Bit of help required with spec.

Karateyid · 20 Jun 2011 at 23:37

So its been 4 years since I built my last pc and i feel i should be upgrading majority of it... I'm mainly going to be using it as a gaming machine..

Plan on using my existing antec 900 case powersupply and the existing Gfx card which i updated last year (Asus ATI Radeon HD 5850 DirectCU TOP 1024MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card) possibly adding a 2nd card later.

CPU
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CP-360-IN

Motherboard
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MB-457-AS&groupid=701&catid=5&subcat=1990
or
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MB-051-AK&groupid=701&catid=5&subcat=1990

Memory
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MY-290-CS&groupid=701&catid=8&subcat=1517

Cooler
Unsure yet but was looking at the Corsair H70.
Is Water cooling worth the money or will some high end air coolers just as good ??

Hard disk.
Finally do i look to get an SSD harddrive ?? does it make that much difference ???

Looking to spend around the £5-600 mark. Any help/advice would be appreciated..

stulid · 20 Jun 2011 at 23:39

You certainly get a great board with the ASrock.

Antec kuhler620 is very good for a self sealed water cooling unit.

PSU?

Plec · 21 Jun 2011 at 00:48

stulid said:
Antec kuhler620 is very good for a self sealed water cooling unit.

If i was getting an all-in-one i would get the above as the price/performance ratio makes it one of the better ones.

But my main reason for not getting the H70 is that it's relatively noisy - do a search on the forums.

Karateyid said:
Is Water cooling worth the money or will some high end air coolers just as good ??

However, i would recommend a quality air cooler such as the Silver Arrow for the same price £50 - it outperforms the all-in-one water coolers and is virtually silent. (It's just a little on the plump size

)

simpleas123 · 21 Jun 2011 at 00:59

Plec said:
i would recommend a quality air cooler such as the Silver Arrow for the same price £50 - it outperforms the all-in-one water coolers and is virtually silent. (It's just a little on the plump size )

Would the thermalright be too bulky on the extreme 4 mobo i.e. block one of the ram slots?

Reaper 392 · 21 Jun 2011 at 01:07

simpleas123 said:
Would the thermalright be too bulky on the extreme 4 mobo i.e. block one of the ram slots?

if you dont buy ram without giant heatspreaders at the top like the Gskill ripjaws or the corsair vengance then you will be fine.

get yourself some corsair XMS3 or the kingston ram that is currently on offer and it will fit. you will have to put the ram in before you put the cooler on though

as stulid said, what make and model PSU do you have?

Karateyid · 21 Jun 2011 at 08:16

Yip planning to get the msx memory. I'll do a bit of research on the cooler unit. Just wondered if there was greater benefits of water cooler over a decent air cooler.

PSU is a650w cooler master. I thought it should be ok for the job.

stulid · 21 Jun 2011 at 08:37

That PSU will be fine still.

The only benefit of a water cooler its the compactness of them, a good air cooler will give better results.

Karateyid · 21 Jun 2011 at 10:47

Great. So only thing now to think about is the hard drive. Got a smallish raptor hd ATM. But as the board will support Sata 3 do I go for a smallish SSD for os and games and then put the rest of the stuff on a larger standard hd?? Or will sata3 standard hd be good enough??

stulid · 21 Jun 2011 at 10:50

The Raptors are nippy little things, I use to have a 74GB model a while ago.

But a SSD is in a different league.

My advice? Install the O/S and what ever else you can get on the Raptor, buy a Samsung F3 or Seagate Barracuda for a storage drive, then get a SSD later.