First build advice needed please

Tyrion2

Tyrion2

Tyrion2

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14 Apr 2011
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399
Hi, i've never built a pc before but i'd like to :). I'm pretty sure i know what i want from the pc but i'm not too sure about the components & would be really grateful if you'd let me have your opinions on this lot before i buy ;)

Budget: £700-£800 (although i might be able to go a little higher if justified)

PC Uses: usual stuff such as internet browsing etc... ; gaming (usual resolution 1680x1050 on current monitor but the pc would also be hooked up to a 1920x1080 50" hd tv); watching hd movies @1920x1080; video encoding (using megui & handbrake) from 1920x1080, so i'm after a processor that will encode pretty quickly & efficiently.

Additional stuff: I'm also looking for a pc that, once i put it together, will run pretty quietly (so i'm looking for a quiet case, power supply & cooler) , be easy to maintain (keep free of dust) & also easy to upgrade with a few additional hard drives for storage purposes.

Anyway, i'd be really grateful if you'd let me know what you think of this lot & whether i could make better choices for what i'm looking for at the price i'm looking at:

65tae7yjeamy.jpg


PS i would be interested in going for 8gb of ram, rather than the 4 in the bundle, depending on price. Would make it easier to do other stuff while video encoding, which is processor intensive. Also, i'm ok for an operating system (win7 64 bit), hard drive (WD640 Caviar Black) & dvd drive, which is why i'm not ordering those.

Thanks in advance for any advice ;)
 
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The 2500k is good for gaming but the 2600k as well as being good for gaming is better suited for video encoding. It's quite a bit more expensive though. You could save a bit of cash by buying mobo, ram, cooler and cpu separately and overclocking it yourself. Sandybridges are easy to overclock. Lots of guides on the internet for overclocking them.
 
And as to the 8gb. I believe 2 * 4Gb would be better than 4 * 2Gb. I'm sure the more experienced members can guide you there though.
 
this is the best i can do. not sure how loud its going to be (graphics card might be loud), but the performance is definitely there, and its got the case you wanted. it also has a motherboard that is x8/x8 crossfire compatable, so, when you feel the need for better graphics, you can get a bigger PSU and another 6950

*2nd edit*
ive just noticed you dont need a DVD or HDD drive, so ive gone for a much better, and quieter, cooler, and a bigger PSU (the one i chose originally had me a little bit worried when you said you would add several HDD's. it will handle crossfire 6950's if you want them later down the line just fine

YOUR BASKET
1 x MSI ATI Radeon HD 6950 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £199.99
1 x Intel Core i5-2500K 3.30GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor £167.99
1 x MSI P67A-GD53 Intel P67 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard - (Sandybridge) ** B3 REVISION ** £109.99
1 x Antec 902 Nine Hundred Two (V3) Ultimate Gaming Case (with USB3.0 Support) - Black £99.98
1 x Antec TruePower New Modular 750W Power Supply - With FREE 3D Mark 2011 Advance £87.98
1 x G.Skill RipJawsX 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (F3-12800CL9D-8GBXL ) £79.99
1 x Corsair Hydro H50-1 High-Performance CPU Watercooler (Socket LGA775/1155/1156/1366/AM2/AM3) £51.98
Total : £814.42 (includes shipping : £13.75).

no doubt stulid will march in here and show you a build thats way better than this though
 
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XFX ATI Radeon 6950 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card XFX ATI Radeon 6950 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £204.98
(£170.82) £204.98
(£170.82)
Intel Core i5-2500K 3.30GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor Intel Core i5-2500K 3.30GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor £167.99
(£139.99) £167.99
(£139.99)
MSI P67A-GD65 Intel P67 (socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard - (Sandybridge) ** B3 REVISION ** MSI P67A-GD65 Intel P67 (socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard - (Sandybridge) ** B3 REVISION ** £139.98
(£116.65) £139.98
(£116.65)
Antec 902 Nine Hundred Two (V3) Ultimate Gaming Case (with USB3.0 Support) - Black Antec 902 Nine Hundred Two (V3) Ultimate Gaming Case (with USB3.0 Support) - Black £99.98
(£83.32) £99.98
(£83.32)
Antec TruePower New Modular 750W Power Supply - With FREE 3D Mark 2011 Advance Antec TruePower New Modular 750W Power Supply - With FREE 3D Mark 2011 Advance £87.98
(£73.32) £87.98
(£73.32)
G.Skill RipJawsX 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (F3-12800CL9D-8GBXL ) G.Skill RipJawsX 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (F3-12800CL9D-8GBXL ) £79.99
(£66.66) £79.99
(£66.66)
Corsair A50 High-Performance CPU Cooler (Socket AM2/AM3/LGA775/LGA1155/LGA1156/LGA1366) Corsair A50 High-Performance CPU Cooler (Socket AM2/AM3/LGA775/LGA1155/LGA1156/LGA1366) £24.98
(£20.82) £24.98
(£20.82)
Sub Total : £671.58
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 : £137.07
Total : £822.40

