I have returned! With more nerdy questions...

Robinson

Robinson

Robinson

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23 Jul 2009
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Afternoon boffins,

I have returned with an OCD-type thing telling me to go forth and build a more powerful PC. I have a Core-2 DUO at the moment. What I want to do is something like the following:

(1) i5
(2) Motherboard for (1)
(3) RAM for (2)
(4) Raid-0 HD (I'm assuming SSD's are too unreliable for the cost ATM)
(5) Suitable case as the current one is too small
(6) Suitable cooler if stock cooler is crap for i7

I've got a pretty decent power supply and graphics card already.

If possible, I'd like the possibility of X-firing two graphics cards so the MB needs to support that (most of them only have one slot don't they).

Thanks for any advice you can gimme.
 
Last edited:
Morning nerdy type person,

1. Gamer or Hardcore video editor/3d modeler?
2. Depends on 7.
3. Depends on 1.
4. Only Some SSDs have been unreliable. But again Depends on 7.
5. Depends on 7.
6. Depends on 7.
7. Budget?

:D
 
Usage is everything. I'm a Software Dev so I use it for that sometimes (when I'm not at work), I use it for gaming a lot (when I should be working) and I also use it to do animations with 3D Studio. Oh and I do some video processing; mostly women's boobies ofc :p.

Budget I would say £500. I was looking at the AMD chips too, because they seem a lot cheaper, but they also seem to be unbelievably crap compared to the current Intel offerings.
 
you're gonna struggle to get all that for £500 unless you really skimp on some things. the i7 is very pricey compared to i5 and only marginally better.

are you going to want to overclock? if not, then you can save a bit by getting the 2600 (not k version) and an H67 motherboard. also if you're not overclocking then the stock intel cooler would do you fine
 
£500, woosh, this just got more complex, but yeah sounds like you're more of an i7 person than i5.... Let's see what we can do....

This is what I'd recommend for your requirements:

Product Name Qty Price Line Total
Intel Core i7-2600K 3.40GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor - Retail with FREE TrackMania 2 Canyon PC Game £239.99
(£199.99) £239.99
(£199.99)
OcUK ATI Radeon 6950 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card with FREE DIRT3 & Deus Ex PC Games £194.99
(£162.49) £194.99
(£162.49)
Gigabyte Z68X-UD4 Intel Z68 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £134.98
(£112.48) £134.98
(£112.48)
Lepa B-Series 850W '80 Plus Bronze' Modular Power Supply £94.99
(£79.16) £94.99
(£79.16)
Crucial RealSSD M4 64GB 2.5" SATA 6Gb/s Solid State Hard Drive £77.99
(£64.99) £77.99
(£64.99)
Kingston HyperX Genesis Grey 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (KHX1600C9D3X2K2/8GX) £53.99
(£44.99) £53.99
(£44.99)
Zalman Z9 Plus Tower Case with Fan Controller - Black £44.99
(£37.49) £44.99
(£37.49)
Samsung SpinPoint F3 1TB SATA-II 32MB Cache - OEM (HD103SJ) £41.99
(£34.99) £41.99
(£34.99)
Samsung SH-S222AB/BEBE 22x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £16.99
(£14.16) £16.99
(£14.16)
Sub Total : £750.74
Shipping cost assumes delivery to UK Mainland with:
DPD Next Day Parcel
(This can be changed during checkout) Shipping : £12.50
VAT is being charged at 20.00% VAT : £152.65
Total : £915.89


This is what I came up with in budget...

