Hi Guys, I've always been browsing bit-tech mods forum but never had an account - I thought I should get around to do so! I hope you guys can help me out. I'm looking on building gaming PC and need some help with the spec of it. Price is £600~. I had a custom build PC a long time a lonnngg time ago (AMD FX60 I think!!!) so I'm not 'current' on what works together any more. I've always like overclocking - Prefer not to watercool as I've not had experience in setting it up. I need everything minus the monitor. Current monitor resolution is 1680 x 1080 so I'd like to play games on this resolution. Any suggestions would be great. Cheers, Elliotts99
Welcome to BT Here's a quick spec that I've just cooked up for you (link now leads to post below): http://forums.bit-tech.net/showthread.php?p=2415157#post2415157 You could save more money by going with a 5770, would knock off a further £70 or so. Onto that setup, I'd add a Gelid Tranquillo (the Hyper 212 Plus is there as a place holder, though if you have no other choice, it's a good cooler to go for).
Yeah, I accidentally messed that one up last time xD I've updated the link, but quoted me before I saved Okay, HUGE fail from me here. Let me do this again. For the third time. ARGH!
Okay, ignore everything I said before. http://www.scan.co.uk/savedbasket/bda45b12c06a4875a141fda0764b1c69 There's the link Sorry for the confusion everybody!
If its for gaming I'd go with this for similar money: AMD Phenom II X4 Quad Core 955 Black Edition £110 Gigabyte GA-MA785GMT-UD2H £60 AC-FREEZER7-PRO-REV2 - Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro v2.1 £17 Corsair XMS3 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz £75 GeForce GTX 460 1Gb £165 Samsung SpinPoint F3 1Tb 45 500W OCZ ModXStream £54 Antec 300 Three Hundred £43 Sony Optiarc AD-7240S 24x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter £16 Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium 64-Bit - OEM £74 Total £659 From a mix of Scan and eBuyer purchases Unfortunately you cant' get both the i5 750/760 and a GTX 460 1Gb into the build at this money. 8 times out 10 its the GFX, not the CPU, that count in games, hence me proposing the AMD quad core to save enough money to stretch to the GTX 460, which is a big improvement on the 5770. I also proposed: a chunkier PSU (think it would be really pushing it to use the 400W Corsair with a GTX 460, especially if overclocking). a slightly cheaper cooler, but the ones recommended above are better if you have the cash. If you really want to get down to £600 you'll need to go the AMD route and take the 5770, but I'd still be tempted to get a beefier PSU incase you go for a higher power GFX card in the future
Actually, ignore my build, this I'd go for. I don't know what's up with me today, I just went straight to Intel and forgot to even think AMD...the only thing I'd disagree with is that the CX400 would be more than enough for a GTX 460 (the whole system under load would use no more than 330W or so). Me = overall though...
Thanks for the quick replies. Going to have a look through them now. Should have said that I didn't need a copy of Windows as I've got a few licenses left over from University. I will have a look then let you know which way I go!
Very true but the CX400 is captive cables isn't it? For the extra few quid it's nice to have the overhead room and modular cabling. However after only recently getting my first modular PSU i am HUGELY biased right now
Lamboman could be right on th CX400 being able to do the job (its a very good PSU) A quick Google of "GTX 460 review" will lead you to a bunch of good sites (e.g. Bittech, Anandtech, HardOCP, PC Perspective). The power consumption pages show figures varying from below 300W to nearly 400W, admitedly with a variety of other hardware installed. Overclocking the CPU and/or GFX can also make an important difference. The general advice I've seen suggests a quality 500W PSU for the GTX 460 1Gb. You should also check the current on the 12V rail(s) for: 1) The PSU 2) The GTX 460W 1Gb, the recommendation from NVidia is about 13A I think, so you'll need at least this for the GFX and ~12A for the CPU. I also hear its best not to have your PSU at 100%. Noise will be less if you are running closer to say 60%, and you might sleep better knowing that your PSU isn't living on the edge. I would suggest that: 1) You go with a quality PSU (there is a lot of rubbish out there) 2) If you want to save money by going <500W do your homework on power draw and current on the 12V rail. Maybe also how noise varies with load - some of the better PSU review sites include these. My guess is that the CX400W would be Ok, as its a great PSU, but check carefully if you are interested as there are few PSUs below 450W that should really be paired with this card.
