New PC Build Advice

Salty225

Salty225

Salty225

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Joined
22 Dec 2013
Posts
30
Hi Guys

I currently have a 5 year old advent pc that is showing signs of age tbh and my thoughts are now to try and upgrade/rebuild the pc. ATM the pc has a intel Q8200,2.33ghz cpu and 6gb ram, that's about all i know as its not been opened.

Now im open to all ideas but obviously i would like to do this as cheap as possible but the pc is used mainly for internet, downloading films/games and playing the sims 3/4 when its out (by the wife :rolleyes: lol) in that order so the build needs to be capable of this.

I'm guessing most of the gear on the original pc will be binned but i can probably re use the case and dvd drive?? I am happy to build this myself with a few pointers and would like to have a dable with overclocking if needed/better.

Any advice appreciated :)
 
Fulax said:
Here's a build assuming that you can reuse your current case, HDD, and DVD drive. Most cases will fit the motherboard and CPU cooler, but you'll want to check.

YOUR BASKET
1 x AMD A8-5600K Black Edition 3.60GHz (Socket FM2) APU Trinity Quad Core Processor (AD560KWOHJBOX) £71.99
1 x TeamGroup Vulcan GOLD 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-19200C11 2400MHz Dual Channel Kit (TLYD38G2400HC11CDC01) £65.99
1 x Asus A88XM-A AMD A88X Chipset (Socket FM2+) DDR3 Micro ATX Motherboard £55.99
1 x Kingston 60GB SSDNow V300 Drive SATA 6Gb/s 3 2.5" (7mm height) Solid State Hard Drive - (SV300S37A/60G) £47.99
1 x BeQuiet Pure Power L8 400W '80 Plus Bronze' Power Supply - With 120mm Silent Wing Fan Built in £39.95
1 x Raijintek Themis Direct Contact CPU Cooler £17.99
Total : £309.49 (includes shipping : £8.00).

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i take it that the graphics are better with it being built in than a traditional graphics card? and would a 60gb ssd be big enough to run the sims games from or would these still be ok on the hdd? Thanks for you help btw :)
 
Fulax said:
A dedicated graphics card would give you better performance, but it would also cost you an extra £100 or so for something decent. The A8's integrated graphics will be sufficient for The Sims. They're a very good option for light gamers/general users on a budget. AMD's new range of APUs (codenamed Kaveri) are set for release in January, I think, so you could wait until then.

I'm not sure how big The Sims are in terms of storage space. Windows will take up around half of the SSD.
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so in comparison would you imagine the gpu would be better that what i have already? (advent qc6003 with a intel G45). as for storage the sims games are quite big tbh most are over 5gb and have quite a few games/expansion packs maybe a total of 120gb ish? but im not sure if the ssd would be a better investment to buy bigger or would the 60gb do and have the games on a normal hdd? sorry for all the noobish questions lol still learning :confused:
 
Fulax said:
Yes, the APU in my spec would be better. What resolution is the monitor you'll be using?

The main benefits from an SSD are in boot times and general system responsiveness, rather than in gaming performance, so it's not the end of the world if you can't fit your games on it. There are some 120gb SSDs on offer at the moment for under £70, though, so it isn't a great deal more expensive.
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monitor max res is 1440 x 900.

so the spec you have listed seems to tick the boxes from what i can see and if the hhd thing isnt an issue then happy days it should work out a lot cheaper than i was expecting.
 
I've just been and brought the parts listed so next question is how do I put it all together and get it set up lol :). basically is there anything I should or shouldn't do or any pointers to an order of what to do first. let's hope it all fits in the old case now too lol
 
right I managed to fit it all together nicely apart from the fan which is too big for the case so I will have to swap that at some point. now I've managed to power it on and get to the bios set up pages so basically can anyone help me with what I need to do to set it all up correctly? any help greatly appreciated :)
 
Shivy011 said:
That's pretty much it; you need to install an OS (probably, hopefully, maybe etc etc) :D

For the first 5 mins you'll want to monitor the temperature of the CPU, see if it's cool enough (you can do this through the BIOS.)
Assuming you don't know how to install your OS, here goes;

- Insert ya disc into the disk drive for the OS installation

- Go into either the BIOS or the boot menu, preferably the boot menu

- Choose your CD/DVD drive as the primary boot option so your OS installation disk launches when your computer restarts

- Your computer will then restart and you'll get to the OS installation "program", just follow the steps, they'll be quite easy.

