Build advice to a budget.

[Gnerf]

Hi Guys, my mate just purchased a base unit from you today and i am also interested in doing the same.

My rig is over 4 years old and doesn't cut it anymore for some of the games i play. It will be used for gaming, at the moment i am playing Diablo 3 mainly with the odd mmo and plan to play guild wards when it comes out and who knows what else. A point i would like to make is i don't play fps, not anything serious anyway.

I have a nice 23" monitor, mouse etc i could maybe tempted with a new keyboard as mine is very old and does need replacing, but i wouldn't want an expensive one, just something that does the job. I wouldn't really put the keyboard price into my main budget, but if theres anything that would come recommended i would have a look at it as an addition.

My budget is around 700-800 pound. And the max would really be 800 unless it was really worth it.

I know a bit about components, but i want something that comes pre-built. I would say the knowledge i have is the basics, ive replaced a hard drive and graphics card, i have been in my case many times etc, i know what everything is, what it does, i know a fair bit about the levels of graphics cards and processors as i have done a fair bit of research and kept an eye on the market, read some reviews, but..

At the end of the day i don't really know what i should purchase to get the most out of my budget.

I have seen that ssd drives are now the in thing and are superb with booting up windows and games fast, however with my budget it might not be something thats worth it? i could maybe add that in at a later date.

I would also consider using a gpu which i could crossfire at a later date maybe in a couple of years when i need to keep up with the times. I assume its an easy enough process to install another card?

I would also mention i have a copy of windows already. would this restrict me to anything purchasing a rig without an os installed?

Thank you for your time reading my wall of text. If i have missed anything i will be keeping a keen eye on this thread.

 

[RJC]

Hello and welcome to the forum

Can I ask if your operating system is 64bit?

I have come up with the spec below and included SSD.


Your basket
Product Name Qty Price Line Total
MSI HD 7850 Twin Frozr III OC 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Cards £179.99
(£149.99) £179.99
(£149.99)
Intel Core i5-3570K 3.40GHz (Ivybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor (77W) - Retail £173.99
(£144.99) £173.99
(£144.99)
Gigabyte Z77X-D3H Intel Z77 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £104.99
(£87.49) £104.99
(£87.49)
BeQuiet Pure Power L8 630W '80 Plus Bronze' Modular Power Supply - With 120mm Silent Wing Fan Built in £79.99
(£66.66) £79.99
(£66.66)
Crucial RealSSD M4 64GB 2.5 SATA 6Gb/s Solid State Hard Drive (CT064M4SSD2) £67.99
(£56.66) £67.99
(£56.66)
Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 500GB SATA 6Gb/s 16MB Cache - OEM (ST500DM002) £56.99
(£47.49) £56.99
(£47.49)
Corsair XMS3 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (CMX8GX3M2A1600C9) £41.99
(£34.99) £41.99
(£34.99)
BitFenix Merc Beta Gaming Case - Black £31.99
(£26.66) £31.99
(£26.66)
Corsair A50 High-Performance CPU Cooler (Socket AM2/AM3/LGA775/LGA1155/LGA1156/LGA1366) £26.99
(£22.49) £26.99
(£22.49)
Samsung SH-S222BB/BEBE 22x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £14.99
(£12.49) £14.99
(£12.49)
Logitech Ultra-Flat Keyboard (967653-0120) £12.98
(£10.82) £12.98
(£10.82)
* Sub Total : £660.73
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 : £134.50
* Total : £806.98

 

[Idleman]

Another alternative.

YOUR BASKET
1 x MSI HD 7850 Twin Frozr III OC 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Cards £179.99
1 x Intel Core i5-3570K 3.40GHz (Ivybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor (77W) - Retail £173.99
1 x Gigabyte Z77X-D3H Intel Z77 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £104.99
1 x Crucial RealSSD M4 64GB 2.5 SATA 6Gb/s Solid State Hard Drive (CT064M4SSD2) £67.99
1 x Cooler Master Silent Pro Modular 600W '80 Plus Bronze' Power Supply £65.99
1 x Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 500GB SATA 6Gb/s 16MB Cache - OEM (ST500DM002) £56.99
1 x Corsair XMS3 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (CMX8GX3M2A1600C9) £41.99
1 x BitFenix Merc Alpha Gaming Case - Black £31.99
1 x Microsoft SideWinder X4 Gaming Keyboard - Retail (JQD-00006) £29.99
1 x Gelid Tranquillo CPU Cooler (Socket 754/939/940/AM2/AM2+/AM3/LGA775/LGA1155/LGA1156/LGA1366) £25.99
1 x Samsung SH-S222BB/BEBE 22x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £14.99
Total : £809.88 (includes shipping : £12.50).

