My First Build (2010)

[sparda990]

I am looking to make my first gaming system, however since i haven't built one before thought i would ask those of you have. I live in the UK so i don't have access to Newegg since they don't ship internationally so parts are bought from UK suppliers.

APPROXIMATE PURCHASE DATE: Within a Month's Time Preferably

SYSTEM USAGE FROM MOST TO LEAST IMPORTANT: Gaming, Everything else

PARTS NOT REQUIRED: This is for a BASE unit only other stuff like mouse keyboard etc on seperate budget

PREFERRED WEBSITE(S) FOR PARTS: I haven't bought computer parts with this being my first build so am open up to suggestions. I have currently been browsing Novatech, Ebuyer, Overclockers and Aria

PARTS PREFERENCES: I will probably go with an AMD build since the prices seem a little high for the Intel equivalent

OVERCLOCKING: Not at moment, will read up some more

ADDITIONAL COMMENTS: Since this will have no overclocking at the moment and will be mainly using stock settings i would hope the PC to be on low noise etc.
Not looking to crossfire yet so focused more and a single Graphics Card (should be less hassle

Budget around £750-800 with a little flexibility

Part so for (this is only an idea, haven't settle on these, so i am flexible withing reason of budget)

CPU - Ebuyer £148.87
AMD Phenom II X4 965 Black Edition 3.4GHz Socket AM3 8MB L3 Cache 125W Retail Box Processor
http://www.ebuyer.com/product/186428

PSU - Ebuyer £59.88
Thermaltake 550W Evo Blue Modular PSU - 4x SATA 3x PCI-E
http://www.ebuyer.com/product/202774

Mobo - Undecided
I am not to sure on this i would like something that has some future proof so would appreciate any suggestions

Graphics - Novatech £224.99
XFX ATI Radeon 5850 Alien Vs Preditor 1024MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card - Retail
http://www.novatech.co.uk/novatech/prods/Components/Graphics-ATI/ATIHD5800Series/XFX/HD-585A-ZNFV.html

Case - Undecided
I am looking for something that will fit all relevant parts and has descent cable management and airflow, any suggestions would be appreciated.

Hard Drive - Ebuyer £35.49
Western Digital WD5000AAKS 500GB SATAII 7200RPM 16MB Cache - OEM Caviar Blue
http://www.ebuyer.com/product/124228

May try to invest in an SSD drive also.


Optical Drive - Ebuyer £14.99
Samsung SH-S223 22X DVD±RW DL & RAM SATA - OEM Black
http://www.ebuyer.com/product/145450

Memory - Ebuyer £104.99
Corsair 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 1333MHz/PC3-10666 XMS3 DHX Memory Kit
http://www.ebuyer.com/product/148817

Like i said i am open to all suggestions and would like to hear any feedback that you can give.

 

[sparda990]

Forgot to add, i will be running my computer through my 32" HD LCD

 

[Silvune]

You should get the 955 as the 965 is a factory OCed 955: AMD Phenom II X4 955 Black Edition Socket AM3 3.2 GHz MBox £132

This is the usual recommendation for 4GB of DDR3 RAM in the UK:
Crucial 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 1333MHz/PC3-10600 Ballistix Memory Kit CL7 (7-7-7-24) 1.65V £87
It is faster due to the lower CL#/timings and is considerably cheaper than that Corsair set.

For a harddrive the single platter Samsung Spinpoint F3 500GB or the Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 500GB are better options imo as the single platter means that they perform better than the multiple platter WD Caviar Blue (which I have and wish someone had informed me of the single platter option) and should be quieter due to less moving parts, which theoretically should mean they are less likely to fail as well.

I'd pick one of these for a very futureproof and high quality motherboard:
Gigabyte GA-890GPA-UD3H 890GX £105
http://www.ebuyer.com/product/197546
ASUS M4A89GTD PRO/USB3 890GX £115
http://www.ebuyer.com/product/198314

Personally I would not go for that PSU as [strike]the last time I read a review of a TT Evo Blue I do not remember it being particularly positive.[/strike] it is only rated for 432 watts on the 12V rail - which is where you want most of your power to be. I would not want one 5850 on a 430W PSU. If you only want the option to power one video card then I'd suggest the following:
Be Quiet 530W Pure Power £45
http://www.ebuyer.com/product/190751
Antec EarthWatts 650W £66
http://www.ebuyer.com/product/141006
The motherboard above has two PCI-E slots, so if you wanted a PSU that could power two 5850s or a large variety of single cards if you decide that you will replace rather than add a 5850 later then the best one to get for that imo would be this:
XFX 650W XXX Edition £70
http://www.ebuyer.com/product/191826

I believe with some of the cost cutting options I've provided you, you'd be able to get a pretty high end case
Antec 900 £70
http://www.ebuyer.com/product/118268
Cooler Master HAF 922 £81
http://www.ebuyer.com/product/164961
Antec 300 £42 - If you want more of a budget option, but still high quality.
http://www.ebuyer.com/product/143854

I don't really think that you will get an SSD worth having inside your £800 budget, and it's not worth doing so when your build as is is extremely solid, which you'd be compromising to squeeze a decent SSD in for. Also SSDs aren't as mature as I'd like them to be yet, and next year they probably will be. If you were 'desperate' to squeeze one in then I'd just one of these:
Intel X-25V 40GB
http://www.ebuyer.com/product/190701
OCZ Agility 60GB
http://www.ebuyer.com/product/167828

 

[trif]

I just got linked this as i'm on a very similar build (tho smaller budget)

i'm interested why the balistix ram is reccomended when for £10 more there's:
G-Skill 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 1600MHz/PC3-12800 Ripjaw Memory Kit CL7(7-8-7-24) 1.65V
very similar timings, faster clock?

thanks for the tips on PSU, that £70 XFX really makes me happy after the tears over £80-100 corsairs

I'm also going for the samsung F3's they look solid for £33 (when they are in stock)

apart from 2xPCI-Ex16 lanes and USB 3/sata3 what are the advantages to the 890 over the 770 chipsets?

