46 replies to this topic

[Moyt]

=============================================
Spec Me! Questionnaire
=============================================

1) What's your budget and in which Currency?
From the UK spending in jolly good Great British Pounds GBP.

£1500 (well it was £1000 to begin with, but I got toooo greedy. But I'm being a good boy and won't go beyond £1500....I hope!!)



2) When are you going to buy your PC?

ASAP! I'm rushing fast for this, I need something right now.



3) What is your computer type?
a. Desktop
b. HTPC Media PC
c. Workstation
d. Server
e. Laptop
F. Net book
G. Tablet


a. Desktop



4) What's the main purpose of the PC?
- If it's gaming, please indicate what resolution you're playing the games at and which games you want to play the most.
- If it isn't gaming, indicate other purposes.

At least 1920x1080p
Gaming; to play FPS CoD MW3, Racing, Fighting, RPG, Horror survival - Resident Evil 5, BioShock, Metro 2033 etc just a load of modern PC games!

And I'm just as interested in running emulators, mainly PlayStation 2 such as PCSX2 that is CPU hungry.
Other minor emu's like MAME, but that won't be an issue either way.



5) When do you intend to upgrade your PC?

ASAP!! I want one magically all built tailored for my needs in front of me NOW..
I've busted my laptop and so I'm rushing to get parts fast and start building. Rushing this fast will be my downfall, but here's hoping the lovely friendly people here will prevent me from making major errors in buying




6) Do you want to keep any component that you already own?
- If so, specify which component you have and ignore the question about it.

No. But I do intend to build a big spiked bat out of my dead laptop and go on a massive rampage to convey how bad owning a laptop truly is



7) Do you prefer any brand or manufacturer (Intel/AMD, NVidia/ATI, Asus/Gigabyte,...)?
- If so, specify why.

Intel cpu + NVidia graphics is a definite must. Mobo's and the rest I'm not fussed about.



8) Are you going to overclock?
Never tried it, and don't intend to touch it till I do my homework. Just stock speeds for now.



9) Where are you going to buy the components from? Do you have any preference over some store?

Various online stores....
dabs.com
scan.co.uk
overclockers.co.uk
ebuyer.com

I am aiming to price compare each component, and so go along with whoever has the cheapest on offer. Of course I won't be buying from any old place without checking out their reliability and service.



10) Will you be assembling the system yourself or will it come pre-built?

Assembling myself.... I should be afraid.................. very afraid! 1st time I'll be doing such a thing like a nutty scientist on the loose *kaboom*




11) Do you have any configuration in mind?
- If so, specify your choices and explain them. You can then erase all the question below.
- If you don't, keep on.

OK. So rather than rushing and going for the kill by just buying anything and everything the same day I bust my laptop ( OhHHhh my dear HP HDX18 ), I've done a BIT of reading up instead. But seriously nowhere near enough as I should have. I feel like I'm walking in for my exams and I had 1 day to revise 4 years of work from nothing hah.
I'm just hoping what I mention below works out well.

But please PC enthusiast, lend me a hand here and advice, criticise, on anything you see wrong with what I'm aiming to buy.
I need to make sure this works out nicely and not end up with a huge junk of metal scrap to build a armless tank!


Price checked: Amazon, Ebuyer, Dabs, Scan, eBay (last resort!), Aria, NewEgg.
Though Newegg doesn't apply with me being in the UK. But their prices are sooo nice! Not so nice after paying shipping and customs charges!
Okay so after endless hours and hours upon even more hours of online shop browsing here's what I came up with.......... I've linked each item directly to the store product, in case you want to see what I intend to buy in more detail.

GRAPHICS:
- EVGA GeForce GTX 580 772MHz 1536MB PCI-Express HDMI
= £364.99 = dabs.com
OR
Asus GeForce GTX 580 782Mhz DirectCU II 1536MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card [ENGTX580 DCII/2DIS/1536MD5]
= £359.99 = overclockers.co.uk (ON OFFER THIS WEEK)
SOMONE PLEASE GIVE ME THEIR OPINION on these 2 cards in comparison. Bearing in mind I don't intend to go SLI, just want to run 1 single card. And right now I'm looking at the Asus 580 card.

Hard drive:
- OCZ Technology 120GB Vertex 2 Series SATA-300 3.5" Solid State Drive (OCZSSD3-2VTX120G) = £139.34 = scan.com

CPU:
- Intel Core i7-2600K 3.40GHz LGA1155 8MB
= £236.79 = Ebuyer.com

MEMORY:
- Corsair Memory Dominator GT 8GB DDR3 1866 Mhz CAS 9 XMP DHX Dual Channel Desktop
= £119.98 = dabs.com
OPINIONS ON THIS AS WELL PLEASE. I may just raise the bar on this and go for the Corsair Memory 12GB (3 x 4GB) Dominator GT 2000MHz DDR3 DIMM 240-pin CL9 with Airflow Fan @ £209.98... again pushing over my budget


PSU:
- Corsair 850 Watt Pro Series Gold AX850
= £139.99 = DABS.com

MONITOR:
- ViewSonic VX2739WM 27" Widescreen 1920 x 1080 1MS HDMI VGA DVI-D LCD Monitor
= £251.12 = scan.com
AGAIN OPINIONS ON THIS monitor please. I've just fallen merely for its marketing of 1ms response time and screen size. I know very VERY bad of me. I've read mixed reviews on this also. If anyone recommends better which doesn't cost more than £250 I'm all ears. I want to avoid having a small monitor though

Motherboard:
- Asus P8P67 PRO REV 3.0 LGA1155 Intel P67 DDR3 ATX (B3 Stepping)
= £123.74 = EBUYER.com
This mobo should suffice...i think??? Hah. However considering I don't intend to bite my teeth into overclocking (well not right away, and even if I do, I don't plan on going anywhere near extreme), are there better and cheaper mobo's out there for what I want? Just to save a few buck here and there

CASE:
- CoolerMaster HAF X
= £133.67 = scan.com
No objections to this choice I hope. Probably my best one


So in the end..... for now!
TOTAL = £1504.62 / $2,465.77 USD (if choosing Asus GTX 580 over EVGA)

Why do I have a feeling I'm missing a load of other important things from that list??? Haa.
Anyhow I'm open for alternative suggestions, especially if it means saving on costs and buying something that is just as good as what I intend to get.

