first pc build - what do you think?

[Elkie]

hi guys,

im thinking about building my first PC. as a fairly long time mac user, ive decided i cant afford to keep paying such a premium for hardware just cause its in a shiny white box!

i know very little about building computers, the most ive done is replacing the HD and ram in my macbook. however, one of my housemates has built a few systems up before and has offered to help me out with anything i find too difficult, so i think the actual build should go fairly smoothly.

the computer is going to be used mostly (if not exclusively) for music production. i dont play any pc games and have no interest in doing so, i have my macbook for general word processing and internet etc, the only other thing i can think it might get used for is a bit of light photoshop/illustrator work.

my budget is about £350, which i realise isnt gona get me some ridiculously powerful setup, but should provide a decent upgrade from what im using at the minute. i only need the base unit, i have a monitor/speakers/keyboard/mouse etc.

so without much further ado, heres what ive planned so far:


Processor: http://www.scan.co.uk/Product.aspx?W...source=froogle
£100.77

Motherboard: http://www.ebuyer.com/product/170244
£68.55


memory: http://www.play.com/PC/PCs/-/2161/14...archtype=genre
£59.99

Hard Drive:http://www.ebuyer.com/product/159390
£36.24



Sound Card: integrated (+ maya 44 usb)

CD Drive: N/A (already got one)

Case: http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/Coole...X-Case-w-o-PSU
£30.49


PSU: http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/600W-...-SATA-6x-Power
£23.48

anything i have overlooked, underpowered, selected incompatible parts, etc?

thanks in advance for your help!

[Cornholio]

Where abouts on you from ?

And the PSU is one of the most important components in a pc, wouldnt recommend that particular one.

[Ulti]

I'm sorry but that build isn't ideal at all.

I'd look at an AM3 system with integrated graphics. Someone might be able to offer you a build with a H55 system though but I think they're way too expensive for what they are. They're roughly equal though from a quick glance.

Here's what I'd look at:

Processor: AMD Athlon II X4 620 - £74.25

Motherboard: MSI 785GM-E51 - £54.51 or Asrock M3A785GMH - £60.48
The Asrock has 128MB of DDR3 1333mhz dedicated sideport (video) memory but to be honest I don't think it helps that much so it's up to you.

RAM: G.Skill 1600Mhz DDR3 4GB CL7 - £89.99

PSU: Corsair CX400W - £39.92

HDD: Samsung F3 1TB - £61.20
This HDD is also on Scan's Today Only for a few £ cheaper but as explained below you'll be better off getting from Ebuyer.

Rough today excluding case assuming you get the MSI board: £320.

Don't you need an OS though? For Windows to recognise 4GB of RAM you need a 64bit OS, if you're a student try to get Windows 7 as it's not too expensive.
Of course case is really personal preference so I'll leave that out but the CoolerMaster doesn't look very nice at all.

As you haven't got 20 posts yet you can't get free delivery from Scan so if you go for the MSI board get it from Ebuyer as it's only around £2 more and is therefore better than paying £6.99 for delivery from Scan. With Ebuyer and Novatech you can get free economy class delivery for orders over £50 AFAIK.

[Elkie]

thanks for your reply!

i have been warned by other people away from AMD processors, and told the only way to go is intel at the minute... is there any specific reason you are saying to go for an AMD?

also, as of posting this i will have 20 posts, so hopefully ill be able to get the free delivery from scan.

another thing i didnt really understand is the power supply... is there any reason you are reccommending a more expensive one over the one i have selected?

and is the case purely a matter of taste? i went for that one cause its relatively cheap, the mesh front must be good for cooling and its relatively inconspicuous (im not really into the "gamer" cases with see through panels and flashing lights and stuff!)
also, is there any downside to going for a mini atx case over a standard atx? obviously its smaller, but is that gonna be much of a hindrance?
(i dont mean to seem like im contradicting you on these things btw... more i just want to know what im buying and why im buying it over the available alternatives!)

thanks again for your detailed, extremely helpful reply!

[Elkie]

Where abouts on you from ?

And the PSU is one of the most important components in a pc, wouldnt recommend that particular one.

hi, sorry i missed your post, im from leicestershire, but im a student and spend most of my time in birmingham, how come?

[paulktreg]

The power supply is the most important component in any PC and it should be given the same consideration as any other component. I have had a quick look at the specification of the Ezcool on Scan and I don't need to go any further! It's a cheap, mass produced generic power supply of poor quality. I bet you a pound to a penny it won't deliver its full rated power, the input filtering will be basic or more likely non-existent and system protection will be basic. It can only deliver 288W (24A) on its 12V rail which is awful. I won't go any further just do yourself a favour and go for the Corsair, you won't regret it but you could with the Ezcool. I often wonder, and it's a perfectly valid question, why do Scan offer these power supplies along with what are on the whole quality components?

Cheers

Paul

[Ulti]

For high end yeah, Intel beats AMD in every section (except in some games where the system is bottlenecked by the graphics card and the processor makes almost no difference). However, an Intel system also costs a lot more. When it comes to a budget though, AMD clearly win. They've been doing especially well in the integrated graphics section too, offering a much cheaper solution to an H55 system at a much lower cost. The G31/G43/45 systems are no match for an AM3 785G system at all. I think in the lower end to mid end market there is simply no space for Intel at the moment, this is further evident when integrated graphics are bought in as I just said. As you won't be gaming you definitely won't need anything better than the 785G graphics (HD4200)

I've chosen a quad core because simply you'll be able to use it for years to come and an Intel dual core would only be better than the AMD quad cores in games that don't utilize them. As you said you won't be gaming then there is pretty much no point to choose a dual core over a quad core. Also socket 775 systems are end of line, you won't be able to upgrade it in the future. The 6 core processors will be released for the AM3 socket - however even quad cores aren't fully utilized yet so I doubt you need a 6 core processor any time soon.

