hi all im looking to build my first pc and im a little wet behind the ears iv only ever owned 2 computers before 1 given to me as a 30th birthday present 7yrs ago and the dell optipelex im running now (3gig p4 2gig ram andd a radeon x1300 cost £40 from fleabay as a temp measure as was a similar spec to me defunct 1st comp) i have a 19" dell monitor and speakers that will do for the moment im looking to get a tower only now im fairly handy with screwdrivers hammers and pliers involved with building a pc (sparky by trade) its the choice of components i was struggling with and wanted some input its hard to decifer whats best without it being a numbers game x gpu has a higher number than y gpu therefore it must be better i know it doesn't always work like that. i want to get the best i can afford working on the principle if i get the bare bones correct at first i can upgrade in the future without having to start from scratch again i have around £5/600 to spend my wishlist is i5 3570 (possibly to overclock in the future) cpu cooler sli ready motherboard 6/700w psu (sli compatible) 8 gig of ram nvidia gpu (sli ready) 500gig hdd (one of my existing drives may have sata connections so i may get a ssd instead 120gig) dvd rw (again i may be able to drag 1 out of my old pc) case either a mid/full tower nothing flashy as long as the usb ports are on the top or the top of the front (i hate bending down to plug stuff in lol) hope this makes sense looking forward to your input dan
Just checked all my existing drives are ide I forgot to say I want the computer for my son and I want to dip my toes into pc gaming I currently am playing minecraft Thanks Dan Sent from my GT-I9100 using Tapatalk 2
Hello dan. Welcome to Bit-tech The first bit I would go for is the 3570K and build everything around that. what size system would you like? A lot of people are going for very small cases now, like the bitfinex Prodigy. They look and function great. The only down side is that you cant have an sli system insdie them. 80% of the people on this site will agree that a single powerful card is better than sli anyways. A 700 watt PSU isn't essential unless you are running a massive gaming rig. 500/550watts should be enough, Even for sli if you wanted. Since SSD'd are so cheap atm I would strongly advise you to try and fit one into your budget. even if it means not buying an aftermarket cooler. They are essential to any PC over 400 pounds now. I'll do some options up for up http://www.ebuyer.com/lists/list/75747 This is over budget, but with a bit of hunting it could be under budget. If you went for a cheaper case and a m-atx baord/Atx board it would be about 100 pounds cheaper.
Thanks im not looking for small form factor really i been looking at mid/full towers this is the case i been looking at http://www.scan.co.uk/products/enermax-eca3250-b-ostrog-usb-30-black-atx-midi-tower-case i was looking at nvidia cars as well iv been warnded against using amd by a couple of ppl (i dunno if this is cos they nvidia fans ect) ur right about the ssd i would like 1 was thinking around toe 120gig mark and leave the storage drive for a lil bit till my bank balance recovered i do have an external firewire enclosure i can throw my ide drive in to tide me over thanks dan
i did look up this on scans website they only up the road from me i used 1 of SCAN 3xs systems and edited it a little Case 1 Enermax ECA3250-B Ostrog USB 3.0 Black ATX Midi Tower Case £35 Motherboard - Z77 1 Gigabyte GA-Z77-D3H, Intel Z77 Chipset £81 CPU 1 Intel Core i5 3570K, Ivy Bridge, 3.4GHz, Quad Core, 6MB Cache £177 CPU Coolers 1 Arctic Cooling Freezer 13 Performance CPU Cooler £19.98 Memory 1 8GB (2x4GB) Corsair Vengeance LP, DDR3, 1600Mhz £38 NVIDIA Graphics 1 2GB EVGA GTX 650, 1,058MHz GPU, 384 Cores, 5000MHz GDDR5 £118 Power Supply Unit 1 600W Corsair Gamer Series PSU, (Any Single Graphics Card) £54 Solid State Drives OCZ 120GB Solid 3 SSD - Solid State Drive SATA III £52.38 System Drives 1 500GB Seagate Barracuda, SATA 6Gb/s, 7200rpm, 16MB Cache £41.98 Optical Drive 1 - DVD/Blu Ray 1 Pioneer DVR-S19LBK DVD Writer £17 £635.34
Note that Z68 motherboards might need a BIOS update to support Ivy Bridge CPUs. And you need a Sandy Bridge CPU to start the system for updating the BIOS in most cases. Micro-ATX motherboards and cases have much better value than Mini-ITX -- something to keep in mind unless you specifically need tiny size.
