CPU advice + spec

shaun_6 · 6 Jan 2011 at 11:52

Hi all

I'm looking for some advice on a new machine spec, I was planning on going for an i5 or Phoemin II Quad core, but now I'm wondering if it would be worth splashing out on a Sandy Bridge CPU (i5).

I would use the machine for gaming but I'm sure a 1st gen i5 would meet my requirements, I do however want the machine to be future proof so I'm not sure what to do, would it be worth spending the extra cash now or not? I do not do any design work or editing etc.

I plan to over clock and would like a small SSD as a boot drive. Initially I would like to start with a single GPU but the option to add a second with cross fire / sli would be nice.

My budget is around £700, I could stretch to more if it would be worth while (Sandy Bridge).

Can I ask for your advise on the CPU and some Specs that you would choose to fit my budget?

Thanks for any help!

95thrifles · 6 Jan 2011 at 12:50

Hi and welcome to forums

I think youd be best going AMD route given your budget and desire to keep Xfire option open, whilst SSDs are nice, they are more of a luxury and if youre wanting best gaming performance then youre best not compromising other areas as such Ive left it out of this spec, but the HDD included is nice and fast

XFX ATI Radeon 6950 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £230.80
AMD Phenom II X4 Quad Core 955 Black Edition "125W Edition" 3.20GHz (Socket AM3) - Retail £113.99
MSI 890GXM-G65 AMD 890GX (Socket AM3) DDR3 microATX Motherboard £102.12
Antec TruePower New Modular 650W Power Supply £73.52
Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 1TB SATA-II 32MB Cache - OEM (ST31000528AS) £45.95
Coolermaster Elite 430 Windowed Case - Black £38.80
GeIL 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz VALUE PLUS Dual Channel (GVP34GB1600C9DC) £38.39
Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro Rev 2 CPU Cooler (Socket 939 / AM2 / AM3 / 775 / 1155/ 1156 / 1366) £19.39
Pioneer 24x Internal S19LBK DVD Rewriter including Labelflash SATA Retail £17.99
Sub Total : £567.45
Shipping cost assumes delivery to UK Mainland with:
DPD Next Day Parcel
(This can be changed during checkout) Shipping : £10.50
VAT is being charged at 20.00% VAT : £115.59
Total : £693.54

Aretenon · 6 Jan 2011 at 13:02

Well it looks like the P67 motherboards around going to be around £150, for a reasonably full featured one that can crossfire/SLI. An article I saw a while ago, from OC3D said that the prices of the quad core CPUs would start at £140, you'd have to pay more seeing as you want to overclock.

Which leaves less than £400 for everything else. This is what I think you could do with that kind of money:

Geil Value Plus 4GB (2x2GB) 1600MHz CAS9 1.5V - 1.6V £40
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MY-104-GL&groupid=701&catid=8&subcat=1517

Asus GeForce GTX 460 Direct CU TOP 768MB GDDR5 £114
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-238-AS&groupid=701&catid=1914&subcat=1830

XFX Pro 650W Core Edition 80Plus Bronze £66
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CA-003-XF&groupid=701&catid=123&subcat=

Cubitek Tattoo Beta £56
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CA-054-CT&groupid=701&catid=7&subcat=

Samsung Spinpoint F3 1TB 103SJ £45
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=HD-082-SA

SATA DVD Burner £15

Windows 7 £75

Total: £411

As you can see, you wouldn't be getting that great of a video card, as least not straight-away, if you had to put down close to or over £300 for a CPU and motherboard, unless you don't need to include the OS in the budget, or if you can get it cheaper, as a student for instance. Or unless you cut quality elsewhere.

shaun_6 · 6 Jan 2011 at 15:58

Thinking about it, It would probably be preferable to go down the AMD route as I've just moved out so I also need to buy a new monitor etc. This will add a fair bit on top of the budget!

In terms of the OS I have windows 7 32bit so I will want to purchase the 64bit version for this new build.

Thanks for the replies, I will do a bit more research and probably place an order next week.

95thrifles that's a useful guide in your sig

Any other suggestions are welcome

Cheers

95thrifles · 6 Jan 2011 at 16:02

I'll be updating it next week once the new stuffs out properly

Re windows if you contact microsoft (you can do it through website - just google it) You can get a 64 bit version of windows for about £8 iirc, cost of P&P, youll still only have the one license/key its basically an upgrade but theyll send you a new disc if you dont already have it (check you may do, iirc they ship (or did) with both 32 and 64 bit discs in same case)

shaun_6 · 6 Jan 2011 at 19:33

Cool - thanks

shaun_6 · 11 Jan 2011 at 15:45

So now that SB is out, for the sake of an extra £100 I could upgrade the CPU and mobo.. It's very tempting and probably worth it in the long run.