Keyboard/mouse, and dvd drive is minor, I will look into that another time. And have a cheap PS2 keyboard and mouse I can use temp.

Apologies if I sound soo mixed up and clueless, but I wasn’t planning on doing all this just a day ago. But after that HDX18 laptop died on me, that was the last straw for me and laptops lol. RIP.

Thank you for taking the time to read this!
=============================================
End
=============================================

[Moyt]

To add I'll be running Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit which I already have.

[mihapiha]

I don't think you need such an expensive setup anyways.
For the 1080p resolution you don't need a GTX580. It's nice to have it, but you won't benefit from it.
I have a secondary rig with a Core i7 2600k + GTX570 for a 1920x1200 resolution. I can't say I have any problems with any games.
I think you should look into a similar rig. The parts you choose are great, but I don't think it's necessary to overspend on certain parts.
For example memory. It doesn't make any difference what so ever, what you put in there. The higher the frequency the worse!!!
Remember that SandyBridge does not allow a BaseClock overclock, therefore frequencies like 2000 MHz and more are not reachable.
Sometimes you might find it even problematic to run 1866 MHz....

I would suggest such a system:

Noctua NH-D14 (65 €)
SilverStone Raven RV03 with a side panel window (115 €)
ASUS P8P67 Pro Rev 3.1, P67 B3 (130 €)
Corsair AX 750W ATX 2.3 (130 €)
Intel Core i7-2600K (250 €)
OCZ Agility 3 120GB, 2.5", SATA 6Gb/s (160 €)
EVGA GeForce GTX 570 HD, 2.5GB GDDR5 (330 €)
Corsair XMS3 DIMM Kit 8GB PC3-12800U CL9-9-9-24 (DDR3-1600) (50 €)
LG Electronics BH10LS30 schwarz, SATA, Blu-Ray Burner (75 €)

This would result in 1.080€ which is £940.

This will be a fine fine gaming rig for quite some time. If you really believe you need anything more than that,
you could go with a bigger or better SSD - like maybe the OCZ RevoDrive 3 x2 - or maybe a better motherboard,
like the ASUS P8P67 WS Revolution Rev 3.0 if you plan on using SLI or 3-way SLI eventually.


Edit:

Please notice that I went with the 2.5 GB VRAM version o the GTX570. The additional VRAM you'll benefit
from as soon as you choose to go with a higher resolution, loads of AA and AF and if you choose to SLI some
day. Also I would like to explain that you won't need more than the 750W Corsair PSU. Even with two GTX570s
a highly overclocked CPU and everything at full load, you don't get over the 750W. No need therefore for
anything bigger and better...

Edited by mihapiha, 06 August 2011 - 10:36 PM.

[dirtylarryuk]

For £1K a 2600k rocks if you use apps for mainly games look at 2500k and a cheap p67-z68 combo. 2500k will save you £70-80.

GTX 580 is a great card but only a small amount faster than 570 and 6970 both can be had from £200-230. 580 is really for those runing 3d or triple screen and 2-4 580's.

Add a 60GB SSD (from £70) for stupid fast booting and you can fit 2-5 games even on a 60GB even with windows add a nice 500GB-1TB HDD for everything else. If you have spare budget a 120GB (or bigger) rocks your world.

The 6950 2 GB is the best price perfomance right now they start from £170. 560 Ti is a great card but the lack of VRAM (1GB) could be a issue. 2.5GB 570 is a great card but very hard to get hold off in the UK.

Try and get a dust proof case (with easy to clean dust filters) with great cooling (Silverstone Raven 3 is almost unbeatable from £100)

Which ever GPU you choose look at the Msi frozer Asus CU2 and Gigabyte windforce cards as they have much better cooling than standard costs and cost only a fraction more.

28nm GPU's are here in 2-5 months so don't overspend on a 40-45nm GPU now if you want something to tide you over a 560 or 6950 will run almost all games ok at 1080p and will keep their resale value much better than a 580.

Onbaord sound on the P67 and Z68 mobo is excellent don't bother with a soundcard.

Install WIN7 64 bit


For your build check the bundles Scan.co.uk offer and Aria.co.uk as they will cherry pick a CPU install a decent cooler and ship the whole lot built and tested so all you do is screw in the mobo the RAM-CPU and Cooler are installed and tested allready at 4.5-4.7 Ghz.

http://www.aria.co.uk/Systems/Bundles/

http://www.scan.co.u...clocked-bundles

Note AMD bulldozer is due soon. These may offer value or perfomance vs 2500-2600k.

There are some bargins on the G2 SSD's where that are under £1 per GB so you can pick up a 120 for £120 or 240 for £240. So if you forgo the epeen of the 500 MB R-W srives the older 255 RW drives offer stunning value.

Edited by dirtylarryuk, 06 August 2011 - 11:01 PM.