 

[honosuseri]

We are going to be spec'ing you components as it's the best way to get bang for buck when you build yourself. CHeck the warranties on the parts they are almost always much more than one year, PSUs can have a 5 year warranty for example. There are plenty of how-to videos on youtube and a good build guide on the forum too.

YOUR BASKET
1 x MSI HD 7850 Twin Frozr III OC 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Cards £179.99
1 x Intel Core i5-3570K 3.40GHz (Ivybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor (77W) - Retail £173.99
1 x Gigabyte Z77X-D3H Intel Z77 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £104.99
1 x Crucial RealSSD M4 128GB 2.5" SATA 6Gb/s Solid State Hard Drive (CT128M4SSD2) £88.99
1 x Cooler Master Silent Pro Modular 600W '80 Plus Bronze' Power Supply £65.99
1 x Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 500GB SATA 6Gb/s 16MB Cache - OEM (ST500DM002) £56.99
1 x Zalman Z9 Plus Tower Case with Fan Controller - Black £52.99
1 x Corsair XMS3 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (CMX8GX3M2A1600C9) £41.99
1 x Samsung SH-S222BB/BEBE 22x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £14.99
Total : £795.90 (includes shipping : £12.50).



That's my take for £800. I have left out the keyboard and no aftermarket cooler, partly because it saved money and secondly for your first build you may find it easier with the stock heatsink.

Case has 4 120mm fans, fan controller with digital temp display and cable management. PSU is modular and has enough "juice" for a second 7850 and the mobo allows you to use two GPUs properly.

I included a bigger SSD as frankly i dont think 60GBish is enough. Once you get the OS on and considering some games can take upto 10GB+, the bigger drive makes sense.....it also writes faster than it's baby brother too

Hope this helps, I'm sure you'll have more questions. Please feel free to ask

 

[Gnerf]

Wow, yes i have many questions.

Firstly my os is 64 bit yes.

Secondly and the most importantly, do you really think i can build one myself? i must admit i have been interested in doing this, but it seems very scary with the money spent, i would be worried about messing something up. Im quite a careful person and quite good at working with delicate things, but i have done nothing more than plug in a graphics card or two, clear out fans and such with compressed air and bought a new hard drive and connected it. But thats not brain surgery, its just having a look what use to be there and using common sense

What about in terms of stress testing and such on a home build, i literally have no idea how to do this, or installing bios etc. I would be interested in having a read up on it but will this save me a lot of money?

Im just trying to think what else to ask.

 

[honosuseri]

64bit is good, that means you can use more than 4GB of RAM.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d_56kyib-Ls&src_vid=lPIXAtNGGCw&annotation_id=newegg_annotation_92066&feature=iv

It's also wise to look for reviews of the stuff we suggest, google is your friend

Does that video seem daunting?

 

[Idleman]

Secondly and the most importantly, do you really think i can build one myself?

With a little research and some good common sense, anyone can. There is also enough info in the manual to help. You could download the manual and have a good read before it comes. Also the link hono gave is very informative.

 

[Gnerf]

the funniest thing is that i watched that video before you linked it. Doesnt look daunting at all to be honest, the worse bit seems to be the connecting to the PSU.

I have a question though. Looking at the builds you suggested and then looking at this as an example there doesn't seem to be much in price difference, unless i'm missing something.

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=FS-247-OE&groupid=43&catid=2040&subcat=1444

Obviously in this setup you cannot select the 7850 so i would obviously choose to buy a separate card and install it myself. Or would that be stupid?

in fact looking at the additional £179 it does seem to be slightly more expensive than the setups you gave me. However this has been OC i think, and obviously its been built to a good standard by the company.

Not really sure what to do. What would you suggest. If i could save a fair bit i would opt to build myself. Not really sure of the exact calculations though.

