£800 for PC

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Hello everyone, the time has come to buy a new computer...my photography hobby (+others) has been growing quite fast and i realise i need something better.

My girlfriends grandfather is willing to give us £800 to buy ourselves a new computer that we can use for productive purposes, lol

First il let you all know what i want and what i plan to do with it...

I have been doing a butt load of photography lately and usually only have time to sort through it later in bulk, so I will be doing a lot of uploading of pictures and sorting through thousands of pictures frequently...

i hope to be able to do this with a good response, perhaps while having a photo editing program like photoshop running in the back + browser etc.

I have only lately started working with RAW files but will be shooting in that format a lot more in the future.

Me and my girlfriend tab a lot while browsing and tend to keep a lot of tabs open and even open new windows frequently to start a new set of tabs...this usually has a lot of youtube but generally just a lot of websites...

I guess what I'm trying to say is our laptop (macbook 2007) is being overworked and can't handle the amount of things we do on it....

another program i intend to dip into quite a bit more is Blender and my macbook felt overworked very fast into me working on a project...
I need to do more multitask work without too much lagg
perhaps having 2-3 programs running (Blender, Sculptris, Photoshop)

But here is what he won't know.....
i have some "non productive" plans for this computer too...
Im going to want do quite a bit of gaming...i quit pc gaming when i got a ps3 as i could not afford a computer that would be worth me playing on....
the ps3 has been ok and worked good enough for now ...but I'm a pc gamer and i know the benefits :)
If i could get something that will run some of the new games on a high setting...
Hoping to get a reasonably high end card with possible SLi in the future so also need to consider that when getting the PSU
Oh and Ive been with geforce since 2/4/6800/7800 and now 220 GTx so kind of want to stay with geforce

the monitor will not be included in the £800 fund because i want to pump all the money into the computer and i can pay for the monitor(s)
I have used dual screen before and absolutely loved it for productivity and all round practicality...
NOT sure if i will be doing this but thought it might be something to mention

I have about 4TB of HDD space but would like a SSD for windows/programs included in this spec please...

not sure how much ram I'm going to need for this setup but i can always upgrade in the future (he will gladly upgrade the ram in the future if i tell him its too slow)

No need for OS...blu ray...soundcard...speakers...keyboard...mouse...

Haven't OCd before but def willing to learn to especially if it saves me money and means i can tweak my computer to be faster...
going to play it safe though and not overdo it so don't know if i need water cooling or whatnot...

hope i haven't gone all over the place with this post i just want to be detailed so hopefully people can help me and i can order soon...


EDIT: ah and i forgot to mention that my computer desk has a cabinet that will fit a computer case no bigger than 48cm (high) and 22cm (width)
 
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thank you
im thinking maybe il up my budget to 850-900 and get a 580 or 670 for future proof...
or i7 (but not sure if i need it)
also would it be worth getting a better PSU now incase i want to SLi in the future?
 
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I think you should be ok with a i5, done a slight spec change:


YOUR BASKET
1 x KFA2 GeForce GTX 670 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £299.99
1 x Intel Core i5-3570K 3.40GHz (Ivybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor (77W) - Retail £181.99
1 x Plextor M2S 256GB SATA 6Gb/s Solid State Hard Drive (PX-256M2S) £119.99
1 x Gigabyte Z77-D3H Intel Z77 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £79.99
1 x Cooler Master Silent Pro Modular 600W '80 Plus Bronze' Power Supply £65.99
1 x Zalman Z9 Plus Tower Case with Fan Controller - Black £49.99
1 x GeIL Dragon 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C11 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (GD38GB1600C11DC) £37.99
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
Total : £877.92 (includes shipping : £12.50).



i7:


