New PC build?

[PotGuy]

Hello everyone, hope you are all well. Not been here in a long time. Its got very bubbly and bright! Very nice. Last year of uni, dissertation due on 30th of March and I have done 1000 words. Oh dear.

Seeing as I'm leaving the confines of higher education and will probably be unemployed for a little while, I'm thinking of blowing some money on a new pooter. Tother one is getting on a bit, and I've just seen the Battlefield 3 trailers and OH MY GOD it rekindled my love of pooter games!

Completely out the loop now though with pooters, stopped following them a few years ago. Last time I looked there was a socket AM2 coming out to replace the socket 939s. Now Intel is the way to go it looks like.

I was wondering if anyone would be so kind as to fill me in with a few ideas. Probably be knocking on the £700-£800 mark, depending on if I can shift the old system. I have a 22" (24?) widescreen, and I can nick the sound card and floppy drive off the current pooter. Maybe a hard drive too. Would my current 250GTX be good enough as a graphics card?

Stuck this together, but I was peeing into the wind somewhat

 

[V_R]

I'll spec you one later when i get home, not got time atm.

*Awaits Feckits Novatech response*

 

[floppybootstomp]

That system looks well balanced to me for the budget, couldn't really improve upon it meself.

It may be worth getting a 1Tb hard disk, 500Gb will soon fill up with today's games and it won't cost a lot more..

Also an option to keep the 250 graphics card and get an i7 CPU instead.

Or if you can get a few bob for your old machine go for an i7 that way.

 

[PotGuy]

The i7 does seem to improve frame rates, and I've just read you can't OC i5s, which is pretty annoying. Not sure about shelling out another £80 for it. Do you think it would be worth it? Might get a 1TB, ended up with an awful lot of legal movies from my time at uni, they take up enough room as it is.

What about these SSDs? Are they worthwhile?

Depends really on whether I can shift the old one.

Can I stick it in the for sale bit here at some point? Might be a bit cheeky considering I haven't posted here in absolute ages mind.

 

[floppybootstomp]

The i7 does seem to improve frame rates, and I've just read you can't OC i5s, which is pretty annoying. Not sure about shelling out another £80 for it. Do you think it would be worth it?

In my opinion - definitely.

awful lot of legal movies from my time at uni, they take up enough room as it is.

If they're in avi form might be worth storing a lot of them to DVD's. A tub of 100 DVD-R's can be had for twenty quid.

What about these SSDs? Are they worthwhile?

They certainly are, possibly the biggest recent improvement to computers generally, but they're expensive and you're on a budget.

Depends really on whether I can shift the old one.

Can I stick it in the for sale bit here at some point? Might be a bit cheeky considering I haven't posted here in absolute ages mind.

Certainly, I don't see any reason why not.

 

[V_R]

Right.

First the newer Sandybridge motherboards. Their not Tri Channel, they are Dual channel. So that ram you got needs changing.

Also make sure you get the B3 Revision of any SB MB. See this thread for why

You can still OC the i5 just like the i3 or i7, You need to get the K series, the 'K' means the multiplier is unlocked.

In effect there isn't actually a great deal of difference between the i5 and i7, have a read.

Storage is cheap at the mo, just get a 1tb drives for your docs and a 500gb - 1tb for windows/programs. Will make life easier in the long run.

Heres my spec for ya. Slightly over budget, but an awesome machine.

Or have you looked at the pre built systems?
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/productlist.php?groupid=43&catid=1444&subid=1712

 

[floppybootstomp]

Good post V_R, I'm a little out of the loop on this one, posted as I saw fit pertaining.

Those motherboard specs are very relevant.

I didn't check out the motherboard, must confess, just assumed as triple RAM was specified, prospective purchaser had done their homework and knew what to buy.

Just goes to show how wrong you can be sometimes.

Nice info about 'K' meaning i5's unlocked, duly noted.

 

[PotGuy]

Thank you both for your replies, appreciated.

Any idea if that bundle expires anytime soon? This won't be done till May probably, so it needs to hang around for two months really.

How much do you reckon I could get for my current system? Graphics card must be worth £100 on its own, and the power supply was replaced a couple of years back with a great one.

