Hi
I live in the UK and need a new computer. My 11 year old XP3000, has been struggling for a while with new programs and my needs are changing. I have spent the last few days understanding what has changed in the last 10 year since I built a computer and I am getting up to speed but I still have much to learn.
Budget
My budget not including monitor and keyboard/mouse would ideally be less than £500.
PSU
I have a new boxed Corsair CX750M so if that is suitable for this new build, the budget can be used elsewhere
CPU
I was again looking at AMD because of cost savings: specifically FX6300, FX6350, ..FX8350. A local shop has a new unused FX6300 for £75 and a new unused FX8350 for £112 so maybe these are good options? What would be better for my needs? I have learned that Intel are leaving AMD behind, but from what I have read an AMD FX might still suit my budget and needs better when considering price. I am open to Intel options, and if money was no option I would go Intel, but I must stick to the budget. I understand the FX 8350 is more power hungry than the Intel CPU's but presumably 125W is what the CPU draws at maximum power? I have heard people complain about the noise of the stock cooler with the FX-8350 but is that true of all stock coolers? Will a good case with back and top cooling prevent such a noise from the stock cooler? I want to avoid spending unnecessary money whever possible because I am old, skint and disabled!
Case
I could do with some case suggestions. I don't need a case with a window (but it isn't a deal breaker) and I like the idea of bottom mounting PSU's and a top fan mount. Good things to like yes? I don't want the thing to be too noisy but I suppose I can use some of my 3 or 4 pin resistor cables to slow things down if need be. I liked the Cooler Master 452 because of the sound dampening but it doesn't have a top fan. I also liked the Antec GX300. Some of the Corsair cases also looked nice. Any £50 case suggestions welcome.
Ram
I understand that I don't need to obsess too much about RAM speeds, because I have read differences are negligible between say 1600 and 2000 since timings are more important, but I understand that the FX-8350 supports a max of 1866? SO would I be better off buying 1866? I guess I need 16GB?
Sound
I have an ten year old 24bit MAudio PCI soundcard that it would be nice to save and reuse, and I understand that a lot of MB's still have 1 or 2 PCI sockets. However if the motherboard comes with a decent sound section like the MSI gaming 970 and/or SPDIF toslink optical output then I could just run the MB sound output into an external SMSL DAC that I own.
Storage
I want an SSD card big enough for Windows 7 or 8 (which is better?) and the programs mentioned above (120-240gb?) and a regular 1-3TB HDD for extra space.
Intended Use
I am not really an avid game player but I do like to play a new and old games sometimes. I mainly intend to use the new computer mostly to play music and watch movies, and I am hoping to spend the next year learning programs like Solidworks, Pro-Engineer and Adobe Photoshop and Drupal/Dreaweaver. I don't want to get a workstation graphic card yet though, for the moment I would prefer something fast but an all-rounder. I often like to have a lot of windows open and I like to stream movies. A Samsung Plasma 43in 1024 x 768 will be my main monitor for movies but I will use an additional monitor for computer work and I want the ability to switch between them or have both on.
I am still unclear about many things. Is PCIe-3 something I need to worry about? I understand that AMD FX doesn't support it like Intel. Also, are the 990 motherboards compatible with the FX CPU's like the FX 6300 and FX 8350? Or will I be better going for a 970- type motherboard? Like I said, I am still reading and learning and filling in a ten year gap in experience. I am also knocking on a bit so be gentle with me, I'm an old man!
Sorry for length of post. Please help and advise if you have the time. Thank you. Hope I get some help. Help me OB 1 Kenobe!
I live in the UK and need a new computer. My 11 year old XP3000, has been struggling for a while with new programs and my needs are changing. I have spent the last few days understanding what has changed in the last 10 year since I built a computer and I am getting up to speed but I still have much to learn.
Budget
My budget not including monitor and keyboard/mouse would ideally be less than £500.
PSU
I have a new boxed Corsair CX750M so if that is suitable for this new build, the budget can be used elsewhere
CPU
I was again looking at AMD because of cost savings: specifically FX6300, FX6350, ..FX8350. A local shop has a new unused FX6300 for £75 and a new unused FX8350 for £112 so maybe these are good options? What would be better for my needs? I have learned that Intel are leaving AMD behind, but from what I have read an AMD FX might still suit my budget and needs better when considering price. I am open to Intel options, and if money was no option I would go Intel, but I must stick to the budget. I understand the FX 8350 is more power hungry than the Intel CPU's but presumably 125W is what the CPU draws at maximum power? I have heard people complain about the noise of the stock cooler with the FX-8350 but is that true of all stock coolers? Will a good case with back and top cooling prevent such a noise from the stock cooler? I want to avoid spending unnecessary money whever possible because I am old, skint and disabled!
Case
I could do with some case suggestions. I don't need a case with a window (but it isn't a deal breaker) and I like the idea of bottom mounting PSU's and a top fan mount. Good things to like yes? I don't want the thing to be too noisy but I suppose I can use some of my 3 or 4 pin resistor cables to slow things down if need be. I liked the Cooler Master 452 because of the sound dampening but it doesn't have a top fan. I also liked the Antec GX300. Some of the Corsair cases also looked nice. Any £50 case suggestions welcome.
Ram
I understand that I don't need to obsess too much about RAM speeds, because I have read differences are negligible between say 1600 and 2000 since timings are more important, but I understand that the FX-8350 supports a max of 1866? SO would I be better off buying 1866? I guess I need 16GB?
Sound
I have an ten year old 24bit MAudio PCI soundcard that it would be nice to save and reuse, and I understand that a lot of MB's still have 1 or 2 PCI sockets. However if the motherboard comes with a decent sound section like the MSI gaming 970 and/or SPDIF toslink optical output then I could just run the MB sound output into an external SMSL DAC that I own.
Storage
I want an SSD card big enough for Windows 7 or 8 (which is better?) and the programs mentioned above (120-240gb?) and a regular 1-3TB HDD for extra space.
Intended Use
I am not really an avid game player but I do like to play a new and old games sometimes. I mainly intend to use the new computer mostly to play music and watch movies, and I am hoping to spend the next year learning programs like Solidworks, Pro-Engineer and Adobe Photoshop and Drupal/Dreaweaver. I don't want to get a workstation graphic card yet though, for the moment I would prefer something fast but an all-rounder. I often like to have a lot of windows open and I like to stream movies. A Samsung Plasma 43in 1024 x 768 will be my main monitor for movies but I will use an additional monitor for computer work and I want the ability to switch between them or have both on.
I am still unclear about many things. Is PCIe-3 something I need to worry about? I understand that AMD FX doesn't support it like Intel. Also, are the 990 motherboards compatible with the FX CPU's like the FX 6300 and FX 8350? Or will I be better going for a 970- type motherboard? Like I said, I am still reading and learning and filling in a ten year gap in experience. I am also knocking on a bit so be gentle with me, I'm an old man!
Sorry for length of post. Please help and advise if you have the time. Thank you. Hope I get some help. Help me OB 1 Kenobe!
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