Spec me a system for my DAD!

copsey

copsey

copsey

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Joined
17 Mar 2005
Posts
165
hey
My dad wants me to build him a new PC. He'll use it for a decade probably, so it needs to be reliable as I'll be tech support!

Can you help me spec?

- Core i7
- 6GB of DDR3 RAM, XMP? (as i've never had much luck overclocking RAM and I won't be overclocking the system)
- SSD system disk
- Pair of RAID 0 2TB disks
- what case? No windows or lights required, something easy to work with for the next decade with plenty of space (noise and size not an issue)
- What MB? I've always had good experience with Asus, but I don't want to overclock. Ports, etc and reliability is the main requirement.

Thanks in advance! :)
 
What will he be using it for?

i7 is massive overkill for anything less than gaming/video editing/encoding :p

What's the budget as well?
 
With regards to not overclocking, the sandybridge chips these days are pretty much designed for a decent overclock i.e. 3.3 up to 4.2 or 4.4 is pretty standard and doesnt cause any issues on stock cooling, so would that be an option? Its as simple as changing 1 number in BIOS(multiplyer) and clicking GO DADDY GO!

Also is he a gamer, editor or is it just to browse, watch movies, download etc?

And ultimately whats the budget? ~£700 is a healthy budget for a gaming rig these days

Maybe something like this?
The i5-2500K is on offer atm and is cheaper than the OEM version with a 3yr warranty rather than 1yr. I missed that in my pic below



Important Note!: The above build doesnt include an OS!

You can cut about £100 but using a Corsair Builder PSU, the i5-2300 2.8GHz chip and a Arctic cooler for the CPU
 
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Intel Core i7-2600K 3.40GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor Intel Core i7-2600K 3.40GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor £239.99
(£199.99) £239.99
(£199.99)

OCZ Vertex 120GB 2.5" SATA-II Solid State Hard Drive (OCZSSD2-1VTX120G) OCZ Vertex 120GB 2.5" SATA-II Solid State Hard Drive (OCZSSD2-1VTX120G) £134.99
(£112.49) £134.99
(£112.49)

Gigabyte P67A-UD3-B3 Intel P67 Chipset (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard - (Sandybridge) ** B3 REVISION ** Gigabyte P67A-UD3-B3 Intel P67 Chipset (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard - (Sandybridge) ** B3 REVISION ** £109.98
(£91.65) £109.98
(£91.65)

Corsair XMS3 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (CMX8GX3M2A1600C9) Corsair XMS3 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (CMX8GX3M2A1600C9) £64.99
(£54.16) £64.99
(£54.16)

Seagate Barracuda Green 2TB SATA 6Gb/s Hard Drive - OEM (ST2000DL003) Seagate Barracuda Green 2TB SATA 6Gb/s Hard Drive - OEM (ST2000DL003) £55.99
(£46.66) £111.98
(£93.32)

Samsung SH-B123L/BSBP 12x BluRay ROM / 16x DVD±RW Lightscribe SATA-II Optical Drive - Black (OEM) Samsung SH-B123L/BSBP 12x BluRay ROM / 16x DVD±RW Lightscribe SATA-II Optical Drive - Black (OEM) £49.99
(£41.66) £49.99
(£41.66)

Antec 300 Three Hundred Ultimate Gaming Case - Black Antec 300 Three Hundred Ultimate Gaming Case - Black £49.99
(£41.66) £49.99
(£41.66)

BeQuiet Pure Power L7 530W '80 Plus' Power Supply BeQuiet Pure Power L7 530W '80 Plus' Power Supply £44.99
(£37.49) £44.99
(£37.49)

Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro Rev 2 CPU Cooler (Socket 939 / AM2 / AM3 / 775 / 1155/ 1156 / 1366) Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro Rev 2 CPU Cooler (Socket 939 / AM2 / AM3 / 775 / 1155/ 1156 / 1366) £19.99
(£16.66) £19.99
(£16.66)

Sub Total : £689.08
Shipping cost assumes delivery to UK Mainland with:
DPD Next Day Parcel
(This can be changed during checkout) Shipping : £12.50
VAT is being charged at 20.00% VAT : £140.32
Total : £841.90
 
as cookeh said, we really need to know what he's using it for before we spec anything. however, seeing that he will be using it for a looooooong time, a high end spec wont hurt.

not having a budget to go with i went with this:

YOUR BASKET
1 x Intel Core i7-2600K 3.40GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor £239.99
1 x Crucial RealSSD M4 128GB 2.5" SATA 6Gb/s Solid State Hard Drive £183.98
1 x MSI GeForce GTX 560Ti Twin FrozR II 1024MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £178.99
1 x Asrock Z68 Extreme4 Intel Z68 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £139.99
1 x Corsair HX 650W ATX Modular SLI Compliant Power Supply (CMPSU-650HXUK) £104.99
1 x Intel 311 Series 20GB 2.5" SATA-II SLC 25nm Solid State Drive £89.99
1 x Corsair XMS3 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (CMX8GX3M2A1600C9) £64.99
1 x Seagate Barracuda Green 2TB SATA 6Gb/s Hard Drive - OEM (ST2000DL003) £55.99
1 x Thermalright Silver Arrow CPU Cooler (Socket LGA1366/LGA1155/LGA1156/LGA775/AM2/AM3) £50.99
1 x Antec 100 One Hundred Ultimate Gaming Case - Black £43.99
1 x LiteOn IHAS124-19 24x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £16.99
Total : £1,185.89 (includes shipping : £12.50).

if someone could confirm/deny if the cooler will fit in the case that would be great. i know it is listed as a 160mm tall cooler, but its actually 162.7mm.

the small SSD is for the intel smartresponse. i picked this one because it an SLC solid state drive, rather than an MLC. SLC means it can do more writes and rewrites to the disk without wearing out like an MLC drive would

the big SSD is for the operating system and common programs.

i only went for one hard drive because using raid0 on storage drives is asking for trouble, because if one drive fails, you lose everything on both drives

the PSU is more reliable than the universe, and is also an overspec because a PSU's maximum output power reduces over time
 
thanks for your cracking responses guys!

