Here's my build (£1001) - Comments
Hi Guys,
Before I start, I'd like to thank everyone for their help getting me off the ground with this, especially TAKTAK and Adam from Scan.
I've priced up a system at £1001, Any comments please, I'm up for constructive critisism :)
http://www.4freeimagehost.com/resized/89e31bcd455e.jpg
Hard drive was cheap, couldnt stretch to a decent one but that'll do for now as I've had a few maxtors before and never had a fail.
Motherboard and PSU were investments for future. :)
Both Monitor and GPU support HDCP :)
Will overclock upto or around 3.2gig :)
If you have any essential changes to suggest that either A) Improve Performance without increasing price or B) Lower price with no loss of performance I would be massivley grateful.
Re: Here's my build (£1001) - Comments
There are cheaper motherboards out there especially fi you don't want to use/need onboard raid.
http://www.scan.co.uk/Product.aspx?WebProductId=827895 for an example.
Also, drop the sound card for now. Most motherboards now have onboard 5.1/7.1 sound which will suffice until the funds are there for a dedicated hi-def (;)) sound experience.
No need for Artic Silver or the aftermarket cooler. Keep things stock for now to save a few pennies (or overclock just slightly ;) )
Perhaps buy a HD4850 instead of the 4870 and upgrade at a much later date. I believe these can be had around the £120-125 mark.
Hopefully that'll drop you to around the £900 area.
Re: Here's my build (£1001) - Comments
I wouldn't go as far as getting a motherboard as cheap as sleepyhead's suggestion but I would buy an Abit IP-35 PRO instead. It's one of the most highly rated P35 boards, if not the most highly rated. It's also a few quid cheaper than that, and no motherboard bought now is an investment in the future really, the socket will be dead by next year.
I wouldn't bother with that RAM, you could get standard heatspreader XSM2 with 4-4-4-12 latencies (not that it makes a real difference) for a similar price. The one's you picked are very tall and may interfeer with certain coolers (although they do work with the xigmatec on the Abit Ip-35..)
If you can find any extra £10 for the case, the Antec 300 is around £35 and will provide far better cooling than anything else in that price range.
You could also get the 520W version of that PSU as neither graphics card will even begin to push it. Power consumption in general is not increasing anymore, manafacturers are trying to go green as it were and making less power hungry components and more efficent power supplies.
Re: Here's my build (£1001) - Comments
As i explained in yours scan "Begging for discount" thread, swap the Zen for a Coolermaster R330 Elite (about £25), ive had both, originally the zen, and got the CM about 3 weeks ago, and its been brilliant. Dont get me wrong the Zen is nice, but the CM is incredible for a budget case.
Re: Here's my build (£1001) - Comments
For a motherboard you could go for either this one (seems to be out of stock now) Gigabyte GA-EP45-DS3
http://www.scan.co.uk/Product.aspx?WebProductId=839037
or this one, which is in stock; Asus P5Q Pro
http://www.scan.co.uk/Product.aspx?WebProductId=818514
Both are below the one you picked, I don't know which of the 2 is 'better' though...
Do also remember, your getting a 32-bit OS, meaning you won't be able to use that 4 GB of RAM, it will only see about 3 GB.
If I were you, I would get this instead; http://www.scan.co.uk/Product.aspx?WebProductId=402849
It's only 2 GB, but it will do the job as far as I know, it is though, of better latency, hence it's 4-4-4-12
The rest seems to be fine :)
Re: Here's my build (£1001) - Comments
as it has eben mentioned, you should get a 64bit OS to allow you to use the full amount of RAM, 32 bit is limited to 4GB of RAM throughout the whole system (this includes GFX memory) so in your case you would have ~3.5GB system memory and 512MB GFX memory. whereas a 64bit OS allows the system to use up to (IIRC) 16TB of RAM, giving you full capabilities of your system.
i remember seeing a post a while ago that said something like:
Quote:
For a p35/p45 then you can't beat Abit, and ASUS are atrocious, but for X38/X48 it is the other way around
i'm not sure if this still stands firm, but, personally i would go with the one staffsMike pointed out.
as others have also said, you may want to look at a case with better cooling (such as the allready suggested, antec 300)
also as allready said (again :D) the DHX RAM can cause problems... as it can get in the way of future upgrades such as HSF's
you could save some money by not getting the Blu-ray drive right now, and purchasing it later down the line... (unless of course, it is something that you need straight away)
same things about the sound card, you might aswell use onboard audio for a while to save a bit of cash
and you may want to look at a different GFX card option to save a little bit of money, something like the HD4850
Re: Here's my build (£1001) - Comments
Hehe...yeah sorry about my initial motherboard choice. I just picked a cheap Abit P35 board to show how much of a price difference there can be between all the models and if you use SCAN's compare function, there is little between the OPs original selection and the cheap version I plucked out.
I, personally, like the look of the DHX ram :D
Re: Here's my build (£1001) - Comments
creative sound cards dont go well with vista, iv heard the asus ones are meant to be pretty good though
Re: Here's my build (£1001) - Comments
Quote:
Originally Posted by
TAKTAK
i remember seeing a post a while ago that said something like:
Quote:
For a p35/p45 then you can't beat Abit, and ASUS are atrocious, but for X38/X48 it is the other way around
i'm not sure if this still stands firm, but, personally i would go with the one staffsMike pointed out.
