Hey everyone,
I'm planning to build a PC for the first time on my birthday, just under two months away. I've never actually built a PC from scratch; just replaced/upgraded a few components from the prebuilt systems I've always purchased. I'd like to put together a fairly powerful gaming system with quality components that I can purchase with a budget of around £1000-£1100; thought I'd go pretty high end with my first build, seeing how you always remember your first...
Since this is my first build, I'm not 100% confident with the the choices I've made so far and the compatibility of the various parts. I've tried to get up to date with reviews, comparisons and the latest tech on various sites but there's just too much to try and take in within a short period of time, resulting in headaches...
After reading around, however, I've put together a list going by what I think would benefit me with the intended purpose of the build, as well as certain parts that seem to be most recommended to fellow first time builders.
I'd like the build to be fairly future proof though, hopefully lasting a few years, allowing me to upgrade main components and attempt to overclock when I'm a bit more clued up on the process.
I already have a retail copy of Windows 7 Home Premium and speakers for the new build so no need for those. I do need to purchase a new monitor (want to upgrade my current 20" to a 24") as well as a new keyboard, mouse and ODD but I'll buy these separately.
APPROXIMATE PURCHASE DATE: Anytime between now and mid August 2010
BUDGET RANGE: ~£1000 (An extra £100 is available if needed, but obviously I'd prefer to save money rather than spend more)
SYSTEM USAGE FROM MOST TO LEAST IMPORTANT: Gaming, watching movies (Blu-ray), surfing the internet, Office 2010. Basically this'll be my main, everyday system.
PARTS NOT REQUIRED: Keyboard, mouse, monitor, speakers, OS, ODD
PREFERRED WEBSITES FOR PARTS: Ebuyer, SCAN, Amazon UK, Aria PC
COUNTRY OF ORIGIN: England, UK
PARTS PREFERENCES: An Intel i5 build, hopefully. I'd like a 5870 as this appears to be the best single GPU I can fit into the budget without skimping on other components. The best card I've ever had, and currently have, is an ATI 3650
D), which can hardly be described as a gaming card, so I'm quite looking forward to a high end graphics solution.
OVERCLOCKING: Not yet but definitely in the future when I'm confident in doing so as it's something I'd like to learn about. I would however like to purchase a quality cooler now so I'm ready for when I do attempt to overclock.
SLI OR CROSSFIRE: Maybe, if possible and actually worth it over purchasing a single future gen card.
MONITOR RESOLUTION: 1920x1080, 1920x1200 (I'd like to hook up to a 24" monitor as well as a HDTV)
ADDITIONAL COMMENTS: I want to make the most of this building experience by learning as much as I can along the way.
So, here's what my proposed build is looking like at the moment:
- Intel Core i5 750 2.66GHz Socket LGA1156 8MB L3 Cache Retail Boxed Processor - £163.68
- Corsair 750W TX PSU - 120mm Fan, 80+% Efficiency, Single +12V Rail - £99.96
- Samsung HD103SJ Spinpoint F3 1TB Hard Drive SATAII 7200rpm 32MB Cache - OEM - £55.03
- Arctic Silver 5 High-Density Polysynthetic Silver Thermal Compound Thermal paste 3.5gram - £5.69
---------- MOTHERBOARD ----------
- ASUS P7P55D-E PRO iP55 Socket 1156 8 Channel Audio USB3 ATX Motherboard - £175.89
OR
- MSI P55-GD65, Intel P55 Express, S1156, PCI-E 2.0(x16), DDR3 1600/2000/2133, SATA 3Gb/s RAID, ATX - £124.02
---------- RAM ----------
- G-Skill 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 1600MHz/PC3-12800 Ripjaw Memory Kit CL7(7-8-7-24) 1.65V - £100.90
OR
- Crucial 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 1333MHz/PC3-10600 Ballistix Memory Kit CL7 (7-7-7-24) 1.65V - £87.32
OR
- G.Skill ECO OC 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C8 1600MHz - CAS 8-8-8-24 Timings, 1.30-1.60v - £105.74
OR
- Crucial 4GB kit (2GBx2), Ballistix Tracer 240-pin DIMM (with LEDs), DDR3 PC3-12800 8-8-8-24 memory module - £125.71
---------- GPU ----------
- XFX HD 5870 1GB DDR5 Dual DVI HDMI Display Port Out PCI-E Graphics Card - £323.00
OR
- Sapphire HD 5870 1GB GDDR5 Dual DVI HDMI Display Port PCI-E Graphics Card - £319.98
---------- CASE ----------
- Fractal Design Titanium Grey Define R2 Case - £82.18
OR
- Coolermaster CM690 II Advanced Mid Tower Case - £78.69
OR
- Coolermaster HAF 922 Mid Tower Case - No PSU - £80.86
OR
- Coolermaster HAF 932 Full Tower Case - High Air Flow Design - No PSU - £103.66
---------- COOLER ----------
- Coolermaster Hyper 212 Plus, 4 Heat Pipes - £19.95
OR
- Titan Fenrir Special Edition TTC-NK85TZ/CS 120mm PWM Fan "HDT" CPU Cooler 775/1156/1366/K8/AM2/AM3 - £36.30
OR
- Titan Fenrir V2 TTC-NK85TZ 120mm PWM 17dBA+ "HDT" CPU Cooler - £29.95
- Extra case fans once I've decided on a case
QUESTIONS:
1. To confirm, are all parts I've chosen for this build fully compatible with each other?
2. Is there anything I can change in this build to lower the total cost, whilst not losing any important funtionality, features or speed provided by the above parts? I realise I've chosen some pretty high end components and have probably gone overboard on some that are likely not going to give me any real beneifts over cheaper (and more sensible) alternatives.