[HaCkEr]

mihapiha, on 06 August 2011 - 10:29 PM, said:

I would suggest such a system:

Noctua NH-D14 (65 €)
SilverStone Raven RV03 with a side panel window (115 €)
ASUS P8P67 Pro Rev 3.1, P67 B3 (130 €)
Corsair AX 750W ATX 2.3 (130 €)
Intel Core i7-2600K (250 €)
OCZ Agility 3 120GB, 2.5", SATA 6Gb/s (160 €)
EVGA GeForce GTX 570 HD, 2.5GB GDDR5 (330 €)
Corsair XMS3 DIMM Kit 8GB PC3-12800U CL9-9-9-24 (DDR3-1600) (50 €)
LG Electronics BH10LS30 schwarz, SATA, Blu-Ray Burner (75 €)

This would result in 1.080€ which is £940.

Although that config is perfect, i would change the mobo to Gigabyte Z68UD7

[Moyt]

Thanks for the replies people, I'm overwhelmed by the detail of help I'm getting here. Greatly appreciated!
For a newbie former 'buy anything cheap off the shelf laptop' fan boy (now former rebel laptop fan boy!) my brains are going to fry, having to re-think about buying most the components again haaa, but that's good!

I read the replies last night, I have that much to say and look into again (the online store price comparing is tedious!) I didn't get a chance to comment.

SO I'll be back..... shortly..... I think


Cheers!

[Challenger]

ok this is purely what I'd recommend for gaming:

I have only used Scan as I certainly prefer to get everything from the same place and get one big box of goodies (you'll also save by only paying one lot of delivery!)

i5 2500k / Asus p8p67 pro / Cooler / Ram overclocked bundle: http://3xs.scan.co.u...p?SystemID=1202 (£381.23)
EVGA 2.5GB gtx 570: http://www.scan.co.u...-2x-dvi-dp-hdmi (£299.40)
OCZ 120GB V2e: http://www.scan.co.u...s-write-275mb-s (£134.54)
1TB Samsung F3: http://www.scan.co.u...-cache-89ms-ncq (£39.46)
750w Corsair PSU: http://www.scan.co.u...ronze-140mm-fan (£83.70)
Silverstone Raven 3: http://www.scan.co.u...-window-w-o-psu (£107.96)
27" ASUS LED monitor: http://www.scan.co.u...i-d-displayport (£282.32)
Samsung DVD drive: http://www.scan.co.u...-sata-black-oem (£14.00)

So that totals: £1342.61 (plus like £25 delivery)

REALLY DO spend the left over money on a decent gaming keyboard and mouse as it really makes the difference.

[Moyt]

Thanks for your recommendation Challenger!

You've answered some of the questions I was going to ask. I'm in the middle of typing a nice big essay to give you all a headache hah. But I want to approach this the best way possible so I need to make sure on some things. You'll see when I post it.

I'll be back.... almost there! Well....kinda

[Derbixrace]

here is the build i would get, strongest single GPU with 3GB of VRAM, very good and futureproof mobo (supports PCI-E 3.0 x16 and will support ivy bridge when it releases). also has a blazing fast SSD for your OS, apps, games etc..

the case is one of the best for aircooling... i also chose the best bang for buck CPU cooler so you can OC when you want to because SB CPUs OC like crazy.

a perfect build for your budget imo

[dirtylarryuk]

Don't forget guys a budget the the max someone want to really spend not the a target line that must be crossed.

So with 28nm so close not sure anyone really wants a £400 GPU that will be worth £200 soon! 3GB 580 is a great card but if you look the 580's are all ready dropping in price now the AMD 28nms are so close.

Also as usual there ae some other things that could eat budget like a gaming mouse and keybaord 7.1 headphones (even wireless) that would add a benefit to most users over and above 5-10% extra FPS.

I have lost count over the people who spend £1-5k on a PC then end up with no budget and are using a £5 mouse and keybaod combo and some 10 year old headphones.

Most users in most games are going to notice little difference between a 6950 stock or 560 ti and a 580 3GB.

Edited by dirtylarryuk, 07 August 2011 - 02:50 PM.

[Moyt]

OK I'm back...
mihapiha AND dirtylarryuk thank you both also for your input on this also.
Very useful information, and you're both saving my wallet from setting on fire.
Cheers Hades for that small mobo change recommendation.

Where to start, where to start. Shooooot!

Ok now a NEW list of the rig i want to build, based on what you have both wisely suggested.
I may still question these choices, if someone doesn't mind explaining, thanks.
Also I don't think I could go through price checking 10+ odd sites for each component again.
However I feel safe enough to just find the best deals between these 3 highly rated and competitive sites: scan.co.uk, dabs.com, ebuyer.com

PSU:
- Corsair 850 Watt Pro Series Gold AX850
= £139.99 = DABS.com
OR
Corsair 750 Watt Pro Series Gold AX750
= 128.10 @ SCAN
mihapiha I see where you are coming from now, after explaining about not needing any more than 750w for my setup. Before making this thread I actually intended to get the 750w, but the price difference is only that of around £15-£20 for an extra 100watts. Of course an extra 100watts that I will never use by the sounds of things, but I thought hey why not. You still think I should head towards the 750w regardless of the minor difference in price?

CPU:
Intel CPU Core i5 Unlocked 2500K Sandy Bridge Quad Core Processor
= £163.31 @ ebuyer.com

**Is the i5 2500k meant to be on par with the 2600k when it comes to gaming??? Maybe I'm a little sceptic because of the big price difference, I keep thinking the i7 will produce miracles in comparison to the i5.
And if the 2600k is also more based on handling demanding apps on top then I have to say I'm not a big app user;
Most I'll do is probably open excel to add 1+1, or Photoshop 64-bit to rotate a photo 90 degrees horizontally lol.
However if anyone differs and think I should stick to the 2600k originally please let me know on the details.


CPU cooler:
Noctua NH-D14 Dual Radiator and Fan Quiet CPU Cooler
= £66.04 @ dabs.com
**Yup that's one of the things I forgot!


