I need some help!

[P910607]

Hi, my name is Tom, and i have been trying to find some reliable advice on the computer i am trying to build, and i dont know if anyone can help me or not, but i thought i would post my question on here...??!!? : )

i think i nearly have it cracked, but i am not too sure of two things:

1: Are the parts actually compatible and will work well together
2: Will anything here slow the others down and how much?
3: Most importantly, can i skim some money off somewhere and still get the same performance?

The spec i have chosen is below, and the build is coming in at £540 sterling.......


Intel Core i5 3470 3.20GHz Socket 1155 6MB L3 Cache Retail Boxed Processor

Arctic Cooling Freezer 13 Intel and AMD Socket Heatpipe Cooling Fan

Asus P8H61-M PRO Intel H61 Socket 1155 8 Channel HD Audio mATX Motherboard

Corsair 8GB DDR3 1333MHz XMS3 Memory Module CL9 (9-9-9-24) 1.5v

Seagate 500GB 3.5" SATA-III 6Gb/s Barracuda Hard Drive 7200RPM 16MB Cache

Palit GeForce GT 640 2GB DDR3 Dual-Link DVI HDMI PCI-E Graphics Card

Slim MicroATX Mini Tower Case - With 400W PSU 20+4pin, 1x SATA, 1x PCI-E

Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium w/SP1

All the parts are from EBUYER.

Ill be running video editing software, Photoshop creative suite and Drawing Packages, some games too..

Can anybody HELP! : )

Thank you so much in advance : )

Tom

 

[g-unit1111]

That Arctic Cooling fan is no better than the stock fan. Don't expect that GT640 to get any sort of decent frame rates, and why go mATX?

 

[P910607]

Hi g-unit, thanks for the reply. I thought the GT640 would be good as it was a 2GB card, you think for video editing etc, it doesnt live up to much? To be honest with the mATX motherboard i just heard that ASUS were good, thus the choice, would you avoid?

Thanks again (you can probably tell im not literate with pc's : )

Tom

 

[ScrewySqrl]

the amount 0f memory is less important than the amount of graphical computing power, and teh 640 is a low-end, entry-level design. it'll do HD movies ok, but not very well at games.

a no-name PSU included in the case is a warning flag as well.



Nothing wrong with micro ATX

 

[P910607]

Hi g-unit, thanks for the reply. I thought the GT640 would be good as it was a 2GB card, you think for video editing etc, it doesnt live up to much? To be honest with the mATX motherboard i just heard that ASUS were good, thus the choice, would you avoid?

Thanks again (you can probably tell im not literate with pc's : )

Tom

 

[P910607]

Hi Screwy Sqrl, would you think that dropping to 8GB Ram and improving the graphics card would be a better move?

Tom

 

[g-unit1111]

Hi g-unit, thanks for the reply. I thought the GT640 would be good as it was a 2GB card, you think for video editing etc, it doesnt live up to much? To be honest with the mATX motherboard i just heard that ASUS were good, thus the choice, would you avoid?

Thanks again (you can probably tell im not literate with pc's : )

Tom

Yeah the GT640 will pretty much handle HD movies and that's about it. A Radeon 6850 would be a far better choice than the GT640 would - it's only about $30 (£14.5) more.

I'm personally not a fan of mATX because I build my systems for longevity and going H61 - you lose access to the multiplier, and you also lose SATA ports, RAM slots, and PCI slots so if you want to expand beyond what you have now that won't be a good thing.

 

[P910607]

Yeah the GT640 will pretty much handle HD movies and that's about it. A Radeon 6850 would be a far better choice than the GT640 would - it's only about $30 (£14.5) more.

I'm personally not a fan of mATX because I build my systems for longevity and going H61 - you lose access to the multiplier, and you also lose SATA ports, RAM slots, and PCI slots so if you want to expand beyond what you have now that won't be a good thing.

Ill have a look at the Graphics card you mentioned, and i see what you mean with the expansion issue. What would you advise with a fan, or the stock one good anyway that comes with the CPU, i guess it must be if intel supply it, no?

