First Time PC Build Specs. What Do You Think?

ICanFlyHonest

ICanFlyHonest

ICanFlyHonest

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13 Jan 2011
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28
Hello there!

So yeh I've been scrimping and saving for ages and I finally have the money to build a computer. I've already bought a Fractal Design Define R3 case :cool:
So here are the parts I was thinking of getting:

Kingston 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 1600MHz HyperX Memory Kit

Samsung HD103SJ Spinpoint F3 1TB Hard Drive SATAII 7200rpm 32MB Cache

AMD Phenom II X2 555 Black Edition 3.2GHz Socket AM3 6MB Cache (I think an AMD will be better value for me on my budget. I heard somewhere that I could unlock a couple more cores on that with good cooling also)

Antec TruePower New 650W Modular PSU

Samsung optical drive (cheap and cheerful)

Gelid tranquillo or thermaltake frio cpu cooler

The two things I'm stuck on are the Motherboard and Graphics. Personally I'd love to get the MSI nGTX460 Hawk. It sounds pretty amazing with great cooling and already overclocked. That being said it is about £170 and it might be a tad overkill given the 19" size of my Samsung TV. I plan to upgrade things in the future, hence the pretty huge mid tower case.

So if anyone could leave their comments and suggestions it would be much appreciated. Is the MSI nGTX460 Hawk worth the investment? And also the motherboard needs to be around £80. Or do you think I've got the balance of money on components wrong?

Thank you for your time! :D

Emma
 
I have the phenom II x2 560 BE and it unlocked to 4 cores no problem using the Asus M4A785TD-M Evo Motherboard, I might have got lucky as I dont think they are gauranteed to unlock. Glad I took the risk though as I now have a quad core for the price of a dual!
 
Nice!

enemyofsauron said:
I have the phenom II x2 560 BE and it unlocked to 4 cores no problem using the Asus M4A785TD-M Evo Motherboard, I might have got lucky as I dont think they are gauranteed to unlock. Glad I took the risk though as I now have a quad core for the price of a dual!
Click to expand...

That sounds pretty sweet! Yeh I was looking at particular range of Asus motherboards. What was it like to install? I hear the back panel's a bit of a pain.

Thanks for replying by the way :)
 
Thank you!

Orcvader said:
Motherboard: http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MB-133-MS&groupid=701&catid=1903&subcat=1782
Should be able to unlock your CPU just fine :)

What resolution does the 19" display? I'm guessing 1440x900? If you don't want to overclock the GPU yourself, then this beats the HAWK: http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-071-GI&groupid=701&catid=1914&subcat=1830
If you're willing to overclock the GPU yourself, then just get the cheapest 460 1gb.
Click to expand...

Yeh that graphics card looks pretty amazing and the motherboard also :D. And within my price range! Are there any ATX motherboards you know of for around that price? or is mATX the best option for me?

Thanks
 
Well it's a good motherboard. You can unlock cores with it, overclock, and is future proof with USB 3.0/SATA 6Gbps.

ATX versions seem to go out of your £80 price range, and there's not many good 700 series motherboards left...

EDIT: Then the 460 is fine, you should be able to play everything on max, and if you decide to jump to something like 1920x1080 in future,then the 460 will handle it no problem.
 
Ah cheers for your help. I'm having a look into the specs of that board and graphics card now. It ticks all my computer build needs boxes I must say! And the gtx 460 looks good to me. I want as many future proof components as possible, but when I get the money will probably aim to get a core i5 1155 and upgrade the mobo as well.

Thank you for your help. It's always good to check these things before making a snap purchase!

Emma
x
 
hehe word of advice,
dont get the Gigabyte mATX (the one that costs roughly £70)
computer took me 13 hours to build,
8 hours of that troubleshooting the motherboard, to find out the motherboard had the wrong labels -.-
ahh well we all learn :)
 
Jampolo said:
hehe word of advice,
dont get the Gigabyte mATX (the one that costs roughly £70)
computer took me 13 hours to build,
8 hours of that troubleshooting the motherboard, to find out the motherboard had the wrong labels -.-
ahh well we all learn :)
Click to expand...

If it took you 13 hours to build you either have the worlds fattest hands or... well idk.

And i'm pretty sure you getting the wrong stickers doesn't make the motherboard faulty lololo.
 
Ha oh dear! Faulty or not that's still a bit of a pain in the arse! :P

Well I've upped my budget a bit on the motherboard side of things anyways. Asus M4A89GTD PRO/UB3 about £100 pounds, Sata 6Gb/s and USB3. :) It looks pretty good despite the random switch card thing that has to go in the other PCI-e slot in order to get x16 on the main slot. Meh I don't know why they didn't just include that on the board in the first place. Plus apparently it doesn't work anyways so who knows....

But yeh it has a bit more room for expansion and what not so unless someone shouts DON'T GET IT! I think i'm gonna buy that ;)
 
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