New build - could do with some advice plz

Spiller

Spiller

Spiller

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20 Jun 2013
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19
I'm looking to build a new pc but having read so much about so many components I can't see the wood from the trees! Any advice would be much appreciated.

I'm looking to purchase this weekend along the following lines...

My computer is on 15hrs every day as I work from home and used for email/web browsing/word/occasional videos (only 3 mins long) to upload to my website. I do like playing games in the evening to unwind...usually RPG and slower sport games such as golf. Nothing too heavy I think.

Budget £400-600 to include Windows 7 64 bit. Ideally I would like a motherboard that could handle Ram/CPU upgrades in future should I need it.

I need at least 2 USB ports at the front.

I have monitor, mouse, keyboard etc.

Does this look ok so far?

1. Intel Core i3-3220 3.30GHz (Ivybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor (77W) - Retail £92.99

2. MSI B75MA-P45 Intel B75 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Micro ATX Motherboard

Intel B75 Chipset, x4 DDR3, x1 PCI-E x16, x1 PCI-E x1, x1 SATA 6GB/s, x5 SATA 3GB/s, x1 Gb LAN, x4 USB 3.0, x8 USB 2.0, 7.1 Audio, DVI/VGA

£53.99


3. Western Digital Caviar Blue 500GB SATA 6Gb/s 16MB Cache - OEM (WD5000AAKX) HDD500GB Capacity, SATA 6Gbps Interface, 7200RPM Spin Speed, 8.9ms Average Seek Time, 32MB Cache, 3 Year Warranty

£46.99


4. Crucial Ballistix Elite 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C8 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (BLE2CP4G3D1608DE1TX0CEU)

1600MHz RAM Speed, CAS 8-8-8-24 Timings, 1.50-1.65v VDIMM, Lifetime Warranty with Crucial.

£59.99


5. OcUK 24x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEMDVD±R 24x, DVD±R DL 12x, DVD±RW 6x, CD-R 48x & CD-RW 4x

This Week Only Offer
was £19.99 inc VAT
£16.99 inc VAT
(£14.16 ex VAT)

6. Cooler Master B Series 500w Power Supply

£37.99


7. Graphics Card - I have no idea but one of the games I play says I need direct x 11 (I think) so suggestions welcomed.


8. Zalman Z9 Plus Tower Case with Fan Controller - Black

£49.99

9. Windows 7 - 64 bit - £75 ish

Total: £434 without graphics card - Prices include VAT and are rounded up to nearest whole pound.

Do I need extra fans/cooling etc. ? Many thanks in advance.

Pete
 
This is what id' do:

YOUR BASKET
1 x Sapphire HD 7850 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £149.99
1 x Intel Core i3-3220 3.30GHz (Ivybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor (77W) - Retail £92.99
1 x Microsoft Windows 8 64-Bit DVD - OEM (WN7-00403) £72
1 x **B Grade** Gigabyte Z77-D3H Intel Z77 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £60
1 x Zalman Z9 Plus Tower Case with Fan Controller - Black £49.99
1 x Crucial Ballistix Sport 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (BLS2CP4G3D1609DS1S00CEU) £43.99
1 x XFX Pro 450W Core Edition '80 Plus Bronze' Power Supply £39.95
1 x Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 500GB SATA 6Gb/s 16MB Cache - OEM (ST500DM002) HDD £39.95
1 x OcUK 24x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £16.99
Total : £580.85 (includes shipping : £12.50).



You may ask why?:

  • Z77 motherboard will allow overclocking, maybe grab a 3570k second in a few months and you'll have a very very very good gaming machine
  • RAM: This ram is cheaper and will do the same job.
  • The 7850 is a very good card for the money, won't struggle with much atall at 1080p
  • Windows 7/ Windows 8, its upto you.. I don't see the Harm in Windows 8.
  • The XFX power supply is made by Seasonic so is a lot better than the one you specced, 450W will be enough.

*B grade* is nothing to be worried about, it refers to products which may have damaged packaging or instruction guides missing, the function of the product is still perfect. Just a nice cheap way to get some quality gear. :)
 
B grade can also include customer returns, manufacturer's replacements, have accessories missing etc. (Motherboards sometimes have the I/O plate missing)

If you have have never built a system before you might be better off not buying a B grade motherboard as it may have bent CPU pins, wrong BIOS settings etc. I have purchased quite a few B grade motherboards and some have been perfect and some have been far from perfect, luck of the draw I guess. I once bought a £120 MSI board for £17 from OcUK and it was faulty and they replaced it with a brand new board. :)
 
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Doomedspeed, thanks for taking the time to put all that together. That'sall really helpful information.

I had no idea about the graphics card so I think I'll definitely go with that. And the power supply is obviously important to me as my machine is on most of the day so I'll go with that too. In fact the only concern would be as Deleted member 2277 has pointed out below. This is my first build from scratch so I would prefer to have a new motherboard with all parts etc. probably more for confidence than anything else. With that being the case, would the original mother board I suggested be fine with the other components or would you suggest something else?
 
