Build Advice Building a new PC on a high budget, (Epicly long post...)

Much has been said here already, but Toploaded, what keyboard and mouse are you looking at? If you are using it for a lot of typing you might want to take a look here (Mechanical keyboards, though they are more expensive and harder to come by)

I agree with the i7-930, S-ips monitor, 5870 (maybe later in crossfire) as mentioned before.

If I were to buy a motherboard now I would try to get one with USB 3.0, it has some advantages especially for external harddrives. Near sata speeds. But as far as I can remember there are no motherboards yet with a built-in controller, they are all add-in cards. (correct me if I'm wrong)

An SSD would be my choice too. I've got a 60GB Vertex and just the difference in responsiveness of the system is amazing.
Now you could get a single 250GB SSD, or go for the slightly faster option of two 125GB ones in Raid0. Same size, faster speeds. Use a large 1-2TB hdd on the side like maybe Samsung F3, or the enterprise class drive the WD RE-4 GP 2TB. It has some extra features, is fairly quiet but still quick enough. Or maybe the WD Caviar Black 2TB. For some extra safety you could put two or more in a Raid1 configuration for more redundancy, but you lose some capacity.

 

Hey thanks for the heads up on mechanical keyboards, that is a consideration for sure, being a touch typist who is always punching away at a keyboard and I've always been kinda fussy on the keyboards I use.

After some thinking I think for now I will forgo the SDD, and then maybe 6-8 months down the line I'll do a 2nd PC upgrade, and get a SDD drive and a 2nd GPU at the same time. I reinstall Windows every 6-8 months anyway as a matter of routine so I'll tie it in with that. That way I figure I'll get a 'wow' after I'd built the first rig and a 2nd 'wow' then And it will free me up some cash now to put elsewhere. When like me you have been using a pc that's 5 years old (and was far from top range then) and a 2007 mac book, I think even before I put in a SDD I will be blown away by how responsive the pc is.

There is also the chance the SDD's will be cheaper and more mature by then, although I don't take that as a given because of the ever slowing economy that's' unlikely to recover this year.

 

I didn't even notice that Scan has the U2410 for cheaper than Dell sells it for... Updated list, including cooling and wifi.



Everything's the same side the monitor is now from Scan, and not Dell directly (cheaper), as well as the cooling and wifi...

Cooling: Corsair H50, great little water cooler. Scan doesn't seem to stock the ECO A.L.C., and I've read about a couple people having leaking problems... Better to stick with the H50 IMHO.

Wifi: You can go cheaper on the Wifi adapter if you so choose, but I figured if you HAVE To have a wireless card, you might as well have a damn good one. I've heard nothing but good things about that adapter, and it's full spec N speed with triple antennas for better reception.

Total:
£2,062.28 inc VAT. Perfect.

 

If it were me I'd save £100 and drop that PSU for say a corsair 750W, still an excellent PSU by any means and will power everything there plus an extra GPU should you choose to add one at a later date.

As for the SSD thing, I realise you've went against one but if you fancy getting one down the line you should definately go for it. If you use it simply for your OS and all your day to day programs as well as few other's you'll be laughing and won't require masses of space. Putting games on an SSD seems like a bit of a waste IMHO but that's me I know a few other people have there whole Steam libraries on them.

 

Jared's build look's sound

The only thing I would add is the 5870 is the Vapor-X one, which might not be ideal for CrossFire setups. That card exhausts downwards, aka onto the card below, where as something like a XFX, Sapphire or Asus exhausts out the rear which is much more desirable in a CF setup.

The WiFi seems steep, but after that justification and 50 quid in the grand scheme of things isn't a whole lot.

 

Double Post

>>DELETE ME<<

 

Yeah being a game dev, most of my day to day apps will involve having my entire Steam library on it for the SDK's that I use almost daily. That and other programs I use such as Max/Maya are pretty large. If I could split my Steam library up (so the games that don't require editors are on another drive) then it would be a different story. So SDD is most def the way forward for me, but just might be one of those upgrades. So I'm pretty much stuck with needing a SDD drive that's at least 150gig.

@JaredC01

Liking the look of that list. I will ask a couple things. As mentioned above, I could chip off 100 (which I might use for a small cheap 2nd monitor or something) if I went for a different cpu. What could be the potential downside of that?

Also is there any advantages to having a PCI wireless card over a USB? (other then not using up a USB port of course). I will probably only add an extra GPU to the PCI other then maybe this, I can't see me wanting anything else such as a TV card.

