New build any good?

Dob1eman · 15 Oct 2010 at 14:10

NZXT Phantom Enthusiast Full Tower Case - Black - 119.99

Intel Core i7 950 3.06GHz (Bloomfield) (Socket LGA1366) - Retail £249.99

LG BH10LS30 10x BluRay-RW / 16 x DVD±RW Drive - Black - 89.99

G.Skill RipJaw 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C7 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit x2 = 8GB RAM - 169.18

MSI GeForce GTX 460 HAWK "Super-OC" 1024MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card - 179.99

Gigabyte GA-P55A-UD4 Intel P55 (Socket 1156) DDR3 Motherboard

Antec TruePower New Modular 750W Power Supply - £102.99

Western Digital Caviar Green 2TB SATA-II 64MB Cache - OEM x2 - £162.12

Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium 64-Bit - OEM (GFC-00599) £80.99

total £1305.24
Few questions:

1. Will all this spec go together ok?

2. I am about £170 overbudget, is there anything where an alternative would be just has good?

3. In time I want to be able to easily add extra HDD will that motherboard support it?

4. This is going to be a media PC has well I have a seperate AV Receiver and want to make sure the sound quality and connections are exceptable from this motherboard?

5. Do I need a better CPU fan than the default one which comes with the processor, and what about paste, etc?

Any advice much appriciated.

geoirv23 · 15 Oct 2010 at 14:13

You've chosen a socket 1366 cpu and a socket 1156 motherboard with dual channel memory.

geoirv23 · 15 Oct 2010 at 14:14

Maybe this motherboard http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MB-429-AS&groupid=701&catid=5&subcat=1692, and this memory http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MY-008-PA&groupid=701&catid=8&subcat=1389

cmndr_andi · 15 Oct 2010 at 14:18

Aye, that board and RAM will work well with that CPU.

However, may I ask what you will mainly be using the PC for?

shadow_boxer · 15 Oct 2010 at 14:22

Ok there are a few points here. As mentioned above cpu/mobo and RAM are not compatible. So total budget is around £1150...for media PC? will you be gaming on it and at what resolution? will the PC be used to anything else for example video encoding or graphics design? If its only being used as a media pc to stream or playback blu ray/dvd via an AV receiver then what you've roughly spec'd is a massive overkill!

The case too...a full size tower for a media pc? would you prefer something a little smaller perhaps?

Liampope · 15 Oct 2010 at 14:30

Dob1eman said:
1. Will all this spec go together ok?

2. I am about £170 overbudget, is there anything where an alternative would be just has good?

As already mentioned you've put a socket 1356 CPU on a socket 1156 mobo. The solution is to put an i5 760 on it instead. That saves you £110 already and is 'just as good' in games (in fact clock for clock a tiny bit faster). I'm assuming you want to play games? Do you need 4TB storage? Those 'green' drives aren't fast, so I'd suggest ditching one of them in favour of a 500GB Samsung Spinpoint F3 for your OS and apps/games. That will save you another £40 or so. Lastly that's lots more PSU than you need. You can save a similar amount there too.

In my experience, if outputting to a decent hi-fi, a dedicated soundcard offers a noticable improvement in audio quality. With the savings above, and possibly further saving in the case or the overkill amount/type of RAM, you can easily work a quality soundcard into the budget.

shadow_boxer · 15 Oct 2010 at 14:39

Dob1eman · 15 Oct 2010 at 14:43

I should have pointed out this PC is indeed going to be used for some gaming but I also do a lot of HD video recording which I eventually edit but in between I usually gather lots of GBs of video, this is only has a hobby.

I have however in the evenings prefer to use my pc as a media player for watching movies using XBMC. So generally an all round PC.

If I changed the motherboard to Asus X58 Sabertooth TUF Intel X58 (Socket 1366) and the memory to Corsair XMS3 6GB (3x2GB) DDR3 12800C9 1600MHz Triple Channel (CMX6GX3M3A1600C9) would that work with the CPU I picked.

Also same question would the audio from the Asus Sabertooth motherboard be any good via optical spdif? The reason I ask is I used to use a soundcard but find these days the drivers are not great.

shadow_boxer · 15 Oct 2010 at 15:16

Ok, yeah if doing a lot of video rendering then yes the i7 (1366) would be better. For hard drives you could put the OS and applications on an SSD and then use a couple of 2TB drives for storage. Most onboard audio is quite good these days, can not comment on the the Asus in particular but generally speaking their pretty good. Yes the memory you stated (Corsair) will work in the Asus motherboard with the i7 you stated. Prices for that particular CPU are creeping up, could save yourself a wee bit and get the 930 instead and just overclock it a little to say 3.6 for 24/7 use.

Just needs OS adding and a case of your choice. If the budget is still stretched a bit too much then you could drop the SSD and pick up a Samsung F3 500GB HDD to put the OS/applications on and use the WD Greens for storage.

Liampope · 15 Oct 2010 at 15:27

i5 was suggested because you said you were over budget. You certainly don't 'need' i7 even if you do a little video encoding as a hobby. i7 (especially today) is a fair bit extra to pay for not much performance increase (none in games and a little in heavily multithreaded number crunching), if the budget is limited. If you really want to spend the money then fine - just dont tell yourself you need to if you'd be happier saving some money. Good luck.

shadow_boxer · 15 Oct 2010 at 15:32

Liampope said:
i5 was suggested because you said you were over budget. You certainly don't 'need' i7 even if you do a little video encoding as a hobby. i7 (especially today) is a fair bit extra to pay for not much performance increase (none in games and a little in heavily multithreaded number crunching), if the budget is limited. If you really want to spend the money then fine - just dont tell yourself you need to if you'd be happier saving some money. Good luck.

Absolutely, couldnt agree more!