Good choice, we reviewed the Ostrog here And yes, whoever has warned you about AMD cards sound like fanboys. Anyone know actually knows anything about GPUs knows that both AMD and Nvidia make excellent cards, and there is very little to choose between them. 120GB SSD is also a very good choice. I just picked up a OCZ Solid 3 myself, they are about £15 cheaper than the Agility 3 series, but only about 6% slower. All your other choices are good too, apart from maybe the GPU which is rather slow. Could you stretch to a Radeon 7850? Its twice as fast but only £15 more.
Wouldn't Antec One be better than Ostrog (as Custom PC seems to be a big fan)? And it will only be £5 more...
I would also push for a 1TB HDD. generally its only a few quid more for example Hitachi "deathstar" 500GB cheapest 500GB 3.5" £44.23 western digital black 1GB 3.5" £49.98 Not only is western digital a better brand, double the storage for a few quid extra. Every thing from 160gb-1TB seems to be in the £30-£50 bracket. its the 2TB-3TB the prices grow more rapid. I would also opt for an i3. Yes you can't overclock but for gaming its more than enough. It also means you can pick up a cheaper H67 chipset motherboard and the savings can be funnelled back into the GPU or even a bigger SSD. Also PC part picker will help you shop around. generally Scan has proven cheaper lately tho Amazon has popped up a few times as has a few others. don't be afraid to pay a few quid more if it means using less shops. Ive found that sometimes shipping (NI is excluded from free shipping incentives so something I have to watch) costs more than the price saving.
It's not often you have to use pliers when building a pc and you use a hammer even less often! PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks CPU: Intel Core i5-3570K 3.4GHz Quad-Core Processor (£167.94 @ Scan.co.uk) Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-Z77-DS3H ATX LGA1155 Motherboard (£71.05 @ CCL Computers) Memory: Corsair XMS3 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory (£29.76 @ Scan.co.uk) Storage: Western Digital Caviar Black 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive (£49.98 @ Ebuyer) Storage: Crucial V4 64GB 2.5" Solid State Disk (£40.00 @ Ebuyer) Video Card: XFX Radeon HD 7850 1GB Video Card (£135.59 @ CCL Computers) Case: BitFenix Shinobi ATX Mid Tower Case (£49.99 @ Overclockers.co.uk) Power Supply: Corsair Builder 500W 80 PLUS Certified ATX12V Power Supply (£44.50 @ Ebuyer) Optical Drive: Samsung SH-222BB/BEBE DVD/CD Writer (£11.96 @ Scan.co.uk) Other: Arctic Cooling Freezer i30 (£29.16) Total: £629.93 (Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
to be honest i probably will pick all the parts from scan as its only up the road from me if i have any problems i can easily take the whole caboodle back there rather than having to split the sytem to send specific parts back more for my peice of mind rather than anything ta dan
While I understand what you are saying about being near Scan (I am the same) remember that if you buy the items as seperates and build yourself, if you have any issues you will need to return the item as a seperates, not as part of the full system you built. The system Jaybles suggests sounds pretty much what you are after, but I personally wouldn't get an XFX anything (personal choice mind) Also, don't forget an operating system in your budget (unless you have mentioned that you already have a copy and I missed that bit)
True, but if you have an old copy of XP lying about, you can upgrade it to Windows 8 for £14.99 (I think) on Oct 26. Might be a cheaper option. Jaybles build is excellent by the way.
