New build for £800, first time in 5 years

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27 Oct 2011
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42
Hi guys,

So i'm just putting together an spec which I'm going to order after the weekend. I used to build computers many years a go, and I'm currently suffering with a 5 year old laptop dual core 1.6ghz. I'm using photoshop a lot more recently and work with a lot of RAW image files and as you can imagine, it's hard work on this machine.

I have just bought a new mouse, keyboard and 24" monitor so I won't be needing these for the new machine. It's taken me a while to catch up with the latest technology in order to work out what I want, so I would be grateful if someone could have a look through this and see if I've made any mistakes. It seems the i5 2500k is the processor to go for, and I would be looking to clock it to 4.4ghz, give or take.

Intel Core i5-2500K 3.30GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor - OEM
£161.99

EVGA GeForce GTX 460 Superclocked 1024MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card
£124.99

MSI P67A-GD53 Intel P67 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard ** B3 REVISION **
£107.99

Samsung SpinPoint F3 1TB SATA-II 32MB Cache - OEM (HD103SJ)
£99.98

OCZ Agility 3 60GB 2.5" SATA-3 Solid State Hard Drive (AGT3-25SAT3-60G)
£83.99

Corsair Builder Series CX 600W V2 '80 Plus' Power Supply (CMPSU-600CXUKV2)
£59.99

BitFenix Shinobi Gaming Windowed Case - Black
£56.99

Samsung SH-B123L/BSBP 12x BluRay ROM / 16x DVD±RW Lightscribe SATA-II Optical Drive - Black (OEM)
£49.99

BeQuiet Dark Rock Advanced CPU Cooler (Socket LGA 775 / 1155 / 1156 / 1366, AM2 / AM2+ / AM3 / 754 / 939 / 940)
£41.99

Crucial Ballistix Sport 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C10 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (BL2KIT51264BA160A)
£37.99


Total : £840.89

Sorry, I couldnt work out how to paste it in here with it all looking neat and tidy! My budget was a maximum of £800 for all of that, but the masive rise in HDD prices has pushed me over a little.

Cheers
 
Looks good, the M4 is generally more reliable than the OCZ ones I believe:
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=HD-008-CR

Also, unless you have software you will want a retail Blu-ray drive else you wont be able to play the discs.

To save some cash you could go for, say, the Gelid Tranquillo cooler:
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=HS-001-GD&groupid=701&catid=57&subcat=1395

Or the other way, for a few £ more you can get the antec 620 watercooler:
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=HS-005-AN&groupid=701&catid=57&subcat=1395
 
YOUR BASKET
1 x Intel Core i5-2500K 3.30GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor - OEM £161.99
1 x Gigabyte GeForce GTX 560 OC 1024MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card **Supplied with FREE Batman: Arkham City PC game** £143.99
1 x Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 1TB SATA 6Gb/s 32MB Cache - OEM (ST31000524AS) £99.98
1 x Gigabyte Z68AP-D3 Intel Z68 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £89.99
1 x Crucial RealSSD M4 64GB 2.5" SATA 6Gb/s Solid State Hard Drive £83.99
1 x Antec TruePower New Modular 650W '80 Plus Bronze' Power Supply £69.98
1 x Cooler Master HAF 912 Plus Case - Black £69.98
1 x LG CH10LS20 10x BluRay-ROM / 16x DVD±RW Lightscribe Drive - Black (Retail) £47.99
1 x Corsair XMS3 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (CMX8GX3M2A1600C9) £42.98
1 x Arctic Cooling Freezer 13 High Performance CPU Cooler (Socket LGA775/1155/1156/1366/939/AM2/AM2+) £17.99
Total : £843.86 (includes shipping : £12.50).
  1. Gone with a "Z" series board since you have the SSD which it can use for caching (speed boost).
  2. Higher end video card.
  3. Low profile RAM so as not to cause issues with larger air CPU coolers.
  4. Modular power supply to help with cable management (better management means better airflow which means better temperatures especially when over clocking).
  5. Better case (imho).
  6. Retail BD drive so it will include the drivers/software you need.
  7. Changed SSD to a better model.
It is an extra £3 than what you put together yourself and you could save money by dropping the video card back down to the one originally picked which would save you about £20 ish.

Stoner81.
 
