First Build Help

Critch1990 · 26 Sep 2011 at 13:02

Hi Guys,

So ive got to that moment in my gaming life were the old pc is just not going to cut it with all the new release's and is pretty much about to melt into a pile of mess on my desk.

The problem im having when looking for parts is find the best bang for the buck and making sure it all fits together. Im not the best when it comes to picking the parts but im not a complete Noob either.

Im looking to spend about £650-£700 at the top end of my budget on this pc which doesnt have to include Monitors, kboards, Mice ect.

I do wish to overclock on this system, possibly run 2 monitors in the future and the games im going to be running will be MW3, BF3, WoW, Star Wars and Starcraft.

Any help is much appreciated.

Kind Regards

Phill

Freddie589 · 26 Sep 2011 at 13:03

Do you need a OS?

Critch1990 · 26 Sep 2011 at 13:08

Sorry for missing that out, Thats basic stuff

It would be better to have one included in the price but its not the end of the world.

stulid · 26 Sep 2011 at 13:15

Your basketProduct Name Qty Price Line Total
HIS ATI Radeon HD 6950 IceQ X Turbo 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card with FREE Dirt3 & Deus Ex PC Games £209.99
(£174.99) £209.99
(£174.99)
Intel Core i5-2500K 3.30GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor - OEM £149.99
(£124.99) £149.99
(£124.99)
Asus P8P67 LE Intel P67 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard ** B3 REVISION ** £74.98
(£62.48) £74.98
(£62.48)
Microsoft Windows 7 Bundle - Home Premium 64 Bit £68.40
(£57.00) £68.40
(£57.00)
Options applied to the above product:
Western Digital Caviar Blue 500GB SATA 6Gb/s 16MB Cache - OEM (WD5000AAKX) £32.99
(£27.49) £32.99
(£27.49)
OCZ ZS Series 550W '80 Plus Bronze' Power Supply £54.98
(£45.82) £54.98
(£45.82)
Zalman Z9 Plus Tower Case with Fan Controller - Black £44.99
(£37.49) £44.99
(£37.49)
Kingston HyperX Blu 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (KHX1600C9AD3B1K2/4G) £26.99
(£22.49) £26.99
(£22.49)
Cooler Master Hyper 212 Plus CPU Cooler (Socket AM2/AM2+/AM3/775/1155/1156/1366) £23.99
(£19.99) £23.99
(£19.99)
LG GH22NS70 22x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £17.99
(£14.99) £17.99
(£14.99)
Sub Total : £587.73
Shipping cost assumes delivery to UK Mainland with:
DPD Next Day Parcel
(This can be changed during checkout) Shipping : £20.10
VAT is being charged at 20.00% VAT : £121.57
Total : £729.40

I dont suppose you have a SATA DVD/HDD drive you can re-use from the old PC?

Freddie589 · 26 Sep 2011 at 13:16

Intel Core i5-2500K 3.30GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor - OEM Intel Core i5-2500K 3.30GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor - OEM £149.99
(£124.99) £149.99
(£124.99)
MSI GeForce GTX 460 Cyclone 1024MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card MSI GeForce GTX 460 Cyclone 1024MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £119.99
(£99.99) £119.99
(£99.99)
MSI P67A-GD53 Intel P67 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard ** B3 REVISION ** MSI P67A-GD53 Intel P67 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard ** B3 REVISION ** £107.99
(£89.99) £107.99
(£89.99)
Microsoft Windows 7 Bundle - Home Premium 64 Bit Microsoft Windows 7 Bundle - Home Premium 64 Bit £68.40
(£57.00) £68.40
(£57.00)
Options applied to the above product:
Western Digital Caviar Blue 500GB SATA 6Gb/s 16MB Cache - OEM (WD5000AAKX) £32.99
(£27.49) £32.99
(£27.49)
Lepa W-Series 600W '80 Plus' Power Supply Lepa W-Series 600W '80 Plus' Power Supply £56.99
(£47.49) £56.99
(£47.49)
Corsair Vengeance 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (CMZ8GX3M2A1600C9) Corsair Vengeance 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (CMZ8GX3M2A1600C9) £53.99
(£44.99) £53.99
(£44.99)
BitFenix Shinobi Gaming Case - Black BitFenix Shinobi Gaming Case - Black £49.99
(£41.66) £49.99
(£41.66)
Antec Kúhler H2O 620 CPU Watercooler (Socket Intel LGA 775 / 1155 / 1156 / 1366 / AMD AM2 / AM3 / AM2+ / AM3+) Antec Kúhler H2O 620 CPU Watercooler (Socket Intel LGA 775 / 1155 / 1156 / 1366 / AMD AM2 / AM3 / AM2+ / AM3+) £49.99
(£41.66) £49.99
(£41.66)
Sub Total : £575.26
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 : £117.80
Total : £706.81

