Issue 103 Skyrim PC n00b questions (please help)

[Uberviolence]

Hey guys, I know these are real basic questions but I had some difficulty sourcing some of the items from the Skyrim PC article in issue 103 and was wondering if anybody could help.

Incidentally, I know most readers wouldn't have the same trouble but I'm sure some (myself included) would benefit from the actual Scan product codes.

CPU - This one I presume
http://www.scan.co.uk/products/intel...che-65w-retail

Graphics Card - The basic one from the article is out of stock, would this 6870 do instead ? http://www.scan.co.uk/products/1gb-m...mi-2x-mini-dp/

Motherboard - Seems to be discontinued, looking at this as an alternative, any good?
http://www.ballicom.co.uk/pc-compone...1.p750413.html

Memory - Out of stock on Scan but I presume it's this one :
http://www.ballicom.co.uk/pc-compone...3.p522201.html

PSU - Again, this model seems to have been discontinued, I also can't find anything that close to the same price but I did find a 430w Thermaltake for £38.30 or a 450W Powercool for £32.94
If anybody has any suggestions for something closer to the price of the suggested unit I'd appreciate them.

Thermaltake : http://www.scan.co.uk/products/430w-...t-fan-atx-v23/
Powercool : http://www.scan.co.uk/products/450w-...et-fan-atx-v22

Storage - Can't find the Western Digital drive anywhere and the prices seem to be going up pretty quick at the moment so I'm looking at either a 320GB Samsung for £54.38 or a 500GB Hitachi for about £5 more.

Samsung:
http://www.scan.co.uk/products/320gb...cache-89ms-ncq
Hitachi:
http://www.scan.co.uk/products/500gb...6mb-cache-85ms

Again I know these questions are very basic but I'm really looking forward to putting together my first machine and I'd be hugely grateful for the help.

Thanks

[Zero7159]

Great issue guys, just finished it last night. Your mag is
Perfect for us PC enthusiasts. You budget build issue last year inspired me to build two PCs last year, both of which are working great. Thank you!

[javaman]

Originally Posted by Uberviolence

Hey guys, I know these are real basic questions but I had some difficulty sourcing some of the items from the Skyrim PC article in issue 103 and was wondering if anybody could help.

Incidentally, I know most readers wouldn't have the same trouble but I'm sure some (myself included) would benefit from the actual Scan product codes.

CPU - This one I presume
http://www.scan.co.uk/products/intel...che-65w-retail

Graphics Card - The basic one from the article is out of stock, would this 6870 do instead ? http://www.scan.co.uk/products/1gb-m...mi-2x-mini-dp/

Motherboard - Seems to be discontinued, looking at this as an alternative, any good?
http://www.ballicom.co.uk/pc-compone...1.p750413.html

Memory - Out of stock on Scan but I presume it's this one :
http://www.ballicom.co.uk/pc-compone...3.p522201.html

PSU - Again, this model seems to have been discontinued, I also can't find anything that close to the same price but I did find a 430w Thermaltake for £38.30 or a 450W Powercool for £32.94
If anybody has any suggestions for something closer to the price of the suggested unit I'd appreciate them.

Thermaltake : http://www.scan.co.uk/products/430w-...t-fan-atx-v23/
Powercool : http://www.scan.co.uk/products/450w-...et-fan-atx-v22

Storage - Can't find the Western Digital drive anywhere and the prices seem to be going up pretty quick at the moment so I'm looking at either a 320GB Samsung for £54.38 or a 500GB Hitachi for about £5 more.

Samsung:
http://www.scan.co.uk/products/320gb...cache-89ms-ncq
Hitachi:
http://www.scan.co.uk/products/500gb...6mb-cache-85ms

Again I know these questions are very basic but I'm really looking forward to putting together my first machine and I'd be hugely grateful for the help.

Thanks

Welcome to the site. This might be better in general as build advice (more will see it).
On my phone atm with poor signal so only gonna answer generally until i can get to a proper pc,

Cpu = amd llano A8 preferable if your on a very tight budget and only wanna game. If you want to do other things go with an LGA1155 core i3 sandybridge. If you have the cash go for a core i5 k processor and overclock for a bit more "future proofing" and improved multithread application performance (ie encoding). For gaming tho core i3 is plenty atm.

Motherboard = anyone that supports the chosen cpu, (right socket type) intel have 3 on the go atm. If you go for a k processor you want a "p" or "z" chipset. Z allows the use of intels onboard gpu which isn't useful since you seem to be going for a gpu anyway. Z supports both overclocking and intels gpu. H Allowa intels gpu but no overclocking. Perspnally id go with p.

Memory = 4 or 8gb of 1333mhz min. Prices mean 1600mhz isnt much more expensive. Go with what is cheapest. 8gb wont benifit much but is a bit of future proofing. Aim for 2 sticks rather than 4.

Hard disk = go foe best £ per gb. Generally aim for 1tb as ive found 500gb too small.

Gpu = whats left spend here. Dont worry about onboard memory but look at anandtechs bench. Generally the first digit in a cards name is generation, the 2nd and 3rd are performance. Anandtech will allow comparison between different cards so you can see if moving up a price band offers enough extra performance. The card in that article will give you a good point to aim for

PSU = dont cut corners here. Corsair, fsp are 2 brands i recommend. Other people can recommend more. Generally 600w is the max you should aim for and to make life easier look for modular cables.

Case = what ever looks nice really

Whats your budget? We might be able to sec you a machine thats just as good for less or even better. Prices are changing quite a bit atm