First Sandybridge Budget Build

Whats your price range, what parts do you already have, etc.. follow the post template at the top of the forum!

Approximate Purchase Date: July

Budget Range:£600-£650

System Usage from Most to Least Important: gaming, surfing the internet, watching movies

Parts Not Required: keyboard, mouse, monitor, speakers

Preferred Website(s) for Parts: amazon, ebuyer

Country of Origin: UK

Overclocking: No

SLI or Crossfire: No

Monitor Resolution: Not sure. Going to use my 720p LED tv. I think it's 1366 x 768.

The parts:

Crucial 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 1333MHz/PC3-10600 Memory Kit CL9 1.5v

Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro rev 2 Socket 775, 1156, 1155, 1366, AM2, AM3 Heatpipe CPU Cooler

Antec One Hundred 100 Case

Intel Core i5 2400 3.1GHz Socket LGA 1155 6MB L3 Cache Retail Boxed Processor

Samsung SH-S223L 22x DVD±RW DL & RAM with LightScribe SATA Optical Drive

Gigabyte GA-PH67A-UD3-B3 H67 Socket 1155 GB LAN 8 Channel Audio ATX Motherboard

Sapphire HD 6790 1GB GDDR5 Dual DVI HDMI DisplayPort PCI-E Graphics Card (maybe hd 6850)

Samsung HD103SJ Spinpoint F3 1TB Hard Drive SATAII 7200rpm 32MB Cache

Antec BP550 PLUS GB PSU

Windows 7 OS

I couldn't find find that specific board for sale here so I don't know the cost, but you might be able to get a z68 M/B for the same or similar price.

The mobo is around £90.

You might ass well just use the stock CPU heat sink, because you can't OC much at all on SB without an unlocked multiplier.

Will the stock cpu cooler suffice? I'm just worried it might die out on me since it comes supplied with processor.

Thanks for the advice.

Any opinions on the build and can someone confirm if the parts are compatible.

Mobo:
Gigabyte P67-D3
95£.

CPU
Core I5-2500
150£.

Video Card:
AMD Radeon HD 6870 1GB
150£.

Ram:
G.Skill Ripjaws X 4GB 1333MHz.
40£.

PSU & Case Combo :
CM Centurion II 5 Case with CM GX-550W PSU
80£

HDD:
Seagate Barracuda 500GB 7200RPM SATA3 6Gb/s
30£.

Optical:
any optical
15£.

OS:
Windows 7 home premium 64-bit
75£.

CPU Cooler:
Cooler Master Hyper 212 Plus
20£.

Total:
655£.

Note : if ur not overclocking the intel stock cooler will not cause any problems

Everything from ebuyer.com expect the ram and CPU cooler from amazon.co.uk

CPU - i5-2500k - £162
http://www.ebuyer.com/product/251596

MOBO - Asus P8P67 - £122
http://www.ebuyer.com/product/260771

RAM - Corsair 1600 4GB - £38
http://www.ebuyer.com/product/173122

CASE - Antec 100 - £41
http://www.ebuyer.com/product/246639

GPU - Nvidia 560ti - £175
http://www.ebuyer.com/product/254405

HDD - Samsung F3 1TB - £42
http://www.ebuyer.com/product/173804

ODD - LD dvd burner - £14.50
http://www.ebuyer.com/product/169683

PSU - Corsair 500W CX - £45
http://www.ebuyer.com/product/240999

COOLER - Coolermaster Hyper 212 plus - £18
http://www.scan.co.uk/products/coolermaster-hyper-212-p...

Total = £657.5

(This can be trimmed by dropping the mobo down a bit, and using a cheaper case)

Ok that's the first one.

What's the second one gonna be?

Your only real concern as far as compatibility goes will be with your ram and your motherboard. Some motherboards are finicky and don't like certain sticks of ram. You can download a list of compatible RAM sticks from the manufacturers website to be completely safe.

I'd go with 1600 ram, you'll have to set it to that speed in your motherboard's BIOS but that takes about 3 seconds and isn't complicated at all.

You would be fine with the stock heatsink, but you will have much higher temperatures because the stock Intel heatsink is pure garbage. I'm not even doing any overclocking yet and in BIOS I was getting 50-60c temps. As soon as I slapped on a Zalman 9900 cooler my temps dropped to under 40c. Any aftermarket cooler should give you much better temps than the stock.

I would also recommend getting the 2500k. I don't know how much more that would cost you but don't you at least want the ability to overclock someday down the line when your PC is starting to feel a little sluggish? These new chips overclock so well that it seems like a complete waste to avoid doing so!

I would get a better graphic card, I'm not much of an expert in figuring out AMD's ridiculous numbering scheme but I see a 400mhz clock and that really doesn't impress me. It will cost more but you can get a 6950 and flash it to be a 6970, or just keep it at a 6950 and it'd still be a good card. Or if you want to go with Nvidia you can get a GTX 560 Ti which is a pretty popular midrange card.