Pre-Build or Home Built?

And all of these parts would fit together? I assume you haven't just plucked random parts that you know are fast.

So should i add that HDD that was specified in the first spec?
 
Yes i dod have a DVD drive.

The third spec also looks good but i really dont know what i am looking at :confused:

Also i am happy with my current screen thanks.

Will that 500W in the third spec be enough?
I also noticed that 2 of you went for Patriot RAM and the other Corsair, is this just a preference thing?
 
I would actually suggest going with the corsair RAM and MSI motherboard specified by iBSOD. It's £6 more and generally better quality and features. Using these in my 2nd spec (3rd spec on the page) then I think you are on to a winner.

In the third spec (post#20) I scaled down the components a bit and fitted in a 24in, 1920x1080 monitor. If your monitor is the Hanns-G HU196D then it is only 19in - so a new 24in widescreen will be a massive upgrade and should increase your enjoyment of games quite a bit. The 500W PSU will certainly power this system.

If you truly don't want a new screen then just pick one of the first two specs (and wait for the 6870 card to arrive).
 
That is a tough question. It will certainly run all modern games very well, however for future games we don't know how demanding they will be. That said, if the hardware requirements for PC games increases like it has for the past 5 years then I would expect it to play games very well for years to come.

Considering the recent release of the ATI HD 6800 series of graphics cards. I suggest you go for a hd 6850 instead of a gtx 460 768mb, it is a fast card and does not cost much more. This review shows how it performs in a range of games, and it performs a bit better in ARMA2.

Also note that the OCZ 500W PSU is currently on offer - so it cost £19 less than normal, this should offset the extra cost of the 6850.
 
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Look like i might have to start buying parts soon then.

I am now going to build a whole new PC but i am hopefully getting components myself and getting all attachments eg screen, keyboard all thats tuff for xmas =P

So i can scratch that screen off and spend more on said card =]
 
What i really need now though is a list of just good parts for this computer no win 7 or screen, costing around £700.
Also would like a reason for this parts selection, what its good at, why this and not something else and obviously that all the parts selected would fit together if i got them all.

Thanks
Hope i am not asking too much xD
 
How does this look?

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I went for a better graphics card (the 5850) which will help in games. I also put in a motherboard that supports crossfire - so you can add in second card at some point in the future and get a big performance boost. The PSU can also support a second 5850.

This spec doesn't quite use up your full budget. If you do want to spend the full £700 then I suggest you either get a CPU cooler (will keep you CPU cooler and be much quieter than the stock one - also allows you to overclock should you feel the need), upgrade the CPU to a X6 1055T Hex core (not any faster in games - but 6 cores should last you a while) or perhaps get a nice sound card or an SSD.

Also, you may want to consider waiting for the graphics card - the 6900 series is supposedly coming out next month and it will replace the current 5800 series (5850 included). If the 6800 series (which replaced the 5700 series) are anything to go by - it will be worth the wait.
 
Fantastic reply andi.

I'm pretty sure i can get win 7 and such things for crimbo and so can start ordering these parts soon, and the fact i have money left over is great! :cool:

Obviously never done this before but i assume the motherboard and stuff all comes with the necessary wires?

What will be the difference between the 5850 and 6900? Massive boost in performace or just longevity?
 
Not sure why anyone would spend £200 on a 5850 any more, when you can get a 6870 for the same, or a 470 for less??

Intel build making maximum abuse of this-week offers :). i5 is more powerful than phenom II, has fast C7 RAM, decent cooler for your 4GHz overclock, new 6870 GPU, Bluray drive (remove if you dont want Bluray)...

HIS ATI Radeon HD 6870 1024MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card with FREE CODMW2 PC-Game £199.99
Intel Core i5 760 2.80GHz (Lynnfield) (Socket LGA1156) - Retail £138.64
Gigabyte GA-P55-USB3 Intel P55 (Socket 1156) DDR3 Motherboard £88.11
*** PROMO *** OCZ ModXStream Pro 700w Silent SLI Certified Modular Power Supply £58.99
Patriot Viper 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C7 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (PVS34G1600LLK) £57.99
Samsung SH-B083L/RSBP 8x BluRay ROM / 16x DVD±RW Drive - Black (Retail) £46.99
Coolermaster Elite 430 Case - Black £41.99
Samsung SpinPoint F3 500GB SATA-II 16MB Cache - OEM (HD502HJ) £33.98
Akasa AK-CCX-4001HP Nero S Direct Contact Heatpipe CPU Cooler (Socket AM2 / AM2+ / AM3 / LGA775 / LGA1156 / LGA1366 ) £29.99
Sub Total : £592.90
Shipping cost assumes delivery to UK Mainland with:
DPD Next Day Parcel
(This can be changed during checkout) Shipping : £10.50
VAT is being charged at 17.50% VAT : £105.60
Total : £709.00
 
Once again a vast amount of numbers baffle me.

5850? Compared to 6870? To a 470?

Whats the difference between an AMD and Intel build? Not ordering this week so that doesn't matter.
I also dont plan on overclocking, i see no need.
 
I agree with liampope that the 6870 is a better card to get than the 5850. According to this review it is a bit faster than the 5850 and costs about the same - so a nice little upgrade right there.

As for i5 vs Phenom II, the question has been asked many times. In games they generally do as well as each other (as the GPU bottlenecks the performance, not the CPU), but when you are running a CPU heavy game or application - the i5 is the faster chip. However, it is more expensive.

Also you have to be careful with the motherboards, not all do "proper" x8x8 crossfire - the P55-USB3 (listed above) for example only does 16x4x - so it is not great if you wanted to add a second card in the future. This MSI P55 board seems to be the cheapest P55 board that supports 8x8x PCIe crossfire.
 
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EDIT: beaten to it, but never mind...

i5 760 a good bit more powerful than Phenom II 955 at stock speeds...

http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/88?vs=191

(note where lower is better or higher is better)

Plus i5 also overclocks a lot more. Well worth the extra £21 imho. The difference is not really seen in gaming which is normally GPU limited, but in CPU intensive games i5 pulls ahead and will do more in the future as games are more demanding.

5850 is now a previous gen high-end card and used to be great bang for buck. Now that the new 6870 is out for the same price and beats it, and nvidia has dropped the price of their 470 (also faster than the 5850) to compete with the new 68xx cards so it is now cheaper than the 5850, poor old 5850 isn't such a great buy. Dont get me wrong it's a great card (I have one!) but I wouldn't get a new one now at £200!
 
I think this thrad should have a poll of people that home built vs pre built. I always go home built, mostly works out cheaper, and you get all the satification/trouble of home built pcs :)
 
We are past that stage Reilly, now we are discussing what i am going to put into my new home built PC :p

Thanks for clearing all that up guys, i will certainly take it all into account when i buy the parts.

What i will likely do is go through all these specs, pick the parts i like the look of and add up the price, how do i get the picture of what appears to be the shopping basket that everyone has been using. As i will post one up so the experts around here can check my build will work =]

Is it as simple as print screening my shopping basket?
 
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