The main reason that 500W is suggested is mainly so that if you run tons of extra components on top (to essentially have a fully loaded power supply), you won't run into any issues. Nvidia, I think, recommend a 500W power supply at minimum because usually, the low end power supplies do not provide the amperage required to run these power supplies, whereas most 500W units do. They tend to take into account the lower quality power supplies. However, the reality is that a decent 400W power supply will have no problem whatsoever powering a system like this. 30A on the 12V rail means that it has enough and then some. The figures that smugboy quoted for power comsumption are also accurate. However, these figures are measured at the wall, so they do not represent what is coming out of the power supply. So in reality, the upper-end 400W system power consumption from the wall is actually going to be around 320W when coming out of the power supply at most, presuming a rather low (lower than the CX400's actual) 80% efficiency; well within the comfort zone of the CX400. It wouldn't be running anywhere near 100%. I wouldn't usually recommend such a power supply in most systems. However, £600 isn't the highest of budgets, and the money saved on the power supply here is a big saving. In the power supply world it's probably the biggest bargain of them all; you will not find a power supply of such quality at such a price. The bog standard, crap generic power supplies don't come in much cheaper at all. The main reason that the spec that I did for you earlier was so crap was that I forgot to factor in Windows 7. However, as you have the licenses, that spec (but with a GTX 460 to replace the 5770, and a Gelid Tranquillo as stated before) makes complete sense. It was actually the spec that I thought of, before messing it up and posting the rubbish I did. The only gripe that could be had when it comes to the CX400 is that it isn't as quiet as some of the more expensive counterparts (though it certainly isn't anything to be worried about, it's not a loud power supply). If you were willing to spend £15 to get a VX450, you'd be very happy indeed Also, a bit more advice: get your post count up to 20 by making some posts (not spam of course!) in any of the sections of the forum, to get your Scan delivery discount. That knocks off £12.47. Then take away the Scansure installation insurance if you are comfortable with it. That's another £16.56 taken off the total price of that particular basket, might be a bit more off with the GTX 460 there.
here's the build that I just have on newegg that I will update occasionally I plan to keep this wishlist updated for another 3 years or so till I'm out of college then buy the parts and make the PC. It's a gamer build that's geared toward overclocking. Note that it does not include an operating system and other peripherals (like a monitor). Also note that the price tag on it is a little higher than what you said you wanted to pay.
Nuts to that. You never did tell us exactly what this computer was for, but assuming it was gaming, I would go; CPU: Intel Core i5 760 £154.10 CPU Cooler: Gelid Tranquillo £24.99 Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-P55M-UD2 £81.72 RAM: Corsair XMS3 4GB (2x2GB) 1600Mhz DDR3 CL9 XMP £74.17 HDD: Samsung SpinPoint F3 1TB £43.93 GPU: Gigabyte GTX460 1GB OC £175.62 PSU: Corsair CX 400W £29.95 Optical Drive: Sony AD-5240S-0B £14.98 Chassis: Antec Three Hundred £43.11 OS: Windows 7 x64 Total: £642.57 Despite that warlike stance, smugboy does have good reason to be smug. Firstly, his £659 build includes a £70 copy of Windows I can omit based on your second post. Secondly, if you do actually need a keyboard and mouse too (you said you need everything but the monitor) you're going to have to kiss goodbye to the Intel quad core. Peripherals are really a matter of personal preference, but if you'd like suggestions we'll be more than happy to advise. Thirdly, like smugboy, I'm £40-odd over budget. In addition, the bargain-tastic CX400W (whilst highly recommended and, as per lamboman's post above, totally capable of running the above system) is not modular, which means a big bundle of cables in the bottom of the equally cheap-but-highly-thought-of Three Hundred. The motherboard won't support X-Fire or SLI properly (the PSU might not either), but at this price point I can't see either in your near future. That said, this is still a rip-roaring beast of a build, especially at 1680x1050. The OC'd Gigabyte 460 (the best of the 460s thus far); Both the i5 760 and GTX460 are hugely overclockable too, for extra performance. Personally, if you do choose the i5/GTX460 route - and as a total Intel fanboi I strongly suggest you do - I suggest you bump the budget to £650 and bump the PSU to Corsair's excellent VX550W. Other than that - you're good to go. If £600 really is the limit, I can only suggest an i3 530-based build (I'm AMD-ignorant) but frankly I'm sure the green team can make a more convincing presentation there. Have a look here for further info. [EDIT]As Captain Oblivious I forgot to point out that if you're REALLY into your overclocking, you can buy a cheaper 1GB GTX460 and do the overclocking yourself.[/EDIT]
I haven't had time to redo the build that I kinda described before, but PureSilver's build is pretty much exactly what you should go for now that we know you don't need Windows (I presume peripherals might not be needed as you didn't mention that you needed them, but then again it could just be overseen...). The only thing I'd do is change the motherboard to the H55 model I selected in mine, merely because it's £15 or so cheaper, and the small price differences do generally add up. The Antec 300, personally I'm not a huge fan of, hence why I didn't select it, and I personally believe the extra cash is worth it to buy the Midgard, but if you go for the 300, it isn't exactly a bad choice
