Hi there, I'm new to posting on this forum but have previously used it for advice about certain purchases, so thanks to all contributors! I'm looking to build a new desktop to replace my ~5 year old Mesh PC in order to both save a bit of money and learn a bit along the way. I'll use it for gaming - but not particularly serious - and work, which involves running lots of applications at the same time (word processing, spreadsheets, statistical analysis software like STATA and SPSS etc.). From my old mesh I can salvage a DVD-RW, HDD and monitor (running at 1980 x 1080). I would also like to future proof it as much as possible, so i don't have to spend much money in the near future again to be able to play recent games! I only really want to spend around £700 but I've put a basket at scan together and gone a bit overboard: http://www.scan.co.uk/savedbasket/308015e783d04fb1aa73657e56a5924a Any advice as to if the build would work/ if i've gone over the top on any components would be much appreciated. The excess costs are partly due to unnecessary but nice extras (SSD) and attempts to keep the core pieces for a few years (motherboard, PSU, ability to overclock CPU), so if anyone has anything to say about how useful these are that would be great. Thanks!
The Asus P8Z68 V LX will save you just shy of £60 and is a very capable motherboard. Priced as a budget board but able to keep up with premium products twice its price, this motherboard is a very capable overclocker and cools well form the reviews I've read.
Your case and PSU are overpriced. I recommend you save some money on cheaper alternatives and keep your choice of motherboard. I have this mobo and it's one of the best I've had in many years. 5ghz no problem even on auto. You can get a fantastic case for £29. The one I chose for my GF PC is an all black midi tower with front 120, top 120 fan slot, 2 x side 120 slots, and rear 120 slot. Side mounting hard disk quick release bays, CPU cutout, watercooling holes all for £29.
Pretty solid components there , i can highly reccomend corsair psu's as i had a problem with mine and they bent over backwards to help me and actually upgraded me also as the process took longer than expected. The 2500k has been the best bang for buck i think for gamers, i would say maybe look at the 560ti's for gfx cards as they are falling very fast in price and i believe you can get one for around 130-140 delievered now if you shop around.
Drop the PSU down to something like the corsair builder series 500watt if you want to save some cash, along with getting the geild tranquillo or the cooler master hyper + evo. I agree with superego. You should get a cheaper board if you want to save some cash.
I disagree. People often make the mistake of making the motherboard the least important part. It is one of the most important. CPU is an easy choice, motherboard is not and a £60 motherboard may be fine in some instances but not so great when you want a high performance system. The motherboard he chose (I own it) has a good number of fan headers, incredible overclocking and stability. He is spending quite a lot on a case that won't get him any real advantage over the £29 pound case at ebuyer. Future proof it by getting a great motherboard.
What will the Asus P8Z68-V LX not do though? A case will often be kept for two or three builds where as a board wouldn't.
And why spend £72 on a case when you can buy an excellent case for £29? Looking at reviews some are getting 5ghz from the LX mobo so it does look like a good buy. I would save money on case, PSU, maybe get the LX board to save money then have more money to spend on a liquid cooler and a better GPU.
Because of the quality. At least get something like the one of the lower end Bitfenix cases. A 700 pound pc deserves a good home.
So a £29 can't have quality? Let's see... I have a coolermaster cosmos which cost me £140. The hard disk bays are badly designed in terms of cooling, no cpu cutout, the top USB and switch panel snapped away from the chassis. Other than that it looks nice. The Casecom in black at ebuyer has no such issues and all the latest design features but it's not one of the hyped brands and therefore some people will automatically dismiss it. http://www.ebuyer.com/172779-casecom-6788-all-black-case-km-6788-black For cooling it is way better designed than my Cosmos. It's a solid little case with excellent fan positioning. So if the guy buys the LX board, cheaper PSU, Casecom then he can buy a better CPU cooler (liquid) and a better GPU. No brainer. Unless you actually have the casecom in your home then I don't think you can judge it.
I've just done a great build with my brother using the NZXT Source 210 Elite, it's £30-35 iirc and a very nice case. No reason to spend millions on a case and it's a decent brand if the whole 'casecom' thing bothers you.
I've been looking at the board myself for my own core upgrade and I like what I see. It's one of the board options in Scan's "Smart" i5 2500K Overclocked Bundle, so if Scan feel it's good enough for a 1.2GHz overclock with an Arctic Cooling Freezer 13, I doubt the Dark Rock Advanced will break a sweat. The bottom line is that we need to shave £172 off that basket he put together. Swapping the Asus P8Z68-V/GEN3 for the Asus P8Z68-V LX saves £60. Dumping the SSD which the original poster considers an unnecessary but nice extra saves another £72, so there's £132 cut off right there. Where to shave another £40 though? If wireless isn't essential (is a good, reliable ethernet cable out of the question?) you can save the £17 Edimax wifi card, so thats down to just £23 worth of fat to trim now. At that point I'd say either pick a cheaper case thats still good on cooling or go for a lower end PSU. I think an Antec 300 would be fine. Old-ish, but I think it looks tip-top and the cooling is decent for a budget case.
Has the 300 Two (302?) been given a price yet? If it's not too much more than the 300 it would be a good alternative.
Thanks for all the responses - it's good to get a bit of a reality check. I think I'd been sold on the looks of the Fractal case, so that does seem a good place to save some money - even the £29 casecom doesn't look that bad at all really. The PSU suggestions are also helpful. I chose that motherboard to get the PCIe 3.0 in the hope that I then wouldn't have to change it for a while; I'm sure this will split opinions but is it worth it for the extra cash (and therefore going over budget)? I could also delay getting an SSD for a while, maybe until prices drop a little more. I'm still a bit confused about OEM OS's, so would I be able to reinstall a Windows 7 OEM to the SSD after it's been installed on a different hard drive? The wireless connection is a necessity unfortunately, I don't want to be laying cables all over the place. Am happy to take a £17 hit on that though. Another question - if the CPU is just going to be running at stock speeds for the time being, could I do without the cooler? Thanks again.
Replace the GPU with a vanilla 460. "SuperClocking" is a rip-off, they just flash the BIOS 50 Mhz something higher and charge more for the card. Get a vanilla card then overclock yourself. You can do better on the PSU as well BTW.
Not going to shout out to much as i do not own this case, reviews are good and cable managment and water cooling options, although not as cheap( as Feathers or shakey but another alternative.Zalman Z9 http://www.scan.co.uk/products/zalm...ce=google+shopping&utm_medium=google+shopping Plus fan controller for 45 pounds.Good to have a few to choose from ,all about taste.Maybe my next case also lots of space between the backplate and the Rear case door.Good for me as my cable managment's not the best in the world.
I did it (kinda): http://www.scan.co.uk/savedbasket/d95d4d0f928f412f9523a358633d4d44 Once you get 20 posts in the forums, you get free delivery from scan, so it will be £701.03 with ScanSure (which I'm sure you want).
