Hi all, be warned I may start to ramble.. I'm shortly about to purchase my first ever pc, having survived on 2nd hand charity up to now (My current "gaming rig" features a mighty 3850 gfx card and died 4-5months ago) and have one or two questions (edit: ~cough~ maybe more). Budget: About a grand-ish. Main uses of intended build: Mixture of photoshop and games Parts required: Everything except case Previous build information (list details of parts): You don't want to know... Monitor resolution: You don't want to know... Eventually new monitor will be 1900xSomething Storage requirements: Nothing too crazy, I'll set up a NAS if I want to get silly. Will you be overclocking: yes (Note: How high of an OC is safe for long term usage with air cooling?) Any motherboard requirements (no. of USB, Xfire/SLI, fan headers): Pass. Extra information about desired system: I was thinking about going for a 1366 build, based round a 930, but considering the price drop of the 950 I'm not sure which to go for. The Buyers Guide says use a 930, but doesn't make any mention of the 950, so I'm not sure whether the 950 is a lemon or whomever wrote this months buyers guide had a lapse of memory. Newb Question One: i7 930 or 950 or something else entirely? I'm thinking about using the gigabyte UDR3 mobo, as I've got a legacy (IDE) HDD that will need to be plugged in, which leads me to Newb Question Two: Am I right in thinking that there's 2 power cables that will need to be plugged in? 24 pin and erm.. 6 or 8ish? Thinking about the 5870 graphics card, but there's been a lot of unsubstantiated rumours about a new range coming out soon. Newb Question Three: Based on previous releases, would I be better off spending ~£300 on the last of the current range or ~£300 on the first of the next generation? My thoughts on PSU is "Whatever's on special offer that's modular, from a brand I've heard of and around 650W". Will this attitude serve me well? I'll be canabalising the case and dvd drive from my old beast.. what else.. ah yes.. RAM. 6gb of today's special offer of 1.65v tripple channel kit, or hunt about for a lower voltage or specific manufacturer? CPU, RAM, Mobo, Gfx, PSU .. Oh add an F3 sata to the list, although I can't quite work out why this model gets so much love? I've measured up my case, seems a Noctura CPU cooler will just about squeeze in, which seems highly recommended on other sites, but round here it seems the Frio/Fenrir are the weapons of choice? Does it make *that* much of a noticeable difference? My Previous case had what appears to be a proprietary fan controller system in place, and as on full the pc sounded like a hovercraft, actually make that an Angry Hovercraft, in a fight with a small battalion of hairdryers, I feel the fans need replacing. The gigabyte board has 3 fan headers, which I read somewhere can be used to control the fan speed, but as this pc will be used in a room near the tv it's important to me that I can shut the thing up so I'm considering a fan controller. Downside of this is that the cable length on the fans won't reach anywhere near the front of the case. I don't imagine I'm the only person with this issue, so do fan controllers typically come with longer cables, or am I expected to whip out some crimps and get busy with bespoke cabling? Congratulations if you are still reading at this point, you get a cookie. Although don't blame me if it turns out to be an evil tracking cookie
ok here we go: the reason the 950 isnt recommended is because with overclocking the 950 is not any better than the 930 whcih is cheaper. the buyers guide assumes your overclocking to some extent. Dont use your exisitng HDD (unless its just for storage) as your HDD will be stupidly slow. as for your question yes a 24pin needs to be plugged in and the mobo will require an additioal 4/8pin connection (depends on mobo) difficult to answer this as its "rumoured" the 6x00 series will be out for oct with more cards to follow early 2011. personally id hold off until 6x00 is released as it will be this year and you will only kick your self for buying a £300 GPU only to have it beat by a cheaper 6x00 card. But the annoying parts is its a rumour and we dont know prices or performances levels. so is it worth the wait ? 650W would be more than adequte for this system as along as your going with a dingle GPU which is usually better. grab a 650W modular one from a good supplier not just one you have heard of. example includes corasir, be quiet, seasonic, etc there is a PSU sticky somewhere on here for the current choices. Dont re-use the case if its rubbish as airflow is important especailly when overclocking. DVD writer though is ok to recycle. Regards to RAM grab the cheapest 1600mhz 3x2GB kit you can find from a good brand like corsair, crucial, G.skill etc. Timings make very little difference so there is no point paying a premium for it. most of the major manufacturers offer life time warranties too. Cooler wise - the fenrir is better than the noctura but the geil tranquillo is also a good choice. ive used the fenrir lots of times and is easily capable of running a 4Ghz 930.
