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Help me choose

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Joined
4 Nov 2010
Posts
33
Hi

Im a newbie at computer building and I need some help choosing the right products.

My budget would be around £800

I will be using the computer for gaming(WOW,FALLOUT,COD,)photoshop and some music production on Propellerhead Reason 4.

Im looking for a build where I can upgrade to much better in the future, when I have the funds...lol:D

Thanks for reading.
Matt
 
first, if you want upgrade-ability, you either need to wait for the upcoming intel sandy bridge stuff (assuming that socket lasts more than a year), which is hopefully still on target for jan-feb 2011 release or thereabouts,
...... OR go AMD, something like a phenom 2 x4 955, or the new x6 (1035t, 1055t, 1075t or 1090t black edition) on an AM2+ or AM3 motherboard.
if future upgrade isn't a main priority, then an intel i5 makes for a great system (I've built a few for mates gaming rigs).
for gaming intel has a marginal lead, but for the other uses (photoshop, video encoding. I have no idea about reason) AMD x6 has the edge.
If you plan to overclock, intel generally yeild a bigger increase, although AMD is narrowing the gap.

WOW apparently favours intel, and higher clockspeed = better, as it can only use 2 cores properly. also bare in mind that unless you do amazingly complex things in photoshop or reason (or really cant stand waiting 2 seconds for a filter to apply in PS), then gaming will be the only taxing use of your PC (I use reason 3 on an old core2quad and never see more than about 15% CPU use)

RAM: on either system, you want 4gb (2x2gb) of ddr3, the 1600mhz stuff is probably the best value for the performance. £80-£100 is plenty

graphics card: WOW and COD also favour nVidia, so your best bet is a 460gtx, plenty of grunt, nice and cool, and don't use too many Watts!

hard drive: samsung spinpoint f3 1tb (terabyte); will take ages to fill unless you download lots of vids, and you can add another later if u want for: RAID1 for security, or RAID0 for speed. ~£50-£55

power supply: look to spend£70-£100 on this part, cheap PSUs are just plain bad! had one die on me recently and it scared the poo outa me, but luckily everything survived.
you'll need something around the 650w-700w mark to ensure future upgrade, and preferably modular (meaning any unused cables can be detatched for better airflow). Corsair make excellent PSU's with a very good rep for reliability. (which is partly why my new PSU is a corsair HX850 :-))

add to this a DVD RW drive (<£20) and whichever case takes your fancy, and you're away. i will also add that these days, windows 7 is considered a must for gaming.

specific parts I would look at would be
this graphics card
this PSU or similar

if you want to buy a preconfigured bundle (CPU+RAM+Motherboard+cooler)
your 2 main options are this intel bundle or this AMD bundle

however if they are stretching the budget a bit you could get this bundle and upgrade to a x6 CPU later on

If you want to save yourself the bother (and fun) of building it yourself, look here! but remember you will need to add the cost of windows.

also, you want the x64 version of windows 7, as the 32 bit version will make some of your ram unusable. (applies to systems with 4gb or more plus a gfx card)

hope all this helps.
Trojan

P.S. If you use very large (high fidelity) VST plugins in reason, or photoshop MASSIVE images (like 7000x7000 pixels or so) then your next sensible upgrade will most likely be more RAM, although if you use PS CS5 i think it can do most things on the GPU (graphics card)
 
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Ok im over budget. I can drop the case for something else and upgrade later. I have not custom built a system before so this is my first.

Your basket
Radon Intel Core i5 760 2.80GHz @ 4.00GHz Overclocked Bundle £340.00
Options applied to the above product:
Akasa AK-CCX-4001HP Nero S Direct Contact Heatpipe CPU Cooler (Socket AM2 / AM2+ / AM3 / LGA775 / LGA1156 / LGA1366 ) £32.99


MSI GeForce GTX 460 Cyclone 1024MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card with HAWX2 PC-Game £152.74

Microsoft Windows 7 Ultimate 64-Bit - OEM (GLC-00736) £146.86

Coolermaster HAF X Gaming Tower Case - Black (RC-942) £139.99

Corsair HX 650W ATX Modular SLI Compliant Power Supply (CMPSU-650HXUK) £99.99

LG GH22NS50 22x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £15.99

Sub Total : £790.27
Total : £945.90

Minus the cool masters tower and this instead my total is £873.51
Antec 300 Three Hundred Ultimate Gaming Case - Black £50.98
Akasa AK174CB-4BLB 120mm Blue LED Fan £8.89


Still not too sure what to do, because I havent built a system before I'm not too keen incase something goes wrong. I guess its best to go for it, I will learn something.
What do you think??

One more question can I replace the I5 with the I7 later on?

