Help me make a New PC HTPC/ General CAD

[goldberguar]

Hey Guys, I wanted a general advice about the new PC i am going to assemble to see if it is going to be stable and compatible. Please advice which are better options to choose:

The system specs are as below:

Intel i7 [3.2GhZ] or i5 [3.2 Ghz]
i will use i5 [3.2 ghZ] , as i7 is good but the motherboard i found which is Intel DX 58SO , is out of my budget.

If i use i7 (is Intel H55-TC good motherboard to support i7) or should i just stick with i5?

If i use i5 [3.2 Ghz] which motherboard will support the best out of these:

1. Gigabyte 58XUD3
2. Intel H55-TC
3. Gigabyte H55M-D2h
4. Gigabyte GA-P55-UD3L

then this:

8 GB DDR3 ( 4 + 4) RAM
1 TB Western Digital Hard Drive
LG DVD+- RW
Graphic Card NviDia Geforce EvGa 210 [1GB] or Geforce GT 430 [1 GB] ?
Gigabyte X2 or X6 Case ? (Is it going to have enough power to run everything smoothly and will it be cool enough ?

I am planning to use this as for general home HTPC and CAD softwares.

Should i go with ATi ? Does it have a good interface now to clone screens onto HDTV? I have one card which is an alternative to Geforce, which is ATi 5750! is that good?
Please advice, thanks

Please give suggestions.

Thanks to everyone,

Yours sincerely,
UAR.

 

[striker410]

Hi there Gold, got your message. Glad to help.

So for HTPC and CAD eh? You'll need a quiet, small, and powerful system. That probably means an i5-2500k with a micro ATX case. the first issue is that you are planning to build on an old platform. You were looking at LGA 1156 and LGA 1366, but you need to look at Sandy Bridge, which is LGA 1155. The Sandy Bridge processors currently well outpace the last generation, even the most high end CPU's.

For a video card, I believe that CAD works best with ATI.

Now before we get started, can you do me A favor and fill out this form? http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/261222-31-build-advice You already gave us some info, but we need the rest.

Cheers, Striker.

 

[goldberguar]

Hey striker thanks for the reply. Here's the detailed things:

Approximate Purchase Date: this week


Budget Range: US$400 - 600


System Usage from Most to Least Important: Watching movies?CAD work


Parts Not Required:keyboard, mouse, monitor, speakers, OS


Preferred Website(s) for Parts: best found from shops


Country of Origin: UAE


Parts Preferences: by brand or type : (Have no idea)


Overclocking: (Have no idea about this)


SLI or Crossfire: (have no idea about this)


Monitor Resolution: (best possible) with ATI 5750


Additional Comments: Should last for long.

At last i found out the individual components and will paste them below.

The thing is in my country you cant find whatever is in ur budget, but you have to see what is available in the market within your budget range.

Here's my spec, after you review. Please see if this is good? I will mention 2 options where possible, guide me which is better and will give a good overall config.

1. Intel i5 2300 Processor [2.8 GhZ]
http://ark.intel.com/Product.aspx?id=52206

or Intel i5 760 Processor [2.8 GhZ] , I dont know what is its detailed type (sandy's or etc. ) Help!

2. The motherboards available over here are:

Gigabyte 58XUD3 (no link)

Intel H55-TC http://www.intel.com/products/desktop/motherboards/DH55TC/DH55TC-overview.htm

Gigabyte H55M-D2h http://www.gigabyte.com/products/product-page.aspx?pid=3572

Gigabyte GA-P55-UD3L http://www.gigabyte.com/products/product-page.aspx?pid=3501#ov

Please can you suggest which one is going to be in a better config.

3. My Graphics card, as i checked out many reviews and from you so that i will choose ATi 5750 (512 MB or 1 GB) Subject to availability.
The only reason, i didnt choose this one is because , it has difficult interface to clone onto HDTV, but people say, it is straight forward in Windows 7 now.

4. 4 GB DDR3 RAM , if i have 8 gb (2 * 4GB) : is it not going to work on x86 architecture of Windows 7?

5. 1 TB Western Digital Hard Drive

6. LG DVD+- RW

7. X2 or X6 Gigabyte case. Will they be cool enough hand provide sufficient power ?
Please advice now, please let me know if you need anything else.

 

[striker410]

Well, the i5-2300 isn't bad, but let's get the 2400. And none of those mobo's will work, you need H67/Z68. I would look at Gigabyte's offerings.

