Spec for 1st build

shinyazz52

shinyazz52

shinyazz52

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Joined
13 Mar 2011
Posts
49
Hey Guys

This is my 1st post so go gentle .
Im am looking to build my first pc , and i am probably going down the AMD route. My budget is around £700 and this is what i have come up with.

BenQ G2222HDL 21.5" Widescreen LED Monitor - Black £110.39


Coolermaster HAF 912 Plus Case & GX 750w Power Supply Bundle £108.98


Gigabyte GA-890GPA-UD3H AMD 890GX (Socket AM3) DDR3 Motherboard £106.99


AMD Phenom II X4 Quad Core 955 Black Edition "125W Edition" 3.20GHz (Socket AM3) - Retail £104.99


XFX ATI Radeon HD 5770 1024MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £89.99

Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium 64-Bit - OEM (GFC-00599) £79.99


Samsung SpinPoint F3 1TB SATA-II 32MB Cache - OEM (HD105SI) £38.98

Corsair XMS3 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (CMX4GX3M2A1600C9) £35.99


Samsung SH-S223C/BEBE 22x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £13.99


Sub Total : £575.24

Total : £703.79


I want this to be upgradable in the future so what do you think ?
Any improvements or better still , ways to save money?
I had been told to get this motherboard
Asus Crosshair IV Formula AMD 890FX , but to save cash i went for the above , will that be ok ?
i will use the pc for gaming (football manager and FPS mainly).
 
thats looking really good. dont worry about the crosshair IV motherboard. you only want that if your using a silly number of graphics cards. i would only make a couple of changes to that build:

- Sapphire Pure CrossFireX 890GX motherboard: it is a bit cheaper, and as far as i can see, all the important stuff is the same
- OCZ platinum RAM: same speed, same timings, cheaper price
- Seagate barracuda 1TB HDD: slightly faster, and costs a little bit less.

with the money you saved, i would either:
- spend more money on a graphics card
- get an aftermarket cooler, because the standard one is LOUD on that rig
or you could just keep the cash you saved.


*edit*
if you want to save even more money, you could go for the really cheap asus motherboard thats on offer. however, the motherboard you have now (in both of our builds) allows you to use two graphics cards as one in crossfire, which will be great for the future.

this is what the build looks like:

Your basket
Product Name Qty Price Line Total
BenQ G2222HDL 21.5" Widescreen LED Monitor - Black £110.39
(£91.99) £110.39
(£91.99)
Coolermaster HAF 912 Plus Case & GX 750w Power Supply Bundle £108.98
(£90.82) £108.98
(£90.82)
AMD Phenom II X4 Quad Core 955 Black Edition "125W Edition" 3.20GHz (Socket AM3) - Retail £104.99
(£87.49) £104.99
(£87.49)
XFX ATI Radeon HD 5770 1024MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £89.99
(£74.99) £89.99
(£74.99)
Sapphire Pure CrossFireX 890GX (AM3) Motherboard - Retail £88.99
(£74.16) £88.99
(£74.16)
Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium 64-Bit - OEM (GFC-00599) £79.99
(£66.66) £79.99
(£66.66)
Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 1TB SATA-II 32MB Cache - OEM 1yr Warranty (ST31000528AS) £37.99
(£31.66) £37.99
(£31.66)
OCZ Platinum 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Ultra Low Voltage Dual Channel Kit (OCZ3P1600C9ELV4GK) £29.99
(£24.99) £29.99
(£24.99)
Samsung SH-S223C/BEBE 22x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £13.99
(£11.66) £13.99
(£11.66)
Sub Total : £554.42
Shipping cost assumes delivery to UK Mainland with:
DPD Next Day Parcel
(This can be changed during checkout) Shipping : £11.75
VAT is being charged at 20.00% VAT : £113.23
Total : £679.40


*edit 2*
sorry for the massively long post, but ive finally found out why the sapphire is so much cheaper:
- sapphire only has 1 PCIe x1 slot; gigabyte has 3
- sapphire inly has 1 PCI slot; gigabyte has 2
- sapphire has slightly worse built in audio than the gigabyte

so, if any of those will be a problem to you, then go for the gigabyte, if not i would save the £18 and go for the sapphire
 
Last edited:
I really can`t see me ever going crossfire to be honest , but dont want too sacrifice future proofness , so ruling out crossfire is the cheap board you suggested gonna be good enough ? Also regarding a different cooler , any in particular you could recommend?

