Build Advice First time build, help begged for!

[wascloud]

hi everyone,
recently i decided that i needed a new desktop, as currently i only have a laptop which is great for taking into university, but is really too small to game on. I then decided that instead of being sensible and buying a ready built pc, id have a crack at making one myself. It is to this end that i require your expert opinion!
so far i've got a list of components i think might work together, and i was wondering if someone could point out any compatibility issues or glaring errors in my list, so here goes:

case: antec nine hundred two
motherboard: biostar TPower 145
CPU: intel core 2 duo e8400
ram: OCZ PC2-8500 reaper edition (2GB)
Cooling: titan fenrir
Graphics card: ATI Radeon HD 5850
PSU: Be Quiet! dark power pro 650W
Hard Disk: Seaget Barracuda 7200.12
Sound Card: Creative X-Fi Xtreme Gamer
Monitor: Samsung SM2233bw

Im looking for an upper middle range gaming pc thats reasonably future proof,
cheers!
wascloud

[Jipa]

Wrong section, should of posted this under Hardware. I suppose some lovely moderator will move it, though.

Socket 775 is dead, wouldn't recommend building a new system based on it. Go either AM3 or LGA1556 instead. Also 2 GB of memory doesn't cut it.

[wascloud]

so that would be this instead?:
Asrock motherboard M3A785GMH/128M Socket AM3 DDR3 mATX
I'll also upgrade to 4gb of memory, is this sufficient?
also apologies for posting it in the wrong section, although i was hoping to keep a log of my progress when i start, so i can get some hints as i go along
cheers
wascloud

[Jipa]

You also didn't specify the price range. And to start a project log you already must have something done, and building a setup isn't a case mod project...

Anyway; I'd go straight for the big one:
MSI 790FX-GD70
Phenom 2 965BE
4 or 8 GB ram.

Also I'd swap the Seagate for a F3 Samsung, those things are darn fast.

[Porkins' Wingman]

Originally Posted by Jipa

Go either AM3 or LGA1556 instead.

Just in case you're not aux fais with all the options, I think Jipa meant LGA 1156 (for i5 750 /i7 870 type chips). 1156 is all the rage, I've bought one this evening

[trig]

unless you're an AMD fanboy, no reason to go AM3 at the moment unless you can't quite afford an i5-750, in which case you probably can't afford a 945/955/965 quad either...maybe go 550 be or 720 be with a nice am3 asus mobo and 2x2gb sticks of ram. definitely go f3 as jipa said they are fast. if you can afford the i5-750 or i7-920, fo that route...

[wascloud]

ok thanks very much for your help guys, im going to try and be a bit more useful now!
im looking to spend between £600-£700 not including the monitor. I am as ive said completely new to this, is it at all possible for someone to put up an improved list for me?
cheers!
wascloud

[Tesla effect]

I believe your spec is fine for a decent gaming rig. Its going to cost a fair bit more to go i5. Socket 775 is still more than competent, the guys here are upgrade crazy.

Only problem is DDR2 prices have rocketed but DDR3 is more expensive in the first place. All memory is expensive at the moment. LGA775 boards are cheaper & the core 2's have dropped in price, if someone can cost an i5 CPU & an LGA1156 mobo cheaper than the i45 E8400 combo then I stand corrected.

I think someone could suggest a better HDD as well maybe.

[tonpal]

Whist the Core i5 750 is certainly superior to a Phenom II, (the Core i5 at 2.66GHz has similar performance to a Phenom II X4 965 at 3.4GHz) I would hesitate to write the Phenom II off.

For a £600 to £700 budget a Phenom II X4 955 or a Phenom X3 720 gives solid performance and allows more to be spent on the graphics card which gives the best payoff as far as performance goes.

[Kyocera]

http://forums.bit-tech.net/showthrea...=177440&page=3

Here you have a complete build for the same money; Intel.

And here is a build with AMD:

http://forums.bit-tech.net/showthread.php?t=177440

A superior IPS monitor.
http://www.microwarehouse.co.uk/cata...48aaffbb448cd2

[trig]

Originally Posted by Tesla effect

I believe your spec is fine for a decent gaming rig. Its going to cost a fair bit more to go i5. Socket 775 is still more than competent, the guys here are upgrade crazy.

Only problem is DDR2 prices have rocketed but DDR3 is more expensive in the first place. All memory is expensive at the moment. LGA775 boards are cheaper & the core 2's have dropped in price, if someone can cost an i5 CPU & an LGA1156 mobo cheaper than the i45 E8400 combo then I stand corrected.

I think someone could suggest a better HDD as well maybe.

well, this isnt an upgrade, so advising someone to go into a dead socket when he can go am3 triple core is...not good advice...

and i know things don't translate the same across the ocean, but it usualy fits to scale, and here you can get ddr3 1600 ram cheaper than ddr2 1066 ram, by about $20. the e8400 saves you $30 over the i5-750, but you are talking massive performance gain, and $30 is lunch a couple times a week. boards are pretty even, i can find 3-4 boards i would buy on the 1156 socket that cost the same as boards i would settle for on the 775 socket.

so not sure what a "fair bit more" means to you, but for $10-20, one or two lunches brown baggin it, it's more than doable/worth it.

and as far as a better harddrive, no, there really isnt one. f3 is it right now...wd blacks are awesome (though not as fast as the f3 but quieter) and better warranty if i remember correctly, but you pay more...

[Tesla effect]

Well the mobo combo suggested by Kyocera was about £280. A P45 with an E8400 would be £220. One thing to note is that Scan don't seem to stock the P45 Biostars anymore, I guess they've stopped making them?

