First time build - Advice needed

Faustie

Faustie

Faustie

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Joined
14 Mar 2011
Posts
32
Hey everyone,

So this'll be my first ever build. Before I've just used this iMac, but I've been getting seriously ****ed off at the inability to customize anything from it, not to mention I only ever use bootcamp now anyway, so its time to upgrade.

Here is what I have in mind so far:

Asus P8P67 Pro B3 revision Intel 1155 motherboard
Intel Core i5-2500K SandyBridge Quadcore 3.3ghz
Sapphire Toxic HD Radeon 6850 1GB GPU
Corsair Vengeance 8GB DDR3 1600Mhz Dual channel Ram @ 1.50v
2 x Samsung Spinpoint F3 1TB 7200rpm HDDs
Either a Cooler Master HAF 932 or a HAF X
Edimax PCI Wifi card/300mbps/802.11n with 3 aerials
LG DVD-RW SATA
Corsair HX 750W modular PSU

I'll be using this build predominantly for a mix of gaming and audio production, with some usage of photoshop mixed in. I'll also be storing a lot of films and music on here, normally in quite high quality.

At the moment, the cost of this build on [Edit: someplace somewhere] is around £950, which is roughly my budget. Is this a good deal, or should I look elsewhere? I've browsed your site a little, but the parts seem to be slightly more expensive here. As it is, I'm unsure where is the best place to buy, so your advice here is greatly appreciated.

Also, in regards to cooling.. Should I buy the extra fans for the HAF case? Also should I get one of those CPU coolers? i.e. the Arctic Cooler? If so, I'm not entirely sure which is best for my price range/CPU, and what paste I should buy, if any.

I've done my research and the PSU seems good. Lots of headroom in case I want to put in another card in crossfire later, which is likely, and it seems to be a very good quality make.

Also is the HAF X worth it over the HAF 932? I won't overclock straight away after I get the computer, as I've never done it before, but in the future it is again likely.

Your help will be greatly appreciated :)
Cheers
 
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Your basket
Product Name Qty Price Line Total
MSI ATI Radeon HD 6950 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £214.99
(£179.16) £214.99
(£179.16)
Intel Core i5-2500K 3.30GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor - OEM £161.99
(£134.99) £161.99
(£134.99)
Gigabyte H67A-UD3H-B3 Intel H67 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard - (Sandybridge) ** B3 REVISION ** £129.98
(£108.32) £129.98
(£108.32)
Coolermaster HAF 932 Case - Black £109.99
(£91.66) £109.99
(£91.66)
Corsair Vengeance 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (CMZ8GX3M2A1600C9) £95.99
(£79.99) £95.99
(£79.99)
Corsair TX 650W ATX SLi Compliant Power Supply (CMPSU-650TXUK) £74.99
(£62.49) £74.99
(£62.49)
Samsung SpinPoint F4 EcoGreen 2TB SATA-II 32MB Cache - OEM (HD204UI) £62.99
(£52.49) £62.99
(£52.49)
Akasa AK-CC4005SP01 Venom Nano CPU Cooler (Socket LGA775/LGA1155/LGA1156/LGA1366/AM2/AM3) £32.99
(£27.49) £32.99
(£27.49)
TP-Link 300Mbps Wireless-N PCI Adapter (TL-WN851N) £19.99
(£16.66) £19.99
(£16.66)
Samsung SH-S223C/BEBE 22x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £13.99
(£11.66) £13.99
(£11.66)
Sub Total : £764.91
Shipping cost assumes delivery to UK Mainland with:
DPD Next Day Parcel
(This can be changed during checkout) Shipping : £14.75
VAT is being charged at 20.00% VAT : £155.93
Total : £935.59


Ok im over your budget but its only because im trying to stick to what your asking for two Questions

Why 2TB of HDD and why 8gig of ram

Could drop that price by about £100 if you were a bit more flexsable
 
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Firstly, you won't see discussion of other vendors here because these forums are paid for and run by overclockers.co.uk. It's unfair to discuss competitors, and besides, OcUK can often be the cheapest for some parts (it tends to balance out over the cost of an entire computer). What I will say is that OcUK has excellent customer service and a good range of high-quality products.

