Finally getting a new PC! Some advice please?

JoeUk

JoeUk

JoeUk

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2 May 2006
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137
Hey all,

I came into a bit of money so I thought why not ditch the aging macbook pro and get back into PC's - I'm fed up of having to switch to my VM's to dabble with my computer science course software and want to catch up on some games.

It's been a while since I've looked at hardware but I've put together a few components that seem decent - I still need some advice on whether the motherboards suitable (maybe I could get a better one?), some decent ram, SSD (200+ gig?) and hard drive choices though so if someone can help out that'd be great. I don't have a fixed budget.. but don't really wanna waste it, i'd like it to be fairly beasty though! Also if it was quiet that'd be nice.

Intel Core i7-3770K (£259.99)
Asus HD 7950 DirectCU II TOP V2 3072MB £259.99
Seasonic X-Series 850w '80 Plus Gold' £149.99
MSI Z77A-G45 Intel Z77 £89.99
Liteon IHOS104-06 4x BD-ROM £34.99
Corsair Graphite 600T Midi Tower Case - Limited Edition White £145.99
 
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Love the look of your spec, looks like you've really thought it through.

Have a look here...

YOUR BASKET
1 x Samsung 256GB SSD 840 PRO SATA 6Gb/s Basic - (MZ-7PD256BW) £209.99
1 x Gigabyte Z77X-D3H Intel Z77 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £112.99
1 x Seasonic G series 550w '80 Plus Gold' Modular Power Supply £76.99
1 x Cooler Master Hyper 612S CPU Cooler (Socket 775 / 1155 / 1156 / 1366 / 2011 / AM2 / AM2+ / AM3 / FM1 / FM2) £32.99
Total : £444.36 (includes shipping : £9.50).



Mobo - Not the cheaper version, but will be fine for your needs
SSD - Samsungs are the better drives, if you wanted to save some money, look at the Plextor
PSU - Unless your looking to SLI/xFire, a 550w is more than enough
Cooler - Not sure how good the stock cooler is, but would assume it's noisy so added the 612S
 
Thanks! The SSD looks good, I think I'd like to have the option to go xfire in the future maybe when everyone sells off their 7950's so maybe a 650w psu is enough?

Is that motherboard better? For OCing perhaps?

Can you recommend some ram?

As for the i7 - honestly I only dabble with video editing, adobe and the like but I thought it can't hurt haha.
 
JoeUk said:
Thanks! The SSD looks good, I think I'd like to have the option to go xfire in the future maybe when everyone sells off their 7950's so maybe a 650w psu is enough?

Is that motherboard better? For OCing perhaps?

Can you recommend some ram?

As for the i7 - honestly I only dabble with video editing, adobe and the like but I thought it can't hurt haha.
Click to expand...

750w would be a safe bet if you are looking to x/fire (65 G Series Seasonic will do it also) and the mobo will be ideal. Any Z77 will give you an abundance of o/c'ing features plus, the Gigabyte ones get your UK RMA.

As for RAM, how heavy is your editing & adobe?

YOUR BASKET
1 x Samsung Green (MV-3V4G3D/US) 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C11 1600MHz 30nm Dual Channel Kit £35.99
Total : £38.27 (includes shipping : £1.90).



This RAM will overclock like nothing you've seen & if you need 16GB, buy 2 sets.
 
Found the useful shopping cart script - I've got 16gb because it's so cheap? haha.

YOUR BASKET
1 x Asus HD 7950 DirectCU II TOP V2 3072MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card with Crysis 3 & Bioshock PC Games £259.99
1 x Intel Core i7-3770K 3.50GHz (Ivybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor (77W) - Retail £259.99
1 x Samsung 256GB SSD 840 PRO SATA 6Gb/s Basic - (MZ-7PD256BW) £209.99
1 x Gigabyte Z77X-D3H Intel Z77 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £112.99
1 x Qpad MK-85 Red LED Pro Backlit Mechanical Gaming Keyboard - UK Layout - Brown Switches £109.99
1 x Seasonic G series 650w '80 Plus Gold' Modular Power Supply £99.98
1 x Seagate Barracuda 3TB 7200RPM SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache - OEM (ST3000DM001) HDD £95.99
1 x Asus Xonar D2X 7.1 PCI-E Sound Card £79.99
2 x Samsung Green (MV-3V4G3D/US) 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C11 1600MHz 30nm Dual Channel Kit £35.99 (£71.98)
1 x Liteon IHOS104-06 4x BD-ROM (Black) - OEM £34.99
1 x Cooler Master Hyper 612S CPU Cooler (Socket 775 / 1155 / 1156 / 1366 / 2011 / AM2 / AM2+ / AM3 / FM1 / FM2) £32.99
1 x Asus 24x DVD±RW DRW-24B5ST SATA ReWriter - Black (OEM) £21.98
Total : £1,403.46 (includes shipping : £10.50).

 
JoeUk said:
As for the i7 - honestly I only dabble with video editing, adobe and the like but I thought it can't hurt haha.
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If you have the cash and don't mind spending more, then go for it. However, as I already said the i7 will be no improvement over a i5, but will be some improvement in Adobe products.
 