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YOUR BASKET
1 x Intel Core i5-2500K 3.30GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor - OEM £161.99
1 x Gigabyte GeForce GTX 560 OC 1024MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card **Supplied with FREE Batman: Arkham City PC game** £143.99
1 x Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 1TB SATA 6Gb/s 32MB Cache - OEM (ST31000524AS) £99.98
1 x Gigabyte Z68AP-D3 Intel Z68 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £89.99
1 x Crucial RealSSD M4 64GB 2.5" SATA 6Gb/s Solid State Hard Drive £83.99
1 x Antec TruePower New Modular 650W '80 Plus Bronze' Power Supply £69.98
1 x Cooler Master HAF 912 Plus Case - Black £69.98
1 x LG CH10LS20 10x BluRay-ROM / 16x DVD±RW Lightscribe Drive - Black (Retail) £47.99
1 x Corsair XMS3 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (CMX8GX3M2A1600C9) £42.98
1 x Arctic Cooling Freezer 13 High Performance CPU Cooler (Socket LGA775/1155/1156/1366/939/AM2/AM2+) £17.99
Total : £843.86 (includes shipping : £12.50).
  1. Gone with a "Z" series board since you have the SSD which it can use for caching (speed boost).
  2. Higher end video card.
  3. Low profile RAM so as not to cause issues with larger air CPU coolers.
  4. Modular power supply to help with cable management (better management means better airflow which means better temperatures especially when over clocking).
  5. Better case (imho).
  6. Retail BD drive so it will include the drivers/software you need.
  7. Changed SSD to a better model.
It is an extra £3 than what you put together yourself and you could save money by dropping the video card back down to the one originally picked which would save you about £20 ish.

Stoner81.

drop the psu to the 550w and save £10, put that towards a better cooler such as

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=HS-001-GD&groupid=701&catid=57&subcat=1395 tho it seems to be oos

or http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=HS-001-CS&groupid=701&catid=57&subcat=1395

if you can stretch http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=HS-093-TR&groupid=701&catid=57&subcat=1395
 
Thanks for all your advice. I've read up about the benefits of SSD's and the Z68 chipset, so that makes sense. Kept the higher end graphics card, and I decided on the Cosair A50 due to the amount of good reviews for overclocking and the price. Thanks for the heads up on the Blu ray drive, it does make sense to go for the retail option. I may end up going for a different case, I've kept the 912 in there for now, but I'm in the middle of finding something that gets good reviews for cooling but isn't quite so in your face to look at.

So this is how it looks now ( I still don't know how you copied it and kept it so neat):

Intel Core i5-2500K 3.30GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor - OEM
£159.95

Gigabyte GeForce GTX 560 OC 1024MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card **Supplied with FREE Batman: Arkham City PC game**
£143.99

MSI Z68A-G45-B3 Intel Z68 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £104.99

Seagate Barracuda 1TB SATA-II 32MB Cache - OEM (ST1000DL002) £92.99

Crucial RealSSD M4 64GB 2.5" SATA 6Gb/s Solid State Hard Drive £75.98

Cooler Master HAF 912 Plus Case - Black
£69.98

Antec TruePower New Modular 550W '80 Plus Bronze' Power Supply £59.99

LG CH10LS20 10x BluRay-ROM / 16x DVD±RW Lightscribe Drive - Black (Retail)
£47.99

Corsair XMS3 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (CMX8GX3M2A1600C9)
£42.98

Corsair A50 High-Performance CPU Cooler (Socket AM2/AM3/LGA775/LGA1155/LGA1156/LGA1366)
£24.98

Total : £838.82

I'm quite pleased with how thats looking now. Cheers
 
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How much gaming do you do? If the answer is: I don't, then it'd be worth ditching the GPU upgrade for a 2600k instead as you have a lot of PS use...

Also take a look at the Bitfenix Shinobi, good case, and slightly cheaper. Got good reviews

kd
 
How much gaming do you do? If the answer is: I don't, then it'd be worth ditching the GPU upgrade for a 2600k instead as you have a lot of PS use...

Also take a look at the Bitfenix Shinobi, good case, and slightly cheaper. Got good reviews

kd

I originally spec'd the Shinobi case, and in all honesty it's probably what I will go for. It looks great although the reviews for cooling seem a bit average. I will look into running the 2600k instead of the 2500k as to be honest, I'm not a massive pc gamer, and the games I do play are quite old.

Thanks for the advice
 
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