First build - Help please! - £2,000

[DarkSacred]

I've never built a PC before and was looking at giving it a go with the new Ivy Bridge processors hitting earlier this year and Diablo 3 on the verge of release.

I've had a bit of a play about on Scan and this is what I've come up with thus far.

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Approximate Purchase Date: 3-6 Weeks

Budget Range: £2,000 (Rebates???)

System Usage from Most to Least Important: Gaming, Media, Internet, Office

Preferred Website(s) for Parts: Scan.co.uk

Country: England, UK

Overclocking: Yes

SLI or Crossfire: Maybe

Monitor Resolution: 1920x1200
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External:

Case: Corsair Obsidian Series 650D All Black Mid Tower Case with SATA Dock & Side Window w/o PSU £136.38

Optical Drives: Sony AD-7800H Slot 8xDVD+/-R, 6xDVD+DL, 6xDVD-DL, DVD+RW x8, -RWx6, x5 RAM, Notebook, SATA, Black £26.86

SilverStone SST-FP58B, Bay Device 5.25": 1x slot loading slim optical drive and 4x 2.5” HDD/SSD, Black £11.83

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Internal:

Processor: Intel Core i5 3570K,1155, Ivy Bridge, Quad Core, 3.4GHz, 5 GT/s DMI, 650MHz GPU, 6MB Smart Cache, 34x Ratio, 77W, OEM £169.38

Cooling: Corsair H100 Hydro Series Extreme Performance CPU cooler, S775/1155/1156/1366/2011/AM2/AM3 £76.92

Boot Drive: 128GB Crucial RealSSD M4, 2.5" SATA 6Gb/s SSD, MLC-Flash, Read 500Mb/s, Write 175Mb/s *New Version* £88.94

Data Drive: 2TB Seagate ST2000DM001 Barracuda 7200.14 SATA 3 6GB/s 7200rpm 64MB Cache 8ms OEM NCQ £84.83

RAM: 8GB (2x4GB) Corsair DDR3 Vengeance Racing Red, PC3-12800 (1600), Non-ECC, CAS 9-9-9-24, XMP, 1.5V £40.56

Power: 650W PSU, Corsair Pro Series Gold 9020006, Modular, 90% Eff', 80 PLUS Gold, SLI/CrossFire, EPS 12V,Quient Fan, ATX £108.78

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Software:

OS:Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium 64 Bit SP1, Operating System, Single, - OEM £72.08

Office: Open Office £0.00

Anti-virus: ??? (Not sure never used one!)


Total: £838.50*
*With Scansure

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Hows that looking?


I'm still unsure on MOBO its a flip between the Sabertooth, Fatal1ty Pro and EVGA FTW Z77 boards any advice?

Lastly I'm also still needing to choose a GPU, I'm wanting to go with the nVidia GTX680 however I'm not too sure on brand I've always heard good things about EVGA are they up to scratch? If I was to go down the EVGA route would I be better off getting the standard, signature or holding out for the FTW range wich will probably ship with 4gb instead of 2gb RAM.

*Edited to conform with posting guidlines

 

[SSri]

Anti-virus: ??? (Not sure never used one!)


Mobo: See this review at Tom's.

"A three-way value tie between the Z77 Extreme6, Z77A-GD65, and Z77H2-A2X is difficult to settle. That forces us to a single conclusion: buyers should carefully consider the overall feature set of these three contenders before picking the one that best suits their individual needs." This is reproduced from

http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/z77- [...] 34-22.html

My choice would be either ASRock z77 extreme 6 or MSI Z77A-GD65.

GPU: : eVGA GTX 680. It is out of stock. If you can find one, it is the one you would want on your rig. Otherwise, Radeon HD 7850/7950/7970.

Sure, you need an Antivirus, either a free one or a paid plus a firewall. If you are not technically inclined, buy a third party security suite like Kaspersky.

 

[DarkSacred]

Mobo: See this review at Tom's.