hm...somthing like that might do the job for you, although the GPU is still a bit underpowered.

**edit** GRRR STULID! beat me to it

Critch1990 · 26 Sep 2011 at 13:20

Hi stulid,

Thank you for your repl first off.

The case i was looking at getting i belive is called the Phantom NZXT or somthing close to that, also the HDD in my old system needs binning id rather fork out for a new one.

What do you make of this watercooling also as i thought it would be a nice touch for the for i have it sort of factor?

Also ive read a lot of post sating a 750w PSU is needed as 600w is really the minimum specs required to enable overclocking and such.

Freddie589 · 26 Sep 2011 at 13:23

Watercooling at your budget really isn't a option unless you are going to use a all in one kit such as a h60. 600w will be fine for overclocking, I had my i5 at 3.8ghz on a modXstream pro 600w for a long time and worked fine.

stulid · 26 Sep 2011 at 13:28

Critch1990 said:
Hi stulid,

Thank you for your repl first off.

The case i was looking at getting i belive is called the Phantom NZXT or somthing close to that, also the HDD in my old system needs binning id rather fork out for a new one.

What do you make of this watercooling also as i thought it would be a nice touch for the for i have it sort of factor?

Also ive read a lot of post sating a 750w PSU is needed as 600w is really the minimum specs required to enable overclocking and such.

The Phantom takes up too much of your budget which can be used else where.

I now use a Antec Kuhler 920 and its super silent and great performance, but again that eats too much money up.

The PSU I suggested is fine for this system as long as you stick to single graphic card setups, but the motherboard doesnt support SLi anyways and only does crossfire at 16X/4X. A sandybridge system uses a lot less power than an equivalent AMD or older Intel socket1366 system.

This is the PSU - http://www.jonnyguru.com/modules.php?name=NDReviews&op=Story&reid=248 - you can see its not rubbish.

http://www.guru3d.com/article/radeon-6950-6970-review/11

Radeon HD 6950 - On your average system the card requires you to have a 500 Watt power supply unit.

Critch1990 · 26 Sep 2011 at 13:50

Ahh ok, I was hoping to add SLI or Crossfire at some point so it would be nice to have the option to add in the future.

Also im guessing any case will be fine as long as its not a mini?

stulid · 26 Sep 2011 at 13:59

Critch1990 said:
Ahh ok, I was hoping to add SLI or Crossfire at some point so it would be nice to have the option to add in the future.

Also im guessing any case will be fine as long as its not a mini?

Ok then, if you want SLi/Crossfire option you need a change of motherboard and a PSU with enough power and enough PCI-E connectors to do it properly.

