Budget 1150GBP - System spec

rycon1 · 10 Mar 2011 at 11:44

Usage:Music,video and gaming.

Is this a good time to buy a new system?

I just need a

Graphics card
Ram
Motherboard
Cpu
Psu
HDD

Some people are saying that this is not a good time to buy an SSD.
Should the motherboard sata bug worry me?

I only plan to use one HD and an SSD in the future.

Any suggestions?

Spec me a system please

King Damager · 10 Mar 2011 at 11:55

What do you use the PC for?

And a SSD shouldn't be too much of an issue right now... also all the revision 3 motherboards are available now - pretty much - and they don't have the sata issue

kd

rycon1 · 10 Mar 2011 at 12:07

I use it for Music,video and gaming.

The music part I will upgrade my xfi extreme gamer later.Not much of an effect now since I am using an amp.

concubine · 10 Mar 2011 at 12:36

Mate have a look at my thread. I have assembled a tremendous build in a FUNKY TOWER CASE. In fact here you go

King Damager · 10 Mar 2011 at 12:41

Concubine that build well... it's not awful... but non K monitor in a P67 board... and there's a couple of things we can change to make the OP's build a lot better for his uses

I'll quickly put something together

Product Name Qty Price Line Total
Intel Core i7-2600K 3.40GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor - OEM £239.99
(£199.99) £239.99
(£199.99)
Asus ATI Radeon HD 6950 OC 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £209.99
(£174.99) £419.98
(£349.98)
Asus P8P67 PRO Intel P67 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard - (Sandybridge) ** B3 REVISION ** £139.99
(£116.66) £139.99
(£116.66)
OCZ Vertex 2E 60GB 2.5" SATA-II Solid State Hard Drive (OCZSSD2-2VTXE60G) £93.59
(£77.99) £93.59
(£77.99)
Antec TruePower New Modular 750W Power Supply - With FREE 3D Mark 2011 Advance £83.99
(£69.99) £83.99
(£69.99)
Coolermaster CM-690 II Lite Dominator Case - Black £62.99
(£52.49) £62.99
(£52.49)
Samsung SpinPoint F3 1TB SATA-II 32MB Cache - OEM (HD103SJ) £39.98
(£33.32) £39.98
(£33.32)
OCZ Platinum 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Ultra Low Voltage Dual Channel Kit (OCZ3P1600C9ELV4GK) £29.99
(£24.99) £29.99
(£24.99)
Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro Rev 2 CPU Cooler (Socket 939 / AM2 / AM3 / 775 / 1155/ 1156 / 1366) £19.39
(£16.16) £19.39
(£16.16)
Samsung SH-S223C/BEBE 22x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £13.99
(£11.66) £13.99
(£11.66)
Sub Total : £953.23
Shipping cost assumes delivery to UK Mainland with:
DPD Next Day Parcel
(This can be changed during checkout) Shipping : £11.25
VAT is being charged at 20.00% VAT : £192.90
Total : £1,157.38

I was a bit unsure of when you said video and music you meant editing or just listening to/watching.

If you meant just watching/listening too, swap out the 2600k for a 2500k, upgrade the CPU cooler to an Akasa Venom, I'd probably upgrade the DVD drive to a blu-ray (your choice) and then if there's any room in the budget just buy more HDD space

Oh and unlock the 6950's into 6970 crossfire

kd

concubine · 10 Mar 2011 at 12:51

fair play mate! just thought as no one had helped him out yet it was better than nothing!

Depends where your priorities are. Mine are the case, noise/heat and efficiency, as well as brute power

olivier renault · 10 Mar 2011 at 12:54

New SSDs are coming out, they'll likely be more expensive or the current gen will become cheaper.

Dunno when they will become available. If you can wait a bit (a month?), it will be a better time to upgrade to a 6GB/s SSDs, or the older generation if there is a price advantage.

Or you could get a system ready, get a R3 motherboard, partition 50GB for the OS, and re-install on SSD in a month or so, when you are ready to buy one. IMO, it's still worth getting on SSD bandwagon for OS and applications.

King Damager · 10 Mar 2011 at 13:51

olivier renault said:
New SSDs are coming out, they'll likely be more expensive or the current gen will become cheaper.

Dunno when they will become available. If you can wait a bit (a month?), it will be a better time to upgrade to a 6GB/s SSDs, or the older generation if there is a price advantage.

Or you could get a system ready, get a R3 motherboard, partition 50GB for the OS, and re-install on SSD in a month or so, when you are ready to buy one. IMO, it's still worth getting on SSD bandwagon for OS and applications.