He's not a gamer, but he does want to do HD video processing and handling lots of large photos in lightroom, etc. I do want it high spec on the processor as he won't replace it for a long time, and I meant RAID 1 not 0! oops. So yeah, mirrored data drive and fast SSD for system disk.

Few votes there for the antec gaming case, cool.

Budget - sub 1000, 700-800 would be ideal. No gaming so just a DVI out for his widescreen monitor, and keeping the card down to something a bit less power hungry should drop the internal temperatures and keep the reliability up!

Thanks again all I really appreciate the input!
 
specced with reliability in mind. really wish i could give a go/no go for the cooler fitting in the case

i assume, since your dad isnt a gamer he wont be interested in a crossfire or SLI compatable motherboard:


YOUR BASKET
1 x Intel Core i7-2600K 3.40GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor £239.99
1 x Intel 510 Series "Elmcrest" 120GB 2.5" SATA-3 Solid State Hard Drive £227.99
1 x Asrock Z68 PRO3 Intel Z68 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £105.98
1 x Intel 311 Series 20GB 2.5" SATA-II SLC 25nm Solid State Drive £89.99
1 x Corsair XMS3 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (CMX8GX3M2A1600C9) £64.99
2 x Hitachi Deskstar 5K3000 2TB SATA 6Gb/s 32MB Cache 5900RPM - OEM £54.98
1 x Thermalright Silver Arrow CPU Cooler (Socket LGA1366/LGA1155/LGA1156/LGA775/AM2/AM3) £50.99
1 x Antec 100 One Hundred Ultimate Gaming Case - Black £43.99
1 x Corsair Builder Series CX 430W ATX Power Supply (CMPSU-430CXUK) £39.98
1 x LiteOn IHAS124-19 24x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £16.99
Total : £1,005.86 (includes shipping : £12.50).


once again, small SSD for caching (that wont wear out so fast), big SSD for OS and programs, and two mechanical HDD's in raid 1 for file storage

i doubt that you will need more than onboard graphics for what you are doing

*edit* oops, wrong SSD.
while im at it, heres a spec with a H67 motherboard. it loses some of the goodies from the Z68 chipset, but saves a huge heap of cash (mostly because you dont have two SSD's)


YOUR BASKET
1 x Intel Core i7-2600K 3.40GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor £239.99
1 x Intel 510 Series "Elmcrest" 120GB 2.5" SATA-3 Solid State Hard Drive £227.99
1 x Corsair XMS3 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (CMX8GX3M2A1600C9) £64.99
1 x MSI H67MA-E35 Intel H67 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Micro-ATX Motherboard - (Sandybridge) **B3 REVISION** £59.99
2 x Hitachi Deskstar 5K3000 2TB SATA 6Gb/s 32MB Cache 5900RPM - OEM £54.98
1 x Thermalright Silver Arrow CPU Cooler (Socket LGA1366/LGA1155/LGA1156/LGA775/AM2/AM3) £50.99
1 x Antec 100 One Hundred Ultimate Gaming Case - Black £43.99
1 x Corsair Builder Series CX 430W ATX Power Supply (CMPSU-430CXUK) £39.98
1 x LiteOn IHAS124-19 24x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £16.99
Total : £869.88 (includes shipping : £12.50).
 
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Reapers second build looks good to me.
Would he not need a GFX card at all with the onboard H67 +chip for what he wishes to use it for?
Also to keep in mind 2x 6Gb/s connectors on the MSI board. That doesnt pose much of a problem as the all the drives above are backwards compatible and can connect to a 3Gb/s SATA, Just means the SSD or the HDDs would have to be SATA 3Gb/s, if i've read it all correctly :)
 
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that smartresponse stuff looks pretty amazing, has anyone used it and do they rate it?

Given that I won't be overclocking this, is a 50 quid cooler worth it? Do we still like the 20 quid arctic freezer 7? I put one in a friends PC a while ago and that was very successful.

Are micro atx mb's more prone to overheating?

thanks again
 
By reading through this review
http://www.anandtech.com/show/4329/intel-z68-chipset-smart-response-technology-ssd-caching-review/5

You can see that the SSD Caching will benefit you so much depending on what you do with your system.

If you frequently run a handful of programs say 4 or 5 that will remain in the Cache you have set say 20GB, then you will see a great improvement over a HDD the more you run those applications. If, however, you are constantly loading and installing many programs or applications then the effective improvement will decrease due to the first applications being 'evicted' from the cache.
It looks like a good idea to me and I might well take it up in the future when 30gb drives come down a bit.
If you do go that route you will have to go back to the Z68 boards :) And its also good to have a 6Gb/s HDD.
 
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