First computer build - looking for some help

If you get a good PSU, that's where the buck stops. A good PSU should not take down a system if it blows or gets spiked. If it happens inside the warranty, you can RMA the faulty components.

Automatic Protection Sensors
All XFX PSUs come with automatic output protection systems to protect you and your computer. This includes Total Power Protection (OPP), Over Voltage Protection (OVP), Over Current Protection (OCP), Short Circuit Protection (SCP), and Over Temperature Protection (OTP).
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http://www.jonnyguru.com/modules.php?name=NDReviews&op=Story&reid=216
 
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I would always take a PSU I can trust. I don't know enough of the L7 to recommend it with a fairly high spec build (with a 650W PSU, the bottleneck is the HD 5850, which is plenty fast itself).

If I had a choice to make, would take the combo and a good 650W PSU (XFX 650W Core, Corsair TX650...).

If I could afford both, I would take the MSI board as it's better.

If you want to do that, you can shop around. There are plenty of competitive online retailers, but go with a trusted one, not with some ebay bandit.
 
No I would never go ebay for something like this lol you don't know who you can trust out there. Yeah I have been looking around and have seen some better prices (but your not allowed to link to competitors right) but generally Overclockers have been one of the cheapest out there.

I doubt I can afford to spend £60-odd on a PSU without cutting down with the combo, but I'll definitely keep it in mind should I be able to get my hands on some extra cash :p lol
 
olivier renault said:
If I could afford both, I would take the MSI board as it's better.
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When you say the MSI board, which version do you mean? C45, GD55 or GD65? or any? lol

I did some looking around on other sites and i managed to get this list for £601.23

Zalman Z9
XFX pro 650w
i5-2500k
MSI P67A-C45
ATI Radeon HD 5850
G.Skill RipJawsX 4GB
Seagate Barracuda 1TB
Corsair A50

But if you was talking about the GD55 then that adds an extra £30 and the GD65 adds £35 which may be stretching it a bit too far.

EDIT: that price includes shipping too.
 
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Yeah I could buy the A50 later as I've never overclocked before so I'd need some time to research that and everything so the stock cooler should be fine for that right?

I've also seen now the GD45, which I missed yesterday. Here is the differences as far as I can tell.

G45 offers an extra PCI-Express 16 slot and one less PCI (£15 on top on C45)

GD55 is the same as G45 except doesn't have any eSATA ports but supports crossfire and SLI (£15 on top of G45)

GD65 is the same as GD55 except it has 2 eSATA ports, 4 SATA III ports (instead of 2 on the rest of the cards) and has dual bios (£5 on top of GD55)

If I go for the GD55 it seems silly not to pay the extra £5 and go for the GD65, but I don't know :confused: lol
 
sk82jack said:
not too fussed about noise to be honest, at the moment I'm usually either on my laptop (which is pretty loud) or my xbox 360 (also very loud) so as long as its not bursting my ear drums or something, it should be OK lol

OK here's the revised list so far:

Case - Zalman Z9 £44.99

PSU - BeQuiet Pure Power L7 530w £42.98

Processor - Intel Core i5-2500K £179.99

Mobo - Gigabyte P67A-UD3-B3 £114.98

Graphics Card - Sapphire ATI Radeon HD 5850 £107.99

RAM - G.Skill RipJawsX 4GB (2x2GB) £39.98

HD - Seagate Barracuda 1TB £37.99

CPU Cooler - Corsair A50 £29.99

Which comes to a total of £598.89 without shipping.

Looking good so far, managed to improve the graphics card, PSU and CPU cooler for only an extra £6 or so :D
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Personally, I'd stick with this.
 
What so the Gigabyte over the MSI and the BeQuiet over the XFX? Any reasons why? Not that I'm questioning it, I just wanna get as much info as possible before I decide :)
 
I'm a Gigabyte fanboy :)

Coolers at the price range are much of a muchness really. Some slightly better than other bit not worth losing sleep over. The PSU, yes, ditch the BeQuiet.
 
OK so I'm trying to decide between the XFX 650W XXX and the XFX Pro 650W Core Edition

There's only £10 difference but just wondering if that's just because the XXX is modular or is it actually better?

Also, are modular PSUs easier to install or is it just that they look better because cable management is easier?
 
sk82jack said:
OK so I'm trying to decide between the XFX 650W XXX and the XFX Pro 650W Core Edition

There's only £10 difference but just wondering if that's just because the XXX is modular or is it actually better?

Also, are modular PSUs easier to install or is it just that they look better because cable management is easier?
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there easier make it less time and look a whole of lot better

and for extra ten pound you cant go wrong
 
UD3P : better VRM than standard UD3. Better stability and reliability for overvoltage.
GD55 : crossfire and SLI 8x.
GD65 : better cooling design for VRMs and extra SATA ports.

The MSI have a funky bios and auto overclock feature.

UD3P : if you do not need crossfire / SLI.
GD55 : if you want crossfire / SLI.
GD65 : If you really want to push the OC to the extreme (> 5GHz).
 
sk82jack said:
OK so I'm trying to decide between the XFX 650W XXX and the XFX Pro 650W Core Edition

There's only £10 difference but just wondering if that's just because the XXX is modular or is it actually better?

Also, are modular PSUs easier to install or is it just that they look better because cable management is easier?
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Modular stops making a mess inside the case. The non modular cables are the motherboard connectors and two PCIE connectors for one card. It means you can pick and choose the cables you need and where they clip onto for the hard drive and optical drive. You will probably need two coming out of the PSU.

DSCF2120.JPG


The only extraneous cable is the 8 pin EPS12V connector.

I'd go with the modular.
 
XFX 650W XXX sounds good then, managed to find it a bit cheaper elsewhere too :D lol

Regarding the mobo, I think I would like to have the choice of crossfire/SLI for in the future and to be honest the £5 jump from the GD55 to the GD65 seems so insignificant to the whole cost I might as well just go for the GD65 I'm thinking.
 
So now that I've decided on the GD65, is it worth me upping the HD to a SATA III version, seeing as I'm gonna have 4 SATA III ports? Or will it not make too much difference?
 
I disagree with operation, stick with Seagate Barracuda 1TB as that should be fine for what you need and also fast enough. Otherwise it just complicating things and making it a bit more expensive without much gain.

Stick to your original plan and just change what you've been discussing above, be best if you posted your final rig once more just to make sure everything is fine!
 
John101 said:
I disagree with operation, stick with Seagate Barracuda 1TB as that should be fine for what you need and also fast enough. Otherwise it just complicating things and making it a bit more expensive without much gain.

Stick to your original plan and just change what you've been discussing above, be best if you posted your final rig once more just to make sure everything is fine!
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The difference in price is tiny.
 
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