Second, stick with your build. Smudge's list includes an expensive H67 motherboard with a K-series chip, and a 6950 which is well beyond the performance you're going to be able to take advantage of.

Cooling is largely a matter of the CPU cooler. A reasonably-sized case will have all the airflow you're going to need, and extra fans are virtually snake oil. The Hyper 212 Plus and the Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro Rev 2 are very powerful CPU coolers for £20.

4GB of RAM is plenty at the moment. Although 8 can be had cheaply now, it's worth noting that no 32-bit process in Windows (which is 99.999% of what you will be running for the next 4 years or so) can be allocated more than 2GB of RAM each. Extra RAM may be useful for your photoshop/audio production work if you are working with particularly large files, but I doubt you'll push past 4.

Your build's looking pretty good though, I'd be happy to go ahead and order :)
 
You may find some components cheaper elsewhere which is fair enough but, it mostly evens out and even if it is cheaper overall by going elsewhere, you also have to look at the backup and info service available if things go wrong, which can happen wherever you purchase your goods.
The knowledge and expertise available on these forums is excellent and for me, is worth far more than a modest monetary saving on overall cost!

Like you, recently I was a first time builder but with the help and unbiased advice received here from forum members, any problems were soon sorted and was far more reassuring to me personally, than shaving a few pounds off a computer build!
 
Yeah ignore me was very tired when i did that build i was just trying to give him what he wanted for futer XF or SLI i can ofc do a much cheaper build (now im more awake)
 
Alright, thanks for the advice everyone.

As regards to the 2TB.. I'm going by the golden law here that no matter how many hard drives you have, they will inevitably be filled. However, I am willing to drop a hard drive if necessary to lower my price. Perhaps in the future when I have more money I'll buy an SSD, they're just very expensive at the moment. Also boot times aren't my greatest concern, as I just hit the power button and then go downstairs to grab a coffee.

Yeah, I can see the point in a CPU cooler. I guess I'll buy one, they're pretty cheap, and I imagine they'll be essential if I ever wanted to OC in the future. I've read around your forums more and I may as well buy some spare paste too, its very cheap per tube. I'm still trying to decide between the 932 and the X, but I shouldn't imagine that it'd make the greatest difference, as they're both full sized cases, am I right?

Also, is it worth it trying to save money by buying OEM parts? In some cases they're around 10-20% cheaper, but much less warranty and I don't think its guaranteed that they're unmodded/perfectly working?

I've had a look round your website and I can't seem to find the Sapphire Toxic HD Radeon 6850 for sale, you don't seem to have it here.. If I were to buy from here, can you recommend any other decent cards? I'm seeing the 6870 in some cases for around only £167 (Asus version), which is only £7 more than the toxic I was looking at. Is the 870 worth it over the 850 at this price difference? Are there any other ATI cards you recommend for my system?

Final question.. Cables. I guess that if I buy the whole thing retail, I won't have to buy extra cables, am I right? However, if I get some parts OEM, and I'm unsure as I've never bought parts before, they will come without the cables I need? How can I be sure that I'll receive all the correct cables?

Thanks :)
 
Definitely remove the link to competitor. Simple rule. As for OEM parts, it doesn't make too much difference, they tend to just come without a couple of bits, ie, harddrives don't have any cables with them, stuff like that. Doesn't really affect anybody.

OEM's main difference that actually effects you is it won't come in all the fancy packaging and won't have as long a warranty. Also in the case of OS's it can only be attached to a single motherboard.

