First Time Build

Charlesswaffer

Charlesswaffer

Charlesswaffer

Associate
Joined
7 Aug 2011
Posts
44
Location
Cornwall
Hello all, First post and first ever build. Any suggestions very welcome. Building the rig primarily for gaming and am trying to future proof a little bit.

Total budget is around £1300, though bear in mind I need a copy of windows, a keyboard and some cans.


MSI Z68A-GD80 (B3) Z68 Socket 1155 8 channel audio ATX Motherbard
Intel Core i5 2500K 3.3GHz Socket 1155 6MB Cache Retail Boxed Processor
Zotac GTX 570 1280MB GDDR5 Dual DVI HDMI DisplayPort PCI-E Graphics Card Corsair Professional Series AX750 750W Modular PSU - 80plus Gold Certified
Samsung HD103SJ Spinpoint F3 1TB Hard Drive SATAII 7200rpm 32MB Cache
LG GH22NS70 22x DVD±RW with DL & RAM SATA Optical Drive - OEM Black
Corsair 8GB ((2x4GB) DDR3 2000MHz XMS3 Memory Kit CL9 1.65V
NZXT Phantom Black Full Tower Case

I've been looking at this monitor...

Dell Ultrasharp U2311H Widescreen LCD, 1920x1080, IPS panel, DVI, HDCP, Displayport, U2311H

Obviously wanting IPS although I do play FPS games and don't want too slow a response time. My upper budget on a monitor is £250


I will likely get the Noctua NH-D14 next month for cooling (because of costs,) I can wait to overclock till then.

Any thoughts, comments, suggestions or approvals very welcome

Thankyou
Charles
 
I dont know enough about components to comment on a good build for you but what I can comment on is the monitor.

3 words! Worth every penny.

Its the same monitor I have and I cant recommend it enough. looks amazing, feels amazing and it just works flawlessly. Also they are great if you go for a 3 monitor setup and rotate them :)

Plus Dells customer service for displays is supposed to be one of the best out there but I wouldn't know because mine has worked perfectly from day 1
 
I didn't see an SSD in there....?

They are amazing and such a breakthrough, my stress levels have basically dropped to a non existant level due to my SSD, start up, shut down and re-start times aren't even worth recording!!!
 
something like this?

Gen3 motherboard, 850W PSU, 120GB SSD, red theme, 6950 2GB with potential for crossfire, IPS, and some money left over for keyboards and / or gaming headphones. Could also get a GTX570.

Dell Ultrasharp U2311H 23" Widescreen LCD Monitor - Midnight Grey £209.99
OcUK ATI Radeon 6950 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card with FREE DIRT3 PC Game £191.99
Intel Core i5-2500K 3.30GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor - Retail £161.99
Asrock Z68 Extreme4 Gen3 Intel Z68 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £159.98
Corsair Force Series 3 120GB SATA 6Gb/s Solid State Drive (CSSD-F120GB3-BK) £147.98
Lepa B-Series 850W '80 Plus Bronze' Modular Power Supply £92.99
Lancool Dragon-Lord PC-K62 Mid Tower - Red Dragon Windowed Edition £86.78
Microsoft Windows 7 Bundle - Home Premium 64 Bit £68.40
Options applied to the above product:
Western Digital Caviar Blue 500GB SATA 6Gb/s 16MB Cache - OEM (WD5000AAKX) £29.99
Kingston HyperX Genesis Grey 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (KHX1600C9D3X2K2/8GX) £53.99
Sony Optiarc AD-5260S 24x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £15.98
(This can be changed during checkout) Shipping : £22.20
VAT is being charged at 20.00% VAT : £207.78
Total : £1,246.70
 
