First time building a PC - Advice please!

Spawnofherot · 10 Oct 2011 at 13:26

Hello all,
This is my first time posting on here as well as my first time building a PC from scratch, so far I'm a little overwhelmed!

I'm doing a Comp Sci degree so I know my way around a computer, but the specifics of each make and model of every component have always eluded me. I was wondering if anyone would mind giving me some component reccomendations?

I'm looking to build a full system (minus the monitor which I already have), with a budget of about £1300. I plan to use it primarily for gaming, so a good graphics card and processor seem pretty essential. I plan to run Windows 7 64-bit, and I was thinking of going for at least 8 gigs of RAM. If at all possible, I would like to be able to run more than two monitors as well, although I haven't started looking into the software implications of that just yet!

Any advice / ideas / reccomendations are welcomed!

shadow_boxer · 10 Oct 2011 at 13:29

Hi and welcome to the forums. As your studying a comp sci degree presumably you can get Windows 7 cheaper elsewhere so that can be excluded from your budget? Also will you be wanting to game on more than one screen if so how many?

cmndr_andi · 10 Oct 2011 at 13:31

Hi there, Welcome to the OCUK forums

Before I put together a spec, may I ask can you get a free copy of windows from your Univerisity? Computer Science degrees often have arrangements with microsoft so that students get free software.

May I ask what make and model monitor you already have? Also, will you be needing any other perpherals like mouse, keyboard, speakers/headset, microphone, webcam included in the budget?

As for more than two monitors - yes this isn't too much of an issue these days, cards in the AMD HD 6000 series can support between 3 and 5 depending on the model.

Spawnofherot · 10 Oct 2011 at 13:36

Yes, I can probably source a cheaper copy of Windows, so exclude that from the price. I probably won't be gaming on multiple monitors, but I would like to be able to have an internet browser open on one while playing on another. Ideally I'm looking for a system that supports 4 monitors, with at least one connected via HDMI if possible, but that's not a showstopper.

Spawnofherot · 10 Oct 2011 at 13:41

As for the make and model of my monitor, I'm currently using my TV connected via VGA (unsure of the specifics, I'm at work so I'll have to check when I get home), but I'll be upgrading my monitors after the rest of the machine is built, so don't base anything too heavily on my current screen. I already have all of the peripherals I need, keyboard / mouse /speakers etc.

shadow_boxer · 10 Oct 2011 at 13:41

How about this for a bit under budget. CPU is on today only deal by the way. Motherboard supports Intel® Smart Response Technology and LucidLogix Virtu.

MSI ATI Radeon HD 6950 OC Twin FrozR III Power Edition 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card with Dirt3 & Deus Ex PC Games £215.99
(£179.99) £431.98
(£359.98)
Intel Core i5-2500K 3.30GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor - Retail Intel Core i5-2500K 3.30GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor - Retail £167.99
(£139.99) £167.99
(£139.99)
Crucial RealSSD M4 128GB 2.5" SATA 6Gb/s Solid State Hard Drive Crucial RealSSD M4 128GB 2.5" SATA 6Gb/s Solid State Hard Drive £145.99
(£121.66) £145.99
(£121.66)
Gigabyte Z68XP-UD3 Intel Z68 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard Gigabyte Z68XP-UD3 Intel Z68 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £99.98
(£83.32) £99.98
(£83.32)
Antec TruePower New Modular 750W '80 Plus Bronze' Power Supply Antec TruePower New Modular 750W '80 Plus Bronze' Power Supply £85.99
(£71.66) £85.99
(£71.66)
Corsair Carbide 400R Midi Tower Case - Black Corsair Carbide 400R Midi Tower Case - Black £79.99
(£66.66) £79.99
(£66.66)
Kingston HyperX Genesis Grey 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (KHX1600C9D3X2K2/8GX) Kingston HyperX Genesis Grey 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (KHX1600C9D3X2K2/8GX) £56.99
(£47.49) £56.99
(£47.49)
Samsung SpinPoint F3 1TB SATA-II 32MB Cache - OEM (HD103SJ) Samsung SpinPoint F3 1TB SATA-II 32MB Cache - OEM (HD103SJ) £43.99
(£36.66) £43.99
(£36.66)
Gelid Tranquillo CPU Cooler (Socket 754/939/940/AM2/AM2+/AM3/LGA775/LGA1155/LGA1156/LGA1366) Gelid Tranquillo CPU Cooler (Socket 754/939/940/AM2/AM2+/AM3/LGA775/LGA1155/LGA1156/LGA1366) £25.99
(£21.66) £25.99
(£21.66)
OcUK 22x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM OcUK 22x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £15.98
(£13.32) £15.98
(£13.32)
Sub Total : £962.40
Shipping cost assumes delivery to UK Mainland with:
DPD Next Day Parcel
(This can be changed during checkout) Shipping : £12.50
VAT is being charged at 20.00% VAT : £194.98
Total : £1,169.88

