Budget: £1000. £450 to £500 left to spend as I have already grabbed some bits Main uses of intended build: Gaming Parts required: Mobo CPU CPU Cooler RAM DVD read/write Case (and fans?) Windows Previous build information (list details of parts): I'm about half way through an upgrade at the moment with my current 2 year old Core 2 Duo system having had the following parts put into it that I will put in the new system (and revert the C2D system back to its original components): GPU - Palit 460 1 Gb (replacing 8800GT) PSU - Cooler Master Silent Pro M 600 W (replacing 500W FSP Blue storm) Monitor - Samsung SM2233RZ (replacing an earlier 22" that's now attached to my old Athlon XP box) HDD - Samsung Spinpoint F3 1TB (replacing a WD 500GB) Soundcard - XiFi Gamer (C2D box will revert to onboard) Keyboard & Mouse - Saitek Eclipse & Logitech MX518 (XP box has Keyboard and mouse that will go to the core2 box when it gets demoted) Wireless card - as above, I'll probably swap about the two I have Monitor resolution: 1680*1050 was going to go higher (1080p) but decided that less pixels would help frame rate and higher detail settings, especially as time goes by Storage requirements: 1TB F3 I have will do for now. I see an SDD coming in early 2011, say a nice 120Gb model for OS and games. If I remember right ramp up of 25nm NAND production is expected to bring prices down around then Will you be overclocking: yes Nothing crazy - Needs to be long term safe/stable, and don't want to spend huge dollar on cooling. To give you a feel for the balance I like to strike I have an E4500 (good cheap OC CPU at the time I bought) clocked from 2.2 to 3.2 using an AC Freezer Pro. I'm thinking £20, £25, maybe £30 on cooling Any motherboard requirements (no. of USB, Xfire/SLI, fan headers): Needs to accomodate my graphics, sound and wireless cards. Not into SLI (micro-stuttering, hit & miss, power draw) My GFX card is dual slot Sound card and wireless are both PCI, not PCIE So I think I need at least 2 PCI slots that won't be obstructed by the GFX card. I believe this is an issue for many mATX boards. Would welcome advice this (e.g. get cheapish USB wireless + mATX?) Quite like the idea of USB3. Not so fussed about SATA6Gb - I hear it doesn't make much difference and that a lot of P55 boards drop to 8x on GFX PCIE if USB3 & SATA6 are used. Extra information about desired system: Don't want to spend the earth on a case, but like decent cooling Like quiet Prefer function over form and not tended towards bling / flashing lights, but value is king (I have more blue lights than I want, but the components were a good enough buy to live with it)
Hello. I think you should go with an i5 build CPU: http://www.scan.co.uk/search.aspx?q=intel+760 Motherbaord: http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/Giga...ess-S1156-DDR3-2200-SATA-3Gb-s-SATA-RAID-uATX RAM: http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/4GB-...600)-Non-ECC-Unbuffered-CAS-9-9-9-24-XMP-165V HSF:http://www.scan.co.uk/products/Geli...l-S775-1366-1156-AMD-754-939-940-AM2-AM2plus- CASE:http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/Coolermaster-CM-690-II-Advanced-Black-Mid-Tower-Case-w-o-PSU Hope this helps a bit, if you have any more questions just ask.
Thanks murraynt 760 - like it (wish AMD was back on form - getting better, but I miss the glory days of 939) mobo - mATX => won't let me use 2 PCI and a double slot GFX tho right? Also no USB3 memory - like it, but not in stock HSF - broken link. Think it's the Gelid Tranquilo that is recomended in the Bittech guides, which is a definite consideration Case - Like the idea of larger than 120mm fans and this comes with 2*140mm + 1*120mm. Like the adaptor that will allow for SSD upgrade. Its moer dosh than I normally look to throw at a case though. An Antec 300 is nearly half the price Any other ideas - esp case & mobo?
