Giving birth to a new rig.

[DonnyBoy36]

I have only just discovered this forum, & I am a newbie in every sense of the word, as I have never built my own rig before. Actually, I hardly know a PSU from an AK47, so don’t baffle me with techno babble & meaningless (to me) abbreviations.
I have made a start by buying an Antec 300 case from eBay, Don’t tell me if I have made a bad buy!!!
I’ve looked at what other guys are putting in their boxes, & have come up with the following items, which I think will meet with my requirements (Firewire for inputting camcorder video, a TV capability, WiFi, good gaming, and will be several years before I need to go through this traumatic rig-birth again. Be gentle with me - don’t shoot me down in flames.

PSU Antec TruePower New Modular 650W Overclockers £89.99

***RAM: 8GB Corsair 1600mhz Vengeance (2x4GB)
***Motherboard:Asus P8Z77-V LX
***CPU: Intel Core i5 3570K OC @ 4.3Ghz Amazon, & EBuyer = £179.92

*** All 3 from Amazon- £284.99

Hard Drive: Corsair 120GB Force3 SSD S-ATAIII 6.0Gb/s. Ebuyer=£80
Graphics card: NVIDIA GTX 560 Ti 1GB Amazon=£166.96
Operating System: Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit. Overclockers £83.99
Satellite TV Tuner Card with Remote. Amazon=£21.95
Intel WiFi Link 1000 - Network adapter - PCI Express Half Mini Card. Ebuyer £9.12
2 x Optical Drives & Memory Card reader (includes Firewire terminal)
I am hoping to salvage from dead Medion MD8800.
What do you think! & what else do I need - apart from a lot of luck!!!!

Don

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

What is your total budget?

How much video editing are you doing??

[Phage]

Is video editing highly threaded ?

[DonnyBoy36]

What is your total budget?

How much video editing are you doing??

Thanks for response Cat-the-Fifth.
The parts I have listed amount to £GB727.88 & I guess there will be carriage/posting on top of that.
I suppose I'm willing to go up to £GB800, but I don't want overkill, ie I don't want to spend more than I need.
Video editing? Just holiday videos - got some good ones of Vancouver & Canadian Rockies already consigned to DVD.
Appreciate your input.

[DonnyBoy36]

Is video editing highly threaded ?

Sorry, Phage, haven't a clue what that means. I'm just a numpty.

[Agent]

Change the SSD to a Sammy 830 or a Crucial M4. Search the forums for "sandforce" to find out why

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

Once you get to 20 posts you can get free postage from Hexus.

Another,thing is are you going to overclock your CPU?? You might find that at stock clockspeeds a Core i5 is plenty fast especially with the budget you have.

Moreover,will you be using Quick Sync?? It uses the Intel IGP to encode videos quicker than the CPU only encodes but at lower quality.

Do you have a copy of Windows 7??

[DonnyBoy36]

Change the SSD to a Sammy 830 or a Crucial M4. Search the forums for "sandforce" to find out why

Thanks Agent.
Will need to check this out, & hope I understand it. Will get back to you.

[DonnyBoy36]

Once you get to 20 posts you can get free postage from Hexus.

Another,thing is are you going to overclock your CPU?? You might find that at stock clockspeeds a Core i5 is plenty fast especially with the budget you have.

Moreover,will you be using Quick Sync?? It uses the Intel IGP to encode videos quicker than the CPU only encodes but at lower quality.

Do you have a copy of Windows 7??

Time out Cat. Will need to research & try to understand your comments.
I don't have any Windows Os, all have been pre-loaded on purchased PCs.
Will get back to you.

[Willzzz]

I feel the PSU is kinda pricey at £90 + P&P.

Scan offer plenty of similar models for less and you can presumably earn the free postage offer.

Or even get a gold certified model for £84:
http://www.scan.co.uk/products/680w-...et-fan-atx-v23

Or save over £20 with this bronze unit (or various similar PSUs):
http://www.scan.co.uk/products/650w-...-year-warranty

[SteadfastJohn]

Please note that to my knowledge none of the Asus P8Z77 motherboards (including your shortlisted P8Z77-V LX) feature on-board firewire so you will need an add-on card if you go with Asus. Not expensive but you need to know.

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

Time out Cat. Will need to research & try to understand your comments.
I don't have any Windows Os, all have been pre-loaded on purchased PCs.
Will get back to you.

What I was trying to put across:

Overclocking

Useful,to get better than stock performance. However,overclocks are not guaranteed(although 4GHZ should be easily achievable with all K series Core i5 CPUs IMHO). You also pay more for the unlocked K series CPUs,motherboards decent for overclocking and an aftermarket cooler.

This can be put towards a better graphics card. Remember,there are two upgrade cycles for a gaming rig - the GPU and the CPU. The GPU is usually the part which needs upgrading first as long as you have reasonable enough CPU.

Quick Sync

Using third party software,this feature accelerates video encoding by a massive amount,at the expense of image quality. Intel Ivy Bridge have enhanced Quick Sync over Sandy Bridge CPUs,although they cost more. The Sandy Bridge CPUs perform similar in games and are a bit cheaper.

[george1979]

Given DonnyBoy's original comments I'll guess he is not gonna be wanting to overclock. Besides for what he will be using it for I can't imagine it would be necessary. The processor he has listed is plenty fast enough.
What Cat mentioned about free postage is in relation to Scan.co.uk's website. Get 20 posts on here and you get free postage. I used Scan for my build (was also my 1st ever PC build). Also you can buy Scansure which insures all your kit during the build process in case you break something. You probably won't use it, I didn't, but it was reassuring to know it was there.

As for video editing being highly threaded - for the sake of simplicity, this refers to how many cores (I won't even bring up hyperthreading) the editing uses which will depend on the editing programme you use. To be honest considering the editing will be doing is home videos/hobby type stuff I wouldn't worry about it. Any modern Intel quad core will chew thru it no problem. Quick Sync may be fast but I'd rather have a better quality video.

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

The K series tend to be more expensive,so he could go for a normal SB or IB Core i5 and save some money.

[DonnyBoy36]

Hi Guys, I am overwhelmed with all the advice & guidance you have given, & I wont pretend to have understood even half of it.
To SteadfastJohn. I obviously didn't make myself clear.The 2 x Optical Drives & Memory Card reader (includes Firewire terminal)
I am hoping to salvage from dead Medion MD8800. If not suitable I will have to spend more cash & buy separately.
Nobody has commented on the bundle:-
========================================
***RAM: 8GB Corsair 1600mhz Vengeance (2x4GB)
***Motherboard:Asus P8Z77-V LX
***CPU: Intel Core i5 3570K OC @ 4.3Ghz

*** All 3 from Amazon- £284.99
===========================================
Does this sound a good deal or should I buy separately?
I wiill try to get my head round all the points you have raised.
Finally, (I think), when George1979 mentions free postage from Scan, I take it you mean 20 posts on Hexus. not on Scan.
Also, Agent, it took me a little while to realise that a Sammy 830 is a Samsung 830 - I hope! Told you I am a numpty.
I feel as though I have given birth already, & I haven't even conceived yet!!!!!!
Appreciate all you Guys assistance, help & guidance. Thanks.

[Willzzz]

The bundle seems amazing value, but I can't find it myself, is it this?

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Intel-i5-357...1786646&sr=8-2

Except that is £370.

If you can really get all that for £285 then I think I might buy one myself!