Looking For Help and Feedback on building a PC! :)

[Betty_Swallocks]

You can save a few pennies by going for Windows 7 Home premium rather than professional. The only thing Professional gives you is the ability to join domains and some other advanced networking functions that you're not likely to need in a home machine.

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/w...oducts/compare

[qqfgt]

Thanks for the info Betty ive took that on board

Below is a PC i have put together from Scan.

http://www.scan.co.uk/savedbasket/00...50946f5670cdda

This is currently what i am looking at:

My current dilemmas are:

Motherboard: If to run the sabre tooth or the Asus P8P67 Pro, these seems like the 2 boards that alot of people go for

Graphics Card: Running one solo card more powerful incase i want to crossfire it in future, although it could be a wrong choice and might be outdated before i bother doing so.... which means i should be taking the lower versions of the frozr in crossfire as Cat mentioned.

The monitors, keyboard and mouse are basically just added in from what i can tell is the best bang for buck, was looking at the Logitech G500 but its currently on call?

Any additional items i need?

This is where i need to be critisied big time on anything that ive chosen that may be a wrong choice, ill probably be ordering tommorrow night or wednesday night! Quick replys appreciated!

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

The GTX580 is a waste of money. The GTX570 and GTX580 only supports multi-monitor gaming in SLI. It makes more sense to get a GTX570 or an HD6970 if you are sticking to a single card setup.

Skimping on the monitor is one of the worst things to do when building a PC. It is often the longest lived component of any system. Spending £1800 on a system and getting a budget monitor is not a wise allocation of resources IMHO.

The motherboard is also overpriced and uses a P67 chipset. At that sort price it should be a Z68 motherboard. For Sandy Bridge overclocking is done through changing the multiplier on the CPU meaning unlike with socket 1156 and 1366 an expensive motherboard is not really needed. Almost all of the £90+ socket 1155 P67 and Z68 motherboards have decent VRM sections anyway.

The H60 is overpriced and the Antec KUHLER H2O 620 is cheaper and is the better cooler. On top of this Scan the coolers I mentioned will be enough for overclocking a Core i5. The integrated water coolers tend to be better for socket 1366 and AM3+ processors as these have higher TDPs when overclocked. The coolers are also useful in SFF builds where space is at a minimum.

Both Aria and Scan use the £20 Arctic Cooling Freezer 13 in some of their Core i5 2500K overclocked bundles. The A50 and the A70 are better coolers IMHO.

I would get the AX750 over an HX850 any day TBH. On top of the XFX I mentioned is made by Seasonic.

[qqfgt]

The GTX580 is a waste of money. The GTX570 and GTX580 only supports multi-monitor gaming in SLI. It makes more sense to get a GTX570 or an HD6970 if you are sticking to a single card setup.

Skimping on the monitor is one of the worst things to do when building a PC. It is often the longest lived component of any system. Spending £1800 on a system and getting a budget monitor is not a wise allocation of resources IMHO.

The motherboard is also overpriced and uses a P67 chipset. At that sort price it should be a Z68 motherboard. For Sandy Bridge overclocking is done through changing the multiplier on the CPU meaning unlike with socket 1156 and 1366 an expensive motherboard is not really needed. Almost all of the £90+ socket 1155 P67 and Z68 motherboards have decent VRM sections anyway.

The H60 is overpriced and the Antec KUHLER H2O 620 is cheaper and is the better cooler. On top of this Scan the coolers I mentioned will be enough for overclocking a Core i5. The integrated water coolers tend to be better for socket 1366 and AM3+ processors as these have higher TDPs when overclocked. The coolers are also useful in SFF builds where space is at a minimum.

Both Aria and Scan use the £20 Arctic Cooling Freezer 13 in some of their Core i5 2500K overclocked bundles. The A50 and the A70 are better coolers IMHO.

I would get the AX750 over an HX850 any day TBH. On top of the XFX I mentioned is made by Seasonic.

Oh cat you do really love to explain and send me down a different road haha, i need your personal help on building perfect machine at the right budget, do you have an easier means of communication like facebook or anything

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

Hexus will be fine!! At least it is easier to refer back to when you do the build!!

[Skulltrail]

Couple of suggestions - £220 will buy you a superb Dell IPS monitor - http://www.scan.co.uk/products/23-de...0mm-thin-bezel. It is £10 cheaper from Aria but their postage can be savage.

It pushes the overall cost up a bit but as Cat says it is the part of the system that you will see and interact with, as well as keep the longest.

You can claw a bit back by swapping the cooler for a Gelid Tranquillo for £25 - very quiet and should cool the 2500K all the way to 5GHz (just).

If going multi-monitor I would be tempted to go ATI due to the extra memory you get, as with multi-card setups only the memory from the first card is used - i.e. 2x 1GB 560 Ti would still only give you 1GB to play with which may be limiting in a few situations. Otherwise, for around £320-£330 you could try a duo of 2GB GTX460s/560s.

A motherboard such as this uses the Z68 chipset, saves £10 and will fit in better with the whole black and red theme.

£25 more can be shaved off by considering either of these:
http://www.scan.co.uk/products/680w-...-216db-eps-12v
http://www.scan.co.uk/products/650w-...-12v-140mm-fan

Both are very quiet, get solid reviews and provide ample wattage.

So the above has made the system quieter and saved £75 that can be put into a better monitor(s).

[qqfgt]

How healthy does this look now then guys:

http://www.scan.co.uk/savedbasket/58...0142865f51191d

Ignore the case and the PSU they look a bit OTT, ill probably change them to standard jet black, thing is i still need monitors and you guys have suggest some, but if im wanting to run dual then id have to spend £600+ is there any other recommendations? If not ill have to go with a dell ultrasharp and save up for a 2nd one in the future.

Also thanks for the info skulltrail especially on the cards, made me change my mind again!

P.S Ram on pre-order bahh always something eh

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

The build looks OK and I would get the Dell U2311H.

[qqfgt]

Just OK? :O there wouldnt be any last minute changes, or anything else you think i will need? I guess ill take your word on the Dell U2311H, you guys know more than i do.

I just want to be sure as i will hopefully order it as of tommorrow night! Thanks alot for all your help throughout Cat!

[qqfgt]

P.S is there any benefits between the 2 versions of the U2311H.

Update: SSD, RAM, GPX CARDS currently out of stock Q_Q

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

I would try to get the latest version of the U2311H. Also,it can be had for around £200 if you shop around or even a bit less if you are lucky!!

[qqfgt]

Im taking this on finance from scan you see, so im shopping here, i have half the money in cash, but the other half comes next month so ill probably take it off scan, is there any difference from the normal version and the "S" version?

I do hope the SSD comes into stock soon!

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

It is the bezel colour which is different.

Anyway,I would just save up for another month TBH.

[qqfgt]

Why do you suggest i wait :O

[tfboy]

I'd consider having an SSD as a boot drive. Although it would add £100 or so to the budget, the boot speed will be massively improved as well as overall snapiness of the system, particularly overtime when things start getting clogged down a bit.

[kalniel]

Well, things don't really clogg down with windows 7, at least, not in the few years I've been using it, compared to XP.