First build purchase imminent!

[lego batman]

Hi all,
I'm thinking of ordering parts to build my first PC to upgrade from my lappy, so please check what I'm thinking of ordering before I push the shiny button! Any advice on better buys or better ways of getting the ever elusive bang for buck are welcome! And of course anything I've forgotten, like coolers etc.
case = antec 300 £45 Ebuyer
GPU = Sapphire HD 4850 512mb £130 Ebuyer
MB = Gigabyte GA-EP31-DS3L iP31 £54 Ebuyer
CPU = E5200 £58 Ebuyer
PSU = Corsair 450W VX £58
RAM = OCZ 4GB GOLD XTC £43
HDD = 320GB Hitachi Deskstar 7K1000.B 7200 rpm, 16MB Cache £38 Scan
Monitor = 19" Acer V193wab Black Widescreen LCD, 1440x900 £85 Scan
CPU cooler = Akasa 965 £10 Scan
Keyboard = random £10 Scan

Been lurking here a while so I hope this is a good first shot!
I plan to OC since this is a budget build (comes out about £520 - £500 was limit ) so I got what I thought was good RAM and the good cooler. So:
Is the MB good for OCing?
Not at all sure about the monitor - would love any feedback/alternative suggestions but would like to stick to that sort of price really please. http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/19-Ac...70001-DCR-VESA
Anywhere I can save money (but want to keep case really)?

Ooh forgot - will be used for gaming!

Many thanks for your time, hope this doesn't need many changes

[Infinite]

Cheaper 4850 http://www.novatech.co.uk/novatech/s...l?ASU-4850#top
Mobo aint great for OCing but should get you to just over 3GHz no problem.
You might consider getting a bigger HDD, for £10 more you can get twice the capacity.
http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/640GB...rpm-16MB-Cache
This is cheaper and practially the same i think: http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/4GB-(...d-CAS-5-5-5-18
I also think you need an optical drive: http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/Samsu...SATA-Black-OEM
Tbh Id recommend spending a bit more for a 20" screen. You get a much better resolution.

[Hawker1986]

I would get the P31-ES3G from scan, its cheaper and will work better with that CPU.

Hawker

[CK_1985]

Hi lego_batman, I have a few thoughts on your list:

1. Antec ThreeHundred - great case (used one in my last build), but doesn't have any intake fans as standard. I found these: http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/120mm...ZM-F3-Case-fan to be cheap and cheerful, and when used with the supplied resistor cables greatly improved my case's cooling with no noticeable increase in noise.

2. Mobo - I recently used one of those in a build for a friend and it caused me serious headaches when I tried to overclock it. I found lots of forum threads of people who'd had no problems, but also a few who'd had the same problem as me. I might suggest going for a different one - if you can't stretch to a P35-based board (better overclockers) then Hawker's suggestion of the P31-ES3G was spot on.

3. RAM - what O/S are you going to be using? If you're using 32-bit and you want to save a few pennies it may be worthwhile only getting 2gb - otherwise you'll be paying for a Gig of RAM you can't use.

4. Monitor - this is a tricky one because you will have to spend a bit more to get something better but I would strongly advise it if you can - as a minimum try and get one with DVI input (rather than D-sub) as the picture quality is miles better. Also you will see the benefit if you can stretch to a monitor with 1680x1050 resolution. Having said that you'd have to spend more, I managed to get a warranty returned one of these:

http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/19-Vi...-Speakers-VESA

from Dabs for £85. If you're not squeamish about factory returns and don't mind the shorter warranty period, this may be an option worth looking into to keep the budget down. I wouldn't necessarily recommend it with more system-critical components like motherboards and graphics cards though, but that's up to you.

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

I would get this screen instead:

http://www.hotukdeals.com/item/35415...lcd-monitor-v/

However Gigabyte GA-EP31-DS3L seems to be a good motherboard for the price though. Many people have had grat success with this motherboard. The problems people have had are probably due to the RAM choices that they have made TBH.