Thanks
 
well, i have the asus motherboard myself, and i cant complain about it atall. the lack of crossfire is really the only problem with it.

as for the processor cooler, i know about as much as you do im afraid.

anyway, heres a new build for you with the asus motherboard. it has a much better graphics card, and leaves you £20 for a new cooler if you want one. the standard one works just fine, but it doesnt half make a racket

Your basket
Product Name Qty Price Line Total
Gigabyte GeForce GTX 460 OC 768MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £124.99
(£104.16) £124.99
(£104.16)
BenQ G2222HDL 21.5" Widescreen LED Monitor - Black £110.39
(£91.99) £110.39
(£91.99)
Coolermaster HAF 912 Plus Case & GX 750w Power Supply Bundle £108.98
(£90.82) £108.98
(£90.82)
AMD Phenom II X4 Quad Core 955 Black Edition "125W Edition" 3.20GHz (Socket AM3) - Retail £104.99
(£87.49) £104.99
(£87.49)
Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium 64-Bit - OEM (GFC-00599) £79.99
(£66.66) £79.99
(£66.66)
Asus M4A88T-M AMD 880G (Socket AM3) PCI-Express DDR3 Motherboard £53.98
(£44.98) £53.98
(£44.98)
Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 1TB SATA-II 32MB Cache - OEM 1yr Warranty (ST31000528AS) £37.99
(£31.66) £37.99
(£31.66)
OCZ Platinum 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Ultra Low Voltage Dual Channel Kit (OCZ3P1600C9ELV4GK) £29.99
(£24.99) £29.99
(£24.99)
Samsung SH-S223C/BEBE 22x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £13.99
(£11.66) £13.99
(£11.66)
Sub Total : £554.41
Shipping cost assumes delivery to UK Mainland with:
DPD Next Day Parcel
(This can be changed during checkout) Shipping : £11.75
VAT is being charged at 20.00% VAT : £113.23
Total : £679.39


the power supply that comes with the HAF912 case is overkill, but you'd hardly be saving any money by getting the case and a smaller power supply (~500W) seperatly because that case + power supply bundle saves you a load of money. also, having seen a youtube review of that case, its a great choice
 
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The case is a great choice, the incl PSU though isnt, its pretty poor, Id rather buy them separate and just get something like the BeQuiet L7 530W which is a better PSU - (750W would be overkill if it were a decent PSU, but its not)
Other than that Reapers 2nd spec looks good, though if youre not going to upgrade for a while and you have a bit of money left then look at getting best gfx card you can squeeze into the budget, if that is the 768mb 460 then you wont be disappointed, its a cracking little card, but if you can push a bit further look at either the 1 gig version or a 5850 or 6850 (5850 has more raw power, depends what deals are on at time of purchasing - all 3 tend to be around 150)
 
ok so how does this look now
XFX ATI Radeon HD 6850 1024MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card with FREE MOH Game £139.99

BenQ G2222HDL 21.5" Widescreen LED Monitor - Black £110.39

AMD Phenom II X4 Quad Core 955 Black Edition "125W Edition" 3.20GHz (Socket AM3) - Retail £104.99


Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium 64-Bit - OEM (GFC-00599) £79.99


Coolermaster HAF 912 Plus Case - Black £59.99


Asus M4A88T-M AMD 880G (Socket AM3) PCI-Express DDR3 Motherboard £53.98


BeQuiet Pure Power L7 530W Power Supply £39.98

Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 1TB SATA-II 32MB Cache - OEM 1yr Warranty (ST31000528AS) £37.99

OCZ Platinum 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Ultra Low Voltage Dual Channel Kit (OCZ3P1600C9ELV4GK) £29.99

Samsung SH-S223C/BEBE 22x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £13.99





Total :£694.20
is the psu defo enough for the build?
 
ok , well after doing a bit more thinking about my first bulid spec i may now go down the intel route (i-5 quad). lets say i have a budget of £800 could someone spec a decent build for me. also i would need win7 and a monitor to be included. is this possible on that kind of budget?
 
If I go with i5, that means i5K + P67, and a £200 graphics card. Makes it really difficult with a monitor and Win 7 on top.

If you are willing to sacrifice pure performance for now (using stock speeds on the i5, and a lesser card), you can just about manage without sacrificing too much on the rest.

You can then save and get a £30 cooler and a £200 card for better performance.


YOUR BASKET
1 x Intel Core i5-2500K 3.30GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor - Retail with FREE Shogun 2 Game £179.99
1 x BenQ G2222HDL 21.5" Widescreen LED Monitor - Black £114.98
1 x Asus P8P67 Intel P67 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard - (Sandybridge) £109.19
1 x XFX ATI Radeon HD 5770 1024MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £94.99
1 x Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium 64-Bit - OEM (GFC-00599) £79.99
1 x Coolermaster HAF 912 Plus Case - Black £59.99
1 x BeQuiet Pure Power L7 530W Power Supply £42.98
1 x OCZ Special OPS 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C8 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (OCZ3SOE1600LV4GK) £39.98
1 x Samsung SpinPoint F3 1TB SATA-II 32MB Cache - OEM (HD105SI) £38.98
1 x Samsung SH-S223C/BEBE 22x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £13.99
Total : £797.99 (includes shipping : £19.10).



