£600 first time build

cptmane

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Sep 6, 2011
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Approximate Purchase Date: Before Skyrim!!


Budget Range: £500-£700 at most


System Usage from Most to Least Important: Gaming, Surfing, Watching films


Parts Not Required: Keyboard, mouse, speakers, dvd drive, monitor


Preferred Website(s) for Parts: amazon.co.uk, dabs.com (unless anyone knows better sites?)


Country of Origin: England


Overclocking: Yes


SLI or Crossfire: Maybe in the future


Monitor Resolution: 1680x1050


Parts: ive done a bit of research myself for an AMD or an Intel build that i considered within my price range (allowing for additional components i will need). im leaning towards the intel i5 2500k at the moment but open to suggestions so long as it falls within my price range


Intel CPU's:
i3 2100 sandybridge


or

i5 2500k sandybridge
[url=http://www.amazon.co.uk/Intel-Sandybridge-i5-2500K-Quad-Core-Processor/dp/B004FA8NX2/ref=sr_1_1?s=computers&ie=UTF8&qid=1314623322&sr=1-1[/url]

AMD CPU's:
AMD 965 Black
[url=http://www.dabs.com/products/amd-phenom-ii-x4-965-3-4ghz-black-edition-am3-socket-l2-l3-8mb-6B0X.html?q=965%20black]


or

AMD 1090T
http://www.dabs.com/products/amd-ph...am3-black-edition-processor-6Z3T.html?q=1090t

GPU's:
GTX 460
http://www.pc-titan.com/product_inf...ce-GTX-460--1GB-GDDR5--2x-DVI--mini-HDMI.html

Radeon 6850
http://www.pc-titan.com/product_inf...ower-Edition-OC--Radeon-HD-6850--1GB-GDD.html

Memory:
Corsair XMS3 4x2Gb
http://www.dabs.com/products/corsai...red-6KBQ.html?refs=50113-52280000-12-55270000

Hard Drive:
http://www.dabs.com/products/wester...ml?refs=4294946772-450300000-4294946744-50473

Didn't even start choosing the motherboard or powersupply etc, they just started confusing me to be honest..

Any advice on whether what i've chosen is a good idea and on what else to get?

Many thanks
 

AdrianPerry

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You've missed two of the best UK websites,
www.SCAN.co.uk
www.EBUYER.co.uk

Here's a rough build idea:
Mobo: ASRock Extreme3 Gen3 £115
CPU: i5-2500k £155
Cooler: Hyper 212+ £25
GPU: 6870 £120
PSU: 500w £50
HDD: SpinPoint F3 1TB £40
Optical Drive: DVD-RW £20
RAM: 8GB 2x4GB Sticks DDR3 1600MHz CL9 £50
Case: Any mid-tower ATX £20-70
 
A warning about PC-Titan, from what I have read about them they are not based in the UK, nor in the EU. So the delivery and customs charges that will be added on will make their prices a lot less attractive.
 

cptmane

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Sep 6, 2011
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ok cheers for the rough idea, i'll check out scan.co.uk. already tried ebuyer but found cheaper elsewhere.

so i take it a 500w PSU will be fine until i get crossfire? any reason for the 6870 over the 6850?

and finally about the socket type on the mobo im gonna need a 67 or 68 to overclock the CPU to its full potential?
 

AdrianPerry

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The reason to get the 6870 over the 6850 is that it performs better. Its a more powerful card which will give you better performance in games. There also isn't too much price difference between the cards last time i checked.

500w PSU is plenty for a single card, i think 650w would handle crossfire 6870's but id probably go with a 750w just incase.

P67 and Z68 both overclock the same. The z68 just has a few extra features like SSD Caching if you wish to use a small SSD as a cache drive. P67 is a common choice because its slightly cheaper, however if you do chose a z68 for the extra features, it will perform the same. Just dont get a H67 because that doesn't allow CPU overclocking.
 

cptmane

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Sep 6, 2011
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Thanks for the warning on pc-titan silvune!

Think i'll go for a 500w psu first up then, leave it a year or two before idouble up on the 6870's

thats cleared a few things up, many thanks adrian