 

[Idleman]

YOUR BASKET
1 x Intel Core i5-3570K 3.40GHz (Ivybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor (77W) - Retail £173.99
1 x Gigabyte Z77-D3H Intel Z77 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £84.98
1 x Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 64-Bit - OEM (GFC-02050) £72.00
1 x Prolimatech Super Mega CPU Cooler (Socket LGA775/LGA1155/LGA1156/LGA1366) £59.99
1 x OCZ ZS Series 650W '80 Plus Bronze' Power Supply £59.99
1 x Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 500GB SATA 6Gb/s 16MB Cache - OEM (ST500DM002) £56.99
1 x Samsung Green (MV-3V4G3D/US) 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C11 1600MHz 30nm Dual Channel Kit £53.99
1 x NZXT Source 210 Elite Midi Tower Case - White £44.99
1 x ATI Radeon HD 5450 SILENT 512MB GDDR3 PCI-Express Graphics Card £22.99
1 x LG GH22NS90 24x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £18.98
Total : £663.89 (includes shipping : £12.50).



You have to buy a fan(s) separately for the cooler, which makes it nearly £70.
I think if you are confident enough, buy the parts you want within your budget and build it yourself.

 

[honosuseri]

the funniest thing is that i watched that video before you linked it. Doesnt look daunting at all to be honest, the worse bit seems to be the connecting to the PSU.

I have a question though. Looking at the builds you suggested and then looking at this as an example there doesn't seem to be much in price difference, unless i'm missing something.

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=FS-247-OE&groupid=43&catid=2040&subcat=1444

Obviously in this setup you cannot select the 7850 so i would obviously choose to buy a separate card and install it myself. Or would that be stupid?

in fact looking at the additional £179 it does seem to be slightly more expensive than the setups you gave me. However this has been OC i think, and obviously its been built to a good standard by the company.

Not really sure what to do. What would you suggest. If i could save a fair bit i would opt to build myself. Not really sure of the exact calculations though.

First off that prebuild doesn't have a mobo that does Xfire/SLI properly, which you said you liked the idea of having and you are forgetting the warranty fella. You linked that prebuild with a standard 1 year warranty for £642. If you add the 36 month warranty option it's £792. Click on the CPU we spec'd, see at the bottom it has a 3 year warranty. The XFX PSUs have 5 years, OCZ has 3 years as does the 7850 GPU we suggested to you.....that's included in the price, not sold as an extra

I think you could build it yourself and we are more than willing to help you through the process should you have any problems or questions. The real fun is tailoring it to your tastes and needs, that's only really something you can do, we can only make suggestions.

 

[Gnerf]

Ahh I see.. I am getting more interested in building my own. I have another question regarding crossfire. Do I have to use the exact same manufacturer of card and model so in this case another msi 7850 froze.. Iii or hat ever it's called, or can I use another 7850.. My only concern would be getting hold of the same thing, but I'm sure it's not like they will just stop making that individual card?

Also with an after market CPU cooler, is the heat spread paste hard to apply. It looks easy enough on the videos, I think that and sorting out the psu cables and tidying the case and thinking ahead will be the hardest part.

 

[Doomedspeed]

Ahh I see.. I am getting more interested in building my own. I have another question regarding crossfire. Do I have to use the exact same manufacturer of card and model so in this case another msi 7850 froze.. Iii or hat ever it's called, or can I use another 7850.. My only concern would be getting hold of the same thing, but I'm sure it's not like they will just stop making that individual card?

Also with an after market CPU cooler, is the heat spread paste hard to apply. It looks easy enough on the videos, I think that and sorting out the psu cables and tidying the case and thinking ahead will be the hardest part.

You don't have to get the same make no, though clock speed is determined by the lowest of both the cards.
say the TFIV has a clock speed of 900mhz
If you second card has a speed of 860mhz

Your PC will only run on 860 Mhz. Its not a huge problem because you can still overclock. It would just look nicer to get two the same.

The paste is easy to apply, like you say theres a lot of videos, just make sure you follow one of them and you'll be fine.

 

[honosuseri]

Also with an after market CPU cooler, is the heat spread paste hard to apply. It looks easy enough on the videos, I think that and sorting out the psu cables and tidying the case and thinking ahead will be the hardest part.

Depends on the cooler, some have the paste preapplied (like the stock heatsink does) other come with a tube of paste you need to apply. As you saw from the video these coolers are quite large and need a bracket mounted behind the mobo which the cooler is then screwed down onto.

I left out the aftermarket heatsink to help simplify your first build. Instead I paid a lil more for a better case than my fellow forum buddies. The Z9 has more fans, better cable management and it comes with an extension for the aux power on the mobo to help you route it behind it. There is also a cut out behind the mobo so you can get behind it to mount the brackets for an aftermarket heatsink without pulling it all apart.

