Two new builds in pipeline. Checking the obvious.

mediaman

mediaman

mediaman

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6 Sep 2008
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137
I am building 2 new rigs and have been out of the loop for a few years. A new SFF computer as the other half wont stop moaning about my current rig clogging up the living room. The 2nd rig is a HTPC build so she can watch films without nagging me to connect up her laptop to the tv each time.

OK. My basket for my SFF rig is
YOUR BASKET
1 x Intel Core i5-3570K 3.40GHz (Ivybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor (77W) - Retail £179.99
1 x Gigabyte Z77N-WIFI Intel Z77 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Mini ITX Motherboard £98.99
1 x SanDisk Extreme SSD 120GB 2.5" SATA 6Gb/s Solid State Hard Drive - (SDSSDX-120G-G25) £84.98
1 x BitFenix Prodigy Mini-ITX Cube Case - Midnight Black £64.99
1 x Corsair Vengeance Low Profile 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (CML8GX3M2A1600C9) £49.99
Total : £492.44 (includes shipping : £11.25).



I have a few questions here.

1st and foremost, is this build complete? Am I missing anything obvious... Bare in mind I have a monitor, keyboard and mouse plus PSU from previous build and also optical drive and multiple HDD's.
The PSU out of my old computer is a Corsair 1000w moduler PSU about 3 or 4 years old. I am assuming this PSU will have all connections required for this setup and that it will fit in the prodigy?
On the SSD front. Is that SSD representative on performance compared to other similarly priced SSD's? If not can someone spec me an alternative.

As for operating system. I have retail windows vista ultimate. The computer I purchased this for is kaput and I still have the discs etc. Am I right in assuming I could install vista to take advantage of a windows 7/8 upgrade? as opposed to having to buy a retail version of windows 7 or 8? I am considering windows 7 on my every day machine and windows 8 for my htpc build running xbmc. What are peoples thoughts on this... would you skip windows 7 entirely and have windows 8 on both... oh the decisions. :)

I think thats it on that build although I might have forgotten something else. :p

For the HTPC I currently have this lined up...
YOUR BASKET
1 x AMD A10-5700 3.40GHz (Socket FM2) APU Trinity Quad Core Processor (AD5700OKHJBOX) £91.99
1 x Gigabyte F2A75M-D3H AMD A75 Chipset (Socket FM2) DDR3 Micro ATX Motherboard £69.98
1 x Intel 330 Series 60GB 2.5" SATA 6Gb/s Solid State Hard Drive - Retail £59.99
1 x Silverstone Milo ML03 HTPC Case - Black (SST-ML03B) £52.99
1 x Patriot Viper "Black Mamba" Generation 3 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-17000C11 2133MHz Dual CHannel Kit (PV38G213C1K) £49.99
1 x Corsair Builder Series CX 430W V2 '80 Plus Bronze' Power Supply (CP-9020046-UK) £36.98
1 x TP-Link 300Mbps Wireless-N USB Adapter (TL-WN821N) £12.98
Total : £389.02 (includes shipping : £11.75).



Thoughts and opinions on RAM or PSU welcome. Any obvious booboos made?

Also can someone spec a remote control for the above build. I read a guy mention in a thread a couple of days ago that you can pwer on and cold boot into windows 8 just using a remote control. Is that the case or have I misunderstood? I have been unable to find anything more on this.

Anyway, thanks for taking the time to read this. I have so many questions that I half know the answers to but am just seeking clarification on before taking the plunge. Cheers. :)
 
Firstly, everything is compatible...

Second Rig looks good..

Just wondering about the first (yours).. What do you use it for? Do you play games? or just use it for browsing ect..

It'd be helpful to know what PSU it is as it may be too long for the prodigy (not sure)..
 
Thanks for replying.

Ive just been onto order history and found the PSU to be a Corsair HX 1000W ATX Modular SLI Compliant Power Supply (CMPSU-1000HXUK).

The prodigy build is purely for browsing, encoding etc. Ive had big expensive graphics cards in the past and just dont get any use out of them. I used to play fsx once in a blue moon but not enough to warrant spending any money on.
 
mediaman said:
Thanks for replying.

Ive just been onto order history and found the PSU to be a Corsair HX 1000W ATX Modular SLI Compliant Power Supply (CMPSU-1000HXUK).

