First Ever PC Build

fowler002 said:
I've not used the motherboard myself so can't comment on it but its being recommended by stulid who's more knowledable about these things, the thing is if you plan on going sli in the future the mb is not compatible even tho it has 2x pci-e x16 slots(it says xfire ready but 1 of pci-e x16 slot is actually x4 not x16 so the xfire performance will suffer).

if you plan on going sli/xfire you'll want http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MB-368-GI&groupid=701&catid=5&subcat=1990

on the subject of the case fans, the case already comes with an intake and exhaust fan so you don't need to spend extra(unless you want to go for better/quiter fans or for top/side/bottom fans).
Click to expand...


Thanks for the info but I have no plans for SLI/Crossfire because I'm not going to be gaming that much (this relates to the question at the bottom of my post here), so that's good to know that this is a good board for the money, and for what I want to use it for :D

Fan-wise, I think I will use what the case comes with for now, then order quieter ones in the future if I find these are quite loud/not doing a good enough job :)

At the moment the build is:


YOUR BASKET
1 x Intel Core i5-2500K 3.30GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor - Retail £167.99
1 x Asus GeForce GTX 560Ti DirectCU II 1024MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card **Supplied with FREE Batman: Arkham City PC game** £157.99
1 x Gigabyte Z68AP-D3 Intel Z68 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £79.98
1 x Samsung SH-B123L/RSBP 12x BluRay ROM DVDRW DL & RAM Lightscribe SATA-II Optical Drive - Black (Retail) £59.99
1 x Antec TruePower New Modular 550W '80 Plus Bronze' Power Supply £59.99
1 x Kingston HyperX Genesis Grey 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (KHX1600C9D3X2K2/8GX) £47.99
1 x Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 1TB SATA 6Gb/s 32MB Cache - OEM (ST31000524AS) £41.99
1 x Cooler Master Elite 430 Windowed Case - Black £39.98
1 x Corsair A50 High-Performance CPU Cooler (Socket AM2/AM3/LGA775/LGA1155/LGA1156/LGA1366) £24.98
1 x Samsung SH-S222AB/BEBE 22x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £17.99
Total : £713.87 (includes shipping : £12.50).



But I am starting to think some of the money I am spending on the gfx card would be better spent on something like a Corsair H50 / Corsair H60 instead of the Corsair A50 (since I might overclock in the future, and even if I don't the water cooling will keep temps down), and then get a slightly cheaper gfx card because I am really not going to do a lot of gaming on this machine, I use my PS3 for this, but I want to be able to play 'some' games occasionally on my PC without it struggling.

What do you all think? Is there a slightly cheaper Nvidia gfx card I could get that is still good and still has one HDMI and one DVI? I think I am wasting some money on the graphics card here. Surely there must be an alternative cheaper version?


Look forward to your replies,
 
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really does depend what sort of gaming you'll be looking to do, if you want to you could save a bit by going for the 560gtx (not the ti) or a 460 gtx, but if you look to go to newer games later on they could restrict you.

other option would be to look at an ati 6850 or 6870.

what sort of overclock are you looking to get, the a50 is a decent cooler and will be more than good enough for a decent overclock, might be worth u checking out the overclocking/cooling section before you make your decision on the cooler :).
 
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mp260767 said:
really does depend what sort of gaming you'll be looking to do, if you want to you could save a bit by going for the 560gtx (not the ti) or a 460 gtx, but if you look to go to newer games later on they could restrict you.

other option would be to look at an ati 6850 or 6870.

what sort of overclock are you looking to get, the a50 is a decent cooler and will be more than good enough for a decent overclock, might be worth u checking out the overclocking/cooling section before you make your decision on the cooler :).
Click to expand...

