Starter for 10?

MrJubbly

MrJubbly

MrJubbly

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Joined
20 Jan 2007
Posts
129
Hi,

It's been over 10 years since I built my last PC and I've got the itch to do it again. Before I start coming up with some specs though I was looking for some general guidance.

The PC will be my main home PC and used mainly for video and photo processing, data streaming, internet and as a general work horse. Not much interested in overclocking, or using the machine for gaming at present, though I would like to have the option.

My main main priorites are:

1) Must be quiet, but with no water cooling.
2) As small as possible. SFF if at all possible.
3) High performance/longevity. My last PC has stood me in good stead this long so would like this one to do the same.

For now lets assume a budget of £1000. I do need some other peripheral stuff too (a new monitor, keyboard and OS spring immediatly to mind), so once I have a general direction to go in I can start to chop and change to fit. It's just getting that general direction to start with that I'm having difficulty with.

Any thoughts/help/gudance much appreciated.

Thanks,

MrJubbly
 
Hi,

You're right, I should've at least given my current 'old' spec.

Looking back, it turns out it is only 7 years old afterall. Anyways spec is as follows:

Mobo = Asus P5B Deluxe
CPU = Intel Core 2 Duo E6320, Socket 775 (1.8GHz)
Memory = GeIL 4GB (4x1GB) PC6400C4 800MHz Ultra Low Latency DDR2
GFX = BFG GeForce 8800 GTS OC2 320MB GDDR3 HDTV/Dual DVI
PSU = Corsair HX 620W ATX2.2 Modular SLI Compliant

I don't think any of this is any good to re-use, and besides, I 'm sure it's the Graphics card and PSU that are the greatest noise offenders in the setup.

There's also a couple of HDDs in there, running in as a RAID 0 pair, plus another single HDD, but they are low capacity compared to what's current now, so not sure if I'd re-use these. I'd be looking for SSD for the main OS/program disk and then possibly a couple large capacity HDDs in RAID 1 for data storage. Open to suggestions though.

I've got a reasonable soundcard and DVD re-writer I'd possibly re-use, though I do need Blu-Ray reader too.

I would say the photo/video processing was light. Current setup seems to cope for the most part, but everything else gets a bit clunky around it.

At the end of the day I'm hoping to build a quiet (fanless if possible), compact (smaller than the Lian-Li PC-7 Plus I currently have), with a reasonable amount of oomph to stand me in good stead for the next 5+ years without being too extreme (not that you could for the budget I've currently set anyways :D).

Thanks

MrJubbly
 
ExRayTed said:
YOUR BASKET
1 x Intel Core i7-4771 3.50GHz (Haswell) Socket LGA1150 Processor - Retail £239.99
1 x Samsung 250GB SSD 840 EVO SATA 6Gb/s Basic - (MZ-7TE250BW) £146.99
1 x HIS HD 7870 IceQ X 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card (H787QN2G2M) £143.99
1 x Adata XPG Xtreme v1.0 16GB (2x8GB) DDR3 PC3-17100C10 2133MHz Dual Channel Memory Kit (AX3U2133XW8G10-2X) £129.95
1 x Antec EA 550w '80 Plus Platinum' Power Supply £83.99
1 x BitFenix Prodigy M MATX Cube Case - Midnight Black £74.95
1 x Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache WD10EZEX - OEM ** Single Platter ** HDD £54.95
1 x Asus H81M-C Intel H81 (Socket 1150) DDR3 Micro ATX Motherboard £43.99
1 x Alpenföhn Matterhorn Pure Edition CPU Cooler £29.99
1 x Pioneer 24x Internal DVR-221LBK DVD Rewriter - OEM £14.99
3 x BitFenix Spectre Plain BLACK 120mm Fan £5.99 (£17.97)
Total : £995.83 (includes shipping : £11.75).

Click to expand...

Thanks for the spec ExRayTed. Would you be able to give me a bit of reasoning behind some for your picks. I'm completely out of touch with things these days, so would be interested to know.

Like I say, I'm after Quite, Small, and some reasonable grunt. How do the CPU cooler, GPU, PSU and fans fair on the sound front? Also, I assumed I would need to go down the mATX route to get down to the smaller case, but I was expecting (naivly) that I would need to be paying more in general for a mobo. I'm not complaining, just want to make sure I'm not skimping in the wrong places.

