I originally mistakenly posted this in the Tech Support section, sorry! A friend pointed me to this site when I asked for advice for a new build that would not cost the earth and give me 'bang for my buck' (excuse the expression). Based on the guide @ http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/buy...-august-2010/2, I have come up with a spec list and was wondering if anyone had any advice / suggestions for getting the best out of it, or perhaps changing some components. Here is the list: CPU - Intel Pentium G6950 MOBO - Gigabyte GA-H55M-UD2H H55 GFX - GeForce GTX 460 1025MB DDR MEMORY - 4GB of Corsair 1,600MHz DDR3 memory (Corsair XMS3 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit) CPU Cooler - Titan Fenrir - £29.78 CASE - Antec 300 - £44.63 Hard Drive - Western Digital Caviar Green Power 1.5TB 64MB Cache Hard Disk Drive SATAII 300MB/s <8.9ms 7200rpm - PSU - Corsair VX 550W ATX Power Supply (CMPSU-550VXUK) [CMPSU-550VXUK] - £55.99 I also have a number of dvd writers, old but working, using IDE connections. Is it really worth the extra money and getting a SATA one? Thanks for any advice you can give me!
A bit more info is needed for useful recommendations. What is your budget? What will be its main uses (although from your current spec i guess gaming )? What resolution screen will you be using with it? Other than that, Unless your fussy about a neat build, there no real need to get a new dvd writer (IDE cables dont look good), and its not as if optical drives get that much use these days anyway. If your going to be overclocking, then the Titan Fenrir and 1,600Mhz ram make sense, if your not going to be, you could get away with a much cheaper HSF and 1,333Mhz ram. (as the 1,600 ram will run at 1,333Mhz anyway unless you overclock it) Hope that helps
Budget is flexible, although I am looking mostly at value for money tbh. Gaming is one of the uses, I still have the dvd of half life two sitting around, my previous rig could not run it well enough Mostly it will be used as a jack of all trades, mutli-tasking lots of apps the same time, and be able to run Photoshop and other imaging editing and web development software quickly and simultaneously. Looking to overclock it to over 4GHz, although having read some posts on the forum, it seems like its a bit of a lucky draw as to whether you get a cpu that will accept overclocking or not. Getting somewhat tempted by the pre-overclocked and tested bundles on sale at overclockers.co.uk atm - see here
It all looks pretty good, that cpu is a good overclocker and matched with the fenrir should go a fair way. If you weren't overclocking i'd still go with 1600 ram personally as the price difference is so little and could allow you to overclock in the future and make the pc last longer. The 460 seems to be very popular currently, it seems to run fine even on larger resolutions though obviously depends on the game and quality settings. In my antec 300 case i'm still using two IDE dvd drives and while i'll probably replace them at some point they don't really cause any issue or airflow problems if you layout the cable out properly, just takes some time. I would consider the possibility of a modular psu as it makes everything a bit tidier though if you only have one/two hdd's there is plenty of space in the bottom of the 300.
Yeah I did consider a modular PSU, but was not really sure which one was good! As you say, the 1600 ram leaves me with options for upgrading the cpu in future. As for resolution, I intend to run a dual screen setup to give me some more screen real estate for web development. I currently have a rather cheap 24" CIBOX display that I believe runs at a little under full HD res. I intend to buy a second screen, roughly the same size, but capable of full HD resolution. Any suggestions on what is good for this would be gratefully accepted! As for the overclocking, is it worth the gamble of buying the CPU untested, or is it worth paying a little more and buying a pre tested setup? Looking at the RADIUS Core i3 BUNDLE Overclocked at 4.4 Ghz on scan, as well as the overclockers.co.uk link in my previous post
For a dual screen setup you don't necessarily need a hugely powerful gpu for multiple monitors unless you are going to run games in dual screen as well. Eg; my 6 year old laptop can run its monitor (1024x768) with webpages and video on a separate monitor (1920x1080) without any problems. If its possible and you don't have a problem with it, then when gaming I would run one screen and leave the other plain which would greatly reduce the load, though HL2 is now far from a demanding game. That i3 4.4Ghz bundle isn't much more than the parts separate, I only did it roughly though, you shouldn't really pay a huge amount more. You get a garaunteed overclock, scan will also give you also give you some sort of warranty I believe. The other advantage of the i3 over the Pentium is the hyper threading, which might help you as you said it will be multi-tasking lots of things at the same time.
Thanks for the advice, I am finding myself drawn towards the i5 now, but am unsure whether its worth the extra expenditure. I am happy to pay a bit more, but I normally try to buy mid-market products, where you get the most for your money (eg. for hard drives, I tend to buy a hd where I get the most GB for my £). Would I be better off generally considering the RADIUS Core i5 BUNDLE Overclocked at 4.0 Ghz ?
