Check my spec :)

naudiz · 2 Jan 2012 at 17:12

Hey guys. Building a new PC for CS:GO, Diablo 3 and Starcraft 2. I've got most of the spec down, just a few things I'm not too sure on. Mainly the power supply and the motherboard. Since I'm not planning on clocking, am I right in thinking that I should be alright with the cheapest motherboard? Any suggestions for a power supply?

Ideally my limit is around £600.

Thanks guys!

beejjacobs · 2 Jan 2012 at 17:18

Any reason you're not planning on overclocking? It is quite straight forward on the sandybridge CPUs. Even if you don't at first it seems to make sense to be able to?

Hard drives are very expensive atm. Do you need one? Any old SATA ones spare?

naudiz · 2 Jan 2012 at 17:34

Not per se, just that I know to get a decent motherboard that can handle clocking will cost a bit more. I've had other Core 2 Duo/Quad's that I've overclockered, so I know it's doable

Mmm I know about the hard drives. Unfortunately this is a completely new build for me, I sold off my old computer a year or so ago, so no old parts lurking anywhere

/\ndy · 2 Jan 2012 at 21:37

I'd save a few £££ and get the i3 equivalent if your not overclocking, nice £70 saving, then again I guess it depends if you're really going to benefit from the 2 extra cores?

olivier renault · 2 Jan 2012 at 22:37

PSU is too weak.

I would go with something more balanced, personally. £20 saving using the CM voucher (case + PSU), and maybe upgrade GPU, but then I would think the PSU needs upgrading as well. SCII, Diablo 3, CS:GO aren't very graphically intensive. SCII likes a fast CPU, but a 2500K maybe OTT.

YOUR BASKET
1 x Intel Core i5-2500K 3.30GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor - OEM £161.99
1 x EVGA GeForce GTX 460 Superclocked 1024MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £113.99
1 x Gigabyte Z68AP-D3 Intel Z68 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £81.38
1 x Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 500GB SATA 6Gb/s 16MB Cache - OEM (ST500DM002) £71.99
1 x Cooler Master HAF 912 Case - Black £52.99
1 x Cooler Master Silent Pro Modular 500W '80 Plus Bronze' Power Supply £49.99
1 x Crucial Ballistix Sport 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C10 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (BL2KIT51264BA160A) £34.99
1 x Zaward Vapor 120 Multi Socket CPU Cooler (Socket: LGA775/LGA1156/LGA366/AM2/AM2+/AM3/754/939/940) £17.99
1 x LG GH22NS70 24x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £14.99
Total : £612.90 (includes shipping : £10.50).

MHarrison94 · 2 Jan 2012 at 22:45

panyan · 2 Jan 2012 at 22:48

olivier renault said:
YOUR BASKET
1 x Intel Core i5-2500K 3.30GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor - OEM £161.99
1 x EVGA GeForce GTX 460 Superclocked 1024MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £113.99
1 x Gigabyte Z68AP-D3 Intel Z68 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £81.38
1 x Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 500GB SATA 6Gb/s 16MB Cache - OEM (ST500DM002) £71.99
1 x Cooler Master HAF 912 Case - Black £52.99
1 x Cooler Master Silent Pro Modular 500W '80 Plus Bronze' Power Supply £49.99
1 x Crucial Ballistix Sport 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C10 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (BL2KIT51264BA160A) £34.99
1 x Zaward Vapor 120 Multi Socket CPU Cooler (Socket: LGA775/LGA1156/LGA366/AM2/AM2+/AM3/754/939/940) £17.99
1 x LG GH22NS70 24x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £14.99
Total : £612.90 (includes shipping : £10.50).

i'd go for this - very tasty

olivier renault · 2 Jan 2012 at 22:51

Oh and Blizzard games prefer Nvidia as well.

dotdrew · 2 Jan 2012 at 23:05

My suggestion would be to get rid of the HDD and get a 60GB SSD, wait for HDD prices to come down or add one later on.

Cleeecooo · 2 Jan 2012 at 23:10

dotdrew said:
My suggestion would be to get rid of the HDD and get a 60GB SSD, wait for HDD prices to come down or add one later on.

problem is, 60GB is easily filled

Subliminal Aura · 3 Jan 2012 at 01:34

Cleeecooo said:
problem is, 60GB is easily filled

Too many arguments caused by this topic. All I can say is that if you can tune or slipstream the windows install then it's ample or alternatively if you're using a proper operating system like pinguy os then you're laughing.

