My First Build-HELP NEEDED PLS :)

lickety_splyt

lickety_splyt

lickety_splyt

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6 Dec 2011
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Hello guys,

I'm new to the forum and decided to build my first pc system.

I'm aiming to build an Intel based gaming (but not extreme gaming more like entertainment actually) pc that can last me for several years and perhaps be future-proof if possible.

I guess I'll mainly use it for videos/streaming really. And my budget is around the £650 mark. Here's my build for now:

Mobo: Asus P8Z68-V Intel Z68 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard [90-MIBGC0-G0AAY00Z]
CPU: Intel Core i5-2500K 3.30GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor - Retail [BX80623I52500K]
RAM: ??? unsure what type of memory is suitable for mobo/cpu, but probably 4GB
GPU: Gigabyte GeForce GTX 560 OC 1024MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card [GV-N56GOC-1GI]
PSU: Cooler Master Silent Pro Modular 700W '80 Plus Bronze' Power Supply [ RS700-AMBAD3-UK]
Case: Antec 300 Three Hundred Ultimate Gaming Case - Black [0761345-08300-3]

I already have HDD, optical drives and other periphrals.

The above items already come in at £603 excluding delivery and I haven't even chosen any RAM yet. I don't intend to OC it anytime soon but would like the option to and don't really require the SSD caching feature. So to cut costs, will a P67 mobo be enough for my needs?

I really want to keep the Core i5 2500K 3.30GHz as this will provide me with an option to OC if I decide I wanted to. Also to cut costs, will I actually need a PSU as good as the one above? I read around that I should get a good PSU and not cheap one just to save money. But I really want to stick to around £650 but no more than £700.

With regards to graphics, I'm only using the one monitor atm but am considering a dual monitor setup very soon (this will be excluded from the budget). Will I require a GPU as good as this? Plus, will I require additional fans?

Any help with my build will be greatly appreciated :)

Kind regards,
Paul
 
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Here's my take. Just put the codes "CMdouble" when you checkout.

2807exk.jpg


The power Supply you've choosen is not on stock.

This case is way a lot better than Antec 300.
 
The GX range of PSUs is pretty weak
Theres no need to spend so much on a mobo
This has a much better PSU, better gfx card (Ti model) a decent budget case, though you could up it if you like, and the mbo is still very capable for your needs
If you do plan to OC then add in an aftermarket CPU cooler such as the Gelid Tranquilo


YOUR BASKET
1 x Intel Core i5-2500K 3.30GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor - Retail £179.99
1 x Asus GeForce GTX 560Ti DirectCU II TOP 1024MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £173.99
1 x Gigabyte Z68AP-D3 Intel Z68 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £84.98
1 x Antec TruePower New Modular 650W '80 Plus Bronze' Power Supply £69.98
1 x Kingston HyperX Genesis Grey 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (KHX1600C9D3X2K2/8GX) £35.99
1 x BitFenix Merc Alpha Gaming Case - Black £32.99
Total : £592.92 (includes shipping : £12.50).

 
That mobo supports SLI and Xfire and does it properly to boot unlike the cheaper Z68 mobos. It has lucid virtu and will overclock your i5K CPU automatically should you want it to. So the price for functionality is good :)

If your not bothered in OC'ing then the retail heatsink will do (even for a slight OC). If you could find a OEM CPU for less spending £20ish on a heatsink wouldn't hurt. Rey's coolmaster combo is good value for the money at £50 per part basically. You can get budget cases which have support for 2.5 SSD around £50 though (Zalman Z9 sadly not in stock).

http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/330?vs=290

I'm not sure on the 560s performance, i know most people prefer the Ti version. The link shows the Ti beats the 6870 so i'd assume the 6870 is on par with the 560 or even beat it in some cases. As you are talking of adding another monitor maybe ati's eyefinty would also appeal to you?
 
The OP has no requirement for SLi/xfire though, quotes form OP

lickety_splyt said:
I'm aiming to build an Intel based gaming (but not extreme gaming more like entertainment actually)

I don't intend to OC it anytime soon but would like the option to and don't really require the SSD caching feature. So to cut costs, will a P67 mobo be enough for my needs?

With regards to graphics, I'm only using the one monitor atm but am considering a dual monitor setup very soon (this will be excluded from the budget). Will I require a GPU as good as this?
Click to expand...