You can still overclock using the stock heatsink (let's say to 4Ghz). Because the Z9 has more fans the stock heatsink will have an easier time keeping cool. We have all suggested modular PSUs so you dont have an excess of cables to worry about tidying up. I actually own the Bequiet L8 RJC spec'd but I paid £60ish for it not £80 (yes from here). It's a great PSU but not really worth the extra over the Coolmaster in my eyes.

Obviously if you want an aftermarket heatsink from the get go I'm not going to say no. If you weren't bothered about Xfire I would have used the cheaper mobo and had enough cash to add one to my build. As you can see there is always some "wiggle room" and what we choose is often determined by the weekly or daily offers.....so we can get you the best bang for buck

 

[Gnerf]

I see. I may keep the standard cooler for now then and add one at a later date. I like the look of the Zalman case, from past experiences with my current base unit i do like the look of plenty of fans and the easier cable management will help me.

I don't think theres much else to ask, i'm going to have a think about it and ask somebody i know who has done one before. Gonna price up a few things and sort out what's what and see where i go from here.

Is there any final tips you may have?

 

[honosuseri]

I see. I may keep the standard cooler for now then and add one at a later date. I like the look of the Zalman case, from past experiences with my current base unit i do like the look of plenty of fans and the easier cable management will help me.

I don't think theres much else to ask, i'm going to have a think about it and ask somebody i know who has done one before. Gonna price up a few things and sort out what's what and see where i go from here.

Is there any final tips you may have?

Tell us what you are buying before you pay. This allows us to double check the offers and make sure you aren't paying over the odds.

If you go with the Z9, I remove the fan off the side of the case and move it to the top next to one of it's sister fans. Partly because you can see inside the case better, secondly the case is quieter if you move it and lastly hot air rises so it's nice to have dual 120mm fans sucking that hot air out......oh and you need to connect the power button behind the front panel of the case. I'm sure it says to do so in the manual but some people have managed to be stumped by it :/

 

[Gnerf]

i just thought, i have a 500gb hard drive on my current pc and a dvd rw that i can re-use i suppose, i mean the dvd rw is a few years old and the hard drive is 2 years old but i see no harm in using them again. Obviously i would check them out but they are all sata. Is it worth buying these 2 components new?

As regards to listing before i buy, i will do, thanks for your help, you all have been very helpful.

 

[Doomedspeed]

i just thought, i have a 500gb hard drive on my current pc and a dvd rw that i can re-use i suppose, i mean the dvd rw is a few years old and the hard drive is 2 years old but i see no harm in using them again. Obviously i would check them out but they are all sata. Is it worth buying these 2 components new?

If the ones in your current system are gonna sit in a draw, its not worth buying new. They will work and able you to great a better pc for the money.

 

[Gnerf]

Ok, taking that into consideration, this is what i have got. I like the look of the Zalman, unless theres any alternatives out there for around 50 quid.

I have everything else.

Currently is this about as best value for money i can get? i have managed to get it to around £650 which is fantastic. The only other thing i may purchase is the Crucial RealSSD M4 128GB 2.5" SATA 6Gb/s Solid State Hard Drive which will bump it up just over 720.

I have never used an ssd before, i assume it will fit into the zalman easy enough and just connect as a normal sata hard drive?

Also is that PSU going to be good enough to Xfire another 7850 in the future?

Thanks.

 

[honosuseri]

Yes the PSU has ample juice to Xfire. The 600W modular PSU i spec'd earlier would do too

The Z9s only real downside is the lack of USB3 ports. You can mount two 2.5 inch drives (SSDs are 2,5), one is located behind the mobo and one can go in the internal 3.5 inch bay and yes they use a sata cable. The bitfenix shinobi USB3 case is a lil cheaper but you get fewer fans as a trade off for the USB3 ports.

If you get the SSD you will want the OS installed to it. Only have the SSD connected when you do the install of windows, you can plug the storage HDD back in afterwards. ALso make sure you are set to ACHI mode in the sata settings of the BIOS.

 

[Gnerf]

You know what, I meant to add the modular one anyway as I would prefer a choice of cables over stuffing unwanted ones anywhere.

I have no idea what achii mode is but if I have problems I will ask here nearer the time!

I have just remembered another question, will I need to order any other cables and bits and bobs while I'm at it. Any additional power cables etc?