Building a PC looking for help on parts needed.

[kalniel]

The sad thing is there are thick idiots who want Bulldozer to fail just because they got a Core i5 or Core i7!!!! How stupid are these people?? They are that desparate for E-PEEN purposes.

Not on hexus there aren't (those kind of people don't seem to be able to hang around for some reason..), so no need to drag the conversation down to it

[Leemorgan978]

Okay thanks for the help guys. Ill give it a 2-3 months and will see then.
Once again thanks everyone.
Lee.

[Bagnaj97]

Okay thanks for the help guys. Ill give it a 2-3 months and will see then.
Once again thanks everyone.
Lee.

Current rumour suggests a Bulldozer release in mid-late September, so no need to wait all that long hopefully. Of course launch prices may be high to gouge early adopters, then prices may be hiked in the lead up to Christmas, and then you'll end up waiting for the January sales. By which point we'll be telling you to hold off for Intel's Sandybridge-E or Ivybridge CPUs.... you get the idea. If you need a PC now and you have the cash I'd say go for it!

Waiting in this game is not always the best thing to do!

[ik9000]

Current rumour suggests a Bulldozer release in mid-late September, so no need to wait all that long hopefully. Of course launch prices may be high to gouge early adopters, then prices may be hiked in the lead up to Christmas, and then you'll end up waiting for the January sales. By which point we'll be telling you to hold off for Intel's Sandybridge-E or Ivybridge CPUs.... you get the idea. If you need a PC now and you have the cash I'd say go for it!

Waiting in this game is not always the best thing to do!

I agree. But I did get burned with buying an i3-540 1156 system just a week before Sandy Bridge came out. On the upside I missed the whole sata-chipset problem, but I'd rather have got a 2500k had I known how good they'd be.

[Pob255]

the ssd caching is for the HDD

That XFX PSU is inferior to the one I suggested - plus the XFX is out of stock. The NZXT drive is quiet (no increase in noise between 20%-100% load) and gold efficiency. The XFX one is less efficient, and some people have complained about XFX's RMA process. The NZXT has a 5-year guarantee too.

Is bulldozer ever going to come out? I heard it was due out in March, then June, then July, then August.... getting bored now.

XFX changed their warranty process a while back, this is what causes a lot of confusion, the whole Warranty is handled by the retailer NOT xfx, this means that you should never buy an xfx product off a retailer you don't trust to handle it.
I'd have no hesitation buying one off Scan as they do handle this sort of stuff well.

the XFX psu's are very good (made by seasonic off their S12ii bronze units) however I'm not saying the NZXT Hale90 is bad, it's not, they are very good as well.
Ether would be good.

Personally I'd not bother with hard drive caching and a separate SSD one or other not both.
Dorp the 40gb one and just upgrade the 60gb to 120gb http://www.scan.co.uk/products/corsa...0mb-s-85k-iops

Also for caching you really want a SLC-NAND based SSD not a MLC-NAND based SSD
An SLC based SSD is far more expensive per gig and the max speeds are far lower however they are far better for short random reads and especially writes, which is something a cache disk is going to be doing lots of.
It's why intel brought out the 331 Larson Creek 20gb SLC SSD at the same time as the Z68 chipset
http://www.novatech.co.uk/novatech/p...VP020G201.html £90 is far from cheap esp for a 20gb SSD but it's much better for a hard drive caching.
Also SLC has a longer life span than MLC and caching works your ssd far harder than using it as an OS disk.

The new Intel Smart Response Technology is nice but currently you're still better off buying a single larger SSD

ps if you get the corsair H80 cooler then you can drop the separate 120mm fan,it'll not be needed as the H80 rad will go in the rear fan slot and comes with two fans, I'd also drop down to something a bit cheaper like the Antec Kuhler 620 http://www.scan.co.uk/products/antec...plus-am3-3plus

[ik9000]

ps if you get the corsair H80 cooler then you can drop the separate 120mm fan,it'll not be needed as the H80 rad will go in the rear fan slot and comes with two fans, I'd also drop down to something a bit cheaper like the Antec Kuhler 620 http://www.scan.co.uk/products/antec...plus-am3-3plus

But the LEDs No you're right, no point paying £5 if you don't need to

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

I agree. But I did get burned with buying an i3-540 1156 system just a week before Sandy Bridge came out. On the upside I missed the whole sata-chipset problem, but I'd rather have got a 2500k had I known how good they'd be.

An overclocked Core i3 540 at 3.7GHZ will still be as good as a Core i3 2100 though IMHO.

Edit!!

Look at this comparison between a Core i3 2100 and a Core i3 540:

http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/289?vs=143

[ik9000]

yes, but it all came about because I was going to get the i7-950 then I heard socket 2011 was about to come out this summer. I got the 540 as a stop-gap intending to buy the new socket 2011 or whatever the heck it is x79? (that looks rubbish to me tbh so I do hope bulldozer is good.) But then kaboom SB arrives and it beasts a i7-950. For £100 extra at the time I could be running the "mid-range" 2500k and not have to worry about September's CPUs.

http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/288?vs=191

http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/288?vs=143

To switch now would be £160 CPU + £150 MOBO + rebuilding system, reactivating windows licence, selling old CPU+MOBO etc etc. Ah hindsight, thou art a vicious thing.

[MSIC]

So, given the following criteria:

1) I have a monitor already
2) I also have a copy of windows 7
3) i have all peripherals
4) size is not an issue.
5) being a bit quiet wont hurt but not a priority
6) Its what inside that matters the most to me
7) Understated style is fine
8) A fast machine is the main priority.
9) Mostly gaming duties.

