New/My first build for around £500, thoughts?

[meknoy]

Hello to all, firstly, thank you in advance for any help you can give me.

This will be my very first build, quite nervous, but super excited at the same time!

I am looking for a decent system for around £500.

I need it to be able to do recording using LINE 6 and Reaper (will be multiple tracks going on)
Photoshop for developing pictures from a DSLR.
And gaming, I'm not a hard core gamer, but I do like to play games fairly often. FPS to indie. I don't play overly powerful hungry games, but when I do I like them to play smoothly and effortlessly.

I have had some great help from my friends, and am right about to purchase. I'm wondering if this set up will all work and be ok?


Does this all fit together ok? As I say it is a little over budget, but I worry that if I start to cut costs on some of these items, I am going to be seriously settling for something not as great.


Windows 7 Home Premium OEM
£59.99

NZXT Source 210 White Mid Tower Gaming Case with 120mm Fan w/o PSU
£31.18

1TB Seagate ST1000DM003 Barracuda 7200.14 SATA 6Gb/s 7200rpm 64mb Cache 8ms NCQ OEM
£54.95

Intel Core i5 3570K,1155, Ivy Bridge, Quad Core, 3.4GHz, 5 GT/s DMI, 650MHz GPU, 6MB Smart Cache, 34x Ratio, 77W, Retail
£174.18

ASRock Z77 Pro 4, Intel Z77, S 1155, DDR3, SATA III - 6Gb/s, D-Sub/DVI-D/HDMI, ATX
£83.72

Samsung SH-118AB/BEBE Black 18x SATA DVD ROM - OEM
£11.05

8GB (2x4GB) Corsair DDR3 Vengeance Jet Black Low Profile, PC3-12800 (1600), Non-ECC, CAS 9-9-9-24, XMP, 1.5V
£34.99

2GB MSI Radeon HD 7850 OC, 4800MHz GDDR5, 28nm, GPU 900MHz, 1024 Cores, HDMI/DPort/DVI
£147.34

430W Corsair Builder Series CMPSU-430CXV2UK, 80%+ BRONZE Eff', Uncertified, Quiet Fan, ATX v2.3, PSU
£35.32

Total £643.70


Many thanks for all your help.

Dan.

[c12038]

Hi there

Here is an alternative to Intel

http://www.scan.co.uk/products/amd-f...il-15-cashback (AMD AM3+ CPU)
http://www.scan.co.uk/products/2gb-g...75mhz-hdmi-mdp (Same GFX card different manufacturer but better quality dual fan cooling)
http://www.scan.co.uk/products/asus-...e-20-(x16)-atx (AMD m/b good quality)
http://www.scan.co.uk/products/enerm...nc-usb-30-port (Better case more features)
http://www.scan.co.uk/products/1tb-t...rpm-32mb-cache (up to 16% idle power savings less power usage)
http://www.scan.co.uk/products/8gb-(...9-9-24-xmp-15v (same choice as yours )
http://www.scan.co.uk/products/liteo...sata-black-oem (better drive than the samsung one)
http://www.scan.co.uk/products/520w-...-fan-atx-v23-p (more than enough for this system but better than the corsiar psu)

total: £522.21 this is minus windows 7



For the operating system you will require the 64bit version of windows 7 as you have 8gb of ram read up on windows memry requirements and you will see

Hope this helps

[MrJim]

You've specified a 3570K processor and a motherboard with Z77 chipset, but you don't mentioned whether you plan to overclock or not? If not, you might be able to save a bit here & there...

[meknoy]

Wow, thank you c12038 for your reply, you have now confused me in every way haha! Now I really don't know where to go.

Jimbobgod1969 - I probably wont O/C, and thought that question may come up with the items I chose. Do you think I'm wasting the potential with that and I wont be needing those mobo/gpu/cpu?

Would your set up c12038 work if I changed the Processor to the original one I posted?

Intel Core i5 3570K,1155, Ivy Bridge, Quad Core, 3.4GHz, 5 GT/s DMI, 650MHz GPU, 6MB Smart Cache, 34x Ratio, 77W, Retail
£174.18

Would that still fit together?

Or would other bits need changing?

I'm sorry if I was a little vague on the £500 budget. I suppose in an ideal world, I would love to have something decent for £500. But it looks like, and I have learned that I will be compromising on a lot of aspects.

Something, that if I am spending this much money, I might as well just spend that tiny bit extra and know I'll have something that will see me through for a good few years before any serious amount of upgrading will be needed.

With the Antec PSU, it doesn't come with the modular cables. Do you have a link for these? How much do they cost?

Many thanks for your helpful replies. Even if I am totally stuck and not sure what route is best to go down with AMD or Intel.

[Willzzz]

You can save a bit of money by going for an i5-3570 (non-K) and a cheaper motherboard if you are not overclocking.

There is no doubt that an i5 is better than basically any AMD processor, it's just whether you want to spend that little extra.

[Cheapy]

For the intel side have a look at the i5-3350P (http://www.scan.co.uk/products/intel...dmi-69w-retail) for £131. Bit slower than the i5-3570 but saves you £40.
You could then get away with a cheaper motherboard as you are not overclocking or using the CPU graphics so could save about £20 there but not up to date on motherboards so cannot suggest one.
That brings the intel build to about £580 instead.

On the AMD side go with the FX 6300 (http://www.scan.co.uk/products/amd-f...che-95w-retail) over the FX 6200. The 6300 is piledriver while the 6200 is bulldozer (previous gen) and they are the same price. 6300 I think has the unlocked multiplier like the 6200 so you can easily overclock it still.

Do not know what the stock CPU coolers are like but consider getting an aftermarket one (~£20) even if you are not overclocking. Will help to keep the noise down and it is much easier to install before you have built the PC otherwise you may well have to dismantle it again to fit the backplate.

[Willzzz]

There's several options downgrading on the Intel front, as noted above there is the cheapest i5-3350p or the 3570 which is just like the K version but you can't overclock.
While you don't save much there (£16) you can still make a big saving on the MB, or there is the middle ground with the 3470 which is probably what I would pick.
Stock Intel coolers are already quiet, indeed quieter than most custom coolers as you can see here:
http://hexus.net/tech/reviews/coolin...-h100i/?page=6

[meknoy]

Brilliant.

Thank you all for your advice. I now have my final build and very looking forward to getting it up and running.

No doubt I'll be around these forums searching for more questions as time goes by.

All the best,

Cheers.

meknoy.