Hello everyone
Quite a long thread, looking more for advice on parts rather than just a straight up spec. Posted it on another forum as well, in case it looks familiar, just generally looking for any advice as possible.
My current laptop is frankly rubbish (power socket loose, so only charges in one position, battery life sub 5 minutes, sound only coming out of one channel and **** quality anyway, left mouse button lost its click, DVD drive not reading or writing, internal fans very loud, sigh)so I was originally planning on replacing it around April when most of the new graphics cards and Ivy Bridge should be out with a nice desktop that should hopefully last me about 5 years. However, my laptop isn’t sticking to the script and has added constant freezing to its other quirks so I was considering perhaps working out most of a new build now in case it totally gives up any time soon, as I do need something for work.
The last computer I built was for my dad in 2006, but I’ve been doing bit of lurking around a few forums and came up with these parts. However, I have absolutely no preference or loyalty and just kind of want anyone’s opinion on whether I’ve chosen reasonably, and alternative choices if not. Thanks!
Case:
Fractal Design R3 – Was looking for my computer to be as silent as possible as I was considering having it in the sitting room and linking it up with my TV, so came up with this after generally good reviews. Did have a few questions about it though – is it noticeably quieter than say, the Bitfenix Shinobi, which is a fair bit cheaper, and also supposed to be quite quiet? Has there been any word on an R4, considering the R3 has been out for a while? Also, has there been any new information on when the Corsair 550D or the Bitfenix Ghost are coming out? Finally, I only have carpets, is this reasonable to put a case on? The last computer I built didn’t have any intakes at the bottom but I see loads of cases do these days. If anyone does put it on their desk, is the R3 still generally inaudible?
PSU:
Corsair HX650 - Would like it to be modular just for neatness, so thought about this one. Honestly though, I don’t really know much about PSUs at all, and was wondering if 650W was perhaps slight overkill. Probably won’t ever go for SLI or Crossfire really, just kind of thought a higher wattage would run quieter than one which just about made my requirements. I realize the fact I’m waiting before choosing a graphics card means this is a bit harder to help me with, but it’s almost certainly going to be a single card if that helps.
CPU:
i5 2500k - unless someone can convince me it really is worth waiting for Ivy Bridge? Ideally I will just wait for Ivy Bridge but if my laptop does die sooner, what do you think the resale value on a 2500k would be? Would I pretty much need to go for the retail over the OEM version? Is it even worth upgrading it if I do buy SB?
Motherboard:
No idea really. Saw there were Z77 ones out soon – what’s the difference between them and the Z68s? When I first started looking at parts a few months ago there were a few motherboards that said Gen3 ready or whatever, but am I right in saying that now lots of motherboards that were not previously Ivy Bridge compatible now are with a BIOS update? If so, what does the Gen3 part actually mean? And how important will PCI 3.0 be? Was very slightly leaning towards the Gigabyte GA-Z68XP-UD3P, but that’s just because it looks nice. Not that bothered about that however.
CPU cooler:
Gelid Tranquillo v2 – just heard generally good things about it really. Heard that it’s quieter than most – is it still after overclocking the i5 to say, 4.5GHz? Also, has anyone had any experience in using one in a Fractal R3? I can imagine that it might be slightly harder to cool in a case more aimed towards silence, and I was wondering whether the increased speed of the fan would mean that there would be no point in buying a silent case, if that makes sense. Also, is there any loss of lifespan to the processor when overclocking? I would like this computer to last about 5 years, with perhaps an upgrade to the GPU at most, so if there is a loss in lifespan I could just not overclock and go with a cheaper cooler or perhaps even the stock one.
Storage:
Crucial M4 128 GB–just thought I’d hold off getting a mechanical drive till the prices came down properly. Any alternatives to this drive? Seems to get a lot of good reviews but again, not sure if anything better has come out recently.
Memory:
Crucial Ballistix 2x4 GB 1600MHz – seems quite small and cheap. Not sure what else I should be looking for in RAM? Are big heatsinks really necessary? Would they interfere with the Tranquillo?
Optical Drive:
Cheapest DVD writer available at the time probably. Eventually might get a Blu-Ray reader – have these been going down noticeably in price? Is it worth me waiting a few months?
Case fans:
I did skim over that article on bit-tech about cooling the Fractal R3 a couple of weeks ago – I was just wondering if anyone else who has one has tried adding a few extra fans and whether the opening of the vents made a noticeable difference in noise?
Sound Card:
Don't really know if it would be worth getting like a 20 quid Xonar DG. There's no way any motherboard sound could sound worse through my speakers than my current laptop but I'm not sure whether it would be worth stepping up to a cheap sound card.
GPU:
Probably just going to wait till April for this, just in case the 78xxs are good or Nvidia release something that isn’t stupidly overpriced. Otherwise I was probably going to get the 6950 2GB or the 560Ti 2GB (maybe the 448 core one?) unless there’s a big change in price in better cards over the next few months. How does that sound? My TV isn't as high resolution as some monitors nor with that fast a refresh rate but I would like my GPU to be reasonably future proof. Heard about some issues with AMD drivers, was wondering which of the two would be more likely to keep releasing updates a few years down the line?
TV Tuner card:
This isn’t totally definitely required, was just a vague thought as it might be nice to record TV onto my computer. Probably won’t get it till I get a mechanical hard drive however. Any advice on this would be great though!
Sorry for the extremely long post! Much appreciated if you get this far and for any help.