I'm really not sure on the gfx card now :confused::confused:

I will give you some info and let me know what you think / would recommend:
- I am hardly going to use it for gaming, I just wanted the ability to 'be able to' play 'some' games if I ever wanted to
- Main uses will be day-to-day use, college work, programming, watching movies and maybe some photo editing now and again. Very very very rarely it might get used for gaming, that is why I feel I'm wasting money on the gfx card
- If any new games come out, there is a 99% likelihood I will buy them for my PS3 rather than the PC

So what do you think? Should I just buy a sub £100 gfx card (maybe around £75 mark?) just so I can have good performance for the things I mentioned above, and so that I can connected my PC to my monitor and TV screen?

And about overclocking, I just looked on the overclocking section of the forum and it all looks quite confusing/dangerous, despite what people have said. So I might not do it at all, but if I do overclock it will be after a good few months of running my PC at all the stock levels, and if I do it, I will probably only go for around 4GHz as that will be enough for me. So the A50 should be fine, right?

Thanks for all your help :D
 
azibux1 said:
I'm really not sure on the gfx card now :confused::confused:

I will give you some info and let me know what you think / would recommend:
- I am hardly going to use it for gaming, I just wanted the ability to 'be able to' play 'some' games if I ever wanted to
- Main uses will be day-to-day use, college work, programming, watching movies and maybe some photo editing now and again. Very very very rarely it might get used for gaming, that is why I feel I'm wasting money on the gfx card
- If any new games come out, there is a 99% likelihood I will buy them for my PS3 rather than the PC

So what do you think? Should I just buy a sub £100 gfx card (maybe around £75 mark?) just so I can have good performance for the things I mentioned above, and so that I can connected my PC to my monitor and TV screen?
Click to expand...

I would get a 6850 then. £112. 560ti will play anything competently. My head says 6850, my heart says 560ti :) It's a great price for the performance you get.

And about overclocking, I just looked on the overclocking section of the forum and it all looks quite confusing/dangerous, despite what people have said. So I might not do it at all, but if I do overclock it will be after a good few months of running my PC at all the stock levels, and if I do it, I will probably only go for around 4GHz as that will be enough for me. So the A50 should be fine, right?
Click to expand...

Most definitely. I prefer the Gelid Tranquillo, as it has a 4 pin CPU fan. Meaning the speed is increases as the CPU gets hot, and then fall silent at idle. Not sure if the board can control a 3-pin fan the same way.

The Gelid is a big bad boy though.
 
as mentioned go for the 6850 graphics card, should suit your needs based on what you've said.

yeah the stock fan is fine for 4ghz on these, so you'll have no problem with the A50.

really 2 things you should keep a check on when overclocking :

1) don't over do the voltages being sent to processor, memory, northbridge etc
2) don't let your temps get to high on your processor when you run the apps to test your overclock is stable.
 
olivier renault said:
I would get a 6850 then. £112. 560ti will play anything competently. My head says 6850, my heart says 560ti :) It's a great price for the performance you get.



Most definitely. I prefer the Gelid Tranquillo, as it has a 4 pin CPU fan. Meaning the speed is increases as the CPU gets hot, and then fall silent at idle. Not sure if the board can control a 3-pin fan the same way.

The Gelid is a big bad boy though.
Click to expand...

Hmmm.... the 6850 looks good but I have been advised not to get ATI by a friend who says they crash a lot, and Nvidia is better, do you know if there is a similarly priced Nvidia equivalent to the 6850?

I will probably get the Gelid then due to that feature, as that would be good if it is silent when idling :D And I checked and it fits in the case :D

Do you know if the Gelid uses push pins to locate it into the mobo? As I've heard (someone mentioned it on this thread earlier) ones designed like that are bad/hard to fit

mp260767 said:
as mentioned go for the 6850 graphics card, should suit your needs based on what you've said.

yeah the stock fan is fine for 4ghz on these, so you'll have no problem with the A50.

really 2 things you should keep a check on when overclocking :

1) don't over do the voltages being sent to processor, memory, northbridge etc
2) don't let your temps get to high on your processor when you run the apps to test your overclock is stable.
Click to expand...

