First time build (1000ish)

honosuseri said:
PhoenixUK has a point but we have to remember this guy is on a budget being a student. I'd be willing to bet the 1K is the entire loan for that 3rd year!

I think the OP's done a pretty good job balancing performance to price (especially for a first build). The storm scout case suggested is still said to be small and fiddly (reading this sites owners reviews) and it's more money than the antec which im sure will do ya for a first build.

As myself & PhoenixUK said don't skimp on the PSU you will regret it later, that extra £20-30 he suggested spending on a case will be better served going to the PSU now. Yes the antec isn't perfect but you can change that case later. Would you rather write off a £30/40 budget case for a better one further down the road or be caught short on power write off £65 on your PSU and spend around £100 or more on a new one.....I know what i'd rather do.

We may all differ in opnion but at the end of the day we are all looking out for your best interest. Once again good luck with the build, keep us posted!
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If he's on a budget we'll have to dump the CPU/RAM for something cheaper. Saving ___10___ GBP on a case is not an option. Don't even consider it, just get the coolermaster or add another 5-10 for something even better.

Even for a student, it's nothing especially that you consider this staying with you for the next few years. Think about it, how much is a 20quid over the course of 3yrs ???? You spend that on 2 pints in 1hr when you're in a pub, just don't drink beer for the next few days/week if you're that short on money, it's not that hard to save a tenner or even 20 !!

You could say when it was 50-80-100+ but 20quid when you're spending 1 grand on PC it's not even arguable.

If he wants to save money then we can pull of a different spec with slower CPU /gpu for around 600-700 probably and even then I'd choose a better case over lets say slightly better GPU.
 
honosuseri said:
Quite a nice selection of parts you are pondering on there!

The antec 300 is a nice case. It may be wise to get a more powerful PSU now if you are considering running two cards at a later date. The 5770 is a good budget card and if run in xfire is equal to (a pips in somecases) the 5870.

Just wanted to add, you do realise you need a 64bit version of windows to utilise 8gig of ram dont you?

Good luck with your build
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A 64 bit machine is probably the main reason I am upgrading, its minimal cost compared to a 32 bit gives soooooo much better rendering speeds its unreal. A 5770 I feel is a good compromise for myself between price and ability along with the future upgrade to xfire (likely I will be able to afford a 2nd card at Christmas).

Still the only things I am confused about is the PSU and case, although the cases seem to be a personal preference thing looks wise (Not into LED's etc myself, more of a minimalist!) I guess its finding that compromise between performance and cost at my sort of budget. Although I think I will be putting a bit more into the case budget!

The PSU I am still unsure about, obviously I would want it ready and able to run 5770's in xfire and be reliable. I am doing some research into as we speak but as always tips/ideas and even short elaborate stories are very well received, they have all been a massive help so far!
 
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mtnorris said:
A 64 bit machine is probably the main reason I am upgrading, its minimal cost compared to a 32 bit gives soooooo much better rendering speeds its unreal. A 5770 I feel is a good compromise for myself between price and ability along with the future upgrade to xfire (likely I will be able to afford a 2nd card at Christmas).

The PSU I am still unsure about, obviously I would want it ready and able to run 5770's in xfire and be reliable. I am doing some research into as we speak but as always tips/ideas and even short elaborate stories are very well received, they have all been a massive help so far!
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Look into getting the 'xfx 650w xxx' power supply.
No competitor hinting disguised or not!
If you read the reviews you'll find it's an excellent PC&P single rail power supply which is better than the ocz modxtreme.

Shame ocuk don't sell them.
 
I get the feeling that PhoenixUK feels im slating his suggestions....i'm really not. Trouble is only the OP knows how much money he has coming in. It's safer for us to say you can save £20 here, It's all too easy to justify £10 here and there...it soon adds up.

I'm not convinced that you need a six core. I didnt suggest dropping to a quad as I just have a feeling you are dead set on that CPU. I am concerned about what OS you are using as this hasnt been mentioned yet. If you want to run 8gig of ram at some point you will need a 64bit OS!

My sytem is still housed in the case i bought for my first build many many moons ago. It's an old antec dragon case (basically a file server case). It's a monster! I probably literally have room to swing a cat in it ;p I bought it on a "today only" offer for about £30, yes i've modded it over the years with a new paint job, side window, extra vents and more/better fans. I can hand on heart say it was the best £30 i ever spent. Thought you might appreciate a lil anecdote showing how far money can go!

