First build advice needed please

Tyrion2 · 14 Apr 2011 at 23:08

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:

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

Tyrion2 · 15 Apr 2011 at 00:08

Thanks for the advice everyone

Here's what i've got atm:

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?

Tyrion2 · 15 Apr 2011 at 00:19

stulid said:
oh you bitch, I'm not going to now out of spite

go on, please do

if there are any improvements that could be made?

Tyrion2 · 15 Apr 2011 at 00:20

Reaper 392 said:
change the graphics to the MSI 6950

its £5 cheaper than the XFX, and the only difference is the picture on the cover

Thanks for that

Tyrion2 · 15 Apr 2011 at 00:24

Reaper 392 said:
sorry Tyrion, ive just lost you the chance of a supercomputer for £800

well, i've replied above; maybe stulid will reappear

Tyrion2 · 15 Apr 2011 at 00:48

@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

Tyrion2 · 15 Apr 2011 at 23:51

Thanks very much for that

Watching the reviews, i like both but i'm leaning more towards the Lancool.