 

[V_R]

The bundles evolve with the hardware, it may or may not be the same, could be a different MB for instance. The results will be the same though.

The MB, CPU and RAM in this rig are an OcUK bundle, been solid for over a year now.

As for what you get for that other system, who knows. Have a scout on the bay see what parts are going for.


BTW, you getting a copy of Win 7?

 

[PotGuy]

I would imagine so. I have only had XP, and Vista on my laptop at uni. Not used Windows 7, but it is probably a must for all the new games and stuff. Why? Is it turd?

I would imagine the sum of the parts of my system are more than the total worth, but it seems a lot of hassle. Would rather just flog it as a unit and not have to take anything off!

 

[floppybootstomp]

Win 7 is the biz (in my opinion and most of the folk here who use it) it really is rather good.

It's much easier to sell parts than a complete unit, I know this from experience.

 

[PotGuy]

Thats good. I've just googled it and it has Home Premium, Ultimate and a few others. Which one is the best value for money?

I've stuck my whole system up on the for sale bit here with the option of it going for parts, which I imagine it will end up doing.

 

[V_R]

Win 7 is fantastic, been using since the RC was released. Home premium is fine.

 

[Abarbarian]

http://www.aria.co.uk/Systems/Bundles/

http://www.aria.co.uk/Systems/Gamin...ing+PC+(Sandy+Bridge+REV+B3)+?productId=44001

Theses might be of interest for comparison of prices,

 

[PotGuy]

http://www.aria.co.uk/Systems/Bundles/

http://www.aria.co.uk/Systems/Gamin...ing+PC+(Sandy+Bridge+REV+B3)+?productId=44001

Theses might be of interest for comparison of prices,

Cheers, very interesting.

http://www.aria.co.uk/Systems/Bundl...Bundle+(Sandy+Bridge+REV+B3)+?productId=44083

and

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=BU-063-OE&groupid=43&catid=339&subcat=1802

appear to be almost identical, except for the motherboard, for £75 less.

That said, the MSI motherboard doesn't fill me with confidence.

 

[PotGuy]

Just priced up the overclockers bundle. £405 individually, £449 for bundle.

Am I paying £45 for the overclock? Could I not do that myself and save £45?

 

[V_R]

Your paying the premium for a no hassle OC, its all tested etc. You can of course do it yourself if you wish.

 

[V_R]

Cheers, very interesting.

http://www.aria.co.uk/Systems/Bundl...Bundle+(Sandy+Bridge+REV+B3)+?productId=44083

and

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=BU-063-OE&groupid=43&catid=339&subcat=1802

appear to be almost identical, except for the motherboard, for £75 less.

That said, the MSI motherboard doesn't fill me with confidence.

Nowt wrong with MSI stuff.

Also find out what volts they use for 4.5...

 

[floppybootstomp]

45 quid to change a few BIOS settings? Your choice but be aware an overclocked system purchased by a forum member from OCUK didn't work and he had to wind it down to stock speed. So I'd say an overclock is not guaranteed.

You may be wise to read this thread before purchasing:

https://www.pcreview.co.uk/forums/good-ole-overclockers-again-t4028879.html

I've never been keen on MSI motherboards, have had two go faulty on me in the past, I'd choose Asus; Gigabyte; EVGA but that's just my personal preference.

I would agree MSI do make good graphics cards though.

On Saturday I ordered a 2Tb HDD from Scan for £58.45 (I get free postage at Scan) and it arrived about an hour ago. I even got an e-mail telling me it would arrive between 10:40 and 11:40. Now that's what I call service.

Kustom PC's; Aria; E-Buyer also all recommended by me.

I've said it before and I will say it again though - in around ten years buying stuff from OCUK I had only one small problem and negotiated two rma's which were sorted out painlessly and quickly.

But I have read so many complaints about them in the last year it's made me wary.

But, to be fair, I hope I'm presenting both sides of the coin here.

 

[PotGuy]

Blimey that has put the fear of God into me!

Haven't used OCUK for about six years, since I built my current computer. Must have nose dived!

Cheers for the heads up, don't feel like being buggered around by anybody.