Computer Gradual Build, Workable?

Associate
Joined
25 Oct 2009
Posts
46
I have a budget of £400 now, however each month with each additional paycheck this increases by roughly the same amount. I would like a computer as soon as possible to play some awesome games on, however I understand I might need to wait a while before sufficient funds are availible.

I am wondering if I can slowly upgrade my current computer until eventually I have a totally new Tower of awesomeness. I know, however that most of it will probably be incompatible with current hardware so this might just not work. Here is my current system i'll have for salvage for temporary use whilst building new one:

NVIDIA GeForce 6600 GT (although i swear i bought a 6800... nvm)
AMD Athlon(tm) 64 Processor 3500+
Some big but reliable 14' monitor
120GB HDD
ASUS A8N-E 939 Mobo
Headset (w/ mic)
Antec Sonata case
Big metal heatsink

Not sure about PSU but i'm assuming it needs upgrading, sorry I can't be more specific on certain things. If it doesn't make sense to upgrade slowly and use parts of this machine then i'll just use it as a server or give it to a friend. (I'm not sure what a server is...)

Questions:
1) I want windows 7. Which windows 7 should I buy *assuming 64 bit*. I have read up on them and all I can find are box charts with ticks. I do not really understand what they are actually offering (the ultimate and home versions). Is the home premium good enough or do the others genuinely offer something worthwhile?

2) Future proofing... is there any point getting a £1000 computer now which'll be future proof for 3-4 years when a £500 now and a £500 in 30 months will probably never fail on me? Are my assumptions about this correct? I want to run games coming out right now on full with no slow down.

3) How much initially will I need if I delay buying a new sexy monitor, new sound system (I have no speakers since Headset works), nice webcam.

4) What's watercooling, how reliable and difficult to setup is it and is there any noticable difference between it and a regular heatsink if i'm not planning on overclocking or anything like that?

5) I don't need huge amounts of space. Keep my old 120GB as master and have a Solid State for games?

Here is what i'm looking for. Let me know if i'm looking for the ridiculous:


i7 Processor
a Beastly GFX card (or two)
4-8 GB of top notch RAM
a new mobo?
windows 7
Great Case
Great PSU
Awesome Heatsink/Watercooling
Speakers (sound card?)
anything stupidly obvious i've forgotten
New awesome flatscreen monitor
New HDD (Solid state? Don't need hoards of space )
 
I have a budget of £400 now.

i7 Processor
a Beastly GFX card (or two)
4-8 GB of top notch RAM
a new mobo?
windows 7
Great Case
Great PSU
Awesome Heatsink/Watercooling
Speakers (sound card?)
anything stupidly obvious i've forgotten
New awesome flatscreen monitor
New HDD (Solid state? Don't need hoards of space )

i7Spec.png


Lol £400...
 
[/img]

Lol £400...

I think you missed the point...

I have a budget of £400 now, however each month with each additional paycheck this increases by roughly the same amount. I would like a computer as soon as possible to play some awesome games on, however I understand I might need to wait a while before sufficient funds are availible.

It's doable but many will tell you to bank the money until it rolls into a big lump sum. I did what you suggested - bit at a time. It worked but I have many old p4 systems to play with in the meantime but it did take a lotof the excitement away.

It did mean that I was able to cherry pick from ocuk regular fantastic deals. Go and buy tghese now and stick them in the cupboard till next month then buy ram and psu. You should then be able to cobble together an i7 rig to further upgtade each month.

Try this from OCUK-

Month 1-

Intel Core i7 920 D0 Stepping (SLBEJ) 2.66Ghz (Nehalem) (Socket LGA1366) - Retail Intel Core i7 920 D0 Stepping (SLBEJ) 2.66Ghz (Nehalem) (Socket LGA1366) - Retail £207.99
Foxconn Blood Rage GTi Intel X58 (Socket 1366) PCI-Express DDR3 Motherboard Foxconn Blood Rage GTi Intel X58 (Socket 1366) PCI-Express DDR3 Motherboard £139.99
Corsair H50 High-Performance CPU Watercooler (Socket LGA775/1366) Corsair H50 High-Performance CPU Watercooler (Socket LGA775/1366) £59.49

Shipping cost assumes delivery to UK Mainland with:
DPD Next Day Parcel
(This can be changed during checkout) Shipping : £10.00
Total : £418.97

Month 2

Crucial M225 64GB 2.5" SATA-II Solid State Hard Drive (CT64M225) Crucial M225 64GB 2.5" SATA-II Solid State Hard Drive (CT64M225) £149.99
Corsair HX 850W ATX Modular SLI Compliant Power Supply (CMPSU-850HXUK) Corsair HX 850W ATX Modular SLI Compliant Power Supply (CMPSU-850HXUK) £135.99
OCZ Obsidian 6GB (3x2GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600Mhz Triple Channel Kit (OCZ3OB1600LV6GK) OCZ Obsidian 6GB (3x2GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600Mhz Triple Channel Kit (OCZ3OB1600LV6GK) £99.99

Shipping cost assumes delivery to UK Mainland with:
DPD Next Day Parcel
(This can be changed during checkout) Shipping : £9.50
Total : £396.90

Month 3 / xmas

Nice case - HAf / antec 902 / whatever you like
5870 hopefully around £250 by then



see what you think
 
I tend to upgrade things periodically, rather than all at once. It's workable. I would want to buy a set of things that I can put to use immediately however, a cpu and motherboard sitting idle for a month would do my head in. Therefore I think I would take a different approach to capri.

