Building a PC - have I forgotten anything??

dirtychinchilla said:
Those are great, thanks man. I'll have a look at these benchmarks if anyone manages to find them and then make a better decision in that respect.

What I'm taking from what you've said though is that I need to be more careful about the cpu, mb and the gpu...right? The other parts I can get away with being strongly budget on.

I'm glad I came to you guys, I would have order that first set up without thinking otherwise
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Finding the right balance is important. One component you must not skimp on is the PSU. Getting a cheap PSU will eventually result in a loud bang, fried components and lots of tears :o

Here is a good review of the 560.... http://www.hardwarecanucks.com/foru...366-nvidia-geforce-gtx-560-1gb-review-13.html

An equally good review of the 460... http://www.hardwarecanucks.com/reviews/video_cards/nvidia-geforce-gtx-460-1gb-gtx-460-768mb-review/

Your only looking at roughly 20% difference in performance, some of which could be made up by OC. A 460 at £109 would be ideal for gaming. Got one myself and having no problems at all!

Cant find a review of the i5 2300 but here is a comparison... http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/363?vs=88
 
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@xNytramx I'm completely new to overclocking; is that system likely to overclock well as it's definitely something I'd be looking at doing, with added water cooling in the future.

Regarding the sandybridge, could someone tell me what's so important about it?? It's quite apparent that it's very popular with you guys.

I'm NOT looking for a monitor btw, I've got one already. And I'll definitely be buying a PSU, don't want to skimp on that.
 
dirtychinchilla said:
Regarding the sandybridge, could someone tell me what's so important about it?? It's quite apparent that it's very popular with you guys.
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Cause SandyBridge CPU would deliver better frame rate by quite a bit than the Phenom II CPU, plus much more energy efficient and cooler running.

Hell, even the SandyBridge dual-core 2100 at stock speed deliver simliar frame rate as a Phenom II X4 980BE (3.7GHz) in games that would use all 4 cores such as BFBC2, and in other games that don't use all 4 cores, the SandyBridge i3 2100 would deliver higher frame rate than the Phenom II X4 at 3.7GHz. Also, the i3 2100 only consume around half the power of the Phenom II X4 980BE (i3 2100 TDP 65W vs Phenom II X4 980BE 3.7GHz TDP 140W).
 
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Ok Dirty, this is very important when looking at SandyBridge

That extra 'K' means it has an unlocked multiplier which allows you to overclock it.
If there is no 'K' they you cannot overclock it.

The sandybridge has proven to be extremly stable with basic cooling at a good 20-30% overclock. Commonly people get the 2500K @3.3 Ghz and clock it to 4.2-4.6 stable with a decent £40 CPU cooler.

So what you need to do now is really revise what you can afford to spend on this new system. If it essential you get it this year as IvyBridge is on the horrizon (March 2012 I think) which will have ~20% more CPU power than Sandy and 30% more GPU Power with the onboard graphics that comes with the H67 and Z68 boards.

So;
Maximum budget,
Time you can wait till you buy,
Do you need an OS, Speakers, headset or other peripheral devices?

Then we'll do you another re-spec :)

i5-2300 = £135
i5-2500K = £168 this is the chip you want - 3.3Ghz stock and clocks to 4.4Ghz nicely.
 
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That's great to know, thank you. I'll watch out for the Ks.

Maximum budget is still £450 could push it to 460, 470 I expect.

I should swiftly be able to upgrade the GPU though so that's not critical. Because my laptop broke this morning I'm looking to quickly replace it but I can't spend too much right now. I may have to wait but I'm not sure currently.

I don't need any peripherals, an OS or anything else you've mentioned there. Just the tower and hardware.

Thanks!
 
Hmmmmm Ok,

Intel Core i5-2500K 3.30GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor£161.99
(£134.99)
Asrock Z68 Extreme4 Intel Z68 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard
£139.99
(£116.66)
Lepa W-Series 500W '80 Plus' Power Supply
£49.99
(£41.66)
Samsung SpinPoint F3 500GB SATA-II 16MB Cache - OEM (HD502HJ)
£31.99
(£26.66)
Corsair XMS3 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (CMX4GX3M2A1600C9)
£30.98
(£25.82)
Cooler Master Elite 335 Case - Black
£29.99
(£24.99)
LiteOn IHAS124-19 24x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM
£16.99
(£14.16)
Sub Total : £384.94
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 : £79.24
Total : £475.43

Alright mate. This is the plan, although this is partly new to me as well I think it might be a really good option.

I've specced you a good Z68 board there with the 2500K chip. The Z68 boards allow you to Overclock your chip and also run decent onboard graphics through your chip. Ok so you wont be able to play games at max or maybe even mid settings but this will give you a PC and allow you time to gather some money for a good Gfx card. It just isnt worth paying 6-70quid now just to replace it 2 months down the line.
The Z68 board also allows you to get a small SSD in future, install your OS on it and then use SSD Caching. SSD Caching you can lookup on Anandtech and elseware but basically your HDD cache's data on the SSD so programs you run frequently are accessed at SSD speeds even though the data is saved to your HDD.