Right then <flexes interlocked fingers, cracks some knuckles >.
A base unit for £1000 or so needs to be one kick-ass system really, since a £500 unit would do the job; we need to show why spending a further £500 is a good idea.

Case: Corsair 600T £120. (Hexus Review)
PSU: Coolermaster Silent Pro M 600W Modular £67 (Note: Am not 100% that this is the very best, am open to other suggestions). (Review)
Motherboard: Asus P8Z68-V Z68 £128 (Edit: Here is a Hexus review of the Pro version - what is the difference in features, for a £20 cost difference? Just 2 SATA ports?)
CPU: Core i5 2500K OEM £155.
HSF: Coolermaster Hyper 212 Plus £22 (Review).
SSD: OCZ 120GB Vertex 2E £134.
HDD: Western Dig 'Green' 2TB £70
RAM: 2 x 4GB Corsair Vengeance £46.
GPU: Asus 1280MB GeForce GTX 570 DirectCU II £261. (Review)
Optical: Blu-Ray reader / DVD writer £42

Total = £890. Room for some adjustments, additions etc. Perhaps a Core i7 instead?

[ik9000]

A base unit for £1000 or so needs to be one kick-ass system really, since a £500 unit would do the job; we need to show why spending a further £500 is a good idea.

Case: Corsair 600T £120. (Hexus Review)
PSU: Coolermaster Silent Pro M 600W Modular £67 (Note: Am not 100% that this is the very best, am open to other suggestions).
Motherboard: Asus P8Z68-V Z68 £128 (Yes we could spend more, but let's not waste money!)
CPU: Core i5 2500K OEM £155.
HSF: Coolermaster Hyper 212 Plus £22 (Review).
SSD: OCZ 120GB Vertex 2E £134.
HDD: Western Dig 'Green' 2TB £70
RAM: 2 x 4GB Corsair Vengeance £46.
GPU: Asus 1280MB GeForce GTX 570 DirectCU II £261.
Optical: Blu-Ray reader / DVD writer £42

Total = £890. Room for some adjustments, additions etc. Perhaps a Core i7 instead?

Err, sadly no it doesn't. Total = £1045 I'm afraid.

Don't pair that SSD and MOBO together. BSOD issues. http://www.anandtech.com/show/4604/t...sds-compared/2 though to be fair it is a random occurrence not just limited to that MOBO and could occur with *any* sandforce drive. They're working on a fix and I wouldn't mind betting it will be BIOS/firmware so I wouldn't worry too much. That said those Seagate Momentous XT owners are *still* waiting for a firmware fix so you never know...

That PSU doesn't sound great. Coolermaster gold series fair enough, but that one's a bit of a turkey IMO

Be interesting to see the max rpm of that HDD. I like it's variable speed feature but for the full picture they ought to state its maximum speed. Will look it up later when I get home and see what info I can find.

[kalniel]

Don't pair that SSD and MOBO together. BSOD issues. http://www.anandtech.com/show/4604/t...sds-compared/2

He's not. That bug is for SF-2281 chips. The SF-1200 series chips that he's selected in this build are really solid.

[MSIC]

Err, sadly no it doesn't. Total = £1045 I'm afraid.

Ooops. Oh well, good job we have a £1000 budget

That PSU doesn't sound great. Coolermaster gold series fair enough, but that one's a bit of a turkey IMO

Fair enough comment - any evidence, or is this experience?

Be interesting to see the max rpm of that HDD. I like it's variable speed feature but for the full picture they ought to state its maximum speed. Will look it up later when I get home and see what info I can find.

AFAIK they are around 5900K, but with such a high density they are fine as a data drive.

Note that I am NOT proposing the 'caching' idea floated above - although its interesting, a 120GB SSD is perfectly fine for an OS and major programs to reside on.

[ik9000]

He's not. That bug is for SF-2281 chips. The SF-1200 series chips that he's selected in this build are really solid.

My bad, I hadn't looked at the link. As you were...

[ik9000]

If you can afford it and want to buy the PSU today this is £82 in Scan's Today Only offers http://www.scan.co.uk/product.aspx?ProductId=38625

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

yes, but it all came about because I was going to get the i7-950 then I heard socket 2011 was about to come out this summer. I got the 540 as a stop-gap intending to buy the new socket 2011 or whatever the heck it is x79? (that looks rubbish to me tbh so I do hope bulldozer is good.) But then kaboom SB arrives and it beasts a i7-950. For £100 extra at the time I could be running the "mid-range" 2500k and not have to worry about September's CPUs.

http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/288?vs=191

http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/288?vs=143

To switch now would be £160 CPU + £150 MOBO + rebuilding system, reactivating windows licence, selling old CPU+MOBO etc etc. Ah hindsight, thou art a vicious thing.

Simple way= overclock Core i3 530. Keep until end of 2012. Lest the end of the world happens,sell old bits,get new bits and Windows 8. Profit??

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

Ooops. Oh well, good job we have a £1000 budget

Fair enough comment - any evidence, or is this experience?

AFAIK they are around 5900K, but with such a high density they are fine as a data drive.

Note that I am NOT proposing the 'caching' idea floated above - although its interesting, a 120GB SSD is perfectly fine for an OS and major programs to reside on.

TBH,unless your system is imploding or is far too slow for the software you run I would wait until January 2012.

Bulldozer will be out, Sandy Bridge E will be out and so will the HD7000 series.

Of course if the world ends then you will have saved your money.