Case & psu in month 1, migrating current system into the new case, and running it off the new psu. This should leave £100+ for ram, so get this and leave it in a box for a bit.

CPU + motherboard in month 2 will hit £400 fairly comfortably, 920 D0 and gigabyte UD5 ideally. By this point you will have changed your stance on not overclocking, as it's rather straightforward these days and leads to an enormous improvement in performance. Move these + last months ram into the new case, continue using the 6600gt which I'm hoping is pci-e. At least a few of them are.

The remaining months can be done in any particular order, the above two leave you with a working but unbalanced system. Graphics will probably take a months budget off you, screen/speakers/soundcard vary so much in cost that I don't know what to estimate. Depends on you really, someone else will be able to advise on these but I cannot.

I would probably do:
3/Graphics card + monitor
4/Water cooling
5/SSD+hard drive+keyboard+mouse+speakers

I'll try to cover your specific questions as well. I'll be surprised if home premium isn't enough, try the windows forum for specifics. I'm still running XP. Future proofing doesn't really make sense in this field, however £500 now isn't going to run games perfectly. A grand upfront probably wouldn't either, if its including monitor etc. This is why a rolling upgrade cycle seems to work out well.

Watercooling. Computers run faster if you can keep them colder. Quite a lot faster, the i7 listed above will run comfortably at 4000mhz rather than 2660. Given that this is self evidently a good thing, the question is how to keep it cold. Air is cheap and loud, water is expensive and quiet. Water outperforms air considerably while making much less noise, however would probably mark a months budget by itself. Air cooling is around the £60 mark. Watercooling is satisfying and interesting in its own right, but does not win the performance per pound game by any stretch of the imagination. If competently put together I'd rate it as considerably more reliable than air cooling.

Your 120gb will work fine as an OS drive, performance is not going to thank you for it. Games on the ssd with OS on an antique ide drive is not the way to go.

edit: just realised the above comes out at 2k in the end. This may well be considerably over what you want to spend, in which case I'll try to come up with a revised plan.
 
As above it can be done but would be tricky
Could take one of above approches, personally Id get your peripherals first, new monitor speakers etc which can be used with new build then new gfx card and psu which could be used then rest
Alternatively if you wait amonth for £800 you can get a very solid build then add the new peripherals later
Also be aware that windows 7 OEM isnt meant to be transferred between systems, Im not sure what microsofts licensing is like atm but if I were you to be safe Id not install on old system (iirc the mobo defines the system)
 
If you need the PC now it may be worth getting a loan for a VERY short period of time to pay for it. Don't run it for more than a year and treat the loan arrangement fees, interest and costs of loan as part of the PC budget.
 
It may be an alien concept to 90% of the population these days (maybe this is why we are in an economic crisis) but why don't you just save up your money?

This way you can get the best gear thats available at the time and don't run the risk of buying something that will be redundant when you buy the rest of the parts?
 
It may be an alien concept to 90% of the population these days (maybe this is why we are in an economic crisis) but why don't you just save up your money?

This way you can get the best gear thats available at the time and don't run the risk of buying something that will be redundant when you buy the rest of the parts?

Actually, the main reason we are still in an economic crisis is because 90% of the population are NOT running themselves into debt and buying loads of stuff and services.

I would like to say however, that I am doing my bit for England :)
 
skeletonw00t,
Because it's a fairly common for someone saving up money to want to spend it on new stuff like a holiday for new years or a car. Yes, i'm weak and have a poor track record with saving money. I'm 90% of the Country. I'm not going to cut myself over it though. I'll look for solutions and embrace my inner weakness!

Thanks Jon and Capri. I'll look into this as it happens. I probably need more information on RAM and overclocking but other than that the two of you have pretty much answered all of my questions, for which i'm very grateful.

I'll be saving up at least £800 before I start building. I only have a question concerning overclocking. It's not safe and voids warranties? How difficult is it for someone who isn't used to this kind of thing to make sure your CPU isn't melting? (or whatever the problems that usually occur are...)
 
just wait a month, you'll have £800 should be enough to get pc running, I don't really see the point in buying it bit by bit, you'll end up spending more on shipping charges, and you still won't be able to use it.. Just pointless, leave your cd drives hard drives, coolers, OS, soundcard all to the following month and just get the main parts first. Thats meeting somewhere in the middle.
 
if you must do it that way get the case, PSU, OS, coolers hard drives soundcard first then get the other stuff. That way the stuff which loses value you get last.
 
if you must do it that way get the case, PSU, OS, coolers hard drives soundcard first then get the other stuff. That way the stuff which loses value you get last.

The complete opposite to what I think, firstly It's not gonna lose a whole lot of value in a month, and what's the point in having a big box of stuff he can't use, sooner than having a big box stuff he can use.
 
Back
Top Bottom