I assume, going with an i7 over an i5, is more for giving me a bit of future proofing. Also why is it that the Haswell chips are so highly rated (told you I was out of touch)?

Any further info much appreciated.

Thanks,

MrJubbly
 
Thanks Danny,

Like the spec.

Danny75 said:
The mobo has the best chipset (Z87) for Haswell and a bit more "oomph" without going extreme*. It's got Wifi/Bluetooth. Also WiDi if you want to stream wirelessly to a HD/Smart TV with WiDi function.
Click to expand...

I think I might go with the Z87 chipset. You've gone for ITX vs mATX. Is ITX fiddly to work with? Guess is depends on the case, but I've only worked with ATX before, so don't really know.

Danny75 said:
The Phenom case has no vents on the side panel, which should help keep noise down a bit more.
Click to expand...

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't think this case, or its mATX brother, has any exteral 5.25 bays. I couldn't see anything in the specs and can't find any pics that show the front panel as being able to be opened. Any other recommends?

Cheers,

MrJubbly
 
lee32uk said:
See this thread for browser addons

http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?t=18371076

Or if you are using chrome - https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/ocuk-shopping-cart-viewer/empfloiadabicdlgahhamannadefhehj
Click to expand...

Thanks for that lee32uk, and everyone else for their help so far.

This is what I’ve come up with so far….

YOUR BASKET
1 x Intel Core i7-4771 3.50GHz (Haswell) Socket LGA1150 Processor - Retail £239.99
1 x Microsoft Windows 8.1 Pro 64-Bit DVD - OEM (FQC-06949) £106.99
1 x Asus Z87M-PLUS Intel Z87 (Socket 1150) DDR3 Micro ATX Motherboard £103.99
1 x Samsung 120GB SSD 840 EVO SATA 6Gb/s Desktop Kit - (MZ-7TE120KW) £89.99
1 x Silverstone TemJin TJ08B-E Midi Tower Case - Black (SST-TJ08B-E USB 3.0) £83.99
2 x Western Digital Caviar Black 1TB SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache - OEM (WD1002FAEX) HDD £76.99 (£153.98)
1 x Seasonic G series 550w '80 Plus Gold' Modular Power Supply £74.99
1 x LG BH16NS40 16x SATA Internal BDRW - Retail £73.99
1 x Logitech Wireless MK520 Desktop (920-002606) £45.98
Total : £988.90 (includes shipping : £12.50).



I’m reasonably happy with the case, though I’ve read in places where people have reported noise issues with the front 180 fan. I’ve had a look to see if there are any on the market I could get as a possible dead cert quite replacement, but there don’t seem to be any around. Will the Silverstone 180 be okay? The 180 can be replaced with a 140 but not sure how detrimental to air flow that would be.

Umming and ahhhing over the HDD’s. A lot of people are recommending both the WD’s and the Barracudas. Obviously the Seagates are a darn site cheaper. The WDs have a longer warranty. So far the WD’s seem to be slightly winning in the reliability and quietness stakes, in terms of the user experiences I’ve seen on variaous forums. Is it enough to pay the premium though??

Still undecided on GPU. So far my searching has revolved around a GTX660 and I presently have the following down on the short list (apologies if some of these are not currently stocked at OC):

  • EVGA GeForce GTX 660 FTW ACX 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card
  • EVGA GTX 660 Superclocked, 28nm, 6008MHz GDDR5, GPU 1046MHz, Boost 1111MHz, Cores 960
  • Gigabyte GeForce GTX 660 Windforce 2X NVIDIA Graphics Card - 2GB
  • MSI GTX 660 GAMING, Twin Frozr IV, PCIe 3.0 (x16), 6008MHz GDDR5, GPU 1033
Case manual says the card should exhaust to the rear (not not sure how you tell) and be no longer than 13"?

Any guidance on GPU selction appreciated.

