A new PC build, assistance required.

[Foxsbiscuits]

Hello,

This is my first post on these forums, hopefully I will find what I am looking for here.

It has come to that time when my computer is getting passed on and I am planning on buying/building a complete new system.
After originally aiming for sub £1000 it seems I will be able to get a decent system for sub £750.
I almost went for a mac but am willing to hold my ground and give Windows 7 a try.
I am unlikely to use it for games, mostly browsing the web and an occassional video conversion. I basically want good response times from it.
I have some criteria:

I do not need a monitor (Dell 2007 Ultrasharp) or speakers (Acoustic Energy Aego).
Will be running Windows 7 so need the Home version of that.
Silence. I like quiet PCs, I currently have a great silent Antec case and admired the way it was geared toward silence, a similar case would be good.
At least 1TB HD, maybe more depends on price diff. Not sure whether to have two HDs (one for OS, other for data) or to partition one HD into sections. Opinions on separate drives over partitions?
Graphics - at least HD, doesn't have to be amazing though (not going to be a "gaming rig" although being able to play some might be nice)
Best wireless keyboard/mouse available.
Good processor (+ fan)and RAM but nothing forefront. I've been told Intel i ones are good. I'm not too fussed about overclocking unless it is pretty easy and worthwhile to do.
PSU - Whatever you feel would be suitable
MoBo - Good quality onboard sound, generally decent build quality.

I would appreciate any assistance/opinions/guidance from you guys.

Thankyou,

Andy

[vincent.m]

You can get a second hand 24' iMac for about 6-800 which is not bad. its more of a style thing than performance. i almost traded my brothers computer for a mac last week but he never got back to me!

also to make it silent i would suggest noctua fans (some other fans are ok, but they have a constand whine noise which really bugs me when it is actually quiet you can hear it!
and there is this sound dampening thing that you can stick on to the side of the case panels, also get the biggest heatsink you can afford (ultra extreme 120) is mine and it will not even allow the cpu to get hot. also get a gfxcard that you can add a passive heatsink to and if your not going to be gaming you wont make much heat anyways. its the fans inside that make the most noise.

I would highly recomment an antec P182 if you dont have a decent case it is heavy, lots of fans (i only have one one as it doesnt even get too hot) and it is stylish too (wasted as mines hidden) but tis the best money can buy i think lol.
i have two HDD, one for stuff and other for OS. if the OS one breaks down you can easily take out the other and plug it right into another comptuer to be used. and i think that Samsund HDD are very very good. seagate are good, and their returns thing is not too bad. i sent one back (which i bought second hand with no reciept) and they refunded with no questions asked.

[scaryjim]

Sounds to me like you'll either want an Intel Core i5 750 + supporting motherboard, or a Phenom II X4 955 / 965 + supporting motherboard. Either way, you'll be pairing them with 4GB DDR3 RAM. You may want an after market cooler if you're looking for quiet operation - I'm no expert on those so I'll let someone else chip in

If you're looking for quiet graphics that can cope with occasional gaming, you probably don't want to look much past the Sapphire HD4670 Ultimate (if they come back into stock), or failing that the new sparkle passive GT240 (again, if anyone ever stocks them!). Otherwise you'll have to choose between performance and silience: the HD4670 / HD5570 / HD5670 are higher performance but have active cooling. Otherwise there's very little difference in the sub £50 passively cooled GPUs... have a look at NVidia's G210 / 9400GT / 9500GT, and ATIs HD3450 / 4350 / 5450, and pick a cheapish one that doesn't have a fan!

As far as cases go, the Casecom 6788 from ebuyer is a great case at a budget price. Otherwise, I'm an Antec fan so I don't think you can go far wrong with pretty much any Antec - the 300 being a popular choice.

Since you're building the PC yourself you can buy Win 7 OEM from ebuyer.

Basically, with your requirements you should be able to get a decent system for no more than ~ £600.

Beyond that, most other parts are a matter of preference. And with that, I'll hand over to the various people who've no doubt already recommended a full build while I've been typing this

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

This is what I would look at getting:

AMD Athlon 635 II X4 2.9GHz ~ £94

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/191956

Zalman CNPS10X QUIET ~ £38

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/198972

Gigabyte GA-770TA-UD3 ~ £77

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/191059

This has an 8+2 phase VRM,USB3 and SATA3.

40GB Intel X25-V SSD ~ £100

http://www.novatech.co.uk/novatech/p...0G2R5.html#top

You can get cashback from Quidco and TopCashBack on Novatech purchases.

Fractal Design Black Pearl Define R2 ~ £80

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/190866

Nexus NX-5000 (R3 Model) Power Supply ~ £68 excluding postage

http://www.kustompcs.co.uk/acatalog/info_1650.html

Expensive but a very quiet power supply.