Chassis:
Silverstone Raven SST-RV03B-W USB 3.0 Chassis
= £117.55 (inc shipping) @ SCAN
*wow you both vouch for this chassis, Poor CoolerMaster HAF X, I thought I did well with that choice

SSD:
OCZ 120GB Vertex 3 SSD 2.5" SATA-III 6Gb/s Read 550MB/s Write 500MB/s 60k IOPS
= £194.99 @ EBUYER

*Sorry I've gone against my newly found principles of saving money which didn't last long at all lol.
However is there really that much of a major difference between the Vertex VS Agility brands? Because I could always swing towards the 120GB Agility and save myself £20 OR so.
Also I'm not hungry for space, I have 4tb worth of external memory. I don't like the idea of cramming in loads of hd's in a chassis where I'm rarely going to access the data. All crap I need to put into storage like big media files I always chuck on the external HD's. Saves power as well
So I could go for even a 60 GB Vertex 3 for 109.99 @ DABS. But the only thing I'm concerned about is how much space will be taken with installations. The only MAJOR things that I intend to put on is the w7 OS, Ms office 2010, Photoshop 64-bit and just 1 game I install to play at a time. That's really it I think.
Whichever Vertex I choose I'll prob cram a decent and affordable 500GB-1TB HDD as dirtylarryuk suggested as well.
I'm just fixated and brainwashed on the OCZ SSD brand right now. And I know Larry mentioned the G2 SSD's, and that would save me a wod of cash, but I'm good as guilty for wanting to have an OCZ SSD. Are the performances that much different?

Graphics:
EVGA 2.5GB GeForce GTX 570 HD NVIDIA Graphics Card
= £308.99 @ SCAN
OR
Point of View 2.5GB GeForce GTX 570 Charged NVIDIA Graphics Card
= 312.68 @ SCAN
OR
Point of View 2.5GB GeForce GTX 570 Ultra Charged NVIDIA Graphics Card
= £323.48 @ SCAN


Which one to choose?.... if any of them that is haha. I'm sorry but they're the only GTX 570 2.5GB's I can find from the usual reliable (and limited) choice of stores and they're pricey. Not as pricey as buying a GTX 580 1.5gb now, but not far off either.
Also I can't help but to stick with Nvidia cards, that's just my personal preference.
Am I crazy??? Lol.
But by all means as you can see I'm open to suggestions, so if you have a better option please let me know. I can be persuaded easily with good expert advice as you can see
But I don't want a card that is only power driven making a lot of noise with bad temperatures.
If anyone has anything better in mind for quality and price, please link me to online stores in the UK.
Larry you still choosing the 6950 2 GB?? And you're right those GTX 570's @ 2.5GB's are hard to find online in the UK. 1GB ones are common to find though.

Motherboard:
Gigabyte GA-Z68XP-UD3P LGA1155 Intel Z68 DDR3 ATX
= £129.99 @ DABS
I've gone with the z68 mobo now. Unless anyone thinks I should stick with the original p67 chipset, then please advise, thanks.

MEMORY:
Corsair Memory Vengeance Black 8GB DDR3 1600 MHz CAS 9 XMP Dual Channel Desktop
= £50.16 @ SCAN
Ok mihapiha I understand just a bit more about not going overboard on memory frequencies with Sandybridge. Cheers.
As for the above memory purchase I can always put another 4gb at another date. Opinions on having 12gb, will I really benefit with that much?


MONITOR:
Asus VE278Q 27" LED Monitor
= £282.32 @ SCAN
As recommended by Challenger (thanks), I have to say it looks a lot better than what I was going to buy before!:
- ViewSonic VX2739WM 27" Widescreen 1920 x 1080 1MS HDMI VGA DVI-D LCD Monitor
= £251.12 @ SCAN
However this is now more bucks spent, but I think this one is definitely worth the extra investment! 1ms to now a 2ms monitor, I would need to be a super insane eagle to notice the difference in response.
Again if anyone recommends better for cheaper please let me know.

DVD Drive:
Sony Optiarc DDU1681S 18x DVD-ROM SATA Optical Drive - OEM Black
= £11.97 @ ebuyer
Don't need anything fancy here at all, just the VERY basic of DVD drives. Cheapest I could find is Sony as well, should do fine.

Keyboard & mouse:
Someone please recommend me a decent all-rounder for games without going OTT on price.

Sound card:
No need. Thanks informing me on that Larry.

Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit
Already have

• OK TOTAL RIGHT NOW....
  
• PSU (Corair 850w) = £139.99
  
• CPU (2500k) = £163.31
  
• CPU cooler (Noctua) = £ 66.04
  
• Chassis (Silverstone) = £117.55
  
• SSD (VERTEX 3 120GB) = £194.99
  
• Graphics (EVGA) = £308.99
  
• Motherboard (GB z68) = £129.99
  
• Memory (8gb Corsair) = £ 50.16
  
• Monitor (Asus) = £282.32
  
• DVD drive = £ 11.97
  
• Keyboard = TBA:P

Total = £1465.31
EEEEEEEEEEEEK!! Ok I can push to £1500, but that doesn't mean I want to spend that much, I could do with a bit of holiday money

Again there's still tweaking to do and I can compromise for less. For example the SSD as discussed before I can go down to vertex 3 60gb if need be. But then I'm not too happy about graphics card right now, and for the extra buck I wouldn't mind the POV GTX 570 but that's more spending all over again.
Just things like that.


Now here's the next bit. *anyone still awake???* (haha sorry people almost done!)
dirtylarryuk was genius enough to point out some links to OC bundled cpu, memory, fan, mobo's. But hey I'm new to this game, so I was easily impressed hah.

