help spec me a build please, step by step

ssharp59 · 19 Jan 2010 at 22:53

ok folks, bit new to this, my 360 and ps3 has been my point of gaming for 6 years, however before that i was a massive ut player.

Problem now is although im trying to learn about all this new hardware im really struggling.

Im looking to build a new machine in the next few weeks or so and the first thing thats caught my eye is this.

Fractal Design Define R2 Midi Tower Case

great looking case i think, however the rest of the build im struggling with, from what i can see for gaming the i5 will be fine, Id like to be able to play things like cod mw2 and anything in a similar league such as possibly avp2 and similar.

I already have a 24 inch dell monitor. I know it makes it very tough to not give a budget but basically i will spend what i need to , to have a decent build, ive passed the point of needing the best of the best even if the advantages in power are minmal however i dont want to be playing clan matches and using my fps of 35 as an excuse to my crap ability

.

So folks, give me some pointers, and tell me where to go with my build if you will. The cheaper the better , ive been looking at around the £500 however as i say if i need to spend more i will, even if i build the machine over a week or 2 to fund it.

oh one further thing, os wont be needed.

Go team , If you can spec me your builds, and then give me a real quick breakdown of why you selected them parts id really appreciate that..

Thanks

Biz.Kid09 · 19 Jan 2010 at 23:05

Ok
Phenom II 965-Great cpu and future proof
Asus M4A785TD-V Evo-Great motherboard, Good features and good price
Patriot G Series 1333hz DDR3-Good brand and speeds
Club 3D 5770-Awesome performance for the price and will run anything thrown at it
Samsung F3 500gb/1tb -Fastest standard sata hdd
OCZ ModXStream Pro 600w-Lots of wattage for the price and good brand
Along with a dvd drive and the fractal case

ssharp59 · 20 Jan 2010 at 09:49

sweet , thanks for that quick breakdown, definatly gives me somthing to go off, i priced it up on ocuk at between £600-700

Vir · 20 Jan 2010 at 11:07

Biz.Kid09 said:
Ok
Phenom II 965-Great cpu and future proof
Asus M4A785TD-V Evo-Great motherboard, Good features and good price
Patriot G Series 1333hz DDR3-Good brand and speeds
Club 3D 5770-Awesome performance for the price and will run anything thrown at it
Samsung F3 500gb/1tb -Fastest standard sata hdd
OCZ ModXStream Pro 600w-Lots of wattage for the price and good brand
Along with a dvd drive and the fractal case

I guess if you don't wanna spend more on a Intel system, then this is ok, I'd upgrade the graphics to a 5850, specially if you play games at competitive level. The 5770 is basically a 4870 with dx11 and lower power consumption, 5850 is where the performance is at and will last you a lot longer, I'd go for that.

ssharp59 · 20 Jan 2010 at 11:43

ok then , thats fine, do the intel cpus offer higher performance then ?. Also does the amd cpu over any good overclock results?

ssharp59 · 20 Jan 2010 at 13:32

if anybody has chance, what about a intel build? just reading up and they seem to be the preferred choice using the i5 cpu.

Oh and also would i benefit from an intel setup.

pcAnywhere · 20 Jan 2010 at 13:39

i5 based build. Just add your Fractal case..

Intel Core i5 750 2.66Ghz (Lynnfield) (Socket LGA1156) - Retail £151.99
VTX ATI Radeon HD 5770 1024MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £119.99

OCZ Obsidian 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 Dual Channel (OCZ3OB1600LV4GK) £85.99
Gigabyte GA-P55M-UD2 Intel P55 (Socket 1156) DDR3 microATX Motherboard £85.99
Samsung SpinPoint F3 1TB SATA-II 32MB Cache - OEM (HD103SJ) £69.99
Corsair VX 450W ATX Power Supply (CMPSU-450VXUK) £55.99
Samsung SH-S223C/BEBE 22x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £17.99

pcAnywhere · 20 Jan 2010 at 13:40

And yes, an i5 is faster Phenom II 965 especially when both are overclocked

ssharp59 · 20 Jan 2010 at 14:21

cool that seems more ideal then, once im home ill also be looking at the 5850 gfx cards also.

I was looking at the compact corsair water cooling setup aswell , i think i saw it at around £70 to cool the cpu.

ssharp59 · 20 Jan 2010 at 16:02

just read a thread on here that basically told me the i3 is no diffrent over the i5, other than some turbo function thats pretty useless if you plan to overclock.

I would like to overclock it to be fair and learn how to do this. Would i be throwing away good money if i was to purchase the i5 cpu.

pcAnywhere · 20 Jan 2010 at 16:43

i3 are dual-core CPUs, i5 are quad-core CPUs.

Most games are not designed to fully utilise mulit-core CPUs (the vast majority of games show a non-linear increase when going from single, dual, tri and quad core CPUs). So - in theory a fast dual core will be better in games than a less fast quad core.

Both i3 and i5 overclock well. i5 (the 750 version) also supports turbo-boost which will increase the CPU speed automatically when less than 4 cores are being fully utilised. The i3 also has an intergrated GPU that you may not be using but you are paying for!

My preference would be for 4 cores over 2 cores. You may not see a huge benefit in games but you will see a benefit in other software (ripping, rendering etc).

ssharp59 · 20 Jan 2010 at 16:53

brill, thanks for that , you explained it so well even i understand it

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I think i will go for the i5 then for what its worth, i find myself encoding every so often aswell so it would be nice in these situations, thanks for the advice.

Next thoughts are regards to which cpu cooler to go for and mobo to give me headroom for an overclock.