Hexus Monthly Build Guide October 2011

[0iD]

November looms....

Going to do one of these Every month the cat ?

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

November looms....

Going to do one of these Every month the cat ?

I wonder what made you think that??

Anyway,with massively increased hard drive prices the guide next month will have revised price points.

[peterb]

Stickified (thought I had done earlier - my bad)

[Terbinator]

I've been asked about/to build a gaming-computer for a friend's brother. The budget I've been given is £400-550 with monitor, KB/M and speakers already covered - maybe the OS.

Outside of HDD prices, is this guide still accurate and is there anything i should be aware of?

I was thinking of going the Core i3 2xxx & Radeon 6870 path - as i'm not sure the 560Ti is worth the extra £30 and for gaming, the i3 seems the better choice over Llano/Phenom's. I was also thinking he's open to the IVB upgrade later on as well.

My main concern is the case, motherboard, and maybe pursuing an SSD in lieu of a HDD for now.

Ideas guys, gals, CAT?

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

I will get a guide up for January.The AMD build will either have a Phenom II X4 960T or a Llano K series. The motherboards probably will change for the cheaper Intel builds too.

[Phage]

Dear C5th,

On your advice I have recently purchased the U2412M, as an upgrade to my old LG. I'd like to take this opportunity to say.......YUMMERS ! OMG ! etc etc

Thanking you for your expertise. Good show !

Regards
Phage

[Noxvayl]

I also just bought the Dell U2412M and it's brilliant. I found this review of the screen which is very detailed: http://www.tftcentral.co.uk/reviews/dell_u2412m.htm

Well worth the £258 I paid for it. Now I just need a desk that can have my MDM05 desk mount installed on it and I'll be all set with my new setup

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

OK,sorry chaps - it didn't pan out as I thought originally!!

However,I am working on one for the summer ATM. Should be up soon.

[Biscuit]

Monthly is probably overkill and a lot of work for you, how about quarterly?

Given releases usually state 'will be released Q1 2013' it seems like that might be a more sensible way to do things?

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

Monthly is probably overkill and a lot of work for you, how about quarterly?

Given releases usually state 'will be released Q1 2013' it seems like that might be a more sensible way to do things?

Good idea. Every three months,would probably be a decent time interval.

I had hoped the GTX660 would have been out by now,but at this rate the summer would be over!!

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

Managed to come with some specifications for the Biggger Budget Build. Had to increase the budget a bit to around £800.

Basic Build.



Upgrades.

[Noxvayl]

@ CAT

I got my i5 3570K for £156(OEM version), cheaper than the i5 2500K from Scan. Thought I would mention it considering you are specifying a separate cooler.

Also surprised you don't favour Corsair for their PSU(over the XFX) given their warranty and customer service reputation.

[Terbinator]

You're missing the £15 Windows 8 promotion from the upgrades part.

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

I thought of the OEM parts,but they tend to have only a 1 year warranty and availability is more limited. I will mention the OEM parts when I get to writing the guide.

The prices are from Scan,Dabs,Ebuyer,Amazon,CCL Computers and Novatech. The reason I have multiple parts is to make sure that any one part is available,and a range of prices to take price fluctuations into account.

Regarding the PSUs,they all have at least 2 PCI-E 6 pin and 2 PCI-E 6+2 pin power connectors for Crossfire and SLI. The TX650 V2 only has two PCI-E power connectors.

The XFX is a Seasonic based design and gets good reviews. Warranty is 5 years and RMA is UK based AFAIK. It is also one of the cheapest decent PSUs with 4 PCI-E power connectors. The OCZ ZT 650W modular is also quite good and is around the same price,but AFAIK the XFX is probably better. The modular Corsair and NZXT are around £80,so cost around more than the other two PSUs.

Anyway,you can mix and match parts between the two rows. At least they should hopefully be all compatible with each other!!

You're missing the £15 Windows 8 promotion from the upgrades part.

That might drive some people to consoles!! I don't want that!!

OTH,in a few months we have no choice!!

[cptwhite_uk]

Gigabyte GA-Z77X-D3H is currently £80 on Ebuyer:

http://www.ebuyer.com/351598-gigabyt...ard-ga-z77-d3h

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

Gigabyte GA-Z77X-D3H is currently £80 on Ebuyer:

http://www.ebuyer.com/351598-gigabyt...ard-ga-z77-d3h

That is the Gigabyte GA-Z77-D3H which lacks Crossfire and SLI support!!

However,that looks like a good motherboard for the lower cost gaming build!! Thanks!!