Please help with 1st build

Ineedhelpplease

Ineedhelpplease

Ineedhelpplease

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Joined
30 Apr 2011
Posts
198
Hello again

I recently posted here for help with my 1st pc build and got some great advice (thanks again!). Now my budget has increased :D, so I thought it best to just start again and I would really appreciate any advice you can offer (no detail too small, I assure you!)

My requirements are to play current games smoothly on high settings and to be prepared for upcoming releases like Battlefield3 and Skyrim. I want to be set up for a few years and then to upgrade gfx cards and so on. I will also be using the pc for Corel Painter and a little bit of photoshop.

My budget is going to be around £600 for everything except the monitor although any savings on that amount would be nice.

First I looked at AMD processors because of price and because people say they are better for long term upgradeability but having looked closer I think the Intels are much more powerful and even 4-6 core phenom chips appear to be far weaker than the name suggets. Am I right in this regard?

So far Im looking at something like ---
intel i5 2500 3.3ghz processor £150ish
p67 motherboard in the region of £100 (P67 because i may well try overclocking someday whereas the H67 appears pointless)
Antec 100 case
600w psu (so i can upgrade gfx cards)
a decent but not top price card such as GFX 460 1gb
4gb ram

Over to you...
 
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Wait till tomorrow when the latest offers are updated.

I could easily do a spec now, but it will be wrong come the morning.
 
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I will say now that the 460 has held it's price well, it's rival the radeons 5830/5850 are cheaper, the 5830 is under £100. I can't make any sense of the pricing at the moment, the 5770 for example is the same price as the 5830 and that is a superior card :S

Wait for stulids recommendation, let him work his magic once the prices are set. I look forward to seeing what you go for. Good luck in advance with the build
 
Thank you both for your comments and hello again, Stulid! I remember you helped me a great deal in my previous post.

honosuseri, I am very confused by the graphics card ranges. Should I be very wary of the various makes of the same model? I can find versions of the gtx460 for £100 and others up to £180. Some 5850s are over £250.

Anyway, I look forward to tomorrows offers!
 
Wherever you are seeing 5850 for £250 or GTX460's for £180, then avoid like the plague.

They are both £110 cards.
 
I should add, I want to get a full size atx motherboard bacause i want plenty of space to reduce my blundering chances and also to allow for more expansion slots.

I am having second thoughts about the Antec case. Is a bottom mounted psu a good thing? I suppose it removes the risk of a falling psu destroying vital components. What about heat? I suppose the heat is being fired out the back either way. Maybe I will stick with the antec...
 
This is the kind of thing that puzzles me. I am concerned that I might read about a card, decide to buy it and then just by shopping for a good price end up with a card that is not the same in performance as what I think I am buying.
 
Thanks. I do appreciate the help.

I have been told that if I go for an intel motherboard/processor I would be better off with nvidia cards and ATI for AMD. Is there some sort of clash or performance effect that you know of?

Looking at that benchmark site, I think I will aim around that level of card (460/5850). They seem to handle current games more than adequately.

Do you know much about this one? http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-029-HS
It seems a fari bit faster in its spec but it's not on the benchmark site and it is only a bit more money.
I am thinking it mighht be best to spend a bit more now rather than have to splash out £200 in a few years time.
 
Ineedhelpplease said:
Thanks. I do appreciate the help.

I have been told that if I go for an intel motherboard/processor I would be better off with nvidia cards and ATI for AMD. Is there some sort of clash or performance effect that you know of?

Looking at that benchmark site, I think I will aim around that level of card (460/5850). They seem to handle current games more than adequately.

Do you know much about this one? http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-029-HS
It seems a fari bit faster in its spec but it's not on the benchmark site and it is only a bit more money.
I am thinking it mighht be best to spend a bit more now rather than have to splash out £200 in a few years time.
Click to expand...

Whoever told you about, nvidia works better with intel and visa versa is talking bobbins.

And that 6850 at £143 gets beaten by this - http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-259-SP&groupid=701&catid=56&subcat=1711

http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/295?vs=291
 
Don't even try and understand ATI's naming conventions. It makes almost no sense. :)

If you give this a subtle bump in the morning I'm sure you'll get some great specs suggested.

Edit: btw, they will probably be based on an i5 2500k.
 
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Well, the latest offers are up.

So here is with an operating system

Your basketProduct Name Qty Price Line Total
OcUK Motherboard Bundle - Intel Core i5 2500K & Asus P8P67 Intel P67 Mainboard **B3 Revision** £249.41
(£207.84) £249.41
(£207.84)
Sapphire ATI Radeon HD 5830 Extreme 1024MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card **OcUK Exclusive** £89.99
(£74.99) £89.99
(£74.99)
Microsoft Windows 7 Bundle - Home Premium 64 Bit £68.40
(£57.00) £68.40
(£57.00)
Options applied to the above product:
Western Digital Caviar Blue 500GB SATA 6Gb/s 16MB Cache - OEM (WD5000AAKX) £32.99
(£27.49) £32.99
(£27.49)
OCZ StealthXStream 2 600W Power Supply £50.99
(£42.49) £50.99
(£42.49)
Zalman Z9 Plus Tower Case with Fan Controller - Black £42.98
(£35.82) £42.98
(£35.82)
Corsair XMS3 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (CMX4GX3M2A1600C9) £35.99
(£29.99) £35.99
(£29.99)
Sony Optiarc AD-5260S 24x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £15.98
(£13.32) £15.98
(£13.32)
Sub Total : £488.94
Shipping cost assumes delivery to UK Mainland with:
DPD Next Day Parcel
(This can be changed during checkout) Shipping : £13.75
VAT is being charged at 20.00% VAT : £100.54
Total : £603.23