The prodigy build is purely for browsing, encoding etc. Ive had big expensive graphics cards in the past and just dont get any use out of them. I used to play fsx once in a blue moon but not enough to warrant spending any money on.
Click to expand...

Unfortunately your PSU won't fit in the prodigy

Your PSU length is 200mm and the Prodigy only accepts up 160mm..

Sources: http://www.bitfenix.com/global/en/products/chassis/prodigy#specs
http://www.corsair.com/professional-series-hx1000-80-plus-certified-modular-power-supply.html

What do you mean by encoding? Is it Video's and do you do it often?

You could possible move your Rig to a trinity which would offer you the opportunity to play games (at medium/highish) setting if you'd like too..

You second rig looks spot on, though personally i'd of gone for the 5800k..
 
Thats a bummer about the psu, can anyone recommend a psu, preferrably Corsair and preferrably modular that would fit in the prodigy and be ample power for an ivybridge i5 with scope to add multiple hard drives.

I havnt really considered AMD for my main rig since my last AMD setup back in the Athlon/Barton days. To be honest, AMD is probably the sensible choice given my habits but Id just prefer to have processor power in my pocket if you know what I mean.
 
Here are some options:

YOUR BASKET
1 x Corsair Enthusiast Series TX650M High Performance 650W '80 Plus Bronze' Modular Power Supply (CP-9020039-UK) £86.99
1 x Seasonic G series 550w '80 Plus Gold' Modular Power Supply £76.99
1 x BeQuiet Pure Power L8 530W '80 Plus Bronze' Modular Power Supply - With 120mm Silent Wing Fan Built in £66.95
1 x Seasonic G series 360w '80 Plus Gold' Power Supply £48.98
Total : £291.91 (includes shipping : £10.00).



Obviously If you want to add a GPU later the 380W option may not be the best plan, though the rest will easily handle any GPU..

Seasonic are really the PSU elite, so to see them at a decent price is always worth a mention.

mediaman said:
I havnt really considered AMD for my main rig since my last AMD setup back in the Athlon/Barton days. To be honest, AMD is probably the sensible choice given my habits but Id just prefer to have processor power in my pocket if you know what I mean.
Click to expand...

I know exactly what you mean.. The 3570k will prvide you with all the power (and more) that you need. :)
 
Thanks a lot mate.

In my previous build I went all out on a decent cooler but I dont think I can be bothered with aftermarket CPU cooling unless the stock coolers are absolutely terrible. I had my Q6600 under a tuniq tower and still didnt overclock it except for when I first got it for about a week. :cool: What are the coolers like with the intel and amd cpu's respectively? Does the thermal compound come pre-applied or will I need dig out the mx2?
 
Stock coolers come with it pre-applied.. Not sure how the coolers perform as i've not used them, though they can't be that bad (right?)

The prodigy has lots of room so you can even fit a NH D14 or a Silver Arrow in, so if/when you need to the possibilities are endless..

What PSU do you like the look of?
 
The seasonic 550w psu looks good but to be honest im still sore that my old corsair is surplus to requirements, as one of the reasons why I bought a 1000w psu with my last build was to "future-proof" myself somewhat. Plus it is an additional expense I hadnt budgeted for in my mind.

When I built my last rig it all ended up in one of these Lian Li PC-V2110 :D where there was no such thing as case restrictions. I have since moved in with the bird and have been nagged for 3 years about the case being too big, it looking ugly etc etc. The case and PSU were supposed to be kept for the long haul but it seems they have both fallen at the 1st overhaul.
 
It is a shame, that is a lovely case, obviously not to a lady type person though.. :)

It's a sad fact that a big PSU (in power and size) needs a big case. It makes sense as you can't go SLI or Xfire on an ITX board..

Im Sure you'll scrape in a few £'s by selling them though, so think of it as additional income..

a lot of components are getting more power friendly too. The new 7*** series and 6** series don't use anyway near as much power as the old 5*** and 4**'s did..

You'd easily run an overclocked 3570k and a GTX 680 of a 550W PSU, with no sleepless nights.

And things will continue in that direction too. So this seasonic PSU would be Fuuture proofing yourself. :)
 
Ive ordered the parts for the 1st build including the seasonic psu. Ive also ordered the milo case for the htpc build but will get the other parts for that in a few weeks. Thanks for your help. :cool:
 
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