It's been a while, haven't things changed!

Kae

Kae

Kae

Permabanned
Joined
26 Dec 2009
Posts
177
Location
Cheshire, UK.
Hi Everybody,

(Hi Dr Nick.... nope, ok).

I found this website a few years ago, and I've often been back to read, but haven't yet posted, but here we go!

It's been a while since I last had anything to do with a pc other than pressing the on button! I've been lucky that the pc I'm using now has been very reliable over the last four years and apart from an occasional dust-busting exercise, hasn't needed anything doing to it! (My previous PC lasting 5 years before it was just too slow!).

The last time I over clocked anything, high-graphite content pencils and jumper pullers were a necessity!

I've been doing a load of reading, and chip technology has come on leaps and bounds (as always) and I'm looking at building a system slowly (as finances allow) so what would you recommend?

I do a bit of everything; photography, video (edit/rendering/encoding etc), gaming, music...

Any links to some good guides?

I like the Corsair 800D (drool) and as I don't have a decent case at the moment, that might be my first buy as it looks like a case I can keep for a few years!

Modular PSU is a must! Un-required wires floating around are a real PITA!

Water cooling will be a feature eventually (ok, I admit, for looks more than anything else.... but I do fancy having a go at OC'ing a new rig).

I loath having 5 or 7 speakers floating around, real fan of a decent 2.1 setup.... I have a creative 5.1 system at the moment, with only the two front speakers attached!

Current System:
MESH Case (Think I could drive my car over this and it would still be in one piece.... Not very heat efficient though, and no room for more HD's etc)
ASUS A8N-SLI Deluxe Motherboard
AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual Core Processor 4400+ 2.21GHz (Stock heatsink... and it's damn awful)
3.00 GB RAM (2x512mb(DDR PC3200), 2x1GB(DDRPC3200))
ATI Radeon HD 3400 Series (Zip tied fan on heatsink... fancy mod! lol)
Maxtor 6L300S0 - 120GB
ST3120022A - 320GB
External HD's etc
17" CRT (So many webpages are too big for the width of this monitor, and scrolling out makes the font microscopic!)
2x DVDRW/CDRW Drives
Memory Card reader
Wireless Card
Creative Sound Blaster Audigy Card


Right, that's the end of my half-sober rambles.... any/all suggestions gratefully received!

Ta,

Andy.
 
Probably ditch everything (or sell) and start from fresh, maybe keep sound card and a hard drive for spare.

AMD is generally cheaper than intel by a fair ammount so might let you spend more on gfx other nicer things. performance is marginally worse in some applications but not noticable in games - acording to most people here.

m sure some chumps will post you spec me a thing lists. Its best for you to decideon the amd OR intel bit then take it from there, and come up with a rough budget.
 
Hmmm, well....

I haven't got a lump sum to just throw at a PC (as much as I would like to!), so it's a "buy it as I can afford it" build..

However, I know that isn't much use when it comes to speccing!

So, maybe £1500 over the next year on the base unit perhaps? Ideally I want components that have future upgrade/long life (as much as is possible in this industry).

AMD or Intel? Well, I don't know to be honest. The last two PC's I've owned have both been AMD, purely for financial reasons! I'm open to suggestions, although the two AMD PC's have been very good for reliability.

Also, I want to upgrade my monitor over the next month or so, so 22" widescreen or bigger please!

I like my keyboard and mouse, so no need to change them (I don't think there is a like for like replacement for the Microsoft ergonomic keyboard? The one that's split in the middle) and my mouse is a logitech wired optical, which works fine.... although a few more buttons would be handy!

Gaming is probably towards the end of my list of requirements... although I do want the machine to be able to handle them when I feel like blowing the hell out of a few nasties...

Primarily it needs to be able to handle the video/photographic and general abuse that I throw at it.

Ta,

Andy.
 
There's a few schools of thought on that one. I tend to save for a while then upgrade some subsystem of the machine. But then, I try not to leave it quite as long as the OP has so there's fewer compatibility issues. Also means you can sell off the last piece before it devalues completely. For example a graphics card/ssd can generally be added at any point, just using the previous system for however long is required.

Is your graphics card agp or pci-e? Most of the misc parts, wireless card, optical drives etc can move to the new machine. Hard drives can too, but they'll be a bottleneck until upgraded.