Product Name Qty Price Line Total
Intel Core i5-2500K 3.30GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor - Retail with FREE TrackMania 2 Canyon PC Game £173.99
(£144.99) £173.99
(£144.99)
OcUK GeForce GTX 460 768MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card - OEM £85.99
(£71.66) £85.99
(£71.66)
Asus P8P67 LE Intel P67 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard ** B3 REVISION ** £74.99
(£62.49) £74.99
(£62.49)
BeQuiet Pure Power L7 530W '80 Plus' Power Supply £45.98
(£38.32) £45.98
(£38.32)
Samsung SpinPoint F3 1TB SATA-II 32MB Cache - OEM (HD103SJ) £41.99
(£34.99) £41.99
(£34.99)
Cooler Master Elite 430 Windowed Case - Black £37.99
(£31.66) £37.99
(£31.66)
Kingston HyperX Blu 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (KHX1600C9AD3B1K2/4G) £25.99
(£21.66) £25.99
(£21.66)
Samsung SH-S222AB/BEBE 22x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £16.99
(£14.16) £16.99
(£14.16)
Sub Total : £419.93
Shipping cost assumes delivery to UK Mainland with:
DPD Next Day Parcel
(This can be changed during checkout) Shipping : £11.75
VAT is being charged at 20.00% VAT : £86.34
Total : £518.02

As you can see there is quite a difference... The 1st meets all your requirements outlined in your first post, the second compromises on almost all requirements, but is in budget...

kd
 
i'll try, these specs dont include OS/monitor/peripherals.

no OCing.

YOUR BASKET
1 x Intel Core i5-2400 3.10GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor - Retail with FREE TrackMania 2 Canyon PC Game £149.99
1 x OcUK GeForce GTX 460 1024MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card - OEM £94.99
1 x MSI H67MA-E35 Intel H67 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Micro-ATX Motherboard - (Sandybridge) **B3 REVISION** £64.99
1 x OCZ ModXStream Pro 500w Silent SLI Certified Modular Power Supply £43.98
1 x Samsung SpinPoint F3 1TB SATA-II 32MB Cache - OEM (HD103SJ) £41.99
1 x Fractal Design Core 1000 Midi Tower Case - Black £27.22
1 x Corsair XMS3 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (CMX4GX3M2A1600C9) £26.39
1 x Samsung SH-S222AB/BEBE 22x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £16.99
Total : £487.96 (includes shipping : £17.85).

with OCing.
YOUR BASKET
1 x Intel Core i5-2500K 3.30GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor - Retail with FREE TrackMania 2 Canyon PC Game £173.99
1 x OcUK GeForce GTX 460 1024MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card - OEM £94.99
1 x Asus P8P67 LE Intel P67 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard ** B3 REVISION ** £74.99
1 x OCZ ModXStream Pro 500w Silent SLI Certified Modular Power Supply £43.98
1 x Antec 100 One Hundred Ultimate Gaming Case - Black £42.19
1 x Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 500GB SATA 6Gb/s 16MB Cache - OEM (ST3500413AS) £30.98
1 x Corsair XMS3 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (CMX4GX3M2A1600C9) £26.39
1 x Samsung SH-S222AB/BEBE 22x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £16.99
Total : £525.92 (includes shipping : £17.85).
 
Oh, I don't need the graphics card mate. I've got one of those already :p. I've got a DVD drive as well and power supply. I just need what I said: processor, motherboard, memory, hard drives, case.
 
I've got an 800W PSU, I can't remember the name offhand but I bought it here about two years ago (maybe three - I forget!).

Anyway, what about this:


Intel Core i5-2500K 3.30GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor - Retail with FREE TrackMania 2 Canyon PC Game £173.99
Asus P8P67 LE Intel P67 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard ** B3 REVISION ** £74.99
Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 1TB SATA 6Gb/s 32MB Cache - OEM (ST31000524AS) £44.99 x 2 (raid-0)
Antec 100 One Hundred Ultimate Gaming Case - Black £42.19
Corsair XMS3 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (CMX4GX3M2A1600C9) £26.39 x 2

Sub Total : £361.60

Edit, looking at order history, the power unit is:

