My first build - what do you think?

searching · 22 Jan 2011 at 01:11

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!

searching · 22 Jan 2011 at 01:36

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

, 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

searching · 22 Jan 2011 at 01:47

Orcvader said:
Would you also need Windows, monitor, keyboard and a mouse?

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.

searching · 22 Jan 2011 at 02:04

Thanks all so far. Just wondering, what's the advantage of the foxconn motherboard over the asus one I originally spec'd?

searching · 30 Jan 2011 at 21:23

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.