Just so you know, there's really no difference between say a sapphire 6850 and an asus 6850 if they come with the reference cooler. They're basically exactly the same chipset. Definitely worth the extra £7 for the 6870 though. If you really want to get a good deal and want to stick to ATI, and crossfire later though, I'd probably try and get one of the 6950's on offer for £200, and then unlock it to a 6970 - truly epic performance for £200, and there's a topic under GPU's to tell you how to unlock it to a 6970.

kd
 
Alright, that looks interesting.. You say that OEM parts come without cables though.. Would I therefore have to figure out what I need and buy them all separately? That could get very fiddly imo. Still, I'll see if I can cut down to hit one of those deals you were on about, the 6950s do look good. Would they be too overkill for the rest of my system, though?
 
Nope, the rest of your system is fine to have no issue with the 6950s :)

Oh, as another note, the Corsair Vengeance RAM you chose has a large heat sink which isn't really necessary. Personally I'd get the 2x4GB of Geil or XMS3 off of OCUK, this would mean you wouldn't have to worry about the after market cooler you get :)

As for cables, you may well get the suitable ones with your motherboard, in all honesty I haven't got much experience of the actually whole cable thing, I'd probably look up an unboxing of the motherboard you chose, and find out what cables come with it :) Worst comes to worst though, for a HDD it's only one SATA cable you need, same for optical drive :)

kd
 
Ok, sounds great. I've looked more at the 6950s, and how they can easily be unlocked to 70s. They look absolutely great.

This is what I'm planning on getting now:

Your basket
Product Name Qty Price Line Total
Asus ATI Radeon HD 6950 OC 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £209.99
(£174.99) £209.99
(£174.99)
Intel Core i5-2500K 3.30GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor - OEM £161.99
(£134.99) £161.99
(£134.99)
Asus P8P67 PRO Intel P67 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard - (Sandybridge) ** B3 REVISION ** £139.99
(£116.66) £139.99
(£116.66)
Coolermaster HAF 932 Case - Black £109.99
(£91.66) £109.99
(£91.66)
Corsair Vengeance 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C8 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (CMZ8GX3M2A1600C8) £107.99
(£89.99) £107.99
(£89.99)
Corsair TX 750W ATX SLI Compliant Power Supply (CMPSU-750TXUK) £94.99
(£79.16) £94.99
(£79.16)
Samsung SpinPoint F3 1TB SATA-II 32MB Cache - OEM (HD103SJ) £39.98
(£33.32) £39.98
(£33.32)
Samsung SH-S223C/BEBE 22x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £13.99
(£11.66) £13.99
(£11.66)
OcUK Value 300Mbps Wireless-N PCI Adapter £12.98
(£10.82) £12.98
(£10.82)
Sub Total : £743.25
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 : £151.40
Total : £908.40


As you can see, I'm getting 3 OEM parts. I guess I can probably find the correct cables for the HDD and optical drive very easily, I'm just not sure about the CPU. Never installed one before, but I don't think they even use cables? Still, its around £30 cheaper, so definitely worth it :)

Oh yeah, and I notice that the i5-2500K I've selected comes with onboard HD3000 graphics? I assume you'd be able to turn it off if needed? And would it run alongside the 6950 or not?

Anyway, what do you think of these choices? And thanks very much for the help so far, you've managed to cut around £50 pounds off while giving me more power :D

Edit: Also, as I'm selling an imac, I'll need a new monitor, mouse and keyboard. As I'm already spending £900, I'd prefer them to be cheap.
However, the monitor I would like to be at least 1680x1050 resolutions. The keyboard and mouse I don't really mind, so long as they work well for things such as gaming. Any suggestions? :)
 
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OK, I've been wondering around the shop a bit more..

What would be a good CPU cooler? So far I've looked at the Akasa Venom cooler and the Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro.

Also, is it worth buying aftermarket thermal paste and cleaner, such as Arctic 5? Or will it come with enough paste for use?

Thanks
 
The cooler comes with paste. The Venom is a great value cooler, tbh.

The Sidewinder X4 is a good value keyboard, and can be had for £30-40. As for a mouse, most people recommend a Logitech G500 or a Razer Deathadder on a budget.
 
Well, these are the new full listings..

