Hi there, I'm looking to build a new pc as my old one is struggling to run the new games anywhere near the quality i'd like. So armed with a grand I was looking to buy something like this below, any tips, advice or critique is welcomed so long as I don't go too far over budget. Many thanks in advance. Also Scan Codes inc. I already have an Antec 800w PSU and gaming mouse/keyboard. LN16546 500 GB Samsung HD501LJ Spinpoint T166, SATA II, 7200 rpm, 16MB Cache, 8.9 ms, NCQ £70.43 x2 Raid 0 LN21322 Coolermaster RC-1100 V2 Cosmos S (Sport) Black Full Tower Case w/o PSU £146.85 LN25348 6GB (3x2GB) Corsair XMS3, DDR3 PC3-12800 (1600) Non-ECC Unbuffered, CAS 9-9-9-24, 1.65V £138.79 LN28596 Intel Core i5 750, Lynnfield 45nm, Quad Core, 2.66GHz, 8MB Cache, 95W, Retail £161.15 LN29006 Corsair H50-1 Hydro Series High-performance CPU Watercooler, LGA775/1156/1366, AM2/2+/AM3 *NEW V2* £62.25 LN30172 Asus P7P55D-E Deluxe, Intel P55, S1156, PCI-E 2.0 (x16), DDR3 1333/1600/2200, SATA 6Gb/s RAID, ATX£182.77 LN32005 24" Acer EcoDisplay, V243HLbmd , LED, 1920x1080 HD, Black, Wide, DVI/VGA, 8000000:1, 250CD/m2, 5ms £166.38 LN32195 1GB XFX HD 5770, PCI-E 2.1, 4800MHz GDDR5, GPU 850MHz, 800 Cores, DP/ DVI/ HDMI, Aliens vs Predator £134.62 Total £1,085.38 Sometimes I think I know what I'm doing, but usually I choose whatever looks the most shiney...
just to get the ball rolling, will the H50 fit suitablely in the Coolermaster RC-1100. I highly recommend a SSD drive if at all possible, the difference is amazing, I had the crucial m255 or what ever it really is pleasant to have, if you are building a rig over £750 /£900 you really need to be thinking about ssd, dont know if dropping down to 2gb ram for now would free up some money towards maybe just a decent 64gb ssd. I dont even need to look up that case I know it already and its very nice isnt it. nice 24" screen, thats a nice computer you are building make sure you get some headphones isnt it, just a nice £30 pair, always nice to have some decent headphones. the H50 is fantastic, make sure you follow the tighting instructions, each pillar in the order they say untill its perfectly tight on all of them, not just one pillar as tight as you can then do the other three one by one, you have to do it little bit on one, then the opposite, and so on.
Firstly, the H50 is tiny compared to air coolers so fitting it will not be an issue. Anything less than 4GB of RAM is absolute and utter madness for a £1000 rig so please do not listen to the above poster. 1) Don't bother with RAID, just get a 1TB F3 2) Great case, I have it myself, but you could save money with going for a Fractal or Antec 900 3) That memory is triple channel, Lynnfield is dual channel, so go for 4GB (2x2GB) kit 4) Extremely overpriced motherboard, CustomPC's recommended i5 mobo is £82
I would go for the following http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/buyers-guide/2010/03/09/pc-hardware-buyers-guide-march-2010/3 and you would have money left over for a ssd... and I agree with rainbowbridge ssd is a huge difference.... Jim
Many thanks for the great advice, I wasnt sure all the parts were compatible as I have been out of the tech loop for a few years. Just a few questions still remain: Firstly is a SSD really worth it? How would it improve my gaming experience? Headphones are a good call as the 'other half' sometimes gets annoyed with all the whistles and bangs! Can you recommend a pair? I was thinking Raid 0 speeds up load times, why stay with a single HDD? I didn't realise the memory was triple channel, any ideas for a suitable replacement? I was thinking of spending a little more on the graphics with the next pay packet, SLI or Crossfire? Hence the mobo choice, either that or fit a HIS 5870 if I can squeeze it in the case?
SSDs, according to all the forumites who've bought one, are pretty much the best thing ever and make a much bigger real-world difference to your computer than anything else. It won't affect your gaming much, but it will load your OS and a few games much, much faster. A good Indilinix-based 64GB SSD will be around £130 (or around the cost of RAID 0'd F3 1TBs, with none of the reliability problems and much faster) - you're looking for something like an OCZ Vertex, or Crucial M225. It does. It also more than doubles your chances of catastrophic data loss, because the loss of a single drive = the loss of the data on both drives. Even if you have the world's most rigorous backup regime - everything, every night, say - it's still only really useful for large file movement, which most people (including you, I think) don't do very often. Avoid. Anything <1.5v, dual-channel, DDR3, CL8 or 9 (preferable 8), will do fine. Corsair have a solid reputation, as do OCZ. Do you also need a keyboard and mouse?
