Building a new PC

ricsksname

ricsksname

ricsksname

Associate
Joined
1 May 2011
Posts
15
Evening all! I need help.

Planning to build a new box pretty soon. It's been nearly five years since the last one and damn am I rusty. I'm planning to spend around 800 quid, ideally. I could maybe stretch to 1000 if it's really worth doing.

I'm mainly looking for a PC for gaming and 3D rendering. But hardware has moved on so much since my last build that I'm pretty much lost.

If anyone can offer a spec, or just some advice, I'd bloody appreciate it!

Thanks.
 
do you need an operating system, or any peripherals (mouse, monitor, etc)

also, will you be stealing anything from your current PC (DVD and HDD drives are probably all you will be able to use. you might be able to salvage the PSU, depending on what brand and power output it is)
 
I don't need any peripherals, though I'll likely just start anew with the box itself. I've put a quick spec together myself, am I making any terrible mistakes with this?


Case: Fractal Design Define XL Full Tower Case - Titanium Grey

Power Supply: Corsair Enthusiast Series TX 650W V2 High Performance Power Supply

Motherboard: Asus P67 Sabertooth Intel P67 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard - (Sandybridge) ** B3 REVISION **

Processor: Intel Core i7-2600 3.40GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor

Graphics Card: Gigabyte GeForce GTX 560Ti SUPER OC 1024MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card

RAM: Corsair Vengeance 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit

HDD: Seagate Barracuda Green 2TB SATA 6Gb/s Hard Drive

Sound Card: Asus Xonar DG 5.1 PCI Sound Card with built in Headphone Amp

Optical Drive: Samsung SH-S223C/BEBE 22x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black)


Total price: £942.89
 
No real point in the sound card tbh, the onboard sound is pretty win with that board. Everything else is pretty spot on. :)
 
Get the K series chip so you can overclock (unless you don't want to, of course).

And there's been a few complaints about ASUS Mobos on here, so you may want to change that, although I don't know much about this myself seeing as I have a Gigabyte ;)
 
Onboard sound is decent these days? It's fairly useless on the board I'm using now, but it is getting on a bit.

I was concerned that the graphics card and RAM might not be a fair match for the processor. I take it these are actually a decent fit, then?

Also, should I worry about any further cooling?

Thanks!
 
The card's good for gaming, especially if you're thinking of adding another in the future. The RAM is well enough for gaming, not sure about rendering as I can't say I've ever done it, although I'm sure a google search could help.
 
Intel Core i7-2600K 3.40GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor with FREE Operation Flashpoint Red River Game Intel Core i7-2600K 3.40GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor with FREE Operation Flashpoint Red River Game £239.99
(£199.99) £239.99
(£199.99)
MSI ATI Radeon HD 6950 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card MSI ATI Radeon HD 6950 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £199.99
(£166.66) £199.99
(£166.66)
MSI P67A-C45 Intel P67 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard - (Sandybridge) ** B3 REVISION ** MSI P67A-C45 Intel P67 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard - (Sandybridge) ** B3 REVISION ** £99.98
(£83.32) £99.98
(£83.32)
Fractal Design Define XL Full Tower Case - Titanium Grey Fractal Design Define XL Full Tower Case - Titanium Grey £84.98
(£70.82) £84.98
(£70.82)
Corsair XMS3 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (CMX8GX3M2A1600C9) Corsair XMS3 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (CMX8GX3M2A1600C9) £79.99
(£66.66) £79.99
(£66.66)
OCZ Agility Series 60GB 2.5" SATA-II Solid State Hard Drive (OCZSSD2-1AGT60G) OCZ Agility Series 60GB 2.5" SATA-II Solid State Hard Drive (OCZSSD2-1AGT60G) £71.99
(£59.99) £71.99
(£59.99)
XFX Pro 650W Core Edition Power Supply XFX Pro 650W Core Edition Power Supply £65.99
(£54.99) £65.99
(£54.99)
Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 1TB SATA 6Gb/s 32MB Cache - OEM (ST31000524AS) Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 1TB SATA 6Gb/s 32MB Cache - OEM (ST31000524AS) £43.99
(£36.66) £43.99
(£36.66)
Akasa AK-CCX-4002HP Venom CPU Cooler (Socket LGA775/LGA1155/LGA1156/LGA1366/AM2/AM3) Akasa AK-CCX-4002HP Venom CPU Cooler (Socket LGA775/LGA1155/LGA1156/LGA1366/AM2/AM3) £38.99
(£32.49) £38.99
(£32.49)
Sub Total : £771.58
Shipping cost assumes delivery to UK Mainland with:
DPD Next Day Parcel
(This can be changed during checkout) Shipping : £14.75
VAT is being charged at 20.00% VAT : £157.27
Total : £943.60

Could go for something like this. The mobo won't allow you to go crossfire, but I wouldn't bother anyway. I'd just unlock the 6950 to a 6970.

Also put in a 60GB SSD in there which will be big enough for windows 64 bit and most of your programmes.

8GB RAM and i7 2600K are probably the best combo you're going to get for some 3D rendering, although you could go for higher clocking RAM, but 1600 should be plentiful really.
 
Excellent, I'll get that one then (processor)!

I'd like to keep the PC as compact as possible (Current one is bloody massive!). Will I be ok for space using this case?

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CA-008-FD


EDIT: To the previous poster, will having windows installed on a SSD make a significant impact on performance? Also, I see the graphics card you've listed actually has double the memory, despite being cheaper than the nvidia card I picked. How do the two cards compare and is video memory that important?
 
Last edited:
Yeah it'll be big enough. Although its exactly the same money for its bigger brother. I'd go for the bigger one just for the airflow.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom