newbie's gaming build help/advice, new to this!

TheYoungster

TheYoungster

TheYoungster

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hi guys, been after a decent computer for a while now, i though about a pre assembled one but i calculated and saw that i could make a better specced pc my self for the same price.

Im sure there is a bunch of threads saying amd versus intel, now my question is i7 920/930 or AMD Phenom II X4 Quad Core 965 Black Edition. Overclocking isn't my priority but i wouldnt mind giving it a go. Which one, pros and cons, why i shoould get one or the other. Which one is better for gaming. The i7 sounds tasty, amd is a good prce. If i overclock, which one will be the most powerfull.

Graphics card; im set on a 5770 as it fits my budget, id love a 5870 but the nasty bank man dosnt cover it, ive searched around a bit and seen thats its a good card.

Motherboard, anything at a good price that fits one of the processors above.

Case; looking on ebay for either an antec 900, 902, 1200, coolermaster haf 922 or 932. advice needed there as well. Not sure if all components will fit snugly in the 900 case. what one would you chose?

Hard drive i plan to use the one i have at the moment, (samsung 64gb) as it has all of my stoof on it. Will i still be able to use my hdd and just upgrade my OS. Thinnking vista ultimate upgrade pack, going from vista basic

I do not know what power supply to get, your advice will pick it for me :D because im not sure how much the pc will need.

Optical drive; most likely ill use my stock one.

4 or 6gb ram, ceapest greatest as possible. I'd like 6gb, but not entirely sure how much faster it will be than 4gb.

Cheap(ish) soundcard creative audigy i think. And i might push for a fan controller. how do you wire ports on the fron ofthe system case into the motherboard, thats my only concern. My sister's boyfreind is very good with building computers so he will help me assebble it. This rig will be primarily used for gaming and basic photoshopping. A monitor is spoken for, i have 2, my tv and my tft
 
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Wow confusing opening post. First let's clear some stuff up.

1) do you need a monitor?
2) what will you use this for?
3) what do you already have? (as much detail as possible)

then we can sort you an appropriate spec
 
In short I think this person wants everything for the new pc but the harddrive but seeing as the HDD is 64GB it begs the question, is it PATA or SATA or is it an SSD, reason I'm asking because if it is somehow PATA you need a mobo which supports that HDD 800 quid is the budget

i7 920/930 or AMD Phenom II X4 Quad Core 965 Black Edition - which is the better one to get? (guess this person needs the mobo to be fitting that processor) He is not going to overclock, needs a specific type of RAM as well.

This person is also asking if the 5870 could be built into the 800 quid budget otherwise the 5770 would be better, there is no mention of a monitor so I am assuming the monitor that was with the old pc will be used.

use http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windows-vista/get/upgrade-advisor.aspx when you do get your new pc to see what the best option for you is. Right now I wouldn't recommend running it seeing as basically you're getting a whole new system
 
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Right. Assuming the above. Also assuming that this will be a gaming machine.

If you are not overclocking then the AMD route is a better option. Phenom II X4 perform about the same as i7s (in games) if both are at stock speeds. See the conclusion here.

On this route you can save a lot of money on the cpu and spend it on better graphics (you will see much bigger performance increases here).

How about:

cpu: Phenom II x4 955 - £136
mobo: Asus m4a785td-v evo - £75 (this will do up to 2 IDE drives as well as plenty of SATA)
Ram: Patriot G Series 4GB - £89
PSU: OcUK 650W - £41 (probably someone else will suggest a better one)
Optical: Sony Optiarc AD-7240S - £16

Total: £357

£443 left to spend on:
Hard drive: Is 64GB enough? typo? - spend £40 on a decent SATA drive - eg WD caviar blue 500GB
case: 2nd hand ATX size - spend £40 or less
graphics: *spend the rest of your budget here*
 
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I'll knock you up a spec when i leave work and get on the coach as i can't do anything here. But if i was you i would be looking at i5 or AMD phenom 2, no point going i7 for what you're after.

So i'd say a PII 955, 4 gig of ram and a cheapo AM3 mobo would be ideal for you if you're not overclocking.

get a WD caviar black or samsung f3.

case coolermaster elite 335 (cheap but does the job)

PSU try for a 500+ watt one (corsair, antec, OCZ, seasonic, coolermaster) , gives you a little headroom.

cheapest sata optical dvd-rw

rest on graphics, 5770 or 5850 depending what you have left.

I'm sure somebody will knock up a few specs for you soon

EDIT: just realised you may need an OS this could change things.
 
Hey, i put together this spec for you, ive put 2 5770's for crossfire and a crossfire ready board also, this doesnt leave money for the os but you can easily take a 5770 off the list and buy windows 7 and a sound card.

buildj.jpg
 
I just got a complete i5 rig with 5850 for £620 off Ebay :). Hopefully for your £800 budget you could put something like that together new. We'll see later when the specs come...
 
Sounds cards are pretty pointless anyway, Id go for the spec above.

You don't really need an OS upgrade either :)
 
oh i forgot to factor in the price of a decent cpu cooler, if you wanted to over clock you could take a 5770 off the build, put a decent cpu cooler on or even a h50 and then change the mother board to one thats compatable with amd overdrive and then overclocking for you would be just a simple click of a button, look for videos on amd overdrive and research motherboards that can be used with the software.
 
i was just looking on the amd site and the motherboard i included in the original build is compatable with overdrive, so you wouldnt have to change anything, just buy a nice cpu cooler.
 
nice spec danewesley, btw the scout is a good case my brother has one and it performs well. I'd go for one 5850 over 2 5770 however.

OP i would learn the basics before you jump into overclocking mate, if you feel you need more power you can grap an after market cooler after (relatively easy upgrade and will cost no more than 20 quid or so). One thing that worries me is your OS you want to stick with. Where did this originally come from? I can't help but think this may be an OEM copy from a pre built pc or something. Also you wont be able to just whack your old HDD in and keep your old install, unfortunately it doesn't work like that.
 
not sure how to show you my current basket but it has these components are;
AMD Phenom II X4 Quad Core 965 Black Edition 3.40GHz (Socket AM3) - Retail
XFX ATI Radeon HD 5770 XXX Edition 1024MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card x2
Patriot G Series 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 PC3-10666C9 1333MHz Dual Channel (PGS34G1333ELK)
Asus M4A77TD Pro AMD 770 (Socket AM3) DDR3 Motherboard
Antec 900 Nine Hundred Ultimate Gaming Case - Black
OCZ StealthXStream 700w Silent Power Supply
Western Digital Caviar Green 500GB SATA-II 32MB Cache - OEM (WD5000AADS)
LG GH22LS50 22x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter Lightscribe Drive - OEM
*OR* 1x Ati radeon 5850 dirt 2 edition instead of 2x 5770, which would be faster, i love doing this, ill be here all day tweaking options.
 
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