Newbie 1st custom build need help please.

[OCChew]

Hi OcUK members,

Please to meet all your folks. Nice forum.

I need your help for my 1st custom build so could you advice me on my specs please.

Please note that the last time I custom build it was a 486 and even that I only installed the HD as the rest was done by my mate so I am on a steep learning curve here.

What do I use it for in no particular order?

Normal usage.
- Web surfing.
- Watch some movies.
- TV, Freeview or satellite (still not sure how this works)

Games (hardly play any but if I do they will be).
- Pin Balls.
- Pac Man.
- Some slow war strategy games I guess ... nothing heavy.

Work.
- a lot of Excel spreadsheet number crunching.
- Powerpoint presentation.
- very large word documents.

I might want to dual boot Windows 7 with either Ubuntu or Mac OSX (not sure where to get them yet but will try) but probably Ubuntu first.

I prefer MicroATX as I have limited space available.

I have keyboard (might need wireless at a later stage), Logitech wireless USB mouse and speakers so no need for them at the moment.

I have a maximum budget of £1,350 but with a push perhaps £1.4k but not beyond.

Please advice.

All prices incl VAT.

1) Intel X25-M Mainstream 80GB 2.5" SATA-II Solid State Hard Drive (SSDSA2MH080G2C1) £179.99

2) Intel Core i5 750 2.66GHz (Lynnfield) (Socket LGA1156) - Retail + Napoleon Total War £167.99

3) BenQ G2420HDBL 24" Widescreen LED Monitor £164.99

4) Patriot Viper 6GB (3x2GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C8 (1600MHz) Low Latency Tri-Channel (PVT36G1600LLK) £152.99 (compatible? Alternative?)

5) Lian Li PC-V351B Aluminium Cube Case - Black £88.99

6) Gigabyte GA-P55M-UD2 Intel P55 (Socket 1156) DDR3 microATX Motherboard £87.98

7) Antec TruePower New Modular 650W Power Supply £84.99 (compatible? Alternative?)

8) Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium 64-Bit - OEM (GFC-00599) £84.99

9) Corsair H50-1 High-Performance CPU Watercooler (Socket LGA775/1156/1366/AM2/AM3) £66.99

10) Samsung SpinPoint F3 1TB SATA-II 32MB Cache - OEM (HD103SJ) £57.99 (compatible? Alternative?)

11) Samsung SH-B083L/RSBP 8x BluRay ROM / 16x DVD±RW Drive - Black (Retail) £49.98

12) XFX ATI Radeon HD 5450 1024MB GDDR3 PCI-Express Graphics Card £47.99 (compatible? Alternative?)

13) Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi Xtreme Audio 7.1 Sound Card - OEM (PCI) (30SB079200000) £34.99 (compatible? Alternative?)

14) Compro VideoMate DVB-T220 Digital TV Internal PCI - Retail £29.99 (compatible? Alternative?)

Total price including shipping & VAT = £1323.27



Cheers

OCChew

p/s: I will order from OcUK of course ...

 

[OCChew]

That motherboard and CPU only supports Dual-Channel memory, not triple channel, and you would be fine with a 1333 Mhz kit unless you want to overclock.

Would more dual channel memory be better? i.e. more RAM.

Or would overclocking be better?

 

[OCChew]

Hi stulid,

Could you suggest which one as I am not sure which one exactly.



p/s: do you mean this one ... Asus ATI Radeon HD 5770 CuCore 1024MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card

 

[OCChew]

Folks,

Good advice there so let me look at my budget again.

Basically, I want something that can last me for 5 years without having to upgrade a lot put it this way.

cmndr_andi,

Okay will look at Dual Channel RAM ... need as many as I can afford.

PSU ... will search for a lower version but if budget permit I will stick to this one.

Yes, will look at the graphic card as I am at a lost about all this ...

Sound card - ASUS Xonar DS looks good.

Definitely Windows 7 retail version.

Would love to have that HP monitor but will blow my budget shy high ...

thingemajib,

As for hd5670 I will look into that as well because I am not really a gamer so that might be an option. The reason why I want some graphic card is to prevent my nephew & niece from bothering me when I am working from home.

Yes, I did check the basic build link ... very good & informative.

Yes not going to mention one of the OS again as I think I will stick to Ubuntu as dual boot as that's legit.

Okay now back to respec ...

 

[OCChew]

You don't need the corsair h50 if you're not gong to overclock + what everyone else has said.