Hmmm.... the 6850 looks good but I have been advised not to get ATI by a friend who says they crash a lot, and Nvidia is better, do you know if there is a similarly priced Nvidia equivalent to the 6850?

And OK, I'll remember those things for when/if I overclock :D


Thanks :)
 
Read through all the posts..ATI cards crashing all the time is a load of rubbish, tell your friend he's wrong. Also the best 1TB drive is the F3.
If you're not going for all out gaming I'd suggest this, don't see the need for 2 optical drives either.
Having a SSD drive in there will make the biggest difference to how it performs.

YOUR BASKET
1 x Intel Core i5-2500K 3.30GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor - Retail £167.99
1 x HIS ATI Radeon HD 6850 1024MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card with DIRT3 & Deus Ex PC Games £111.95
1 x Crucial RealSSD M4 64GB 2.5" SATA 6Gb/s Solid State Hard Drive £83.99
1 x Gigabyte Z68AP-D3 Intel Z68 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £79.98
1 x Antec TruePower New Modular 550W '80 Plus Bronze' Power Supply £59.99
1 x Samsung SH-B123L/RSBP 12x BluRay ROM DVDRW DL & RAM Lightscribe SATA-II Optical Drive - Black (Retail) £59.99
1 x Kingston HyperX Genesis Grey 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (KHX1600C9D3X2K2/8GX) £47.99
1 x Samsung SpinPoint F3 1TB SATA-II 32MB Cache - OEM (HD103SJ) £47.99
1 x Cooler Master Elite 430 Windowed Case - Black £39.98
1 x Gelid Tranquillo CPU Cooler (Socket 754/939/940/AM2/AM2+/AM3/LGA775/LGA1155/LGA1156/LGA1366) £23.99
Total : £738.83 (includes shipping : £12.50).

 
azibux1 said:
Hmmm.... the 6850 looks good but I have been advised not to get ATI by a friend who says they crash a lot, and Nvidia is better, do you know if there is a similarly priced Nvidia equivalent to the 6850?

Do you know if the Gelid uses push pins to locate it into the mobo? As I've heard (someone mentioned it on this thread earlier) ones designed like that are bad/hard to fit
Click to expand...

can go one of 2 ways with the graphics card if you want nvidia, cheaper and decent enough is the 460gtx (theres a refurb unit with 1 yr warrenty for £86) or the 1gb version is around £135 at the moment.

other alternative is the 560 gtx, but thats only a bit less than the ti, which imho doesn't make it worth the spend over the ti.

there is a thread in general hardware at the moment discussing the problems with ati drivers, but there are a lot of people using them without any issues.

the gelid isn't a push pin cooler.
 
Davefran said:
Read through all the posts..ATI cards crashing all the time is a load of rubbish, tell your friend he's wrong. Also the best 1TB drive is the F3.
If you're not going for all out gaming I'd suggest this, don't see the need for 2 optical drives either.
Having a SSD drive in there will make the biggest difference to how it performs.

YOUR BASKET
1 x Intel Core i5-2500K 3.30GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor - Retail £167.99
1 x HIS ATI Radeon HD 6850 1024MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card with DIRT3 & Deus Ex PC Games £111.95
1 x Crucial RealSSD M4 64GB 2.5" SATA 6Gb/s Solid State Hard Drive £83.99
1 x Gigabyte Z68AP-D3 Intel Z68 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £79.98
1 x Antec TruePower New Modular 550W '80 Plus Bronze' Power Supply £59.99
1 x Samsung SH-B123L/RSBP 12x BluRay ROM DVDRW DL & RAM Lightscribe SATA-II Optical Drive - Black (Retail) £59.99
1 x Kingston HyperX Genesis Grey 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (KHX1600C9D3X2K2/8GX) £47.99
1 x Samsung SpinPoint F3 1TB SATA-II 32MB Cache - OEM (HD103SJ) £47.99
1 x Cooler Master Elite 430 Windowed Case - Black £39.98
1 x Gelid Tranquillo CPU Cooler (Socket 754/939/940/AM2/AM2+/AM3/LGA775/LGA1155/LGA1156/LGA1366) £23.99
Total : £738.83 (includes shipping : £12.50).

