Build Advice £6-700 to spend..

All,

Got 600-700£ to spend on new internals for a computer. No case/screen/keyboard/mouse needed.

Computer will be used to play games, photo editing etc so needs to be quite powerful.

Can anyone point in me the direction of decent sandy bridge motherboards and i7s?

 

I am guessing with 2000+ posts do you have a fair idea on what you think you want to go for initially?

 

Hehe

Asus P67P8 with a 2500K is a good starting point.

 

I've been too busy with work to keep up to date with motherboards and HSFs the rest I can probably manage..

so basically a decent sandy bridge mobo + i7 2nd generation + a good HSF (quiet). As for the rest of the spec I'm thinking::

1xSSD for OS (New Sandforce chipset - maybe the new OCZ Vertex 3)
2x2TB WD Green disks for storage
8+GB of RAM (decent, but not super amazing - must be able to match i7 when overclocked etc)

No idea on what makes a decent graphics card these days
No idea what makes a decent sound card - are the Asus D2x series still good?

 

What resolution do you game at?

 

1680x1050 -- no real reason to upgrade either.

 

With that budget I think the new Vertex 3 is too much - its like £224 which will eat a third of your budget. Id stick to a smaller SSD drive (a Crucial C300 or Corsair F60 like mine).

This is a starting point: P8P67 build

At that resolution, you might be able to get away with a cheaper graphics card than the 560 twin frozr (although Id ask someone else because Im no expert with graphics cards). Also, you could save some money with a cheaper PSU but the Antex true power is recommended alot - it may be overkill if your not sli-ing but gives you good headroom to upgrade in the future. The XMS3 Ram is very good and theres no real reason to go with something like the vengeance because it has a big heat spreaders which may conflict with some coolers.

Also that mobo is non-SLI - you have to get the P8P67 Pro if you want it but its a good £30 more. I would make the decision now if you think you may go down that route in the future (I personally would not bother and just stick to single gpu setups but thats for you to decide i suppose)

 

there is a sexy 128gb c300 for sale in the marketplace at the mo.

At your budget, you'll have to compromise somewhere, so a HD5850 might be a good buy for you. a 2500k and a gelid tranquillio teamed with a Asus p67 board will serve you well in both gaming and editing

 

fantastic, thank you will prob go with the P8P67 build linked.. looks good. Will add double the ram though.

 

If you're doubling the Ram Id go 2x4gb sticks as opposed to 4x2gb - like two of these

 

any reason for getting 2x4 not 4x2?

 

yeah, 4 sticks wont OC as well and dont leave you room for addition.

 

Ye its easier to upgrade even further in the future, and also because have less components in your pc for the same performance/price