Looking for new machine, have up to about £1000

beejjacobs · 8 Nov 2011 at 21:56

You can put windows and a few programs on it. Depending on how much stuff you have, if you'd need more than 128Gb for files, windows and programs then just get an HDD instead of the SSD

Stat1c · 8 Nov 2011 at 22:00

I'm not sure whether to go with the first spec or the one above (with a hdd instead of solid state)

fowler002 · 8 Nov 2011 at 22:06

beejjacobs said:
YOUR BASKET
1 x Gigabyte GeForce GTX 570 OC WINDFORCE 3X 1280MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £279.98
1 x Intel Core i5-2500K 3.30GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor - Retail £179.99
1 x Asrock Z68 Extreme4 Gen3 Intel Z68 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £179.98
1 x Crucial RealSSD M4 128GB 2.5" SATA 6Gb/s Solid State Hard Drive £154.99
1 x Lepa B-Series 850W '80 Plus Bronze' Modular Power Supply - with FREE LEPA Hard Drive Enclosure £99.98
1 x Cooler Master CM-690 II Lite Dominator Case - Black £66.98
1 x Corsair XMS3 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (CMX8GX3M2A1600C9) £49.99
1 x Gelid Tranquillo CPU Cooler (Socket 754/939/940/AM2/AM2+/AM3/LGA775/LGA1155/LGA1156/LGA1366) £25.99
1 x LG GH24NS70 24x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - Retail £19.99
Total : £1,072.88 (includes shipping : £12.50).

A little over, but that's what I'd go for. And if you want to improve just buy another 570 and you'll have an even more awesome system! Assuming your monitor is 1920x1080 (?) then that will run anything well.

Stat1c · 8 Nov 2011 at 22:18

I need someone to just make my mind up for me!

weird_dave · 9 Nov 2011 at 01:10

Do you need an OS included in the build?

Nobody is going to make your mind up for you, only offer suggestions.

Can you post a list of re-usable items from your previous build, including the HDD that has seen better days?

To be honest, I think my build is the most sane (albeit not the best gfx card), people are suggesting OTT motherboards and GFX cards (I admit my case was OTT

)

Take a look at some cases, ask more questions. Get to the point where you feel comfortable with the final build choice.

Might seem like hard work and a pain, but going back to the original post, you'll be far happier that going pre-built or laptop

fowler002 · 9 Nov 2011 at 01:49

weird_dave said:
Do you need an OS included in the build?

Nobody is going to make your mind up for you, only offer suggestions.

Can you post a list of re-usable items from your previous build, including the HDD that has seen better days?

To be honest, I think my build is the most sane (albeit not the best gfx card), people are suggesting OTT motherboards and GFX cards (I admit my case was OTT )

Take a look at some cases, ask more questions. Get to the point where you feel comfortable with the final build choice.

Might seem like hard work and a pain, but going back to the original post, you'll be far happier that going pre-built or laptop

some people maybe suggesting motherboards that are ott but you took it to the other extreme(as already mentioned), plus you suggested a psu that was ott for the specs as due to the motherboard can't go sli in the future to make use of the wattage of the psu. oh and not to forget £140 2tb hard disk, to make matters worse you chose hitachi rather than samsung or wd.

so as already said your build ISN'T sane, rather UNBALANCED.

Stat1c · 9 Nov 2011 at 13:40

I don't need an os and I want a totally new machine apart from maybe sound card. Fowler, is there a reason you think the 6950 is better than the 570? Why not the 6970?

Stat1c · 9 Nov 2011 at 14:08

I was reading another thread and I'm tempted to just get a prebuild from here.

Something like this http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=FS-197-OE&groupid=43&catid=2040&subcat= or this http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=FS-170-OE&groupid=43&catid=2040&subcat= .

Can anyone advise if either of these would be ok

weird_dave · 9 Nov 2011 at 15:40

Both of those only have 4GB RAM, what OS will you be using?

weird_dave · 9 Nov 2011 at 15:59

fowler002 said:
some people maybe suggesting motherboards that are ott but you took it to the other extreme(as already mentioned), plus you suggested a psu that was ott for the specs as due to the motherboard can't go sli in the future to make use of the wattage of the psu. oh and not to forget £140 2tb hard disk, to make matters worse you chose hitachi rather than samsung or wd.

so as already said your build ISN'T sane, rather UNBALANCED.

That motherboard does support crossfire though (maybe I should have picked an ATI GFX card

).

Are Hitachi drives really that bad? As I've already explained, if you need a storage drive then 2TB is still the way to go, smaller drives aren't much cheaper unless you go tiny.

As for the PSU, it's better to have it a bit overspecced, it'll last longer.

Stat1c · 9 Nov 2011 at 16:58

weird_dave said:
Both of those only have 4GB RAM, what OS will you be using?

Win 7, I can always add 4gb more later on, doesn't cost much.

I think I'm just going to get THIS .

I presume I would need to add a sound card to get 5.1 dolby digital so I'll add in my audigy 2zs, or ask OC to include the audigy 7.1 card.

If you upgrade a prebuilt from this website, does it effect the warranty?

weird_dave · 9 Nov 2011 at 18:46

That pre-built system:
Sound: Realtek 7.1 Channel Sound (On-Board)

fowler002 · 9 Nov 2011 at 18:59

weird_dave said:
That motherboard does support crossfire though (maybe I should have picked an ATI GFX card ).

Are Hitachi drives really that bad? As I've already explained, if you need a storage drive then 2TB is still the way to go, smaller drives aren't much cheaper unless you go tiny.

As for the PSU, it's better to have it a bit overspecced, it'll last longer.

the motherboard 'supports' xfire but in x4/x4 not x8/x8, there is quite a big performance hit, better to spend the extra and get the gigabyte z68xp-ud3 or better.

psu better to go corsair, antec, xfx or if you want lepa the g series(built by enermax).

stat1c build it yourself.

Stat1c · 9 Nov 2011 at 19:41

What's wrong with that pre-build? I really don't want to build it. I was only contemplating building it because I thought I would be saving hundreds.

fowler002 · 9 Nov 2011 at 20:04

well only 4gb ram, no idea what the motherboard is. similar price you can get better bits.

Stat1c · 9 Nov 2011 at 20:10

Can add 4gb more RAM for peanuts, I'll need to confirm about the motherboard, I doubt this website are going to use a cheap rubbish one though.

fowler002 · 9 Nov 2011 at 20:14

having 2x 4gb rather than 4x 2gb gives you room to add extra ram in the future should you wish, 1gb may seem silly now but in the future you may want/need it and then you'll have to remove old ram and add new.

Xelene · 9 Nov 2011 at 20:18

A self build shouldn't take more than a few hours. You can always hire a local geek to build it for you if time is really that short.

Stat1c · 9 Nov 2011 at 20:36

I'm pretty set on getting a prebuild, can anyone advise if adding my sound card will void the systems warranty

fowler002 · 9 Nov 2011 at 20:40

if you get pre-built you can't add/remove anything without voiding the warranty, oh and don't flash the bios either.