- It'll restart again and you'll want to change the primary boot to the main SSD/HDD that you installed the OS onto, take the disc out at this time

- Job done, 1x installed OS and 1x working computer :D

You'll want to get your AMD iGPU graphics drivers from the website, so your graphics function correctly.
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thanks for the reply mate.

ATM I have the bios screen up and have done for a whil and the CPU is at 45deg and has been for a while so I assume that's good. as for installing windows it have currently got a copy installed on the hdd and a new disc inserted in the drive but everytime I try and get it to boot from the drive I fail, it could be the drive itself as I always used an external as it was better lol. so my next try was to try the disc through the external disc drive and it did boot from it but I got the error screen from windows 8.1 set up????? confused lol
 
Shivy011 said:
Your installation is probably messed up, maybe the disc as well. When did you install the copy of Win8.1, before setting the computer up or after?
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I had win 7 before on the hdd so I plugged it all in turned the pc on and went through the bios menu and then set the external disc drive to boot and it does but then the error comes up.
 
Shivy011 said:
You'll want to reinstall then, the drivers and such are probably screwing with your new system so you want a fresh install for such a major transplant of hardware.
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thick question time but what is the best way to go about this? I was happy enough installing over old but how would you start again? cheers :)
 
Shivy011 said:
Basically you just get your installation disc, do what I said earlier but when you get to choosing the partition (part of the drive) to install on, you would format the drive (clearing all data) and create a new, fresh partition with to install yourself a new OS on - make sure there is 2 partitions, a smaller 128mb or so one and a large one with the rest of the drive there.
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This is what I've been trying to do but I can't get to the screen that let's you select these options. It keeps trying to send me to startup repair for some reason.
 
Shivy011 said:
Hmm, are you sure you are booting from the correct drive (the CD/DVD drive?)
Click to expand...

Was halfway through slating the computer and it's bloody worked this time by the looks of it lol can't believe it I defo had been setting the right drive as it started with win 8 and gave me an error message:rolleyes:

Thanks for your help mate, have a good Xmas
 
Can I format the he'd completely? It's set up with 3 partitions so far oem system and primary? Do I just format and delet then re install and download drivers?
 
Fulax said:
If you got the SSD you'll want to install the OS on there.
Click to expand...

I've kind of answered my last question but as for the SSD it's not in yet as I've got no cradle to mount it in? I did end up going for a 120gb just for information. I'm halfway through the install now so will end up swapping to the ssd over the next few days. The next thing to get sorted is the over clock of the CPU and DDR?
 
Shivy011 said:
You won't want to overclock straight away, I think your 40c idle is a bit high, not extreme, but fairly high - someone else may want to correct me on this. Wait for a while, maybe a week or two, see if the system is stable and log any blue screen crashes. Then go ahead and overclock the CPU and RAM :) Also you'll want to install your OS on your SSD also in that time.
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Sounds fair enough to me, I shall see how it all goes and report back when ready. The temp being at 45 could this be due to the stock cooler? The ones you suggested was about 10mm too big lol
 
no, I have got some and did have it next to me but tbh it looked ok how much was on anyway so I just left it, I'll get another cooler sorted and re do it.
 
Fulax said:
40c idle isn't crazy high with the stock cooler - but don't go overclocking with it. Here are some <140mm high alternatives (performance increases with price):

YOUR BASKET
1 x Be Quiet! Shadow Rock Topflow SR1 CPU Cooler £39.95
1 x Thermaltake Contac 21 CLP0600 CPU Cooler £28.99
1 x Prolimatech 48 Basic CPU Cooler - 92mm £21.95
1 x Akasa AK-CC4009EP01 Venom Pico Compact CPU Cooler £16.99
Total : £117.48 (includes shipping : £8.00).




As Shivy said, get everything sorted and working before you start fiddling around in the BIOS.
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I'll get it swapped for one of the above in the next day or so, still having issues installing win8.1 now, gets to 88% and I get an error saying somthing about the source code 0xC0000185?
 
Shivy011 said:
Dude, I'd just get Windows 7 lol, it's more stable and just... better. You might want to get yourself another installation disc if possible instead, may be that messing up.
Click to expand...

I have got a copy of 7 too, I'm guessing you guys don't think that much of 8? I'll give 7 a go then now :)
 
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