I have the feeling that I might want to overclock as that's something I want to learn after all these years.

So can I overclock with tri-channel RAM on Dual-channel motherboard?

Or I can only overclock Dual channel RAM with Dual channel motherboard?

 

[OCChew]

Thats a good to hear, best of luck with the overclocking if you decided to give it a go. There are plenty of folks here with overclocked i5 750 chips who would be happy to give you a hand.

Unfortunately, if you try to run a triple channel kit (usually 3 sticks) on a dual channel board, it will more than likely only run at single channel speeds. This is not good, as theoretically you have only half the memory bandwidth in this mode compared to dual channel mode.

Your best bet is to use a dual channel kit (usually 2 sticks) in the P55 board. So long as you put them in the correct slots it will run in dual channel mode and you will be sorted.

As for overclocking, you will be wanting to overclock the CPU, not the RAM. If the RAM stays at stock speeds (1600MHz for most decent kits) or thereabouts you will be fine - there isn't much extra performance to be had on an i5 system by overclocking the RAM past 1600MHz. Overclocking the CPU however rewards you with loads of performance.

The way overclocking on the i5/P55 works, you will increase the bus clock clockspeed (Base Clock - BCLK, 133MHz is stock). This is multiplied by the CPU multiplier (usually a fixed value - 20x on an i5 750) to get the CPU clockspeed (on the i5 750, 133MHz BCLK x 20 multi = 2.66GHz). If you are able to increase the multiplier to 200MHz - then the CPU clockspeed will be a mighty 4GHz. Usually the RAM clockspeed would increase at the same rate as the CPU speed, however there is an independent "memory multiplier" that allows you to slow down the RAM when overclocking and keep it within specified speeds.

Hope this makes a bit of sense. If you would like anything clarified I'd be happy to help.

Woww! Good info that ...

Okay ... back to calculating budget. Dual channel RAM it is. Will see if I can up my RAM to 8GB.

 

[OCChew]

whilst i believe both the hd5450 AND the hd5670 are overpriced for what they are, the 5670 is a much better buy in terms of cost/performance ratio. If you're not interested in any graphics horsepower whatseover, then perhaps its worth looking at an AMD setup, as you can get a quad core phenom 965, which has an unlocked multipler (technically easier to overclock), and a motherboard with integrated graphics (880G/890GX) for a similar price to what you are paying for you i5 and p55 motherboard. You can then save yourself £45 on a graphics card which will only give you slightly more power than the Integrated one. (and if you did choose that route, the 400W power supply cmndr andi suggested will be much more than enough, further saving you money)

i am running a 790GX, which is practically the same as the 890GX. and i can inform you that its is fine for everyday use (web browsing, films etc) and some light gaming (older titles BF2 FSX world in conflict etc)
food for thought...

Thanks for the input but I have completely lost touch with AMD since Intel core duo chip came into being. This brings back a lot of memory for me using my 486 with Cyrix chip ... LOL! So I will give AMD for a miss for now.

How about this one? Any good?

Asus GeForce GT 220 1024MB DDR2 PCI-Express Graphics Card [90-C1CMZA-L0UANAKZ]

 

[OCChew]

My pleasure

Do you think you will need more than 4GB of RAM? I would have thought that for your uses it would be enough.

Obviously, another 4GB of RAM is rather expensive (~£100) and by using 4 sticks of RAM instead of two you put more stress on the memory controller (which is on the CPU). This will limit the ease at which you can overclock the CPU and may also reduce the stable speed of the RAM.

I see ... Yes, expensive that is.

I guess 4GB RAM is enough for now but one question ... if I am not overclocking and simply have 8GB will that put stress on the memory controller (CPU)? I am just comparing overclocking vs more RAM.

 

[OCChew]

Thats fair enough. It seemed like you were set on a quad core. If you wanted integrated graphics with intel, the best you can get is the I5-6xx series, which are dual cores with hyperthreading, which gives them 2 extra "virtual" cores. im a bit skeptical about this, hence why i jumped to the AMD suggestion. But ... meh. lets leave that one for now.

Yes, I have roughly set on quad core as I think that is slightly "future proof" for a while and I just want to try something new ... new to me as I am still on Pentium iii


IIRC that pretty much on par with the 5450, maybe a bit faster, but dont quote me on that. hate to drill this in, but i would either go integrated, or look at something like a gt240/hd5670

Will go with the suggestion on gt240 for now as I might not play game for a while ... 8 months I guess due to heavy work.

