what should i do for a 1st build?

jaxx1

jaxx1

jaxx1

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4 Nov 2009
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hi to all. im looking into building my 1st system. this will be my 1st ever build. i have been reading over some guides on here, pointers and other sections of this forum and have found loads of advice, tips, terminology etc etc. i recentley took apart my current computer, cleaned it and put it all back togeather and though....I WANT TO BUILD ONE FROM SCRATCH.

Anyway to the point of this thread:

im after building a system. now i was thinking of buying cheap parts to build a cheapo. but i wanted to look at overclocking down the line so i keep getting drawn to the i5, i7 systems but there are so many motherboards, must i cant really see much difference e.g:

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MB-320-AS

and this:

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MB-320-AS

the one immediatley a bove has 'SE' in the model code....can they be that different to justify £30?

anyway i have seen bundles from overclockers, ebay and various other sites to get you started. e.g CPU, motherboard and some RAM. and have even seem some 'what look like' good deals at a computer fair.

basically i dont know if i should build a cheapo or go to town with an i5/i7 system.

any thoughts...
 
What are you wanting to do with the system?

If it is purely gaming then I suggest going for an i5 (if you can afford it).
If you want it mainly for CPU heavy tasks like video encoding, CAD, photoshop etc. then i7 (X58 chipset) is the best plan.

Those two motherboards are very similar, they both over clock very well - them main difference is that the P6T has SLI support, the P6T SE doesn't. Remember, this board only supports the socket 1366 Core i7 CPUs.
 
depends on how confident you are to be honest.

i started out with a bought pc (£750) a few years back, decided i no longer liked the look of it and bought a new tower, installed everything in it. And although that pretty much was a new build, i went on to buying slightly more expensive parts and doing everything from scratch.

If i were you, you could pick up a pretty cheap Q6600 or other quad for about £90, get a decent 775 motherboard for about £65, a gtx 275 or 5850 and the rest is up to you, or jump right in with a i5/i7 setup. not too much can go wrong as long as you take your time - but its going to cost you more money with a build like that.

depends how confident you are, and how much your willing to spend.

also would you watercool or air cool it?

SLI or CrossFire etc etc..
 
toon_mad said:
also would you watercool or air cool it?
Click to expand...


I dont normally bash but thats a bit of a silly question. Considering hes new to building and im guessing not overly clued up on the tech watercooling is def a NO NO Unless a) he using the h50 or b) he can afford to ruin every component and replace it. Some experienced builders still end up frying parts due to iffy waterloop connectors.


The most noticable difference between the P6t and the P6t SE is the P6tSE only caters for crossfire gpu support where the P6t caters for sli and crossfire gpu setups. If memory serves me right the regualr p6t has mrre usb ports etc etc.

At the end of the day your budget dictates what you can do. The most important thing in building is taking your time especially it your new to it.
Try and come up with a budget and we'll try and steer you in the right direction.
 
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i was just getting some background info, as it can soon end up been pricey etc..

could advise to save him some money towards better parts, he would be better of on air i agree.
 
this months custom pc has a nice little system builder guide its proberly the best writen one i have seen for a while
 
I don't see any reason not to go for the more expensive system rather than "run scared" and try something cheap to start with. The building technique will be the same.

So long as a little common sense is used and no power is applied till everything is right there should be no problems.

Fitting the CPU, applying thermal compound and fitting a third party heat sink is the most nerve wracking part of the build in my opinion. If he goes for a stock cooler with the thermal paste already applied there is less room for error. Also - to make things easier he should get a nice big easy to work with case even if it is a bit more expensive.

Just build the thing up in the right order slowly and methodically and come onto these forums to ask any and all questions that arise - and what could go wrong :)

I personally find that spendin a week or two thinking about components, researching reviews, getting advice and pricing things up is half the fun.
 
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Asus P6T STD
Core i7 920 2.66Ghz
6Gb 1600Mhz RAM
Noctua SE1366
Corsair 650w HX
1Gb GTX 285
Samsung 320Gb
2X Samsung 1000Gb
Akasa Card Reader
LG H20L BD Writer
Chill Factor 2
8pin Extension
140mm Cooling Fans

this is what i had made up (on paper) but it never happened. really want to build it myself now anyway.

if theres anything you want to add, take anything off please feel free. i was looking at getting 2 barracuda 1.5TB instead of the 2 samsung 1TB. maybe up the RAM a little. looking around £7/800 really. might be going over my self here a little but yeah pritty confident, loads of tips on here and people seem willing to help out on the most complex tasks and instalments to the most ridiculous questions which is whats really joined me here. so thank for that!

main purpose was for multitasking. 2 screens, 1 playing a game, the other playing music, downloading music, copying music, transfering files from one format to another. ps3 to psp blah blah! not an everyday operation lol but somtimes yi i like quick responces and no loading times! dont we all.

air cooled yi, would love to go liquid cooled, but might cross that road when i get my head around overclocking!

