Greetings all, I'm in the market for a new PC. I can't decide if I want to build from scratch or get a ready made one, obviously each has their pros and cons. I'm not the most tech savvy guy esp in terms of hardware but I've got a computer engineer buddy who will help me build the system so I need some advice on what hardware to buy. Budget: £500 but flexible depending. Main uses of intended build: Gaming, web browsing... Parts required: Everything. Used to have a laptop but it is really old and dead. Got an okay Logitech mouse though so I guess I will keep using that . Monitor resolution: 1400x900 I put this because I assume on that budget a 19inch monitor makes more sense. Also I don't have a ton to spend on a graphics card. Storage requirements: 500GB-1TB. Will you be overclocking: moderately yes and only when needed. Any motherboard requirements (no. of USB, Xfire/SLI, fan headers): hmm not really. I'm open to suggestions though
Checkout the Oct buying guide for affordable all rounder or check this thread out which falls into about the same criteria your after here
Yeah I saw those right after I made this thread, probably gonna get something along the lines of the affordable all rounder system, someone said something about the Athlon II X2 being highly overclockable with the right mobo, would the MSI one in the buyers guide be appropriate for oc'ing this CPU To 4Ghz or would I need to buy a better one? Also could someone explain the difference between OEM and Retail versions of Windows 7 to me?
OEM is single install, for instance if you change your motherboard, you need to buy a new one. Retail comes with all the fancy packaging but costs a lot more. On that budget I would go for an OEM because it would save you around £40. Also worth noting is that if you are a student you can buy a Windows 7 upgrade (need old xp/vista disc) for cheap.
Overclocking is typically fresh in Bit's mind when suggesting parts. 4GHz I couldn't comment on, but you can be quite confident that the suggested board will overclock well, at least for its price. Bit's review of the motherboard puts an X3 720 up to 3.7GHz and tests it at 3.5GHz. Just keep in mind that if you spend too much on increasing your overclocking levels you might have been able to just buy a faster system in the first place. With an OEM you can always call up the help desk when you upgrade and say you had to replace the mobo on your system and they might activate it for your new "mobo" (which is actually a whole new PC). Just a test of your luck, really.
That motherboard is AM3 and supports up to 16gb of ram though so it is fairly future proof no? On the PSU question is 550watts enough if I were to later plan to get a 4 or 6 core phenom and a better graphics card?
Ive actually got that motherboard beside me waiting for a build. As far as future proof goes you will have to check out if it is compatible with the six core CPU's, try their website. 550 watts should be plenty as long as you use a trusted brand and don't overclock everything to the extreme.
The affordable all rounder is a very safe bet in my opinion. If you stay along those lines you cannot go wrong Also if you ditch the windows 7 and go for Linux you could safe yourself a nice £70 and put that towards another part of the pc, possibly a more powerful graphics card such as the HD6870 or the gtx470 if you fancy staying with nvidia. Your call. alex
The problem with Linux is that it has nil support for anything that's not open source. This includes games sometimes. There's no guarantee whether a game will or will not work on Linux before you buy it (unless you look it up on the internet from user feedback). I saw earlier in the thread that you're considering overclocking. I've been keeping up a hardware list for an overclocking build that I'm planning to put together after I graduate from college. Here's some of the parts from it as recommendations: CPU: i5-760 Mobo: ASUS P7P55D (or P7P55D PRO) Graphics: GTX 460 1GB PSU: Corsair 650TX Memory: Mushkin Enhanced Silverline 4GB DDR3 1600MHz HDD: Samsung Spinpoint F3 1TB Cooler: Corsair H50 The 760 is just as overclockable as the 750 according to bit-tech's review, and the GTX 460 is supposed to be highly overclockable according to a lot of what I read and hear from people who overclock with it. The 1600MHz memory is to avoid a memory bottleneck. The H50 I chose because I want to do a good amount of overclocking on the CPU and it's footprint on the mobo is much smaller so I won't need to worry about the HSF getting in the way of my memory slots. Be aware though that I don't know the euro cost of these parts (my build is going to be in the US ) so some of them might send you over budget. At your budget, building an overclocking PC would be good since you can spend less money and still come out with a pretty high-end system. The problem with overclocking is that you will need a lot of technical knowledge to do it . Go look up lots and lots of guides on overclocking before you actually go out and do it. I recommend this guide as a starting point to anyone who asks.
The affordable all-rounder is a very overclockable setup and is within his/her budget so the i5-760 is well out of the question unless he/she can find some really great bargains. As for the linux i think it should still be considered, he/she should try using linux first to see how it is compatibility wise with programs of his/her choice, this way if all works out well he/she has saved a nice £70 with no harm done. If linux fails to be compatible with certain programs then there is still the option to add windows 7.
Installing an operating system takes a LONG time -_-. If he starts with Linux and decides to take it off he's gonna waste several hours xP. Linux is for people who either know completely what they're doing, or for people who don't plan to use anything much other than freeware. quick article outlining Linux's comparability and support complaints by users Unless you're a hardcore linux guru (or training to be a guru), you're likely going to want a mainstream operating system on another computer or at least have a separate partition for one on your HDD. For the non-enthusiasts about linux, it's a good experience to get linux on another machine or add a partition in your HDD to run linux, but it wouldn't be very good to have it as your main and only operating system. You can do some pretty complex and cool things with linux if you know how (Linux is based on Unix so if you know BASH you have a lot of power in linux), but that takes months of practice to learn. Users who don't know this will just end up using linux via the GUI which basically makes it a free os with 0 support and almost no compatibility. Not fun if you're just using it for general computing.
I disagree. In my experience Linux doesn't take hours to install, and is easy to use. Ubuntu is a very user friendly package with a massive amount of support behind it which is brilliant for beginners, I have recommended Ubuntu to a few friends who run it without any problems whatsoever and they claim it is just as easy to use as windows. I have never had any trouble using ubuntu and it can easily run games such as WoW and CS:S.
OEM is fine even if you do upgrade the entire pc you might just have to bend the truth to Microsoft when you ring them up. they will ask did you change any parts you say no they will ask why you need the code - you reformatted your pc due to virus always works well they give you some massive code which you write down on pen and paper and never need to ring them ever again, job done
If you read through the post I am not saying Linux SHOULD be chosen over Windows, but I feel it would be silly to not consider it when on a tight budget
If your in Uni check and see if your part of the MSDN AA. If so you can download any microsoft product (except office) for free. I donno about schools but I think some tech's and collages are part of it too. I find that post shameful and very typical of someone who has never used Linux....at least not recently. I moved to ubuntu and found it very easy to use. the only thing I can't do on it is game. Sure it's easy enough to follow the instructions on the ubuntu website to create a bootable memory stick to try it out on before you install it. As for "zero" support, you've more chance of solving a problem with the linux community than you are microsofts technical support. The reason I abandoned Vista in the first place after their updater gimped itself and their tech support send you in circles. For gaming go windows no questions. If you really want I could use my MSDNAA access to get you a copy of win 7 (I used the 64-bit already so I donno if it will let me get a second copy but I'll check) failing that there is vista 64 or win 7 32?