Or if your budget allows, add the card (GTX560ti, HD6950) and cooler (Hyper 212+, Titan Fenrir Evo, Antec Kulher) now. You can then use the i5-2500K OEM and few a fiver, although a 3 year warranty is nice.
 
Last edited:
That'd be my build for £800 and no OS and screen, which are a £200 extra on top.


YOUR BASKET
1 x MSI ATI Radeon HD 6950 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £209.99
1 x Intel Core i5-2500K 3.30GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor - Retail with FREE Shogun 2 Game £179.99
1 x Asus P8P67 Intel P67 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard - (Sandybridge) £109.19
1 x Antec TruePower New Modular 750W Power Supply - With FREE 3D Mark 2011 Advance £87.98
1 x Coolermaster HAF 912 Plus Case - Black £59.99
1 x Antec Kúhler H2O 620 CPU Watercooler (Socket Intel LGA 775 / 1155 / 1156 / 1366 / AMD AM2 / AM3 / AM2+ / AM3+) £50.99
1 x OCZ Special OPS 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C8 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (OCZ3SOE1600LV4GK) £39.98
1 x Samsung SpinPoint F3 1TB SATA-II 32MB Cache - OEM (HD105SI) £38.98
1 x Samsung SH-S223C/BEBE 22x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £13.99
Total : £806.08 (includes shipping : £12.50).



Also note that the motherboard is not Revision 3.
 
thanks for the reply. noticed the board youput in isnt b3 revision , does this matter?
here is what i got so far
Intel Core i5-2500K 3.30GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor - Retail with FREE Shogun 2 Game £179.99


Gigabyte GeForce GTX 460 OC 768MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £124.99


BenQ G2222HDL 21.5" Widescreen LED Monitor - Black £114.98


Asus P8P67 LE Intel P67 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard - (Sandybridge) ** B3 REVISION ** £114.98


Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium 64-Bit - OEM (GFC-00599) £79.99


Coolermaster HAF 912 Plus Case - Black £59.99


BeQuiet Pure Power L7 530W Power Supply £42.98

OCZ Special OPS 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C8 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (OCZ3SOE1600LV4GK) £39.98


Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 500GB SATA-II 16MB Cache - OEM (ST3500418AS) £27.98


Samsung SH-S223C/BEBE 22x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £13.99

Total : £822.79
but i cant see where i can svae much more.
 
You could save on the case a little (Zalman Z9, Antec 100), but I think it's best to keep a good case for an extra £20 or so. Not sure how accomodating it is with big graphics cards.

Otherwise looking good.
 
Last edited:
Case looks fine for long cards. You can remove the main 3.5'' bay, you still have a mini bay at the bottom but limits your drive options to a couple, although you can mount some in the 5.25'' bays.

The CPU is retail, and comes with a heatsink and fan. Although not suitable for overclocking, it's suitable for stock speeds.
 
The SB build with the 5770 by Olivier will perform well in games, and you still have the monitor and OS you wanted, but as said, a better gpu at some point would be desirable.
Maybe in a few months you could sell the 5770 for £60ish and get a 460/5850 for around £130.
For a really good gaming pc though, 460/5850 is required imo.
 
Last edited:
really glad of the advice guys, gonna go to work and mull it over.im only a casual gamer so stock speeds would do me i guess. just wanna make the right choices , you know .
 
Overclocking can be something to be done later. If that is not something you want to do, you can try a i5-2400 with a H67.

YOUR BASKET
1 x MSI ATI Radeon HD 6950 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £209.99
1 x Intel Core i5-2400 3.10GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor - Retail £154.99
1 x BenQ G2222HDL 21.5" Widescreen LED Monitor - Black £114.98
1 x Gigabyte H67M-UD2H-B3 Intel H67 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard - (Sandybridge) ** B3 REVISION ** £84.98
1 x Coolermaster HAF 912 Plus Case - Black £59.99
1 x BeQuiet Pure Power L7 530W Power Supply £42.98
1 x OCZ Special OPS 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C8 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (OCZ3SOE1600LV4GK) £39.98
1 x Samsung SH-S223C/BEBE 22x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £13.99
Total : £744.82 (includes shipping : £19.10).



Rough comparison of the processors (at stock). Although you'll the possibility of OCing the 955BE, but not the i5.

http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/288?vs=102

If it's still too much, I'd go with build on post #6.
 
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