3. I do like the look of the Fractal R2 but would it be better to go for the HAF 932 full tower for increased internal space and better airflow, taking into account potential future upgrades? Maybe I could save around £20 and go for the HAF 922 as this also seems to be quite spacious for a mid tower, going by user reviews. This guy has a 5870 CrossFire setup in a Fractal R2 so maybe there won't be an issue with cooling, provided I install extra case fans: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Diyy3H_UdG0
4. Is the CM Hyper 212 Plus good enough for potential overclocking? I've come across someone mention that it's best to avoid this cooler if overclocking higher than around 3.5GHz although I don't know how much truth there is in that statement. Would it be wise to fork out the extra for the Titan Fenrir, or will the 212 suffice?
5. I've come across posts where a number people have been experiencing cold boot problems with G-SKill memory and ASUS motherboards, as seen here:
http://gskill.us/forum/showthread.php?t=4059 / http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y0AXU4kOVj0
Is it best to avoid G-Skill memory with the P7P55D-E PRO motherboard altogether?
6. I could live without USB 3.0 and SATA 6Gbps as I don't think I have a real need for them, to be honest. In that case, will the MSI P55-GD65 be the most sensible choice, especially as it'll save me around £50? The OC Genie feature of this motherboard seems great for someone like me with very basic knowledge.
7. From what I understand, I can CrossFire a 5870 setup with these two motherboards so if I did install another 5870 in the future or upgrade to a high end next gen card, as well as overclock the i5, would the 750W TX still be considered a smart buy or would 850W be more appropriate?
8. Are there any significant advantages of going for the XFX card over the Sapphire, or vice versa?
This is just a build I've put together with limited knowledge on building a PC, although I'm trying to build on this by reading more. Any help or advice from you guys, however, would be nice and greatly appreciated.
I'm planning to build a PC for the first time on my birthday, just under two months away. I've never actually built a PC from scratch; just replaced/upgraded a few components from the prebuilt systems I've always purchased. I'd like to put together a fairly powerful gaming system with quality components that I can purchase with a budget of around £1000-£1100; thought I'd go pretty high end with my first build, seeing how you always remember your first...
Since this is my first build, I'm not 100% confident with the the choices I've made so far and the compatibility of the various parts. I've tried to get up to date with reviews, comparisons and the latest tech on various sites but there's just too much to try and take in within a short period of time, resulting in headaches...
After reading around, however, I've put together a list going by what I think would benefit me with the intended purpose of the build, as well as certain parts that seem to be most recommended to fellow first time builders.
I'd like the build to be fairly future proof though, hopefully lasting a few years, allowing me to upgrade main components and attempt to overclock when I'm a bit more clued up on the process.
I already have a retail copy of Windows 7 Home Premium and speakers for the new build so no need for those. I do need to purchase a new monitor (want to upgrade my current 20" to a 24") as well as a new keyboard, mouse and ODD but I'll buy these separately.
APPROXIMATE PURCHASE DATE: Anytime between now and mid August 2010
BUDGET RANGE: ~£1000 (An extra £100 is available if needed, but obviously I'd prefer to save money rather than spend more)
SYSTEM USAGE FROM MOST TO LEAST IMPORTANT: Gaming, watching movies (Blu-ray), surfing the internet, Office 2010. Basically this'll be my main, everyday system.
PARTS NOT REQUIRED: Keyboard, mouse, monitor, speakers, OS, ODD
PREFERRED WEBSITES FOR PARTS: Ebuyer, SCAN, Amazon UK, Aria PC
COUNTRY OF ORIGIN: England, UK
PARTS PREFERENCES: An Intel i5 build, hopefully. I'd like a 5870 as this appears to be the best single GPU I can fit into the budget without skimping on other components. The best card I've ever had, and currently have, is an ATI 3650
D), which can hardly be described as a gaming card, so I'm quite looking forward to a high end graphics solution.OVERCLOCKING: Not yet but definitely in the future when I'm confident in doing so as it's something I'd like to learn about. I would however like to purchase a quality cooler now so I'm ready for when I do attempt to overclock.
SLI OR CROSSFIRE: Maybe, if possible and actually worth it over purchasing a single future gen card.
