Help with a cheap 1st build gaming/design system for me??

[bevlak]

Hi Everyone, my first post so be nice please! - im an absolute noob to the building pc's world but i am fairly handy and learn quick, and am fairly confident il be able to muddle through the building process... However I have been looking at all the proposed pc builds posts for a few weeks now and am having trouble working out what will work best for me. ANY HELP MUCH APPRECIATED!!

One of my main points here is that im not interested in flashy cases, neon lights or any of that - this is to be a no - nonsense working and gaming machine. I'm a professional illustrator and art director so often have multiple high-memory use programs running at the same time, creating very high-res bitmap graphics (Adobe After Effects, PhotoShop, Illustrator all at once with individual PS bitmap file sizes often in the 500mb+ range, with hundreds of layers so needs some welly in the ram department!)

Here's what ive got so far - if you can think of any ways to cut the price while maintaining performance please speak up! Thanks in advance!

CPU
Core i5 2500 3.3GHz Socket 1155 6MB Cache Retail Boxed Processor (£152.96)

MOBO
Asus P8H61-M LE H61 Socket 1155 8 Channel HD Audio mATX Motherboard (£53.40)

RAM
G-Skill 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 1600Mhz RipjawsX Memory Kit CL9 (9-9-9-24) 1.5V (£34.86)


GRAPHICS
XFX HD 6870 900MHz 1GB GDDR5 Dual DVI Dual DisplayPort HDMI PCI-E Graphics Card (£139)


HD
Samsung HD103SJ Spinpoint F3 1TB Hard Drive SATAII 7200rpm 32MB Cache (£43.31)

CASE
Coolermaster Elite 330 Case With Coolermaster eXtreme Power 500W PSU (£55.67)

TOTAL: £479.20

 

[mp260767]

depending on your monitor size/gaming resolution you could swap the 6870 for the sapphire 6850 on "this week only" offer if saving the £20 is more important than the faster card.

memory wise maybe consider the corsair on "this week only" as the RipjawsX style memory coolers can cause some issues with clearance on cpu coolers.

mobo wise could go with the cheaper gigabyte or msi versions, unless you have the asus preference.

 

[chigley]

Posting competitor links (or, trying to) is a big no-no!

 

[bevlak]

@mp260767 thanks the saving will help! and il definitely check those corsair memory sticks out - thanks!

@chigley oops - sorry im new here, removed them

 

[honosuseri]

Buy the retail i5 2500K it's less than £10 more. I know the mobo you have spec'd can't overclock it but the K will hold it's value better.

You can get the recon'd 460s for £90ish with a year warranty.

http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/313?vs=290

As you can see it's not quite as powerful as the 6870 but is cheaper and leaves enough in the budget to get a P series mobo (£75 best price) and overclock the i5K. Your needs ideally want an i7 with hyperthreading an i5K and P mobo is a fair compromise and games wont benefit from the i7......well not at the moment anyway.

The comment on the RAM is fair only because the mobo you spec'd has 2 RAM slots. With a P series mobo you could move that RAM over to the other slots so the heatsink clearance isnt an issue unless you will add more than 8GB. 8GB for £35 is a good price!

It's worth mentioning that the PSUs bundled with cases usually arent great. We usually spec that price for a PSU alone! I would hazard a guess that the PSU included in your spec only has 1 PCI-EX power cable.....best hope the card has a molex adapter.

Not sure I've saved you cash but hopefully given you a better core system with some minor alterations. Good luck with the build any q's or problems come build day you know where we are

 

[bevlak]

Thanks guys youve been a massive help so far!!

Ok, I've taken your advice and come up with this - what do you reckon?

CPU:
Core i5 2500 3.3GHz Socket 1155 6MB Cache Retail Boxed Processor (£152.96)

GPU:
Gigabyte GeForce GTX 460 OC, 1GB GDDR5, 2x DVI, mini-HDMI (GV-N4 (£103)

MOBO:
Asus P8P67 LE Intel P67 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard ** B3 REVISION ** (£75)

RAM:
G-Skill 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 1600Mhz RipjawsX Memory Kit CL9 (9-9-9-24) 1.5V (£34.86)

HDD:
Samsung HD103SJ Spinpoint F3 1TB Hard Drive SATAII 7200rpm 32MB Cache (£43)

PSU:
Be Quiet 530W Pure Power PSU (£47)

CASE:
(using an old one to save money)


TOTAL: £455.82

thinking of buying this week, so just need to know if all these pieces are compatible?

 

[chigley]

I'd get the 2500K rather than the 2500, means you can overclock it on your P67 motherboard

And, if you're going to overclock, you'll want to consider an aftermarket CPU cooler such as this: http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=HS-001-GD

 

[mp260767]

as mentioned 2500K is only £6 more, be silly not too get it unless budget is really tight, no need for the 3rd party cooler right away, can save up and install it if/when you decide to overclock the 2500k.

can't see that memory for £35 so might have gone up in which case go for the Kingston HyperX Genesis Grey.

 

[bevlak]

thanks guys! wooop! im excited!

Yeah not sure about the overclocking... im a total amateur! is it difficult to overlock an i5? ill get the i5K one anyway if its only £6 though, thanks for all your help! i'll post pictures of the build and probably be posting again when the whole thing goes wrong and i need help haha

Thanks for everything lads - really appreciate it!

 

[chigley]

thanks guys! wooop! im excited!

Yeah not sure about the overclocking... im a total amateur! is it difficult to overlock an i5? ill get the i5K one anyway if its only £6 though, thanks for all your help! i'll post pictures of the build and probably be posting again when the whole thing goes wrong and i need help haha

Thanks for everything lads - really appreciate it!

Overclocking the i5 2500K is simple enough, yeah, and there's plenty of help here if you get stuck! There's a Sandy Bridge overclocking guide here: http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?t=18227651

Look forward to the photos!