Spec me a system £800 to spend

OK after doing a lot of reading I think I will scrub the SSD. To much time needed to set this up at the moment. I'm going with extra RAM instead (is this a good idea?) Am I better with 4X4 sticks 16Gig or 2X8Gig
The water cooler has gone up in price, would you still use it or recommend another. Keep in mind my budget of £800, should I stick with the same mobo?



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I would personally stick with 8GB at the moment. See how you get on... if you feel it's a bottleneck... then just order another 8GB and slot it in. No hassle there.

I agree with scrapping the SSD as I feel they are extremely over rated (only person on here to think so) However, same as the RAM. If you feel that the hard drive is a bottleneck. Just buy an SSD.

It's easier to save cash and then buy more things IF you need them. No point splashing it all out and realising it makes no difference.

I would also scrap the over priced liquid cooler. Stick with a £30 HSF.
 
Intel Core i5-2500K 3.30GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor - Retail with FREE TrackMania 2 Canyon PC Game £167.99
Asus P8Z68-V Intel Z68 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £131.99
Microsoft Windows 7 Bundle - Home Premium 64 Bit £68.40
Options applied to the above product:
Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 1TB SATA 6Gb/s 32MB Cache - OEM (ST31000524AS) £47.99
Antec TruePower New Modular 550W '80 Plus Bronze' Power Supply £59.99
Corsair XMS3 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (CMX8GX3M2A1600C9) £47.99
Zalman Z9 Plus Tower Case with Fan Controller - Black £42.98
Gelid Tranquillo CPU Cooler (Socket 754/939/940/AM2/AM2+/AM3/LGA775/LGA1155/LGA1156/LGA1366) £24.98
Asus 24x DVD±RW DRW-24B3ST - Retail (Black) £19.99
(This can be changed during checkout) Shipping : £13.75
Total : £628.80


That would be me then, with any GPU you like. I like a good quality mobo.

BTW, you have a i5-2500, non 'K' version, therefore wiltha locked multiplier, therefore crap at overclocking :) Get a 2500K.
 
Buchanan0204 said:
I would personally stick with 8GB at the moment. See how you get on... if you feel it's a bottleneck... then just order another 8GB and slot it in. No hassle there.
Click to expand...

yup. I bet 8GB will be enough.

I agree with scrapping the SSD as I feel they are extremely over rated (only person on here to think so) However, same as the RAM. If you feel that the hard drive is a bottleneck. Just buy an SSD.
Click to expand...

Dunno... found them pretty handy, especially for proper work (visual studio, ect, photoshop, ...).

It's easier to save cash and then buy more things IF you need them. No point splashing it all out and realising it makes no difference.

I would also scrap the over priced liquid cooler. Stick with a £30 HSF.
Click to expand...

Yes. In the same spirit, you can add the cooler later, if you feel you want a better GPU or whatever. a 2500K is fast, and a cooler non-essential.

Similarly, the case is not the quietest, but that can be easily fixed with decent but cheap fans.
 
I would say 8GB is ample too, like buch says it's no hassle to add more later.

You haven't ordered the i5 2500K.....was that deliberate or did you click on the wrong CPU?

An SSD will decrease loading times, although I still think they are expensive and not 100% trouble free. The liquid cooler is really down to preference, it has it's advantages but you are paying more than you have to when a aircooler would work just as well.
 
You haven't ordered the i5 2500K.....was that deliberate or did you click on the wrong CPU?

I clicked on the wrong CPU.............point me in the right direction.........pleezzzzzzzzeeee. It's doing me head in
 
Well, here's one close to final.

Intel Core i5-2500K 3.30GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor - Retail with FREE TrackMania 2 Canyon PC Game £167.99
Asus P8Z68-V Intel Z68 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £131.99
Sapphire ATI Radeon HD 6850 1024MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card with FREE DIRT3 & Deus Ex PC Games £119.99
Microsoft Windows 7 Bundle - Home Premium 64 Bit £68.40
Options applied to the above product:
Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 1TB SATA 6Gb/s 32MB Cache - OEM (ST31000524AS) £47.99
Antec TruePower New Modular 550W '80 Plus Bronze' Power Supply £59.99
Corsair XMS3 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (CMX8GX3M2A1600C9) £47.99
Zalman Z9 Plus Tower Case with Fan Controller - Black £42.98
Gelid Tranquillo CPU Cooler (Socket 754/939/940/AM2/AM2+/AM3/LGA775/LGA1155/LGA1156/LGA1366) £24.98
Asus 24x DVD±RW DRW-24B3ST - Retail (Black) £19.99
(This can be changed during checkout) Shipping : £13.75
Total : £748.79
 
Ollie,

Asus P8Z68-V Intel Z68 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £131.99
Click to expand...