Here's my best seletion so far: Gigabyte GA-P55-USB3 Intel P55 (Socket 1156) £102 Intel Core i5 760 £150 Gelid Tranquillo £25 Corsair XMS3 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz £75 Sony AD-7241S £16 Antec 300 Three Hundred £43 Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium 64-Bit - OEM £74 = £485 Would welcome thoughts, especially on alternates for: mobo, case, cooler (Gelid is currently out of stock at Scan) & DVD drive
take i5 750 over the i5 760, hardly noticeable difference in performance if u overclock the former. Will save you some dollars
Motherboard:http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/Giga...156-DDR3-2200-SATA-II-and-III-USB-30-RAID-ATX Memory:http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/4GB-...600)-Non-ECC-Unbuffered-CAS-9-9-9-24-DHX-165v The reason i didnt give this memory first was that i am unsure if this will clash with the hsf or not. The hsf was indeed the Gelid Tranquilo. Case wise you could go for the 'Lite' version of the 690 which is the same case only without the hdd bay on top. It will only cost 15 pound more than a 300 which isnt too much when you take the price of 140 pounds of the motherboard into consideration. The antec 300 is still a great case though.
750 and 760 are same price (+/- £3). I was thinking the higher multiplier might give more flexibillity and/or OC headroom and that going 760 was likely to meean more recent manufacture/newer stepping and hence potentially better OC. Anyone know if these assumptions sensible?
As far as i know the 760 has a higher multiplier of 21 instead of 20. It will overclock better but only by 100 mhz at most.I would go for the 760 as its only 3 pounds in the difference.
Thanks murraynt - I really appreciate the input. The main variables for me at the moment are: mobo, cooler, case, memory and DVD drive. I don't think I can splurge £140 on the UD4, so I'm thinking of these at about a ton: Gigabyte GA-P55-USB3 Gigabyte GA-P55A-UD3 ASUS P7P55D-E LX LGA 1156 Intel P55 SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 Any views? Why would I want the UD4? I want the Tranquilo, but might have to consider alternatives if stock stays a problem. I'm thinking of these as fallbacks: Cooler Master Hyper 212 Plus Akasa Nero S V2 Akasa Freedom Tower CPU Cooler Review Akasa Nero S premier Titan TTC-NK85TZ Fenrir (These are in approx price order from £20 to £30, with £30 being a bit more than I really want to throw at the cooler) Case Antec 300 £43 Coolermaster Storm Scout Gaming Case £59 Coolermaster CM 690 Pure Black Dominator £60 (Is this what you meant by "Lite"?) Xigmatek Utgard £62 Coolermaster CM 690 II Advanced £76 (quite liked the 2.5" adaptor for future SSD upgrade. Didin't like the temps in the Bittech review, and most of the advanced bits are surplus to requirements, e.g. the external drive dock) Coolermaster HAF 922 £79 (If you are going to spend £76...) I like cool, quiet & good cable routing. Seeing how much Fingers66 has improved his Antec 300's cable management put me off this option a bit. Great work, but I'm not a modder - I want Antec to do sell it like that!. Made me think of paying more and going with an Utgard. Memory - like the look of the Dominators, but will need to find out about conflict with the cooler (anyone know?). About my only issue with Scan is their limited range of memory. Corsair is a great brand, but you have the choice of that or.... Corsair! DVD read/write - any alterantives I should be thinking of?
hmm at my retailer the 760 is like 10 dollars more (US). That's interesting If it overclocks the same way, then by all means go for it. can't go wrong with the titan fenrir honestly Coolermaster CM 690 is a beautiful case, i have one myself.
I just picked the UD4 as it is an excellent board but the GA-P55A-UD3 is just as good. Cooler wise the A Thermaltake Frio/Titan Fernirr/Akasa Nero s are are excellent. This is what i meant as Lite http://www.scan.co.uk/products/Coolermaster-CM-690-II-Lite-Black-Mid-Tower-Case-w-o-PSU If you want a quite case look at the fractal R3 which should be in stock in next week or so. As DVD Drives go get the cheapest one you can find that has sata as it will be rarely used. M memory wont make a big difference that just what scan had. I think The dominators will be ok for an i5 system as it wont be as close to the hsf as in an i7 system.
