Help a Brit build his PC!

Pride · 2012-06-09, 03:47 PM

1. What is your budget and does that include shipping/taxes?
£1000 - £1500,$1600 - $2300 (Including shipping/taxes)

2. Where do you live (Please list if possible town, state, and country)?
Sheffield/South Yorkshire/England

3. What do you need this computer to do (like gaming, Photoshop, and so on)?
Gaming and Web Browsing.

4. What parts will you need for the computer? Please list what parts specifically.
If possible can I get a quote for a PC built from scratch and a quote without the hard drive,disk drive and case.

5. Are you reusing any parts for this computer? If so please say what parts.
See previous question

6. What kind of monitor/resolution do you have or want to get to use for the computer?
I currently have and will be recycling a 1680 x 1050, 22" Dell monitor.

7. Do you have a legit OS? If so what OS and is it 32-bit or 64-bit?
Windows Vista 32 bit, If possible I'd like to upgrade to a better OS

8. What are you looking for the motherboard to have feature wise? Like SLI, Crossfire, Firewire, USB 3.0, Sata 6.0 Gb/s, and so on.
I'm not too tech savvy when it comes to the specifics of hardware, hence why I made this thread, pick a motherboard with whatever features you recommend and feel would improve PC gaming.

9. Any plans to overclock the CPU or GPU?
Yes, i'd like to get the most out of my system.

10. What time kind of time frame are you planning on ordering these parts?
Anytime over the next 2 or 3 months. (To clarify this means anytime from tomorrow to September, I'll be grabbin' this PC when I pass my driving test and know that the leftover money wont be used for anything)

Current Specs, in case you feel this would be better recycled

Operating System
MS Windows Vista Home Premium 32-bit SP2
CPU
Intel Core 2 Quad Q8200 @ 2.33GHz
Yorkfield 45nm Technology
RAM
4.00 GB Dual-Channel DDR2 @ 399MHz (6-6-6-18)
Motherboard
Dell Inc. 0TP406 (CPU)
Graphics
DELL E228WFP (1680x1050@60Hz)
ATI Radeon HD 3800 Series (Dell)
Hard Drives
488GB Seagate ST3500418AS (SATA)
Optical Drives
HL-DT-ST DVDRWBD GBC-H20N
Audio
SigmaTel High Definition Audio CODEC

Rbstr · 2012-06-09, 05:44 PM

Well I don't know what website to dig though to give you specific links, but here's something that'll probably be in budget:

i5 3750k
Z77 motherboard (I like asus)
8gb (2x4gb sticks) of DDR1333 (I like corsair...don't bother with faster ram..you may just go for 16gb with all 4 sticks if you really want)
geforce GTX 670
An SSD will fit in if you want.
~650w Power supply

that's a ~$1200 computer maybe enough left over for a 1080p monitor.
Honestly, I wouldn't really recommend anything more expensive than that because of diminishing returns unless you really wanted super high resolution or had a very specific application.

Ailos · 2012-06-09, 09:15 PM

The i5 3570k and GTX 670 is pretty much a must at that price point regardless of whatever else you order (and obviously, a mobo to suit). But before I dig through sites to give any specific builds, how serious are you about overclocking? By that, I mean: are you interested pushing the 3570 to something like 4.5 GHz (from its stock 3.4) or are you interested in putting it at 5 GHz or above?

I ask because Ivy Bridge is known to run into thermal issues beyond 4.6 GHz, and if you're wanting to push it beyond that, water cooling is a must.

Pride · 2012-06-09, 10:11 PM

Originally Posted by Ailos

The i5 3570k and GTX 670 is pretty much a must at that price point regardless of whatever else you order (and obviously, a mobo to suit). But before I dig through sites to give any specific builds, how serious are you about overclocking? By that, I mean: are you interested pushing the 3570 to something like 4.5 GHz (from its stock 3.4) or are you interested in putting it at 5 GHz or above?

I ask because Ivy Bridge is known to run into thermal issues beyond 4.6 GHz, and if you're wanting to push it beyond that, water cooling is a must.

Honestly, if it comes to the extent of needing to buy water cooling i'm not too bothered, i'd probably push it up to the 4.5 mark and leave it there.

