Need a little help.

mymrwoody

mymrwoody

mymrwoody

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Joined
21 Sep 2012
Posts
7
Hey guys i really want to build a computer and i was wondering if the more tech savvy out there could look at my components and tell me if it would be any good,and all work together. Basically,my budget is around £500 and it will be used for gaming and general surfing.

xfx 550w psu.
2x4 gb corsair xms3 ram.
corsair 300r case.
7850 2gb (unsure of which brand to use)
i3 3220 (or an i5 dependent on budget)
Asus P8B75-M LE B75

Also planning on keeping my old hdd and optical drive if possible. Thanks for any help and advice.
 
Looks fine.

You'll want to make sure your hard drive and optical drive are SATA as the motherboard you've picked (like most these days) only has SATA connectors rather than the older wider IDE.

You might also want to check with the retailer you are getting the motherboard from that it has the BIOS version that supports the Ivy Bridge CPU you've picked. Info here: http://uk.asus.com/Motherboards/Intel_Socket_1155/P8B75M_LE/#CPUS. The i3 you picked needs 0501 or later for example.
 
Speed said:
Looks fine.

You'll want to make sure your hard drive and optical drive are SATA as the motherboard you've picked (like most these days) only has SATA connectors rather than the older wider IDE.

You might also want to check with the retailer you are getting the motherboard from that it has the BIOS version that supports the Ivy Bridge CPU you've picked. Info here: http://uk.asus.com/Motherboards/Intel_Socket_1155/P8B75M_LE/#CPUS. The i3 you picked needs 0501 or later for example.
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Oh,thanks. Thats very helpful,and thankfully the board does accept the cpu's i had in mind. As for the sata connectors,is there any way of checking what i have short of opening the actually case up?
 
It should do yes, as long as it is pre-loaded with BIOS 0501 out of the box.

If you go to Device Manager, find the devices you can locate the model numbers usually either in the listing or under properties. Then google the model numbers and that should tell you. Or just post them in the thread and we can check for you.

With regards to GPU makes, generally I'd pay a little more for a Gigabyte or Asus which come with 3 year warranties over the industry standard of 2 and often offer better support in my experience. Gigabyte for example have a UK repair and RMA centre, something many don't these days. That or look for one with a decent cooler, just don't pay too much extra over the cheapest price for these sorts of things. Most seem to be bundled with Sleeping Dogs for free, if it isn't your sort of game you can sell it for around £14-15 which brings the price down a little so you can justify spending a bit more.
 
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Speed said:
It should do yes, as long as it is pre-loaded with BIOS 0501 out of the box.

If you go to Device Manager, find the devices you can locate the model numbers usually either in the listing or under properties. Then google the model numbers and that should tell you. Or just post them in the thread and we can check for you.

With regards to GPU makes, generally I'd pay a little more for a Gigabyte or Asus which come with 3 year warranties and better support in my experience. That or look for one with a decent cooler, just don't pay too much extra over the cheapest price for these sorts of things. Most seem to be bundled with Sleeping Dogs for free, if it isn't your sort of game you can sell it for around £14-15 which brings the price down a little so you can justify spending a bit more.
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I just looked where you said,and the hdd and the optical drive are both sata,so that's a good thing (ill buy another hdd when i have more money) and ok,thank you. I was looking at the msi twin frozr 4 7850,or the gigabyte windforce 7850. Im worried to go to the cheaper gigabyte one cos it may not perform as well.
 
Good to hear.

Both are good cards, assuming you are looking at Overclockers prices the MSI is on offer which is why it is cheaper. You can't always judge performance on the price.

All the factory overclocks are pretty similar, GPU Clock in MHz is the one you want to look for really as that will have the biggest effect on performance in games. However you can very easily overclock the GPU yourself, there are plenty of guides about on how to do this.
 
Speed said:
Good to hear.

Both are good cards, assuming you are looking at Overclockers prices the MSI is on offer which is why it is cheaper. You can't always judge performance on the price.

All the factory overclocks are pretty similar, GPU Clock in MHz is the one you want to look for really as that will have the biggest effect on performance in games. However you can very easily overclock the GPU yourself, there are plenty of guides about on how to do this.
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Honestly,im using both overclockers and *woops* for prices (never ordered from either so i don't know who's better) and the prices are barely different. Thing that worries me about the gigabyte version is the fan is supposedly loud,and that may get irritating. As for over clocking,isn't that only possible with a mobo that supports it? or is that just cpu's?
 
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Just CPUs, all modern GPUs are clockable. You'll want a K marked CPU and P67/Z68/Z77 board for overclocking the CPU properly.

You will want to remove the competitors name from your post though, as this is a retailers forum it is against the rules to mention other companies.
 
Speed said:
Just CPUs, all modern GPUs are clockable. You'll want a K marked CPU and P67/Z68/Z77 board for overclocking the CPU properly.

You will want to remove the competitors name from your post though, as this is a retailers forum it is against the rules to mention other companies.
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ah,ooops,didn't realise that. And i have no real interest in ocing my cpu to be honest with you,my budget can't stretch that far. I think im going to go with msi. Just out of interest,does ocing a card reduce its life span?
 
No problem, you are new here so it was just a friendly headsup, would pay to give the rules a quick read though: http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/faq.php?faq=vb_read_and_post

Moderate overclocking with the stock cooler provided doesn't to any noticeable degree as long as the voltages are kept within safe limits. Like I say there are plenty of guides about and you are also covered by the warranty at the end of the day.

Seems like a great deal, MSI are known for their very decent coolers on graphics cards and if you buy from OcUK you get two more free games over that other company you mentioned.
 
Speed said:
No problem, you are new here so it was just a friendly headsup, would pay to give the rules a quick read though: http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/faq.php?faq=vb_read_and_post

Moderate overclocking with the stock cooler provided doesn't to any noticeable degree as long as the voltages are kept within safe limits. Like I say there are plenty of guides about and you are also covered by the warranty at the end of the day.

Seems like a great deal, MSI are known for their very decent coolers on graphics cards and if you buy from OcUK you get two more free games over that other company you mentioned.
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Ill go and take a gander at the rules,new to this forum haha.

Thanks,ill have to read up on the overclocking abilities these cards have,it might make them last longer before i need an upgrade in the future. And fantastic,free games,i can't pass that up (i stupidly bought crysis 1 on steam sale and obviously i cant run it on here,lets hope my new computer doesn't defecate all over itself when i try haha) Thank you for all of your help,i really appreciate it.
 
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