konk

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Jul 16, 2010
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Hey everyone,

I've been lurking around these forums reading up on various PC knowledge and as I'm currently in the process of upgrading my machine I have decided that its time to learn how to put one of these things together without having to wait for people/pay extra money to get it done.

To give you a brief background, I'm currently a student of Architecture in Australia and bascially 32-bit computing is starting to hold my work back as I work with CAD/3d modelling programs very frequently as well as Adobe software for image editing.

Ive been researching and its time for me to move onto a 64-bit windows as it seems the issues have mostly been ironed out and I also need the extra memory and RAM as the work I do requires so.

I also am the odd gamer with football (well soccer for most of you lot here :)) games so I'm after something that is cost efficient for quality parts to last me the next 2-3 years.

The budget I've got in mind is around maximum $AUD1500.

The parts I've been looking at or would like to have are;

- Intel i7 series processor - Not too sure on which one is best suited, i was possibly looking at the 880/960/970 and I'm aware they cost significantly more than the i5 counter parts which have similar features but that's why I'm here to find out!

- Gigabyte P55-USB3 motherboard - will that be sufficient? or are there better ones out there?

- I'm after ~2 TB HDD - Not sure which brand is the best way to go.

- Nvidia Graphics card - Ive been told the GT 250+ are the best way to go for cost/quality? The programs I use require 1GB in the graphics card.

- Blu-ray drives - I guess again, the most value for money as I'm unaware of whats out there.

- The case I will need extra venitlation and cooling obviously so any recommendations?

- PSU Ive been told will need to be of at least 650w power.

- ~ 8-10GB of DDR3 RAM (the CAD programs I use have it as a min. requirement for 8 but I always like to go a bit more)


Just any advice/recommendations I'd greatly appreciate. I'd have to source the parts from this part of the world but seeing as though my career will be heavily involved in the PC world I decided its time to learn more about the technology I'm using and also to save cost on labour/waiting for others to do it.
 

Mark Heath

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Apr 28, 2010
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G'day fellow aussie :)

First, any particular place you're wanting to get this? (Specifically whether you're needing shipping or pickup etc. There is a place that only does pickup that is generally cheapest here (Aus) but they're only in some of the major cities/areas. It could help If I know roughly where you live.. no stalking - promise :p )
 

Mark Heath

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Apr 28, 2010
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Hmm.. if you're willing to do pickup, then MSY offer pretty much the cheapest prizes, but they often don't have stock of stuff and they're (almost) all asian so talking to them can be interesting lol. Here's their website, but try not to hurt your eyes on it. Here's their parts/price list if you don't want to look upon the horror ;)

If you really can't put up with that :p , then Centrecom offer still pretty good prices and even do shipping and PCCaseGear also have some pretty good prices with shipping and pretty good service. Combine the stock list and pricing of these 2 and you get pretty close pricing to MSY.

If this doesn't include monitor and stuff:

(MSY based)

$349 Intel i7 930
$259 Gigabyte X58A-UD3R
$390 3x G.Skill 4GB 1600 C9 (Total 12GB :))
$79 Seagate 1TB 7200.12
$135 Zotac 1GB GTS250
$30 Sony SATA optical drive
$114 Corsair TX-650 (650W)
$148 Cooler Master HAF 922
TOTAL: $1504

Ed: sorry missed the 2TB you mentioned. Adding a 2nd 1TB drive is cheaper than using a 2TB in this case, but also brings the total to $1583
$39 Cooler Master Hyper 212+ add this if you're planning to overclock, don't worry about it otherwise
$110 Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit OEM?

You could save a bit on a cheaper case on this setup ($65 for an Antec 300, $126 for a Cooler Master 690 II Advanced), but the HAF 922 is really good
It feels like I've forgotten a part in there... check the list real careful for me