System spec for Bro's pc.

mickeyfinagin · 9 Jan 2012 at 02:43

Last year you fine fellows checked out my first full pc build spec sheet, it was a £1300 gaming system which has run great. You speced another cheaper build for me a few months later, once again no issues.

My bro ( we are both in our 40's) has decided he needs a new pc, his old dual core 1gig mem, onbord graphics PC world one is dying.
he was looking at another pc world one, but i have persuaded him that they are overpriced for what they are , and with your help again I could build him a much better system.
the system he looked at was this ( hope i don't break the rules, not posting a link just spec details etc and no way is he buying it)

HEWLETPACK HP Pavilion HPE h8-1170uk
Processor Intel® Core™ i7-2600 processor (3.4 GHz, 8 MB L3 cache)
Operating System Windows® 7 Home Premium 64-bit
RAM 8GB
Graphics card Nvidia GeForce GT 545
Hard drive 2TB
Optical disk drive Blu-ray player & SuperMulti DVD burner
Memory card reader 15-in-1 memory card reader
Sound Onboard / High Definition Audio 5.1
Keyboard & Mouse Wireless keyboard and mouse
Total £1000
With a HP 2311x 23" LED-Backlit Monitor
Total £1200

He wants a fast boot up pc for general use, with some basic photo/video editing use and to be able to play games like Bf3 and skyrim at medium to high settings with a decent Fps rate( These are demanding games I know, but things like AA and shadow sync will be switched off)

Ok the components I have looked at are as follows.

Intel Core i5-2500K 3.30GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor - OEM £159.98
Gigabyte Z68AP-D3 Intel Z68 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £84.98
Kingston HyperX Genesis Grey 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit £41.99
MSI GeForce GTX 560Ti OC Twin FrozR II 1024MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £184.99
Or
Asus GeForce GTX 560Ti DirectCU II TOP 1024MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card **Supplied with Battlefield 3 PC Game** £191.99

Crucial RealSSD M4 64GB 2.5" SATA 6Gb/s Solid State Hard Drive £83.99
XFX Pro 650W Core Edition '80 Plus Bronze' Power Supply £69.98
Zalman CNPS10X-Quiet CPU Cooler £32.99
Antec 300 Three Hundred Ultimate Gaming Case - Black £49.99
Samsung SpinPoint F3 1TB SATA-II 32MB Cache - OEM (HD103SJ) £119.99
Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 64-Bit - OEM (GFC-02050) £79.98
Samsung SH-B123L/RSBP 12x BluRay ROM / DVDRW DL & RAM Lightscribe SATA-II Optical Drive - Black (Retail) £59.99
Logitech G500 Gaming Mouse and FREE Boogie Bug AimB.Pad XL Gaming Mouse Surface £36.98

Total £1005

I may be able to get a student windows 7 and I have a spare OCz 700w modular psu so might use that to keep price lower.

How does the spec look,
which is better the better card Msi 560ti or the Asus 560ti
Is there a better Motherboard for my needs.
can I make further cost reductions,
I want to overclock to a stable 4.4ghz, not used gigabyte boards before, my asus one was easy to do.

Any views on these Monitors
BenQ G2222HDL 21.5" Widescreen LED Monitor - Black £119.99
Samsung S24A350H 24" Widescreen LED Monitor - Glossy Black £179.99
IIyama Prolite E2473HDS 24" Widescreen LED Monitor - Black £154.99

Thanks once again for looking at this long list.

stulid · 9 Jan 2012 at 02:51

The GFX card supplied in that pre-built system is poor and I'm sure your brother will be disappointed if he wants to play BF3/Skyrim.

On the other hand your litttle spec list you have come up with looks fine.

which is better the better card Msi 560ti or the Asus 560ti

The ASUS does have a marginally better set of clock speeds on the core and RAM.

Is there a better Motherboard for my needs.

Not unless your brother wants the future option of SLI later on?

can I make further cost reductions,

Not really.

I want to overclock to a stable 4.4ghz, not used gigabyte boards before, my asus one was easy to do.

Simple enough to do with that board.

mickeyfinagin · 9 Jan 2012 at 03:01

Thanks Stulid. I listened to your replies for my first build,that was a great build, your advice is always so welcome.
Yer pc world spec I think is poor.
It's not worth going for oneof these gpu's for the limited amount of gaming he does is it.

ZOTAC GeForce GTX 560Ti "448 Edition" OC 1280MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £227.99
or
OcUK GeForce GTX 560Ti 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £209.99

stulid · 9 Jan 2012 at 03:07

No its not.

fowler002 · 9 Jan 2012 at 08:32

bf3 from what I've read loves more VRAM so as you're already looking at £180-£190 why not spend the little extra and get the ocuk 2gb one(was £196 until recently), or the ati/amd alternative 6950 the powercolor one is £200.

btw the price of the CPU is 'today only' from yesterday and is ending in half an hour, normal price is £174(£14 more).

stulid · 9 Jan 2012 at 08:37

BF3 works perfectly fine here on max settings with less than 2GB Vram.

mickeyfinagin · 9 Jan 2012 at 19:37

Thx for the replies.
I run a gtx 570 and many of my friends use the Gtx 550ti or the gtx560ti.
Not used ATi cards before, Im not a gpu snob or anything, I just want to build a stable system that I dont have to keep going back to. I know you can unlock the 6950 to a 6970, but what I am finding if that if I overclock my 570 by only about 5% BF3 locks up quite often.
Bf3 is from what I read a bitch for overclocked systems.