Would the LGA1156 & i5 suggested be better for gaming than the E8400 <edit>, I doubt it? The OP was after a HD 5850 so there's £60 on top of the 260 price towards that.

Who said a 'far' better HD? why do think I couldn't be arsed suggesting one myself. If the WD or the Samsung are not better then tell the OP stick with the Seagate.

[s1n1s]

If I was you I would at least wait for nvidia to release their new cards which will most likely cause ati cards to price drop to remain competitive also I agree you can't really get any better HDD than the samsung spinpoint F3, either intel's 1156 socket or amd's am3 socket both have ups and downs but if you want the most for your money your gonna want something that can be improved on over the course of time so I would recommend not getting a LGA 775

[Tesla effect]

4GB DDR2 XMS 2 would do the job nicely at £80. I believe you can get 4GB DDR3 XMS for about the same price so no saving on the RAM its even.

Maybe the OP would prefer to save a few quid short term get the same gaming performance & not worry about upgrades?

If the LGA boards are so cheap then when a CPU that really out performs the e8400 in games hits the scene you could bag both a new mobo & a CPU & upgrade that way.

Are you suggesting that the OP should forfit lunch for a week in order to reach the starry heights of LGA1156, how absurd?

[Kyocera]

Originally Posted by Tesla effect

Well the mobo combo suggested by Kyocera was about £280.

1. A P45 with an E8400 would be £220. One thing to note is that Scan don't seem to stock the P45 Biostars anymore, I guess they've stopped making them?

2.Would the LGA1156 & i5 suggested be better for gaming than the E8400 <edit>, I doubt it? The OP was after a HD 5850 so there's £60 on top of the 260 price towards that.

3.Who said a 'far' better HD? why do think I couldn't be arsed suggesting one myself. If the WD or the Samsung are not better then tell the OP stick with the Seagate.

1. a motherboard is the most important part of the PC.
a good 775 (P45) motherboard is some 110GBP; with DDR3 support. (DDR2 version is not cheaper). E8400 is another 120GBP; a much better choice is E7400 for 82GBP; the performance is the same and it overclocks greatly.

2.yes P55 performs quite better in gaming;
the price of the 5850 is overpriced; heavily; some 80GBP too much. And it probably won't go down till March next year.

3. F3 samsung is excellent; Seagate 7200.12 is for those that do not like buying HDD from a company that makes microwaves.

[tonpal]

I see things have moved on a bit since I posted this afternoon.

Anyway here are my thoughts on what can be done using a Phenom II. At his stage I am using approximate figures to get a feel for budget.

Case

Always a difficult one to recommend as it is as much about personal taste as about functionality. Here are my thoughts:
Lancool K62 / Coolermaster HAF 922 / Lian Li PC-60FW - approx £80 to 100
Or if you wanted to stick to the budget Silverstone PS02 Precision / Antec 300 – Approx £40

PSU

500W Enermax Eco80+ / Corsair VX550 – Approx £60

CPU

Phenom II X4 955 – Approx £130

Motherboard

AMD 790X based Asus/Gigabyte – approximately £100
It doesn’t have the same PCI-E bandwidth as the 790FX but that really only matters if you are running two graphics cards at very high resolutions.
(Another option to save a bit of cash would be an AMD 770 based motherboard – approx £70)

Memory

4GB Corsair DDR3 (1333/1600) – approx £80

Graphics

ATI Radeon 5850 – Approx £220
Yes it is over-priced and no-one knows how well DX11 will perform but even on DX9/10 games it is a great card. If you can wait a few months until Nvidia come to the party I expect you will get a much better deal.

Hard Drive

1TB Samsung F3 approx £60
Cos it seems to be the flavour of the month at the moment

Optical Drive

Samsung SH-S223L approx £20
Why? Lightscribe is a great gadget


This lot comes in at £710 or up to £770 if you want a fancy case. Of course for another £50 you could have it all and get a Core i5.

[Tesla effect]

Originally Posted by Tesla effect

If the LGA boards are so cheap then when a CPU that really out performs the e8400 in games hits the scene you could bag both a new mobo & a CPU & upgrade that way.

sh1t & the RAM , maybe you all have a point but I'm trying to balance the argument. But on performance merits alone 775 is still worth it. If for example the change impacted on the GPU compatibility like the change from AGP to the PCIE then no question.

Also the antec 300, do you have to buys extra fans for it? The Corsair TX range is a bit crap isn't it, superseded by a better range...? Dude prob needs a CD ROM too it all adds up. He wants a sound card too! So if he wants the extras then sacrifices need to be made.

[Kyocera]

you're running ahead of yourself; the guy did not give any price bracket!!!!!!!!!!!

[Tesla effect]

Originally Posted by Kyocera

1. a motherboard is the most important part of the PC.
a good 775 (P45) motherboard is some 110GBP; with DDR3 support. (DDR2 version is not cheaper). E8400 is another 120GBP; a much better choice is E7400 for 82GBP; the performance is the same and it overclocks greatly.

Agreed

Originally Posted by Kyocera

2.yes P55 performs quite better in gaming;
the price of the 5850 is overpriced; heavily; some 80GBP too much. And it probably won't go down till March next year.

I doubt very much a P55 + 260 will outperform a P45 + 5850. Its better than the 260 isn't it? Obviously for better gaming the GPU is the most important hardware.

Originally Posted by Kyocera

3. F3 samsung is excellent; Seagate 7200.12 is for those that do not like buying HDD from a company that makes microwaves.

Yes, that's what I was saying

[Tesla effect]

Originally Posted by Kyocera

you're running ahead of yourself; the guy did not give any price bracket!!!!!!!!!!!

He said £600 to £700 didn't he?