 

[OCChew]

If you are not overclocking the CPU, you will most likely be fine. However, it is not guaranteed.

Intel rates the memory controller on the i5 to work with 4x 1333MHz RAM modules. If you are trying to use 4 modules at a higher frequency (1600MHz for example) then you are still technically overclocking the RAM and may need to reduce the RAM speed down towards 1333MHz to get it stable. However, if you are only using 2 modules, then the memory controller can easily handle the stress controlling two 1600MHz modules.

I see ... Yes, someone mentioned this to me long long time ago.

Yes, I think I will start with 4GB RAM and see how that go.

Okay back to budgeting ...

 

[OCChew]

ok, thats another part sorted

next thing: what is it that interests you in the power supply? You could definately save a few quid on that, by going with the 400w corsair, or if you're interested in the modular cabling, then there is the OCZ Modxstream series. They are just as good as any other decent brand in this segment of the market

500w for £56.99 (which is plenty of power for you're needs)

or 700w for £73.99 (more power than the Antec, but still cheaper)

Oh ... I am trying to avoid OCZ ModXstream series as there were some negative feedbacks on them so it's either Corsair or Antec at the moment.

I have chosen Antec because I read somewhere they are rather quiet and the temperature is good i.e. not hot.

Antec or Corsair?

Budget seems good at the moment at £1290.28 including delivery.

 

[OCChew]

Folks,

What do you think?

1) Intel X25-M Mainstream 80GB 2.5" SATA-II Solid State Hard Drive (SSDSA2MH080G2C1) £179.99

2) Intel Core i5 750 2.66GHz (Lynnfield) (Socket LGA1156) - Retail + Napoleon Total War £167.99

3) BenQ G2420HDBL 24" Widescreen LED Monitor £164.99

4) Corsair XMS3 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (CMX4GX3M2A1600C9) £94.99

5) Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium - Retail (Full Version) £92.99

6) Lian Li PC-V351B Aluminium Cube Case - Black £88.99

7) Gigabyte GA-P55M-UD2 Intel P55 (Socket 1156) DDR3 microATX Motherboard £87.98

8) Antec TruePower New Modular 650W Power Supply £84.99

9) Corsair H50-1 High-Performance CPU Watercooler (Socket LGA775/1156/1366/AM2/AM3) £66.99

10 ) OcUK Value GeForce GT 240 512MB GDDR3 PCI-Express Graphics Card £60.99

11) Samsung SpinPoint F3 1TB SATA-II 32MB Cache - OEM (HD103SJ) £57.99

12) Samsung SH-B083L/RSBP 8x BluRay ROM / 16x DVD±RW Drive - Black (Retail) £49.98

13) Asus Xonar DS 7.1 PCI Sound Card (90-YAA0F0-0UAN00Z) £38.99

14) Compro VideoMate DVB-T220 Digital TV Internal PCI - Retail £29.99

Shipping cost assumes delivery to UK Mainland with:
DPD Next Day Parcel
(This can be changed during checkout) Shipping : £19.10
VAT is being charged at 17.50% VAT : £192.17
Total : £1,290.28

It's within the budget so might be able to afford some new speakers and a new keyboard I guess.



p/s: rechecking spec again ...

 

[OCChew]

the blu rays fine. im eyeing that one up myself actually

ive also just twigged its listed for 50 quid - ive put the OEM version on my spec *facepalm*.
if you're ordering before wednseday, at 50 quid that drive is a bargain

however, i still stand by what i said with the PSU and soundcard

*scurries off and hunts around for 50 quid*

Yes, the budget looks even better now ... yes, I will try to order it before Wed.

Okay almost there as I will go for the £50 Samsung blu ray, dump the sound card but one question.

Will the Corsair 400W hold up to the task I have for it?

 

[OCChew]

Absolutely, 100%, for sure.

Okay in that case I will go for Corsair 400W.

What do you think of the spec now? Ok?

