New Build

[DjchunKfunK]

Little help needed please.

It's been a good couple of years since I last upgraded and so I'm a bit behind on whats good. I have been doing a bit of research and have come up with the following foundations for my build. I just need a bit of input for some of the other stuff.

Gigabyte GA-P55M
Core i5 750
Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro
Case wise I will take either the Zalman Z7 Plus Midi Tower Case or Xigmatek UTGARD depending on final cost.
Memory too will depend on where I buy the components either G.Skill RipJaw 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 PC3-12800 or Corsair XMS3 Classic DDR3 PC3-12800 (1600)

Where I am really struggling is on which card to go with. I have looked at the gt460 (756mb) or a Radeon HD5830, but both push my budget up to nearly £600. Is there a good alternative a bit lower down the market or should I just bite the bullet?

I also need advice on a good psu as whilst the OCZ one is a good bet if I don't end up getting the components from OCUK then I would need an alternative.

Thanks.

 

[JimboJet]

Asus P7P55D-E Intel P55 (Socket 1156) DDR3 Motherboard (allows for 6gb/s SATA if you ever want to get an SSD in the future)
Core i7 760 (slightly better performance than the i750)
Titan TTC-NK85TZ/V2 Fenrir CPU Cooler (better cooling than the artic cooling freezer 7 Pro)
Antec 300 (cheaper than the Xigmatek and a couple of quid more than the Zalman at current prices, was on offer last week for less than £40 though)
G.Skill Ripjaw 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C8 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (cheap, but still good performance)
Gigabyte GeForce GTX 460 OC 1024MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card (3 yr warranty as compared to 2 yr, 1024 vs 768Mb and overclocked from the outset)

Would be my suggestion along your lines, although it does tip the scales a tad over £600.

You haven't said what your intended usage is for your machine. If its for gaming I would go for the 460 card without much hesitation. Its performance/price ratio is good when compared to say 5850 and 5770 cards.

Look here for benchmark league table: http://www.videocardbenchmark.net/high_end_gpus.html

Whats your current case and PSU? If you need a new PSU thats going to be another £50-60

 

[coldfused]

You could buy an ATI 5770, if you don't game at high res. Then you could crossfire or upgrade it all together down the line when you have more money. But if you're the type of person that does not upgrade often it might be worthwhile spending that bit extra on the GTX460.

For advice on a PSU, bit-tech do an excellent article http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/psus/2010/02/22/600-700w-psu-review-round-up/1 which led me to buy an Antec TruePower 650.

 

[DjchunKfunK]

Asus P7P55D-E Intel P55 (Socket 1156) DDR3 Motherboard
Core i7 760
Titan TTC-NK85TZ/V2 Fenrir CPU Cooler
Antec 300
G.Skill Ripjaw 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C8 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit
Gigabyte GeForce GTX 460 OC 1024MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card

Would be my "best bang for buck combo" along your lines, although it does tip the scales a tad over £600.

You haven't said what your intended usage is for your machine. If its for gaming I would go for the 460 card without much hesitation. Its performance/price ratio is good when compared to say 5850 and 5770 cards.

Look here for benchmark league table: http://www.videocardbenchmark.net/high_end_gpus.html

Whats your current case and PSU?

Sorry yeah I would be using it mainly for gaming.
Current case is Antec Sonata III with a 500w Earthwatts psu in it. I could canabalise parts from the old PC, but was thinking of keeping it as a backup.

 

[JimboJet]

That case and PSU should be ok to use in your new build. You could save money buy buying another case and psu from t'internet secondhand to build your "backup PC" at a later date (if you can be bothered by then!)

Have you considered AMD? I'm not sure if it would work out much cheaper and I know the i5 750 is considered to be a better option for gaming. In all honesty, I upgraded from a core duo e6600 (ocd to 3.3GHz) yesterday to an i7 930 and I haven't noticed a huge difference so far, although I'm sure its there. What Im trying to say is that an AMD system could be every bit as good in day to day usage as the i5.

 

[DjchunKfunK]

I haven't really considered the AMD route purely because I have gone with what is considered the best chip for that money. Would I be looking at something like a Phenom II x4 965? What would be a good motherboard to pair with that?

 

[DjchunKfunK]

Ok I finally went with the following build.

Intel i5 750
G.Skill Ripjaw 4GB
Corsair 650TX
Gigabyte GA-P55M
Antec 300 case
Titan Fenrir cooler
1GB Gigabyte GTX 460

Now I just need to source a cheap copy of Windows 7. In the meantime would I be able to install Vista on a partition and then do a clean install of Windows 7 once I get a copy on the same partition without losing any data?