Thanks
 
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sayso's suggestions are perfectly fine to trim a little from the cost, a friend has the 700w version of that PSU, and for the price the quality of it blew me away! cables were nice to route with solid connectors, quiet, cool to the touch. I'll admit I'm sometimes a bit too keen on corsairs products ;)
and as he said, you'd be limited to an 800 series i7, which for your stated uses would only give you a small performance boost (zero in games, or maybe even negative impact, and 15-20% in Photoshop, at best)

the bundle you've chosen is mind bogglingly quick as is, I built a system around the same bundle for a friend, and the ram they put in it now is more expensive than what he got, and the bundle price has dropped as well, so your onto a winner :-D

one thing i would question is the choice of the Ultimate version of windows.
If you were swayed by the 'added security features', don't be :P
the main difference is what they call 'bitlocker' encryption, which is only really of interest to people handling business (credit card) transactions, or if you have sensitive data which would make an obvious target to hackers etc.
For a gaming machine, the home premium (£83) version has all you'll need, although if you have any forseeable need to run virtual machines, you will need the business version (£116).
If you don't know what I mean by virtual machines, ( feel free to wiki it, but) I can almost guarantee you will never need them!

as for the case, £140 is a lot, but cases are a personal choice and if you are gonna spend nearly a grand, you want something nice looking sat on your desk!
I've got an Antec 300, which i love the look and quality of, and has plenty of room and great airflow, so you really don't need to be afraid of sub £100 cases. all the cases on OCUK (with the exception of the value range) are pretty damn good, so just get one you think looks cool.

looking at your list you've forgotten the hard drive, you'll need one of those :-P
 
if you like the antec 300, and what I said above works for you in terms of the OS, then how about this:-

Radon Intel Core i5 760 2.80GHz @ 4.00GHz Overclocked Bundle £340.00(£289.36)
Options applied to the above product:
Akasa AK-CCX-4001HP Nero S Direct Contact Heatpipe CPU Cooler (Socket AM2 / AM2+ / AM3 / LGA775 / LGA1156 / LGA1366 )
£32.99(£28.08)

MSI GeForce GTX 460 Cyclone 1024MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card with HAWX2 PC-Game
£152.74 (£129.99)

Corsair HX 650W ATX Modular SLI Compliant Power Supply (CMPSU-650HXUK) £99.99 (£85.10)

Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium 64-Bit - OEM (GFC-00599)
£82.99 (£70.63)

Antec 300 Three Hundred Ultimate Gaming Case - Black
£50.98 (£43.39)

Samsung SpinPoint F3 1TB SATA-II 32MB Cache - OEM (HD103SJ)
£41.11 (£34.99)

LG GH22NS50 22x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM
£15.99 (£13.61)

Sub Total : £695.15

(This can be changed during checkout) Shipping : £13.75
VAT : £124.06

Total : £832.96

edit: add LED fans to taste

also if you call the shop you might be able to get them to build it for you if this makes you nervous, (although it's really easy, and people on here are very good if you need help,) but you will have to fit the cpu cooler yourself, as they are too bulky to ship attached due to weight on the motherboard, and the antec will mean taking the motherboard out anyway as it has no backplate cutout, so I'd advise just doing it yourself

thats shaping up to be one killer gaming rig, I know you'll enjoy it
 
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There's no need to spend £100 on the PSU when with a tight budget...something like the below Corsair would be more than sufficent:
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CA-035-CS&groupid=701&catid=123&subcat=1084
Or this if want Modular:
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CA-002-XF&groupid=701&catid=123&subcat=1497
And the Antec 300 is WAY overpriced at £50 comparing to the original price £35 back in the days...there are quite a few cases just as decent at around £40, such as the following cases:
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CA-214-CM&groupid=701&catid=7&subcat=
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CA-061-SV&groupid=701&catid=7&subcat=1092
The 300 is even more expensive than the 600...
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CA-129-AN&tool=3
 
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yeah i agree that the price hike on the 300 is a bit on the steep side, got mine for £36 a few years back, although I still think its worth it personally, because theres nothing else i like as much aesthetically in the price range, and I hate the look of the 600. I was more trying to highlight the fact that the haf X at £140 was far too much of the budget to go on a case, and the OP had mentioned the 300 so i assumed he liked it too.

as for PSU, the options you gave are good, I didn't look hard enough in that department evidently. that XFX is ace at that price, hadn't seen that, definitely swap out the corsair for that.
Personally would always go modular myself (and always have), but if money's real tight then the more basic corsair is a nice option to have available to us.

btw, your third link goes to all cases, sorted by price
 
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btw, your third link goes to all cases, sorted by price
Must have copied the wrong link...corrected it now.

As for the 600, you gotta bare in mind that when it come to the look of cases, taste and preferences vary from people to people. You hate the look 600 I respect you opinion on that, but there are people who would like it. I always thought when it come to cases, personal preference is just as important to the airflow and cooling capability. For example, out of the box the Antec 902 provide better cooling than the CoolerMaster 690 II Advanced, but I went with the 690II in the end because I like the look better and with lots of spots for adding extra fans. And I was lucky to gone with the 690II, as if I went with the Antec 902, I wouldn't have had been able to fit my Thermalright Silver Arrow into it.
 
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Thanks a lot everyone, very helpful advice but now im in a nerver wrecking position when I decieded to open my computer case remove a few things and clean the dust of them.

I have everything in place but I cant remeber where to route the power supply cables. Graphic card fan spins, power supply and cpu fan spins when I power on everything seems fine but nothing shows up on the tv screen.:confused:

I might have routed a few wires wrong but can anyone help.
Here is a pic.
5148559465_c42212e102.jpg


Im gonna go with trojan, the piece of kit he laid out looks good.
 
weird. does the computer (especially the graphics card) make any unusual beeping when u power up? if so, its probably the graphics card not being powered, but thats a 4670 right? in which case it should get all the juice it needs from the slot.

have you remembered to connect the cpu power? its a 4 or 8 pin connector and usually located on the top left somewhere by the cpu socket (near the back, and most likely directly under your PSU) I cant see a cable going that way so that would be my guess.

I hope you enjoy your new rig (I'm sure you will!), post back when you get it and let us know how the build went (and some benchmarks :D)
 
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