I went £8.49 over. But it can be rectified if you don't like it:
Kept the case for you.
Preorder price on the dell is great. its a 16:10 rather than 16:9, all the same inputs etc.
Because of this I stuck in a 6950 which has more VRAM which should help. (couldn't fit in a 580 :()
SSD can be replaced with a DH-14 if your not that fussed about boot times.
The PSU can handle another 6950 down the road if you need it and the motherboard will support the new PCI 3.0 graphics cards when they come out.
See what ya think:

YOUR BASKET
1 x Dell UltraSharp U2412M 24" Widescreen LED Monitor - Midnight Grey £299.99
1 x OcUK ATI Radeon 6950 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card with FREE DIRT3 PC Game £191.99
1 x Intel Core i5-2500K 3.30GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor - Retail £161.99
1 x Asrock Z68 Extreme4 Gen3 Intel Z68 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £159.98
1 x NZXT Phantom Enthusiast Full Tower Case - Black £109.99
1 x Crucial RealSSD M4 64GB 2.5" SATA 6Gb/s Solid State Hard Drive £88.99
1 x Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 64-Bit - OEM (GFC-00599) £79.99
1 x Lepa B-Series 750W '80 Plus Bronze' Modular Power Supply £72.98
1 x Samsung SpinPoint F3 1TB SATA-II 32MB Cache - OEM (HD103SJ) £40.99
1 x Microsoft SideWinder X4 Gaming Keyboard - Retail (JQD-00006) £29.98
1 x Corsair XMS3 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (CMX4GX3M2A1600C9) £27.98
1 x LiteOn IHAS124-19 24x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £16.99
Total : £1,308.49 (includes shipping : £22.20).

 
R088ieS86 said:
I went £8.49 over. But it can be rectified if you don't like it:
Kept the case for you.
Preorder price on the dell is great. its a 16:10 rather than 16:9, all the same inputs etc.
Because of this I stuck in a 6950 which has more VRAM which should help. (couldn't fit in a 580 :()
SSD can be replaced with a DH-14 if your not that fussed about boot times.
The PSU can handle another 6950 down the road if you need it and the motherboard will support the new PCI 3.0 graphics cards when they come out.
See what ya think:

YOUR BASKET
1 x Dell UltraSharp U2412M 24" Widescreen LED Monitor - Midnight Grey £299.99
1 x OcUK ATI Radeon 6950 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card with FREE DIRT3 PC Game £191.99
1 x Intel Core i5-2500K 3.30GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor - Retail £161.99
1 x Asrock Z68 Extreme4 Gen3 Intel Z68 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £159.98
1 x NZXT Phantom Enthusiast Full Tower Case - Black £109.99
1 x Crucial RealSSD M4 64GB 2.5" SATA 6Gb/s Solid State Hard Drive £88.99
1 x Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 64-Bit - OEM (GFC-00599) £79.99
1 x Lepa B-Series 750W '80 Plus Bronze' Modular Power Supply £72.98
1 x Samsung SpinPoint F3 1TB SATA-II 32MB Cache - OEM (HD103SJ) £40.99
1 x Microsoft SideWinder X4 Gaming Keyboard - Retail (JQD-00006) £29.98
1 x Corsair XMS3 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (CMX4GX3M2A1600C9) £27.98
1 x LiteOn IHAS124-19 24x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £16.99
Total : £1,308.49 (includes shipping : £22.20).

Click to expand...

Nice.
 
Lots to think about here,

I have thought about an SSD although I'm happy to wait a little while and get one at a later date.

What is the U2410 like compared to the U2311H regards response time, just concerned about those crucial shots :) However, i'm told IPS works differently and it shouldn't be too much of a problem.

I'm liking R088ieS86's build although I have a few questions. Is that enough RAM and can you belay my desires for 2000Mhz stuff, maybe it's overkill I'm not sure, but i have to ask.

Is the 6950 really better than the 570? Reviews I looked at seemed to favour the Nvidia range.

Anyone had experience of the Lepa PSU, the Corsair is much more expensive but seems like it's very tried and tested. Effiency means a lot to me as does volume.