I dont mind using a ATi card as long as its hazzle free.

Any views on the monitor, or I suppose I should post in the monitor section I have just seen. Doooh!!!!

stulid · 9 Jan 2012 at 19:43

mickeyfinagin said:
I know you can unlock the 6950 to a 6970,

This really depends on the type of 6950 you get, I would actually say dont go buying your card based on the small hope it may unlock, I think the only 6950 at OCUK that has any chance is the Sapphire Dual fan edition.

mickeyfinagin · 9 Jan 2012 at 19:46

Don't think I would try to unlock it Stulid. But a little overclock tweak maybe.
I dont want to go the extra price increase for the better 6950's. Those extra £30-£40 pounds soon mount up.

As previously stated, his old system is so slow, just want to make sure I build him an impressive build for the budget.

fowler002 · 9 Jan 2012 at 22:59

who's been feeding you rubbish about ati/amd cards not being stable?
how is £200 for the powercolor 6950 an extra £30-£40? you're looking at the 560ti which is £185-£192 so £200 is £15 extra at best.

go for the gelid tranquilo rather than the zalman cpu cooler.

does he really need 1tb hard disk NOW? can't you go with 500gb now and get more latter, you can get the wb 500gb cavier blue for £80(price till wednesday when the this week only offers change).

go for the antec truepower new modular 650w psu and use the voucher code ag15 to get 15% off the psu and case, offer details http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?t=18353998

the ssd seems to have gone down a bit to £80

there's some savings you can use the money towards a better graphics card.

Razargh · 9 Jan 2012 at 23:02

I wouldn't buy a Western Digital HDD atm, Seagate is cheaper and a 1TB Seagate is £109.99 Extra £30 for 500Gb more space.

stulid · 9 Jan 2012 at 23:04

Razargh said:
I wouldn't buy a Western Digital HDD atm, Seagate is cheaper

Really?

Razargh · 9 Jan 2012 at 23:10

I didn't notice the 1TB WD £104.99 one.

For 500GB then yes, the WD would be cheaper.

mickeyfinagin · 9 Jan 2012 at 23:16

fowler002 said:
who's been feeding you rubbish about ati/amd cards not being stable?

I was not suggesting ATi cards were not stable, just I have no experience with them, my brother has no idea about pc's so if things are not working quite right he will be on my back.

how is £200 for the powercolor 6950 an extra £30-£40? you're looking at the 560ti which is £185-£192 so £200 is £15 extra at best.

Sorry, i meant that i keep upping the specs in general, £30 -£40 here and there, its starting to mount up, i was comparing the 560 ti to the
Sapphire ATI Radeon HD 6950 "Dual Fan Edition" 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £229.99 inc VAT

beejjacobs · 9 Jan 2012 at 23:20

I was not suggesting ATi cards were not stable, just I have no experience with them, my brother has no idea about pc's so if things are not working quite right he will be on my back.

That's understandable, and if that means you go for the GTX560Ti, then it's still a great card. This is your money. However, AMD cards are good too, people just tend to have a preference anyway.

Best way IMO is to SET a budget, and stick to it!

Razargh · 9 Jan 2012 at 23:23

6950 is better by 10% (Benchmarks) than the 560Ti.

Thought i would just throw it out there.

beejjacobs · 9 Jan 2012 at 23:25

Razargh said:
6950 is better by 10% (Benchmarks) than the 560Ti.

Thought i would just throw it out there.

That is useful, but bear in mind that's probably one benchmark.

This shows that in some cases the 560Ti is better! It depends on the game, settings etc...

mickeyfinagin · 9 Jan 2012 at 23:27

fowler002 said:
who's been feeding you rubbish about ati/amd cards not being stable?

REPLY -I was not saying ATi cards were not stable, I just meant I have had no experience with these cards. My brother has no idea about how pc's work, so any little issue he will be on my back

how is £200 for the powercolor 6950 an extra £30-£40? you're looking at the 560ti which is £185-£192 so £200 is £15 extra at best.

REPLY - What I meant was that the spec of this build is going up in price.
I was comparing the 560ti to the Saphire ATI Radeon HD 6950 "Dual Fan Edition" 2048MB at £229.

go for the gelid tranquilo rather than the zalman cpu cooler.

Reply - Is this a much better performing cooler?

does he really need 1tb hard disk NOW? can't you go with 500gb now and get more latter, you can get the wb 500gb cavier blue for £80(price till wednesday when the this week only offers change).

Reply - No he does not need 1TB, but was trying to keep it high, the PC world one had a 2TB hdd in it, no ssd though so he prob wiil prefer the fast start up that the ssd gives with a smaller hdd. Oh floods are so annoying!!!

go for the antec truepower new modular 650w psu and use the voucher code ag15 to get 15% off the psu and case, offer details http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?t=18353998

Reply _ Will take a look, but I am thinking of just using my spare psu for now.

Razargh · 9 Jan 2012 at 23:28

You're right, it does depend on the game they do trade blows and the 560Ti uses less power and is cheaper (i think) than the 6950.

beejjacobs · 9 Jan 2012 at 23:31

REPLY - What I meant was that the spec of this build is going up in price.

(I said: )

Best way IMO is to SET a budget, and stick to it!

Is this a much better performing cooler?

It is generally the budget one of choice and will be fine for a decent overclock.