The minefield of rig building

monsterhax

monsterhax

monsterhax

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Joined
24 Nov 2011
Posts
30
Hi folks,

Thought it about time I sourced for some knowledgable input as I fear I'm going round and round in circels with too much choice..

I'm thinking of replacing my old system that I built a few years back, it's lasted but feel It's time to upgrade/downsize, the current spec is:

DFI LanParty NF4
AMD Opteron 180 (2.4Ghz)
2x1Gb G.Skill PC3200 CL2-3
7900GTX
X-Fi Fatal1ty
PSU I think is coolermaster
All housed in a Thermaltake Armour Case

I used it for gaming mainly (BF2) but now use the PS3/Xbox (though BF3 64 player...mmmm)

I'm finding the current system taking up to much space and can get quite noisy too after a bit (with just general browsing!)

So have been looking at building a new nice tidy compact system that will take less space, quiet but still give me decent performance. I think the main use I want to spec for is mainly photo editing with PSE 10 maybe a little video editing in the future.

The minefield starts when I start trying to decide on size initially then goes down to mobo CPU ram specs.

So my question's are really, could I build a system in perhaps a m-atx form easily or would atx allow me to claim back my desk compared to the Armour monster, if so what cases come recommended from experience and internals would fit the bill? would dual-core's be sufficient or should i be looking at the sandybridges? will the latest onboard graphics give me enough oomph or do I need to invest in a card also? I've spent hours going back and forth and it all becomes a blur after a few hours .......please help :confused:

I suppose the other key factor is budget, £0-£500 I guess, cheaper the better without compromising too much.

Thanks for reading my waffle either way :)
 
monsterhax said:
I just spotted an i7 2600K going for £185 would that be a good starting point?
Click to expand...

Nope.

YOUR BASKET
1 x Intel Core i5-2500K 3.30GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor - OEM £155.99
1 x OcUK ATI Radeon HD 6850 1024MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card **BLACK FRIDAY SPECIAL DEAL** £99.95
1 x Asus P8P67-M Intel P67 (Socket 1155) DDR3 MicroATX Motherboard ** B3 REVISION ** £94.99
1 x Silverstone Sugo SG01B-F Evolution Aluminium Micro-ATX Case - Black £66.98
1 x Antec High Current Gamer 520W '80 Plus Bronze' Power Supply £56.99
1 x Scythe Shuriken Rev.B Quiet Low Profile CPU Cooler (Socket 939/940/AM2/AM2+/AM3/LGA775/LGA1155/LGA1156/LGA1366) £27.98
1 x Corsair XMS3 4GB (1x4GB) DDR3 PC3-10666C9 1333MHz Single-Channel Module (CMX4GX3M1A1333C9) £19.99
Total : £536.98 (includes shipping : £11.75).



Its small. Its quiet. And its got enough power to play games.
Only problem is you wont be able to use your sound card.
 
Last edited:
Thats a great spec above and I wouldnt change it, as for getting 8GB, well its only £34 for the Kingston kit, so is worth it currently, you have a 64bit OS?
 
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