I purchased some nice 2.1 speakers and listen to a lot of music so I thought a dedicated soundcard might be better - but if it makes no difference these days I guess I'll lose it (or get the cheaper one that looks the same minus the 7.1?)
 
might be worth going socket 2011 and getting an i7 3820 for now, probably wont be much more, motherboards start from £150 and the 3820 is about the same price as a 3770k and you'd have a good upgrade path to 6 or 8 cores, its possible in the next 2 years we'll start seeing games using more than 4 cores, and socket 1155 is a dead platform now with no more cpus being released for it.
 
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If your only going to dable in video and photo editing, I'd save yourself some money and get the 3570K, Samsung 840 pro 256GB is a great drive quick as all hell, if you listen to a lot of music and have a set of decent speakers I would keep the sound card in the build it does makes a difference to the quality of the sound.
 
LukieBoy007 said:
I wouldn't call it a dead platform. Yes, nothing else is being released for it but it's certainly not 'dead'.
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true - but its probably it will start showing its age in the next 2 years or so as far as gaming is concerned, the new xbox for example i think read has an 8core amd cpu, allthough the cores will undoudtedly be very slow, it will mean ports and games in general may start to use more cores efficientlyb so 6-8 cores will see a benefit. basicly if your not really on a budget as the op isnt id suggest going socket 2011, if you cant afford a 3930 get a 3820 and upgrade when the time is right, especially when a 3820 isnt much more than a 3770k.

..or else yeah just get i5 3570k, save a lot of money on the motherboard and upgrade again if needed, but a 3770k is not worth it over a 3820 and the upgrade path it gives.
 
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JoeUk said:
A bit confused - is the 2011 a newer socket then?
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its the current extreme enthusiast platform, which has the current 6 core cpus and upcoming new cpus (presumably 8 cores+ on it) where as socket 1155 is being replaced with socket 1150 haswell as the mainstream platfform fairly soon. basicly if your looking to spend money on an i7 its worth getting a socket 2011 i7 3820 instead so you can upgrade to a faster cpu if and when games make use of it, which looks likely with the new console releases.
 
JoeUk said:
A bit confused - is the 2011 a newer socket then?
Click to expand...

2011 is just another socket which uses different architecture!

YOUR BASKET
1 x Gigabyte ATi Radeon HD 7950 Windforce 3X 3072MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card with Crysis 3 & Bioshock PC Games £249.95
1 x Intel Core i7-3820 3.60GHz (Sandybridge-E) Socket LGA2011 Processor - Retail £229.99
1 x Gigabyte X79-UD3 Intel X79 (Socket 2011) DDR3 Motherboard £179.99
1 x Corsair Graphite 600TM Midi Tower Mesh Windowed Case - Black £139.99
1 x Samsung 128GB SSD 840 PRO SATA 6Gb/s Basic - (MZ-7PD128BW) £119.99
1 x Seagate Barracuda 3TB 7200RPM SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache - OEM (ST3000DM001) HDD £95.99
1 x Patriot Intel Extreme Masters 16GB (4x4GB) DDR3 PC3-17000C11 2133MHz Quad Channel Kit (PVI316G213C1QK) £79.99
1 x Seasonic G series 550w '80 Plus Gold' Modular Power Supply £76.99
1 x Liteon IHOS104-06 4x BD-ROM (Black) - OEM £34.99
1 x Cooler Master Hyper 612S CPU Cooler (Socket 775 / 1155 / 1156 / 1366 / 2011 / AM2 / AM2+ / AM3 / FM1 / FM2) £32.99
Total : £1,257.36 (includes shipping : £13.75).



This way, if you need to you can upgrade to a Hex-core or the Ivybridge-e coming out in Q3 2013.
 
YOUR BASKET
1 x Gigabyte ATi Radeon HD 7950 Windforce 3X 3072MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card with Crysis 3 & Bioshock PC Games £249.95
1 x Intel Core i7-3820 3.60GHz (Sandybridge-E) Socket LGA2011 Processor - Retail £229.99
1 x Gigabyte X79-UD3 Intel X79 (Socket 2011) DDR3 Motherboard £179.99
1 x Plextor M5 Pro 256GB Extreme Series Solid State Drive - (PX-256M5P) £179.99
1 x Corsair Graphite 600T Midi Tower Case - Limited Edition White £145.99
1 x XFX 850W XXX Edition Modular '80 Plus Silver' Power Supply £99.98
1 x Seagate Barracuda 3TB 7200RPM SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache - OEM (ST3000DM001) HDD £95.99
1 x LG BH16NS40 16x SATA Internal BDRW - Retail £79.99
1 x Phanteks PH-TC14PE CPU Cooler - Black (Socket 775 / 1155 / 1156 / 1366 / 2011 / AM2 / AM2+ / AM3 / FM1 / FM2) £69.98
1 x Samsung Green 16GB (4x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C11 1600MHz 30nm Dual/Quad Channel Kit (MV-3V4G3D/US) £65.98
Total : £1,415.53 (includes shipping : £14.75).

 
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