Quite a long thread, looking more for advice on parts rather than just a straight up spec. Posted it on another forum as well, in case it looks familiar, just generally looking for any advice as possible.
My current laptop is frankly rubbish (power socket loose, so only charges in one position, battery life sub 5 minutes, sound only coming out of one channel and **** quality anyway, left mouse button lost its click, DVD drive not reading or writing, internal fans very loud, sigh)so I was originally planning on replacing it around April when most of the new graphics cards and Ivy Bridge should be out with a nice desktop that should hopefully last me about 5 years. However, my laptop isn’t sticking to the script and has added constant freezing to its other quirks so I was considering perhaps working out most of a new build now in case it totally gives up any time soon, as I do need something for work.
The last computer I built was for my dad in 2006, but I’ve been doing bit of lurking around a few forums and came up with these parts. However, I have absolutely no preference or loyalty and just kind of want anyone’s opinion on whether I’ve chosen reasonably, and alternative choices if not. Thanks!
Case:
Fractal Design R3 – Was looking for my computer to be as silent as possible as I was considering having it in the sitting room and linking it up with my TV, so came up with this after generally good reviews. Did have a few questions about it though – is it noticeably quieter than say, the Bitfenix Shinobi, which is a fair bit cheaper, and also supposed to be quite quiet? Has there been any word on an R4, considering the R3 has been out for a while? Also, has there been any new information on when the Corsair 550D or the Bitfenix Ghost are coming out? Finally, I only have carpets, is this reasonable to put a case on? The last computer I built didn’t have any intakes at the bottom but I see loads of cases do these days. If anyone does put it on their desk, is the R3 still generally inaudible?
PSU:
Corsair HX650 - Would like it to be modular just for neatness, so thought about this one. Honestly though, I don’t really know much about PSUs at all, and was wondering if 650W was perhaps slight overkill. Probably won’t ever go for SLI or Crossfire really, just kind of thought a higher wattage would run quieter than one which just about made my requirements. I realize the fact I’m waiting before choosing a graphics card means this is a bit harder to help me with, but it’s almost certainly going to be a single card if that helps.
CPU:
i5 2500k - unless someone can convince me it really is worth waiting for Ivy Bridge? Ideally I will just wait for Ivy Bridge but if my laptop does die sooner, what do you think the resale value on a 2500k would be? Would I pretty much need to go for the retail over the OEM version? Is it even worth upgrading it if I do buy SB?
Motherboard:
No idea really. Saw there were Z77 ones out soon – what’s the difference between them and the Z68s? When I first started looking at parts a few months ago there were a few motherboards that said Gen3 ready or whatever, but am I right in saying that now lots of motherboards that were not previously Ivy Bridge compatible now are with a BIOS update? If so, what does the Gen3 part actually mean? And how important will PCI 3.0 be? Was very slightly leaning towards the Gigabyte GA-Z68XP-UD3P, but that’s just because it looks nice. Not that bothered about that however.
CPU cooler:
Gelid Tranquillo v2 – just heard generally good things about it really. Heard that it’s quieter than most – is it still after overclocking the i5 to say, 4.5GHz? Also, has anyone had any experience in using one in a Fractal R3? I can imagine that it might be slightly harder to cool in a case more aimed towards silence, and I was wondering whether the increased speed of the fan would mean that there would be no point in buying a silent case, if that makes sense. Also, is there any loss of lifespan to the processor when overclocking? I would like this computer to last about 5 years, with perhaps an upgrade to the GPU at most, so if there is a loss in lifespan I could just not overclock and go with a cheaper cooler or perhaps even the stock one.
Storage:
Crucial M4 128 GB–just thought I’d hold off getting a mechanical drive till the prices came down properly. Any alternatives to this drive? Seems to get a lot of good reviews but again, not sure if anything better has come out recently.
Memory:
Crucial Ballistix 2x4 GB 1600MHz – seems quite small and cheap. Not sure what else I should be looking for in RAM? Are big heatsinks really necessary? Would they interfere with the Tranquillo?
Optical Drive:
Cheapest DVD writer available at the time probably. Eventually might get a Blu-Ray reader – have these been going down noticeably in price? Is it worth me waiting a few months?
Case fans:
I did skim over that article on bit-tech about cooling the Fractal R3 a couple of weeks ago – I was just wondering if anyone else who has one has tried adding a few extra fans and whether the opening of the vents made a noticeable difference in noise?
Sound Card:
Don't really know if it would be worth getting like a 20 quid Xonar DG. There's no way any motherboard sound could sound worse through my speakers than my current laptop but I'm not sure whether it would be worth stepping up to a cheap sound card.
GPU:
Probably just going to wait till April for this, just in case the 78xxs are good or Nvidia release something that isn’t stupidly overpriced. Otherwise I was probably going to get the 6950 2GB or the 560Ti 2GB (maybe the 448 core one?) unless there’s a big change in price in better cards over the next few months. How does that sound? My TV isn't as high resolution as some monitors nor with that fast a refresh rate but I would like my GPU to be reasonably future proof. Heard about some issues with AMD drivers, was wondering which of the two would be more likely to keep releasing updates a few years down the line?
TV Tuner card:
This isn’t totally definitely required, was just a vague thought as it might be nice to record TV onto my computer. Probably won’t get it till I get a mechanical hard drive however. Any advice on this would be great though!
Sorry for the extremely long post! Much appreciated if you get this far and for any help.