"A three-way value tie between the Z77 Extreme6, Z77A-GD65, and Z77H2-A2X is difficult to settle. That forces us to a single conclusion: buyers should carefully consider the overall feature set of these three contenders before picking the one that best suits their individual needs." This is reproduced from

http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/z77- [...] 34-22.html

My choice would be either ASRock z77 extreme 6 or MSI Z77A-GD65.

Thanks for the link had a quick read through but couldn't see any of the three MOBOs I listed above that said I do like the look of the ASRock E6 how do they compare as a manufacturer to EVGA or Asus? Features of the board look ok but only 4 USB ports? And no internal firewire header on the board.

Why is it that they all include video outputs? I would have thought on high end products these wouldn't be required.


I'm trying for a red/black theme within my case if that makes any difference?

GPU: : eVGA GTX 680. It is out of stock. If you can find one, it is the one you would want on your rig. Otherwise, Radeon HD 7850/7950/7970.

With the exception of the reference card all of them are available and in stock ready for next day delivery through Scan.

Is their much difference between the Superclocked, Superclocked+ and Signature ranges? (I noticed the FTW and Classified ranges have yet to be released.) Is it worth waiting for EVGAs other ranges probably with 4gb VRAM?

Sure, you need an Antivirus, either a free one or a paid plus a firewall. If you are not technically inclined, buy a third party security suite like Kaspersky.[/quotemsg]

I've not had anti-virus software since 1997 and never had any problems with my computers. I've been reluctant to buy into another as from what I've seen on my friends computers all it does is slow them down.... a lot!

Thanks a lot for your help so far!

 

[SSri]

Thanks for the link had a quick read through but couldn't see any of the three MOBOs I listed above that said I do like the look of the ASRock E6 how do they compare as a manufacturer to EVGA or Asus? Features of the board look ok but only 4 USB ports? And no internal firewire header on the board.

Why is it that they all include video outputs? I would have thought on high end products these wouldn't be required.

Asus is a pretty good manufacturer of motherboards. Asus is not a winner in that value review. Video benchmarking is pretty common as it helps folks looking for a video editing/rendering rigs.

Is their much difference between the Superclocked, Superclocked+ and Signature ranges? (I noticed the FTW and Classified ranges have yet to be released.) Is it worth waiting for EVGAs other ranges probably with 4gb VRAM?

I doubt if you require a large VRAM for gaming. I would prefer eVGA cards over any others. It is my personal preference. Overclocked video cards are not going to make a significant difference to performance. If those cards are available, you may as well get them.

I've not had anti-virus software since 1997 and never had any problems with my computers. I've been reluctant to buy into another as from what I've seen on my friends computers all it does is slow them down.... a lot!

Touch wood! Try installing MSE and run a scan to see if it picks up anything. Otherwise, download and run an E-SET online scanner to see if anything comes by

 

[UnluckyXIII]

I'm going to go against SSri and say get the best card u can buy with the most VRAM you can get on it, VRAM is becoming more and more the bottleneck in modern games, things like Skyrim with lots of mods can use up to 2GB easy. BattleField when playing large 64 man games will chew through 2GB and still want more if your able to provide it. It comes down to this - If you have the money get a 4GB GTX680 if your on a tighter budget get either the 3GB 7970 or a 2GB GTX680.

Oh and the EVGA motherboard looks sweet! I've just bought my new computer (ASRock Fatal1ty Pro) but if I had seen the EVGA board I might have held out for it.

 

[SSri]

I'm going to go against SSri and say get the best card u can buy with the most VRAM you can get on it, VRAM is becoming more and more the bottleneck in modern games, things like Skyrim with lots of mods can use up to 2GB easy. BattleField when playing large 64 man games will chew through 2GB and still want more if your able to provide it. It comes down to this - If you have the money get a 4GB GTX680 if your on a tighter budget get either the 3GB 7970 or a 2GB GTX680.

Oh and the EVGA motherboard looks sweet! I've just bought my new computer (ASRock Fatal1ty Pro) but if I had seen the EVGA board I might have held out for it.

eVGA GTX 680 or Radeon HD 7850/7950/7970 is what I also recommended. a 4GB GTX 680 would be nice but would easily put you back by more than $1000. Similarly the GTX 690. I reckon it would also cost you at least $1000.