Your basketProduct Name Qty Price Line Total
OcUK GeForce GTX 560Ti 1024MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card **Supplied with FREE Batman: Arkham City PC game** £165.59
(£137.99) £165.59
(£137.99)
Intel Core i5-2500K 3.30GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor - OEM £149.99
(£124.99) £149.99
(£124.99)
Gigabyte Z68XP-UD3 Intel Z68 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £99.98
(£83.32) £99.98
(£83.32)
Microsoft Windows 7 Bundle - Home Premium 64 Bit £68.40
(£57.00) £68.40
(£57.00)
Options applied to the above product:
Western Digital Caviar Blue 500GB SATA 6Gb/s 16MB Cache - OEM (WD5000AAKX) £32.99
(£27.49) £32.99
(£27.49)
Antec TruePower New Modular 650W '80 Plus Bronze' Power Supply £64.98
(£54.15) £64.98
(£54.15)
Zalman Z9 Plus Tower Case with Fan Controller - Black £44.99
(£37.49) £44.99
(£37.49)
Kingston HyperX Blu 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (KHX1600C9AD3B1K2/4G) £26.99
(£22.49) £26.99
(£22.49)
Cooler Master Hyper 212 Plus CPU Cooler (Socket AM2/AM2+/AM3/775/1155/1156/1366) £23.99
(£19.99) £23.99
(£19.99)
LG GH22NS70 22x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £17.99
(£14.99) £17.99
(£14.99)
Sub Total : £579.90
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 : £118.73
Total : £712.38

A review of the board - http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/z68xp-ud3-dz68db,review-32228.html

Critch1990 · 27 Sep 2011 at 11:33

It Looks like its time to get the old credit card out and start ordering parts.

The water cooling i was looking at was just a full kit, i thought it would look spot on with a clear sided case.

Also how does this compare to the orginal pc config you posted in terms of performance, Also on a funny note when i looked at the motherboard the box it comes in looks like its from the 90s

Much appreciate all the help thank you to everyone that replied.

stulid · 27 Sep 2011 at 12:18

The water cooling i was looking at was just a full kit, i thought it would look spot on with a clear sided case.

You can pick any side windowed case you want, heres a few,
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CA-037-ZA&groupid=701&catid=7&subcat=736
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CA-214-CM&groupid=701&catid=7&subcat=29
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CA-009-BX&groupid=701&catid=7&subcat=1850

Also how does this compare to the orginal pc config you posted in terms of performance,

Only the graphics card is downgraded to allow a better motherboard and PSU to fit in the budget, so the performance difference between a GTX560ti and a 6950 is - http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/293?vs=330

Critch1990 · 28 Sep 2011 at 15:06

Hi guys,

Just about to start odering my parts but over the last 2 days people have been quoting the Asus P8P67 Pro R3 P67 Socket 1155 8 Channel HD Audio ATX Motherboard over the Gigabyte Z68XP-UD3 Intel Z68 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard.

What is the diffrence between these 2 motherboards also the Graphics card that was quoted i cant seem to find on ****** as there is about 8 diffrent ones by diffrent suppliers.

stulid · 28 Sep 2011 at 15:09

The Z68 boards have everything a P67 board does, plus SSD caching, Lucid Virtu and Quicksync.

They also have display outputs for the built-in HD graphics of the CPU core, useful if you want to still use your PC if you have a graphics card malfunction.

Both those boards do SLI/crossfire at 8X/8X.

Try and get everything from a single place to save delivery costs?

Critch1990 · 28 Sep 2011 at 15:13

Thats Stulid that is very helpfull and the speed of the reply well.....

Its nice to know as i plan on picking up a SSD to install windows on and some of my most used programs and games.

And it was mainly for the reason that the graphics card from OCUK isnt much to look at in a clear sided Case

Althought the same could be said about the motherboard, trying to get everything to fit together colour wise and not look a mess is somthing i dont want to get mega into but if there is somthing with the same spec and diffrent look why not !

stulid · 28 Sep 2011 at 15:18

This will look fancy in a windowed case - http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-247-AS&groupid=701&catid=1914&subcat=1341

http://uk.asus.com/Graphics_Cards/NVIDIA_Series/ENGTX560_Ti_DCII2DI1GD5/

but to be truthful its fitted upside down anyways.

stulid · 28 Sep 2011 at 15:20

Also you may not be using SSD caching, the idea of it is to still have the OS/Apps on the Harddrive and to have a smallish SSD to "cache" the most common files from it for quick access.

You will be just using a normal capacity (64GB etc) SSD to store and run the OS and what ever else you can fit on it, the HDD will then become a D: drive for storage.