Sapphire ATI Radeon HD 4670 Ultimate "Passive" GDDR3 ~ £66

http://www.novatech.co.uk/novatech/p...38-15-20R.html

Samsung HD103SJ Spinpoint F3 1TB ~ £62

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/173804

4GB 1600MHZ DDR3 ~ £85

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/178943

SATA DVD rewriter ~ £18

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/177398

Asus Xonar DS ~ £39

http://www.novatech.co.uk/novatech/p...0-0UAN00Z.html

Windows 7 Home Premium Retail ~ £95

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/168373

The total comes to around £822 excluding postage from Kustom PCs.

You might want to add another 120MM fan or two in addition to the ones included in the case.

I would suggest the following 120MM fans:

http://www.novatech.co.uk/novatech/p...12B1AP-11.html

http://www.novatech.co.uk/novatech/p...F-S12BULN.html

http://www.novatech.co.uk/novatech/p...F-S12BFLX.html

This build is optimised more for a mix of performance and quietness than outright performance.

Since the OP is doing only occasional video editing and mostly web browsing this would be a decent build IMHO. I have also added a sound card too as this will be better than onboard sound.

Regarding the wireless keyboard and mouse it would be good to check Staples stores as they can have very good deals on these at times.

The Logitech LX710 is a good wireless keyboard and mouse to consider IMHO:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Logitech-Wir.../dp/B000OCXFNI

[sammorris]

I can vouch for the NX-5000 R3 PSU, it's an incredible unit. In my mind though, the CNPS10X coolers are pretty poor for the cost, you would probably be better off tracking down an AM2 compatible thermalright, or one of the cheaper tower cooler brands.

[Domestic_Ginger]

"I am unlikely to use it for games, mostly browsing the web and an occassional video conversion"

i3-530?

Use the onboard graphics; no idea if they are any good though..... the thing should be responsive and maybe with eth saving get an SSD?

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

The i3 530 is much slower for video encoding tasks than a Athlon II X4 635:

http://www.anandtech.com/bench/defau...122&p2=118&c=1

[sammorris]

If you want a video encoding machine, you definitely want a quad core, even on a low budget. Unless you're into overclocking, or have a moderate budget, the Athlon II is going to be the better choice.
The best deal would, in my opinion, be to get hold of a Core i5 750, but to keep within the suggested budget and maintain a low noise system, that may be tricky.

[Domestic_Ginger]

The i3 530 is much slower for video encoding tasks than a Athlon II X4 635:

http://www.anandtech.com/bench/defau...122&p2=118&c=1

Very true; the occasional video encoding part had me thinking maybe more cores is not better. A nice little mATX board and a P180 mini. Even 2GB ram may be fine.

Having read teh post again "not going to be a "gaming rig" although being able to play some might be nice" may mean a sepperate GPU would be a good idea. Can't you get gpu encoding software anyway? Not suggesting a GTX480 Cuda core beast or anything!

[sammorris]

Depends what you're encoding. Some applications GPUs are tremendously fast, others you have to rely on the CPU. If gaming is even the slightest possibility, a dedicated card is mandatory.

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

I listed the Fractal case as it has soundproofing although the cheaper Antec Solo may also do the job.

ATI Stream can be run on the HD4670. However the only passively cooled GT240 I can find is a SDDR3 version which I think is slower in games than the HD4670 GDDR3 I listed.

I thought the Zalman was a good cooler but I am not an expert in this area so maybe some alternatives are needed here.

I added the SSD as even though they are expensive it should make the system nice and responsive for day to day use.

The Gigabyte motherboard as SATA3 is useful if you have an SSD in the system AFAIK and of course USB3 devices are bound to more common in the near future.

[Foxsbiscuits]

Thankyou for all the responses, I am very impressed with the speed and quality of the replies!
When it comes to the cooling on the CPU what about getting a watercooled unit?
Otherwise please keep the advice coming, it's been all good so far.

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

The OP may want to consider the following coolers:

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/193030

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/161182

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/177411

However when you include the keyboard and mouse the build will be around £900.

[sammorris]

A lot of people swear by watercooling. I personally veer people away from it, it's never necessary unless you're going for huge overclocks, and apart from being expensive (needlessly so for anything but enthusiast systems) it is also often a safety risk, especially if you don't know exactly what you're doing. With so many proficient air coolers around for less cost, there's no real reason to do it for a standards system.

As for my comment about the CNPS, the 10X series is known for a poorly designed mounting system which apart from being difficult, results in mediocre cooling performance.

[dangel]

I love watercooling - but to do it well (and not break stuff) requires a lot of time, money and effort (oh and planning). That said I'll still keep on doing it because it so much fun

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

With the Fractal case it is worth adding the extra case fans to improve cooling BTW as it only has a pair as standard.

Here is a review of the case:

http://www.bit-tech.net/blog/2010/01...-r2-follow-up/

When you add another 3 slow moving 120MM fans the cooling is on par with the more expensive Antec 902:

http://www.bit-tech.net/blog/2010/01...-r2-follow-up/

Here are some reviews of the PSU:

http://www.silentpcreview.com/Nexus_NX-5000

http://www.hardocp.com/article/2010/...0_psu_reviews/