Also bearing in mind how easy it is to OC 2500K anyway, I dont think that feature is worth £45

Where as yes the Ti is also not essential, it will give a much more noticable performance boost than the higher spec mobo
 
95thrifles said:
The OP has no requirement for SLi/xfire though, quotes form OP



Also bearing in mind how easy it is to OC 2500K anyway, I dont think that feature is worth £45

Where as yes the Ti is also not essential, it will give a much more noticable performance boost than the higher spec mobo
Click to expand...

He did mention futureproof though fella ;)

That mobo is £120 on offer not £130 I'm confused how it's been linked like that. The 560ti sure is a good card, knowing he could add another later is a definate bonus. Although then he could go for a 460 superoc or a 6850 which cost less and then double them up later when they are cheap cheap, giving better performance than the single 560Ti.

You are quite right the nvidia cards have a feature similar to eyefinity. I was asking if the OP was aware of the feature incase it is of interest as another upgrade later.

It's all swings and roundabouts how we divide the budget up, it's really down to the OP what makes more sense to him. Atleast we give him plenty to think about hey ;)
 
Oh I neglected to mention!! You asked about the P series.

Seeing as this is a first build I wouldnt suggest getting a P series mobo. Building a PC isn't really difficult but sometimes there are lil gremlins. I would suggest making life easier on yourself as it can be nerve wracking enough building for the first time.

The Z series gives you the IGP on the CPU (H61/67) and the overclocking ability (P series). Should your GPU be DOA (god forbid) the Z series mobo would still post as you have the IGP, with the P series it would be more difficult to diagnose the problem. You also have lucid virtu which makes clever use of the IGP when you also have a dedicated GPU.
 
WOW!! Amazing feedback!! It's a lot to take in and plenty to research about.

I like reygjabla's build cause of the price and would defo go for the 560Ti. But then again:

honosuseri said:
He did mention futureproof though fella ;)

That mobo is £120 on offer not £130 I'm confused how it's been linked like that. The 560ti sure is a good card, knowing he could add another later is a definate bonus. Although then he could go for a 460 superoc or a 6850 which cost less and then double them up later when they are cheap cheap, giving better performance than the single 560Ti.

You are quite right the nvidia cards have a feature similar to eyefinity. I was asking if the OP was aware of the feature incase it is of interest as another upgrade later.

It's all swings and roundabouts how we divide the budget up, it's really down to the OP what makes more sense to him. Atleast we give him plenty to think about hey ;)
Click to expand...

In regards to the quote and the previous post by honosuseri, I wasn't aware of the eyefinity technology and after some research, it does seem amazing. Out of curiosity, what will I require to make use of eyefinity?

Plus, you can do this with nVidia as well? :O I wouldn't mind having 3 screens but not in the next few months I don't think :/ it would be nice tho. If I did want the 3 monitors, then does that mean the 560Ti is a defo no no?

I read somewhere that it's best to use nVidia for Intel, and ATI for AMD builds??
 
Eyefinity requires 3 screens (obviously) one of which needs to use the display port output direct to the monitor. If you dont have a display port monitor you can buy an active adapter to plug into the displayport on the GPU then run the cable from that to the monitor.

Nvidia cards can do this too (surround vision i think they call it) however you require SLI (2 cards) but need no adapter. You will also need to think about the PSU you buy to make sure it has enough juice to run two cards. So the 560ti isn't a "no no" but you will need two of them and a SLI capable mobo.

Like i said i'd prefer to have a well spec'd mobo if the price is reasonable. 95ths spec is still good though, you could consider changing the 560ti for a 6950 2GB card. It's slightly better than the 560ti and you only need the one 6950 to use 3 screens.

http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/293?vs=330

The card is more expensive granted but they do one which includes BF3 and Deus Ex with it. If these were games you would buy anyway it makes sense to put the cash into the card rather than buy the games seperate.

Remember the Z68 has an IGP, so you could omit the GPU for now. This is what my friend did recently when he upgraded to the i5K. By leaving out the GPU he had the funds to ensure he had a sli/xfire capable mobo and PSU and the i5K he wanted so badly. He added a superclocked 460 later (which we OC'd further to 850mhz) for just over £100 and is looking to add another when one comes up cheap.

