1st Build - Component Advise!

Approximate Purchase Date: this week/month

Budget Range: 350 - £400 ish, no higher!

System Usage from Most to Least Important: photoshop, surfing web, gaming (sc2 & red alert), 3d render

Parts Not Required: keyboard, mouse, monitor, speakers, OS, optical drive, graphics card (getting later)

Preferred Website(s) for Parts: scan.co.uk or aria.co.uk or anywhere cheaper
Country of Origin: (e.g.: Grand Fenwick) u.k

Parts Preferences: by brand or type: really dont mind, but preferably atx mobo, asus or gigabyte and needs inbuilt graphics, i had an idea of a am3+ board but dont know really. i also am liking the corsair products.

Overclocking: Yes

SLI or Crossfire: not likely but perhaps in far future

Monitor Resolution: sometimes 1920x1080, but mainly 1440x900

Additional Comments: must last around 4-6 years with upgrades along the way

thanks guys, and i cant wait to see what you come up with!

Heres what im thinking at the moment:

amd phenom ii x4 955 : http://www.scan.co.uk/products/amd [...] 25w-retail

Gigabyte GA-990XA-UD3 AMD 990X AM3+ Motherboard: http://www.scan.co.uk/products/gig [...] a-raid-atx

Corsair Xms3 Classic DDR3 1600 8-8-8-24 RAM: http://www.scan.co.uk/products/4gb [...] 4-xmp-165v

Antec BP550PLUS Basiq Plus 550W Modular Power Supply: http://www.scan.co.uk/products/550 [...] version-22

Corsair A50 CPU Cooler: http://www.scan.co.uk/products/cor [...] amdam2-am3

1TB Seagate 6GB/s 7200rpm 32mb Cache HDD: http://www.scan.co.uk/products/1tb [...] e-85ms-ncq

Total = £342

get this psu instead http://www.scan.co.uk/products/600 [...] e-12v-rail

and this hard drive and you are good to go http://www.scan.co.uk/products/1tb [...] e-89ms-ncq

Hey there, got your message. I read over your post, and I'd like to discuss some things with you.

-Why AMD? With your budget, we could easily fit in an i5-2400 if going without graphics. http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/363?vs=88 Pay attention to higher is better/lower is better. The 2400 wins IN EVERY SINGLE TEST! You'd be crazy not to go i5-2400!

-I 'd like to point out that the other poster had it right. Sata2 vs. Sata3 makes no difference in HDD's whatsoever. None. It's a marketing gimmick to get consumers to pay more for HDD's. If we talk SSD's though, it's a totally different story. But you can't afford an SSD so don't worry.
-This CPU can't overclock, so no need for a heatsink.

With this is mind, I have the following build: ($=£)

Intel Core i5 2400 3.1GHz Socket LGA 1155 6MB L3 Cache Retail Boxed Processor $150
http://www.ebuyer.com/product/251595

Gigabyte GA-H67MA-D2H-B3 H67 Socket 1155 GB LAN 8 Channel Audio mATX Motherboard $80
http://www.ebuyer.com/product/258680

Antec Basiq Power 550W PSU - 6x SATA 2x PCI-E 20+4pin ATX12V 4/8pin $55
http://www.ebuyer.com/product/141007

Casecom 6788 Black Mid Tower Case with Full Black Interior/Exterior 120mm Blue LED Front Fan - No PSU (rosewill challenger) $28
http://www.ebuyer.com/product/172779

Samsung SpinPoint F3 1TB Hard Drive SATAII 7200rpm 32MB Cache - OEM $42
http://www.ebuyer.com/product/173804

LiteOn iHAS224 24x DVD±RW DL RAM & Lightscribe SATA Optical Drive - OEM Black $15
http://www.ebuyer.com/product/190838

Corsair 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 1333MHz Memory Kit Unbuffered CL9 $35
http://www.ebuyer.com/product/178943

And that's it! Total is just under $400 shipped

Check it out and tell me what you think!

If you go 2500k and Z68 or P67 (needed for OCing) with a decent cooler, you are easily looking at $70-80 more. If you can swing it, I say go for it.

And as for upgradability, the LGA 1155 platform will most likely be around for as long as AM3+, if not longer. We know Ivy Bridge is going to be on LGA 1155, so it will be AT LEAST a year before it's outdated.

