Hey guys, long time lurker, first time poster. While usually content to simply drooling over some of the hardware on show here, I've decided it's about time for a new system. Gaming, media consumption and general internet browsing are daily activities for my current home system. It's a Q8200 with 4GB of RAM and a HD4850 so I'm hoping a hard-ish budget of around £800 (I'm willing to stretch a little beyond that if it's really worth it but so close to Christmas with three kids to pay for every penny gets them closer to an orange in a sock come Christmas morning!) will buy me a significant upgrade and I can pass on the old rig to the little dude who's still rocking a single core system from years ago that starts smoking at the thought of Facebook games!
I already own a copy of Windows 7, so no OS is required. I also already have a monitor, mouse and keyboard I'm very happy with.
As for specs, that's where I'm hoping you wise gentlemen will come in. After lurking here for a good long while I have a fair idea about some parts I'm keen on, but not it all. I also have a few things I'd like to to see the system capable of, but I've no idea if it's possible while keeping the system on budget.
I'm not absolutely set on any of these parts, most of this is simply from reading threads on here every day for over a year. An i5 3750k seems to be a universal recommendation for a build of this nature at this price point, along with 8GB of RAM and the Twin Frozr III MSI 7850, although a more expensive Nvidia with all the bells and whistles they offer does appeal if it's financially viable. I don’t need an optical drive or HDD’s as I have those already (2 x 500GB), but an SSD as a primary drive would be great. Modular PSU’s seem to be a common recommendation, but I’m clueless when it comes to coolers and such so any and all advice is appreciated there. Finally, for the case I was keen on the Bitfenix Ghost for the last few weeks, but then I always seem to get swayed by whatever is new and shiny. However, a few reviews now have mentioned it’s quite plasticky and appears almost cheap so I’m not sure. I’m certainly interested to see what people would recommend. One thing however, I really liked the idea of the hotswap top bay in the Ghost. It’s definitely a feature I would make use of, right now I’m simply using a USB dock but having it built into the case is appealing. Not a dealbreaker though.
Hmmm, might also be worth mentioning it’s been around four years since I last built a system from scratch. Nothing much has really changed, has it?
Looking forward to reading your builds guys.
I already own a copy of Windows 7, so no OS is required. I also already have a monitor, mouse and keyboard I'm very happy with.
As for specs, that's where I'm hoping you wise gentlemen will come in. After lurking here for a good long while I have a fair idea about some parts I'm keen on, but not it all. I also have a few things I'd like to to see the system capable of, but I've no idea if it's possible while keeping the system on budget.
I'm not absolutely set on any of these parts, most of this is simply from reading threads on here every day for over a year. An i5 3750k seems to be a universal recommendation for a build of this nature at this price point, along with 8GB of RAM and the Twin Frozr III MSI 7850, although a more expensive Nvidia with all the bells and whistles they offer does appeal if it's financially viable. I don’t need an optical drive or HDD’s as I have those already (2 x 500GB), but an SSD as a primary drive would be great. Modular PSU’s seem to be a common recommendation, but I’m clueless when it comes to coolers and such so any and all advice is appreciated there. Finally, for the case I was keen on the Bitfenix Ghost for the last few weeks, but then I always seem to get swayed by whatever is new and shiny. However, a few reviews now have mentioned it’s quite plasticky and appears almost cheap so I’m not sure. I’m certainly interested to see what people would recommend. One thing however, I really liked the idea of the hotswap top bay in the Ghost. It’s definitely a feature I would make use of, right now I’m simply using a USB dock but having it built into the case is appealing. Not a dealbreaker though.
Hmmm, might also be worth mentioning it’s been around four years since I last built a system from scratch. Nothing much has really changed, has it?
Looking forward to reading your builds guys.
