I've put together a spec which I would be grateful for any comments on.
The PC will be for general use on the basis of being capable of whatever I may be inclined to do, nothing too extreme, over the next 2 or 3 years.
After reliability my main criteria is a quiet PC. The only overclocking will be the CPU - fairly modest hopefully up to 4 GHz with modest temps.
Advice on whether the components are compatible and whether overall it is reasonably well balanced would be appreciated.
If it helps think of my total cost as a budget which I'll be spending, plus a bit if need be.
The aim is a well specced and quiet PC for the money.
Spec:
Case Midi Tower: Lian-Li B25FB
£120 - Expensive but I like the looks and quality of Lian-Li and am happy to pay what it costs.
I like a fairly conventional looking case - with good and quiet cooling
CPU: Intel Core i7 950 3.06GHz (Bloomfield) (Socket LGA1366)
£240 - I want an Intel but am not inclined to pay what the 960 or above cost
GPU: Gigabyte GeForce GTX 460 OC 1024MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card [GV-N460OC-1GI ]
£174 - The GTX 470 has been recommended but checking OCUK members' reviews there were quite a number of comments suggesting they can be quite noisy and some of them very noisy.
If I was reasonably confident of a quiet unit it could well be a better option.
Motherboard: Asus P6X58D-E Intel X58
£150 - Offers USB 3 and SATA 6 and good value
Ram - I want a minimum of 6 GB: Patriot Viper 6GB (3x2GB) DDR3 12800C8 1600MHz Low Latency Triple Channel (PVT36G1600LLK)
£125 - Corsair XMS3 6GB (3x2GB) DDR3 12800C9 (1600MHz) Tri-Channel (TR3X6G1600C9) could be the obvious alternative but I have a suspicion the Patriot might be the option normally recommended
PSU: Corsair HX 750W ATX Modular SLI Compliant
£120 - I want a modular unit and Corsair seem well regarded - I'm happy with the one I'm using now
Not sure if I need quite that much power but some spare is desirable
CPU Cooler: Prolimatech Megahalems Rev B CPU Cooler (Socket 775/1156/1366)
£43 - Seems very effective and not expensive
SSD: Intel X25-M Mainstream 80GB 2.5" SATA-II Solid State Hard Drive (SSDSA2MH080G2R5)
£160 - Again not the cheapest but strongly inclined to pay the price
HDD - Storage & Back-up: existing 2 x Samsung F3 1 TB
OS: Windows 7 Home Premium
£106
Fans: Fractal Design 120mm Silent Cooling Fan
£10 - Lots of choice but slightly inclined towards these. One or two spare 'quiet' fans come in handy.
Paste: Arctic Cooling MX-3 Thermal Compound
£7
Total cost around £1300 - I've already got most of the other odds and ends including monitor.
Edit: I'll be installing 2 PCI cards - one for Freeview TV and one for HD Satellite TV
The PC will be for general use on the basis of being capable of whatever I may be inclined to do, nothing too extreme, over the next 2 or 3 years.
After reliability my main criteria is a quiet PC. The only overclocking will be the CPU - fairly modest hopefully up to 4 GHz with modest temps.
Advice on whether the components are compatible and whether overall it is reasonably well balanced would be appreciated.
If it helps think of my total cost as a budget which I'll be spending, plus a bit if need be.
The aim is a well specced and quiet PC for the money.
Spec:
Case Midi Tower: Lian-Li B25FB
£120 - Expensive but I like the looks and quality of Lian-Li and am happy to pay what it costs.
I like a fairly conventional looking case - with good and quiet cooling
CPU: Intel Core i7 950 3.06GHz (Bloomfield) (Socket LGA1366)
£240 - I want an Intel but am not inclined to pay what the 960 or above cost
GPU: Gigabyte GeForce GTX 460 OC 1024MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card [GV-N460OC-1GI ]
£174 - The GTX 470 has been recommended but checking OCUK members' reviews there were quite a number of comments suggesting they can be quite noisy and some of them very noisy.
If I was reasonably confident of a quiet unit it could well be a better option.
Motherboard: Asus P6X58D-E Intel X58
£150 - Offers USB 3 and SATA 6 and good value
Ram - I want a minimum of 6 GB: Patriot Viper 6GB (3x2GB) DDR3 12800C8 1600MHz Low Latency Triple Channel (PVT36G1600LLK)
£125 - Corsair XMS3 6GB (3x2GB) DDR3 12800C9 (1600MHz) Tri-Channel (TR3X6G1600C9) could be the obvious alternative but I have a suspicion the Patriot might be the option normally recommended
PSU: Corsair HX 750W ATX Modular SLI Compliant
£120 - I want a modular unit and Corsair seem well regarded - I'm happy with the one I'm using now
Not sure if I need quite that much power but some spare is desirable
CPU Cooler: Prolimatech Megahalems Rev B CPU Cooler (Socket 775/1156/1366)
£43 - Seems very effective and not expensive
SSD: Intel X25-M Mainstream 80GB 2.5" SATA-II Solid State Hard Drive (SSDSA2MH080G2R5)
£160 - Again not the cheapest but strongly inclined to pay the price
HDD - Storage & Back-up: existing 2 x Samsung F3 1 TB
OS: Windows 7 Home Premium
£106
Fans: Fractal Design 120mm Silent Cooling Fan
£10 - Lots of choice but slightly inclined towards these. One or two spare 'quiet' fans come in handy.
Paste: Arctic Cooling MX-3 Thermal Compound
£7
Total cost around £1300 - I've already got most of the other odds and ends including monitor.
Edit: I'll be installing 2 PCI cards - one for Freeview TV and one for HD Satellite TV
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