It depends what you want out of your SSD.

C300 is a pretty good one, it already runs 6GB/s, and yeah it's got a slower write speed than a lot, but for the read speeds it's quick, and to be truthful, it's mostly read speeds that matter when you're going to be using it as an OS boot drive.

The new drive's are partially out at the moment, the Vertex 3E and Intel Elmcrest, and Corsair Force drives as well.

They are QUICK, however the C300 is a pretty good rival to the Corsair Force still, and unfortunately the Vertex 3E and Elmcrest don't really do a small version yet

In spite of this, I would say it might be worth waiting for the C400, if you really wanted something fantastic, which I think will be hitting the market in the next two weeks or so, but am not too sure.

Despite this, we have to realise that the C300 is still hardly a slouch... Youtube it for some good comparisons

kd

olivier renault · 10 Mar 2011 at 14:03

yup. Here's a system, although I went for the expensive 128 GB SSD, it means you won't have to worry about space on it for OS, apps, and quite a few games. C400 is looking amazing, if you can wait. Price might be a worry though, especially at launch.

Your Basket
1 x Palit GeForce GTX 570 1280MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £279.98
1 x Crucial RealSSD C300 128GB 2.5" SATA 6Gb/s Solid State Hard Drive (CTFDDAC128MAG-1G1) £173.99
1 x Intel Core i5-2500K 3.30GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor - OEM £161.99
1 x Asus P8P67 PRO Intel P67 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard - (Sandybridge) ** B3 REVISION ** £139.99
1 x GeIL 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz VALUE PLUS Dual Channel (GVP38GB1600C9DC) £83.99
1 x Antec TruePower New Modular 750W Power Supply - With FREE 3D Mark 2011 Advance £83.99
1 x Samsung SpinPoint F3 1TB SATA-II 32MB Cache - OEM (HD103SJ) £39.98
1 x Akasa AK-CCX-4002HP Venom CPU Cooler (Socket LGA775/LGA1155/LGA1156/LGA1366/AM2/AM3) £36.98
Total : £1,012.90 (includes shipping : £10.00).

rycon1 · 10 Mar 2011 at 14:07

Thanks for the info.

The computer will be used for editing on rare occasions.It is not that important for me.
I like those builds.Btw I do not need a case/monitor.

If I go for a 128gb SSD should I also install the anti-virus,os and games all on it?
How do you keep the performance of the SSD at best?

olivier renault · 10 Mar 2011 at 14:25

rycon1 said:
Thanks for the info.

The computer will be used for editing on rare occasions.It is not that important for me.
I like those builds.Btw I do not need a case/monitor.

If I go for a 128gb SSD should I also install the anti-virus,os and games all on it?
How do you keep the performance of the SSD at best?

Probably best to ask in the hard drive section, but I'd keep all apps and OS on it, and the games you use the most. I've heard of a way to re-map folders in Win 7, which means you can run steam games on the hard drive, and move some of them on the SSD, all transparent to the apps. Haven't tried it though.

The user folder can be tricky to keep clean, however it's unlikely to be problem (unless you are really careless). For example I-Tune insisted on using theh user directory for storing all the mp3s and videos. I had to manually change that. With OS and apps, I run about 50% capacity on a 60GB drive.

With 8GB ram, you shouldn't need a swap file, I keep mine on the SSD, but it's not recommended. You can use the old OS partition as the temp / swap file folder if you want to keep a swap file and not thrash the SSD.

Don't keep the restore backups on the SSD

I'd use an old drive, or a HD partition for that. Makes restore and backup easy as well, as you can just select the whole drive for that purpose.

~Mike~ · 10 Mar 2011 at 14:27

rycon1 said:
Thanks for the info.

The computer will be used for editing on rare occasions.It is not that important for me.
I like those builds.Btw I do not need a case/monitor.

If I go for a 128gb SSD should I also install the anti-virus,os and games all on it?
How do you keep the performance of the SSD at best?

Can I jump in here...

I too was wondering if using a SSD as a boot drive for Windows would you install your AV software as well or on a HDD?

olivier renault · 10 Mar 2011 at 14:31

Mike306 said:
Can I jump in here...

I too was wondering if using a SSD as a boot drive for Windows would you install your AV software as well or on a HDD?

I don't know why you would need to do that

Maybe something I've missed. AV logs aren't massive, I don't really expect them to eat up drive space.

rycon1 · 10 Mar 2011 at 14:55

Thnx for the info on the SSD.