What do you think to this build;

Your basket
Product Name Qty Price Line Total

Intel Core i5-2500K 3.30GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155 £191.99

LG W2442PE-BF 24" Widescreen LCD Monitor - Black £167.99

XFX ATI Radeon HD 6850 1024MB GDDR5 £143.99

MSI P67A-GD55 Intel P67 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £134.99

Antec TruePower New Modular 650W Power Supply £73.99

GeIL 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel £38.99

Coolermaster Elite 430 Windowed Case - Black £38.80

Samsung SpinPoint F3 500GB SATA-II 16MB Cache - OEM £32.66

Logitech MX518 Gaming-Grade Optical Mouse (910-000616) £28.99

Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro Rev 2 CPU Cooler £19.39

Pioneer 24x Internal S19LBK DVD Rewriter SATA £17.99

Logitech 600 Media Keyboard (920-000031) £17.35

Arctic Silver 5 Thermal Compound (3.5g) £6.73

Sub Total : £761.54
Shipping cost assumes delivery to UK Mainland with:
DPD Next Day Parcel
(This can be changed during checkout) Shipping : £13.75
VAT is being charged at 20.00% VAT : £155.06
Total : £930.35

Redmint · 11 Jan 2011 at 15:48

Looks good, only thing I might say is that you could use MX-4 compound instead as it's non-conductive, means it's slightly less risky if you accidentally get some on your motherboard:

http://overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=TH-003-AR

shaun_6 · 12 Jan 2011 at 08:31

I will have to wait until pay day, then I can order !

Tomcat825 · 12 Jan 2011 at 09:00

Personally I'd stay away from the MSI board as that's a preference of mine because they are unreliable... it might be worth £20 extra if you can stretch it and get a more robust name tbh.

cmndr_andi · 12 Jan 2011 at 09:06

The spec in post #7 looks good.

As redmint says, go for MX-3 or 4, it is non-conductive and has no setting time (unlike AS5).

Also, I would suggest going with this monitor and this motherboard instead. This board is slightly higher spec (supports proper dual PCIe x8 crossfire) and is currently in a promotion - where MSI give you 20% cashback.

shaun_6 · 12 Jan 2011 at 09:28

Ok I will change to MX-3/4 and will have a look at that monitor.

The motherboard is currently out of stock though.

cmndr_andi · 12 Jan 2011 at 09:53

shaun_6 said:
The motherboard is currently out of stock though.

Have a look now

shaun_6 · 12 Jan 2011 at 10:18

haha, nice

shaun_6 · 12 Jan 2011 at 10:21

So this;

Intel Core i5-2500K 3.30GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor with FREE Lost Planet 2 PC Game - Retail

Samsung P2450H 24" Widescreen LCD Monitor - Glossy Black

XFX ATI Radeon HD 6850 1024MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card with FREE MOH Game

MSI P67A-GD65 Intel P67 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard - (Sandybridge)

Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium 64-Bit - OEM (GFC-00599)

Antec TruePower New Modular 650W Power Supply

GeIL 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz VALUE PLUS Dual Channel (GVP34GB1600C9DC)

Coolermaster Elite 430 Windowed Case - Black

Samsung SpinPoint F3 500GB SATA-II 16MB Cache - OEM (HD502HJ)

Logitech MX518 Gaming-Grade Optical Mouse (910-000616)

Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro Rev 2 CPU Cooler (Socket 939 / AM2 / AM3 / 775 / 1155/ 1156 / 1366)

Pioneer 24x Internal S19LBK DVD Rewriter including Labelflash SATA Retail

Logitech 600 Media Keyboard (920-000031)

Arctic Cooling MX-4 Thermal Compound (4g)

Sub Total : £859.85
Shipping cost assumes delivery to UK Mainland with:
DPD Next Day Parcel
(This can be changed during checkout) Shipping : £13.75
VAT is being charged at 20.00% VAT : £174.72
Total : £1,048.32

cmndr_andi · 12 Jan 2011 at 10:44

Looks very nice indeed.

You may want to have a look at this keyboard instead of the logitech 600 - it gets some pretty good user reviews.

shaun_6 · 17 Jan 2011 at 12:21

Final order was;
Intel Core i5-2500K 3.30GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor with FREE Lost Planet 2 PC Game - Retail 1 £157.49

Samsung P2450H 24" Widescreen LCD Monitor - Glossy Black 1 £149.99

XFX ATI Radeon HD 6850 1024MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card with FREE MOH Game 1 £125.95

MSI P67A-GD65 Intel P67 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard - (Sandybridge) 1 £119.99

Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium 64-Bit - OEM (GFC-00599) 1 £69.99

Antec TruePower New Modular 650W Power Supply 1 £61.66

GeIL 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz VALUE PLUS Dual Channel (GVP34GB1600C9DC) 1 £34.99

Coolermaster Elite 430 Windowed Case - Black 1 £32.33

Samsung SpinPoint F3 500GB SATA-II 16MB Cache - OEM (HD502HJ) 1 £27.22

Logitech MX518 Gaming-Grade Optical Mouse (910-000616) 1 £24.16

Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro Rev 2 CPU Cooler (Socket 939 / AM2 / AM3 / 775 / 1155/ 1156 / 1366) 1 £16.16

Pioneer 24x Internal S19LBK DVD Rewriter including Labelflash SATA Retail 1 £14.99

Cherry Black CyMotion Expert (USB/PS2) Keyboard - Black 1 £13.60

Arctic Cooling MX-4 Thermal Compound (4g) 1 £5.95

All up and running now, ordered a few case fans so once these are in I will start over clocking.

Redmint · 17 Jan 2011 at 13:49

You forgot the obligatory build pics.

However looks good, happy gaming with your new system!

DJ_Hughesy · 17 Jan 2011 at 16:41

95thrifles said:
I'll be updating it next week once the new stuffs out properly

Re windows if you contact microsoft (you can do it through website - just google it) You can get a 64 bit version of windows for about £8 iirc, cost of P&P, youll still only have the one license/key its basically an upgrade but theyll send you a new disc if you dont already have it (check you may do, iirc they ship (or did) with both 32 and 64 bit discs in same case)

normal windows ships with both yea but if its oem...