1) Intel X25-M Mainstream 80GB 2.5" SATA-II Solid State Hard Drive (SSDSA2MH080G2C1) £179.99

2) Intel Core i5 750 2.66GHz (Lynnfield) (Socket LGA1156) - Retail + Napoleon Total War £167.99

3) BenQ G2420HDBL 24" Widescreen LED Monitor £164.99

4) Corsair XMS3 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (CMX4GX3M2A1600C9) £94.99

5) Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium - Retail (Full Version) £92.99

6) Lian Li PC-V351B Aluminium Cube Case - Black £88.99

7) Gigabyte GA-P55M-UD2 Intel P55 (Socket 1156) DDR3 microATX Motherboard £87.98

8) Corsair H50-1 High-Performance CPU Watercooler (Socket LGA775/1156/1366/AM2/AM3) £66.99

9) OcUK Value GeForce GT 240 512MB GDDR3 PCI-Express Graphics Card £60.99

10) Samsung SpinPoint F3 1TB SATA-II 32MB Cache - OEM (HD103SJ) £57.99

11) Samsung SH-B083L/RSBP 8x BluRay ROM / 16x DVD±RW Drive - Black (Retail) £49.98

12) Corsair CX 400W ATX Power Supply (CMPSU-400CXUK) £38.99

13) Compro VideoMate DVB-T220 Digital TV Internal PCI - Retail £29.99

Total : £1,205.29 including delivery.

 

[OCChew]

Absolutely, 100%, for sure.

Edit: I just ran this PSU caluculator and even when overclocked to 3.5GHz, using all the extra kit including the water cooler - it shows a maximum draw of 356W. This is within the tolerances of the PSU, so you will be fine. However, if you do plan to do a bit of upgrading in the future - you may want to consider a slightly bigger PSU (the Antec 550W modular is truly excellent).

Edit2: one thing I just noticed is that both the TV card and sound card are PCI - this means that both will not fit on the motherboard (as the graphics card cooler obstructs the first PCI slot). One of them would have to be replaced with a PCIe equivalent if you wanted both cards. However, if you do dump the sound card (like you suggest in the last post) then you won't have a problem.

Should I just go for Antec TP 650W modular instead? Overkill?

I know I might upgrade something in future but not sure what yet ...

 

[OCChew]

It is up to you, but I don't know what you could add to the system that the 550W version couldn't handle.

However, the benefit of over specifying a PSU is that these units tend to run most efficiently at 50% load. If you have 650W PSU and only use 325W (which is pretty likely) then you will be near the peak of the efficiency curve for the PSU.

Okay ... but one question or two ...what is the max 550W can do or not do? I mean what's the maximum upgrade an Antec TP 550W can handle?



p/s: I just want to install and forget ...

 

[OCChew]

to put things into perspective:

core i7 965 with a gtx480 (basically a then top of the range CPU and one of the most power consuming graphics cards ever known to man) drew 376w under load in a bit-tech test (http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/2010/03/27/nvidia-geforce-gtx-480-1-5gb-review/10)

so to "comfortably" power that lot you would be looking in the region of 600w. Most people who have high end crossfire setups (two high end ATI cards), go for a 650w unit.

so basically, a 550w in your system has a fair bit of upgrade potential to say the least...

Wow! That's a quick reply !

Thank you I will have Antec TP 550W then since I do not see any upgrade so soon and not especially with high end game ... yet.

So the final outcome should be with the Antec TruePower New Modular 550W Power Supply ... with the total budget of.

Total : £1,236.30

 

[OCChew]

If you are going to run a 550W to its specified power output you could run an overclocked i7 system and a top-end graphics card, along with half a dozen DVD drives and HDDs.

Excellent! I doubt I will upgrade to top-end graphic card(s) for a while since the price is a bit high for me .

Okay ... Antec TP 550W Modular it is.

One final question. The motherboard I have chosen is reliable workhorse ya?


You guys are good.

 

[OCChew]

Oh ya ... do I need any sort of bracket for the 2.5" SSHD?

 

[OCChew]

Indeed, best of luck with the build I you have any further questions please feel free to post and we will try our best to help out.

There are a couple I would suggest also picking up now, as they will help with the build and stand you in good stead for the future.

First, is some MX3 thermal compound. This is much better than the stuff pre-applied to the H50 and this tube will last you for years on dozens of builds.

Second is this thermal paste cleaning kit, it allows you to cleanly remove thermal paste and prepare the surface for a new application.

Finally, the Lian Li case doesn't have any mounts for 2.5in hard disks (like the intel SSD), therefore you will either need to have it loose or get a bay adapter like this.



Its a very good board indeed. If you have any problems - you have a 3 year warranty, but i'm sure that won't be needed.

Thank you as that the next question I was going to ask.

You know your stuff ...

Yes, I will include them.

Oh yes ... I think there will be more question from me once I receive all the kits.