Spec Advice pls :)

4Play

4Play

4Play

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Ill cut to the chase, looking to buy a new computer for around the £800 to £850 mark. I have the monitor keyboard and mouse allready, I only need the tower unit. The question I have is should 1. should i build the rig myself or 2. go for the prebuilt machine which at the moment is on offer

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=FS-252-OK&groupid=43&catid=1444&subcat=1712

Any specs or advice would be much appreaciated, I have the money and am purchasing this week :)
 
Well it will be a bit cheaper to build yourself (I think - not actually checked) and some people do prefer to build themselves just for the fun of it.

I would say that you should look at how much it would cost to buy all the pieces of that pre built individually and see how much you will save. Then you have to weigh that up against that hassle/fun (depending on how you look at it) of building it yourself and also the convenience of having the whole bundle warrantied together. If you buy the complete bundle you shouldn't have to be back on here worrying about whether it is your motherboard or your graphics that has broken because you can just send the whole thing back (I think that is how it works anyway).
 
4Play said:
Any specs or advice would be much appreaciated, I have the money and am purchasing this week :)
Click to expand...

Completely down to You & how much time you have or whether you actually want to build yourself or just Switch it on & use it. (Although I would think the heatsink/Tim would need appplying etc)
If you just want to pay & Play then that's the system for you but upgrade the GFX card to the 5850. :cool:
 
I dont have any problem with building it myself, i have built in the past though that was 6 years ago :). Unsure whether or not to go I5 or AMD 965 because of future proofing with the AM3 chip :S
 
If I had £850 to spend:

am3spec.jpg
 
4Play said:
I dont have any problem with building it myself, i have built in the past though that was 6 years ago :). Unsure whether or not to go I5 or AMD 965 because of future proofing with the AM3 chip :S
Click to expand...

Dont bother with the 965, just go 955 and overclock.

There is something to be said for the future proofing. With a decent AM3 mobo you should be able to upgrade all the way up to the 8 core bulldozer cpus when they are released without changing anything else.
 
Thanks for the replies :) For my current gaming needs im not sure if the 5850 would be a bit over kill. No to mention i still need an OS which would raise the price. How about switching the 5850 for a 5770? That way the price difference would pay for the OS. Also going to look into the case now, what is it like for space ?
 
If you need an OS then yeah go for the 5770, they're still great cards. Case is supposed to be decent for space, but I can't speak from experience. Personally I went for the HAF 922 side window version but it's not to everyone's taste, most people prefer the styling of the CM-690.
 
This is a build I can suggest the OP should look at:

AMD Phenom II X4 955BE ~ £128

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CP-244-AM

Asus M4A89GTD PRO ~ £108

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MB-392-AS&groupid=701&catid=5&subcat=1782

Has a split 8+2 phase VRM with cooling,6 SATA 3.0 ports, all solid capacitors and does symmetrical Crossfire at PCI-E 2.0 8X/8X. Uses the SB850 southbridge.

OR

Asus M4A79XTD Evo ~ £90

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MB-366-AS&groupid=701&catid=5&subcat=1481

Has a split 8+2 phase VRM with cooling,all solid capacitors and does symmetrical Crossfire at PCI-E 2.0 8X/8X. Uses the SB750 southbridge.

4GB low latency 1600MHZ DDR3 ~ £90

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MY-180-OC&groupid=701&catid=8&subcat=1517

2XHD5770 1GB ~ £232

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-216-SP

Zalman Z7 Plus Midi Tower Case ~ £43

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CA-033-ZA

Samsung F3 1TB ~ £58

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=HD-082-SA

Antec TruePower New Modular 550W Power Supply ~ £70

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CA-118-AN&groupid=701&catid=123&subcat=

Windows 7 OEM ~ £80

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=SW-127-MS

The total comes to around £791 to £809 excluding delivery.

The Antec PSU I have listed is made by Seasonic and is a better unit than the current OCZ ones at a similar price IMHO.

A pair of HD5770 1GB cards can be as fast as an HD5870 1GB.

Alternatively the OP could go for a single HD5850 1GB:

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-004-HS

If the OP goes for a pair of HD5850 1GB cards the following PSU would be worth getting:

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CA-117-AN

BTW,none of the 880G motherboards do 8X/8X Crossfire and if you intend to do this the OCZ 600W PSU only has a pair of PCI-E power connectors. The Antec 650W unit has 4 PCI-E power connectors.

If you intend to stick with a single card setup then the 880G based motherboard will be fine.
 
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