The ATI 5750 should work well.
4GB of ram should be fine, but let's move to 8GB for the CAD.
For a PSU go Antec Earthwatts 380.

That should give you a bit to think about.

 

[need4speeds]

-You should plug the hd-5750 into a computer now and make sure cad works with it first.

The hd-5750 would make a decent htpc card and can even work as a entry level gaming card. However, The hd-5750 might be overkill for a small htpc.

You don't need that much power, the i5-2500k is mostly for larger gaming desktops running a top model card or crossfire/sli combos.

1. $70 A new am3+ board so later you can drop in the new 32nm bulldozer cpu.
Or a socket 1155 board if you are choosing the intel cpu.

2. $? Keep your hd-5750 and 8gb mem you wanted. Winxp only uses 3gb so dont be alarmed when you see winxp only shows 3gb's when you have 8gb installed.

3. $70? use a htpc case that takes atx boards and is full height.

4. $104.99 Or $219.99. Go with the $104.99 AMD Phenom II X4 840 3.2GHz, its the cooler running propus core like the athlonIIx3,x4. The fast clock speed will help with tasks like cad, and video conversion, ect. The i5-2500K is the best 1155 cpu to choose, it's faster but a extra $115. STICK WITH 95 WATT CPUS OR LESS!!!

5. $70 Buy a 80pluss rated corsair or antec power supply so it runs cooler and quieter but still puts out the watts you need. A 600 or 650 is usually the best deal for $/watts, but a 500 watt is fine.

6. Decent wireless keyboard and mouse and try and get one with the mouse that uses AA's and not AAA's, the keyboard with AAA's is ok.

7. Hdd's are cheap now, the 1tb you had picked out is fine.
You might want to partition it and install winxp and win7 dual boot if your cad program is older and needs winxp. Xp-mode does not always work so well.

Well good luck.

 

[dalauder]

You'll do better getting an i5-2400 than planning for AMD's Bulldozer. Bulldozer's been delayed several times and you can wait until it launches (at some point generally in the future) and prices should drop. But I wouldn't hold my breathe. (Too bad too because I'm a big AMD fan).

What you buy depends on what's available where you are. I highly recommend buying online if you can find a website that ships to UAE for reasonable rates. I can't quote you prices without you listing a website or something. Here's some general parts advice though:

CPU: Sandy Bridge i3 or i5. Spend some time on wikipedia so you understand the CPU sockets and the CPU names. i3-2100 or i5-2400. The i5 is faster, but likely out of your budget.

Motherboard: You want a H61/H67/Z68 micro ATX (mATX) motherboard as striker410 said. That's socket 1155. I'd buy in order of manufacturer preference: Asus -> Gigabyte -> ASRock -> MSI -> EVGA -> Biostar. But I think you shouldn't go below MSI.

RAM: You want 8GB of RAM (2x4GB). You want 1600MHz Cas latency 9 RAM. Any faster RAM will do, but slower stuff isn't worth the minimal price savings.

Graphics: Buy what's in your budget. Here's a decent rough comparison.: http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/best-graphics-card-game-performance-radeon-hd-6670,2935-7.html
You want a 5000 series or newer Radeon or 400 series or newer GeForce. The 5750 should do. If you get a 5770 or more, you'll need a slightly larger PSU. So let us know if you do that.

HDD: A Samsung Spinpoint F3 1TB is as fast as a WD Caviar Black. If you can't find the Samsung, then it depends on a lot of things...but I'd go with Caviar Blue.

PSU: You need to buy a power supply from a good manufacturer--bad manufacturers often don't provide as much power as the label claims. Stick to Antec, Corsair, Seasonic, Silverstone, or XFX. If you see another one you like, ask us. But unless it's more expensive than one of these brands, it's probably lousy. Your computer will need at least 350W. I'd go for a 430W unit, but the Antec 380 should be enough and save you money.

DVD: It doesn't matter. Any DVD burner will do. The cheaper the better.

Case: Anything will do. Your system won't generate too much heat. But if it's the same price, go for cooling. You need a case that will fit a micro ATX motherboard (almost all do). Anything that fits an ATX board will fit mATX. There's nothing wrong with ATX motherboards, by the way, they just cost more than mATX.

 

[striker410]

Nice advice dalauder. He's been PMing me, and he's decided to take almost all of your recommendations. Except on the i5-2400, it's not available.

 

[dalauder]

Good to know. Thanks striker.