Help speccing a new pc

[Zombie Jesus]

My budget is around £400-500 for CPU, mobo, memory and GPU any advice/reccomendations is appreciated especially regarding the plethora or cpu types out there.

I don't play many games, though it would be nice to run armed assault 2. Aside from that there's nothing I do which is cpu intensive minus a few HD movies. I'd like a decent spec because I probably won't bother buying a new one for another 5+ years. My current desktop is a AMD xp1800 for example.

What I've come up with so far (picking a mobo at random):
Intel i5 750 2.66GHz £150
Asus P7P55D LE P55 £100
4GB DDR3 1600MHz RAM £90
ATI HD 5770 1GB £120
total = £460

Intel Core 2 Duo E8400 3GHz £130
ASUS P5QL PRO £60
4GB DDR2 1066MHz RAM £75
ATI HD 5770 1GB £120
total = £385

[thefallenangel]

you'll want a board which will take DDR3 definetly. Seeing as DDr3 will run up to 16gb memory shouldn't be too much of a worry right now.

try ebuyer.com for bits and see what's on offer and go for it.

[keith_d]

For a similar budget to yours I recently built myself:

Quad Core Phenom II
MSI motherboard
4Gb DDR3 (2 x 2Gb)
GTS250 Graphics card
Mirrored 1Tb hard disks
Blu-ray reader

If I was more interested in video games I'd have budgeted for a faster graphics card, and I'll probably upgrade to 8Gb sometime. But at the moment it's running Windows 7 very nicely.

[barwel1992]

you'll want a board which will take DDR3 definetly. Seeing as DDr3 will run up to 16gb memory shouldn't be too much of a worry right now.

try ebuyer.com for bits and see what's on offer and go for it.

ehh wt you on about lol

first of all all i7/i5 builds only use ddr3 (so all compatible motherboards use dr3 memory (there is phisical difforence in size compared to ddr2)

secondly you can use up to 32gb (depends on motherboard) of ddr2 as well not just ddr3 but to use over 3.25gb of ram you must be using a 64bit OS (eg win 7 64bit) most operating systems use a maximum of 4gb for general usage

thirdly there are 2 types of DDR3 there is dual channel and Tripple channel the names state the obvious dual channel is 2 sticks triple is 3 sticks the x58 chip set uses tri channel and the p55 chip set uses dual channel (althogh the x58 can also use dual channel)

both builds are good but the first is a lot better due to the quad core and the i7 die and onboard memory controler make them faster ghz vs ghz of the e8400 (i have the e8400 running at 4.5ghz and a i7 at 4.5ghz only using 1core vs 1 core will kill the e8400 out right lol )

ohh and its not the ddr3 that add to the performance its the proccesor that does (you can get ddr3 boards for the e8400 but the proccesor is not fastenough to gain from it ;) )

now the i7 is fairly power hungry so if you dont have a good branded PSU like corsar OCZ or enermax then you will need to invest in one 650w should surfice, the next thing is cooling the i7 been faster also makes them hotter so you will need a good cooler look at the corsair h50

other than they few bits above you should be good to go

hope some of that helps :P

[hindle8907]

My budget is around £400-500 for CPU, mobo, memory and GPU any advice/reccomendations is appreciated especially regarding the plethora or cpu types out there.

I don't play many games, though it would be nice to run armed assault 2. Aside from that there's nothing I do which is cpu intensive minus a few HD movies. I'd like a decent spec because I probably won't bother buying a new one for another 5+ years. My current desktop is a AMD xp1800 for example.

What I've come up with so far (picking a mobo at random):
Intel i5 750 2.66GHz £150
Asus P7P55D LE P55 £100
4GB DDR3 1600MHz RAM £90
ATI HD 5770 1GB £120
total = £460

Intel Core 2 Duo E8400 3GHz £130
ASUS P5QL PRO £60
4GB DDR2 1066MHz RAM £75
ATI HD 5770 1GB £120
total = £385

you will need a new PSU too your looking at £50-£60 for a decent one have you accounted for this ?

if not let me know you new price range and i will help you out dude.
Also the 5770 is a big card you need a good PC case to fit that in .

with a low budget i would be looking at the AMD 995 cpu's too.

[Littlepeahead]

This is like the shipping forecast: it's broadcast in English but I haven't a clue what it's going on about. :confused:

[wyrdness]

If you're not planning on buying another PC for 5 years, then I'd spend the extra and get the Core i5, as the Core Duo is getting a bit long in the tooth now.

[Zombie Jesus]

Thanks for the tips

I can't really find a cpu that benchmarks better for the price range than the intel i5 750 although the AMD phenom 965 comes close. It seems the next step up is the £200+ range likewise with the GPU. The best alternative I could find was the Gforce GTS 260 which benchmarks slightly better and is slightly more expensive.

I also need case/psu/hdd but I didn't include them in my budget because the price doesn't scale with performance.

[ThEGr33k]

Id say the i5 750 would be a great CPU for a fair few years. I've got a E6600 and Q6600 machine and both are standing up very well, the E6600 now must be goin on 4 years old (and the q6600 not far off that)! Still both more than good enough so I think you'll be safe :)

As to cooling, if you plan on running it at stock speed then the standard cooler intel provide should be fine for that tbh.

They are right, get a good PSU, nothing worse than one of those going pop and you losing a whole system!!!