Okay so if I went along with this instead, I would choose from the Intel Z68 Chipset bundle at scan.co.uk (as listed exactly at the checkout):
Radius - Intel Core i5 2500K - Overclocked to 4.6Ghz - Updated August

LN37733 3XS OCB P67 EDGE
LN29909 3XS OVERCLOCKED BUNDLE
LN28928 3XS-OVERCLOCKING- Check Build
LN39754 8GB (2x4GB) Corsair DDR3 Vengeance Jet Black LP, PC3-12800 (1600), Non-ECC, CAS 9-9-9-24, XMP, 1.5V
LN37609 Be Quiet! Dark Rock Advanced BK014 CPU Cooler LGA775/1155/1156/1366/AM2/AM2+/ AM3/754/940
LN40004 Gigabyte GA-Z68XP-UD3P, Intel Z68, 1155, PCI-E 2.0 (x16), DDR3 1866/2133, SATA 6Gb/s, RAID, ATX
LN36726 Intel Core i5 2500K Unlocked, S1155, Sandy Bridge, Quad Core, 3.3GHz GPU 850Mhz 6MB Cache 95W Retail
= £418.04

(That CPU cooler decent enough - 'Be quiet!' There was the slightly more dearer cpu cooler as well - 'Corsair Cooling Hydro Series H60 High-performance'. If it's worth going for the Corsair instead PLEASE let me know thanks)

Soooo....

• SCAN: CPU, Motherboard, Memory, fan OC BUNDLE = 418.04
  
• PSU (Corair 850w) = £139.99
  
• Chassis (Silverstone) = £117.55
  
• SSD (VERTEX 3 120GB) = £194.99
  
• Graphics (EVGA) = £308.99
  
• Monitor (Asus) = £282.32
  
• DVD drive = £ 11.97
  
• Keyboard = TBA

Total = 1473.85

So only a VERY tiny bit more, but it will be pre-OC'd, and saves me a huge hassle. Not that I came here with the intention to OC, but I can't really complain much at that.

But now here's the next bit (yes another! The last one I promise!).
That is I'm worried about guarantee with the bundled parts from scan and reselling factor. Will these things come with their original boxes?
And I'm assuming these will only come with a 1 year warranty as opposed to the manufacturer’s warranty where some parts easily have over a year. For example the i5 2500k would have a 3 years manufacturer’s warranty. I wouldn't get that with the bundled package right?
These are the only nags I have if I go along with this believe it or not. It's a big nag for me because if I want to get rid of these parts at a later date it's going to be difficult. That is why I discussed about buying individual parts earlier in this post JUST in case I decide not to go for the bundle.

But like I say even though I didn't come here to OC, that Scan bundle saves me a lot of hassle.

Which ever way I go I can still tweak down the costs on other components outside that bundle as well, save much further, and then concentrate on upping the more important parts.

So now I don't know how to approach this after all my blabber. What are your views on this??

Again, thanks everyone for helping out. great service for the newbie!


Random notes:
- I don't intend to water cool this PC what so ever, and not in the near future either.
I have no knowledge in that area (or much in any right now lol). I just want some decent high quality quiet fans that will reduce those temperatures nicely. Nothing fancy just for show, though I don't mind some 70's disco lights flashing inside heh.

- I don't think I will ever use multiple screens, not my thing, it's always going to be 1 monitor only.

- Won't be needing anything more than a basic DVD drive. I have a separate Blu-ray player and TV for viewing movies. I certainly don't plan on burning Blu-rays anytime soon or even in the next year or so.

- Saving costs. I know I emphasised from the beginning that I want this all sorted super-fast all in one go.
However now I'm going above costs rushing this, so I will certainly go the extra mile shopping across a few reliable stores mentioned to get the cheapest deal possible, and have components shipped separately if need be.
I will be looking into free postage as well which Dabs and Ebuyer do, though it won't be speedy delivery, but I'll be weighing things up. Even if all this effort saves me £20, it's still £20 extra in my pocket to make up towards me greed in tasty hardware .

[mihapiha]

Moyt, on 07 August 2011 - 04:41 PM, said:

PSU:
- Corsair 850 Watt Pro Series Gold AX850
= £139.99 = DABS.com
OR
Corsair 750 Watt Pro Series Gold AX750
= 128.10 @ SCAN
mihapiha I see where you are coming from now, after explaining about not needing any more than 750w for my setup. Before making this thread I actually intended to get the 750w, but the price difference is only that of around £15-£20 for an extra 100watts. Of course an extra 100watts that I will never use by the sounds of things, but I thought hey why not. You still think I should head towards the 750w regardless of the minor difference in price?

I went with the 750W because it would save some money. The truth of the matter is, that you should buy the 850W if you can afford it. You never know when you might need it's power.
So never mind then my 750W suggestion and go right ahead with the 850W if the price is ok

Moyt, on 07 August 2011 - 04:41 PM, said:

CPU:
Intel CPU Core i5 Unlocked 2500K Sandy Bridge Quad Core Processor
= £163.31 @ ebuyer.com

**Is the i5 2500k meant to be on par with the 2600k when it comes to gaming??? Maybe I'm a little sceptic because of the big price difference, I keep thinking the i7 will produce miracles in comparison to the i5.
And if the 2600k is also more based on handling demanding apps on top then I have to say I'm not a big app user;
Most I'll do is probably open excel to add 1+1, or Photoshop 64-bit to rotate a photo 90 degrees horizontally lol.
However if anyone differs and think I should stick to the 2600k originally please let me know on the details.

