Newbie 1st custom build need help please.

OCChew · 22 Jun 2010 at 00:02

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 ...

wilko49 · 22 Jun 2010 at 00:10

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.

stulid · 22 Jun 2010 at 00:12

the memory needs to be a dual channel kit, which will be cheaper for a 4gb kit.

then spend the money on upgrading the weak looking graphics card.

stulid · 22 Jun 2010 at 00:14

and you don't need the sound card.

so you can now afford a 5770, with the money saved from that and the ram.

OCChew · 22 Jun 2010 at 00:14

wilko49 said:
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?

:confused:

OCChew · 22 Jun 2010 at 00:17

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

cmndr_andi · 22 Jun 2010 at 00:21

Looks good.

I suggest going for a 4GB (2x2GB) dual channel RAM kit like this, as that triple channel kit is designed for the x58 platform.

that psu is great and totally compatible, but i don't think you need anything near 650w (unless you have some massive upgrades planned in the future). this psu will happily power your pc and is a good deal cheaper.

the hd 5450 graphics card is fine for decoding hd video - but for any modern gaming (even rts) it is a pretty useless. this card is only £13 more, but will perform much better.

The sound card you picked is basically just a creative audigy chip running X-Fi drivers. So to be honest it is not much better than the integrated sound used on the motherboard (which is pretty darn good these days). However, if you really do want a sound card, I suggest looking at the ASUS Xonar DS.

I would suggest getting the retail version of Windows 7. It is £9 more than the OEM version, but it means you have a licence that is not tied to the motherboard you first install it on.

The samsung F3 HDD is a good choice, as is the Blu ray/DVD drive, Tv card, motherboard ,case and SSD.

The monitor is a good one, but you may want to consider this higher resolution (1920x1200), 24inch IPS monitor. Here is a review.

thingemajib · 22 Jun 2010 at 00:21

spec wise, the RAM needs changing (as mentioned above). graphics i would say go for a hd5670. its small, power consumption is low, and has enough power for what you say you'll use it for (but dont expect it to play the latest games on highest settings).
Unless you have a specific need for it, you can drop the sound card as well.

build wise, take a look here: http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?t=18046396 and keep posting on the forums if you run into problems whilst building. there's plenty of help round here

software wise, i believe hackintoshes (OSX on a non mac machine) are not allowed to be discussed here, so you'll have to go elsewhere for that, but setting up a dual boot is really simple, and im sure we can guide you to do that when the Pc is up and running.

other than that, good luck

edit: regarding ram, 4GB should be plenty for your needs

Lleot · 22 Jun 2010 at 00:27

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

OCChew · 22 Jun 2010 at 00:40

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 · 22 Jun 2010 at 00:42

Lleot said:
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?

:eek:

cmndr_andi · 22 Jun 2010 at 00:56

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

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.

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

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

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.

OCChew · 22 Jun 2010 at 01:02

cmndr_andi said:
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.

thingemajib · 22 Jun 2010 at 01:09

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 on a 20" screen
food for thought...

cmndr_andi · 22 Jun 2010 at 01:10

OCChew said:
Woww! Good info that ...

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

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.

OCChew · 22 Jun 2010 at 01:20

thingemajib said:
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]

cmndr_andi · 22 Jun 2010 at 01:23

OCChew said:
How about this one? Any good?

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

Its OK, but I would strongly suggest going for the gt 240 i linked to earlier instead of a gt 220. the 240 does not cost much more than the 220, but performs much better - this review compares the performance of both in a modern strategy game.

As has been mentioned before, the ATI 5670 is another good card in this price range (it is also shown on that review).

OCChew · 22 Jun 2010 at 01:25

cmndr_andi said:
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.

:confused:

thingemajib · 22 Jun 2010 at 01:27

OCChew said:
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.

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.

OCChew said:
How about this one? Any good?

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

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

cmndr_andi · 22 Jun 2010 at 01:29

OCChew said:
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.

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.