I think the 5770 is a good call, the 6000 series cards are allegedly due at the end of the year or start of next. I would wait till these are released before buying the second 5770 as the price is certain to fall.

You are on the right lines with the PSU as you have gone modular so no excess cables will hinder airflow. If you can get a decent 800W (ish) supply with 25A rails i think you will be ok (cheaper psu tend to have lower rated rails).

Happy to hear we are helping even if it's causing a few headaches along the way ;)
 
honosuseri said:
On a side note. Where do you go drinking phoenix? £20 for two pints? Must be served in gold goblets or was it a typo lol
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Oh well, a tenner then, 20 for a round with your friend maybe ; ).
Anyways, you get my point, so much money goes around on small things which you don't count, people skimp 20quid on a better cooling but then few days later they spend 20-30 on a night out, fiver on subway, 3 for coffee, 5 on snacks and chocolate and a tenner on lunch.

It all adds up very quickly and when you think about it, that 20-30pounds is really nothing over the course of a year or two, sometimes you unnecessarily spend it on little things in 1 day.
 
Phoenix im on the same page, I'm just thinking back to when i started and was frantically trying to get the best bang for buck!

Well this is a radical suggestion but how about not buying the ATI 5770 just yet. The board has an IGP so some of the £130 for the 5770 can be put into the PSU and case and other accessories. The OP said he could possibly afford a 5770 (for xfire) come xmas but it may be even cheaper by then or the 5850 could fall into play with the 6000 cards being released. He might get a bursary for finishing the course (my gf is getting £500) this then pays for another GPU for xfire when the cards are cheaper still!

Now there's food for thought ;p
 
Yes plenty of ways for me to go about this. I also thought that not going for a x-fire board (will save a bit) and get a GPU that will last about a year and upgrade to a 6000 series then...

Its tricky trying to build a pc for a specific task and a set price as well as attempting to future proof it the best way possible. Getting the balance of the quality and performance I would like/require but not going over budget is tricky.

Just found out however I can get windows 7 pro for free as a student at my uni...which is nice :)

Speaking of the XFX 650w XXX PSU, i find it odd Ocuk dont stock it as theres a pic of the 850W on the front page (the latest deals bit on the right)

On the subject of 20 pound for 2 drinks, you need to find a new bar. Big tip...follow the students lol. I do totally understand the whole budgeting side of things, I cycle places and will be raiding the massive whiskey jar I have full of change for those few extra pounds hehe
 
Well trying to stick to the 1000 still really. However I can go over a bit, although not sure exactly how much more, hense the 1000 limit. I guess I would have to make it worth going over for though and not just for the sake of it. I have realised quite quickly it would be easy to spend 5000+ on some quite stupidly good machine (i am sure most people on here could!)
 
mtnorris.....I enjoy the challenge. I do this a lot as clients set me a budget and I have to build the rig and try and keep some change back for my labour and consultation ;p

Like I said you have done well with some friendly advice. Keep that mobo it's a decent base to work from, it's what's giving you so many choices (or headaches depending how you want to look at it!). It's the desire for xfire that is casting a shadow over the PSU. You opted for a 125W CPU, the 5770 or higher card will draw 200W odd under heavy load add another GPU and that 600W is cutting it close.

I'd recommend upping the PSU leave the 5770 for now and use the IGP. Then see what GPU you can afford end of the year, start of next. The 6000 series will be more of a revision of the 5000 than a major break through. The 5000 cards are directx11 compatible so lets see what will work out best come noel!

Hopeful my new partner in crime phoenixUK will post again with some further insight ;p

Right im off to grab an aspirin lol
 
mtnorris said:
Well trying to stick to the 1000 still really. However I can go over a bit, although not sure exactly how much more, hense the 1000 limit. I guess I would have to make it worth going over for though and not just for the sake of it. I have realised quite quickly it would be easy to spend 5000+ on some quite stupidly good machine (i am sure most people on here could!)
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Well the 1000 is absolutely enough and will get you very good build like the one I've posted before. My question was more towards if you maybe decide on something less powerfull in the 600-800 range that would be doable as well hence asking.