Click to expand...

Thanks for all that :D

Sorry for the late reply, I was deciding about the gfx card. I have decided to go with the refurbished 460 gtx that mp260767 has mentioned below, as it seems like a very good card for the money, and more than suitable for what I need.

I have also decided to put the SSD back into my build (I was thinking of one at the start of my build, then I took it out and thought I'd buy it at a later date, now I've put it back in again :D )

I had the DVD RW in there so that when copying a disk I could put the disc I'm burning onto in the blu-ray drive, and the one I'm copying from in that DVD RW. Was that just a waste of money then?

mp260767 said:
can go one of 2 ways with the graphics card if you want nvidia, cheaper and decent enough is the 460gtx (theres a refurb unit with 1 yr warrenty for £86) or the 1gb version is around £135 at the moment.

other alternative is the 560 gtx, but thats only a bit less than the ti, which imho doesn't make it worth the spend over the ti.

there is a thread in general hardware at the moment discussing the problems with ati drivers, but there are a lot of people using them without any issues.

the gelid isn't a push pin cooler.
Click to expand...

I am going to stick with Nvidia, and choose that refurbished 460 gtx you posted :D It seems like a very good card for the money, and more than suitable for my needs :D

I will also go with the Gelid :D



This is what the build is at the moment:


YOUR BASKET
1 x Intel Core i5-2500K 3.30GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor - Retail £184.99
1 x Gigabyte Z68AP-D3 Intel Z68 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £89.99
1 x OcUK GeForce GTX 460 768MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card - OEM £85.99
1 x OCZ Agility 3 60GB 2.5" SATA-3 Solid State Hard Drive (AGT3-25SAT3-60G) £76.99
1 x Antec TruePower New Modular 550W '80 Plus Bronze' Power Supply £59.99
1 x Samsung SH-B123L/RSBP 12x BluRay ROM DVDRW DL & RAM Lightscribe SATA-II Optical Drive - Black (Retail) £59.99
1 x Samsung SpinPoint F3 1TB SATA-II 32MB Cache - OEM (HD103SJ) £57.98
1 x Kingston HyperX Genesis Grey 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (KHX1600C9D3X2K2/8GX) £47.99
1 x Cooler Master Elite 430 Windowed Case - Black £39.98
1 x Gelid Tranquillo CPU Cooler (Socket 754/939/940/AM2/AM2+/AM3/LGA775/LGA1155/LGA1156/LGA1366) £25.99
Total : £743.99 (includes shipping : £11.75).




Everything look OK ??

I opted for the OCZ Agility SSD instead of the Crucial one, because even though it has two bad reviews (of the drive failing, but this can be sorted out with a firmware update), it has better performance than the Crucial, and it seems more of a popular choice (based on number of reviews).

Anyone spot anything that needs changing in the build??

Thanks for all your help,
 
stulid said:
The Crucial M4 is a better more reliable SSD - http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=HD-008-CR&groupid=1657&catid=2101&subcat=2102
Click to expand...

Thanks,

I'll update that now since I also just saw a really good write up for it in the new issue of Custom PC magazine :D

Quick question though about my 1TB HDD I have specced, hopefully you/davefran/someone can answer it for me:

I earlier specced a Seagate Barracuda 1TB 6GB/s drive (the 6GB/s means it is SATA III surely?)

But Davefran then said to go for the Samsung SpinPoint F3 1TB instead, which is only SATA II, but he said the samsung is the best 1TB drive there is.

Surely if my mobo has SATA 6GB/s ports (which it does), and the Seagate Barracuda is a 6GB/s drive, then this would be the better option compared to the Samsung one which is only SATA II?

But according to what Davefran said the samsung is better, and the number of reviews on each drive also suggests that the Samsung is more popular.

Why is this?? Am I missing something?