Pride · 2012-06-10, 08:10 PM

Just a quick note, i'm going to be away from the computer for the next 4 or 5 days, if anyone asks me a question in the time obviously the response will be delayed.

Pella · 2012-06-11, 04:33 AM

Just check overclockers.co.uk

There bundles are second to none.

You can purchase overclocked bundles if you want.

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/produc...=43&catid=2040

Vancha · 2012-06-11, 11:45 AM

Originally Posted by Pella

Just check overclockers.co.uk

There bundles are second to none.

You can purchase overclocked bundles if you want.

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/produc...=43&catid=2040

Really? Buying the parts individually (including Windows), with a better GPU and CPU cooler, I can buy the rig separately for £65 less than the combo they offered (Battlefield War Rush).

Overclockers has always been known as a bit of a rip-off merchant, so I was surprised to see someone advocating them. Do any of their bundles actually save you money?

Ailos · 2012-06-12, 11:40 AM

I'm not too familiar with what sites are available in the UK, but here's my build based on your budget (and overclockers.co.uk pricing, including VAT):

CPU - i5 3570K - £180
Motherboard - MSI 77A-G43 - £78
GPU - MSI NVidia GTX 670 - £312
RAM - 8GB Patriot (DDR3 1600) - £40
Storage - Corsair Force 3 SSD + Seagate 1TB HDD - £95+£75
PSU - 750 W Corsair Enthusiast Series - £90
DVD Drive - LG DVD-RW - £19
CPU Cooler - Arctic Cooling Xtreme - £30
Case - Corsair Carbide Series - £60
OS - Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit - £80

Total: £1059 incl. VAT but before shipping.

As always, the case is rather aesthetic and you should feel free to swap it out for one that you like best. However, given your intent to overclock, I recommend to look for cases that allow plenty of airflow, and possibly have the PSU mounted at the bottom.

You could re-use your old monitor, but there's still room in this build to buy a 1080p flat panel. If you don't want to lose your data, you can also just plug in the hard drive from your old PC into this one, but you really can't re-use too much more from the old PC, so maybe you would want to keep that in there.

This list is also based on what is in stock right now. There were quite a few good parts that were listed out of stock, but that I'd normally recommend (the case and CPU cooler being a perfect example of that), nor did I include any prices that are on "This week-only" specials, but you should feel free to do so when you order. So your actual total at the time of ordering may be a little less.

What to do with the extra budget? Could go for a bigger SSD, more fans, noise-dampened case, or an even beefier PSU. I'd see what everyone else can suggest here.

Exmortius · 2012-06-12, 11:55 AM

well if this game runs like ps1 which if you had 3 gig of ram it ran like a million times better than with less than 3 gig. i'd recommend a ton of ram in your pc. my new bulldozer amd chip has 16 gig of ram atm. running a fatality board and honestly i've never had to reboot it once while running ubuntu or windows....i forget off hand what video card i have atm but i may save up for a better card. i wanna see how the first few days of beta go with this 1gig ati card i have does. it seems to do ok on battlefield 3 so it probably will be able to handle ps2 ..... but ya the amd bulldozers seem solid might not be the most high end but works well for me on bf3. and stack ram and video :P i haven't gone crazy and tried a ssd drive yet but i may try to get one of those as well... it's all speculation though til beta happens just how much of a performance boost any of these things will provide. ssd drives are kinda stupid expensive still imo.

Ailos · 2012-06-12, 12:27 PM

Intel systems do not necessarily benefit from more RAM the same way AMD's bulldozer architecture does. But that IS another thing you could do, too. That build fills only half the RAM slots, you could double up on the RAM to make it 16 GB, esp. since it's only £40 more.

Vancha · 2012-06-12, 01:34 PM

Seriously, avoid OCUK.

3570k - $167.90
MSI 77A-G43 - £76.47
Palit GTX 670 - £294.99
RAM - £34.00
Crucial M4 SSD - £86.99 + Seagate 1TB HDD £64.99
580w 80+ Gold PSU - £77.93
LG DVD-RW £13.98
Dark Knight CPU Cooler - £24.74
Corsair Carbide 300R - £53.49

Total: 965.31

Better SSD and PSU to boot (though hell, you might as well get a Dark Power Pro 10 550W with your budget). You could bump the CPU cooler to a Xigmatek Prime or Dark Rock 2 (not pro 2), which are both decent and very quiet. I'd also get a different case, but that's down to personal taste (personally, a Fractal Arc with Silentwings 2 fans, one side intake, one rear exhaust and one front intake for the HDD+SSD sounds nice).