I have a 9800GTX (pretty much the same card as the 250) and it will play pretty much any modern game on top settings. A 260 will be a little better, but tbh if you dont play games then i wouldnt worry too much as a 250/5770 will be more than enough... But ill ask, why not play games? PC gaming is the dogs! :)

[barwel1992]

dont for get the higer rez ure monitor is the more gpu or cpu power you need EG 1240x1024 need a better CPU but 1920x1200 will need a better gpu lol hell i have 2x 9800gtx+ :P

[martianskippy]

For a similar budget to yours I recently built myself:

Quad Core Phenom II
MSI motherboard
4Gb DDR3 (2 x 2Gb)
GTS250 Graphics card
Mirrored 1Tb hard disks
Blu-ray reader

If I was more interested in video games I'd have budgeted for a faster graphics card, and I'll probably upgrade to 8Gb sometime. But at the moment it's running Windows 7 very nicely.

+ 1 on the Phenom II family. Value for money-wise I believe they beat i5 and i7 no question.. I went for the Quad core 3.2GHz option and am very happy with the performance

[hindle8907]

+ 1 on the Phenom II family. Value for money-wise I believe they beat i5 and i7 no question.. I went for the Quad core 3.2GHz option and am very happy with the performance
+1 i have OC'ed mine to 3.8ghz too.

[GeneticBubble]

Have you tried turning it off and on again? i hear that solves all computer related problems :rolleyes:

[hindle8907]

Have you tried turning it off and on again? i hear that solves all computer related problems :rolleyes:

99.9% of the time it does ...
I work in IT aand tell people it should be the first thing you try before calling up the I.T dept

[thefallenangel]

any possibility of re-using current bits and bobs to save money?

And while we are here, unless you have a Virgin cable broadband connection your screwed. My interenet capability has gone down the pan. I can't work with 2.5 mb/s connection which disappears between half 4 and half 8 after being on 20mb/s for over a year.

Invest in better internet as it will always, always pay for itself.

[zsv650]

a big +1 to the phenom 2 range massively impressed with mine really stable oh and a tip do not go cheap on the psu they are crucial.

[Zombie Jesus]

any possibility of re-using current bits and bobs to save money?

I've pretty much only have:
- 2 intelli mice
- DVDR
- a game theater 7.1 soundcard which is handy for plugging into my guitar amp
- 21" mitsubishi CRT which will have to be replaced
- a frankenstein sound system which I won't be replacing until I move out

[martianskippy]

any possibility of re-using current bits and bobs to save money?

And while we are here, unless you have a Virgin cable broadband connection your screwed. My interenet capability has gone down the pan. I can't work with 2.5 mb/s connection which disappears between half 4 and half 8 after being on 20mb/s for over a year.

Invest in better internet as it will always, always pay for itself.

I really have to disagree with you on this. Mine and my friends' experience with Virigin broadband has been appalling. Out of the few of my firends who were lucky enough to get Virgin to connect them majority are complaining about the really bad download and upload speeds. I myself tried to get connected to Virigin as the placed we moved in was completely refurbished and there was no telephone line. Their customer service department was less then helpful and showed general "I cannot be arsed attitude " In the end, after numerous phone calls (they did not call me back even once despite several promises) I was told that on of the other flats already has Virgin broadband, and they didn't think adding additional connections in the same building (there were 4 independent flats in total )would be "worth the expense" :smt093
We ended up paying for having BT line connected but at least that opened the way to choosing any broadband provider we wanted. We went with o2 and I could not praise them enough. My package was sold as up to 10Mb and I was consistently getting 9, 10 or sometimes even 11 Mb which I could not believe. When we moved to Kingston we took the broadband deal with us. Initially the speeds were not really consistent but once I re-wired the internal phone line in the house (don't know what muppet connected it before) I started getting the same speeds as before.

So my advice - stay well clear of Virgin broadband..

Ps. sorry for sidetracking the thread

[hindle8907]

I am with BE broad band owned by O2 ... and its amazing i am on a 24mb connection and download at around 1.7-1.9Mbps all day every day. its super fast and not been down once in 2 years i have had it. (not that i know of anyway and i use my pc every day)
there call centre is in india but they are very good at customer service .
i pay 15 pounds a month and have 2 static IP's to choose from.
I rate them 9.5/10 they would get 10/10 if they supplied a better modem/router.

Virgin are overpriced and when i was with them i didnt rate them at all.

[slark01]

I'm with o2 for broadband for 2 reasons one is because the wife works for them and we get a deal, secondly because you pay a set amount for whatever speed you get. The normal router is basic but any problems and it gets sorted straight away. Luckily we have the business router ( thanks to the wife and a certain member of the IT staff ).
I will be upgrading my wifes PC soon, so this thread will help, cheers guys ;-)

Ste.

[yorkie_chris]

We have telewest/virgin broadband. It's nothing to write home about and completely sucks @rse at busy times.

[ThEGr33k]

I got sky broadband, not bad most of the time tbh. Pings are ok these days as well, not so long ago they had some ****e setting on their connections that gave 100+ pings :(

[barwel1992]

would u lot stop moaning about broadband i get 1mb a second MAX ...... and im in a new house and i cant get cable i mean WTF !!! they dident lay cable down to new built houses :smt093

[Grant66]

I'm on Virgin 10meg cable. Had a two issues over the last 4 years but got sorted quickly. DONT ring in the evenings you get the mumbi muppets, office hours helpful/knowledgeable native english speakers.

[Zombie Jesus]

£500 spent so far:

samsung 24" 1920x1080 lcd
antec 1200 case
ati hd 5850

costs seem to be spiraling though I managed to get a good deal on the 5850, i'll either go for:

option A:
intel i5 750, 4GB ram, p55 mobo ~£500 inc HDD, DVD, PSU

option B:
intel i7 920/930, 6GB ram x58 mobo ~£700 inc as above

I've done a fair bit of research since the OP I think option A represents the best price performance comprimise though I'll probably go with B because it's more upgradable.

[barwel1992]

go with b but dont get the 930 get the 920, PS nice case and GPU :)

corsair 750w PSU would be my choice on a powersuply make sure you get modular so you can remove unnecessary cables also you must cable manage it when you get it up and running :D