The same applies for memory, and I’m really at a bit of loss here. The RAM needs to be low profile, no higher than 58mm. Was hoping for 16GB in a 2x8 arrangement too. Also, I’m not sure whether I can deviate from ASUS’s QVL either. So far all I’ve come up with is:

  • Corsair CML16GX3M2A1600C10 Vengeance Low Profile 16GB (2x8GB) DDR3 1600 Mhz CL10 XMP Performance Desktop Memory...
  • Kingston KHX16C9K2/16X Memory Module 16 GB / 1600 MHz / 240-Pin / CL9 / 2x 8 GB / DDR3-RAM Kit (a 4x4 I know).
  • Kingston Technology KHX21C11X3K4/16X HyperX 10th Anniversary Series 16GB 2133MHz DDR3 CL11 DIMM Memory Module... (Not on QVL)
  • Patriot 16GB DDR3 Viper 3 Mamba Dual Channel 2 x 8GB 2133MHz 1.5v XMP 1.3 Ready Memory Kit – Black (Not on QVL)
That just leaves the CPU cooler and at least one 140 fan for the rear. Not got a clue on this one, and I think each recommenation on this thread has been different, so no common theme. What I can say is that the CPU cooler should be no taller than 165mm and not much deeper (I reckon 175mm, but smaller would be better). Does that help limit things?

Finally, I'm after a monitor too. Looking at the Asus VX239H or maybe the Asus PA238Q.

There's a lot of question in there, I know, but I hope you guys can giude me in the right direction.

Many Thanks,

MrJubbly
 
Thanks Doomspeed. This is great.

How do you find the TJ08? My only concern was over the front fan. I'd read in a couple of places that there have been some isolated noise issues (whining or bearing rattles). Are you using the supplied fan, or have you replaced it with another 180, or even down graded to a 140? Are you running an exhaust fan too?

Take your point re the motherboard and overclocking. I was looking more from the 'expandability' aspect. I thought the boards on the lower end of the chipset levels seem to be more restricive. I shall have to look into this further.

Are you using the SP120's? They get good reviews re cooling ability, but people do say they are noisy when running at full. They do have voltage step downs supplied, but I assume that is hardset and to have more variable control would require a fan controller?

Thanks Again,

MrJubbly
 
Hi Doomedspeed,

Don't think I can go for the B85 board because I don't think it has onboard RAID. I think a H87 should do the trick though. I think the H87M-D3H should fit the bill.

Cheers,

MrJubbly
 
Doomedspeed said:
Oh?
Click to expand...

Tablet trouble. Posted the earlier reply twice, in error, and didn't know how to delete.

I think I'm more or less sorted now, other than the monitor. May need to wait for the D3H as it doesn't seem to be up on the website at the mo. Got to wait till after Christmas now anyway before I can buy this little lot. Something to look forward to in the New Year :D

Thanks everyone for your help.

Merry Christmas All

MrJubbly
 
Hi All,

Decided I'd give myself the flexibility of being able to do a bit of OC'ing, should the need/fancy arise, so hopefully this is getting close to my final spec now:

COLOR="Yellow"]YOUR BASKET[/COLOR]
1 x Intel Core i7-4770K 3.50GHz (Haswell) Socket LGA1150 Processor - Retail £239.99
1 x Kingston HyperX Beast 16GB (2x8GB) PC3-19200C11 2400MHz Dual Channel Kit (KHX24C11T3K2/16X) £169.99
1 x Microsoft Windows 8.1 Pro 64-Bit DVD - OEM (FQC-06949) £106.99
1 x Samsung 120GB SSD 840 EVO SATA 6Gb/s Desktop Kit - (MZ-7TE120KW) £97.99
1 x Gigabyte Z87M-D3H Intel Z87 (Socket 1150) DDR3 Micro ATX Motherboard £95.99
1 x Silverstone TemJin TJ08B-E Midi Tower Case - Black (SST-TJ08B-E USB 3.0) £83.99
1 x LG BH16NS40 16x SATA Internal BDRW - Retail £79.99
1 x Seasonic G series 550w '80 Plus Gold' Modular Power Supply £74.99
2 x Seagate Barracuda 7200RPM 1TB SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache - OEM (ST1000DM003) HDD £47.99 (£95.98)
1 x Logitech Wireless MK520 Desktop (920-002606) £45.98
1 x Cooler Master Hyper 412S CPU Cooler £28.99
Total : £1,135.87 (includes shipping : £12.50).



I've not got the GPU on the list as I am sticking with the MSI GTX 660 GAMING, Twin Frozr IV, but that is not in stock at the moment. I may also change the CPU Cooler over to a Mugen 4, as I have read good things about them recently.

Is the spec above all in order? Are there any final tweaks I should make?

Thanks,

MrJubbly
 
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