 

Bandwidth would be your main reason I would think (never used wireless except on a laptop however (for full disclosure here)), but when USB 3.0 adapters come out, you should be good.

Really though, why do you want to go wireless? Wired is (almost) always easier in the long run, no dealing with irritating drivers, signal strength, or configuration.

 

He was mentioning downgrading the PSU not the CPU. TBH it would be just fine with the 750W but I believe the Corsair is less efficient, meaning in turn it's a bit nosier and warmer, but still a rock solid bit of kit.

My USB one gets a bit toasty to the touch, and I assume and internal one would be kept cool by the fan's, but other than that I can't think of any benefits.

 

Oh I agree fully, but I have no option really as we used a shared internet. Having the router in my room, or running a wire to it, are pretty much a no go right now due to the logistics. When I move into my own place again I'll no doubt go right back to wires, but I'm stuck with wireless for at least another 12 months so happy to get the best card/usb there is to get the most out of it.

 

Opps yeah I meant the PSU, just getting my abbreviations wrong

 

Drop the 2TB for a second 1TB And a Gentle Typhoon to boost the cooler

 

It's fair to say I probably don't need any more then 2TB's in my rig for now so yeah maybe. But a Gentle typhoon, what the hells that?

 

Fairly well known type of 120mm fan, recently bought 4x 1150rpm ones for my Quad Rad and must say they run amazingly quiet for the amount of air they push, getting slightly better temps despite dropping 500rpm from the fans I had before. Bit more expensive than the usual but if you're after silence and performance you can't beat them.

 

For someone like me who's not that fussed on the noise of the PC, and is unlikely to be keeping much of an eye on temps (other then to make sure its' not about to blow up) ya think they are a worth while investment or will the stock fans with the case probably be enough?

As you can see, I'm not an enthusiast about the hardware itself as such, more what that hardware enables me to do with software. I'll spend hours configuering how my OS works and duelbooting into Linux ect, yeah for all I care my pc could be in a cardboard box with a house fan blowing on it

I know I could probably find out this kinda information from trolling though google and different review sites, but there is something more exiting and interesting about a semi live forum discussion with many different views and experiences. This place is great and with a gaming section down there, I think I found a new home.

 

To be honest probably not, they're generally for people who want to get noise levels down but if you're only using one in your whole system along with stock case fans, they're probably going to be so much louder than it, the reduction won't make a percieviable difference at all. I can recommend an Akasa Apache for you're Rad if you're looking for performance over noise as they have an extremely high static pressure making them great for pushing air through rad's but again this is only if you're looking to push your OC's that little bit further and might not affect people like yourself.

 

About the cooling. I used to own an ATCS 840 (Great case, just a nightmare to lug to and from uni), but it has a dead zone of air over the bottom most graphics card (if you CF). Thats because the top fans suck the air up, before it really reaches sort of the bottom left corner, so I strongly recomned you add the two optional centre fan's.

I personally used Enermax Magma fans as at the time they were about the best, but I got Enermax Apollish fan's free with my new build and their amazing! You might find the light a bit garish but they can be turned off, but their silent and move so much air

 

Thanks both, noted about making sure I get some centre fans for the case.

 

If you don't want to spend the extra on the 1050w PSU, THIS 700w, or THIS 850w would work in its place... I personally chose the 1050w because it was on sale for cheaper than the 850w, and if I ever intend on adding anything down the road I'll have the power and connections for it. Oh, and the amazing efficiency from 50% through 100% load.

If you don't think you'll need the 2TB drive, swap it out for another F3 1TB for half the cost.

For the wireless card, the PCI-E card won't take up the USB ports bandwidth (480 Mbps, which is shared to all USB devices on the controller chip), and the PCI-E card is higher powered in most cases, giving a better signal.

Knocking the second HDD down to a 1TB will drop £60 off the build total... If you need to knock it down more, swap the PSU.


Off topic a bit, I updated the Newbie's Guide with a step by step set of pictures... Take a look, and lemme know if you've got any questions.

 

That thread is great thanks, I'll be referencing it for sure.

I think the only things that worry me atall about building my own pc are Attaching the heatsink to the CPU and getting the paste even, fitting the cooler, and getting the wires tidy and out the way (more so they don't affect airflow, I don't really mind if they look tidy or not).

I might save the extra cast on the hdd and spend that on a new pair of headphones, then go for a USB 3.0 external solution later down the line if I want more for back up. But 1TB should cover my programs and games easy, and the other 1TB should cover my files.

Guess I'll be ordering soon.