Hope you can help


Current build:


YOUR BASKET
1 x Intel Core i5-2500K 3.30GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor - Retail £184.99
1 x Gigabyte Z68AP-D3 Intel Z68 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £89.99
1 x OcUK GeForce GTX 460 768MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card - OEM £85.99
1 x Crucial RealSSD M4 64GB 2.5" SATA 6Gb/s Solid State Hard Drive £78.98
1 x Antec TruePower New Modular 550W '80 Plus Bronze' Power Supply £59.99
1 x Samsung SH-B123L/RSBP 12x BluRay ROM DVDRW DL & RAM Lightscribe SATA-II Optical Drive - Black (Retail) £59.99
1 x Samsung SpinPoint F3 1TB SATA-II 32MB Cache - OEM (HD103SJ) £57.98
1 x Kingston HyperX Genesis Grey 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (KHX1600C9D3X2K2/8GX) £47.99
1 x Cooler Master Elite 430 Windowed Case - Black £39.98
1 x Gelid Tranquillo CPU Cooler (Socket 754/939/940/AM2/AM2+/AM3/LGA775/LGA1155/LGA1156/LGA1366) £25.99
Total : £745.98 (includes shipping : £11.75).

 
Anyone able to answer the question above about the hard drives?

Also, three more questions :D

The Gelid Tranquillo needs a four pin connection to the mobo. How do I know if my mobo has one of these connections, because I thought they all had 3 pin connections for CPU fan?

Also, the Cooler Master Silent Pro Modular 500W is the same price as the Antec True Power Modular 550W I have specced, question is which one is better? If the two makes are just as good as each other, then for the same price I'll obviously go for the Antec since it has that extra 50W, so it will be that little bit further away from full load, making the job a bit easier for it, making it last longer (I assume)

Lastly, can anyone recommend a good (reasonably priced) 3.5"/5.25" card reader to add to my build?


Sorry for all the questions, it's just I am going to London International Technology Show (LITS) on Saturday and wanted to have a final list of everything I need so I can try and get some of it from there at discounted prices they are going to have there :D

Thanks :)
 
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as i understand it the sata 3 is only really relevant to ssd's as the mechanical drives can't match the speeds required to run at sata 3.

doesn't matter if the mobo has 3 or 4 it will still run ok, think the 4th pin is to allow for mobo fan speed control.

go for the antec 550w, 50w extra and 80 Plus Bronze so more efficient.
 
mp260767 said:
as i understand it the sata 3 is only really relevant to ssd's as the mechanical drives can't match the speeds required to run at sata 3.

doesn't matter if the mobo has 3 or 4 it will still run ok, think the 4th pin is to allow for mobo fan speed control.

go for the antec 550w, 50w extra and 80 Plus Bronze so more efficient.
Click to expand...

Thanks, that makes sense about the speed :)

OK, the reason I was getting the Gelid over the A50 was so that it would be silent when idling, unlike a 3 pin which is constantly running (I think). How do I know if the mobo has a 4 pin connection or 3 pin. And by your comment I assume the 4 pin will still fit onto a 3 pin connection on the mobo?

Also can the fan on the Gelid be changed for an ultra silent one if I find it loud?

And OK, I'll stick with the Antec then :D

Any ideas for a reasonably priced card reader??


Thanks for your help :D

EDIT:

This seems good because of the bluetooth, but This seems good because I'll then have a USB 3.0 port on the front of my PC

If I get the second one, is there any other permanent (not a dongle) way of getting bluetooth?

Would it be a good idea to just get the second one, and then get a cheap dongle like this ? Just so I can connect a bluetooth keyboard / mouse
 
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had a look around, reviews say it has a 4 pin header.

yup, fan can be changed if needed, just make sure it still cools the processor ok when fitted tho.

either of those card readers should be fine, can either go for that usb bluetooth or get a pci card for your usb 3, but it would be on the rear of the case.

mobo has usb3 on the rear panel, so are you likely to need to use usb3 at the front of the case ?, if not i'd go for the bluetooth version.
 
mp260767 said:
had a look around, reviews say it has a 4 pin header.

yup, fan can be changed if needed, just make sure it still cools the processor ok when fitted tho.

either of those card readers should be fine, can either go for that usb bluetooth or get a pci card for your usb 3, but it would be on the rear of the case.

mobo has usb3 on the rear panel, so are you likely to need to use usb3 at the front of the case ?, if not i'd go for the bluetooth version.
Click to expand...

