about £700, how does this spec look?

Agent SS · 6 Sep 2011 at 15:40

Last time i was looking for a computer was in 2005, never did buy one for whatever reason. So i've tried to get up to date with stuff, but i'm unsure on whether i'm going overkill and spending too much beyond my needs.

I've played games back in the day (around the year 2000 lol) using 640x480, all options on low and it stuttering and my gunshots not showing on screen till 5 seconds later. The graphics i wasn't bothered about, but the slowdown annoyed me. So anyway, i'd like to join the modern age and enjoy smooth crisp gaming.

I've got a couple of old comps that are bricks now, but i could perhaps salvage things like dvd drives and one has a card reader. Ive got 3 hdd's, all with windows xp on them. I'd like to keep what's on those (mainly my files, not bothered about the programs i had on their), is there a way of doing that?

I was thinking of building this myself, there seems to be plenty of vids and stuff online to help me out. I was gonna hook it up to my hdtv, would that be ok?

AMD Phenom II X6 Six Core 1075T 3.00GHz (Socket AM3) - Retail AMD
(£106.66) £127.99

MSI GeForce GTX 460 Cyclone 1024MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card
(£99.99) £119.99

Asus Crosshair IV Formula AMD 890FX (Socket AM3/AM3+) DDR3 Motherboard
(£99.99) £119.99

Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 64-Bit - OEM (GFC-02050)
(£66.66) £79.99

Kingston HyperX Genesis Grey 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (KHX1600C9D3X2K2/8GX)
(£41.66) £49.99

Zalman Z9 Plus Tower Case with Fan Controller - Black
(£37.49) £44.99

Corsair A50 High-Performance CPU Cooler (Socket AM2/AM3/LGA775/LGA1155/LGA1156/LGA1366)
(£19.99) £23.99

TP-Link 300Mbps High-Gain Wireless-N USB Adapter (TL-WN822N)
(£13.32) £15.98

Sub Total : £485.76
Shipping cost assumes delivery to UK Mainland with:
DPD Next Day Parcel
(This can be changed during checkout) Shipping : £11.75
VAT is being charged at 20.00% VAT : £99.50
Total : £597.01

Agent SS · 6 Sep 2011 at 16:41

Well i figured with it being a bit cheaper, it'd be happy enough with it. Somewhere down the line i could get another in sli.

The psu i was unsure about, if i was to double up would a 750w psu be ok? Or an 850w?

A 650w would be alright for a single gpu yes?
I've not read up on the intel's i must admit. Would the bulldozer work with the formula 4 board by any chance? Or is it too early to tell :/ I'm not too fussed with overclocking, i've never done it before. Though i could OC this one to 3.6ghz or something right?

If i got a 1tb hdd with windows 7 with this build, could i then transfer the files from my smaller hdd's onto that, once it was up and running? I'll have a search for this so i'm more clued up on it.

Agent SS · 6 Sep 2011 at 18:00

Hmm, they could be IDE, guess i could buy one of those ide to usb converters maybe and pull the data that way. I'd just get new dvd drives etc as they're cheap anyway.

Agent SS · 6 Sep 2011 at 22:52

The hard drive i need my files from is SATA, so hopefully i'll retrieve them when i get set up.

I'm only a 15 min drive away from Overclockers depot in Newcastle, can i collect things from there if i order online? Or return things if there's a problem? If i'm building it myself, does that mean i am just getting the manufacturers warranty on the components i buy?

Agent SS · 6 Sep 2011 at 23:17

Well i know some places probably don't work like your regular walk in shops, but if that's the place where items are being sent if there's a problem, seems a bit pointless me paying for it to be delivered when i could just drop it off.
Just kinda wanna ask this for peace of mind really before i part ways with the bread ;p

Agent SS · 7 Sep 2011 at 00:21

Oops wrong one i clicked on haha! Thanks for pointing that out amigo.

Gigabyte 990FXA-UD3 AMD 990X (Socket AM3+) DDR3 Motherboard [990FXA-UD3]

That's same price as the board i noobed up on, and price is really why i was going for the amd (as is usually the case). Well i guess the difference is only about £30 or so if i did go for the i5 2500k and an intel board.

Agent SS · 7 Sep 2011 at 00:38

i think i'll stick with the gtx 460, i'm on a budget lol. It'll do for what i need it for no doubt.
Otherwise i'll end up with a £1000 pc

if i got the best of everything. Thanks for helping guys, i do appreciate the input.

Agent SS · 7 Sep 2011 at 05:33

Ok i made some revisions to my basket. So i've got pretty much everything covered apart from the gpu. Not sure which to take now :/
Which would give me more bang for my buck? I wanna keep it under £130 at least for the graphics card. I guess i could ramp up the hd to 1tb, but it's not like i'm gonna fill up 500gb any time soon.

I shoulda added all the bits and bobs at the start, to get a true feel for what i can afford. As once i include a graphics card, it's over £800. Gotta start making cuts somewhere lol. It'd be so much better if i didn't have to pay VAT.

Intel Core i5-2500K 3.30GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor - Retail with FREE TrackMania 2 Canyon PC Game
(£144.99) £173.99

Gigabyte Z68XP-UD3 Intel Z68 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard ** LOWEST UK PRICE *
(£83.32) £99.98

Antec TruePower New Modular 750W '80 Plus Bronze' Power Supply
(£71.66) £85.99

Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 64-Bit - OEM (GFC-02050)
(£66.66) £79.99

Kingston HyperX Genesis Grey 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (KHX1600C9D3X2K2/8GX)
(£41.66) £49.99

Zalman Z9 Plus Tower Case with Fan Controller - Black
(£37.49) £44.99

Western Digital Caviar Blue 500GB SATA 6Gb/s 16MB Cache - OEM (WD5000AAKX)
(£24.99) £29.99

Corsair A50 High-Performance CPU Cooler (Socket AM2/AM3/LGA775/LGA1155/LGA1156/LGA1366)
(£19.99) £23.99

TP-Link 300Mbps High-Gain Wireless-N USB Adapter (TL-WN822N)
(£13.32) £15.98

OcUK Value 100m Compact Bluetooth Dongle
(£2.99) £3.59

Sub Total : £573.73
Shipping cost assumes delivery to UK Mainland with:
DPD Next Day Parcel
(This can be changed during checkout) Shipping : £12.50
VAT is being charged at 20.00% VAT : £117.25
Total : £703.48