Newbie help required..

moggy-moggy

moggy-moggy

moggy-moggy

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Joined
6 Jun 2011
Posts
11
Location
Coventry, UK
I'm looking to buy a new desktop and hear you guys are the best for advice... After doing a good bit of browsing I made a list of desirable components;

i5 2500k
asus p8z68 v pro
8Gb G Skill ripjaw
WD Caviar green 1Tb HDD
OCZ 60Gb SSD
CM Gladiator 600
CM GX 550 PSU
LG 10x BD drive
Win 7 premium 64 bit
Gigabyte KM7580 keyboard/mouse combo
Akasa smart reader

Priced all these up on OC - £824 but I doubt I could build it myself and don't really know anyone who could assist - will OC do this and at what cost?

Have I missed anything/is everything compatible? I have to admit I looked at computerplanet & a similar spec would be £950 built and delivered but they're telling me I also need a 5 or 6 series GPU. If the mobo has HD3000 and I'm not a gamer would that not suffice? I simply want to future proof my purchase as much as possible (I set out with £500 but got drawn in!)

Any help greatly appreciated... :)

Moggy
 
Moothead2 said:
I recommend going for the Corsair XMS3 Memory of the Ripjaw memory personally and this power supply:http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CA-148-AN. As for building it yourself, it's easy once you know what you're doing. Just search the web/Youtube for tutorials etc and if you need help just ask here and post pictures (Preferably) with what you need help with :).
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Thanks Moothead. Looked at PSU reviews and now agree with you but only found reviews in favour of Ripjaw over Corsair - is it just personal pref or are there "issues" I've missed?

As for self building, I've read Greywolf's "system build guide" and it doesn't seem so bad. I suppose I'm more concerned about installing software and setting up Raid etc as I really don't have a clue (but I've read you have to set it up correctly in Bios before installing OS?). I guess I'm basically a coward who would rather unbox somebody elses handywork, knowing it will work!!
 
I recommended the Corsair because it's cheaper and you won't notice too much of a difference between the two. As for the Raid etc, I have no idea, I can barely install Windows :D.
 
Wait till the new deals are out tomorrow to price things up as you may find you can get cheaper alternatives.

Hopefully, for your sake, that WD HDD will go back up to normal price and either the Samsung F3 or the Seagate Barracuda will come on offer (even if they don't they will still be cheaper) because they are a lot faster than green drives. I know you'll be using the SSD but's you still might as well get a faster drive, especially if it's cheaper tomorrow.

When you say you want to set up RAID, what specifically do you want? As you'll need two HDDs for a RAID set-up.
 
sk82jack said:
Wait till the new deals are out tomorrow to price things up as you may find you can get cheaper alternatives.

Hopefully, for your sake, that WD HDD will go back up to normal price and either the Samsung F3 or the Seagate Barracuda will come on offer (even if they don't they will still be cheaper) because they are a lot faster than green drives. I know you'll be using the SSD but's you still might as well get a faster drive, especially if it's cheaper tomorrow.

When you say you want to set up RAID, what specifically do you want? As you'll need two HDDs for a RAID set-up.
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Thanks for the heads up on the offers, I'll check later...

This is exactly why I came on here! I must have misunderstood, I thought using an SSD in conjuction with a HDD made the system much quicker ("like a single drive" is what I read) rather than 2 HDD's? I only specc'd the SSD for Raid 0 ie speed not safety...
 
Well more often you would use RAID with two regular HDDs and then have a seperate SSD as an OS drive or for app/games etc. I think with RAID 0 if you used an SSD and a regular HDD you would see very little improvement in read speed than 2 regular HDDs in RAID as it would only be as fast as the slowest drive. Not entirely sure with write speed. I would suggest getting a single hard drive and an SSD for your OS before you get two regular HDDs for RAID although if you got an SSD and two HDDs this would obviously be the best option.
 