Tom

 

[P910607]

Yeah the GT640 will pretty much handle HD movies and that's about it. A Radeon 6850 would be a far better choice than the GT640 would - it's only about $30 (£14.5) more.

I'm personally not a fan of mATX because I build my systems for longevity and going H61 - you lose access to the multiplier, and you also lose SATA ports, RAM slots, and PCI slots so if you want to expand beyond what you have now that won't be a good thing.

Also G-unit, how can a 1GB radeon card be better than a 2GB Nvida, the capacity is better with a 2GB, is it not? I was just going for size... in GB...

Tom

 

[g-unit1111]

Ill have a look at the Graphics card you mentioned, and i see what you mean with the expansion issue. What would you advise with a fan, or the stock one good anyway that comes with the CPU, i guess it must be if intel supply it, no?

Tom

If you're not going to overclock you don't need anything beyond what the stock fan offers.

Also G-unit, how can a 1GB radeon card be better than a 2GB Nvida, the capacity is better with a 2GB, is it not? I was just going for size... in GB...

There's many factors - speed of the VRAM, number of processor cores, things of that nature. Here's a benchmark: http://www.hwcompare.com/12867/geforce-gt-640-ddr3-vs-radeon-hd-6850/

 

[ScrewySqrl]

here's my suggested build:

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: Intel Core i5-3450 3.1GHz Quad-Core Processor (£147.53 @ Ebuyer)
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-B75M-D3V Micro ATX LGA1155 Motherboard (£52.99 @ Novatech)
Memory: Corsair Vengeance 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory (£40.56 @ Scan.co.uk)
Hard Drive: Seagate Barracuda 500GB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive (£49.76 @ CCL Computers)
Hard Drive: OCZ Agility 3 90GB 2.5" Solid State Disk (£62.99 @ Scan.co.uk)
Video Card: MSI Radeon HD 6850 1GB Video Card (£83.99 @ Overclockers.co.uk)
Case: Xigmatek Asgard II Black/Orange ATX Mid Tower Case (£29.99 @ Overclockers.co.uk)
Power Supply: Corsair 430W ATX12V Power Supply (£35.32 @ Scan.co.uk)
Optical Drive: Sony AD-7280S-0B DVD/CD Writer (£12.88 @ CCL Computers)
Total: £516.01
(Prices include shipping and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2012-07-19 18:59 BST+0100)

this will be a very solid gaming system, and I included a 90 GB SSD for boot, major apps, and 2-3 games

this alternative build drops the SSD for a real powerhouse video card:

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: Intel Core i5-3450 3.1GHz Quad-Core Processor (£147.53 @ Ebuyer)
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-B75M-D3V Micro ATX LGA1155 Motherboard (£52.99 @ Novatech)
Memory: Corsair Vengeance 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory (£40.56 @ Scan.co.uk)
Hard Drive: Seagate Barracuda 500GB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive (£49.76 @ CCL Computers)
Video Card: MSI Radeon HD 7850 2GB Video Card (£179.74 @ Scan.co.uk)
Case: Xigmatek Asgard II Black/Orange ATX Mid Tower Case (£29.99 @ Overclockers.co.uk)
Power Supply: Corsair 430W ATX12V Power Supply (£35.32 @ Scan.co.uk)
Optical Drive: Sony AD-7280S-0B DVD/CD Writer (£12.88 @ CCL Computers)
Total: £548.77
(Prices include shipping and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2012-07-19 19:02 BST+0100)

both have limited room for expansion and overclocking, but, especially in the seconnd build. It'll run any game for the next 2-3 years at high, in 1920x1080 with x8 Antialias

 

[P910607]

here's my suggested build:

