Spec my new build (~£800)

[666moe666]

Right guys, I thought I'd see what you guys have to say about this because you are usually pretty good on here

I am in need of a new build, mainly because my current pc appears to be very unstable and I'm afraid that if I don't upgrade now the hard drive will stop working sometime soon and I won't have backed anything up. Also I hope to order before the 1st of Jan, when the VAT goes back up.

Here are the terms of the build;
- Has to have at least 3TB of storage due to the amount of games I find myself downloading from Steam.
- Has to include a copy of Windows 7 as I don't have a spare operating system disk.
- Preferably DDR3 (Mobo and RAM (preferably 6GB of RAM))
- Must be easily upgradeable
- Will be used for gaming and general uni work
- Must have a modular power supply
- Must be built around the Antec 900 II as the case, because I really like it and it's got good reviews.
- Must have an Intel CPU
- Must cost around £800, not including a monitor as I don't need one.


Cheers guys

[nibbler]

You planning on keeping that GPU?

[666moe666]

Yeah, I plan on keeping my current PC as one and shipping it upstairs to my sister's room.

When the HD finally gives up the ghost then I will split it all for parts and sell most of them, but as of now this is going to be a completely new build.

[Will404]

You say 6GB RAM, which suggests you want a 1366 i7 CPU, which would mean a i7 920, 1366 mobo, and 6GB DDR3 RAM, which would be around £215+£135+£125==~£475 +£80(windows7) ==~£555 +£90(antec902) ==~£645

leaves only £155 for PSU, Optical drives, Hard drives. Would be rather tight!!


Therefore I would reccomend going for either i5, or 1156 i7. These only have 2 pairs of RAM slots each, so you would have to get 2*2GB+2*1GB for 6GB ram - or just start on 4GB then go to 2*4GB kits when they are cheep:


What I would have

Case: Antec 902 ~£90

CPU: intel i5 750 ~£150

RAM: 4GB (2*2GB) Corsair 1600MHz (cheaper than 1333stuff!!) ~ £85

OS: W7 OEM 64bit ~£75

MOBO: Asus-P7P55D ~£100 (Any P55 mobo will do just I like Asus, but I would not have AsRock)

PSU: 500W seasonic ~£70 (anything will do from Seasonic, Enermax, Corsair, BeQuiet, Antex, but not cheepy crappy stuff)

HDD: couple of 1.5TB sammy's ~ £75each

Optical: any ~£15

total ~£735

[nibbler]

What about GPU then?
I think you need to go amd to manage this build to be honest, unless you keep your old gpu and replace it with something cheap like a 4770 for your sister.

[no_numb]

btw windows 7 ultimate is £60 at software for students or you can get a copy of windows 7 pro from the ultimate steal for £30 (+9 for cd) which is an upgrade cd but apparently you can do a normal install anyways. Got an old copy of xp or anything?

[666moe666]

I have got a copy of old XP as it happens, while I am a student so that is a good idea.

Errrrm, I need to hard drives to run at 7200rpm really, at least.
I might take out my graphics card and change the one in my current computer for something cheaper then because it would save a lot of cash.

[nibbler]

btw windows 7 ultimate is £60 at software for students or you can get a copy of windows 7 pro from the ultimate steal for £30 (+9 for cd) which is an upgrade cd but apparently you can do a normal install anyways. Got an old copy of xp or anything?

Surprisingly my mate managed it with just the disc

[no_numb]

Oh and if you're buying from the ultimate steal (microsoft themselves) then the offer expires on the 30th dec

[nibbler]

Wow didn't know that it's a good job I got it on order before I built my pc!

[no_numb]

Wow didn't know that it's a good job I got it on order before I built my pc!

Just re-checked and apparently its jan 5th 2010

[666moe666]

Just re-checked and apparently its jan 5th 2010

Awesome, that'd save me a bit.

Just need to keep looking around and see if I can get parts cheaper elsewhere, and trying to find some hard drives.

[no_numb]

With windows 7 at £30 the build above comes to about £690 at this price point (ie up to £800) is it not worth looking into a SSD?

[666moe666]

I don't think so. I'm not willing to pay 500% more for an SSD to have slightly faster boot times. I'll wait until they become dirt cheap and factor them into my next build.

Not forgetting I'm going to have to buy another GPU, and the hard drives need to be switched with more expensive 7,200rpm ones.

[woody_294]

Those are quite harsh constraints, I'd go for a Phenom X4 Build myself if you need the extra cash elsewhere, you should probably get 3 x 1TB Samsung F3's if you want 3TB of fast storage.

With an AMD quad core setup costing around £600 you could go for one of the new ATI cards, 5XXX series. Or wait for the new FERMI stuff from NVidia.

Any particular reason you've specified intel? If you're after compatibility then it's the ATI side of AMD that always has compatibility problems, and you have a 4890 :/

[666moe666]

Those are quite harsh constraints, I'd go for a Phenom X4 Build myself if you need the extra cash elsewhere, you should probably get 3 x 1TB Samsung F3's if you want 3TB of fast storage.

With an AMD quad core setup costing around £600 you could go for one of the new ATI cards, 5XXX series. Or wait for the new FERMI stuff from NVidia.

Any particular reason you've specified intel? If you're after compatibility then it's the ATI side of AMD that always has compatibility problems, and you have a 4890 :/

I specified Intel as I literally know nothing about AMD. I have never owned an AMD cpu and don't know which models I should be looking at.