I don't mean to confuse you, if this seems to be getting overly complicated but this is the beauty of building your own rig. I guess the real question is what you mean by futureproof? Do you want a rig that you can expand upon over time or do you want the maximum "bang for buck" in a one of cost?

Think things over and ask questions if your unsure of anything. The site does weekly as well as daily offers. So it would be wise to start a new thread when your ready to order simply so we can make sure you are making the most of the deals on offer :)
 
lickety_splyt said:
I read somewhere that it's best to use nVidia for Intel, and ATI for AMD builds??
Click to expand...

I nearly forgot about your final question lol

That's not really a true statement. Some games are intel or nvidia biased but I think what gave you this impression was that AMD mobos didnt used to support SLI. So if you bought an Xfire AMD mobo it was a little silly to opt for nvidia as you couldn't add another one later like you could with the ati cards ;)
 
honosuseri said:
I don't mean to confuse you, if this seems to be getting overly complicated but this is the beauty of building your own rig. I guess the real question is what you mean by futureproof? Do you want a rig that you can expand upon over time or do you want the maximum "bang for buck" in a one of cost?
Click to expand...

Thanks for the reply! It wasn't confusing at all, it was rather insightful :D
I guess I want to build a system that I can expand over time. So I think I'll go for an xfire/sli capable mobo to keep options open for me (but maybe slightly lower spec despite it's currently on offer for £120 :() and I'll probably go for the GTX 560Ti and then buy another one further down the line if needs be rather than splashing on the 6950 2GB, cause I don't think I'd require a GPU as good as that right now.

However, if I do decide to go with this £120 mobo, how good is the integrated GPU? If it's pretty good, then I may leave out the 560Ti. Or will the 560Ti be way better (I'm guessing it is)?

With regards to the PSU, will this one chosen by 95thrifles be capable to support both 560Ti's?
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CA-117-AN

Or this one by reygjabla?
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CA-248-CM&groupid=701&catid=7&subcat=29

Thanks again!
 
lickety_splyt said:
Thanks for the reply! It wasn't confusing at all, it was rather insightful :D
I guess I want to build a system that I can expand over time. So I think I'll go for an xfire/sli capable mobo to keep options open for me (but maybe slightly lower spec despite it's currently on offer for £120 :() and I'll probably go for the GTX 560Ti and then buy another one further down the line if needs be rather than splashing on the 6950 2GB, cause I don't think I'd require a GPU as good as that right now.

However, if I do decide to go with this £120 mobo, how good is the integrated GPU? If it's pretty good, then I may leave out the 560Ti. Or will the 560Ti be way better (I'm guessing it is)?

With regards to the PSU, will this one chosen by 95thrifles be capable to support both 560Ti's?
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CA-117-AN

Or this one by reygjabla?
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CA-248-CM&groupid=701&catid=7&subcat=29

Thanks again!
Click to expand...

The antec is much better :)

Also integrated graphics are nothing for gaming. The GTX560Ti is so much better!
 
For games and films, this has a powerful gfx card and includes 2 games! Alternatively pick a gtx 570.

The case, PSU will hopefully serve you well for future builds.

Easy upgrade is +4gb in the future, may be SSD for fast game loads.

The case has all the fans you need.

You could pick an i3 CPU and use the stock cooler if you wanted, still great gaming rig.


YOUR BASKET
1 x Asus ATI Radeon HD 6950 DirectCU II 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card **Supplied with Battlefield 3 & Deus Ex PC Games** £239.99
1 x Intel Core i5-2500K 3.30GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor - Retail £179.99
1 x Corsair HX 650W ATX Modular SLI Compliant Power Supply (CMPSU-650HXUK) £104.99
1 x Gigabyte Z68AP-D3 Intel Z68 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £84.98
1 x Fractal Design Define R3 Midi Tower Case - Titanium Grey £79.99
1 x Gelid Tranquillo CPU Cooler (Socket 754/939/940/AM2/AM2+/AM3/LGA775/LGA1155/LGA1156/LGA1366) £25.99
1 x Kingston HyperX Genesis Grey 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (KHX1600C9D3X2K2/4GX) £19.98
Total : £752.41 (includes shipping : £13.75).

 
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