My first build - what do you think?

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21 Jan 2011
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Think I've pretty much decided on what I want to get for my first build. As this is my first build though, thought I'd post up specs to get theopinion of some of the more seasoned builders on here!

Case: Coolermaster Elite 335
PSU: Bequiet pure power 530W
Motherboard: asus P8H67 - m pro
RAM: Kingston 4GB/6GB DDR3 1333
HDD: 500gb WD 7200RPM
CPU: i5 2500 3.3ghz
Optical Drive: LiteOn 24x DVDRW Sata
Graphics Card: Radeon 4870 or 5570

I'm not looking to build a particularly high-end machine, but equally want a decent computer to play with and play some games on.

I'd be grateful to hear any opinions/suggestions for alterations in roughly the same price range. It comes out at just under £500 ish.

Cheers all :)

PS - I'm looking to get most/all of the components ordered tomorrow, so any help before then would be great!
 
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ocukbuild.jpg


I realise this is slightly over the £500 mark, but since you never gave a budget I figured a little over wouldn't do any harm. I left out a graphics card as I feel this is an individual choice and everyone is different and likes different things, some people are brand loyal towards ATI or Nvidia etc. So take into account a decent card and you have a cracking rig right there.

The cpu can be overclocked no problem on the board with the aftermarket cooler. The ram I suggested is faster and better, along with the psu being a bit better also.

If you dont want to stretch, give me a cut off price and I'll see if I can ammend it for you.
 
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+1 to Buchanan's build.

As for the graphics card, don't get the 5570, it's not a gaming card. Depending on your budget/screen resolution I would get at least a 5770 (to note, a 4870 performs just about better then the 5770).
 
thanks for the useful replies! £500 really is about my limit though and unfortunately that is with the graphics card (hence the cheaper one 5570). I'm not looking to use it for graphically intensive games and will certainly look to upgrade that in the future.

Unfortunately apprentice wages aren't the best :p, so it's taken me a good two months after living costs to get to the £500 mark!

Ohh and I'm also unlikely to overclock, so that's not an issue :)
 
Orcvader said:
Would you also need Windows, monitor, keyboard and a mouse?
Click to expand...

Not right away. Im going to use my TV as the monitor for now, mice and keyboard I can probably get from work as we have a fair few hanging around, and I've got an XP license for now, but will upgrade to windows 7 64-bit as soon as I can afford it also.
 
go with buchanans build but drop the cpu down the equivalent non 'k' range and also drop the fenrir, as long as you dont wanna overclock at any stage. this will take ~80 quid off the total.
 
Thekwango said:
go with buchanans build but drop the cpu down the equivalent non 'k' range and also drop the fenrir, as long as you dont wanna overclock at any stage. this will take ~80 quid off the total.
Click to expand...

+1 I would do this first.

But to be fair for your budget I think going the AMD route might be better, seeing as you're not overclocking and trying to stay in a tight budget. It will still be great for gaming:

500build.png
 
searching said:
Thanks all so far. Just wondering, what's the advantage of the foxconn motherboard over the asus one I originally spec'd?
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price first of all, also the msi board has 2x full speed (x16) pci-e slots the asus only has 1 (1@x16 & 1@x4) i believe. so the msi board would allow you to run 2 gpu's at a later date if you fancied it
 



Here is an alternative build. I have managed to get it under the £500 mark. You will need to pay delivery unfortunately, so will take it slightly over for yourself.

However, as you didn't fancy overclocking, we have dropped the "K" chip. Also there is no need for a P67 mobo if you don't plan on overclocking.

I have specced an Asrock mobo, there reputation is apparently getting a lot better and are no owned by Asus, so their quality is now a lot better than many years ago.

The cheaper psu you specced is absolutely fine and I have no added in a gtx 260 card for your gaming, it's a great card for the money. Like mentioned, your original cards wouldn't have allowed much headroom for any decent games, not really gamer cards.

Kept everything else the same though.

What do you think?
 
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Thanks for all the advice overall people, I intended to do a build log but got caught up in the moment and completely forgot, will do next time though!

Ended up with the following specs:
Mobo: Asus P8H67-MPro
Processor: i5 2400 3.1ghz
RAM: 4GB Kingston Hyper-X (call me mad, but I have had a good experience with kingston memory overall)
HDD: Standard 500gb WD 16mb cache
GPU: 260GTX (thanks for the suggestions, very good value card at only £60!)
PSU: bequiet 530w
Case: Coolmaster 335 Elite
OS: Windows 7 pro

And overall I'm very please with the system, and had no real problems with building :)

So yeah a big thanks to everyone for their help - as you can see I stuck largely with my original specs but changed a few bits following your suggestions.
 
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