First Build ~ £1000

[YatesyBatesy]

Before I take the plunge and buy all the parts for my build I thought I would check with people who know alot more than I do.

APPROXIMATE PURCHASE DATE: Within the next month.

BUDGET RANGE: Around £1000

SYSTEM USAGE FROM MOST TO LEAST IMPORTANT: Gaming, Movies, Heavy multi tasking, Photoshop,

PREFERRED WEBSITE(S) FOR PARTS: Ebuyer

COUNTRY OF ORIGIN: United Kingdom

OVERCLOCKING: Probably later on

SLI OR CROSSFIRE: Will crossfire when cards go down in price / need a boost in performance

MONITOR RESOLUTION: 1920x1200

Parts:

Intel i7 930 2.8GHz Socket 1366 8MB L3 Cache Retail Boxed Processor
http://www.ebuyer.com/product/193596

Asus P6X58D-E X58 Socket 1366 Gigabit Lan Tripple PCI-E 8 Channel Audio ATX Motherboard
http://www.ebuyer.com/product/219007

Corsair 6GB (3x2GB) DDR3 1600MHz XMS3 Memory Kit CL9(9-9-9-24) 1.65V
http://www.ebuyer.com/product/191184

Samsung HD103SJ Spinpoint F3 1TB Hard Drive SATAII 7200rpm 32MB Cache - OEM
http://www.ebuyer.com/product/173804

Intel 40GB X25-Value SSD 2.5" SATA-II
http://www.ebuyer.com/product/190701

Coolermaster CM 690 II Advanced Mid Tower Case
http://www.ebuyer.com/product/191197

Corsair 650W TX Series PSU - 120mm Fan, 80+% Efficiency, Single +12V Rail
http://www.ebuyer.com/product/135514

Asus HD 5850 DirectCU 1GB GDDR5 DVI HDMI Display Port Out PCI-E Graphics Card
http://www.ebuyer.com/product/205834

LiteOn IHAS124-19 24x DVD±RW DL & RAM SATA - OEM Black
http://www.ebuyer.com/product/176026

I was wondering if the SSD was enough for just the OS, or is it worth getting a larger and faster SSD?

With the GPU I was thinking I would have more headroom for overclocking when I get around to it, would the 650W to enough, or would it be best to get the 750W for overclocking and crossfire later on down the line?

Thanks for any advice!

 

[MadAdmiral]

Don't touch the 460. It's way under your budget. It performs like the 5830, which is a bad decision all around. As for the Intel/nVidia thing, it's a complete myth caused by the past ATI cards having bad drivers, which is the distant paast now.

Switch the board for a Gigabyte GA-X58A-UD3R. It's as good as the Asus and cheaper.

I'd drop out the SSD. 40 GB is basically nothing for a SSD. It'd be enough to hold the OS and maybe two games.

Since you've got some budget without the SSD, up the GPU to the HD 5870. It's capable of playing every game out there at 1080p with max details, while the 5850 is not.

I'd also look for CAS Latency 7 sticks of RAM. They'll be faster, especially if you overclock.

Finally, I'd up the PSU to a 750W unit. That would be enough for adding a second 5870 in Crossfire down the road.

 

[YatesyBatesy]

Don't touch the 460. It's way under your budget. It performs like the 5830, which is a bad decision all around. As for the Intel/nVidia thing, it's a complete myth caused by the past ATI cards having bad drivers, which is the distant paast now.

Switch the board for a Gigabyte GA-X58A-UD3R. It's as good as the Asus and cheaper.

I'd drop out the SSD. 40 GB is basically nothing for a SSD. It'd be enough to hold the OS and maybe two games.

Since you've got some budget without the SSD, up the GPU to the HD 5870. It's capable of playing every game out there at 1080p with max details, while the 5850 is not.

I'd also look for CAS Latency 7 sticks of RAM. They'll be faster, especially if you overclock.

Finally, I'd up the PSU to a 750W unit. That would be enough for adding a second 5870 in Crossfire down the road.

With the Motherboards there's only a £2 difference at the moment (on sale), so would you still recommend the Gigabyte GA-X58A-UD3R over the Asus?

Would it be best to just wait on the SSD's for prices to go down, i was thinking of just increasing the budget for a better SSD? What size would be a decent bet?

For the GPU I will probably get a 5870 / 5850, this is my first build, and i know very little, but for some reason i haven't really taken a fancy for any nVidia cards.

I'll up the PSU to the 750W, and get CAS Latency 7 RAM.

Thanks for the quick reply.

 

[MadAdmiral]

With the prices, it's a toss up. Either would be fine.

Yes. I wouldn't recommend getting anything under Intel's 80 GB model.

There isn't a real reason to consider the nVidia cards. They're either too weak (all 4xx), too old (any non-4xx), use too much power (470, 480), run too hot (470, 480) or too expensive (470, 480).

 

[YatesyBatesy]

There isn't a real reason to consider the nVidia cards. They're either too weak (all 4xx), too old (any non-4xx), use too much power (470, 480), run too hot (470, 480) or too expensive (470, 480).

Exactly my thoughts with the little I know about the subject.

Thanks for the help, now all I need to do is make sure my PC fund doesn't get sapped further by my impending wedding!

 

[asteldian]

I would just like to add my 2 cents - MadAdmiral is right - get a 5870 and lose the SSD for it, gaming performance with the 5870 is a good jump, whereas SSD is a nice to have item - it is something to put in if your budget allows the best out there and still leaves cash spare.

On a side note, the 460 Nvidia card doesn't actually look too bad - it tends to outperform the 5830 and is much more power efficient and cool, its price is also much better than the other 4xx series. Of all the Nvidia cards out there it actually looks the most decent. But I still wouldn't buy it instead of a 5850.

 

[MadAdmiral]

The 460 isn't a bad card, it's just not in a good price range. If you can afford the 460, you can likely squeeze the budget to fit the 5850.

 

[asteldian]

I dunno, in the UK it is about £50 ($75) cheaper than the 5850, which makes it not too far off the equivalent of saying if you buy a 5850 you can probably squeeze in a 5870 to your budget ($100 difference)

 

[Silvune]

Yea, in the UK you can get 5770s for £150 and then you can get a 768MB GTX 460 for a similar price, and the GTX definitely beats a 5770. Illustrating that in the UK they are at the correct price point, based on where ATI price their cards atm - which should change now.