danbt · 10 Oct 2011 at 13:55

shadow_boxer said:
Hi and welcome to the forums. As your studying a comp sci degree presumably you can get Windows 7 cheaper elsewhere so that can be excluded from your budget? Also will you be wanting to game on more than one screen if so how many?

A Comp Sci uni student should be able to get Win 7 Pro fully legit from MSDNAA if youre Uni is signed up to it... If they aren't, have a moan and find out why. There is a crapload of software on there.

Spawnofherot · 10 Oct 2011 at 13:56

Overall that looks pretty good, thanks. Is the SSD particularly useful? I've had no experience with them in the past, and I've heard (possibly unfounded) rumours that programming on them is a bad idea, due to their limited number of writes in their lifetime.

If I used the budget for the SSD to improve the graphics card or processor instead, would there be a noticable difference? I'll be ordering this in about 3 weeks time when I get paid, so the daily deals sadly aren't much use I'm afraid, but I appreciate the thought

olivier renault · 10 Oct 2011 at 14:54

Spawnofherot said:
Overall that looks pretty good, thanks. Is the SSD particularly useful? I've had no experience with them in the past, and I've heard (possibly unfounded) rumours that programming on them is a bad idea, due to their limited number of writes in their lifetime.

Meh. Lifetime with massive write ops would means what, 5-6 years? How often do you upgrade your hard drives?

I use SSDs on laptop, current desktop, and my forthcoming all new spanking desktop. I can't really see myself going back to HDD, especially for things that need fast access (OS, programs, compile / link would be one as well).

In any case, if this is a worry for you, you can always use a hard drive for your build steps, temp folders, and whatnot.

There is a massive improvement in general task, using a SSD. The ultimate bottleneck (HDD) is basically gone, and it sorts of 'levels out' the performance.

If I used the budget for the SSD to improve the graphics card or processor instead, would there be a noticable difference? I'll be ordering this in about 3 weeks time when I get paid, so the daily deals sadly aren't much use I'm afraid, but I appreciate the thought

It depends what your priorities are. Gaming (meaning the best GPU config you can afford), or work / productivity (programming, photoshop, ect...).

You can always add a SSD later BTW. Not something you can do as effectively with a GPU. Adding a SSD later and using it as an OS / app drive means a re-install of windows.

I would recommend getting a SSD at a later date. Keeping in mind that then, you can slash your boot time by over half, have the programs responding faster than you can blink, and depending on how much time is lost on disk access during your build (poor code dependencies, massive code base, ...). But in general you might just be satisfied with a regular HDD, and then you saved £80-£150. If not and you are tired of the sluggishness, then a SSD will be your answer.

Spawnofherot · 11 Oct 2011 at 13:21

Ah I see, in that case I'm starting to like the idea of an SSD!

As far as futureproofing goes, how easy would it be to upgrade this when it goes out of date? I assume the ultimate bottleneck will eventually be the motherboard, but I've been using an XPS laptop for the past 5 years, so upgrading has never really been an issue.

Gaming is definately my priority though, so I might go for a slightly pricier graphics card. I was also looking at the i7 processors, are they worth the extra bit of money? And if I do upgrade either of those, is there anything I have to worry about in terms of incompatability between components?

Sorry for the flood of questions, just want to be sure before I blow all my money on this!