The P31-ES3G seems to be a good overclocker too:

http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/25...ng-motherboard

You can go for the GA-EP43-S3L:

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/152175

http://www.gigabyte.com.tw/Products/...ProductID=2848

It is a good overclocker:

http://www.custompc.co.uk/reviews/24...-ep43-s3l.html


This is what I would go for:

Intel E5200 ~ £58

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/148715

AK965 ~ £10

http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/Akasa...Intel-push-pin

Gigabyte GA-EP43-S3L ~ £65

http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/Gigab...7-SATA-300-ATX

4GB Corsair PC6400 DDR2 ~£35

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/130429

640GB Hard Disk ~ £50

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/158688

SATA DVD writer ~ £15

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/127410

Philips 20" LCD monitor with DVI ~£90

http://www.cdiscount.co.uk/Computing...28ff818fe52f9c

Delivery will be between £3.99 to £9.99

Corsair VX450W ~ £52

http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/450W-...PLUS-certified

HD4850 ~ £115

http://www.novatech.co.uk/novatech/s....html?ASU-4850

Coolernaster Elite 330 case ~ £28

http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/Coole...Scan-Exclusive

Total - £518(plus delivery for the monitor)

Make sure you check Today Onlu on Scan and use free delivery with Scan,Ebuyer and Novatech.

This setup should do very well!!

[lego batman]

Thanks Infinite for sharing your experience with the case, I'm going to order 2 of those fans and of course the optical drive
I'm also going to go with CAT-THE-FIFTH's recommendations for the p43 mobo and the monitor (great bang for buck there). Will probably order on Friday so here's hoping the deal stays around that long.
CK_1985, I'm going to be running 32-bit XP but seeing as RAM is pretty cheap I think I wouldn't save much, and it would be nice to have as much RAM as can be possibly addressed I'm glad RAM is quite cheap at the moment, but it's hard juggling money (I think it's all at about £560 now )
Thanks everyone for the monitor suggestions, would love the extra screen area. Will the GPU be powerful enough? I'm thinking of sticking with the original GPU as for the extra £10 I think it has a massive cooler on top.

So, the build now stands at:

case = antec 300 £45 Ebuyer
GPU = Sapphire HD 4850 512mb £130 Ebuyer (http://www.ebuyer.com/product/148468)
MB = Gigabyte GA-EP43-S3L £65 Scan
CPU = E5200 £58 Ebuyer
PSU = Corsair 450W VX £58 Ebuyer
RAM = 4GB Corsair (2x2GB) TwinX XMS2, DDR2 PC2-6400 (800) £35 Scan
HDD = 640GB Samsung Spinpoint F1 7200rpm 16mb cache £50 Ebuyer
Monitor = Philips 20" LCD monitor with DVI £90 Cdiscount
CPU cooler = Akasa 965 £10 Scan
Keyboard = random £10 Scan
fans = 2x Zalman ones £10 total Scan
Optical drive = some samsung £15 Scan

Here's hoping that's a bulletproof build now! Roll on Friday!

[CK_1985]

Excellent. Look forward to hearing how you get on!

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

Thanks Infinite for sharing your experience with the case, I'm going to order 2 of those fans and of course the optical drive
I'm also going to go with CAT-THE-FIFTH's recommendations for the p43 mobo and the monitor (great bang for buck there). Will probably order on Friday so here's hoping the deal stays around that long.
CK_1985, I'm going to be running 32-bit XP but seeing as RAM is pretty cheap I think I wouldn't save much, and it would be nice to have as much RAM as can be possibly addressed I'm glad RAM is quite cheap at the moment, but it's hard juggling money (I think it's all at about £560 now )
Thanks everyone for the monitor suggestions, would love the extra screen area. Will the GPU be powerful enough? I'm thinking of sticking with the original GPU as for the extra £10 I think it has a massive cooler on top.

So, the build now stands at:

case = antec 300 £45 Ebuyer
GPU = Sapphire HD 4850 512mb £130 Ebuyer (http://www.ebuyer.com/product/148468)
MB = Gigabyte GA-EP43-S3L £65 Scan
CPU = E5200 £58 Ebuyer
PSU = Corsair 450W VX £58 Ebuyer
RAM = 4GB Corsair (2x2GB) TwinX XMS2, DDR2 PC2-6400 (800) £35 Scan
HDD = 640GB Samsung Spinpoint F1 7200rpm 16mb cache £50 Ebuyer
Monitor = Philips 20" LCD monitor with DVI £90 Cdiscount
CPU cooler = Akasa 965 £10 Scan
Keyboard = random £10 Scan
fans = 2x Zalman ones £10 total Scan
Optical drive = some samsung £15 Scan

Here's hoping that's a bulletproof build now! Roll on Friday!