Ahhh, that's good, can I ask where you found that? Because I couldn't find it, I looked on the gigabyte website but all it says is "1 x CPU fan header", it didn't say 3 pin or 4 pin.

I probably won't change the fan if it is a 4 pin, because it hopefully should be silent some of the time, but still it's good to know it can be changed :)

Yeah the reason I wanted the USB 3.0 one is so that I could have at least one USB 3.0 port on the front of the computer (but I do not mind if I cannot have this for the reason I mention below). But I just checked and the motherboard has no internal USB 3.0 header. I am assuming I need a USB 3.0 header for that port on the card reader to work. If that is the case, I am not that bothered, I will just get the bluetooth one instead so I have bluetooth, how would the bluetooth one connect to the mobo?

Also, which are better, standard wireless keyboard/mouse or bluetooth wireless keyboard/mouse? :D

Thanks :D


EDIT: The gfx card I am looking at here on the OcUK website is a refurbished one and it says it does not come with any drivers/wires, should these drivers/wires be fairly easy to find?

2nd EDIT: The RAM I have specced is compatible with the mobo isn't it, because I just checked the 'Memory Support List' for the mobo on the gigabyte site and I cannot see any 8GB Kingston RAM on the list, or any 8GB RAM at all
 
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well i tried gigabyte as well, then had to have a look round for reviews of the mobo and some just followed gigabyte "1 cpu fan header" but a few others detailed it as 4 pin.

yup would need a usb3 header, so the bluetooth option seems the way to go, would imagine its got a cable to hook into the mobo, otherwise can't really see how it would hook it all up.

what are you planning to use the system for an for what percentage of the time, once you decide that will be easier to decide the best route for keyboard/mouse.

not quite sure what "wires" would be needed for the graphics card tbh, and drivers you can download so there no problem.

the gigabyte site lists kingston 1600mhz memory and corsair so it should be fine, whether on 2x2gb or 2x4gb.
 
mp260767 said:
well i tried gigabyte as well, then had to have a look round for reviews of the mobo and some just followed gigabyte "1 cpu fan header" but a few others detailed it as 4 pin.

yup would need a usb3 header, so the bluetooth option seems the way to go, would imagine its got a cable to hook into the mobo, otherwise can't really see how it would hook it all up.

what are you planning to use the system for an for what percentage of the time, once you decide that will be easier to decide the best route for keyboard/mouse.

not quite sure what "wires" would be needed for the graphics card tbh, and drivers you can download so there no problem.

the gigabyte site lists kingston 1600mhz memory and corsair so it should be fine, whether on 2x2gb or 2x4gb.
Click to expand...

Thanks, you can also just about see on the picture on the Gigabyte website, if you zoom in, you can see the CPU fan header, and see that it is a 4 pin :)

I think I'll probably get the Bluetooth one :D

The PC will be used for day-to-day use, college work (so quite a bit of typing), some programming, watching movies, maybe some photo editing and a bit of gaming :D Most of the time spent on the PC will be general use, and college work. So what do you think? Bluetooth or just standard wireless?

Also the gfx card should be fine then if I can download drivers :) and thanks for checking the RAM, I found on another website too that you can have up to 32GB DDR3 2***MHz, so my 8GB DDR3 1600MHz will be fine :D

Thanks :)
 
yeah tried zooming in just couldn't quite see it well enough to say :(.

depends, how far you likely to move away from the pc :), of the 2 i'd go with standard wireless

anything against wired keyboards/mice ?
 
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