The Samsung F3 series are one of the fastest 7200RPM HDDs and are also very cost effective too - I doubt you'll be needing to expand on this until SSDs become so cheap that mechanical drives get phased out - which won't be any time soon.

With the PSU, budget PSUs such as Ezcool PSUs do not even have the 80+ certification, they have almost no connectors for future upgradability and the power is likely to be full of ripple and noise. Also, they're unlikely to even meet their stated specifications. Funnily enough, the PSU you listed has 24A on it's 12V rail, this would mean 24A*12V = 288W. On the Corsair PSU, it has a 30A 12V rail, meaning 360W. You can also tell how "good" a PSU usually is by looking at their connectors too, with the Ezcool you have 1 SATA connector. Think of it this way, if a PSU "f*cks up", there's a large chance the rest of your components get taken down so you'll want to pay more for it.

The case is indeed a matter of taste, you may want to look at the Casecom 6788 though as it's very cheap and has pretty good features. I'm not too fond of the looks but I'll choose it over anything at the same price point. You'll want to get a case with a 120mm exhaust and a 120mm intake fan though to ensure good airflow. That case has a bottom mounted PSU space meaning that the PSU will suck cool air from below the case and not warm air exhausted from the CPU and is therefore likely to be more "efficient".

With a mini atx case you're gonna be limited to mini itx boards only I think. Airflow would also be pretty bad as you'll end up using 80mm fans or something and they're also really noisy compared to 120mm fans.

EDIT: I've owned the Corsair CX400W too and it's absolutely brilliant, very silent and has more than enough connectors. They're all braided too.

Also just noticed how my system is so similar to modd1uk's haha.

[Elkie]

thanks to everyone, especially Ulti, you have really demystified everything for me, i feel a lot more confident about all of this now, seriously i really really appreciate it, thank you so much!

that case you recommended looks better than the coolermaster one, the only thing that im a bit dubious about is that blue fan... is there any way of turning the LEDs off or anything? this is only a minor issue obviously, but it is a bit garish and horrendous looking (please bear in mind i come from a mac background haha)

[Ulti]

I'm not too good with electronics so I'm not so sure. Here's a full review of the case though by Pob: http://forums.hexus.net/chassis-syst...eview-pob.html

Seeing as that case doesn't come with any other fans I'd advise you to get two of these cheap Akasa fans. One for the intake and one for the exhaust. Of course you only need 1 if you manage to turn off the LEDs on the front, I'm guessing you could just pull off the LEDs or cut them off but I'm not sure if it'll have an affect on the current or something.

[Elkie]

thanks for that link, obviously its not a big problem, if i cant just remove the LEDs and solder the connections back up, i could always pick up some other fans. i might look into getting some extra quiet fans anyway, as the quieter i can make the system the better, especially as i will be using it for audio work.

[scaryjim]

I'd second the recommendation for the Casecom 6788, it's a lovely case. I'm pretty sure you should be able to remove the LEDs from the included fan, although I didn't bother myself, and they don't look too bad when they're running. As far as fans go, you'd probably be OK with a single 140mm fan in the top of the case for exhausting hot air (that's what I've recommended my friend to go for if he's worried about his case temps).

[robtbear]

I believe you can just chop the legs of the LED's making sure to get really close or de-solder them so theres no chance of them ever shorting out. I did a search on google and quickly came up with a few sites where they had done so, I can't post urls but they are easy to find

[cub1061]

The power supply is the most important component in any PC and it should be given the same consideration as any other component. I have had a quick look at the specification of the Ezcool on Scan and I don't need to go any further! It's a cheap, mass produced generic power supply of poor quality. I bet you a pound to a penny it won't deliver its full rated power, the input filtering will be basic or more likely non-existent and system protection will be basic. It can only deliver 288W (24A) on its 12V rail which is awful. I won't go any further just do yourself a favour and go for the Corsair, you won't regret it but you could with the Ezcool. I often wonder, and it's a perfectly valid question, why do Scan offer these power supplies along with what are on the whole quality components?

Cheers

Paul

I second the view on a good power supply, built a system for my son with a case that came with a power supply, it was 500w so I though it should be ok to power an amd3800, 7600gt and 2gigs of ram. Within a couple of weeks the psu die and took the 7600gt with it. Now it got a seasonic 430w in it, new graphic card and running like a dream.
Just keep an eye out for scans today only, something they have psu's on offer.

[kellyharding]

I'd definitely suggest a good PSU. I had cheap ones in the past, they can do all kinds of nasty things when they start to fail I found.

Go for one from brands like Corsair, Tagan and the like I'd advise.

[jeffel]

hi as everyone suggested get a better psu...

[Elkie]

thanks for all the help guys, so far ive picked up the case and PSU you recommended.. as to me they seemed like the simplest components to start off with! hoping to order the rest of the system tonight, so ive just got a few more questions...

is it worth looking at the AMD phenom processors over the athlon II x4 620? ive read that although they are sold as dual core, it is possible to unlock another 2 cores in them... would this be doable for an amateur like me or would it be quite a tricky thing to do?

also, ive been informed that due to the relatively new technology, 1tb+ drives can fail quite a lot... is this really the case? i think if it is i might go for a 500gb, as i dont see myself filling that up too quick, it saves me a bit of money towards other parts of the build and if i need more storage down the line i can always pick up another drive.

also, how does this RAM http://www.scan.co.uk/product.aspx?ProductId=24171 shape up against the RAM already mentioned? the only reason i ask is cause i know the corsair brand name, not really cause of the slight saving... but how do the specs compare?

thanks a lot for your help once again guys!