Custom PC have ASUS P5K Premium WiFi-AP listed in their Elite Products list. Just to quote them:
Quote:
While there are much cheaper P35 motherboards on the market, none offers the same level of features or overclockability as the P5K Premium WiFi-AP. As such, it would be our first choice when buying a new motherboard.
That review's several months old now so I'm sure there must be something better out there by now. I guess I better start researching this stuff before my next upgrade!
Re: Here's my build (£1001) - Comments
Quote:
Originally Posted by
sleepyhead
Indeed, but that wouldn't be able to be handle Crossfire 4870s, The Mars was reccommended for its overclocking abilities over the ip35 and crossfire.
Quote:
Originally Posted by
sleepyhead
Also, drop the sound card for now. Most motherboards now have onboard 5.1/7.1 sound which will suffice until the funds are there for a dedicated hi-def (;)) sound experience.
Done :) I've heard alot about creative and vista and can live without my Midi Keybaord hooked up to a low latency soundcard for now, easiest re-upgrade for now :)
Quote:
Originally Posted by
sleepyhead
No need for Artic Silver or the aftermarket cooler. Keep things stock for nowe to save a few pennies (or overclock just slightly ;) )
I'll be overclocking to run 3D-Studio max at its best so a near 20% increase in speeds is worth £25 imo, so I'll be keeping these :)
Quote:
Originally Posted by
sleepyhead
Perhaps buy a HD4850 instead of the 4870 and upgrade at a much later date. I believe these can be had around the £120-125 mark.
Top totty my friend, I was under the impresion that 4850's were not HDCP compatible, just looked again, BISH BASH BOSH! REAL GOOD NOSH! I'm in HD street :)
Quote:
Originally Posted by
staffsMike
You could also get the 520W version of that PSU as neither graphics card will even begin to push it. Power consumption in general is not increasing anymore, manafacturers are trying to go green as it were and making less power hungry components and more efficent power supplies.
Could a 520W handle an overclocked processor and Crossfire cards?
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Wills
Swap the Zen for a Coolermaster R330 Elite (about £25), ive had both, originally the zen, and got the CM about 3 weeks ago, and its been brilliant.
Cheers for the reccommendation :) Will most likely take you up on this :)
Quote:
Originally Posted by
NovaSphere
Again, this looks great Nova, very appreciated, would do the jobby nicely, will check reviews for overclock later but it looks about right :)
Quote:
Originally Posted by
douglasb
creative sound cards dont go well with vista, iv heard the asus ones are meant to be pretty good though
Cheers, I will keep this in mind in the future, Soundcard is GONE! /kick Soundcard
Quote:
Originally Posted by
TAKTAK
as it has eben mentioned, you should get a 64bit OS to allow you to use the full amount of RAM, 32 bit is limited to 4GB of RAM throughout the whole system (this includes GFX memory) so in your case you would have ~3.5GB system memory and 512MB GFX memory. whereas a 64bit OS allows the system to use up to (IIRC) 16TB of RAM, giving you full capabilities of your system.
But the amount of support for 64bit really worries me... like REALLY, when its more widespread, can 32bit be upgraded to 64bit? And also will I be slowed down by the 512mb of RAM thats idle? If not, I only expected to get 3.5Gig of ram utilised anyway :)
Quote:
Originally Posted by
staffsMike
I wouldn't bother with that RAM, you could get standard heatspreader XSM2 with 4-4-4-12 latencies (not that it makes a real difference) for a similar price. The one's you picked are very tall and may interfeer with certain coolers (although they do work with the xigmatec on the Abit Ip-35..)
I just want something thats not gonna give me hell with overclocking, the heatsink I've chosen (as far as i'm aware) is OK with that Ram, I also only want to buy corsair RAM through reccomendation :)
Thanks for everyones help so far :) Keep it coming :)
Re: Here's my build (£1001) - Comments
Quote:
Originally Posted by
richieuk
Indeed, but that wouldn't be able to be handle Crossfire 4870s, The Mars was reccommended for its overclocking abilities over the ip35 and crossfire.
TBH matey, SLi'd graphics cards don't provide as much of a performance boost as alot of people think, and it often works out better to go for a single card solution (i.e. sell you current card, and upgrade to a better one)
Quote:
Originally Posted by
richieuk
Could a 520W handle an overclocked processor and Crossfire cards?
yep, it will easily, as mike says, most manufacturers are centering round "we wanna be green" so PSU requirements are staying fairly stable
Quote:
Originally Posted by
richieuk
But the amount of support for 64bit really worries me... like REALLY, when its more widespread, can 32bit be upgraded to 64bit? And also will I be slowed down by the 512mb of RAM thats idle? If not, I only expected to get 3.5Gig of ram utilised anyway :)
No, no,no,no,no, vista 64 bit doesn't have all of the driver inconsistencys any more, so unless your wanting to run lots of old hardware then that is the path to go down... 64bit is the direction everthing is going in :) (although do avoid XP64bit as it still is incompat with lots 'o stuff) but vista 64 is fine
Re: Here's my build (£1001) - Comments
I second the recommendations to change the motherboard and RAM.
The IP35 Pro is a fantastic board, there's a load of positive reviews out there and if I could be bothered taking my side panel off / was willing to risk electrocution, I'd kiss it on it's pretty blue mouth. You could consider an X38 / X48 board but then they will be obsolete this time next year so I'd save the cash.
Memory wise, I'd be looking at:
- 4GB Corsair TwinX PC2-6400 5-5-5-18
You save a tenner and don't have those stupid high-risen heatsinks.
