- Oct 31, 2011
- 6
- 0
- 18,510
Hello. I'm putting together a new PC for a change. I am in the UK and this machine is intended for gaming at 1680x01050 and in the future at 1080p when I upgrade display (few months time). It will also be used for video editing/frapsing using APpro 5.5 64.
I'm not interested in OC'ing and power consumption is something I am keen to keep under control.
My budget is £600. I have the following so far:
Intel Core i5 2300 2.8GHz
Four cores instead of the cheaper HT 2100 for future proofing and video editing/transcoding.
MSI H67MA-E35-B3 Socket 1155 8 Channel Audio mATX Motherboard
USB 3.0 and SATA III main selling points. Also the boards are power efficient using just 25w at idle. I have bought luxury boards in the past and almost always end up turning off all the chipset features - as I never use them. So for the price I think this is good value!
Antec TruePower New 550W Modular PSU
I would like to use a smaller PSU if I can, such as the Antec Earthwatts 430, but I am not sure given the GPU's energy requirements if this would be wise.
OCZ 60GB Agility 3 SSD - 2.5" SATA-III
I am a 'small footprint' user and just bought a 1TB F3 mechanical disk for storage of raw video which I will re-use in the new build. This SSD can really speed up the OS and gaming, so for £80 it is a no brainer in a new build I think? I can also spin down the mechanical drive to save power which is nice.
Corsair 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 1333MHz XMS3 Memory Kit CL9 1.5V unbuffered
4GB is adequate for gaming, but I wanted more for working with Adobe and other productivity suites. I also play Eve Online and frequently run multiple clients in parallel so more ram is definitely a big bonus.
Gigabyte GTX 560Ti OC 1GB GDDR5 Dual DVI Mini HDMI Out PCI-E Graphics Card
I believe the HD 6950 is slightly better but Adobe can only GPU accelerate in Premiere using CUDA cores. So with that in mind, Nvidia it is. I have always considered these mid-high end cards horrific energy sponges, especially in 2d mode where the large PSU's they require and the TDP just burns through a lot more electricity than it really should. But there is no choice now if you want to play 1080p games at 30+ fps. *sigh
Total in GPB £596.2 in inc. VAT delivered.
Extras:
Xenta SATA 3 Cable 6Gbps - 46cm £1.97
Kingston 2.5" to 3.5" Hard Drive Bracket and Screws £3.99
I already have a Lian LI PC-60 case which has served me well for many years. I will also be re-using the Samsung TB disk and I
use a USB external CD/DVD RW which I share with my netbook and see no need to install an internal drive and further increase the power draw.
I would greatly appreciate some critique of my build choices and especially where I could save money through better energy efficiency/better match components together to reduce potential quality or bottlenecking issues.
Thanks!
I'm not interested in OC'ing and power consumption is something I am keen to keep under control.
My budget is £600. I have the following so far:
Intel Core i5 2300 2.8GHz
Four cores instead of the cheaper HT 2100 for future proofing and video editing/transcoding.
MSI H67MA-E35-B3 Socket 1155 8 Channel Audio mATX Motherboard
USB 3.0 and SATA III main selling points. Also the boards are power efficient using just 25w at idle. I have bought luxury boards in the past and almost always end up turning off all the chipset features - as I never use them. So for the price I think this is good value!
Antec TruePower New 550W Modular PSU
I would like to use a smaller PSU if I can, such as the Antec Earthwatts 430, but I am not sure given the GPU's energy requirements if this would be wise.
OCZ 60GB Agility 3 SSD - 2.5" SATA-III
I am a 'small footprint' user and just bought a 1TB F3 mechanical disk for storage of raw video which I will re-use in the new build. This SSD can really speed up the OS and gaming, so for £80 it is a no brainer in a new build I think? I can also spin down the mechanical drive to save power which is nice.
Corsair 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 1333MHz XMS3 Memory Kit CL9 1.5V unbuffered
4GB is adequate for gaming, but I wanted more for working with Adobe and other productivity suites. I also play Eve Online and frequently run multiple clients in parallel so more ram is definitely a big bonus.
Gigabyte GTX 560Ti OC 1GB GDDR5 Dual DVI Mini HDMI Out PCI-E Graphics Card
I believe the HD 6950 is slightly better but Adobe can only GPU accelerate in Premiere using CUDA cores. So with that in mind, Nvidia it is. I have always considered these mid-high end cards horrific energy sponges, especially in 2d mode where the large PSU's they require and the TDP just burns through a lot more electricity than it really should. But there is no choice now if you want to play 1080p games at 30+ fps. *sigh
Total in GPB £596.2 in inc. VAT delivered.
Extras:
Xenta SATA 3 Cable 6Gbps - 46cm £1.97
Kingston 2.5" to 3.5" Hard Drive Bracket and Screws £3.99
I already have a Lian LI PC-60 case which has served me well for many years. I will also be re-using the Samsung TB disk and I
use a USB external CD/DVD RW which I share with my netbook and see no need to install an internal drive and further increase the power draw.
I would greatly appreciate some critique of my build choices and especially where I could save money through better energy efficiency/better match components together to reduce potential quality or bottlenecking issues.
Thanks!
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