New build - advice please

Adam007 · 13 Jul 2011 at 23:03

Evenin' All

It's been an awful long time since I dusted off the tool kit. Now is the right moment to do it again though.

New build required (including monitor + OS), c£1k

I will mainly be using it for some Visual Studio action along with some MS Expression (Blend). Will also need to run Adobe's Premium Design Suite (Bridge, Illustrator, Photoshop, inDesign), preferably without breaking a sweat.

At the moment a single monitor will do just fine but I need a system that won't need adjusting if I decide to add a second (and perhaps third) monitor in a few months.

Games wise: I will want to play some! But I don't need it to set any records. Although I will consider in future a dual-screen setup for design work, I am prepared to accept only a single screen for gaming so the graphics card doesn't need to be the second coming (!).

Here's what I've put together based mostly on the entirely wonderful amount of information on this forum.

BenQ EW2420 24" Widescreen LED Monitor - Black £167.99
(£139.99) £167.99
(£139.99)
Intel Core i5-2500K 3.30GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor - OEM £155.99
(£129.99) £155.99
(£129.99)
MSI ATI Radeon HD 6870 OC HAWK 1024MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card with FREE Lara Croft Game £149.99
(£124.99) £149.99
(£124.99)
Corsair Vengeance 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-15000C9 1866MHz Dual Channel Kit (CMZ8GX3M2A1866C9) £79.99
(£66.66) £79.99
(£66.66)
Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 64-Bit - OEM (GFC-00599) £79.99
(£66.66) £79.99
(£66.66)
Western Digital Caviar Black 1TB SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache - OEM (WD1002FAEX) £73.99
(£61.66) £73.99
(£61.66)
Asus P8P67 LE Intel P67 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard - (Sandybridge) ** B3 REVISION ** *LOWEST UK PRICE* £72.98
(£60.82) £72.98
(£60.82)
OCZ Vertex 2 50GB 2.5" SATA-II Solid State Hard Drive (OCZSSD2-2VTX50G) £71.99
(£59.99) £71.99
(£59.99)
Antec 100 One Hundred Ultimate Gaming Case - Black £44.99
(£37.49) £44.99
(£37.49)
BeQuiet Pure Power L7 530W '80 Plus' Power Supply £44.99
(£37.49) £44.99
(£37.49)
Arctic Cooling Freezer 13 High Performance CPU Cooler (Socket LGA775/1155/1156/1366/939/AM2/AM2+) £22.99
(£19.16) £22.99
(£19.16)
Samsung SH-S222AB/BEBE 22x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £16.99
(£14.16) £16.99
(£14.16)
Sub Total : £819.06
Shipping cost assumes delivery to UK Mainland with:
DPD Next Day Parcel
(This can be changed during checkout) Shipping : £20.10
VAT is being charged at 20.00% VAT : £167.83
Total : £1,006.99

I'm concious the 8gb of RAM is a conceit, but I hope it'll add value to the multi-tasking I require from Adobe / MS Expression. Similarly the SSD drive should store Windows + Expression / Visual Studio + Adobe Design so the programs will run quicker and load more swiftly (I think).

Obviously I'll overclock it to within an inch of its life. Hence the cooling.

Your thoughts/feedback/concerns/abuse most welcome.

Kisses

AJ

Reaper 392 · 13 Jul 2011 at 23:13

this is what ive come up with. you will need a second card if you want to use three monitors, but some design programs really benefit from the cuda cores of the nvidia card

YOUR BASKET
1 x OCZ Agility 3 120GB 2.5" SATA-3 Solid State Hard Drive (AGT3-25SAT3-120G) £163.19
1 x OcUK 24" True HD Widescreen LED Monitor - Black £157.99
1 x Intel Core i5-2500K 3.30GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor - OEM £155.99
1 x Asus P8Z68-V Intel Z68 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £129.98
1 x OcUK GeForce GTX 460 OC 1024MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £115.99
1 x Microsoft Windows 7 Bundle - Home Premium 64 Bit £68.40
1 x Western Digital Caviar Blue 500GB SATA 6Gb/s 16MB Cache - OEM (WD5000AAKX) £32.99
1 x Kingston HyperX Blu 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-10666C9 1333MHz Dual Channel Kit (KHX1333C9D3B1K2/8G) £45.59
1 x BeQuiet Pure Power L7 530W '80 Plus' Power Supply £44.99
1 x Cooler Master Elite 430 Windowed Case - Black £35.99
1 x Gelid Tranquillo CPU Cooler (Socket 754/939/940/AM2/AM2+/AM3/LGA775/LGA1155/LGA1156/LGA1366) £25.99
1 x Samsung SH-S222AL/BEBE 22x DVD±RW SATA Lightscribe ReWriter (Black) - OEM £14.99
Total : £1,009.78 (includes shipping : £14.75).

olivier renault · 14 Jul 2011 at 08:34

dual monitor or more even, highly recommended for visual studio work. Can add another one later of course.

