Hi all,
I posted a thread two months ago asking for advice on an Enthuisast i7 Build. Since that time, I am slowly coming around the the line of thinking that now IS NOT THE BEST TIME to be spending £1500-1800 on a PC.
My reasoning is thus:
- PCIe 3.0 will be in the next chipset
- USB 3.0 and SATA 6GBps should be fully integrated (rather than add-in controllers)
- Intel's 3rd Gen larger capacity SSD's should hopefully be available by then
- The mobo will hopefully support future CPU's such as 8-core CPU's
Because of this, I am considering the possibility of building the absolute best system possible for approximately a third of my original budget, with a view to selling it in the mid-term and clawing back some cash to put towards a new Sandy Bridge PC in Q2/Q3 2011.
I've managed to spec out a system that will cost around £650-£700 and I'm looking for feedback on:
- Whether my reasoning is sound and I should buy an intermediate machine or if I shouldn't waste my money (bearing in mind I'm currently running a 2.8GHz Pentium 4 machine from 2003)
- How I can improve the proposed intermediate system for minimal extra cost (or even cost cutting!)
The Usage Scenario/Requirements from my previous post still stand:
- Gaming - Must play all the latest games (FPS, RTS etc) at top settings and with some Anti-Aliasing.
- General Enthusiast Stuff (Video Encoding, Distributed Computing etc).
- System Speed & Responsiveness - I have to feel a definitive leap over my existing rig. A SSD for a boot drive/app drive is a must here.
Obviously the last point is not really plausible in the £700 budget and because of this I will probably be using an old HDD from my current PC. Remember that I will be keeping my existing peripherals (keyboard, mouse, monitor, speakers) and I already have the OS so this is not included in the specsheet.
The System:
- AMD Phenom II X4 965 Black Edition, S AM3, 3.4GHz, 8MB Cache, 125W, Retail
- Asus RadeonHD 5850 1GBDDR
- Crucial memory 4GB (2 x 2GB) DDR3 PC3-12800 Ballistix 1600 MHz RAM 8-8-8-24 Unbuffered NON-ECC 1.65V 256 Meg x 64
- Asus M4A87TD/USB3, AMD 870, S AM3, PCI-E 2.0 (x16), DDR3 2000(OC), SATA 6Gb/s, SATA RAID, ATX
- 560W Silverstone ST56F Strider 80%+ Eff' 120mm Fan Dual +12V Rails PCI-E SLi ATX12x 2.01 EPS 12v
- Sony AD-7240S-0B 24x DVD±R, 12xDVD±DL, DVD+RW x8/-RWx6 ,12xRAM SATA, Black, OEM
- Coolermaster Elite 335 Black Mini Tower Case with Rear 120mm Fan w/o PSU
Cost Cutting:
- CPU: Its not an i7 but it is still able to compete
- GPU: I had planned on buying two of these but one will do for a short-term system. I've managed to find an Asus one for £215. As they're all mostly reference design at the moment I see no point in paying more for a XFX Black Edition.
- RAM: I usually always buy Corsair but I've found the Crucial for £100. They're officially CAS 8 but can be run at CAS 7 according to various reviews.
- MOBO: It has USB 3.0 and SATA 6GBps but its dirt cheap (£87) compared with £230 for my i7 rig.
- PSU: According to their website, it can support a Radeon 5850. I'd prefer the Corsair but it's £15-20 more expensive.
- OPTICAL: No cost savings here.
- HDD/SSD: Reusing an old HDD from current PC
- CASE: Saving over £100 by going for a cheap steel case. It will fit a Radeon 5850 and again its dirt cheap (£30).
- COOLING: I'm saving about £60 by forgoing the Megahalems Cooler on my i7 rig and sticking with the retail HSF (so I probably won't be overclocking!).
Thank you for taking the time to read this LONG post and I look forward to your constructive criticism.