You see the difference between the 2500k and 2600k is HT (Hyper Threading). Meaning out of one physical core two threads are simulated. That boosts the performance in Programs that do support it by 15-20%. But this feature can be deactivated if you prefer. The truth is, that very few games use more than 4 cores or 4 threads. Therefore the gaming experience is pretty much the same. Sometime one of the CPUs is a little fast then the other, sometimes it's the other way around. But in 99% of the games you can NOT tell a difference. Therefore if you wanna save money go with the 2500k. I proposed the 2600k because I know that most people tend to upgrade their computers, but they don't upgrade the CPUs. Therefore the "better" CPU was chosen by me solely on the bases of making it more future proof and I felt it was within your budget.

Moyt, on 07 August 2011 - 04:41 PM, said:

SSD:
OCZ 120GB Vertex 3 SSD 2.5" SATA-III 6Gb/s Read 550MB/s Write 500MB/s 60k IOPS
= £194.99 @ EBUYER

*Sorry I've gone against my newly found principles of saving money which didn't last long at all lol.
However is there really that much of a major difference between the Vertex VS Agility brands? Because I could always swing towards the 120GB Agility and save myself £20 OR so.
Also I'm not hungry for space, I have 4tb worth of external memory. I don't like the idea of cramming in loads of hd's in a chassis where I'm rarely going to access the data. All crap I need to put into storage like big media files I always chuck on the external HD's. Saves power as well
So I could go for even a 60 GB Vertex 3 for 109.99 @ DABS. But the only thing I'm concerned about is how much space will be taken with installations. The only MAJOR things that I intend to put on is the w7 OS, Ms office 2010, Photoshop 64-bit and just 1 game I install to play at a time. That's really it I think.
Whichever Vertex I choose I'll prob cram a decent and affordable 500GB-1TB HDD as dirtylarryuk suggested as well.
I'm just fixated and brainwashed on the OCZ SSD brand right now. And I know Larry mentioned the G2 SSD's, and that would save me a wod of cash, but I'm good as guilty for wanting to have an OCZ SSD. Are the performances that much different?

The differences between SSDs are small if they use the same controller. The important thing is that it has a SandForce controller. This insures speed. The difference then is pretty small between the brands. Some brands have a few issues with certain controllers some don't. Going with OCZ is a very wise decision. What you have to keep in mind is that there are several SandFroce controllers ranking from 1200 to 2500 I believe. So if you compare two SSDs which both have SandForce-2500 controllers, there will not be much of a difference. If it's SandForce 1200 vs. SandForce 2500 the difference is huge. Almost twice as fast is SandForce-2500
I believe with that in mind it should be easy for ya to pick out any SSD you like. Weather Vertex or Agility....

Edited by mihapiha, 07 August 2011 - 05:27 PM.

[Moyt]

Ahh more replies just noticed now, while I was typing away before!

Thanks for putting that together for me Derbixrace. Where did you compile that bundle?
As you can probably tell from my previous post I think waaay to much, and now I got some tweaking to do, to lower my price.

Larry’s got a good point though.
£1500 is tops, but hell I would love to save a lot of buck and not end up with a £5 mouse and keyboard lol.
But now I’m not reducing the costs soo much, only to spend £100 on a mouse and keyboard to bring it to £1500 again. However it would be nice to have a kick ***BAD*** PC in all departments and save as much possible.

If it’s one thing I’m unhappy about right now is getting the RIGHT GRAPHICS card at the best price, and I can’t wait for those 28nms cards, besides I’m brainwashed with NVidia cards, unless someone convinces me otherwise
And the GTX 570’s @ 2.5GB in the UK are waay too pricey imo. I need some good GPU talking to me from the experts here to conclude this, and then take things from there. I hate to say it but Larry has got me thinking about buying that 2gb 6950!

Got the right idea about the DVD drive for me, cheap is good which is sorted. The Asus 24” monitor is also an option I might head towards as well to save further.
Again with the SSD I’m open for options from my huge post, amongst the other components I could water down on.

Also to mention I don’t intend to buy speakers either. I just use my canal earphones which are extremely good – SM3 Earsonics

Cheers everyone, keep the ‘spec me’ wagon rolling "yeeee haaaar" hah.

[mihapiha]

Moyt, on 07 August 2011 - 04:41 PM, said:

Graphics:
EVGA 2.5GB GeForce GTX 570 HD NVIDIA Graphics Card
= £308.99 @ SCAN
OR
Point of View 2.5GB GeForce GTX 570 Charged NVIDIA Graphics Card
= 312.68 @ SCAN
OR
Point of View 2.5GB GeForce GTX 570 Ultra Charged NVIDIA Graphics Card
= £323.48 @ SCAN


Which one to choose?.... if any of them that is haha. I'm sorry but they're the only GTX 570 2.5GB's I can find from the usual reliable (and limited) choice of stores and they're pricey. Not as pricey as buying a GTX 580 1.5gb now, but not far off either.
Also I can't help but to stick with Nvidia cards, that's just my personal preference.
Am I crazy??? Lol.
But by all means as you can see I'm open to suggestions, so if you have a better option please let me know. I can be persuaded easily with good expert advice as you can see
But I don't want a card that is only power driven making a lot of noise with bad temperatures.
If anyone has anything better in mind for quality and price, please link me to online stores in the UK.
Larry you still choosing the 6950 2 GB?? And you're right those GTX 570's @ 2.5GB's are hard to find online in the UK. 1GB ones are common to find though.

Since you're planing on using a 1920x1080 resolution you will not really benefit from a GTX580. What we had in mind, is to give you the performance you need right now (which is the GTX570) and go with the 2.5 GB VRAM versions, so in future you have the option of going SLI to really boost your performance. Keep in mind that right now, there is no game you could possibly need more performance than one GTX570. You can still max out any game. The idea is though, that if by some miracle a game comes out soon that you really love and that needs that power you can go right ahead and put another GTX570 with 2.5 GB VRAM in there. Your motherboard, your PSU and the case cooling can take it, no problem.