SLI or Crossfire? got an idea but if anyone wants to give me a quick lesson feel free...

is it worth finding out exactley what i have in my current pc? see what can be used? didnt fink of upgrading, new tower etc. although i know its a intel pentium 4. 3.00GHz 2GB RAM (dont quote me on the RAM!)

if the only difference is that the P6T can handle SLI and Crossfire surley you wouldnt use both.....i will wait for the lesson lol

will defo get the custom PC mag asap! thanks for that!

ive been researching and getting my head around most of this stuff for about 2weeks now and yi its been fun. just want to get started now.

sorry for making this a little long winded but least you guys know what im doing...

thanks to all!
 
Pretty good spec. Should all work well together, though I have some suggestions if your interested:

- The P6T is a good choice, a solid overclocker. Also, as you say you can't do SLI and Crossfire at the same time but because it gives you the option to pick any card you like - and know that you can add in a second at a later date. To do that with the P6T SE you would have to pick an ATI card.

- 6GB of DDR3 1600MHz RAM is the sweetspot. Juts try to find the cheapest decent stuff you can. I wouldn't suggest spending any more money on fancier RAM. 12GB is nice, but not needed at the moment unless you do some very special stuff - you can always add it later. But bear in mind that filling all 6 slots with RAM will adversely affect your overclock.

- The noctua cooler is good. It is quiet and cools well. However, I would suggest getting this. It costs the same, is just as easy to install and cools much better.

-The GTX 285 is a good card , but it has been totally overshadowed by the similarly priced, cooler, quieter, faster ATI HD 5850. This are very difficult to get your hands on now, but they are worth the perseverance.

-What is the 320GB samsung HDD for? Do you already have this or are you wanting to run it as a boot drive. Personally I would suggest getting a Samsung F3, (2 if you want the storage and put them in RAID 0).

- This is the best thermal paste for your needs.

What case are you using?

What monitors are you using?
 
was just going to say the P6T it is then. then discovered along with the P6T and the P6T'SE'...theres also a 'D' and a 'WS'!!!!!!! all 1366 socket X58 chipset. can anyone clarify or am i just giving myself headace. is it the more you can afford the more little bits and bats etc you get. £334 on a board!

i will stick with the 6GB RAM then. any particular make you recommend? corsair seems to be the daddy in the RAM department.

the cooler you linked me to...thats water cooled aint it? how does it work then? on offer to!

i will search for the Graphics card ATI 5850. just the one for now? i always look for the memory on the graphics card 1GB etc, most seem to be 512MB. presume theres more than that to look at?

I presume a boot drive but im not sure and no i dont currentley have any components. is it worth having a drive just for booting up? if its worth it i will go for it.

sorry whats RAID?

not decided on a case. although have been pointed towards an antec 900.

currentley have a samsung 32" HD tv that the comp is rigged up to.

thanks for the responces guys. appreciated!
 
Stick to the regular p6t and youll be fine. No need to concern yourself with the others lol

the corsair h50 watercooler is a self contained unit to so buildtime or maintainence, you attach The rad to the case with its fan fit the cpu head (which has the pump inside) on to the cpu witht he thermal paste and plug it in. Job done
 
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This will answer your raid question
Wiki Raid

Its helpfull to have 1 HD for OS and software and another for storage eg documents, music, photos, videos etc etc. If your HD ever died yould have all the stuff you really didnt want to lose on a seperate HD meaning yould just need to replace your OS HD to get running again.

Memory really isnt the key point to concentrate on now days for graphics cards as it was in the past.

Re graphics 1 5850 costs around £250 and its in short supply at the moment but 2 x 5770's crossfire linked (which are in easy supply) will outperform the 5850 by a fair distance and costs around £250 also
 
yi good stuff im getting here. slowly building a basket on overclockers. presume everyone on here buys the components (well everything) from them. no one reach out to good old ebay and search on google. from what ive read on these forums though overclockers seem to offer good service and resonable prices.
 
right the baskets building. anyone recomend and cases. im quite fond of the cases with the displays on the front. temp, speed etc...
in my basket is currentley the Antec 1200 ultimate gaming case - black. but seems a bit to simple inside.
 
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