First Build Advice

panyan · 13 Mar 2011 at 18:57

I want to build a computer this summer for my work next year, it will be primarily for AutoCAD, and so i;d quite like a quad core with a high GHz. I also want good ventilation and a good cooler becuase my building is stupidly hot (at the moment it is 25 degrees C and it is 10 degrees outside in the beginning of spring).

CPU - i was leaning towards the 2500K becuase of its impressive overclocking stats and fantastic benchmarks so AutoCAD renders should be great. HOWEVER, i was also thinking to wait for Ivy Bridge, but will it use the same socket and everything?

Motherboard- I want to wait for the z68 becuase it looks more polished and a better investment, i was thinking to get ASUS, but i have read their new EFI BIOS system is poor with overclocking and it hasnt matured anough to be good yet

Cooler - anything MASSIVE

PSU - a decent corsair, i like corsair

RAM - i am confused about dual and triple channel, i really only need 4-6GB, nothing absurd

CASE - power and usb at the top, because it is going under a table
- plenty of places for fans
- have a side grill for either a big fan or samller fans
- remember, i want GOOD air flow becuase of how hot this building is!

Graphics card - anything approved by AutoDesk so that i know it will work with AutoCAD

BTW, i want to spend £500-550, and i might bump that up if i sell my old rig (in sig) and my spare E8400

(i have my own hard drives and dvd writer, so no need to factor those)

95thrifles · 13 Mar 2011 at 23:47

Hi
2500k is good choice, and no ivy bridge will be different socket
imo the boards now are good, incl the Asus, they have some pretty good OCing results, OcUK use them in their builds after all, just make sure you get a B3 revision so as to avoid the SATA issue
Cooler, Id look at an Akasa Venom or Titan Fenrir Evo, these would be ideal
RAM you need dual channel for P67, so you have the choice of 4 or 8 gig
Case, the Coolermaster HAF series of cases have good airflow and the ports are at the top of the front panel, the 912 would be ideal, also its no advantage attaching side fans as they just disrupt the flow of air from front to back
Gfx card, prob a 768mb NV 460 or even a 450 if youre not going to do any gaming

so that would look something like this

Intel Core i5-2500K 3.30GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor - OEM £161.99
Gigabyte GeForce GTX 460 OC 768MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £124.99
Asus P8P67-M Intel P67 (Socket 1155) DDR3 MicroATX Motherboard - (Sandybridge) ** B3 REVISION ** £109.99
Coolermaster HAF 912 Plus Case - Black £56.99
BeQuiet Pure Power L7 530W Power Supply £39.98
Akasa AK-CCX-4002HP Venom CPU Cooler (Socket LGA775/LGA1155/LGA1156/LGA1366/AM2/AM3) £36.98
Corsair XMS3 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (CMX4GX3M2A1600C9) £35.99
Sub Total : £472.43
Shipping cost assumes delivery to UK Mainland with:
DPD Next Day Parcel
(This can be changed during checkout) Shipping : £12.50
VAT is being charged at 20.00% VAT : £96.99
Total : £581.92

Gone with the BeQuiet PSU which is still a very good PSU like the Corsair units, all comes in a bit over your budget but meets all your requirements

panyan · 14 Mar 2011 at 10:04

95thrifles said:
Hi
Gigabyte GeForce GTX 460 OC 768MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £124.99
BeQuiet Pure Power L7 530W Power Supply £39.98
Akasa AK-CCX-4002HP Venom CPU Cooler (Socket LGA775/LGA1155/LGA1156/LGA1366/AM2/AM3) £36.98

thanks for the suggestion mate, but one alteration i would make is a less expensive graphics card and to beef up the PSU and i also think i want the noctua d14 simply so that i know i can overclock to the very max

95thrifles · 14 Mar 2011 at 10:31

By all means lower the gfx card, as I said if theres no plan to game then yeah a 450 or even 440 etc would suffice, but you wont need to "beef up the PSU" as you say, thats an excellent unit the one I specced, upto you of course just explaining theres no need to
And again if you wish to go for the D14 fair enough, make sure it fits the case, whether it be the one I specced or another, but youre paying more than 100% more for about 10% gain in OCing, its a case of diminishing returns spending much past £30 on a cooler

panyan · 14 Mar 2011 at 11:52

95thrifles said:
And again if you wish to go for the D14 fair enough, make sure it fits the case, whether it be the one I specced or another, but youre paying more than 100% more for about 10% gain in OCing, its a case of diminishing returns spending much past £30 on a cooler

I know it is expensive, but i wouldnt feel comfortable pushing the CPU as far if i knew i didnt have the best cooler, and for the sake of £30, i am limiting the whole rig's capability - but this is just my view

panyan · 15 Mar 2011 at 11:46

one thing i;d like to know guys, is what is happening with the intel sockets? it seems like they are changing them very frequently, if i invest in sandy bridge, will there be scope to upgrade in the future or is 1155 dead after sandy bridge?

95thrifles · 15 Mar 2011 at 12:13

All sockets tend to only have one generation in them

panyan · 15 Mar 2011 at 18:37

95thrifles said:
All sockets tend to only have one generation in them

so the days of buying a system what you needed and upgraded the cpu when it became feasable isnt possible becuase now the sockets change so frequently

thats a bit of a shame, i wonder why intel have so many different sockets but amd just have a few?