Ailos · 2012-06-12, 07:36 PM

Originally Posted by Vancha

Seriously, avoid OCUK.

3570k - $167.90
MSI 77A-G43 - £76.47
Palit GTX 670 - £294.99
RAM - £34.00
Crucial M4 SSD - £86.99 + Seagate 1TB HDD £64.99
580w 80+ Gold PSU - £77.93
LG DVD-RW £13.98
Dark Knight CPU Cooler - £24.74
Corsair Carbide 300R - £53.49
Win7 Home Premium - £67.43

Total: 965.31

Better SSD and PSU to boot (though hell, you might as well get a Dark Power Pro 10 550W with your budget). You could bump the CPU cooler to a Xigmatek Prime or Dark Rock 2 (not pro 2), which are both decent and very quiet. I'd also get a different case, but that's down to personal taste (personally, a Fractal Arc with Silentwings 2 fans, one side intake, one rear exhaust and one front intake for the HDD+SSD sounds nice).

I don't claim to be knowledgeable about the best UK retailers, OCUK just came up as one of the top Google results, and I've seen it mentioned here before. And the CPU is out of stock at that site.

Also, since he is overclocking his rig, and wants to get the most out of it, I'm going to assume that he isn't going to overclock just the CPU. I would recommend more than 580W PSU for that - if you hit your PSU's limit, the best case scenario is instability; the worst case is that the PSU dies, and takes a few other components along for the ride. This is one situation where overkill is a good thing.

Other than that, I don't see too much difference in what you recommended. And I will be paying attention to the partpicker site in the future.

Vancha · 2012-06-12, 08:09 PM

Originally Posted by Ailos

I don't claim to be knowledgeable about the best UK retailers, OCUK just came up as one of the top Google results, and I've seen it mentioned here before. And the CPU is out of stock at that site.

Also, since he is overclocking his rig, and wants to get the most out of it, I'm going to assume that he isn't going to overclock just the CPU. I would recommend more than 580W PSU for that - if you hit your PSU's limit, the best case scenario is instability; the worst case is that the PSU dies, and takes a few other components along for the ride. This is one situation where overkill is a good thing.

Other than that, I don't see too much difference in what you recommended. And I will be paying attention to the partpicker site in the future.

I know, I wasn't trying to slight you, I was just saying it's a bad site. Also, it wasn't out of stock when I linked it, albeit there weren't many left.

As for the OC, the be quiet! PSU calculator on their site puts his rig at 68% load at stock for the PSU I recommended. I figured 12-22% headroom for a PSU of that calibre would be sufficient, but admittedly I'm not partilcularly knowledgeable when it comes to overclocking.

Edit: And obviously he'd probably want a higher-powered PSU for SLI, but considering how long an OC'd 670 would last him, by the time he felt he needed the additional horsepower, the 700/800 cards would probably be out, being even more powerful and even more efficient, making 670 SLI look like a complete power hog by comparison...Not to mention the temperatures (can you tell I'm not a fan of CFX/SLI?)

Oh I forgot to say, I was mainly just trying to find better prices for what you'd posted, but apart from the things I changed I would recommend the same things, except for the case (personal taste) and possibly the motherboard.

Symmenix · 2012-06-12, 01:55 PM

There's a thing called pcpartpicker.com, its useful for finding the lowest price on the best stuff. (Automagicaly searches the internet for that product)

Vancha · 2012-06-12, 02:35 PM

Originally Posted by Symmenix

There's a thing called pcpartpicker.com, its useful for finding the lowest price on the best stuff. (Automagicaly searches the internet for that product)

That's awesome. Personally I can find cheaper prices (/brag), but as a way of finding out what exists, verifying prices and for people like Goku/Ailos trying to help UK users, it's fantastic (just put /uk, /ca or /au after the URL for English, Canadian and Australian prices respectively).