Product Name Qty Price Line Total
Asus ATI Radeon HD 6950 OC 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £215.99
(£179.99) £215.99
(£179.99)
Intel Core i5-2500K 3.30GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor - OEM £161.99
(£134.99) £161.99
(£134.99)
Asus P8P67 PRO Intel P67 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard - (Sandybridge) ** B3 REVISION ** £139.99
(£116.66) £139.99
(£116.66)
BenQ G2222HDL 21.5" Widescreen LED Monitor - Black £110.39
(£91.99) £110.39
(£91.99)
Coolermaster HAF 932 Case - Black £109.99
(£91.66) £109.99
(£91.66)
Corsair Vengeance 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C8 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (CMZ8GX3M2A1600C8) £107.99
(£89.99) £107.99
(£89.99)
Corsair TX 750W ATX SLI Compliant Power Supply (CMPSU-750TXUK) £94.99
(£79.16) £94.99
(£79.16)
Samsung SpinPoint F3 1TB SATA-II 32MB Cache - OEM (HD103SJ) £39.98
(£33.32) £39.98
(£33.32)
Microsoft SideWinder X6 Gaming Keyboard - Retail (AGB-00006) £38.99
(£32.49) £38.99
(£32.49)
Gigabyte M8000X 6000DPI Gaming Mouse £38.99
(£32.49) £38.99
(£32.49)
Akasa AK-CCX-4002HP Venom CPU Cooler (Socket LGA775/LGA1155/LGA1156/LGA1366/AM2/AM3) £36.98
(£30.82) £36.98
(£30.82)
Samsung SH-S223C/BEBE 22x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £13.99
(£11.66) £13.99
(£11.66)
OcUK Value 300Mbps Wireless-N PCI Adapter £12.98
(£10.82) £12.98
(£10.82)
OcUK Value 2m DVI Male - Male Monitor Cable (DV-106) £4.99
(£4.16) £4.99
(£4.16)
Sub Total : £940.20
Shipping cost assumes delivery to UK Mainland with:
DPD Next Day Parcel
(This can be changed during checkout) Shipping : £22.20
VAT is being charged at 20.00% VAT : £192.48
Total : £1,154.88


I would say thats enough :P Its still cheaper than an iMac though, so thats good.

Anyone see any problems with it, or things that I should improve?

And will I have enough cables to connect everything up?
 
Looks great to me. :)

Only thing I'm unsure about is the mouse, as you may be recommended something better, but I don't know.
 
Aren't there still issues with the ASUS boards? going off the motherboard section on here anyway. Might want to consider MSI, or Gigabyte P67 boards instead but its up to you.
 
maj: The issues are fixed with the B3 revision as far as I know, so it should be fine.

And Liam: Yeah I'd prefer a better mouse, but I really don't want to spend ANY more money :P
 
Oh and I'm considering changing the RAM.. We'll see when I order. The cooling on them is huge, might get in the way, and I want everything to fit perfectly, especially as the card and CPU cooler is rather large.
 
Faustie said:
Oh and I'm considering changing the RAM.. We'll see when I order. The cooling on them is huge, might get in the way, and I want everything to fit perfectly, especially as the card and CPU cooler is rather large.
Click to expand...

Spec looks good.

If you are concerned about the height of the Vengeance ram and CPU Cooler impeding the RAM slots take a look at this. You will need to make sure that the case in your spec will accommodate this cooler as it is very tall. It comes supplied with a quiet fan.
 
Mike306 said:
Spec looks good.

If you are concerned about the height of the Vengeance ram and CPU Cooler impeding the RAM slots take a look at this. You will need to make sure that the case in your spec will accommodate this cooler as it is very tall. It comes supplied with a quiet fan.
Click to expand...

Hmm, unfortunately that doesn't fit on the socket. I'll have to think about the Vengeance RAM. Is there any kind of.. case calculator where you enter your parts and it sees if they will fit? Or is it a matter of trial and error?


EDIT: Heh, kd you posted that just as I posted this... yeah I guess I'll grab one of those, thanks for the advice. :)
 
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