Advice for two builds.

[NotAWiseGuy]

New member here, been slowly upgrading my gaming rig but now have a bit of a problem to solve. My girlfriend's gaming laptop has broken so instead of buying her a cheap alternative, I've decided to upgrade my PC further and use the spares to build her a new PC.

My current build is this:

Case.......Antec 900
CPU........ Intel Quad Q6600 3GHz (oc)
MoBo...... MSI P7N Diamond
GPU........ HIM HD7950 2GB
RAM....... 4x 1GB 1333Mhz
PSU........ Corsair TX 550W
HDD....... 500GB
Alt HD..... 750GB External
SSD....... OCZ 120GB Agility 3

My upgraded build will be:

Case...... Antec 900
CPU........ i5 3570K (ivy) 3.4GHz (of course I will OC this )
MoBo...... Gigabyte Ga-Z77M-D3H
GPU........ HIM HD7950 2GB
RAM....... 2x 4GB 1600Mhz (not sure which type to get, everyone tells me ripjaws)
PSU........ Corsair TX 550W
HDD....... 500GB
Alt HD..... 750GB External
SSD....... OCZ 120GB Agility 3

This will free up my old MoBo, CPU, GPU and RAM which will be going into her new (spares) build. She has a monitor / accessories.

I figure she'll only need a case, fan, PSU and hard drive (she has an old one but it is really old, so i'm not sure how much use it'll be) - perhaps a CD / DVD drive (but I might give her mine as I don't use it)

Here are my questions:

1: Is my new build solid / will everything play nice (was a little worried about PSU)?
2: Is there anything that should be upgraded (same / very similar price?) - motherboards confuse me

3: What would you suggest I buy to complete her build - this is case, psu, hard drive, fan, maybe dvd drive. (I'm thinking £70 - £100, but as cheap as possible, I'm a nice guy, right?)

Her build should be...?

Case.......[Insert cheap & cheerful case here]
CPU........ Intel Quad Q6600 3GHz (oc)
MoBo...... MSI P7N Diamond
GPU........ 2x Nvidia 9600gt (SLi)
RAM....... 4x 1GB 1333Mhz
PSU........ [Insert PSU here, included with case maybe?]
HDD....... [Insert cheap HD here]
FAN........[Insert cheap CPU cooler here]

Anyway, any help would be greatly appreciated and I do hope I haven't missed anything out. Hopefully once I learn a bit more I'll be able to help out here too.

Thanks!

#Quick Edit: My budget is £350, i'll upgrade more if it makes sense but will spend no more than £400.

 

[Doomedspeed]

For her:


YOUR BASKET
1 x Corsair Builder Series CX 500W V2 '80 Plus' Power Supply (CMPSU-500CXUKV2) £49.99
1 x Hitachi Deskstar 7K1000.D 500GB SATA 6GB/s 16MB Cache - OEM (0F13178) £49.99
1 x BitFenix Merc Alpha Gaming Case - Black £27.98
1 x Xigmatek Loki SD963 CPU Cooler (Socket LGA775/1155/1156/1366/AM2/AM2+/AM3/FM1) £14.99
Total : £155.26 (includes shipping : £10.25).



For you:


YOUR BASKET
1 x Intel Core i5-3570K 3.40GHz (Ivybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor (77W) - Retail £179.99
1 x Gigabyte Z77-D3H Intel Z77 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £79.99
1 x Kingston HyperX Genesis Grey 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (KHX1600C9D3X2K2/8GX) £41.99
1 x Cooler Master Hyper 612S CPU Cooler (Socket LGA1366/1156/1155/775/AM3/AM2+/AM2) £32.99
Total : £346.36 (includes shipping : £9.50).

 

[Raventu]

Doomedspeed's is good.

I would make a slight change to the RAM (This stuff is on offer and just as reliable/good imo):

Can't use the tool as I'm at work, my apologies.

 

[NotAWiseGuy]

Thanks for the quick reply!

My total budget is £350 - £400, so I wouldn't be able to afford all that was posted there.
I have a couple of questions also.

Will her system really require a £50 PSU?
Additionally, I already have a fan (Arctic Freezer 7 Pro) is this good enough for my system or should I keep it with the Q6600 and get a better one for my build?

When choosing hardware could you explain a little about the selections? (why get one type or RAM / MoBo over another)

I realise there is a good chance I'll make you cringe here but what about using something like this for the lady (not necessarily this product):

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CA-017-OP&groupid=2362&catid=505&subcat=

As for my first two questions, the first in particular; any thoughts?

1: Is my new build solid / will everything play nice (was a little worried about PSU)?

 

[Doomedspeed]

Your build will play nice, the PSU you have will cope fine and is a good make.

The Freezer 7 pro will work but i think you should get a better one, as you want to OC.

The reason a £50 PSU was specced was due to the SLI setup. It would need a decent PSU to power both of them, not a lot of wattage but a stable 12V rail. Many cheap PSU don't accommodate that.

Case + PSU combo's normally come with low quality PSU. I wouldn't recommend running a Graphics card on one. For a PC without high graphical demands it should be okay. There have been horror stories of them blowing and taking other components with them, this would only happen under a lot of stress, apparently.

 

[tamzzy]

dont get the z77m-d3h, its an matx board with cut down features. if you want an matx board get the z77mx-3h. if not then the z77-d3h (regular size atx).
confusing, i know ;p

 

[NotAWiseGuy]

@ Doomedspeed:

Alright, I'll look to get a better fan for mine. It is not a lot of money considering the total cost of the build I suppose.

As for the case with PSU - I see, and I figured it would perhaps be a case of "you get what you paid for".

dont get the z77m-d3h, its an matx board with cut down features. if you want an matx board get the z77mx-3h. if not then the z77-d3h (regular size atx).
confusing, i know ;p

You may as well have just said "pancake", at least then your comment would have been open for interpretation whilst I looked at you with a blank face

Seriously though, motherboards are confusing to me. I understand the usage of, if not the science behind, the other parts of a PC which is enough most of the time. Could you explain perhaps what features I should be looking to have on a motherboard and why? Or if it is a lot of information, point me in the right direction to read up on it.

Thanks

 

[NotAWiseGuy]

Another quick question whilst I remember:

How do I work out what size of case I need to fit these? Will midi cases be fine or does it depend on the case?

- MSI P7N Platinum (atx)
- 2x NVIDIA 9600GT SLi
- Arctic Freezer 7 pro

 

[tamzzy]

@ Doomedspeed:

You may as well have just said "pancake", at least then your comment would have been open for interpretation whilst I looked at you with a blank face

Seriously though, motherboards are confusing to me. I understand the usage of, if not the science behind, the other parts of a PC which is enough most of the time. Could you explain perhaps what features I should be looking to have on a motherboard and why? Or if it is a lot of information, point me in the right direction to read up on it.

Thanks

basically, just follow doomedspeed's spec ;p