I'm going to do my first ever PC build and really need some help please. I know very little about PCs and am getting very lost in all the jargon and possible options in particular the graphics card. I've regrettably been running an off the shelf mac for the last 8 years however I am about to start my own freelance design company and so need a half decent system. A friend has advised me to follow the buyers guides on this site and the magazine and has explained overclocking which seems like the way I want to go. The main use of the PC will be running Adobe CS5 and for general home entertainment including some possible music production although I am not too bothered about gaming especially high end games. My budget is £800-1000. So far I am looking at getting the following: Motherboard MSI P67A-GD53 (B3) £109 CPU Intel Core i5 - 2500K 3.3 GHz £160 RAM 2 x Corsair Vengeance 4GB PC3-12800 £84 (£42 each) Cooling Be Quiet! Dark Rock Advanced £41 Hard Disk Samsung Spinpoint F3 1TB £37 also a WD Raptor (10K rpm) 74GB drive £65 (eBay) Optical Drive Samsung SH-S223/BEBE £15 Case Cooler Master HAF 912 Plus £55 PSU OCZ ModXtreme Pro 500W £50 Sound Card Asus Xonar DX £56 ...or Creative X-Fi Xtreme Gamer £61 So I am really stuck on the graphics card. As mentioned I will not be massively into high end gaming or any 3D graphics packages. I was looking at cards around £110-180 but have been told that for what I will be doing I don't need to spend more than £50. I don't mind spending the money if it is worth it and to get longevity from my system but at the same time I don't want to throw money away if I don't need to. I have also been advised to avoid a card with a fan and get one with a heat-sinc only as it will make the PC a lot more noisy but it seems like pretty much every card has a fan. I will want to run 3-4 monitors so will buy 2 graphics cards if necessary. Any help will be much appreciated. Thanks
If you haven't bought the raptor drive yet then drop it in favour of an SSD for your operating system! I'm no expert on multi screen rigs but the Sapphire 6950 Flex strikes me as a good way to go for a 3 screen setup... http://www.ebuyer.com/product/265907?utm_source=google&utm_medium=products Think a 5770 Flex would do for office work and be cheaper than the above. Buy this ram... http://www.scan.co.uk/products/8gb-...pc3-12800-(1600)-non-ecc-cas-9-9-9-24-xmp-15v
Raptors are now pointless. AFAIK a modern drive like a samsung F3 will be around the same speeds in reads.
he's already got 8gb specified, should be plenty, drop the raptor and get an ssd as mr bungle is right, f3's are around the speed (more or less)
He's not into gaming ... it would be overkill. I'd save this cash to by another F3 and create a mirroring RAID setup (could be useful to have a safe storage if it is for CS5 and music creation). It seams like a production rig ... why not looking at Matrox card if you don't care about gaming ? They can easily run multiple screen and are the best at 2D images. Music production .... I'd drop the Xonar or X-Fi and go with something more "professional" like M-Audio, ESI (juli@ or Maya for example) or any other pure stereo sound card. And as mentioned, drop the Raptor for a SSD (especially considering it was the 74GB version)
If I were you mate, I'd buy an iMac if you're going into design, they're what most designers use, plus you're already familiar with one. I myself have an apple laptop and its by far the best thing I've ever bought. I know macs are more expensive but they are worth it.
personally I would change the case to a fractal R3 (nice and quiet) whereas the HAF, although a good case I believe its fans can be quite loud, and pick up something like a 5850/5870, oh and I completely agree with the others, drop the raptor drive if you haven't purchased it already
Reason they all have fans is cause your gonig towards the higher end of the market so they need cooling as they get warmer thn lower end cards(the 520 type things) and as long as you keep your temps down the fans will be inaudible upto about 30% if thats not good enough get after market cooler for about £30 makes a big difference I agree on the 5850 best bang for buck card out atm specially since aria have one for £100 The fractal R3 is a good case however if your gonig for quiet and don;t need massive airflow for overclocking and the like you looked at the coolermaster sileo 500? comes pre-soundproofed Another vote for drop the raptop ike it's hot and get an SSD you won't regret it Professionally for a soundcard go with something like m-audio audiophile 2496(start point for you to look into) other thanthat looks good might want to look at a stronger power supply for the sake of upgrades in the future or efficency
Replace the Raptor boot drive with this http://www.scan.co.uk/products/64gb-crucial-realssd-m4-25-sata-6gb-s-ssd-mlc-flash-read-415mb-s-write-95mb-s Its probably best to get a second 1 TB drive and stetting up a RAID if this is professional. The 5850 would be perfect for your needs. Running 4 monitors would require a second card. What monitors are you thinking out of intrest? +1 to the Fractal R3
I agree. I have one and it's perfect (and cheap). Very good sound quality, RCA balanced/unbalanced connector for both input and output, etc. To handle up to 4 displays (each up to 2560 x 1600) you have that Matrox M9148 card http://www.misco.co.uk/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=512621. But this is pretty expensive £366 (exc. VAT) and you won't be able to play with it.
Thanks a lot for all your advice guys, this has been a massive help. I've made a few changes to my set up marked with *** Motherboard *** Asrock P67 Extreme4 V3 £113 (have changed from the MSI P67A-GD53 as this has a 3rd PCI-Ex16 slot which I'm guessing will be handy if I ever go for two graphics cards) CPU Intel Core i5 - 2500K 3.3 GHz £160 RAM 2 x Corsair Vengeance 4GB PC3-12800 £80 (£40 each) Cooling Be Quiet! Dark Rock Advanced £41 Hard Disk *** 2 x Samsung Spinpoint F3 1TB £37 = £74 (was getting one, now two) *** Crucial Real SSD M4 64GB solid state drive £90 Optical Drive Samsung SH-S223/BEBE £15 Case *** Fractal R3 £80 PSU OCZ ModXtreme Pro 500W £50 Sound Card *** M-Audio Audiophile 2496 £67 I'm liking the idea of the Sapphire 5770 Flex, £123 and the one card can handle 3 monitors which is just what I need. http://www.ebuyer.com/product/239011 I would really prefer to not be spending £300+ on graphics card/cards Jamsand, you say I should maybe get a more powerful PSU. How much more powerful would you suggest? Do you have any recommendations that would work well with the Fractal R3 case?
Sorry just spotted this Blogins, why would you say that ram over this? http://www.scan.co.uk/products/8gb-...600)-non-ecc-unbuffered-cas-9-9-9-24-xmp-150v