I think a Hyper 212+ or Scythe Mudgen 2100 would be better than an A50.

A 2500k at 4.5GHz will slaughter every other commercially available CPU in the 200-400 range. Slaughter.

And why don't you need a case?

Umm, change the motherboard to this one: http://www.ebuyer.com/product/267506 It is 8x 8x on the PCI-e sockets, meaning it would be SLI compatible if you ever want to do that in the future.

Edit: If you have a 7.1 audio system, this one will work also: http://www.ebuyer.com/product/265918

No prob! We try

Even in raid 0 sata 2 can't be utilized. It doesn't matter though, cheap drive.

And I would not use SSD caching. it's not going to give you much performance increase over raid 0. Better to get an SSD as a boot drive. It will be much faster than caching.
You need to have raid 0 setup before installing OS I believe.

Other than that, looks excellent! Have fun

The 6870, 560 ti, 6850, GTX 460, 6950 and 6970 all require 2x6pin PCI cables. Basically anything that's a gamer card.

Lol no, you can't raid 0 and SSD and hard drive... I wouldn't mess with raid at all unless you really know what you are doing. A single HDD is plenty fast and raid 0 doubles chances of hard disc failure. That Agility 3 is one of the fastest commercially available SSD's, especially for the price..

Woah there buddy! Have some free money: http://www.ebuyer.com/product/244474 You're welcome xD

Hey guys just wondering if i can get some suggestions im doing a course and seriously need to upgrade my gear the programs im using is 3ds max ,cs5,after effects etc and i dont really know to much about building one up or components obvisouly need quick rendering so ill set a budget of say $2,500-$3,000 ive made a quick list but dont have much of an idea on most of it, except cpu so tell me what you think of this build and what i could change to save or better it and why thanks.
CPU- looking at i7 2600k and o'cing it was looking at the 990x but thought the difference in price wouldnt be worth it.
CASE-Cooler Master HAF 942 X ATX Full
MOTHERBOARD-Asus Maximus Iv Extreme Motherboard - B3 Revision - Socket Lga1155 Processor - Intel P67 Express Chipset - 4x Ddr3-2200
MEMORY-would like a minimum of 12g- G.Skill 12GB (3x 4GB) Ripjaws Triple Channel - PC3 12800 (1600Mhz) DDR3 - 240-pin
GRAPHIC CARD-Leadtek Quadro 2000 WorkStation Video Card - GDDR5 1024MB 128-bit VRAM - PCIe 2.0 - 2x Display Ports & 1x DVI-I - DirectX 11 & OpenGL 4.0

Thats as far as i got so far and i realy dont have much of an idea , i dont even know if all of thats compatible i really dont have any idea about what else is needed as in power supply ,sound card and anything else i will need i really need some help guys, this will not be for gaming so ideas suggestions and maybe help picking the rest of the gear needed would be great.

Just so there's another voice in the discussion, I thought I'd give my opinion. First, I would prioritize in this order: Case > Case Cooling > PSU > Mobo >= CPU Cooler >= Ram > CPU >= GPU >= HDD/SDD.

Now let me explain. I would say invest in a good case and a good cooling setup because these will stay with you through many builds. Get a lian li (ex. pc-9f) or a mid- high end corsair (ex. graphite) or antec (p280). If you get something cheaper, it may be 18 months before you regret it, but you will regret it.

Next, get a good PSU. Seasonic is the only way to go here. x650 gold if you can afford it. Go modular and make sure you have all jap caps low ripple. Read reviews. The seasonic 620 modular is <$100 is decent if you can't justify the x650 (for that antec 620 striker recommended is seasonic oem I think). A good PSU is gonna stay with you much longer than than anything else other than the case. And modular is going to make you happy every time you crack open the case.

Next get a good mobo. The one you had listed at the top was perfect, GA-990XA-UD3, It's 8+2 power phase which will allow good stable OCing. It will also let you cf later if you want to but without the premium price of the 16x/16x 990fx.

Next get a good cpu cooler. Your OCing is going to depend a great deal on this and this cooler will stick around as long as the socket doesn't change. Thermaltake Frio is a good one check out frostytech for other good coolers.