naudiz · 3 Jan 2012 at 06:52

Thanks Olivier, that seems like a pretty solid build

CrixxzeH · 3 Jan 2012 at 12:49

olivier renault said:
YOUR BASKET
1 x Intel Core i5-2500K 3.30GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor - OEM £161.99
1 x EVGA GeForce GTX 460 Superclocked 1024MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £113.99
1 x Gigabyte Z68AP-D3 Intel Z68 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £81.38
1 x Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 500GB SATA 6Gb/s 16MB Cache - OEM (ST500DM002) £71.99
1 x Cooler Master HAF 912 Case - Black £52.99
1 x Cooler Master Silent Pro Modular 500W '80 Plus Bronze' Power Supply £49.99
1 x Crucial Ballistix Sport 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C10 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (BL2KIT51264BA160A) £34.99
1 x Zaward Vapor 120 Multi Socket CPU Cooler (Socket: LGA775/LGA1156/LGA366/AM2/AM2+/AM3/754/939/940) £17.99
1 x LG GH22NS70 24x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £14.99
Total : £612.90 (includes shipping : £10.50).

would suggest this case if you dident like the white inside the HAF case, this option is slightly cheaper.. in my opinion looks better, just thought I would throw it out their http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CA-037-ZA&groupid=701&catid=7&subcat=736

blacblu · 3 Jan 2012 at 12:53

Seems nice. But I would take another memory.

naudiz · 3 Jan 2012 at 13:02

I was personally going to go for the cheapest 4gb available

naudiz · 3 Jan 2012 at 13:17

Looking at the case/power supply (on my lunch break

) I'm not too keen on the looks of the cooler master HAF, my old case was a Lian Li but there's no way I'm gonna fit something like that in my price bracket. I'd love something similar though, simple and clean lines.

As for the power supply, any good brand around the 500w mark should be alright shouldn't it?

beejjacobs · 3 Jan 2012 at 13:22

Maybe this is you want clean lines:
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CA-008-BX&groupid=701&catid=7&subcat=1850

Also, yes. Those Cooler Master ones are good for the price, and it's nice to have modular.

olivier renault · 3 Jan 2012 at 15:17

Or this

Actually cheaper than the HAF and the PSU.

I kinda agree about the ballistics, but that's the only 8GB that I could fit in budget. You could probably go 4GB though.

olivier renault · 3 Jan 2012 at 15:22

naudiz said:
Looking at the case/power supply (on my lunch break ) I'm not too keen on the looks of the cooler master HAF, my old case was a Lian Li but there's no way I'm gonna fit something like that in my price bracket. I'd love something similar though, simple and clean lines.

As for the power supply, any good brand around the 500w mark should be alright shouldn't it?

Not necessary. I wouldn't recommend the Corsair CX with that GPU. YOu need to look at the power distribution, and how much power it can deliver to the CPU and GPU (12V rail, 34A is about the minimum). But in general, if the PSU is designed for gaming and well designed, 500W will be enough. The best example would probably be the Antec TP-550, which used to be much cheaper and would have been my recommendation. It's good enough to power up to a GTX 570 rig.

The GX above is not the best, but it's still adequate, even for a more powerful graphics card. And the CM 690 II used to be the best bang for bucks you could get (that would be the Zalman Z9+ or the HAF 912 now, I recon). So both combined under £100, with your requirements, it's a no brainer.

In the end, that would be my £600 build (a shade above, but you should qualify for free delivery) :
YOUR BASKET
1 x Intel Core i5-2500K 3.30GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor - OEM £161.99
1 x EVGA GeForce GTX 460 Superclocked 1024MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £113.99
1 x Cooler Master CM-690 II Lite Dominator Case with GX650w Power Supply £99.98
1 x Gigabyte Z68AP-D3 Intel Z68 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £81.38
1 x Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 500GB SATA 6Gb/s 16MB Cache - OEM (ST500DM002) £71.99
1 x Crucial Ballistix Sport 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C10 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (BL2KIT51264BA160A) £34.99
1 x Zaward Vapor 120 Multi Socket CPU Cooler (Socket: LGA775/LGA1156/LGA366/AM2/AM2+/AM3/754/939/940) £17.99
1 x LG GH22NS70 24x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £14.99
Total : £611.40 (includes shipping : £11.75).

The Zalward Vapor would be good enough for a decent overclock (4.2, 4.4 GHz), but the Gelid Tranquillo is still the best cheap cooler. It's quite big though, the Zalward is thinner. More like my MUX-120 in terms of design. Another good one is the Hyper 212+ Evo.

naudiz · 3 Jan 2012 at 17:01

Thanks for all the help/advice Olivier

Looks like I'm gonna have to hold off till January pay date now, Christmas was more expensive that I thought

But I'm definately gonna use that build maybe with a few tweaks (Y)