YOUR BASKET
1 x Gainward GeForce GTX 580 "GOOD Edition" 1536MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £289.99
1 x Intel Core i7-3770K 3.50GHz (Ivybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor (77W) - Retail £268.99
1 x Plextor M2S 256GB SATA 6Gb/s Solid State Hard Drive (PX-256M2S) £119.99
1 x Gigabyte Z77-D3H Intel Z77 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £79.99
1 x Cooler Master Silent Pro Modular 600W '80 Plus Bronze' Power Supply £65.99
1 x Zalman Z9 Plus Tower Case with Fan Controller - Black £49.99
1 x GeIL Dragon 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C11 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (GD38GB1600C11DC) £37.99
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
Total : £954.92 (includes shipping : £12.50).

 
ok i will be buying tomorrow and im going for the i5 setup..
if there are any other recommendations/alternatives to this build then please let me know.
also i want to know if it would be worth going for a sandybridge cpu and OCing?
or buying a 850w for possible SLi in future?
and would getting the EVGA 670 benefit me in anyway over the KFA2 one?

also my computer desk has a space for my computer but there is not much ventilation in there so would i need to get a better fan?

sorry to ask so many questions i just get worried about getting the wrong thing and like to see all my options...
 
keep the ivy i5 n overclock that.
if u plan to sli would get a 850w one ( a xfx or corsair one)
the fans with the case will be good enough
 
ah ok thanks...
one last thing im still unsure about..sorry for all questions
would this be a better choice to what is listed in the build above?

MSI Z77A-GD65 Intel Z77 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard ** With FREE GeIL Black Dragon 8GB Kit ** [Z77A-GD65]
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MB-199-MS

EDIT: oops never mind for some reason i thought the cost was around the same
but i guess if its worth the extra £20 i dont mind adding abit more to the total
 
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YOUR BASKET
1 x KFA2 GeForce GTX 670 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £299.99
1 x Intel Core i5-3570K 3.40GHz (Ivybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor (77W) - Retail £181.99
1 x Plextor M2S 256GB SATA 6Gb/s Solid State Hard Drive (PX-256M2S) £119.99
1 x Gigabyte Z77X-D3H Intel Z77 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £109.99
1 x XFX 850W XXX Edition Modular '80 Plus Silver' Power Supply £99.98
1 x Zalman Z9 Plus Tower Case with Fan Controller - Black £49.99
1 x GeIL Dragon 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C11 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (GD38GB1600C11DC) £37.99
1 x Cooler Master Hyper 612S CPU Cooler (Socket LGA1366/1156/1155/775/AM3/AM2+/AM2) £32.99
Total : £947.92 (includes shipping : £12.50).



Can;t really fault RJCs specs, he is using a lot of the components i would use.

The Z9 is a great budget case (i have one myself), 4 120mm fans, fan controller, digital temp display and cable management (P4/8 extension included). The PSU is probably 100W over what you need but for the price it makes sense. THis mobo does do SLI/Xfire, has a 3 year warranty and UK based RMA (being from GB). The MSI specs on their website are so vague it puts me off buying their kit.

If you want to overclock I have added a better heatsink to help keep temps in check. The mobo will have an auto option in the BIOS to OC or you can simply just up the multiplier gradually. When you have the rig built we can talk you through how to tweak it :)
 
ah great thanks, i just noticed the Gigabyte Z77X on the website...
so think im sorted then, thanks guys! cant wait to start building it.
do i need to get any other things? like cables or anything like that?
now i just need to pick a monitor (will use the TV until i find one i like) but not sure what my budget will be
 
You should get atleast 2 sata cables with the mobo. PSU has all the cables supplied with it (it's modular you wont need them all at first). As I said the Z9 has an extension lead for the P4/8 mobo aux power so you can route the cables out of the way nicely behind the mobo :) Cooler comes with paste you are good to go
 
In regards to the monitor. Windows 8 is available later this year (developers copy is widely available for free to try) which is designed for tablets too. I would suggest you wait and maybe look at a touchscreen monitor perhaps.

I think you'll be pleasantly surprised by the quality on the HDTV for now :)
 
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