For the cpu I should go for an i5 2500k if I will be using it only for gaming?

Is it not worth buying an i7 2600k for gaming?

olivier renault · 10 Mar 2011 at 15:04

na. The i5 2500K is a top CPU. I wouldn't bother with the i7, and spend the money on other things (graphics card and a SSD).

http://www.guru3d.com/article/core-i5-2500k-and-core-i7-2600k-review/

EDIT : well, since you have room for maneuver, you can splash out on the i7 for an extra £80. That's if you plan on doing heavy duty transcoding and such.

rycon1 · 10 Mar 2011 at 15:15

olivier renault said:
na. The i5 2500K is a top CPU. I wouldn't bother with the i7, and spend the money on other things (graphics card and a SSD).

http://www.guru3d.com/article/core-i5-2500k-and-core-i7-2600k-review/

EDIT : well, since you have room for maneuver, you can splash out on the i7 for an extra £80. That's if you plan on doing heavy duty transcoding and such.

I will go for the i5.Less money spent is better.

King Damager · 10 Mar 2011 at 15:53

I'd say 8GB RAM, is over necessary for gaming... Here's what I'd probably put together for £1150 for gaming specific.

Not sure if you don't need a case or forgot it? Take it out if not, but this is a nice case, so I'd probably start afresh anyway

Only ever so slightly over, but has the bigger SSD (which you could downgrade to 64GB for cost)

But yeah Unlock the 6950's to 6970's crossfire.

This is the comparison between crossfire 6950's and a 570
http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/306?vs=299

And if you did unlock the 6950's to 6970's this is the comparison

http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/306?vs=298

But yeah, get the i5, nice and sorted

kd

rycon1 · 10 Mar 2011 at 16:32

King Damager said:
I'd say 8GB RAM, is over necessary for gaming... Here's what I'd probably put together for £1150 for gaming specific.

Not sure if you don't need a case or forgot it? Take it out if not, but this is a nice case, so I'd probably start afresh anyway

Only ever so slightly over, but has the bigger SSD (which you could downgrade to 64GB for cost)

But yeah Unlock the 6950's to 6970's crossfire.

This is the comparison between crossfire 6950's and a 570
http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/306?vs=299

And if you did unlock the 6950's to 6970's this is the comparison
http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/306?vs=298

But yeah, get the i5, nice and sorted

kd

Wouldn't flashing the bios and overclocking the 6950 void warranty?

King Damager · 10 Mar 2011 at 16:57

Realised I was stupid and forgot to put the build up xD

Product Name Qty Price Line Total
Asus ATI Radeon HD 6950 OC 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £209.99
(£174.99) £419.98
(£349.98)
Crucial RealSSD C300 128GB 2.5" SATA 6Gb/s Solid State Hard Drive (CTFDDAC128MAG-1G1) £173.99
(£144.99) £173.99
(£144.99)
Intel Core i5-2500K 3.30GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor - OEM £161.99
(£134.99) £161.99
(£134.99)
Asus P8P67 PRO Intel P67 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard - (Sandybridge) ** B3 REVISION ** £139.99
(£116.66) £139.99
(£116.66)
Antec TruePower New Modular 750W Power Supply - With FREE 3D Mark 2011 Advance £83.99
(£69.99) £83.99
(£69.99)
Coolermaster CM-690 II Lite Dominator Case - Black £62.99
(£52.49) £62.99
(£52.49)
Samsung SpinPoint F3 1TB SATA-II 32MB Cache - OEM (HD103SJ) £39.98
(£33.32) £39.98
(£33.32)
Akasa AK-CCX-4002HP Venom CPU Cooler (Socket LGA775/LGA1155/LGA1156/LGA1366/AM2/AM3) £36.98
(£30.82) £36.98
(£30.82)
OCZ Platinum 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Ultra Low Voltage Dual Channel Kit (OCZ3P1600C9ELV4GK) £29.99
(£24.99) £29.99
(£24.99)
Samsung SH-S223C/BEBE 22x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £13.99
(£11.66) £13.99
(£11.66)
Sub Total : £969.89
Shipping cost assumes delivery to UK Mainland with:
DPD Next Day Parcel
(This can be changed during checkout) Shipping : £11.25
VAT is being charged at 20.00% VAT : £196.23
Total : £1,177.37

There it is,

It might void the warranty, haven't looked into it, there's a topic in the GPU forum which would explain it more

But yeah Crossfire 6950's are hardly a slouch anyway

kd