If not then the build I've posted before is pretty much flawless and only comes to little adjustments like better psu, better case, different monitor, more hdd or a cheap ssd.
 
honosuseri said:
mtnorris.....I enjoy the challenge. I do this a lot as clients set me a budget and I have to build the rig and try and keep some change back for my labour and consultation ;p

Like I said you have done well with some friendly advice. Keep that mobo it's a decent base to work from, it's what's giving you so many choices (or headaches depending how you want to look at it!). It's the desire for xfire that is casting a shadow over the PSU. You opted for a 125W CPU, the 5770 or higher card will draw 200W odd under heavy load add another GPU and that 600W is cutting it close.

I'd recommend upping the PSU leave the 5770 for now and use the IGP. Then see what GPU you can afford end of the year, start of next. The 6000 series will be more of a revision of the 5000 than a major break through. The 5000 cards are directx11 compatible so lets see what will work out best come noel!

Hopeful my new partner in crime phoenixUK will post again with some further insight ;p

Right im off to grab an aspirin lol
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The 200W you see in the reviews for 5770 is the total power draw for the whole PC, not the card alone.

There is no question that 600W quality PSU will take 2x 5770, ofcourse it will, the only difference between this 600W or better 750/800 will be the noise/temperature, lower end PSU will get hot more quickly and fan will ramp up faster when under heavy load.


If you want better PSU I'd suggest Thermaltake Toughpower 750w modular which unfortunately isn't stocked by ocUK anymore but you can get it from competition for about 80quid which is excellent price for this quality.

If you don't want to order from somewhere else then from ocUK the 700W OCZ is a good choice and so is the 600W coolermaster.
Rest is a bit overpriced IMO.

Also I haven't had a chance to play with any of the ocUK branded ones but I'm quite sure that unless you're looking to use 2 monster top end cards ( 2x480 / 2x5870 oced ) then they would be absolutely fine as well but I can't give my word on those as I haven't used them.

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CA-046-OK&groupid=701&catid=123&subcat=
This doesn't look bad if you wan't to give those a try. Sure it's rated a bit high for the price but as I said you won't be going anywhere close 500W power draw anyways unless you install some monster cards and OC the whole lot so it should be alright.
 
BenQ G2420HDBL 24" Widescreen LED Monitor - Black £159.79
AMD Phenom II X6 Six Core 1055T 2.80GHz (Socket AM3) - Retail £157.44
HIS IceQ 5 Turbo ATI Radeon HD 5770 1024MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card (Includes Dirt 2 Full Game) £137.99
Asus M4A88TD-V EVO/USB3 AMD 880G (Socket AM3) DDR3 Motherboard £93.99)
Patriot Viper 4GB (2x2GB) PC3-10666 1333MHz Dual Channel (PVS34G1333ELK) £70.49
Sapphire Pure 625W Modular Power Supply 64.61
Coolermaster Storm Scout Gaming Case - Black £56.99
Samsung SpinPoint F3 500GB SATA-II 16MB Cache - OEM (HD502HJ) £35.24
Zalman CNPS10X-Quiet CPU Cooler (754/939/940/AM2/AM2+/AM3/775/1156/1366) £32.99
Logitech MX518 Gaming-Grade Optical Mouse (910-000616) £24.99
Samsung SH-S223C/BEBE 22x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £13.99
Logitech Ultra-Flat Keyboard (967653-0120) £11.99

Sub Total : £785.84
Shipping cost assumes delivery to UK Mainland with:
DPD Next Day Parcel
(This can be changed during checkout) Shipping : £19.10
VAT is being charged at 17.50% VAT : £140.86
Total : £957.93


That's edited easy to read version of the previous build I've posted.
Also swapped the PSU for the Sapphire, I haven't seem them before but they seem an excellent quality for the price so it's worth a shot!

You still have few pounds to play around with case/monitor/ssd/hdd/bluray/gpu.
 
I have that 700W OCZ modular supply! I nearly went for a lower version of the 850W PSU you linked but it was branded as powercool at the retailers which I had never heard of and couldn't find a review so stuck with a trusted brand.

I was trying to show that he needed a decent supply for the parts that are chosen or may be upgraded to at a later date. The rails on the OCZ are 25A which i thought were more than sufficient for my needs.

That build you just posted is excellent value and well in budget. Still has an IGP so he could hold off on the graphics to see if he can get a better card for the same money by the end of the year.

Nice work phoenix, the OP can't go wrong with that!
 
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