It would be great to get someone else's opinion on this option but I think it suites your situation well.
The only amendment I'd make to my spec above is a stronger PSU 500W depending on the quality may not support your system in say 2 years if you put 2 or 3 graphics cards in it. Till then it'll be fine.

You will be getting top quality hardware now and then with some more money in a little while you can add a top quality GPU to it aswell :)
 
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@xNtramx That's looks brilliant and very powerful, definitely what I'm looking for with the option of upgrading the GPU! Good plan man, that processor would overclock to about 4.4GHz right? Thanks a lot! I'd like to hear what other people think of it too though.

@Buchanan0204 I was going to buy it because it's the cheapest case, and then replace the PSU. I'm not sure if I really checked for good value there though haha!
 
Last thing before I head to bed,

When the first H67 boards were released with HD3000 onboard graphics they were benchmarking around the same as using a Radeon 5450, oldschool yes but it great for onboard. They use software called Lucid Virtu - it tells your board to use the Chip to run the grpahics when its not under much graphical stress and then to use the discrete(GPU) graphics when it is stressed, thats as simple as I can put it. You will have to play games on low or lowest but I honestly think it's worth it till you can afford a nice £120-160ish graphics card and then later a 60gb SSD.

Onboard HD -> Grahpics card = On Steroids
Onboard HD -> Graphics card + SSD = On steroids + speed lol

Alright my eyes are burning, been up since 4am for the last 2 weeks on the rigs and have 1 more day left yay!

P.S. 4.4Ghz is an easy, stable OC some people get it to 4.8 and higher with decent cooler and some tweaking

Will checkout what gets posted tomorrow night mate
 
Hey guys,

What I'm thinking is that I'll salvage and old case and dvd RW drive to save some money, and get all the other stuff you've recommended.

So I think this is the final purchase list:

Intel Core i5-2500K 3.30GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor - OEM £167.99
(£139.99) £167.99
(£139.99)
Asrock Z68 Extreme4 Intel Z68 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard Asrock Z68 Extreme4 Intel Z68 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £144.98
(£120.82) £144.98
(£120.82)
Lepa W-Series 500W '80 Plus' Power Supply Lepa W-Series 500W '80 Plus' Power Supply £49.99
(£41.66) £49.99
(£41.66)
Corsair XMS3 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (CMX4GX3M2A1600C9) Corsair XMS3 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (CMX4GX3M2A1600C9) £34.99
(£29.16) £34.99
(£29.16)
Samsung SpinPoint F3 500GB SATA-II 16MB Cache - OEM (HD502HJ) Samsung SpinPoint F3 500GB SATA-II 16MB Cache - OEM (HD502HJ) £32.98
(£27.48) £32.98
(£27.48)
Sub Total : £359.11

I'm just hoping the samsung galaxy s2 i've put on another site is going to sell!

Thanks for your help,
Jono
 
get the retail i5-2500k for £5 more and 3 years warranty instead of 1, you might not need the extra 2 years but its there when you need it.

if your not going to do dual gpu setup then you can save £40 by opting for the asrock pro3(then get the be quite L7 530w - £44).
if you do decide to go dual gpu setup then up the psu to something like the lepa b-series 750w(depending on the gpu's you want to use)

could also save a couple of quid by getting the Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 500GB which is on offer until wednesday morning.
 
Woah, hang on guys. I thought he wanted a computer that could play games and then you have pointed him in the direction of onboard graphics? Unless he is playing at about 1024x768, it is going to struggle to play most of the games made in the last few years with decent settings.

Yes, the 2500k is a monster CPU but I think a balance must be struck. I would strongly suggest looking back at post 17 where Reaper has suggested what I would think should be your options.

For example, MW2 is unplayable, black ops is unplayable, BFBC2 is barely playable, NFS: Shift is unplayable.
 
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yeah my fault, only skim read the thread, and when i saw the OPs spec which didnt include a GPU i thought onboard graphics would have been enough for him, for now anyway.
 
DJmartin said:
Woah, hang on guys. I thought he wanted a computer that could play games and then you have pointed him in the direction of onboard graphics? Unless he is playing at about 1024x768, it is going to struggle to play most of the games made in the last few years with decent settings.

Yes, the 2500k is a monster CPU but I think a balance must be struck. I would strongly suggest looking back at post 17 where Reaper has suggested what I would think should be your options.
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Read the thread;) use onboard for now, sort the card later, laptop has died so needs something right now.
 
stulid said:
Read the thread;) use onboard for now, sort the card later, laptop has died so needs something right now.
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I skim read it, just seemed to jump from having a graphics card to not and there didn't seem much communication with the OP as to whether this would be a good idea. He says "Yeah it would be great to have the option of upgrading the GPU" but I don't think he realises what he will be able to do straight away.

Could be wrong though
 
So I don't actually need that expensive motherboard? There's no chance of me putting in 2 graphics card. And the retail processor would be much better, I agree. I need to collect this information together a bit better haha!

My plan is, indeed, to use the onboard graphics for a little while until I can afford a graphics card - having a working computer is much more important to me right now than playing games.

The laptop is balls, it won't turn on! It's only 2 years old. I don't think I can sell it on though so I don't know whether it's worth me paying for someone to fix it...I hate the laptop with a passion. The number of times is closely avoided being smashed...
 
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