First New Build

[Almafi]

Hello,

I've been toying with the idea of trying to put together a reasonably powerful PC, for gaming, for a while. Today, I came across Scan's Today Only deal of a Gigabyte GA-X58A-UD3R Intel X58 Express 1366 Motherboard and a Intel Core i7 930 D0 SLBKP Bloomfield 45nm, 2.8 GHz, QPI 4.8GT/s, 8MB Cache, 20x Ratio, 130W, Retail for £338.39(inc VAT).

The upper limit for my build is around £1500 (not including peripherals)

Would these components be a reasonable start/backbone for a machine in this price range?

As for the other components, what would you suggest considering?

Thanks.

[nibbler]

Yup looks good. What res would you be gaming at? I'd say that for anything below 1080p that a 5870 at the current price of £189 is the best bet, but there is stuff coming out soon (AMD 69xx)
Sandy Bridge is out soon too which might be game changing.
TBH, £1500 is excessive to the point of ridiculous. Does that include a monitor etc?

[kalniel]

Hello,

I've been toying with the idea of trying to put together a reasonably powerful PC, for gaming, for a while. Today, I came across Scan's Today Only deal of a Gigabyte GA-X58A-UD3R Intel X58 Express 1366 Motherboard and a Intel Core i7 930 D0 SLBKP Bloomfield 45nm, 2.8 GHz, QPI 4.8GT/s, 8MB Cache, 20x Ratio, 130W, Retail for £338.39(inc VAT).

The upper limit for my build is around £1500 (not including peripherals)

Would these components be a reasonable start/backbone for a machine in this price range?

As for the other components, what would you suggest considering?

Thanks.

It's an excellent base, although you are spoilt for choice at the moment - a p55 based system with a i5-760, or an AMD X6 system are all fantastic choices meaning you can pick the one best suited for your needs. For gaming I'd go down the p55/lynnfield route. For video transcoding I'd go with the AMD, for more I/O heavy workloads/slightly more futureproofing I'd go (and did) with the X58 based system.

Alternatively wait till the new year and get a Sandy Bridge based system, which will be even better for gaming again.

Your next most important choice is the graphics card, and the range depends on what resolution you are planning on playing really. AMD cards seem to be better value for money at the moment at the higher end of things, but nVidia have a great mid range card.

PSU choice is vital - it won't affect your framerate, but is essential for reliability, and should be chosen once you have an idea of what graphics system you will be running. Single mid-range card setups only need a 300-400W PSU, high end ones 500+W depending on make, dual mid-range cards around 600W and beefy dual/triple setups might need 700+. Manufacture and model is important - you will want to choose a well regarded one like corsair, seasonic, upper antec ranges etc.

RAM choice goes with motherboard - look up compatible modules, but for the most part it's cheap enough to get 1600mhz (DDR3) which is more than you need.

Case is largely personal preference.

DVD players are almost indistinguishable from each other.

OS: windows 7 professional is useful if you need to join domains/backup to a networked drive or foresee needing more than 16gb ram, otherwise home is fine.

[Almafi]

Hello,

Thank you for your advice.

…Alternatively wait till the new year and get a Sandy Bridge based system, which will be even better for gaming again.

Interesting, this does, however, pose one question: given that you generally pay a premium for the latest and greatest and that there is going to be the added cost of the VAT increase; do you think that the performance and future proof gains will be worth the extra cost?

Your next most important choice is the graphics card, and the range depends on what resolution you are planning on playing really. AMD cards seem to be better value for money at the moment at the higher end of things, but nVidia have a great mid range card.

I had not really thought of constraining my graphics card choice based on resolution, mainly because I’ll need to include a new monitor in my build and it seems to be shift from thinking about my build from the bottom up to the top down. I’ve seen that there is a sticky on the forum suggesting the best graphics cards in banded, price ranges. What would be a reasonable price range to look in given my budget and my initial component choices?

£1500 is excessive to the point of ridiculous. Does that include a monitor etc?

Well that is good to hear; my budget is based on looking at gaming builds such as the Alienware machines and then considering how much I would actually be willing to spend on a new machine.

Is it worth going down the 3D (monitor and graphics card) route, or is it still a bit of gimmick?

Thanks

[kalniel]

Interesting, this does, however, pose one question: given that you generally pay a premium for the latest and greatest and that there is going to be the added cost of the VAT increase; do you think that the performance and future proof gains will be worth the extra cost?

Yes. The extra cost is barely anything to be honest, it's one of the cheapest new chip range entries there's been from Intel.

I had not really thought of constraining my graphics card choice based on resolution, mainly because I’ll need to include a new monitor in my build and it seems to be shift from thinking about my build from the bottom up to the top down. I’ve seen that there is a sticky on the forum suggesting the best graphics cards in banded, price ranges. What would be a reasonable price range to look in given my budget and my initial component choices?

