My first build

Markie90

Markie90

Markie90

Associate
Joined
20 Jun 2011
Posts
4
Hey guys,

This is my first computer build and I have come up with a specification for you to scrutinize!

I have decided to begin building for fun, experience and to develop a PC for gaming, programming and certain processes like audio engineering. I have a budget of around £700.00 (including a monitor).

If anyone has any pointers or changes they would make, please let me know! I'd greatly appreciate it :)

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I believe this is reasonably balanced graphically and power-wise. Thanks a lot for looking over this! :)

Mark
 
Put simply, Sandybridge is faster than anything from AMD.


Your basketProduct Name Qty Price Line Total
MSI ATI Radeon HD 6870 OC HAWK 1024MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card with FREE Lara Croft Game £148.98
(£124.15) £148.98
(£124.15)
Intel Core i5-2400 3.10GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor - Retail £145.99
(£121.66) £145.99
(£121.66)
MSI H67MA-E35 Intel H67 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Micro-ATX Motherboard - (Sandybridge) **B3 REVISION** £59.99
(£49.99) £59.99
(£49.99)
Antec High Current Gamer 620W Power Supply £49.99
(£41.66) £49.99
(£41.66)
Antec 100 One Hundred Ultimate Gaming Case - Black £41.99
(£34.99) £41.99
(£34.99)
Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 1TB SATA 6Gb/s 32MB Cache - OEM (ST31000524AS) £39.98
(£33.32) £39.98
(£33.32)
Kingston HyperX Genesis Grey 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (KHX1600C9D3X2K2/4GX) £34.99
(£29.16) £34.99
(£29.16)
OcUK 22x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £14.99
(£12.49) £14.99
(£12.49)
Sub Total : £447.42
Shipping cost assumes delivery to UK Mainland with:
DPD Next Day Parcel
(This can be changed during checkout) Shipping : £12.50
VAT is being charged at 20.00% VAT : £91.98
Total : £551.90


Check out the results - http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/cpu/display/core-i5-2500-2400-2300_7.html#sect0 - including the other tests on the other pages, the best AMD has to offer gets beat easily.

I also added a PSU, you did need one right?
 
For one I would suggest an AM3+ mobo as it is cheaper and will support an upgrade to Bulldozer in future.

Also get the 955 over the 965. They are the same processor just the 965 is clocked a little higher. You can just up the multiplier of the 955 by 1 and it automatically goes to 965 performance, you can take it up past all of the other Phenom x4 processors just by upping the multiplier.

Also get the XMS3 RAM, its cheaper and you will notice no real world difference in performance. In fact I think the XMS3 is more reliable as well. I have seen people having problems with OCZ.

Edit: Although if you can afford what Stulid put, go for it.
 
Thanks for this input guys.

I forgot to price up a PSU, woops! Thank you for including one in your spec, Stuild! This was PSU I would have included in my original:

'XFX Pro 650W Core Edition Power Supply [P1-650S-NLB9]'

I will look at your link in a moment. :)

That's really useful to know in regards to the 995, DJmartin. Thank you! Is the Kingston ram in Stuild's build more suitable than the XMS3? I'll happily opt for cheaper if it is just as reliable! :)

This is really helping me out, thanks! :)
 
If your buying before wednesday go with the Antec in stulid's build as it's a great deal for a high quality unit, but the XFX Pro is a great unit too, just a bit more expensive.

The Kingston stuff isn't more suitable, it's just as suitable but cheaper. As long as you go for low-profile RAM from a reputable company then just go for the cheapest at the time.
 
Yeah normally the Corsair XMS3 and the Kingston are the same price and I just spec the XMS3 as I knew about the Corsair brand before I knew about Kingston and both are basically the same performance. Sometimes I forget about the weekly offers and just go back to the habit of speccing XMS3 automatically. Either is fine

This basically makes no sense and I am tired but I can't even work out how to make it make sense. :sleepyface:
 
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I'm using that exact graphics card, brilliant performance, clocks really well, got mine sitting at 1000/1210 Mhz

Got mine for £129 not too long ago, was a bargain at the price.
 
fruman23 said:
I'm using that exact graphics card, brilliant performance, clocks really well, got mine sitting at 1000/1210 Mhz

Got mine for £129 not too long ago, was a bargain at the price.
Click to expand...

Awesome!

It's nice to know that it's serving someone else well too. :)

ha ha, no worries about being sleepy, martin! I'm trying to fix my sleeping pattern now. No routine since Uni's finished. ha ha.

@martin + sk82jack - Does this mean the 'weekly' offers finish tomorrow on Wednesday? Just want to make sure how much time I have to make decisions before this build begins to get more expensive!

I have taken time to research this build, and it seems to be great so I'll most likely go with it! :)
 
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Ah cool! I better get decision-making...

Also, would the motherboard in this build support/or be the right 'fit' for the Intel Core i5 2500? I ask because that processor happens to be on offer this week! :)

The help is very much appreciated guys. I am gaining an understanding of how it all works now. ha ha.
 
The OEM chip will need a heatsink added to the build.

Also buying a "K" CPU is a little pointless with a H67 motherboard.
 
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