Stoner81 said:
The RipJaw's can cause issues trying fit the big air coolers, the XMS RAM is excellent RAM and cheaper.

Stoner81.
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Will I need a big cooler? I read that the i5 2500k can be used with the std intel cooler...?
Perhaps I've got this wrong but I thought that with no GPU (yet!) 1* HDD, 1* SSD & 1* BD drive the std cooler and case fans would cope?
Or maybe a bigger case would help..? :confused:
 
moggy-moggy said:
Will I need a big cooler? I read that the i5 2500k can be used with the std intel cooler...?
Perhaps I've got this wrong but I thought that with no GPU (yet!) 1* HDD, 1* SSD & 1* BD drive the std cooler and case fans would cope?
Or maybe a bigger case would help..? :confused:
Click to expand...

I don't think there is an issue here. You can use the standard cooler just fine unless you want to overclock a large amount. If you did want to do this in future would you want to be worrying about your RAM as well? probably not. I would advise just getting the XMS3 as Stoner suggested.
 
DJmartin said:
Well more often you would use RAID with two regular HDDs and then have a seperate SSD as an OS drive or for app/games etc. I think with RAID 0 if you used an SSD and a regular HDD you would see very little improvement in read speed than 2 regular HDDs in RAID as it would only be as fast as the slowest drive. Not entirely sure with write speed. I would suggest getting a single hard drive and an SSD for your OS before you get two regular HDDs for RAID although if you got an SSD and two HDDs this would obviously be the best option.
Click to expand...


That would make more sense DJmartin :) HDD's aren't exactly pricey these days (in comparison to total build cost anyway!)
Maybe I should spec 2 Barracuda's and the SSD..... :cool:
 
DJmartin said:
I don't think there is an issue here. You can use the standard cooler just fine unless you want to overclock a large amount. If you did want to do this in future would you want to be worrying about your RAM as well? probably not. I would advise just getting the XMS3 as Stoner suggested.
Click to expand...

Makes sense, thanks guys!
 
Try and get 1.5V memory for Sandybridge - most DDR3 is 1.65V.

I think there's an "XMS3 Classic" that should fit the bill, although standard XMS3 can be 1.65V or 1.5V ?! And stick with 1600MHz/C9, faster/low-latency RAM is significantly more expensive for minimal "real world" performance benefit.
 
DennisMenace said:
Try and get 1.5V memory for Sandybridge - most DDR3 is 1.65V.

I think there's an "XMS3 Classic" that should fit the bill, although standard XMS3 can be 1.65V or 1.5V ?! And stick with 1600MHz/C9, faster/low-latency RAM is significantly more expensive for minimal "real world" performance benefit.
Click to expand...


Cheers DennisMenace. It seems the more I read the more confusing it gets! The only 8gb 1600 1.5V Corsair ram I can see listed is Vengeance which looks like a similar style (ie bigger fins) to the Ripjaw kit?!?

Googled the prob and followed a link to Tom's hardware....

"I would suggest 9-9-9-24 stock RAM that runs at 1.5v, not 1.65v. There have been lots of reports of trouble using 1.65v RAM. There are lots of choices that fit this: Corsair Vengence, G.Skill Ripjaw X, G.Skill Sniper and Kingston ValueRam. I have the Kingston stuff and have not had a single RAM issue todate. Read this link too:

http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/m [...] y-bridge/1 "

Now I'm not sure whether to go 1.65V and take up less space or 1.5V and risk having no room to add a cooler later... :eek:
 
Don't worry about it too much, loads of people run the XMS3 without any problems and you can always underclock the voltage on the RAM anyway IIRC.

In the end it's up to you really, as it's your money but some coolers will just about fit with taller RAM sticks, you'll just need to do your research before hand.

The all-in-one air coolers, i.e the Corsair H series and Antec Khuler 620/920 and the CoolIt Eco, won't have any problems, but their pricier than some air coolers, starting off at £50
 
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