Thanks The IDE requirement is mostly because there's some moderately important bits and pieces (photo's and work bits) on it, will be getting a nice shiny sata for general use. The choice was go for the gigabyte board or the asus board and an IDE->USB cable. Figured I'd go for option one. As for graphics, I've been without pc for so long I'm not sure another few weeks will kill me, but on the other hand don't want to get caught up forever waiting on vapourware. Knowing my luck the "October release" will turn into a Nov, then Christmas release, then be a real entry level card with promises of better things to come, and before I know it, it's 2012 and the world ends with some traumatic event and I'm still without a pc. On the other hand I'm wary about buying something that'll be out of date before next paycheque. Are Gfx cards anything like MS in that you don't want to touch the new stuff until it's been bug-fixed a few months down the line? Or will the first run of 6--- be resillient and long-lasting? ... I'm almost talking myself into buying a cheaper gfx (460) then treating myself to a Christmas present. Are 460's capable of decent gaming at 1900x1200? Case was really good, about a decade ago ;p It's got fans front, back, sides and top. I'm hoping replacing them with a newer, quieter fans will result in decent airflow. Just worried about either the cables on the fan not reaching a fan controller, or the mobo fan headers not being able to reduce the voltage on them to get them really quiet when I'm trying to listen to the telly.
I have the UDR3 rev 2 and I'm very happy with it. Though you can't go wrong with the ASUS mobo either. Up to personal preference. If you have important stuff on the IDE drive how about just drop it to an external HDD and transfer it to the new computer. I really see no reason to use slow, legacy tech. Especialy for important data. I'm guessing the IDE HDD is around 80-200 GB and is about 5 years old. With prices of storage ca 5p/GB there really is no need to use IDE drives. Scan usually has two 1TB Samsung F3s or Hitachi Deskstars for around 80-85 pounds or 45 each. If I was buying a new computer today I'd go with a single GTX 460, then OC it to 800 Mhz which easily offers 5850 levels of performance and gets close to a stock 5870 in some games. The 6xx0 cards will be a revision of current architecture rather than completely new. It's all baseless speculation, but I would not expect ground breaking improvements in performance levels compared to 5xx0. They will be better, but I don't think it is worth to wait. An OC'd 460 is good enough for good FPS in any game up to 1900x1200 with most setting close to max. It also depends on what games you play. Most of my gaming time is spent on Europa Universalis 3, Civ 4 (soon 5) and Borderlands, none if which are extremely demanding. Benches on Anandtech and Bitech show that a 460 should be good enough even for Crysis and Battlefield BC2 almost maxed. Also remember that SLI scales better than crossfire, so if you need more performance a second 460 will almost double the framerates. In some games OC'd SLI 460s pull ahead of stock CF 5870s, in others they are close behind, for half the price. I think one is enough for most users though. I'd not use a case from 10 years ago. Especialy after reading your description. This is my rig with some alternatives listed. i7 920 Gigabyte x58 UD3R rev 2 Crucial C300 64 GB SSD (system drive) 1TB Samsung F3 (storage) 6GB Corsair XMS RAM Gelid Tranquillo Xigmatek Utgard - I really like the case and the fan controller especially for 60 pounds, the Fractal Design R2 is also a nice choice (the R3 revision is coming out soon though) as is the CoolerMaster 690-II. Both are around 70-80 pounds. If I was buying a PC today I'd go with the Raven RV02. For a 1000 pound PC. 10 % of the budget on a quality case is about right. The FT02 is even more lustworthy, but 15% of your whole budget on a case might be a bit too much. Sapphire 4890 from Ebay for 90 pounds - if I was buying today I'd probably go for a 120 pound 460 768MB since I don't need to play the newest FPS at max settings. 1Gb version if you want more shiny. Corsair HX 850 W - overkill tbh, probably should have bought a 650 Antec TP New for 50 pounds less. Futureproofing and all that but unless I buy a second 4890 soon, which I don't need, my system uses a fraction of the 850 W. It's still a very, very good PSU though for high end dual GPU setups. I added a 20 quid Wifi card and the student upgrade version of Windows 7 Professional for 40 pounds. You can use the heavily discounted upgrade version even if you don't have any older version of Windows on your PC. You install the OS once without activating it (it works for 30 days) and straight away you install an OS upgrade and the CD key will work now, even though you are using the same disc.