And here is without,

Your basketProduct Name Qty Price Line Total
OcUK Motherboard Bundle - Intel Core i5 2500K & Asus P8P67 Intel P67 Mainboard **B3 Revision** £249.41
(£207.84) £249.41
(£207.84)
Asus ATI Radeon HD 6950 DirectCU II 1024MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £179.99
(£149.99) £179.99
(£149.99)
OCZ StealthXStream 2 600W Power Supply £50.99
(£42.49) £50.99
(£42.49)
Zalman Z9 Plus Tower Case with Fan Controller - Black £42.98
(£35.82) £42.98
(£35.82)
Corsair XMS3 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (CMX4GX3M2A1600C9) £35.99
(£29.99) £35.99
(£29.99)
Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 500GB SATA 6Gb/s 16MB Cache - OEM (ST3500413AS) £28.99
(£24.16) £28.99
(£24.16)
Sony Optiarc AD-5260S 24x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £15.98
(£13.32) £15.98
(£13.32)
Sub Total : £503.61
Shipping cost assumes delivery to UK Mainland with:
DPD Next Day Parcel
(This can be changed during checkout) Shipping : £12.50
VAT is being charged at 20.00% VAT : £103.22
Total : £619.33
 
Ineedhelpplease said:
I see. So the names mean nothing. I thought 6850 must be the series above 5850. I shall probably just go with your recommendation rather than try to decipher the secret code names of ATI.:)
Click to expand...

it is the series above, so its a newer card
however, ATI changed thier codes slightly

the 58xx series were the high end models for series 5, with the 57xx series as the midrange

but for the 6 series, the 68xx are only the midrange cards, with 69xx being the high end.
so your essentially comparing a high end card with a mid range one, althou a generation apart.

best thing to do if ur unsure, is decide roughly how much you want to spend, and someone will be able to spec you a card that gives the best performance for that price
 
5850 is a great card for 100 bobs. If you need to, you can downgrade the case a little and go for a £25-£30 case. However, a Antec 100, Silverstone around £40 (or the Zalman) is a better buy.

Dont skimp on PSU. The OCZ 600W is hard to beat for £50, the XFX Core 550W is also a good choice.
 
Hi
Thank you so much for taking the time to come up with those specs, Stulid. Really good of you. Thanks to the rest of you for your advice too.

It is so very tempting to up my budget a bit now and I think I am looking at £600 ish for the pc without windows taken into account. I am decided on the i5 but I had vaguely decided to look at a Gigabyte or MSI board just because I have read a fair few negative comments on the Asus models.

"Supports ATI® Quad-GPU CrossFireX™ Technology" Does this mean I could put a second Gfx card in some day, if I wanted? I don't think I would be likely to but interested to know.

It seems my best choice of graphics card is the 5850 as the cheaper option and the 6950 (again is Asus ok?) if I spend a bit more. Is the extra £60 worth it in terms of performance and the length of time it will remain useful?
I noticed no one is recommending nvidia cards, yet I had thought them to be pretty good cards from my initial research. Are there none worth considering for my set up? Maybe I shouldn't risk introducing more options!! :D

The Zalman case looks pretty good. I think I have spotted it before but those fins bug me a bit, so not abandoning the Antec just yet :)

For some reason I can not find the windows/harddrive bundle to check, so could you tell me, is that a HDD with pre installed windows or is it just a deal for buying both together? I ask because someone told me that buying a preinstalled hdd gives some sort of ownership restriction. something about not being able to install it again or on different pcs? I may have missremembered this to be honest..

Samsung SpinPoint F3 1TB SATA-II 32MB Cache - OEM (HD103SJ) - Do you think this is a good buy at £38.99?

So sorry for all these probably stupid, rambling questions. I really do appreciate the advice. I'm tired, so off to bed now before I get over excited and start buying things.

Thanks again.
 
If your looking for an Nvidia option, a GTX 480 would be your best bet for around the same sort of price as a 6950 but with the MSI 6950 you can easily flash it to as 6970, effectively buying a 6970 at a 6950 price :D (6970 vs GTX 480)

Crossfire (ATI)/SLI (Nvidia) is running two or more cards at the same time. There are a few cheap boards around that offer it, if your interested in having the option.

F3 is definitely a good buy at that price.

Here is the Windows 7 bundle. It's the OEM version OS so I think it's restricted to one motherboard, where as the retail version allows you to upgrade your motherboard. I may be wrong though, in which case someone will correct me.
 
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