Newbie 1st custom build need help please.

[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.

 

[thingemajib]

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)

 

[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.

 

[thingemajib]

well im packing a 500w Modxstream here and its dam well quiet. perhaps a tad on the warm side, but certainly nothing to worry about (as in, putting my hand against the back grill feels nice kind of warm ). but if you dont want OCZ, then go with the corsair. i have seen countless threads about its greatness and not a single bad comment about it.

So far i have (had to rotate my screen to fit all this in...):

sound about right?
edit: apart from the power supply, looks like im on the right track
edit edit: make that final price £1244.28 - the retail blu ray drive is cheaper ... my bad

Unless theres a specific use for it, i would still say ditch the sound card. As cmndr andi said, motherboard sound is pretty good nowadays, and you still get 7.1 and optical outputs on the motherboard.

 

[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 ...

 

[thingemajib]

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*

 

[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?

 

[cmndr_andi]

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

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.

 

[thingemajib]

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

absolutely no problemo whatsoever

bet you're eyeing up a pretty dam nice keyboard/set of speakers now

 

[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 ...

 

[cmndr_andi]

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.

 

[thingemajib]

personally i would stick with the 400w, and get a bigger one later if i suddenly feel the need to chuck a massive graphics card in (thats the approach im taking with my current system should i ever go crossfire).

but if its really niggling you, then go with the antec 550/650w. like andi said, its upto you

 

[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 ...

 

[thingemajib]

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...

 

[cmndr_andi]

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 ...

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.

 

[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

 

[thingemajib]

in that case, good luck with the build

any problems loads of people here will help you out. If it all goes without a hitch, keep us informed anyways!

 

[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.