PC Build Advice

[SilentIcdea]

Hello there,

I was wondering if I could get peoples opinions on my future PC build. This is my basket atm:-

4GB (2*2 GB) Corsair DDR3 XMS3, PC3-12800 (1600), NON-ECC Unbuffered, CAS 9-9-9-24, XMP, 1.65v. £30.48.

1TB Samsung HD 103SJ Spinpoint F3, SATA 3GB/s, 7200rpm, 32MB cache, 8.9ms, NCQ. £39.58.

Coolermaster centurion 5 II, Black, Mid Tower Case, w/o PSU. £40.16.

Sony AD-7263S-0B 24x DVD +/- R, 12x DVD+RW x8/-RWx6, 12x RAM SATA, Black, Labelflash, OEM. £16.43.

Intel core I5 2500K Unlocked, S1155, Sandy Bridge, Quad core, 3.3GHZ, GPU 850Mhz, 6MB cache, 95W OEM. £159.78.

1GB XFX HD 6870 Black edition, 4600Mhz GDDR5 GPU 940Mhz, 1120 steam processors, DVI/HDMI/mDP. £138.82.

MSI P67A-G45 (B3), Intel P67, S-1155, PCI-E 2.0 (x16), DDR3 2133, Xfire, SATA 6GB/s, SATA RAID, ATX. £94.40.

600W Corsair Gaming series GS600, 80 Plus, 80% Eff, SLi, EPS 12v, 140mm Fan, Blue LED, 48A+12v. £53.94.

What do you think? Could anything be improved/replaced? I have a budget of £600. This build above is approx £590.37 incl shipping.

I have a 19" 1366 by 768 monitor, should I keep this monitor with my current build or by a new monitor 1080p and reduce the specs of my build?

Also, could I get a decent mouse and keyboard for £50? Any examples would be helpful. Do I also need to buy speakers if my TV has built in ones? I am planning on using a HDMI connection.

Any help would be greatly appreciated. My first time building a PC.

[Domestic_Ginger]

I'm not going to be much help but.... Would you be able to add prices next to the items (we may find better items for less/same or shave a few £ off your choices), you have an OS and what are you going to use your PC for?

The Screen does sound small for the PC you're getting as a much weaker graphics card should be able to cope with the resolution.

I think you should get 1.5V ram for SB.

Cases are pretty much down to personal experience. Its worth asking around as there are lots of options you may not have looked at yet. Second hand auctions are a good place to look; especially if you can pick up locally (you can filter by distance).

[SilentIcdea]

I'm not going to be much help but.... Would you be able to add prices next to the items (we may find better items for less/same or shave a few £ off your choices), you have an OS and what are you going to use your PC for?

The Screen does sound small for the PC you're getting as a much weaker graphics card should be able to cope with the resolution.

I think you should get 1.5V ram for SB.

Cases are pretty much down to personal experience. Its worth asking around as there are lots of options you may not have looked at yet. Second hand auctions are a good place to look; especially if you can pick up locally (you can filter by distance).

Ok I will try to add the prices. I would mostly use this PC for gaming, but I would also like to use it for the general stuff such as MS Word, web surfing etc. Ummm, I would personally like to keep the gfx card for now as I would like to play games at a higher resolution in the near future (with a new monitor). Thanks.

[SilentIcdea]

Can anyone else help me please.

[planet436]

Do you have a transferable OS you can use on this new build? If not that will affect your budget for components quite a bit.

[SilentIcdea]

Do you have a transferable OS you can use on this new build? If not that will affect your budget for components quite a bit.

I do yes, I bought an OS a few months ago but it wasn't used. I am planning on using it for this build. Could you recommend me a gaming mouse and keyboard for £50?

Thanks for your help.

[dfour]

I can recommend the Sharkoon FireGlider Laser Mouse inc Weights £23:98

Good responsive adjust able mouse suitable for bigger hands with good thumb buttons and it comes in black if the flames arent to your taste

Microsoft SideWinder X4 Gaming Keyboard £29:99

Would take you only a bit above your budget

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

If you have 20 posts on Scan you can get free postage:

http://forums.hexus.net/scan-care-he...-delivery.html

I assume you are going to upgrade to a higher resolution monitor?? If not I would get a Core i3 or Phenom II X4 and the following graphics card:

http://www.scan.co.uk/products/1gb-m...i-i-hdmi-d-sub

Even at 1440X900 and 1680X1050 many games will run at decent settings AFAIK.

The following build makes the assumption you want to overclock your CPU and want to run two graphics cards.



However,I would suggest that even a stock Core i5 is very fast and will not be a limitation for years. A Core i5 2400 is faster than the previous generation Core i7 CPUs in almost all games and even these were OTT in many cases unless you were running a pair of high end graphics cards.

On top of this do you really need the ability to run more than one card?? It might make more sense to get a single faster card. If anything the graphics card is the major limiting factor in most games.

The following build has much more limited overclocking ability. The motherboard does not support symmetrical Crossfire and has less audio outputs. However,the hard drive is much bigger too.



It will be faster in almost all games when compared to the previous build IMHO. This will even be evident when you get a higher resolution monitor.

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

BTW,this mouse is worth considering IMHO:

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Alienware-Tact...item19c5a8801f

It is basically a Logitech G9X without the weights. There is also a 10% off code on Ebay too.

[SilentIcdea]

I can recommend the Sharkoon FireGlider Laser Mouse inc Weights £23:98

Good responsive adjust able mouse suitable for bigger hands with good thumb buttons and it comes in black if the flames arent to your taste

Microsoft SideWinder X4 Gaming Keyboard £29:99

Would take you only a bit above your budget

Ok, thanks for this. I will look into them.

[SilentIcdea]

If you have 20 posts on Scan you can get free postage:

http://forums.hexus.net/scan-care-he...-delivery.html

I assume you are going to upgrade to a higher resolution monitor?? If not I would get a Core i3 or Phenom II X4 and the following graphics card:

http://www.scan.co.uk/products/1gb-m...i-i-hdmi-d-sub

Even at 1440X900 and 1680X1050 many games will run at decent settings AFAIK.

The following build makes the assumption you want to overclock your CPU and want to run two graphics cards.



However,I would suggest that even a stock Core i5 is very fast and will not be a limitation for years. A Core i5 2400 is faster than the previous generation Core i7 CPUs in almost all games and even these were OTT in many cases unless you were running a pair of high end graphics cards.

On top of this do you really need the ability to run more than one card?? It might make more sense to get a single faster card. If anything the graphics card is the major limiting factor in most games.

The following build has much more limited overclocking ability. The motherboard does not support symmetrical Crossfire and has less audio outputs. However,the hard drive is much bigger too.



It will be faster in almost all games when compared to the previous build IMHO. This will even be evident when you get a higher resolution monitor.

I am, in the near future looking to get a higher resolution monitor. I was thinking of getting the 6950 but after looking at the price for it I don't know how I could get it while not limiting my other
computer components.

Thanks for your mouse suggestion as well. I will look into it. Also thanks for that free delivery tip.

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

The second build I suggested has a very fast CPU still.

Also,check the following web-pages for offers:

http://www.scan.co.uk/todayonly/inde..._icmp=AkaIX3H4

http://www.scan.co.uk/shops/homepage..._icmp=7Uz238zS