First time builder - Clueless!

cooper795 · 26 Mar 2011 at 11:01

Firstly, I have a budget of ~£750 and will need everything except a monitor (got a 22" LG), mouse, keyboard and a OS as I have Vista 64 bit (or is Windows 7 worth the extra £70?).

This is what I was thinking of getting:

Processor: Intel Core i5 2500k (£175.99)
MoBo: Gigabyte P67A-UD4-B3 Intel P67 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard (£149.99)
RAM: Corsair XMS3 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (£35.99)
Heatsink: Corsair A50 High-Performance CPU Cooler (£29.99)

Also, I've heard that this card is an absolute bargain and usually retails for about £60 more on other sites?:
Sapphire ATI Radeon HD 5850 Extreme 1024MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card (£107.99)

The above comes to around ~£500 which would leave me ~£250 for a Hard Drive, Case, PSU, possible extra case fans and a sound card, if I choose to get one (are they even worth it)? So would anybody be able to recommend me any decent, cheapish parts that I could get to go with the above?

Also, how does the above graphics card compare to the Sapphire ATI Radeon HD 6870 1024MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card (£194.99)? Just as this card was the one that I was originally thinking of getting before I realised the 5850 was such a bargain.

Another two quick questions are, will that MoBo allow me to add another 5850 if I choose to do so in the future, and also, what are the options in getting a PC wireless enabled? As I hate messing about with dongles and such!

I hope that all the above parts are actually compatible, and any help would be appreciated, thanks!

John101 · 26 Mar 2011 at 11:15

Cant answer all your questions but If you decide to go with your original plan i would scrap the 6870 and get the 6950 which is on offer today... much better card as you can flash it and cheaper too! As for 6870 vs 5850 well....

http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/290?vs=295

Oh and for the Hard Drive, Case, PSU.... i would go for >

Samsung SpinPoint F3 1TB SATA-II 32MB Cache - OEM (HD103SJ) £39.98
Coolermaster HAF 912 Plus Case - Black £59.99
Antec TruePower New Modular 750W Power Supply £84.98

Comes in at £199.06 leaving you with a spare £50.

hlennie · 26 Mar 2011 at 12:33

Windows 7 worth it

Your spec looks ok but go for a better graphics like advised above

Not to sure about the CPU cooler google it and read its reviews

The board u chose supports sli and crossfire.

Wireless card can be fitted.

Sound-card only any good with decent speakers otherwise use onboard with some quality head phones.

Reaper 392 · 26 Mar 2011 at 14:33

this build comes in way over budget because ive included windows 7 with it. remove the windows 7 + HDD bundle, and get this 500GB hard drive, and the price will be £768.05.

the win7 + HDD bundle only saves about £1 if you have a 1TB HDD, so i went for the 500GB option, where you save a more significant amount

Your basket
Product Name Qty Price Line Total
XFX ATI Radeon 6950 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £189.98
(£158.32) £189.98
(£158.32)
Intel Core i5-2500K 3.30GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor - Retail with FREE Shogun 2 Game £173.99
(£144.99) £173.99
(£144.99)
Gigabyte P67A-UD4-B3 Intel P67 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard - (Sandybridge) ** B3 REVISION ** £149.99
(£124.99) £149.99
(£124.99)
XFX 750W Black Edition Modular Power Supply £92.99
(£77.49) £92.99
(£77.49)
Microsoft Windows 7 Bundle - Home Premium 64 Bit £68.40
(£57.00) £68.40
(£57.00)
Options applied to the above product:
Western Digital Caviar Blue 500GB SATA 6Gb/s 16MB Cache - OEM (WD5000AAKX) £32.99
(£27.49) £32.99
(£27.49)
Coolermaster Elite 430 Windowed Case - Black £38.80
(£32.33) £38.80
(£32.33)
Corsair XMS3 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (CMX4GX3M2A1600C9) £35.99
(£29.99) £35.99
(£29.99)
Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro Rev 2 CPU Cooler (Socket 939 / AM2 / AM3 / 775 / 1155/ 1156 / 1366) £17.99
(£14.99) £17.99
(£14.99)
Samsung SH-S223C/BEBE 22x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £13.99
(£11.66) £13.99
(£11.66)
TP-Link 150Mbps Wireless Lite N PCI Express Adapter (TL-WN781N) £11.75
(£9.79) £11.75
(£9.79)
Sub Total : £689.04
Shipping cost assumes delivery to UK Mainland with:
DPD Next Day Parcel
(This can be changed during checkout) Shipping : £11.25
VAT is being charged at 20.00% VAT : £140.06
Total : £840.35

- i know nothing about this wireless card, but you said you wanted wireless, so picked a mid range one

cooper795 · 26 Mar 2011 at 15:57

Thanks for the advice, the parts I'm going to buy are coming together in my head now!

Although, I'm just wondering, will the motherboard have enough slots if I choose to include a sound card (I have some pretty good 5.1 speakers) and a wireless network card? Just I'm not entirely sure which slots these would actually fit into.

EDIT: Also, I'm not sure whether to just get a 5850 graphics card, and then maybe add another after I get paid, rather than get a 6950, decisions, decisions!

John101 · 26 Mar 2011 at 17:39

There's plenty of slots on the board its just a matter of space. I'm pretty sure if you go with the CF option you will only be able to add either a wireless card or a sound card. However if you go with a single card option you will be able to add a wireless card and a sound card. Bear in mind I'm just judging this by looking at pictures so it be best if you waited for someone with a bit more experience

Yeah your right sorry, hadn't thought about CF a 5850, didn't realize how low the price was on the special deal :eek:

http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/303?vs=292

in my opinion i would go with Reaper 392 build but change the 6950 to
x2 5850, seems to be the best bang for buck and forget about the sound card and buy one at a later date if you really need one!

cooper795 · 26 Mar 2011 at 18:24

Yeah I think that's what I'll do, with the CF 5850's, and I'll wait to see if there's enough to room for a sound card. The system I'm currently running has stock sound and its pretty good hooked up to some decent speakers.

Thanks for the help