Get ram that is rated for the maximum speed that your mobo can support. If you don't you will always wonder what difference it would have made if you had. It will also help to maximize wiggle room for your OC. The mobo I've recommended supports up to 2000mHz so get ram rated at that.

Now here's where I am going to totally disagree with the other guy making recommendations: get the 955 Phenom II. Its price/performance ratio is the best deal around. And at around $100 you can abuse the hell out of it OCing and not worry about it because you can plan on upgrading to a Bulldozer chip in 12-18 months. The 2500ks are closer to 200 dollars and when you upgrade that'll be 200 dollars out the window.

Regarding GPUs, these things are always falling in price and the next best thing comes out. I would avoid spending over $150 on one. They simply turn over too quickly for it to be worth it. There was a deal on newegg about 2 weeks ago for a 5830 for $109. If you could score something like that, it would be the way to go. You can get a 6850 right now for $140. Honestly though I would focus more on the core of you system right now and probably go with a 5770 or 6770 (same gpu rebadged) for about $90- $100. You're gonna want to upgrade this in 12-18 months anyway as well.

Lastly, If you're on a budget DO NOT get a SSD.The price on these things is falling faster than any other component. And the technology is changing an being refined with every generation. SSDs are great (I have one). But they are not mature and you would do better waiting 12-18 month on one of these as well. If you can't wait, then at least wait for a good deal on one. You can find rebate deals that will get you one at around $1/GB. I would not spend more than this on an SSD. And I would not get one smaller than 80 GB (really 128). If it's too small to install software on, it defeats much of the purpose. And that 60 GB drive is really going to be 55ish.

Just my opinion. But my philosophy is to get good foundational parts first (the sace/PSU) and focus on the more more ephemeral components afterwards. You're PC building is most fun and rewarding when it is an ongoing evolutionary process. It is great to see your system grow over the years rather than simply buying a new system every so often.

im getting the ssd and gpu after the actual build, at like christmas not included now

im now confused, amd or intel? amd is cheaper allowing nicer components, but intel is expensive but better... i may also get the corsair 650d as i like the look of it (not included in the overall price) any opinions? im feeling more towards amd but im not sure

ok cool, but im still not sure, because wouldnt it be better to wait for the 8/16core bulldozer since i will mostly use it for photoshop/video editing, im only going to play sc2 and other rts games.

yeah, but im not too sure >.< could someone produce that build with the 2500m and have it turn out at max 385£?

Umm, I don't see a GPU.

Oh duh, my bad. So yes, seems like an excellent build. However, swap the CPU for a 2500k and the cooler for a Hyper 212+
The 2500k is going to be more power than you will ever need. Unless you are doing your video editing as a livelihood, no reason for the 2600k.

Never heard of the CPU cooler, but I know the 212+ is more than capable for anything you throw at it. (make sure it fits in m59)

Not sure what you plan on using for a GPU, but I would throw down the 15 pounds to get this right here: http://www.scan.co.uk/products/750 [...] mm-pwm-fan It will allow you to crossfire/SLI any GPU's up to GTX 570's or 6970's. For the rest? I would get a slightly better case, one like this: http://www.scan.co.uk/products/coo [...] se-w-o-psu

And after that? Pocekt the change and save for a 6950

Actually, the HAF 912 PLUS has a window. Here's a picture from a techpowerup review: http://images.bit-tech.net/content [...] -912-2.jpg On scan, they are using the stock 912 photo.
And not sure, I'll hunt around for benchmarks.

Well the M59 would do fine, but the HAF is better in every way really. I guess it's up to you. Did you check out the PSU?

Well, for once it looks SO much sexier. 2, it's built better. 3, more space. 4, better design and airflow. 5, front panel USB 3. 6, Awesome cable management.

But it's up to you. I love the HAF, but if you don't think it looks cool (which is half the battle) don't buy it. And that's fine on the PSU, but you could probably save a bundle more by getting the CX 500 if you only plan on running a single card.

still not sure
, mught get a 750w psu incase i ever xfire/sli, what to get gtx 570 or hd 6950???

i didnt add you to ignore list >.< hmm, what happend?

eh, ill make a new pm...

wierd... contact mod?