I'm just after checking out that mobo, do you have personal experience of it? Reading reciews it would appear seeting up the onboard SSD can be a bit of a pain. Any thoughts or alternatives. I love the idea of the bluetooth on it.


Zalman Z9 Plus Tower Case with Fan Controller - Black £42.98
Click to expand...
I still prefer the Shinobi. I know the non windowed one is out of stock but I could go for the windowed version

Gelid Tranquillo CPU Cooler (Socket 754/939/940/AM2/AM2+/AM3/LGA775/LGA1155/LGA1156/LGA1366)
Click to expand...
Which type of Arctic paste should I get. Arctic Siver or M3
 
Euge said:
I'm just after checking out that mobo, do you have personal experience of it? Reading reciews it would appear seeting up the onboard SSD can be a bit of a pain. Any thoughts or alternatives. I love the idea of the bluetooth on it.
Click to expand...

No direct experience. It's an Asus (you like), and it's basically the P8Z68-V Pro without the extra SATA and USB connectors. Alternatively, there is the Extreme 4. Of course, further up the line, you have the Extreme4 Gen 3 but it's an extra £25.

The Asus SB boards are a bit weird. They have double post issues (which iirc is by design), I haven't read on SSD problems, which they might have. From what I read, the OCZ SSDs have problems, but I really hate that SSD (not reliable, not something you want on a drive). If there are incompatibilities with SSDs, those are 99% resolved with bios updates. The Z68 Extreme 4 is well regarded as well.

I still prefer the Shinobi. I know the non windowed one is out of stock but I could go for the windowed version
Click to expand...

The Shinobi is a bit of all right. the Windowed version comes with a rear fan as well. It's got room inside, and not too brash. Good case, more expensive, is the CoolerMaster CM 690 II Lite. Very popular. You never see it on offer :)

Which type of Arctic paste should I get. Arctic Siver or M3
Click to expand...

Personally I don't see the need for paste, unless you plan on maxing the overclocking and want to get a few extra degrees down. Gain would be under 10 degrees (5-6C?) against whatever paste comes with the Tranquillo / cooler. I'd choose MX-4, tried and tested, non conductive, good performance, easy to apply. I use that on a H50 And I've got good temps.
 
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if you don't mind the colour than http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MY-300-CS&groupid=701&catid=8&subcat=1517 2 for under £80(well £79.98) tho you'll have to make 2 orders as seems you can only order one(tho with the kingstonston hyperx genesis grey people did 2 orders when it was £40 to get around the restriction). I would have gone for it if not for the colour.

if you do get that then not sure if it would interfer with the tranquillo or not, someone on here bought the black version of the ram and has pics of it showing the cooler not blocking the 1st ram slot. not sure what motherboard they had.

if you want to go with the liquid cooling route then have a look at the corsair h60 which is now only £10 more than the ocuk h20flo(which when you add a fan ends up costing about the same as the corsair), if you have any spare 120mm fans at home you could try swaping them about with the bundled fan to see if it makes any difference to the temps/noise.

btw do you not get free shipping?
 
Yeah if you notice on oliver spec (post no 23) its say i5-2500K. The K means it's unlocked so you can overclock it. Non K CPUs can't really be improved upon. The pic of your basket show the non K CPU. Don't want you ordering the wrong CPU by accident.

Mobo is really down to your preference of cost and features. I would suggest a Z series with a video output compatible with your monitor. It'll be handy when you come to build the rig, i promise.

I agree with Oliver. Paste will come with the stock heatsink as well as the aftermarket heatsink, sometimes it's already applied. Might as well save your money IMHO.
 
Yep, did that and it accepted it. But the shipping still shows on bill. I don't have a problem with it. DPD are local to me and I can pick the goods up as soon as they arrive. Which is better than waiting for some no-name courier who can't find my house !!
 
For Better for worse, I ordered, went with a mix of ollie and buchanan, Got the gigabyte mobo instead of the ASUS. Got the ATI HD 6670, figured that card was more than adequate for my needs. Went with 16Gig RAM. Took Ollies advice in his last post and went for the Zalman Z9 case



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Thanks for all your help.
Now the fun begins...........sticking it all together
 
Thanks a million, I appreciate that. I've put them together before so I shold be ok. Setting the BIOS should be some fun.
 
Did some more reading on the ASUS mobo. Updated my order today. The more I read, the more I liked it's feature set plus my existing rig has an ASUS. I feel I'm getting the best of both worlds, built in 20Gig SSD which can be used to cache most used programs. Bluetooth will be useful as well. Hmmmmmmmmmmmm I think I convinced myself :D

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MB-458-AS £130
 
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