I'd say up to £200 tends to get you a great graphics card that isn't so far up the product range that you're paying a huge amount extra for little increase in performance. So 5870 (faster) or 6870 (less power draw/cooler) from AMD, and 1gb gtx 460, 470 (slower than AMD, have extra features like PhysX) from nVidia. Those will drive up to 1920x1080 without problem.

Is it worth going down the 3D (monitor and graphics card) route, or is it still a bit of gimmick?

Thanks

At this stage it's completely a gimmick, and yet another vendor specific tie. I'd avoid for now until it's either made more open or we end up in a monopoly situation.

[Almafi]

Yes. The extra cost is barely anything to be honest, it's one of the cheapest new chip range entries there's been from Intel.

Okay, sounds like sensible advice to me; albeit not the answer that I was looking for to give me the excuse to jump on Scan's Today Only, No Brainer which is a slight upgrade from yesterday's - I'll just have to exercise some patience and find a way to reconcile myself that I won't have a shiny new machine to play with until next year.

At this stage it's completely a gimmick, and yet another vendor specific tie. I'd avoid for now until it's either made more open or we end up in a monopoly situation.

"It's a trap"! and now hopefully one I will avoid.

In a hope to placate my lust for new 'toys': How much can I get away with buying now without knowing what motherboard, RAM and CPU I will have? What would you suggest is worth buying monitor-wise? Do you think that water cooling is a sensible option and is this too closely tied to the CPU, motherboard etc to be worth considering now? Is there a case that you would suggest?

Thanks again for your help

[nibbler]

GPU, monitor, PSU, case, Hard Drives, dvd drive can all be bought now off the top of my head. Monitor too obviously, I'd say that it depends on the budget again, you have TN panels for about £150 which are poor quality viewing angle wise but cheap and cheerful (what you see everywhere, mine is great and I wouldn't swap it tbh), or you can spend £350 on an IPS or PVA panel (I think) which are way better quality but - you guessed it - cost tons more
For me, 24" is the sweetspot screen wise, I love my Dell 24" monitor but 22" would save a few pennies.

[thegalaxyboy]

Hello,

I've been toying with the idea of trying to put together a reasonably powerful PC, for gaming, for a while. Today, I came across Scan's Today Only deal of a Gigabyte GA-X58A-UD3R Intel X58 Express 1366 Motherboard and a Intel Core i7 930 D0 SLBKP Bloomfield 45nm, 2.8 GHz, QPI 4.8GT/s, 8MB Cache, 20x Ratio, 130W, Retail for £338.39(inc VAT).

The upper limit for my build is around £1500 (not including peripherals)

Would these components be a reasonable start/backbone for a machine in this price range?

As for the other components, what would you suggest considering?

Thanks.

Sorry but you don't mention what the rig will be used for? Gaming, productivity, cad, photo, coding?

[Domestic_Ginger]

I've been toying with the idea of trying to put together a reasonably powerful PC, for gaming, for a while.

Seen some of your other posts; Sandybridge is out next week and I would hold off your decision until then and look at cases (size and looks) and screens etc.

[Almafi]

Hi guys,

Sorry but you don't mention what the rig will be used for? Gaming, productivity, cad, photo, coding?

The most extensive use of my machine will be for 1080p gaming and as such I have eagerly awaited the release of ATI's 6900 series release. As the dust settled the reviews looked promising for the 6950 as a decent graphics card and worth stretching my £200 budget for. That was until I read that it a couple of weeks the GTX560 is likely to be released. So my new, revised plan is to wait a little bit longer and keep researching, probably until the end of the month; at which point I should be able to make more of an informed decision.

Seen some of your other posts; Sandybridge is out next week and I would hold off your decision until then...

So, I've held off until the release of SB. I am, however, now left with a raft of conflicting reviews and opinions. The benchmarks seem favorable for the i7 2600k, however, priced at around £260 for the CPU and in the region of £130 for a motherboard which is cutting edge, but lacks features (I have the Asus P8P67-M PRO in mind based on reviews) I am left wondering whether based on price/performance the i5 2500k is the wiser choice (as these reviews suggest http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/...k,2833-22.html and http://www.expertreviews.co.uk/proce...ore-i7-2600k)?)

Do you have any advice on p67 motherboards?

QUOTE=Domestic_Ginger;2024214]...look at cases (size and looks) and screens etc.[/QUOTE]

I bought myself, for Christmas, a new monitor (Samsung p2450), case (NZXT Phantom - perhaps not to everyone's taste, but I love it's futuristic gaudy exterior and features), PSU (750W NZXT Hale90) and a SSD hard drive. I'm currently looking in to water cooling.

Thanks

[Domestic_Ginger]

TBH I have tried to avoid reading the reviews so as not to tempt fate or turn green. I am therefore completely ignorant about motherboards.

The i7 (2600k) does hyperthreading which if you need this would it your chip of choice. Otherwise you can save £75 odd.

I would aim for performance/£ and get the 2500K if the benchies are even for the things you want to do. I would leave WCing if its your first build and will just increase the price as I think it should run really well on air.