Progressive Build

daver · 20 Nov 2010 at 19:25

Hey guys, bit of a lurker but I will be building a system after this week so thought I would seek some advice. This system will initially be a family PC with gaming, however within a year I will be buying a flat and this PC will then become my main gaming PC. Essentially this is why it will be a progressive build, I have money now, but by the time I am buying a flat any significant money will be going into that to keep the mortgage down although I will probably be able to spare a bit of money here and there for improvements.

I have a case which was given to me for free, its a Casecom 6788, which is a bit of a budget case but its not too big and looks ok so I am intending to use this for the build currently (unless that proves impossible) but when I move out I will probably be building a budget replacement (as I will be taking this PC) and use this case for that and buy myself a new one then.

So after all that waffle I have put together the build below, as I say It won't be having heavy games use at the moment, but later on I plan to install a CPU cooler, double the RAM, get a second 6870 and a solid state drive (will probably do this bit by bit) and then do some overclocking.

Thoughts on this build? Initially will want to limit to around 800

Jony27 · 20 Nov 2010 at 20:00

uhhh i cant spot any mistakes,,,,your good to go as you mentioned that youll be adding the cooler later on..guess you missed the offer on that psu yesterday,.bear in mind that that mobo doesnt have sata 3 and usb3.

stulid · 20 Nov 2010 at 20:24

nothing to add here either.

daver · 20 Nov 2010 at 21:16

Cheers guys, I think I will go with those parts, i saw the offer on the PSU yesterday I think, but will probably order tomorrow, I've got exams on wednesday and thursday so I'm hoping to have stuff to play around with on thursday afternoon

Jony27 · 20 Nov 2010 at 21:22

oh yeah,,,noticed one thing

the ram is 2000MHz which is not needed

this is cheaper, saves £25 which could be used to buy a cooler now

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MY-203-CS

hybrid572 · 20 Nov 2010 at 21:43

Jony27 said:
oh yeah,,,noticed one thing
the ram is 2000MHz which is not needed
this is cheaper, saves £25 which could be used to buy a cooler now
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MY-203-CS

What he said.

OP, you've otherwise built a perfect system. I'd be tempted to switcharoo the Antec PSU for the Corsair TX 650W as you're overclocking in future, and Corsair have a really good reputation in the OC wilderness.

stulid · 20 Nov 2010 at 21:52

there is absolutely nothing wrong with the Antec unit, reviews from Bittech, Hardware secrets and Johnny guru show this.

Its a Seasonic built unit just like many Corsair psu's and has an added advantage of being modular and having two 6+2pin and two 6pin pci-e connectors unlike the TX650.

daver · 20 Nov 2010 at 22:24

is it worth going for a different mobo with sata 3/usb 3 then or is there a big price difference?

stulid · 20 Nov 2010 at 22:40

There is this www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MB-226-GI&groupid=701&catid=5&subcat=1495

Jony27 · 20 Nov 2010 at 22:45

or the ud6 for £2 more
btw stu, why does the ud6 have 6 ram slots?

stulid · 20 Nov 2010 at 23:11

Jony27 said:
or the ud6 for £2 more
btw stu, why does the ud6 have 6 ram slots?

No idea really, the spec sheet just shows it supports upto 16Gb of ram, but the UD4 spec sheet shows the same maximum amount despite just four ram slots.

Doughnut007 · 20 Nov 2010 at 23:31

I would go with a sata3 MB but thats it.
(The only one for the same price is out of stock)

daver · 27 Nov 2010 at 14:21

Sorry for the dig but I ordered all my stuff earlier in the week..basically ordered the above but with the P55A-UD4 mobo and added a 60bg SSD.

Bored waiting on delivery (Should have been on Thursady but DPD rang me up and asked me what size my package was likely to be as they had lost all the labels on stuff

so not sure when it will arrive now

)

Anyway now looking at what CPU cooler I want and looking to get some case fans. For the cooler I was looking at the Corsair H50, is that going to be a decent choice?

Don't want to spend too much on fans but probably want the option to have a fan controller in the future, will all fans work with a fan controller or only certain standard ones? Case has space for up to a 140mm fan on the top, and 120mm at the rear plus 2x120mm in the side. It also has a front 120mm already installed, gonna see how that runs to see if it will need replacing. Don't really want any garish colours in my fans (black would be nice) and want them fairly quiet...anyone have any suggestions?

Quite like the look of http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=FG-057-AK but they are quite pricey. Don't necessarily have to fill all the fan slots yet though (could just get a top fan and 1 side one?)

stulid · 27 Nov 2010 at 14:23

These are a bargain - http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=FG-003-YL&groupid=701&catid=57&subcat=4

daver · 29 Nov 2010 at 22:56

Put it together when I got home tonight, seems to be running ok. Currently sans SSD, H50 and a couple of fans which are at Parcelforce and cant be picked up for 48 hours. Couldn't resist so have using stock cooler at the moment and win 7 on the spinpoint.

Probably get the rest in this weekend, might run some tests tomorrow. The case fan that came with the case is a bit annoying but might look at modding it to lower the rpm. Waiting on a new monitor as well

stulid · 29 Nov 2010 at 23:00

pics.

daver · 29 Nov 2010 at 23:10

Will put some up tomorrow night, my cable management is far from great at the moment, but not overly fussed on that till i get everything in properly