I do like the sound of the Motherboard compared to the one i had originally. I can't see any reason not to get it.

One last question would be, what do you think of my original concoction, is there an augmented build somewhere between the two? Possibly the ASROCK Mobo with the 570 instead of the HD6950

Can definately minus the SSD to accomodate some cost (for now)

Finally it remains for me to thank you all very much for your contributions to this build, it really means a lot to me. I've worked very hard to get the money for this so i want it to be excellent.

Thanks again
Charles
 
Charlesswaffer said:
What is the U2410 like compared to the U2311H regards response time, just concerned about those crucial shots :) However, i'm told IPS works differently and it shouldn't be too much of a problem.

Both great screens.

I'm liking R088ieS86's build although I have a few questions. Is that enough RAM and can you belay my desires for 2000Mhz stuff, maybe it's overkill I'm not sure, but i have to ask.

1600mhz is fine, sandybridge performance doesnt alter much with higher speed ram - http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/memory/display/sandy-bridge-ddr3.html

Is the 6950 really better than the 570? Reviews I looked at seemed to favour the Nvidia range.

The GTX570 is better - http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/306?vs=293

Anyone had experience of the Lepa PSU, the Corsair is much more expensive but seems like it's very tried and tested. Effiency means a lot to me as does volume.

Lepa are part of Enermax, heres the 850w version - http://www.hardocp.com/article/2011/06/20/lepa_b_series_850w_power_supply_review/

I do like the sound of the Motherboard compared to the one i had originally. I can't see any reason not to get it.

Good

One last question would be, what do you think of my original concoction, is there an augmented build somewhere between the two? Possibly the ASROCK Mobo with the 570 instead of the HD6950

Can definately minus the SSD to accomodate some cost (for now)

Finally it remains for me to thank you all very much for your contributions to this build, it really means a lot to me. I've worked very hard to get the money for this so i want it to be excellent.

Thanks again
Charles
Click to expand...
 
Perhaps this...?

Asrock Z68 EXTREME4 Socket 1155 8 Channel HD Audio ATX Motherboard
Intel Core i5 2500K 3.3GHz Socket 1155 6MB Cache Retail Boxed Processor
Zotac GTX 570 1280MB GDDR5 Dual DVI HDMI DisplayPort PCI-E Graphics Card
Corsair Professional Series AX750 750W Modular PSU - 80plus Gold Certified
Samsung HD103SJ Spinpoint F3 1TB Hard Drive SATAII 7200rpm 32MB Cache
NZXT Phantom Black Full Tower Case
Corsair 8GB ((2x4GB) DDR3 2000MHz XMS3 Memory Kit CL9 1.65V
Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium 1 PC - OEM - DVD - 64-bit - English
LiteOn iHAS124-19 24x DVD±RW DL & RAM SATA Optical Drive - OEM Black
Dell Ultrasharp U2311H
 
Update

MSI GeForce GTX 570 1280MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card
Dell Ultrasharp U2311H 23" Widescreen LCD Monitor - Midnight Grey
Intel Core i5-2500K 3.30GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor - Retail
Asrock Z68 Extreme4 Gen3 Intel Z68 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard
NZXT Phantom Enthusiast Full Tower Case - Black
Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 64-Bit - OEM
Lepa B-Series 750W '80 Plus Bronze' Modular Power Supply
Noctua NH-D14 Dual Radiator CPU Cooler
Corsair XMS3 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (CMX8GX3M2A1600C9)
Microsoft SideWinder X4 Gaming Keyboard - Retail (JQD-00006)
LiteOn IHAS124-19 24x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM
 
Last edited:
Thanks for spotting the Gen3 thing, I found the right one now,

I've gone for the 1600Mhz but I swapped up for 8gb, maybe if you all think 4 is enough then i can save a bit there.

I went for the MSI card as they seem well known but if you can reccomend a different 570 i'm all ears.

Got the Noctua in there so i can OC straight away,

What do you think?
 
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