the SDD and get an i5. Of they can ebay their current rig for funds. It is of course a superb CPU but not essential if the budget max is £700.

PS
OrdinaryTom
Congratulations on getting a 2:1, that is a fantastic result and must have taken a great deal of hard work. I hope your fiends and family appreciate how much effort that takes, respect.
 
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YOUR BASKET
1 x Intel Core i5-2500K 3.30GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor - Retail £179.99
1 x Asus P8Z68-V GEN3 Intel Z68 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £144.98
1 x OcUK ATI Radeon HD 6850 1024MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £99.95
1 x Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 64-Bit - OEM (GFC-02050) £79.99
1 x Samsung SpinPoint F3 250GB SATA-II 16MB Cache - OEM (HD253GJ) £69.98
1 x Cooler Master GX 550W '80 Plus' Power Supply £58.99
1 x Cooler Master HAF 912 Case - Black £49.98
1 x Corsair XMS3 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (CMX4GX3M2A1600C9) £26.99
1 x Samsung SH-S222AB/BEBE 22x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £18.98
Total : £742.44 (includes shipping : £10.50).



Then with that code should bring it just in budget.

A 6850 isn't the best card on the market, but it will do you nicely.

Edit: Have you got a Drive in the old rig which is sata? That means I can spend that money on a Soundcard.

YOUR BASKET
1 x Intel Core i5-2500K 3.30GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor - Retail £179.99
1 x Asus P8Z68-V GEN3 Intel Z68 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £144.98
1 x OcUK ATI Radeon HD 6850 1024MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £99.95
1 x Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 64-Bit - OEM (GFC-02050) £79.99
1 x Samsung SpinPoint F3 250GB SATA-II 16MB Cache - OEM (HD253GJ) £69.98
1 x Cooler Master GX 550W '80 Plus' Power Supply £58.99
1 x Cooler Master HAF 912 Case - Black £49.98
1 x Corsair XMS3 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (CMX4GX3M2A1600C9) £26.99
1 x Asus Xonar DG 5.1 PCI Sound Card with built in Headphone Amp - OEM £18.98
Total : £742.44 (includes shipping : £10.50).

 
Last edited:
Hyburnate said:
YOUR BASKET
1 x Intel Core i5-2500K 3.30GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor - Retail £179.99
1 x Asus P8Z68-V GEN3 Intel Z68 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £144.98
1 x OcUK ATI Radeon HD 6850 1024MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £99.95
1 x Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 64-Bit - OEM (GFC-02050) £79.99
1 x Samsung SpinPoint F3 250GB SATA-II 16MB Cache - OEM (HD253GJ) £69.98
1 x Cooler Master GX 550W '80 Plus' Power Supply £58.99
1 x Cooler Master HAF 912 Case - Black £49.98
1 x Corsair XMS3 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (CMX4GX3M2A1600C9) £26.99
1 x Samsung SH-S222AB/BEBE 22x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £18.98
Total : £742.44 (includes shipping : £10.50).



Then with that code should bring it just in budget.

A 6850 isn't the best card on the market, but it will do you nicely.

Edit: Have you got a Drive in the old rig which is sata? That means I can spend that money on a Soundcard.

YOUR BASKET
1 x Intel Core i5-2500K 3.30GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor - Retail £179.99
1 x Asus P8Z68-V GEN3 Intel Z68 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £144.98
1 x OcUK ATI Radeon HD 6850 1024MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £99.95
1 x Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 64-Bit - OEM (GFC-02050) £79.99
1 x Samsung SpinPoint F3 250GB SATA-II 16MB Cache - OEM (HD253GJ) £69.98
1 x Cooler Master GX 550W '80 Plus' Power Supply £58.99
1 x Cooler Master HAF 912 Case - Black £49.98
1 x Corsair XMS3 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (CMX4GX3M2A1600C9) £26.99
1 x Asus Xonar DG 5.1 PCI Sound Card with built in Headphone Amp - OEM £18.98
Total : £742.44 (includes shipping : £10.50).

Click to expand...

as far as I can tell from the thread on the offer it's only the 500w and 600w silent pro models that are included not all of the cm psu range.

As for the rest of the specs would say drop the motherboard down to the gigabyte z68ap-d3(or if you really must have a board that says g3/gen3 then the msi z68a-gd43 g3) and spend the saving on a better graphics card.


and jpod your points still don't get over the fact your spec is over budget even with the i2120 ;)

plus I've deliberately gone a little overboard with the graphics card, if you drop that down to say the ocuk 560ti 2gb(£200) or the his 6950 icq x turbo(£200) or even the msi 6870 (£143) you can add the os. also you missed the fact that the spec total is actually £756 not £776 ;)

lastly the op hasn't replied to answer if they need/don't need the os, I went along the assumption they don't but if they do it's easy enough to edit the spec to fit it in.
 
First of all **thank you** all for your time and effort you have all been extremely helpful. Time to answer your questions and hopefully help you define your recommended build.

I have a Barracuda 7200.9 SATA 160-GB Hard Drive - (this took me a while to realise as i had no clue what made it SATA).i don't need more space as i have a Seagate Expansion 3TB External Hard Drive,at most there will be 2 games on my pc at a time. i transfer the downloaded media and music on my 3tb's.

I do need an operating system so keep this in the build. But from experience using windows 7,vista and xp... i feel xp is by far less irritating and consuming.(state your opinions as to why i should opt for w7.)

So far im agreeing with -

1 x MSI Z68A-G43-G3 Intel Z68 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £94.98

I want a case with a side window and blue l.e.d fans. im going for the whole blue look.so keep that in mind (such as the mobo is blue)

Ram - Kingston HyperX Genesis 6GB (3x2GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Triple Channel (KHX1600C9D3K3/6GX) – 29.99 (again blue look, plus more ram for a tiny bit extra)

1 x Samsung SH-S222AB/BEBE 22x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £18.98

JPod made an interesting post - his graphics card is high end ( which i prefer) but he goes for the i3 instead of i5. will i notice a better performance playing bf3 with his choices, or would i have a better experience with the i5 and the graphics card Cinderz posted? its not like i need a great cpu if im only running 2 things at a time max.

thanx
 
Sorry about this, Ive just gone through the process of buying windows 7 as a student even though i graduated last month... I dont see any security where they can prevent you from lieing?.
 
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