Noob building his first rig - please check specs and advise please.

mickeyfinagin

mickeyfinagin

mickeyfinagin

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Joined
14 Jan 2011
Posts
156
Location
Aylesbury
Hi to everyone, new member but have been an overclockers fan for a few years.
Purchased my first pre built gamming rig from overclockers a about 4-5 years back now.

Spec -
Antec 900 case
Unsure of power supply -
E6400 duo processor
2 gig ddr2 memory
8800 gtx
Gigabyte P45 motherboard
500G hard drive
Artic cooling freezer pro

The pc has been running fine, clocked it upto 2.9gig stable, and thats about it.This pc is going to be used by my kids to put all their rubbish on.
The pc plays Black ops 2 ok, but I think a new rig is required to get better results from this game, and future games. I am looking to build my first rig from scratch, I have made a list of components i am considering, any advice , suggestions or changes would be most welcome.
I would like the rig to last 4-5 years again, mainly for gamming, a bit of photo/video editing ( very basic stuff) and general use.
I will want to overclock the proccessor in time to around the 4.6G mark overclockers have managed to do ,as well as try to unlock the HD6950 to a HD6970, Im not to sure how easy this is, read a bit about it, any advice appreciated.

Spec as follows
Intel Core i5-2500K 3.30GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor with FREE Lost Planet 2 PC Game - Retail £188.99
Asus P8P67 PRO Intel P67 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard - (Sandybridge) £139.98
GeIL 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz VALUE PLUS Dual Channel (GVP34GB1600C9DC) £41.99
Akasa AK-CCX-4002HP Venom CPU Cooler (Socket LGA775/LGA1155/LGA1156/LGA1366/AM2/AM3) £35.74
Sapphire ATI Radeon HD 6950 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £239.99
Samsung SpinPoint F3 1TB SATA-II 32MB Cache - OEM (HD103SJ) £40.99
Arctic Silver 5 Thermal Compound (3.5g) £6.73
Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium 64-Bit - OEM (GFC-00599) £83.99


Total : £901.33

Any suggestions to reduce the final cost would be great, but could possible go upto a max of £1000 if need be.
Thanks now for any ideas.
 
Last edited:
You seem to be missing a disk drive!

Also, i assume you have a monitor?

Although i am an AMD fan, i do think that's gonna be a nice rig!

You might save some cash going the AMD route though.

Good luck with the first build m8! It's so rewarding when you hit that power button and it works :D
 
ooops!!!!
forgot disc drive.
Have a nice new samsung 24" monitor, my rubbish Lg monitor died about 2 months after the warranty ran out.

Just a couple of other ideas
Antec 902 Nine Hundred Two (V3) Ultimate Gaming Case (with USB3.0 Support) - Black £92.99
Coolermaster CM-690 II Advanced Dominator Case - Black £76.99
Antec TruePower New Modular 650W Power Supply £74.99
Cooler Master GX 650W Power Supply £59.99
LG GH22NS50 22x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £16.79
thanks for replies so far.
 
ok, I have decided to go the Nvidia route, never had an ATi graphics card, several people i have spoken to say Nvidia are better/better surpported by the game developers/drives etc.

GTA767 has kindly suggested a -

Zotac GeForce GTX 570 1280MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £289.99

This looks a good card, it is better than the Ati card i specked.
My latest question is-

Do I need to go to a card this expensive at the moment to play games like Black ops maxed out or can i get away with a cheaper card, with the view to maybe go Sli in 6- 12 months time.
Not done this set up before, is SLi easy to do.

sorry for all the questions, just need to get it right first time, The boss is not happy i want a new pc anyway.
 
The ATI/NVidia GPU argument is the same as the Intel/AMD argument. It's forever ongoing and both sides have great products... sometimes one side wins the argument but tbh it's down to preference.

I'm an Intel/ATI whore so I wouldn't go to NVidia gpu's unless for the same price I'd be getting a lot better... but meh.
 
The drivers are as good as each other, just a pointless argument. Sure ATi drivers can sometimes come with more major bugs then Nvidia, but usually a hotfix comes out hours after that sorts it out. And you don't really need to update unless you have to.

Also, some games prefer ATi cards over Nvidia, and vice versa. Some games even support both. Just really down to your personal preferences.

The 6950 has the advantage of being flashed to a 6970, and a 6970 performs nearly the same as a 570. With the 6950's current price compared to the 570, I say that's a really good deal.
 
ok, thanks for the advice on the graphics cards.

Do I need to go to a cards this expensive at the moment to play games like Black ops maxed out or can i get away with a cheaper card, with the view to maybe go Sli in 6- 12 months time.
Not done this set up before, is SLi easy to do.
 
SLi and Crossfire is easy to set up, and Sandybridge boards can do both :)

Depends on the resolution you're playing on, if you're playing on 1920x1080 or larger then it is recommend to get a 6950 or over. If you're playing on smaller resolutions, then you can get away with a 460 1gb or 6850.
 
ok , quick update.
main spec is still the same.

1) going for the Zotac GeForce GTX 570 1280MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card
2)Coolermaster CM-690 II Advanced Dominator Case - Black or Coolermaster HAF 922 Case - Black
3)cpu cooler - Akasa AK-CCX-4002HP Venom CPU Cooler or Corsair Hydro H70 High-Performance CPU WaterCooler
4)Antec TruePower New Modular 650W Power Supply


Questions i need help with.

is the h70 cooler overkill, going to clock 4.6ghz only
will it fit in both cases
if i go sli in future with the GTX570, is the 650w power supply big enough, or do i need to go higher, any recomendations.
which is the better case for cooling, ease of use, keeping dust out/filters etc

thanks once again, the build is going to start beginning of march so i may well change spes again, ha ha.
 
the cooler will fit in both cases.

You will need 750w or more for SLI GTX570.

The CM690 MKII is the better case for tiding and ease of use.
 
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