didnt know that about upgrading to windows 8 i got xp and a product code on my dead pc and the dell im using presently im still leaning towards a nvidia card as iv not looked into the amd cards at present my head spinning with all the numbers and letters behind some hardware unless your in the know its really confusing you would think they would come up with a clearer way of describing stuff im sure over time it will become easier for me to decifer them! thanks dan
decided to push the boat out on my gpu after a bit of research and go for a nvida gtx 660 http://www.scan.co.uk/products/2gb-...08mhz-gddr5-gpu-1033mhz-boost-1098mhz-cores-9 i know this pushes my budget up a little but i think i would regret not spending that little extra in the first place thanks dan
Think it's a good choice to up the budget and get the 660, as it's around twice as fast as the 650. Just a bit of general advice if you don't mind... Take your time with the build, it's pretty easy these days and not like the good old days where you had to set CPU voltages and bus speeds by dip switches. I have seen a few aftermaths of attempted first builds in my shop and the most common and expensive mistake is mashing the CPU pins on the motherboard. So make sure to align the CPU up nice and square. Another common mistake is putting the studs in the wrong holes and shorting out the motherboard. So double check before you screw it all in. Read the motherboard manual or ask on here, if you are unsure of the connections, again it's much easier these days with most cases having keyed plugs for USB/audio. For the front panel connectors (hd led, pw switch etc) the coloured wire is normally the +v, the switch connectors do not matter which way round they go. Lastly try keep all the cables tidy, this not only looks nice, but can help airflow and will prevent unwanted cables getting stuck in your fans. Regards, Les
Thanks for the advice iv watched countless video's and poured over posts and have a fair idea of what I'm doing (famous last words!) I'm gonna keep the wiring super tidy I'm a spark by trade so it's kinda expected of me lol iv only a couple of months to go before I embark on my build (waiting for January's sales) I plan on doing as much research as possible. Thanks Dan Sent from my GT-I9100 using Tapatalk 2
im still in the process of deciding my pc i thought i would run my latest spec (from scan) past your eyes see if you could pic any holes or problems with it i know my budget has increased (dont they always!) i have already got a 0cz 240gig ssd and a fire-wire hard drive case for my ide hard drive so im ok for storage atm i havent sorted my os atm i was hoping i could use my xp key and upgrade the only part im unsure about is the mobo im open to suggestions im sure i can save on it but im unsure what will do the same job for less (i want the capability to sli for poss future upgrades) Asus Sabertooth Z77, Intel Z77, S 1155, DDR3, SATA III - 6Gb/s, SATA RAID, PCIe 3.0, DisplayPort/ HD LN44184 Asus Sabertooth Z77, Intel Z77, S 1155, DDR3, SATA III - 6Gb/s, SATA RAID, PCIe 3.0, DisplayPort/ HDMI, ATX £167.99 Intel Core i5 3570K,1155, Ivy Bridge, Quad Core, 3.4GHz, 5 GT/s DMI, 650MHz GPU, 6MB Smart Cache, 34 LN42829 Intel Core i5 3570K,1155, Ivy Bridge, Quad Core, 3.4GHz, 5 GT/s DMI, 650MHz GPU, 6MB Smart Cache, 34x Ratio, 77W, Retail £176.39 LN46477 2GB MSI GTX 660 Ti Power Edition OC, 28nm, 6008MHz GDDR5, GPU 1019MHz, Boost 1097MHz, Cores 1344 +Free Games FREE NVIDIA + Borderlands 2 FREE NVIDIA + Assassin's creed 3 £233.59 LN40265 8GB (2x4GB) Corsair DDR3 Vengeance Racing Red, PC3-14900 (1866), Non-ECC, CAS 9-10-9-27, XMP, 1.5V £39.36 LN45971 600W Corsair Gaming Series GS600, 85% Eff', 80 PLUS Bronze, SLI/CrossFire, EPS 12V, 140mm Quiet LED Fan, ATX v2.31, PSU £59.18 LN38166 Corsair 600T Graphite Series Limited Edition White Mid Tower Gaming Case with Side Window w/o PSU £144.79 LN47037 Samsung SH-224BB/BEBE DVD±R 24X RW 8X/6X DVD-RAM 12X, BLACK OEM £13.79 thnks dan
