Advice on my first attempt at building a PC

aerorob

aerorob

aerorob

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Joined
5 Jun 2012
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4
Hi all,

After my laptop died i've decided its time to build my own desktop for gaming / working at home. I've never done this before so any suggestions would be much appreciated. My budget is ~£1000 for everything and my current setup is a little over so any small cost cuttings would be great. I am also aware some items are currently out of stock on ocuk (the hyper 612S and TX650) so again if any has any suggestions of other good components to swap it would be welcome.

CPU: Intel core i5-3570K retail - £189.95

MOBO: Gigabyte GA-Z77X-D3H - £109.99

RAM: Corsair Vengeance Low Profile 8GB (2x4GB) - £44.99

HSF: Cooler Master Hyper 612S - £32.99

SSD: Corsair Force Series 3 60GB SATA 6Gb/s Solid State Drive - £63.98

HDD: Seagate Barracuda 7200RPM 1TB SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache - OEM -£74.99

*PSU: Corsair Enthusiast Series TX 650W V2 High Performance '80 Plus Bronze' Power Supply - £78.98

GPU: MSI HD 7850 Power Edition Twin Frozr IV OC 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card - £209.99

Case: Antec 300 Three Hundred Black Mid Tower Computer Case 0761345-08300-3 - £44.99

Monitor: Asus VH242H 24" Widescreen LCD Multimedia Monitor - £143.99

CD drive: OcUK 22x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM - £17.99
Operating System: windows 7 64bit home premium - £79.98

Total: £1.092.80


*in future as an upgrade i was thinking of adding another graphics card in crossfire, but i don't really know whether it would be worth in in a setup like this or whether another component would likely be the limiting factor?

Thanks in advance.
 
 
beejjacobs said:
Hi and Welcome :)

Thats a decent build, a few suggestions:
A newer case (the 300 was great, but there are better options IMO)
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CA-178-AN&groupid=701&catid=7&subcat=160
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CA-037-ZA&groupid=701&catid=7&subcat=736
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CA-010-BX&groupid=701&catid=7&subcat=1850

Cheaper PSU (in stock, on offer)
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CA-165-CM&groupid=701&catid=123&subcat=1103

Larger SSD:
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=HD-003-SD&groupid=701&catid=2104&subcat=1427

Some good choices otherwise :)

Crossfire is a good option to have, and the 7850 is low power so 650W is plenty for two of them.
Click to expand...

+1

The Z9 case is a good bargain alongside that CM 700W PSU.
 
YOUR BASKET
1 x Sapphire HD 7850 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £191.99
1 x Intel Core i5-3570K 3.40GHz (Ivybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor (77W) - Retail £189.95
1 x Asus VH242H 24" Widescreen LCD Multimedia Monitor - Black £131.99
1 x Gigabyte Z77X-D3H Intel Z77 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £109.99
1 x Crucial RealSSD M4 128GB 2.5" SATA 6Gb/s Solid State Hard Drive (CT128M4SSD2) £99.95
1 x Seagate Barracuda Green 2TB SATA 6Gb/s Hard Drive - OEM (ST2000DL003) £89.99
1 x Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 64-Bit - OEM (GFC-02050) £79.98
1 x Cooler Master Silent Pro Modular 700W '80 Plus Bronze' Power Supply £64.99
1 x Zalman Z9 Plus Tower Case with Fan Controller - Black £40.99
1 x Crucial Ballistix Sport 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (BLS2CP4G3D1609DS1S00CEU) £38.39
1 x Akasa AK-CC4007EP01 Nero 3 CPU Cooler (Socket LGA775/1155/1156/1366/2011/AMD AM2/AM2+/AM3/FM1) £23.99
1 x OcUK 22x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £17.99
Total : £1,104.30 (includes shipping : £20.10).



That's what I would be spec'ing for that price.

The GPU is on offer so a touch cheaper, ok it's clocked a lil slower but you can OC it with MSI afterburner so that makes no odds.

The SSD Beej suggested was only sataII (slower), i have spec'd a 128GB sataIII SSD and a 2TB eco storage drive. 60GB for the OS drive isn't really enough in my opinion not once you start getting games on there too, also the write speed of SSDs increases with capacity so 128GB makes more sense, 60GB would be ok for a HTPC.

That Z9 case is an absolute bargain I was happy to spec it at £50 nevermind £40. 4 120mm fans, fan controller and digital temp display with cable management.

If you want to trim the fat so to speak, consider running the developers copy of windows 8 (free and legal) to put off the purchase of an OS. The Z9 lets you get behind the mobo so you could drop the heatsink, use the intel stock one for now. The Z9 has good cooling, you';ll get 4ghz on the stock heatsink.

Hope this helps, any questions etc you know where to find us :)
 
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