I'd be inclined to buy the case first, and move the current computer into it. Probably get a good cpu cooler that's compatible with the current board and future ones. Then a new psu, hard drive. Then cpu/motherboard/ram. Then monitor. Finally graphics card. The idea is to only buy backwards compatible parts, i.e. the psu will run your old system just fine but if you start off buying a new motherboard it'll have to sit in a cupboard until you can get more pieces.

Watercooling lends itself to buying a couple of pieces at a time, but bear in mind that it takes several hours to empty the loop out and move pieces around each time.
 
Fantastic, Cheers for the input everyone!

Sober reflection (credit card was put away!) and everyone's comments make sense. I'll save the pennies for a little while, and get a nice big bulk buy of goodies at the same time!

Mmmmm now to draw up my wishlist...

Andy.
 
Kae said:
Fantastic, Cheers for the input everyone!

Sober reflection (credit card was put away!) and everyone's comments make sense. I'll save the pennies for a little while, and get a nice big bulk buy of goodies at the same time!

Mmmmm now to draw up my wishlist...

Andy.
Click to expand...

The PCs these days just don't last so long anymore and it's not worth it spending much on a rig unless it's for benching or you just got nothing to do with the money.


I guess your option here might be getting a cheap AM3 system that you can upgrade later if you feel like needing the extra power. It will also last you longer for the budget and turn out a lot cheaper over few years as well ( ie. buying 100quid GPU that will last you 2years and then another 100 one that will last another 2 yrs instead of 350 one that will last 3yrs only).



Your basket
Product Name Qty Price Line Total
Samsung SM2433BW 24" Widescreen LCD Monitor Samsung SM2433BW 24" Widescreen LCD Monitor £212.99
(£185.21) £212.99
(£185.21)
Coolermaster RC-1000 Cosmos Silent Full Tower Case - Black Coolermaster RC-1000 Cosmos Silent Full Tower Case - Black £135.99
(£118.25) £135.99
(£118.25)
Asus ATI Radeon HD 5770 1024MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card + Ruby Doll Asus ATI Radeon HD 5770 1024MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card + Ruby Doll £123.98
(£107.81) £123.98
(£107.81)
Gigabyte GA-MA790XT-UD4P (Socket AM3) PCI-Express DDR3 Motherboard Gigabyte GA-MA790XT-UD4P (Socket AM3) PCI-Express DDR3 Motherboard £105.00
(£91.30) £105.00
(£91.30)
Corsair HX 650W ATX Modular SLI Compliant Power Supply (CMPSU-650HXUK) Corsair HX 650W ATX Modular SLI Compliant Power Supply (CMPSU-650HXUK) £94.99
(£82.60) £94.99
(£82.60)
G.Skill Ripjaw 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C8 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (F3-12800CL8D-4GBRM) G.Skill Ripjaw 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C8 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (F3-12800CL8D-4GBRM) £82.00
(£71.30) £82.00
(£71.30)
AMD Phenom II X2 Dual Core 550 3.10GHz Black Edition (Socket AM3) - Retail + Colin McRae Dirt 2 Full Game AMD Phenom II X2 Dual Core 550 3.10GHz Black Edition (Socket AM3) - Retail + Colin McRae Dirt 2 Full Game £69.99
(£60.86) £69.99
(£60.86)
Samsung SpinPoint F3 500GB SATA-II 16MB Cache - OEM (HD502HJ) Samsung SpinPoint F3 500GB SATA-II 16MB Cache - OEM (HD502HJ) £38.99
(£33.90) £38.99
(£33.90)
Sony Optiarc AD-5240S 24x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM Sony Optiarc AD-5240S 24x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £17.99
(£15.64) £17.99
(£15.64)
Sub Total : £766.87
Shipping cost assumes delivery to UK Mainland with:
DPD Next Day Parcel
(This can be changed during checkout) Shipping : £17.60
VAT is being charged at 15% VAT : £117.67
Total : £902.14


With nice 24" monitor and case included, modular psu 650w will allow you for future upgrades ( in case you get FPS hungry ), am3 board will support incoming amd cpu's in the future.

CPU is dual but it has plenty of power for the next year or so yet and if you get lucky you might unlock it into 945BE quad which will last you even more ! :)

You also get possibility of crossfire so you can add another 5770 later if you need it for almost no cash to get nearly double the performance as they scale like crazy.

Case will fit in any cooler or watercooling setup if you ever choose to get one as well.

---------------------------------------------

If you drop the monitor and case it will be just a bit over 500GBP, however the first thing that I'd buy will be monitor so buying this new setup without new monitor is a waste.
You also can still sell your current setup for somewhere around 200GBP or more so maybe you could afford that build even sooner : ).
 
