I have a good friend, who after seeing teh epic lulz PC gaming is, has decided to build a PC for himself. His proposed Build is at this link: http://www.amazon.co.uk/registry/wishlist/1JUBWMPTPWV5W/ref=cm_wl_rlist_go Full List: CPU: Intel i5-2500k - ~£160 Mobo: Gigabyte Z68A-D3 (B3) Motherboard: £101.30 GPU: XFX Radeon HD 6870 - £139.99 RAM: Corsair XMS3 4GB (2 x 2GB) DDR3 SDRAM Memory -~£23 PSU: Xigmatek NRP-VC403 400W Power Supply - £28.56 Case: Cooler Master Elite 330 - £32.48 SSD: Corsair 60GB SSD Corsair Nova Series 2 Solid State Drive - ~£68 DVD Drive: LG GH22NS50.AUAA 22x SATA DVDRW Drive - £14.67 My question is whether he can get any of these items for a good deal cheaper, if there are any alternatives to what he is about to get, and if he should get any different parts. I can guess that the PSU needs to be a good bit more powerful, but any other recommendations?
If you have a look on scans today only deals, you can normally get the dual fan xfx black edition of that 6870 for aruond the same price, if not a few quid cheaper. I got a cheap case and regret it, go for an antec 100
I would get a more powerful PSU from either Corsair or Seasonic. 8GB of RAM can be had for under £40 now and that would save an upgrade later. I would look into a nicer case if it were me. There are so many out there I'm not sure what to recommend without a budget. A budget is often useful because while that is a good system you can always improve. Those are about average prices for those components though.
Buy on a dedicated tech site rather than amazon. A 500W PSU would be sensible. http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/2011/09/13/what-is-the-best-400-599w-psu/10 A 1TB 7200RPM will be needed otherwise he's going to end up putting games on the 5400rpm as the SSD will only have space for windows+word/browser+ one game. On the subject of SSD that's a poor choice. http://www.scan.co.uk/products/60gb-ocz-agility-3-ssd-25-sata-6gb-s-sandforce-2281-read-525mb-s-write-475mb-s-80k-iops# You want 1.5V RAM for use with sandy bridge.
Whilst it ups the budget, i really wouldn't recommend any of the 6Gb/s 60/64GB SSDs as they're significantly slower than the 120/128GB ones. Since the mobo's going to have a proper 6Gb/s controller, i'd suggest at least (since things like the intel 510 & (esp) Vertex max iops are better) going for the 128GB Crucial M4 which can be gotten for less than £140 inc shipping atm... ...though check out things like topcashback as this can reduce the price further from some suppliers - albeit that you have to wait a couple of months to get the money back.
I agree with pocketdemon that you'd be much better off getting an M4 compared to that SSD, but I think that the 64gb version is worth considering if you need to be strict on budget. It performs extremely well in reads, just not as well in writes - but since a boot drive spends almost all its time doing reads, this matters very little (and the write speed isn't appalling by any means). If the budget can stretch, the 128gb is a better option of course.
if the budget stretches get 2 m4 64gb and raid them. you can get 8gb of gskill from ebuyer for 35pounds.
it's unfortunately not just the writes that slow down... afaik (well, from the testing i've seen), along with the writes slowing by between ~36-41% (in CDM), whilst the sequential reads aren't that far off, the random reads drop by ~10-14% (again in CDM) between the 128GB & 64GB models (both using the 0009 f/w). Now, 'if' the SSD were just being used for, for example, games (as they're primarily sequential reads) then, this wouldn't be as much of an issue, but as a boot OS then this will have a more pronounced overall effect. As to this idea, you need to remember - (a) the smaller low QD r/ws do not scale as you're only reading from a single SSD despite it being in a R0 array. (b) the Crucials do not have the best GC & are not as robust in non-trim environments (compared to the SFs) so, esp in heavier r-e-w cycle environments (not least if a decent amount of free space isn't maintained & increasing the OP considered) then they will suffer a noticeable slow down in speeds. (c) & obviously you're doubling the risk of losing data to drive failure. Now, the most important of these (since you should be backing things up whether using raid arrays or not - if you don't then it's your own data you're risking of course... ...or in this case, the OP's mate's data) are (a) & (b)... ...the former meaning that you'll still have up to a 14% drop off in random reads/36%(+) in random writes compared to a single 128GB one, & the latter making the SFs a better choice generally for a R0 array (unless you're (again) using them for something like running games off - with the OS on an alt drive). Oh, & the 128GB M4 is a little over £10 less than 2x 64GB M4s which allows more money for tweaking the rest of the build.
He's gonna try to keep the total price under £620. His brother is getting him a copy of Win7, so no worries about that. (Note for me - 400th post!)
http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/buyers-guide/2011/09/01/pc-hardware-buyer-s-guide-september-2011/3 Get slightly cheaper stuff in some areas and this is in budget. £50 PSU £40 case £20 cpu cooler/stock cooler if not going to overclock salvage a dvd drive from somewhere