Corsair TX 750W ATX SLI Compliant Power Supply (CMPSU-750TXUK)
 
or this

YOUR BASKET
1 x Intel Core i7-2600K 3.40GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor - Retail with FREE TrackMania 2 Canyon PC Game £239.99
1 x Gigabyte Z68XP-UD3 Intel Z68 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard ** LOWEST UK PRICE ** £99.98
1 x Kingston HyperX Genesis Grey 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (KHX1600C9D3X2K2/8GX) £53.99
1 x Antec 100 One Hundred Ultimate Gaming Case - Black £42.19
1 x Samsung SpinPoint F3 1TB SATA-II 32MB Cache - OEM (HD103SJ) £41.99
Total : £492.24 (includes shipping : £11.75).

that 800w could be anything, even if you bought it from OCUK it could be some unbranded PSU, as OCUK also sell unbranded PSUs.
what GPU do you have?
 
Providing your PSU is up to the task I'd be looking @:

YOUR BASKET
1 x Intel Core i5-2500K 3.30GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor - Retail with FREE TrackMania 2 Canyon PC Game £173.99
1 x MSI P67A-G45 Intel P67 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard ** B3 REVISION ** £94.98
1 x Crucial RealSSD M4 64GB 2.5" SATA 6Gb/s Solid State Hard Drive £77.99
1 x Antec 100 One Hundred Ultimate Gaming Case - Black £42.19
1 x Samsung SpinPoint F3 1TB SATA-II 32MB Cache - OEM (HD103SJ) £41.99
1 x G.Skill RipJaw 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-10666C9 1333MHz Dual Channel Kit £39.59
1 x Gelid Tranquillo CPU Cooler (Socket 754/939/940/AM2/AM2+/AM3/LGA775/LGA1155/LGA1156/LGA1366) £25.99
Total : £510.82 (includes shipping : £11.75).



Motherboard does crossfire properly @ 8x, 8x. Decent SSD which has proven to be a lot more reliable than others! Very good cooler for when you need to OC.
 
Intel Core i5-2500K 3.30GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor - Retail £174
Asus P8Z68-V Intel Z68 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £132
Corsair Vengeance Blue 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit £54
BitFenix Shinobi Gaming Case - Black £50

that leaves you £90 for hard drives. i'm not clued up at all on raid so i won't try and recommend you anything for that, hopefully someone else can help. i wouldn't write off SSDs though. crucial is a good reliable brand and you could get a 64GB M4 for about £80 which would fit your budget nicely. i would guess that raid 0 is in fact less robust as you double the chances of losing your data. you'd be better off, imho, using an SSD boot drive, and have a large data HDD. you could use a 3rd hard drive to back things up. however this would be kinda over your budget so raid 0 may actually be the best way to go after all.

the RAM i recommended is on a weekly offer, so if you order next week then just change the RAM to whatever other dual channel 8GB, 1600MHz kit happens to be on offer. they are all good sets.

have you got any current hard drives which you can re-use?
 
Ok, with the SSD boot drive and Windows... it has a nasty habit of wanting to store everything in /Program Files. And some software actually really, really, badly wants to be there... or is 7 different? XP was a giant pain in the arse if you wanted to split OS from installs. Things like Steam might be too, but I'm not sure.

So what's the general opinion of SSD for OS?
 
i've no personal experience of using an SSD, but i do use a seperate HDD for my OS, and a larger 1TB one for my data, and i've never had any problems.

there are a lot of people out there who use the SSD boot drive/HDD data drive set-up, and many pc websites and magazines recommend it. i don't think that would be the case if it caused issues.

steam is a bit annoying though, as i've heard you have to install it on the HDD thus erasing the benefits of the SSD for game loading. the problem is that steam puts all your games in one folder, so they wont fit on the SSD unless you buy a crazy huge one. there may be a workaround though, i haven't looked into it fully

another option you have is to just use two normal hard drives (not raid). use one as your OS and the other as data. then in a while you can buy a solid state drive, and switch your OS onto that, leaving you the data HDD and your old OS one for backup. that would keep you in budget for now.
 
There's no major issues with SSD's... Some programs are simply just stubborn and need installing on C:\ But you tend to find that most stuff will happily let you change the install location.

kd
 
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