New Win7 i5 build - need advice please

sumzero

sumzero

sumzero

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Joined
1 Mar 2010
Posts
17
Hello
I've upgraded various components too many times in my case that dates back to the last century. So, as Win 7 now seems to be the operating system of choice, I've decided to go for a scratch build. Therefore, my Pentium 4 and Win XP are about to be retired from main desktop use and on to be recycled into powering an MP3 jukebox.

Let me know if there are any glaring mistakes in my proposed choices please. I'm going to have a go at overclocking this time (to safe levels).

Case - Antec P183 Super Midi Tower Case

Mobo - Gigabyte GA-P55A-UD3 Intel P55 (Socket 1156) DDR3 Motherboard

Processor - Intel Core i5 750

CPU Cooler - Titan TTC-NK85TZ Fenrir

RAM - Corsair XMS3 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit

PSU - Antec TP-650

SSD (for OS+some apps) - Intel X25-V Value 40GB 2.5" SATA-II Solid State Hard Drive ??
or OCZ 60GB 2.5" SATAII Solid Series Solid State Drive ??

HDD - Samsung SpinPoint F3 1TB SATA-II 32MB Cache

GPU - Sapphire ATI Radeon HD 5770 Vapor-X 1024MB GDDR5 PCI-Express (bit lost on this one - help!)

Keyboard - open to suggestions in the £30 - £80 region, not looking for feature-rich, just good quality/nice to touch.

OS - time to get Windows 7 (which version though?)

Stuff I have already........

Mouse (I have a Logitech G9), monitor (Samsung syncmaster 226BW although I'll probably upgrade to a 24" within the next year), speakers (I have no problems with my 12-year-old Cambridge Soundworks 5.1 system), X-Fi soundcard, optical drive.

What I'll be doing.........

Surfing, gaming (I only play EvE Online though), photo editing, general business use (this will be my home comp but I will use it for business as well), streaming music + vids.

I'm looking at having a quiet PC that will serve me well enough for the next 3-4 years before looking at upgrading certain components.

So.....will it work together? Any thoughts on gfx and ssd choices? Any good quality non-gaming keyboard suggestions?

Thanks for your time :)
 
Whole system looks fine, only gripe I would have with it is whether or not you really need a SSD? In my mind they belong in workstations doing a lot of 3D work or video / image editing; or for those "keen" gamers that "need" everything to load just that bit faster - or those that just want one for quicker apps loading. But that's just my opinion of course, and I am after one myself :D I hear the Intel ones are top-notch, but the price is rather high as well.

The GPU should be fine for EVE, I wouldn't have thought anything would push it too much ingame except maybe a 300 odd ship fleet war? :cool:
 
Yeah, the SSD is definitely a luxury item. I'm very impatient when it comes to loading stuff. I'm just wondering whether to hold off for another 6-8 months and get one then.

bJN said:
The GPU should be fine for EVE, I wouldn't have thought anything would push it too much ingame except maybe a 300 odd ship fleet war? :cool:
Click to expand...

:D The main thing that gets pushed in mass fleet fights is CCP's servers that can produce some horrendous lag on their side. IIRC, their servers have a mass of SSD's powering the databases.

Thanks for the input.
 
Hi Sumzero, Welcome to the OCUK foums :D

I'll try my best to give you my advice on your planned system:

Lovely, Motherboard, CPU, Case and RAM - very fast, good price and the case is stylish and quiet. If you want to save a little bit of money on the RAM, i'd go for this stuff - its just as fast as the corsair kit.

Unfortunately, the Titan Fenrir does not come with s1156 mounts - so it won't fit on your motherboard. I would suggest going for this cooler instead.

The Antec PSU you picked is excellent- great choice.

As for the SSD, these cheap SSDs may appear more realistic - but they don't perform that well by SSD standards and in terms of cost per GB they are no better than the faster, more expensive ones. I would suggest that you go for an excellent SSD like this (here is a review which compares the performance of many SSDs, including the 40GB "value" SSDs and the Intel one I linked to), or wait a while (possibly to the end of the year when 28nm comes out) till prices drop.

Lovely HDD.

For the GPU, the 5770 is a good card and if you only plan on playing eve - then you will have more than enough power.

This keyboard is brilliant and an absolute steal for this price.

This is the OS you want. If you are a student then you should be able to find an even cheaper deal - just make sure you get a 64bit version.
 
Thanks cmndr.

I'll swap to the RAM you suggest. The build cost is coming down slightly every time and that helps. And I'll hold off on the SSD for now. Would a separate HDD for OS and apps increase performance significantly? If I do upgrade to a SSD further down the line I can always use the spare HDD in other places.

I picked the Titan Fenrir on the strength of a review and checked that it comes with a socket 1156 mount (not at OCUK though). Then again, knocking another £15 off is helpful too.

As for the keyboard, I think my wife will have a fit if she sees that many extra buttons/bells&whistles on a keyboard. TBH, I'll probably not use them as my G9 mouse has been set for EvE gaming and I find that quite sufficient. I was looking at the Logitech Illuminated. More money but I like the clean style.

And thanks for the OS choice. Had the wrong one in the basket. Unfortunately, my student days are long gone ;)

Cheers.
 
As always the UD5 boards are good, however it is £30 more and doesn't have the nice USB3 and SATA 6G of the other board.

I would suggest instead spending spend the extra £20 on the Asus P7P55D-E which is in stock and is a very nice board. This has the USB3/SATA 6G features, uses x8x8 crossfire and also overclocks very well.
 
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the ud5 can do x8 crossfire and has 3 pcie. It also has eSata. It can take faster ram too.

You loss usb3 and sata 6g/bs.

Comparison Sheet

Put your 2 boards into the link above and it will show you the specs side-by-side.
 
cheers cmndr, looks like the money originally saved will be spent anyways. I maybe able to latch the Gigabyte UD3 onto another order with someone else. If not, I'll go with the Asus. Thanks again.
 
Ended up ordering a Gigabyte GA-P55A-UD3R for £15 more. Has 2 eSATA ports. All bits should arrive for the weekend for my first build session........ Just need to find the shoe horn and the hammer :D
 
\o/

All bits have arrived so it looks like I'll be building on the weekend. Got to say I'm chuffed with the Antec P183 case although my daughters seem to think that it's my new beer storage device and have attempted to put fridge magnets all over it. The wife is already checking it out for a new place to stick post-it notes :(

Just got a quick question about installing windows 7 OEM as I've read over a few forums and the info seems a bit confusing. Do I need the OPK or not? Some say you do and some don't. Any pointers?
 
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