The VX450W is £52 at Scan as opposed to £58 at Ebuyer and this will save you another £6. The Sapphire HD4850 is £124 on Ebuyer not £130.

This HD4850 has an aftermarket heatsink and costs £115 delivered:

http://www.novatech.co.uk/novatech/s....html?ASU-4850

Do you have any more leeway in the budget??

You can get an HD4870 for £145 delivered from Novatech:

http://www.novatech.co.uk/novatech/s....html?SAP-4870

The HD4870 is 20% faster than a standard clocked HD4850 graphics card!!

There is also one with a nice aftermarket heatsink for £150 delivered:

http://www.novatech.co.uk/novatech/s....html?POW-4870

[lego batman]

Thanks for the repricing CAT-THE-FIFTH! Sadly I think the only leeway is downwards to get closer to £500, but I am really tempted by the 4870. Will think it over and try to leap on some Today Only deals. I might *just* squeeze in that 4870!

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

Go for a cheaper case like the Coolermaster Elite 340 and it will save you £15. This already comes with one 120mm fan already.

http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/Coole...Scan-Exclusive

So the build could be:

E5200 ~ £58
Gigabyte iP43 motherboard ~ £65
4gb RAM ~ £35
HD4870 ~ £145
VX450W ~ £52
640gb Hard Disk ~ £50
DVD rewriter ~£15
AK965 ~ £10
Philips 20" LCD ~ £90
Coolermaster Elite 330 case ~ £30

Total cost will be around £550.

You could go for the Powercolor HD4870(which has a better aftermarket heatsink) and another 120mm fan for around £15 more!

http://www.novatech.co.uk/novatech/s....html?pow-4870

[Hawker1986]

You could still cut back to the P31 ES3G, its a great little board, just used it in a build and I was highly impressed with it E5200 to 3.75Ghz in 2min, would save another £20. Get you down to £530ish

Hawker

[lego batman]

Thanks CAT-THE-FIFTH but I do prefer the antec case, but I think I might be able to stretch to the powercolor 4870 however if I follow Hawker1986's idea of dropping back to the P31 board. Will I lose out in performance? I'm slightly concerned that it only has 2 RAM slots if I choose to go 64bit however. Would I need 8gb?

[Pob255]

Untill Cat came up with gthat very nice 20" I was going to say a 4830 instead of the 4850 will be fine on 19"
I'd not bother going as high as a 4870 for that res, infact you may be able to get away with a 4830, it will depend on the games you play.

keyboard (which people seem to be leaveing off)
For a basic functional and very nice keyboard, Logitech deluxe 250, it's really nice to type on and only £5.62
http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/Logit...oard-PS2-Black

Mouse??
I would spend a little more here, although there are some good cheap ones
The gigabyte come to mind
gm-m6880 laser £10
http://www.play.com/PC/PCs/4-/797659...ouse+%2F+Black
or gm-m6800 optical £8
http://www.play.com/PC/PCs/4-/637188...searchsource=0

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

Thanks CAT-THE-FIFTH but I do prefer the antec case, but I think I might be able to stretch to the powercolor 4870 however if I follow Hawker1986's idea of dropping back to the P31 board. Will I lose out in performance? I'm slightly concerned that it only has 2 RAM slots if I choose to go 64bit however. Would I need 8gb?

If people have had good experiences with the P31 motherboard it will do the job. TBH once an E5200 at 3ghz(or higher) and 4gb of RAM becomes a major limitation it would be time to upgrade the processor,motherboard and RAM.

Scan have the P31 motherboard for £47:

http://www.scan.co.uk/products/Gigab...-SATA-RAID-ATX

Also most people still use a 32 bit OS so 4gb is going to do for the few years IMHO.

TBH I would still go for an HD4870 at 1680x1050. If you want to play a demanding game like Crysis and Crysis Warhead an HD4870 will be better than an HD4850 at this resolution.

According to this review the HD4870 512mb will give you an average of above 30fps with Crysis at 1680x1050 with high settings:

http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/gra...70-1gb-toxic/8

TBH I would find the extra money for an HD4870 512mb ,Antec 300 and iP43 motherboard as it gives you a well balanced system for the price.

[lego batman]

Thanks for the help everyone, button has been pressed and stuff is on its way!
I went for the 4870 btw
Thanks for the keyboard recommendation Pob255, it's always the little things that count!

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

What did you get in the end??