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You may want to keep the CRT even if you upgrade (depinding what brand ect) - it seems like you do 'colour-critical' work, which TFT is not that good at unless you go for the high end market.
 
JonJ678 said:
What? As far as I can tell you've picked this idea out of thin air and then hung an entire post off it. In what sense "do computers not last so long anymore"
Click to expand...

I mean as in, the hardware and technology changes so fast now that the bits get outdated really fast, especially the expensive bits, so not worth buying them as they seem to drop the value by half within half year or a year max.

Not that they break, they just get outdated very fast and unless you go for top of the range stuff it will most likely not last for long so it's safer/better to buy cheaper and upgrade more often instead of spending hell lot of cash and expecting it to last 4-5yrs.
 
Of course it doesnt!
I am still running an E6600 which I bought when I built a new PC when it came out. Apart from 2 minor upgrades (Graphics card from an 8800GTS to a 9800GTX+ and to 4Gb ram) Oh, and a velociraptor as my Raptor 150gb wanted to be replaced . . . . The PC still runs great. It now runs Win7 which actually runs from a 500gb WD drive as I havent got around to deleting Vista on my Dual boot (On the VR).

I see no reason why a PC must be replaced every year. I would love to drop in a Quad core, but I honestly do not need to, apart from running SupCom much better, there would be no other reason to do so.
I do get the itch to buy a new i7, but I cannot justify it, its not as if my PC is slow!
Dont forget that a PC which can render a video in 1 hour now, will still be able to do the same in 5 years time.
 
Kae said:
I haven't got a lump sum to just throw at a PC (as much as I would like to!), so it's a "buy it as I can afford it" build..
Click to expand...

I was going to post that buying one bit at a time is stupid... but you could make it work if absolutely necessary. Apart from it isnt necessary - just use what you have and save up.

The only thing that must go instantly, is the monitor. Stop torturing yourself and buy a 22+ one straight away.

You could then just buy hard drives separately and gost across the existing image, a new gfx card (anything above a 9600gt/4830 is likely to be massively bottlenecked). Preferably 2nd hand, as you may later want to ditch it for new after a cpu replacement. You can buy a better keyboard and mouse as and when.

The CPU, memory and motherboard cannot be done individually. If you are doing it properly and go I5, it will cost about £250, maybe a bit less later in the year. A second hand core 2 duo system could be an option. An overclocked 45nm processor at 3.6+ghz, is still sufficient (just) for current games and would come to about half the above price.

Its not as sexy an option, and the hassle factor of moving machines often - and then having to upgrade again next year, means I dont think its really going to be cost affective in the long term. You may still end up upgrading to I5 next year to get a quad. Decent core 2 quad 2nd hand prices are a bit silly, and could go the same way as Athlon64x2 939 prices did - more expensive than they were new after end of line status.
 
There's definitely room for economising in the build provided PhoenixUK above.
You can get a very good case for £50-70 cheaper (looker at the LanCool Dragonlord range, or the Coolermaster Scout, for instance).
The motherboard is a bit pricy. The Asus M4A79XTD Evo supports crossfire, at £85, and if you aren't interested in crossfire you can get a good board for even cheaper.
Since you're into video editing and similar, I'd go for the Athlon 620 quad core for £10 more, or the Phenom x3 720 for £20 more.
Otherwise I agree with everything else.

You mentioned the PSU must be modular. That would be nice, but if you are on a budget, you can save £20 there, or £40 if you settle for a 450W. Realistically, the above spec won't need more than that, and a 550W would give you some headroom.

Final note: this will generate a powerful machine. But you can get cheaper machines that are still perfectly capable.

Look at the Titan Pyro:
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=FS-192-OK&tool=5

You can build a similar specced machine yourself for cheaper than it's £400.

If however, you really are planning to spend around £1500 over the next year (which is much higher than you need these days, btw), then you should be aiming for something more like the Titan Goliath:
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=FS-030-OE
(£800 + whatever extra you spend upgrading it's graphic card)
 
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Cheers for everyone's input. I can't believe how much you can get for your money now!

"Back when", getting anything worth turning on would cost you a grand... but it seems less than half that now gets you a reasonable setup!

I think an upgraded monitor will be first, then I'll save some pennies and do a big buy later in the year!

Cheers again,

Andy.
 
If you are after a video editing rig then you need an i7. It benchmarks MASSIVE over any other chip. Gonna cost though if you need an entirely new system though (Titan Goliath = £820 with no monitor)
 
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