MONITOR RESOLUTION: 1920x1080, 1920x1200 (I'd like to hook up to a 24" monitor as well as a HDTV)
ADDITIONAL COMMENTS: I want to make the most of this building experience by learning as much as I can along the way.
So, here's what my proposed build is looking like at the moment:
- Intel Core i5 750 2.66GHz Socket LGA1156 8MB L3 Cache Retail Boxed Processor - £163.68
- Corsair 750W TX PSU - 120mm Fan, 80+% Efficiency, Single +12V Rail - £99.96
- Samsung HD103SJ Spinpoint F3 1TB Hard Drive SATAII 7200rpm 32MB Cache - OEM - £55.03
- Arctic Silver 5 High-Density Polysynthetic Silver Thermal Compound Thermal paste 3.5gram - £5.69
---------- MOTHERBOARD ----------
- ASUS P7P55D-E PRO iP55 Socket 1156 8 Channel Audio USB3 ATX Motherboard - £175.89
OR
- MSI P55-GD65, Intel P55 Express, S1156, PCI-E 2.0(x16), DDR3 1600/2000/2133, SATA 3Gb/s RAID, ATX - £124.02
---------- RAM ----------
- G-Skill 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 1600MHz/PC3-12800 Ripjaw Memory Kit CL7(7-8-7-24) 1.65V - £100.90
OR
- Crucial 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 1333MHz/PC3-10600 Ballistix Memory Kit CL7 (7-7-7-24) 1.65V - £87.32
OR
- G.Skill ECO OC 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C8 1600MHz - CAS 8-8-8-24 Timings, 1.30-1.60v - £105.74
OR
- Crucial 4GB kit (2GBx2), Ballistix Tracer 240-pin DIMM (with LEDs), DDR3 PC3-12800 8-8-8-24 memory module - £125.71
---------- GPU ----------
- XFX HD 5870 1GB DDR5 Dual DVI HDMI Display Port Out PCI-E Graphics Card - £323.00
OR
- Sapphire HD 5870 1GB GDDR5 Dual DVI HDMI Display Port PCI-E Graphics Card - £319.98
---------- CASE ----------
- Fractal Design Titanium Grey Define R2 Case - £82.18
OR
- Coolermaster CM690 II Advanced Mid Tower Case - £78.69
OR
- Coolermaster HAF 922 Mid Tower Case - No PSU - £80.86
OR
- Coolermaster HAF 932 Full Tower Case - High Air Flow Design - No PSU - £103.66
---------- COOLER ----------
- Coolermaster Hyper 212 Plus, 4 Heat Pipes - £19.95
OR
- Titan Fenrir Special Edition TTC-NK85TZ/CS 120mm PWM Fan "HDT" CPU Cooler 775/1156/1366/K8/AM2/AM3 - £36.30
OR
- Titan Fenrir V2 TTC-NK85TZ 120mm PWM 17dBA+ "HDT" CPU Cooler - £29.95
- Extra case fans once I've decided on a case
QUESTIONS:
1. To confirm, are all parts I've chosen for this build fully compatible with each other?
2. Is there anything I can change in this build to lower the total cost, whilst not losing any important funtionality, features or speed provided by the above parts? I realise I've chosen some pretty high end components and have probably gone overboard on some that are likely not going to give me any real beneifts over cheaper (and more sensible) alternatives.
3. I do like the look of the Fractal R2 but would it be better to go for the HAF 932 full tower for increased internal space and better airflow, taking into account potential future upgrades? Maybe I could save around £20 and go for the HAF 922 as this also seems to be quite spacious for a mid tower, going by user reviews. This guy has a 5870 CrossFire setup in a Fractal R2 so maybe there won't be an issue with cooling, provided I install extra case fans: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Diyy3H_UdG0
4. Is the CM Hyper 212 Plus good enough for potential overclocking? I've come across someone mention that it's best to avoid this cooler if overclocking higher than around 3.5GHz although I don't know how much truth there is in that statement. Would it be wise to fork out the extra for the Titan Fenrir, or will the 212 suffice?
5. I've come across posts where a number people have been experiencing cold boot problems with G-SKill memory and ASUS motherboards, as seen here:
http://gskill.us/forum/showthread.php?t=4059 / http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y0AXU4kOVj0
Is it best to avoid G-Skill memory with the P7P55D-E PRO motherboard altogether?
6. I could live without USB 3.0 and SATA 6Gbps as I don't think I have a real need for them, to be honest. In that case, will the MSI P55-GD65 be the most sensible choice, especially as it'll save me around £50? The OC Genie feature of this motherboard seems great for someone like me with very basic knowledge.
7. From what I understand, I can CrossFire a 5870 setup with these two motherboards so if I did install another 5870 in the future or upgrade to a high end next gen card, as well as overclock the i5, would the 750W TX still be considered a smart buy or would 850W be more appropriate?
8. Are there any significant advantages of going for the XFX card over the Sapphire, or vice versa?
This is just a build I've put together with limited knowledge on building a PC, although I'm trying to build on this by reading more. Any help or advice from you guys, however, would be nice and greatly appreciated.
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