Deleted member 2277,

Thanks for that point - it is my first build from scratch so I think will look to get brand new motherboard.
 
Spiller said:
Doomedspeed, thanks for taking the time to put all that together. That'sall really helpful information.

I had no idea about the graphics card so I think I'll definitely go with that. And the power supply is obviously important to me as my machine is on most of the day so I'll go with that too. In fact the only concern would be as Deleted member 2277 has pointed out below. This is my first build from scratch so I would prefer to have a new motherboard with all parts etc. probably more for confidence than anything else. With that being the case, would the original mother board I suggested be fine with the other components or would you suggest something else?
Click to expand...

It'd be better for you to get a Z77 motherboard rather than a B75..

I would suggest this (altered the build to include a new motherboard):

YOUR BASKET
1 x Sapphire HD 7850 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £149.99
1 x Intel Core i3-3220 3.30GHz (Ivybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor (77W) - Retail £92.99
1 x Asus P8Z77-V LX2 Intel Z77 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £77.99
1 x Microsoft Windows 8 64-Bit DVD - OEM (WN7-00403) £72
1 x Zalman Z9 Plus Tower Case with Fan Controller - Black £49.99
1 x Crucial Ballistix Sport 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (BLS2CP4G3D1609DS1S00CEU) £43.99
1 x XFX Pro 450W Core Edition '80 Plus Bronze' Power Supply £39.95
1 x Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 500GB SATA 6Gb/s 16MB Cache - OEM (ST500DM002) HDD £39.95
1 x OcUK 24x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £16.99
Total : £598.84 (includes shipping : £12.50).

 
An alternative to the 7850 is the Nvidia GTX 660 for £129.98, (from a competitor) it's slightly faster than the 7850 and cheaper. The Z77 boards are definitely the better option, also if you are a student (or someone in your family is) you can get Windows 8 at a discounted price.
 
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Doomspeed,

Thanks for that. I'll order those tomorrow. Apreciate your taking the time to sort out better quality items for the build.

Pete

:)
 
If you are not sure about Windows 7 or 8 just download the Evaluation of 8 for free and you can use that for 3 months. Windows 8.1 will be a service pack of sorts and will add back the start menu, it too should get a preview to try.It let's you spend more on components now and you can buy the OS later having made an informed decision.

I have a Z9 Plus case, I'm quite fond of the chassis as it's packed with kit but the U3 version is better for not much more.....

YOUR BASKET
1 x Intel Core i5-3570K 3.40GHz (Ivybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor (77W) - Retail £179.99
1 x Gigabyte ATI Radeon HD 7850 OC Windforce 2X 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £149.99
1 x Asus P8Z77-V LX2 Intel Z77 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £77.99
1 x Zalman Z9 USB 3.0 Midi Tower Case - Black £54.98
1 x Seagate Barracuda 7200RPM 1TB SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache - OEM (ST1000DM003) HDD £49.99
1 x Thermaltake Smart Series 530w Modular '80Plus Bronze' Power Supply £49.99
1 x Crucial Ballistix Sport 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (BLS2CP4G3D1609DS1S00CEU) £43.99
1 x OcUK 20x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £11.99
Total : £633.01 (includes shipping : £11.75).



Over budget but this has the overclockable i5K it will do you for quite some time. You could add a better heatsink later to OC but the Z9 has plenty of fans so you should be able to tweak it to 4Ghz on just the stock intel heatsink.

I'll be honest a semi-modular PSU will make your life MUCH easier. There isn't a lot of room behind the mobo tray so the fewer cables you have to hide the better. HDD has twice the storage and more cache. The GPU is also clocked faster out of the box too with an extra year on the warranty :) There are cheaper cases to consider like the Asgard which would knock off £20, it has dual 120mm fans and a USB3 port too.......

YOUR BASKET
1 x Gigabyte ATI Radeon HD 7850 OC Windforce 2X 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £149.99
1 x Intel Core i3-3220 3.30GHz (Ivybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor (77W) - Retail £92.99
1 x Asus P8Z77-V LX2 Intel Z77 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £77.99
1 x Microsoft Windows 8 64-Bit DVD - OEM (WN7-00403) £72.00
1 x Thermaltake Smart Series 530w Modular '80Plus Bronze' Power Supply £49.99
1 x Seagate Barracuda 7200RPM 1TB SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache - OEM (ST1000DM003) HDD £49.99
1 x Crucial Ballistix Sport 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (BLS2CP4G3D1609DS1S00CEU) £43.99
1 x Xigmatek Asgard Pro Gaming Case - Black £32.99
1 x OcUK 20x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £11.99
Total : £596.02 (includes shipping : £11.75).



If you wanted everything in the one hit there you go :)
 
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