This is pretty similar to what you had already but with a lot better graphics card which you can easily flash to 6970, and you should OC yourself as it's so easy (and even if you don't want to tinker with anything there's an overclock button on the mobo iirc)
 
I see the two system suggestions above are speccing 2500K. I know they are built to budget but wouldn't the 2600K be better? Bearing in mind the op wants video encoding. Savings could be made elsewhere, maybe. Just wondering.
 
changed the PSU on mine (completely forgot about the antec ones)

*edit*
Baldbloke said:
I see the two system suggestions above are speccing 2500K. I know they are built to budget but wouldn't the 2600K be better? Bearing in mind the op wants video encoding. Savings could be made elsewhere, maybe. Just wondering.
Click to expand...
if the OP was happy with a much cheaper case and CPU cooler, then yes, quite happily:
(A50 is a fantastic cooler, just not as good as the H50)

YOUR BASKET
1 x Intel Core i7-2600K 3.40GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor £239.99
1 x MSI ATI Radeon HD 6950 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £199.99
1 x MSI P67A-GD53 Intel P67 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard - (Sandybridge) ** B3 REVISION ** £109.99
1 x Antec TruePower New Modular 750W Power Supply - With FREE 3D Mark 2011 Advance £87.98
1 x G.Skill RipJawsX 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (F3-12800CL9D-8GBXL ) £79.99
1 x Coolermaster HAF 912 Plus Case - Black £59.99
1 x Corsair A50 High-Performance CPU Cooler (Socket AM2/AM3/LGA775/LGA1155/LGA1156/LGA1366) £24.98
Total : £817.92 (includes shipping : £12.50).

the HAF912 is actually a really good case, used in some of the high end pre built overclocked bundles, like the mosasaur
 
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Thanks for the advice everyone :)

Here's what i've got atm:

fnavt2g2z.jpg


Couple of changes. Yeah, I've gone for the i7 because faster encoding is important to me (thanks for that advice) & gone for the better graphics card ;) Also, given that overclocking should (hopefully) be pretty straight forward for me, I've also ordered the components separately & put that money towards the card.

PS about the motherboard, i'm not familiar with the difference in brands (although i'm sure it's been discussed before), but is there any reason why i should go with the one above instead of, say:

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MB-447-AS&tool=3

i'm guessing because it'll be easier/more user friendly for me to overclock?

PS about the case, cooler & psu; any 'clearly' better choices in terms of making the pc quieter or are these all pretty solid?
 
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Tyrion2 said:
PS about the motherboard, i'm not familiar with the difference in brands (although i'm sure it's been discussed before), but is there any reason why i should go with the one above instead of, say:

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=mb-447-as&tool=3

i'm guessing because in this case it's easier/more user friendly for me to overclock?

ps about the case, cooler & psu; any 'clearly' better choices in terms of making the pc quieter or are these all pretty solid?
Click to expand...

Here for motherboard comparisons and your case cooler and psu are all solid
 
The MSI P67-GD65 has a single button to create an overclock. Press it once and the motherboard does it's best to get you a decent overclock. I tried mine and it gave me 4.2Ghz but I don't need to overclock just yet so went back to default. So can't comment on its long term reliability of the overclock.
 
Tyrion2 said:
go on, please do :) if there are any improvements that could be made? :)
Click to expand...

my only comment is the case, I know its a personal thing and if you like it, then fine, its a good performer.

its just that it's £100, and a coolermaster CM690 MKII is £72 for the Advanced, and is just as equal.
 
@stulid - nice suggestions (hadn't even seen the Lancool before) & i'd be happy with either of these other cases.

Only question i have is in relation to dust. The Antec has cleanable filters which are very useful (i've used an Antec 1200 in the past & these were a big help). I can't tell from the product description but does the CM-690 II Advanced/Lancool come with filters/something that does a similar job?

ps, about graphics cards....some 6950's are a little cheaper than others but they all seem to have the same specs? Are the slightly more expensive ones any better or is it just personal preference?

I only ask because the Sapphire version is on offer this week:

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-256-SP&tool=3
 
Both Coolermaster CM690MKII Advanced and lite have dustfilters.

Advanced - http://www.coolermaster.co.uk/product.php?product_id=6632
Front, top an bottom mesh including dustfilters
Click to expand...

Lite - http://www.coolermaster.co.uk/product.php?product_id=6644
Dust-control filters for all meshed areas
Click to expand...

This video shows what the differences are between them.


The Lancool has filters also,
http://www.lancoolpc.com/en/product/product06.php?pr_index=15&cl_index=1&sc_index=25&ss_index=62&g=f


There is no difference between the 2GB ATI6950 cards.
 
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