Sticking with nVidia is not a mistake in this Generation. Nvidia corrected their cooling issues from the GTX400 series graphic cards, and it's now definitely the better choice over ATI/AMD. Graphic cards wise I stick with nVidia cards with EVGA. Their RMA service is superb and their warranty is great. The reason why the GTX580 would be a bad choice is the speed factor you don't need, and due to it's limited VRAM. The 2.5 GB GTX570s are new on the market that's why you're having a hard time finding them. The GTX580 would be to show off. Unless you got the money to go with the 3 GB GTX580, I'd not do it. And this would only be for future proofing it. Not really to benefiting gaming wise...

The 6950 is a great option, but I'd stick in this generation with nVidia

[Moyt]

mihapiha, on 07 August 2011 - 04:59 PM, said:

I went with the 750W because it would save some money. The truth of the matter is, that you should buy the 850W if you can afford it. You never know when you might need it's power.
So never mind then my 750W suggestion and go right ahead with the 850W if the price is ok

I greatly appreciate you saving money for me. That's really what my aim should be, rather than getting carried away easily as you can tell
I'm still considering the 750w and will probably choose it in the end. Considering I don't want to go sli/crossfire-x and just purchase single powerful cards in the future, I'm sure the 750w is future proof enough from your advice.
Well it's at least a £10 saving anyways, but all these saving will hopefully save me big on the final price list

mihapiha, on 07 August 2011 - 04:59 PM, said:

You see the difference between the 2500k and 2600k is HT (Hyper Threading). Meaning out of one physical core two threads are simulated. That boosts the performance in Programs that do support it by 15-20%.
But this feature can be deactivated if you prefer. The truth is, that very few games use more than 4 cores or 4 threads. Therefore the gaming experience is pretty much the same. Sometime one of the CPUs is a
little fast then the other, sometimes it's the other way around. But in 99% of the games you can NOT tell a difference. Therefore if you wanna save money go with the 2500k. I proposed the 2600k because I know
that most people tend to upgrade their computers, but they don't upgrade the CPUs. Therefore the "better" CPU was chosen by me solely on the bases of making it more future proof and I felt it was within your
budget.

Hmm I get you now. But if that's how it is then I will stick with the 2500k. I just don't think the 2600k is good value for money in comparison if that's what the difference is.

mihapiha, on 07 August 2011 - 04:59 PM, said:

The differences between SSDs are small if they use the same controller. The important thing is that it has a SandForce controller. This insures speed. The difference then is pretty small between the brands. Some brands have a few issues with certain controllers some don't. Going with OCZ is a very wise decision. What you have to keep in mind is that there are several SandFroce controllers ranking from 1200 to 2500 I believe. So if you compare two SSDs which both have SandForce-2500 controllers, there will not be much of a difference. If it's SandForce 1200 vs. SandForce 2500 the difference is huge. Almost twice as fast is SandForce-2500
I believe with that in mind it should be easy for ya to pick out any SSD you like. Weather Vertex or Agility....

Now you put it like that, looking at the technical specs the read and write differences are minor (50MBbp read and write difference at the worst it think). I could probably even go a notch further below Agility and go for the OCZ 'SOLID' series 120GB SSD for around £145 with similar speeds. Possible around £50 saving there

Thanks again for the explanations mihapiha

[dirtylarryuk]

Moyt, on 07 August 2011 - 06:00 PM, said:

I greatly appreciate you saving money for me. That's really what my aim should be, rather than getting carried away easily as you can tell
I'm still considering the 750w and will probably choose it in the end. Considering I don't want to go sli/crossfire-x and just purchase single powerful cards in the future, I'm sure the 750w is future proof enough from your advice.
Well it's at least a £10 saving anyways, but all these saving will hopefully save me big on the final price list


Hmm I get you now. But if that's how it is then I will stick with the 2500k. I just don't think the 2600k is good value for money in comparison if that's what the difference is.


Now you put it like that, looking at the technical specs the read and write differences are minor (50MBbp read and write difference at the worst it think). I could probably even go a notch further below Agility and go for the OCZ 'SOLID' series 120GB SSD for around £145 with similar speeds. Possible around £50 saving there

Thanks again for the explanations mihapiha

The key benefit for games with a SSD is the microsecond seek time and 40K + iops even the £1 per GB drives have that so you can save money for gaming no issue (for apps the new drives do rocks but for games pertty much any SSD rocks a HDD). So any of the sandforce drives over 200 MB RW are fine for games.

2600k rocks for apps if all you do is game you can save cash AND you can always add a 2600k later if needed!

2600k can be needed for gamers who multitask alot (MMO players) games that eat CPU's Sim and RTS games if your more a RPG and FPS person you would be hardpushed to ever notice the difference between a 2600k and 2500k with current games.

Money saved can get you a nice 2.0 headset and mic like Corsair HS1A £45 or for £70 USB 2 version with 7.1 sound!

The g15 or Razer Lycosa rocks for gaming keybaords and anything from £25 mouse wise, Razer death adder or logitech G9 rocks for gaming. And don't forget a nice mouse mat!



http://www.scan.co.u...10mb-s-85k-iops

The Force is a very fast drive and that is a good price, with money saved going 2500k i would urge the 120GB sata 6GB ssd right now.

If you want a 240GB then look at the 1 per GB models.

http://www.scan.co.u...-grips-and-more

G9 mouse or

http://www.scan.co.u...infrared-sensor (there is also a left handed version now)



Thats the bundle I would recommend on scan as its looks the mutts nuts and is very cost effective thats a pre OC and tested to 4.6 for 2500k.