 

[leyshadow]

Here's a suggestion for a Motherboard, it's ideal for quad core, let me know though, are you going to be using Crossfire ON your gpus? Then we'll have to change that http://www.ebuyer.com/product/161316

 

[sparda990]

Not intending to use crossfire at the moment, but the mobo you link is an AM2 socket, wouldn't i need AM3?

 

[Silvune]

There's no reason to go for such a low end motherboard with an £800 budget. If you were to go for an AM2/2+ board you would only have to change the RAM to DDR2, but again there's no good reason to buy DDR2 in this day and age when you have an £800 budget.

800 series chipset motherboards will be more 'futureproof'; they support hexacore CPUs out of the box. I'm not that clear on the advantages of 800 over 700 aside from two PCI-E 2.0 x16 lanes and USB3/SATA 6Gbps, except a vague impression that any problems with the older chipset will have been solved with the newer chipset.

Yea that G.Skill set is reasonably priced at £100.

 

[sparda990]

Okay here is an amended list, of what i might use, any comments appreciated.

AMD Phenom II X4 955 Black Edition Socket AM3 3.2 GHz 8MB L3 Cache Retail Boxed Processor
http://www.ebuyer.com/product/190673

G-Skill 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 1600MHz/PC3-12800 Ripjaw Memory Kit CL7(7-8-7-24) 1.65V
http://www.ebuyer.com/product/180490

Antec EarthWatts 650W PSU - 80Plus Certified 12cm Fan 3x 12V Rails
http://www.ebuyer.com/product/141006

Samsung SH-S223 22X DVD±RW DL & RAM SATA - OEM Black
http://www.ebuyer.com/product/145450

Seagate ST3500418AS 500GB Hard Drive SATAII 7200rpm 16MB Cache - OEM
http://www.ebuyer.com/product/158860

XFX ATI Radeon 5850 Alien Vs Preditor 1024MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card - Retail
http://www.novatech.co.uk/novatech/prods/Components/Graphics-ATI/ATIHD5800Series/HD-585A-ZNFV.html

Coolermaster CM690 II Advanced Mid Tower Case
http://www.ebuyer.com/product/191197

I still can't decide on the mobo yet, any recommendations for an AM3 socket. Notice some mobo's come with integrated graphics (would prefer one that doesn't)?

Thanks in advance for any comments.

 

[trif]

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/146252
here's a link for the Samsung F3 - could be worth waiting for that to come back into stock - HDD benches really rate it

also http://www.ebuyer.com/product/191826
is on discount at the moment, £4 more for nearly £20 actual cost? though thinking about it i wouldn't be suprised if the components inside were identical depends who is the OEM on the earthwatts - apparently the XFX is Seasonic

 

[Silvune]

I believe Delta are the OEM for the 650 Earthwatts, so it is doubtful that they are the same design, and only it has ~550 watts on the 12V rails, so can not trully be called a 650W PSU. I wouldn't really recommend it for a system with two 5850s. trif is right, for £4 more the XFX is well worth it if you are planning to crossfire and it gives you more flexibility down the line as it has more power so can power a more power hungry single graphics card instead if you choose to do that.

 

[sparda990]

OKay took another browse, this time on SCAN.CO.UK

CASE: Antec 300 Three Hundred £44.04

CPU: AMD Phenom II X4 955 BlackEdition, Sok AM3, 3.2GHz, 8MB Total Cache, 125W, Retail £134.64

H.D: 500GB Samsung HD502HJ Spinpoint F3, SATA 3Gb/s, 7200rpm, 16MB Cache, 8.9 ms, NCQ, OEM £33.23

GPU: 1GB Sapphire HD 5850, PCI-E 2.0, 4000MHz GDDR5, GPU 725MHz £233.97

OPTICAL: Samsung SH-S223C/BEBE 22x DVD±R, 12x DVD±R, DVD+RW x8/-RW x6, SATA, Black, OEM £13.88

MOBO: Gigabyte GA-890GPA-UD3H, AMD 890GX £109.58

***EBUYER PRODUCTS***

RAM: Crucial 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 1333MHz/PC3-10600 Ballistix Memory Kit CL7 (7-7-7-24) 1.65V £87.32

PSU: 650W Coolermaster GX, SLI/CrossFire, 85% Eff' EPS 12V, 20+4 Pin, 5 Years Warranty £59.90
OR: 650W Silverstone ST65EF Element, Quad SLi/Xfire, 82-85% Eff, EPS 12V Compact PSU £77.51

IF YOU SEE ANY ISSUES I MAY RUN INTO WITH THIS SETUP PLEASE COMMENT.

 

[sparda990]

Sorry, the PSU's are from Scan also not Ebuyer.

 

[Silvune]

You should get the MBOX version of the 955 as it is newer, overclocks better and some of the bugs in the IBOX version will have been rectified.

Out of those two PSUs I'd go for the Silverstone, as the GX650's bigger brother the GX750 got negative reviews from hardwaresecrets and jonnyguru. But then I don't know that much about the Silverstone either. This one's bigger brother is definitely good, so there is a high probability that this one is good as well: 650w Silverpower SP-SS650HT "Green Power" £66
If you want modular and are willing to spend £80 on a PSU then this one is miles better: Antec Truepower New TP650 £79 Altho the XFX on ebuyer is still by far the better buy.