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: Intel Core i5-3450 3.1GHz Quad-Core Processor (£147.53 @ Ebuyer)
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-B75M-D3V Micro ATX LGA1155 Motherboard (£52.99 @ Novatech)
Memory: Corsair Vengeance 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory (£40.56 @ Scan.co.uk)
Hard Drive: Seagate Barracuda 500GB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive (£49.76 @ CCL Computers)
Hard Drive: OCZ Agility 3 90GB 2.5" Solid State Disk (£62.99 @ Scan.co.uk)
Video Card: MSI Radeon HD 6850 1GB Video Card (£83.99 @ Overclockers.co.uk)
Case: Xigmatek Asgard II Black/Orange ATX Mid Tower Case (£29.99 @ Overclockers.co.uk)
Power Supply: Corsair 430W ATX12V Power Supply (£35.32 @ Scan.co.uk)
Optical Drive: Sony AD-7280S-0B DVD/CD Writer (£12.88 @ CCL Computers)
Total: £516.01
(Prices include shipping and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2012-07-19 18:59 BST+0100)

this will be a very solid gaming system, and I included a 90 GB SSD for boot, major apps, and 2-3 games

this alternative build drops the SSD for a real powerhouse video card:

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: Intel Core i5-3450 3.1GHz Quad-Core Processor (£147.53 @ Ebuyer)
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-B75M-D3V Micro ATX LGA1155 Motherboard (£52.99 @ Novatech)
Memory: Corsair Vengeance 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory (£40.56 @ Scan.co.uk)
Hard Drive: Seagate Barracuda 500GB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive (£49.76 @ CCL Computers)
Video Card: MSI Radeon HD 7850 2GB Video Card (£179.74 @ Scan.co.uk)
Case: Xigmatek Asgard II Black/Orange ATX Mid Tower Case (£29.99 @ Overclockers.co.uk)
Power Supply: Corsair 430W ATX12V Power Supply (£35.32 @ Scan.co.uk)
Optical Drive: Sony AD-7280S-0B DVD/CD Writer (£12.88 @ CCL Computers)
Total: £548.77
(Prices include shipping and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2012-07-19 19:02 BST+0100)

both have limited room for expansion and overclocking, but, especially in the seconnd build. It'll run any game for the next 2-3 years at high, in 1920x1080 with x8 Antialias

Thanks ScrewySquirrel, thats very kind of you to post that for me, and to take the time to look through it all, im very grateful of you. Im going to spend a little while looking through this all, i like the idea of a solid state drive for boot and apps!

One thing though, what if i wanted to go for a larger board so i could expand a little, what then? Also, i bought a WACOM CINTIQ 24HD and the resolution is 1920 x 1200, how does that fair up on the graphics?

Best regards

Tom

 

[g-unit1111]

Thanks ScrewySquirrel, thats very kind of you to post that for me, and to take the time to look through it all, im very grateful of you. Im going to spend a little while looking through this all, i like the idea of a solid state drive for boot and apps!

One thing though, what if i wanted to go for a larger board so i could expand a little, what then? Also, i bought a WACOM CINTIQ 24HD and the resolution is 1920 x 1200, how does that fair up on the graphics?

Best regards

Tom

The problem with that B75 board is that it includes parallel and serial ports that haven't been used in like a decade. I wouldn't get an Agility 3 due to the Sandforce controller that's being used. H77 would be a better choice than B75 would.

 

[ScrewySqrl]

I like the B75 as the ivy-bridge version of the H61 -- low priced board with only the basics.the B75 has the legacy connectors because its aimed initally at business use, who often are still using 20-year old equipment


What would you be expanding? modern PCs don't have a myriad of daughter card like the late 1990s (sound, network, video, etc) - usually just a video card.

 

[g-unit1111]

I like the B75 as the ivy-bridge version of the H61 -- low priced board with only the basics.the B75 has the legacy connectors because its aimed initally at business use, who often are still using 20-year old equipment


What would you be expanding? modern PCs don't have a myriad of daughter card like the late 1990s (sound, network, video, etc) - usually just a video card.

If you want to add extra hard drives beyond the standard HD / SSD / optical, you can't do it. If you want to add more RAM, you can't do it. And if you want to use multiple USB ports for things other than printers, keyboard/mouse, etc then you can't do that either.