8GB is a good idea. Although you must be running huge projects to be needing that.

SSD sounds good, they will be hit hard though.

Adam007 · 14 Jul 2011 at 09:28

Thanks guys, especially for the Graphics Card advice. I'll change to that. And that SSD is a better bet as well.

Is there much performance difference with the different RAM types? Was I just a little over-enthusiastic with my choice?

@Olivier - my VS projects aren't (yet) that huge but I think multi-tasking with Adobe / Expression is where I'll feel the major benefit. I'll deffo being adding the second monitor in the not too distant future.

Thanks.
Adam

dfour · 14 Jul 2011 at 09:55

I would switch the SSD to a smaller
OCZ Agility 3 60GB 2.5" SATA-3 Solid State Hard Drive £93:59
and the hard drive to a bigger one
Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 1TB SATA 6Gb/s 32MB Cache £43:99

Would a IPS monitor be a better one for better colour etc than a TN one??

Asus ML239H 23" Widescreen LED Monitor £179:99
or
Dell Ultrasharp U2311H 23" Widescreen LCD Monitor £229:99 (although can be found cheaper)

Otherwise I think reaper has it nailed

Reaper 392 · 14 Jul 2011 at 10:09

dfour said:
I would switch the SSD to a smaller
OCZ Agility 3 60GB 2.5" SATA-3 Solid State Hard Drive £93:59
and the hard drive to a bigger one
Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 1TB SATA 6Gb/s 32MB Cache £43:99

good luck getting win7, vsual studios, MS expression (blend) and adobe premium suite on a 64GB SSD

also, i would have gone with a 1TB HDD, but they dont do that with the Win7 + HDD pack any more (probably because they charged way too much for the 1TB version before)

Adam007 · 14 Jul 2011 at 13:37

OK I have to ask: what's the difference between the Mobo I suggested (Asus P8P67 LE Intel P67 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard - (Sandybridge) ** B3 REVISION **) and the one recommended above (Asus P8Z68-V Intel Z68 (Socket 1155) DDR3).

I'll happily admit to being confused by motherboards in general.

Thanks

Adam007 · 14 Jul 2011 at 23:29

Ordered. Thanks to all. Especially @Reaper_392. Went with the best of what you recommended. Will weep with joy when it arrives on Monday!

Oh, and switched my single 24" screen for a pair of 22" based on another thread. What does size matter when you've got two...

OCZ Agility 3 120GB 2.5" SATA-3 Solid State Hard Drive (AGT3-25SAT3-120G) £135.99 1 £135.99
Intel Core i5-2500K 3.30GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor - OEM £129.99 1 £129.99
Asus P8Z68-V Intel Z68 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £108.32 1 £108.32
OcUK GeForce GTX 460 OC 1024MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £99.99 1 £99.99
OcUK V-Line 221V2SB 22" Widescreen LCD Monitor - Black £74.99 2 £149.98
Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 64-Bit - OEM (GFC-00599) £66.66 1 £66.66
Western Digital Caviar Black 1TB SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache - OEM (WD1002FAEX) £61.66 1 £61.66
Kingston HyperX Blu 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-10666C9 1333MHz Dual Channel Kit (KHX1333C9D3B1K2/8G) £37.99 1 £37.99
BeQuiet Pure Power L7 530W '80 Plus' Power Supply £37.49 1 £37.49
Cooler Master Elite 430 Windowed Case - Black £29.99 1 £29.99
Gelid Tranquillo CPU Cooler (Socket 754/939/940/AM2/AM2+/AM3/LGA775/LGA1155/LGA1156/LGA1366) £21.66 1 £21.66
Samsung SH-S222AL/BEBE 22x DVD±RW SATA Lightscribe ReWriter (Black) - OEM £12.49 1 £12.49
OcUK USB Keyboard - Black £4.16 1 £4.16
OcUK USB Optical Mouse - Black £2.49 1 £2.49
DPD Next Day Parcel Before 12: £20.75
VAT: £183.92
Order Total: £1103.53

Laters

Adam

olivier renault · 14 Jul 2011 at 23:39

Looks good. Should run like a scalded cat.

Adam007 · 14 Jul 2011 at 23:43

Just so I can check the scalded cat KPI, which set of benchmarks tend to be most well applauded around here? Thanks.