Add that and Raven 3 a decent GPU and even the builder Corsair 600-700w PSU that's a very powerful yet cost effective games PC. I'm ony using a 750w corsair and that would have run a 6990 or 590 if I had needed it.

Edited by dirtylarryuk, 07 August 2011 - 07:18 PM.

[Moyt]

mihapiha, on 07 August 2011 - 05:17 PM, said:

Since you're planing on using a 1920x1080 resolution you will not really benefit from a GTX580. What we had in mind, is to give you the performance you need right now (which is the GTX570) and go with the 2.5 GB VRAM versions, so in future you have the option of going SLI to really boost your performance. Keep in mind that right now, there is no game you could possibly need more performance than one GTX570. You can still max out any game. The idea is though, that if by some miracle a game comes out soon that you really love and that needs that power you can go right ahead and put another GTX570 with 2.5 GB VRAM in there. Your motherboard, your PSU and the case cooling can take it, no problem.

Sticking with nVidia is not a mistake in this Generation. Nvidia corrected their cooling issues from the GTX400 series graphic cards, and it's now definitely the better choice over ATI/AMD. Graphic cards wise I stick with nVidia cards with EVGA. Their RMA service is superb and their warranty is great. The reason why the GTX580 would be a bad choice is the speed factor you don't need, and due to it's limited VRAM. The 2.5 GB GTX570s are new on the market that's why you're having a hard time finding them. The GTX580 would be to show off. Unless you got the money to go with the 3 GB GTX580, I'd not do it. And this would only be for future proofing it. Not really to benefiting gaming wise...

The 6950 is a great option, but I'd stick in this generation with nVidia

Cool, thanks once again for detailed explanation mihapiha. Ok understood and you vouch for EVGA over the other 570 GTX 2.5GB models. Not that I have much choice in the 2.5gb GTX 570 range. Ok so I'll be looking at EVGA then, but I'm still not happy with that price.

Seriously, going onto EVGA website and you can buy it in the US for $379.99 USD = £231.81 = €265.785 EUR !
And the best I can do is buy it in the UK online for £308.99, that's nuts! I need to make some friends from the US!
Hello?? Hello!?? Does anyone from the US here want to be my friend???? Just so I can build my PC hah.
Really though I'm going to have to shop around more!

And the 6950 MSI HD Twin Frozr III Power Edition/OC AMD Radeon Graphics Card - 2GB @ £220 - scan. That's what I'll get if I fail with the EVGA purchase.

Now I gotta wrap this up fast before I die of old age with dried up nutz. Sooo much I've written, I could give Wikipedia a frik'n good run for it's money with endless blabber!

Ok I'll post later on with what I'm ALMOST going to go with now. Next post will be short and sweet................................i think hah

[Challenger]

If you want to save a fair amount of money then you should probably consider a Vertex2 SSD - you will hardly be able to see the difference in game load times.

I remember on L4D2 one time Mih, Larry and myself were all getting in the server at about the same time and I believe Larry was using a Vertex 2, I was using a Revo 1 and Mih was using a Revo 2.... and another guy that joined about 5 minutes after (seriously) was using a hdd!! So the moral is even the V2 SSDs are able to keep up with the more expensive ones at a much cheaper price point.


BTW this mouse mat is amazing and quite cheap: http://www.scan.co.u...rgest-mouse-mat

[dirtylarryuk]

Challenger, on 07 August 2011 - 07:38 PM, said:

If you want to save a fair amount of money then you should probably consider a Vertex2 SSD - you will hardly be able to see the difference in game load times.

I remember on L4D2 one time Mih, Larry and myself were all getting in the server at about the same time and I believe Larry was using a Vertex 2, I was using a Revo 1 and Mih was using a Revo 2.... and another guy that joined about 5 minutes after (seriously) was using a hdd!! So the moral is even the V2 SSDs are able to keep up with the more expensive ones at a much cheaper price point.


BTW this mouse mat is amazing and quite cheap: http://www.scan.co.u...rgest-mouse-mat

Even though I have alot of games I have found no issue with a 240GB SSD storing them all (as I play them and backuping ones I'm not playing on a HDD). The load times of a Revo 2 or 500 RW SSD vs even a older G2 SSD (vertex 2) etc are 5-20% max, but the difference any SSD makes for windows vs a HDD is insane. If you have the budget for a 240 GB 500MB RW SSD (from £240) then great if not from £240 the older style are still Amazing.

Games that stream data like GTA4 Just Cause 2 The witcher 2 play so much smoother on any SSD they can have a big as an effect as a bigger GPU!

all the sandforce drives are great, if you have the cash to flash then the Corsair Force 3 is great value.

The Simple fact alot of people don't get, is a SSD+ 2500K (at stock) and a GTX 460 would be smoother in some games than a 990x tri sli 580 running of a HDD.

[WOLF_TEAM_LEADER]

Challenger, on 07 August 2011 - 07:38 PM, said:

If you want to save a fair amount of money then you should probably consider a Vertex2 SSD - you will hardly be able to see the difference in game load times.

I remember on L4D2 one time Mih, Larry and myself were all getting in the server at about the same time and I believe Larry was using a Vertex 2, I was using a Revo 1 and Mih was using a Revo 2.... and another guy that joined about 5 minutes after (seriously) was using a hdd!! So the moral is even the V2 SSDs are able to keep up with the more expensive ones at a much cheaper price point.


BTW this mouse mat is amazing and quite cheap: http://www.scan.co.u...rgest-mouse-mat

That guy was me
I can load bc2 atleast 10 secs b4 the game has started and JC2 takes a couple of seconds. I have a 50gb vertex 2 however I would only recommend above 120gb. Even with user files and downloads on a different HDD I always get warnings that close the game about low disk space

Edited by WOLF_TEAM_LEADER, 07 August 2011 - 11:39 PM.