pispy

Hi everyone

I am new to the site and would really like some help with selecting compatible, reliable, affordable parts to build a computer that will be fairly stable.

Let me explain further.

Although it is early I would like to replace my bf's computer for his birthday (in May) with a machine that brings him into the 21st century (my words).

I am basing what the computer can do to what I utilize my computer to do as he does not of course do the same things as me. He does less than me in regards to resource hog programs.. lol..

I have played WOW, DAOC, DDO, COH .. well most of the top MMO games and now play those every now and then as opposed to years and use Photoshop, Paintshop pro, Serif, Microsoft office 2010. He likes to play Need for Speed and that type of racing games as well as fiddle with video editing, graphics and he plays music online. So I would like to have a system that can handle those programs and games easily.

Due to my lack of knowledge I need some suggestions as to good solid builds and links and if possible links to stores in the UK that provide the products as I live in NZ and he is in the UK so I can order the parts online.

I am not looking at totally high end parts but more middle of the range and would like the following,

-Motherboard and CPU
to be Intel or Asus (and takes advantage of the HT technology and preferably quad core but open to other suggestions)
-Graphic card
to be Nvidia
-Sound Card
to be Asus (or if someone can give suggestions for another sound card and why, will help me decide)
-Case
to provide good cooling.. plenty of room for the parts and helps keep the dust down
-Power supply
which wattage and manufacturer?
-1TB hard drive
manufacturer?
-DVD burner
which one?
-Card reader

I have a vague idea of some parts but would like the suggestions and input of more knowledgeable folk. Bout the only thing I am real solid about is that the operating system will be Win7 64bit..lol

Thank you in advance for any help and advice given.

Takaharu

Could you let us know what he currently has? You might be able to re-use something like the PSU, saving you a bit of cash.

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pispy

hi Tak, thank you for responding.

His present system is old as.. by my standards.

Motherboard:
-ASUS M2V REV.1.01G, SOCKETM2

PSU:
400 watt

Graphic Card:
-Nvidia 7300GT (EN7300GT/SILENT/HTD/256M/A)

Ram:
-2GB PC667 (DDR 2-Hynix)

Hard-drive
- Western Digital 200GB (WD2000JB-OOREAO)

CD/DVD:
-ASUS DRW-1608P3S

OS:
Win 7 32bit


Hope this is helpful.. The case he has ain't anything flash.. but takes the parts noted here..

blibbax

Have you a budget here?

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pispy

Im thinking around 1,500 pounds

Judas

Something from Asus that is a Socket 1155 would be dandy, Although currently the "stable" ones won't be available until april.. (revision 2)

Otherwise a mediocre 1156 with say a intel i7 or i5 with HT quad core would be a dandy solution... both conservative on the power consumption and very good on the power output. If i were to go with one today i'd like to go with a Asus P7H55-M Pro (doesn't have RAID though). I'd say use that as a base, stick with the Realtek Onboard Audio too, it's the best in terms of quality/reliability, and performance too.

Quote:

-Ram

You didn't mention ram.. but i will say that Patriot memory has been working great.... If i were you... definitely invent in a 8gb Kit, and not a 4x2gb one.. but a 2x4gb one... 2 Sticks of 4gb each, you can get a relatively cheap kit from patriot that is 1333mhz and actually the 1600mhz kit isn't to much more....

Quote:

-Graphic card

Really has to be nvidia? I'd likely say a 460 would be about right, but i'd recommend an ATI HD5770 1gb card as they are quite good.

Quote:

-Sound Card

As suggested above... there isn't any need for a sound card IF you get a motherboard with the Realtek onboard ALC8xx or 12xx series HD audio. It just works, and very well. Also saves you the additional cost and troubles that i know many experience with add-in audio adapters. And if you were to get a sound card, you'd have to go with quite an expensive one to get something better then realtek.

Quote:

-Case

I can't suggest the Coolermaster 690 II Advance case more... It's plain and simply the best in terms of quality, appearance, and price. not to mention it's great performance of keeping things cool, low noise, and relatively dust free.

Quote:

-Power supply

If you want something decent, good for power, and nothing over the top, a Coolermaster 500watt PCAR-A3 Power Supply is not only cheap, but it's rating is correct. Dilivering quite a significant amount of power on the 12v rails which is the real requirement. However even though i know it can run some of the TOP end cards (requires using their 2x 4pin molex to 8pin adapter) i wouldn't recommend a highend car like that, but it will run more then comfortably the 2 cards i recommended above with leg room to spare.

Otherwise probably take a look at something from Corsair in the 500-750 watt range. 750watt may be a little overkill.. but definitely don't go below a good quality 500watt. Any power supply you look at.. just make sure the combined 12v rails are at least a total of 32-36amps or higher.

Quote:

-1TB hard drive

Definitely go with a WD Caviar Black 64mb drive. So far anything really that much better would require using SSDs which are obviously not cheap, nor give you that kind of capacity.

Quote:

-DVD burner

Typically any pioneer/lg/liteon/asus SATA Burner will do... they aren't expensive.

If you were looking for the ability to say do something like blu-ray readability while retaining all cd/dvd burning/reading capabilities.. look at Asus's drive which isn't to much more then their standard drive. You likely will not need to BURN blu-ray... so don't look at those drives unless you want it.... they are very expensive.

Quote:

-Card reader

Personally i try to avoid card readers.... they are prone to actually damaging the cards over time and recommend users to leave the cards in their cameras or what have you and just use the usb cable to pull the information off. I've had far to many people come in with cards that they can't get their pictures off, and the #1 thing common among them all, is that they take it out of the camera and just plug it into the computer. Unfortunately this results in the quick wear of the contacts on the memory cards themselves. And knowing many people... sometimes they aren't exactly good at keeping the readers clean or their cards resulting in their quick and abrupt death. Personal choice in the end... any card reader will generally work.. just uses a drive bay and a single USB connection to the board.

And good choice on the windows 7 64bit..... Get an OEM copy it's a lot cheaper... and you don't really need anything above home premium. TOPS Pro.... beyond that really doesn't give you any benefit at all.

I would list links/pricing.. but unfortunately i'm not at all familare with good UK sites nor the appropriate pricing for those things there. Sorry...

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blibbax

Ok, here's some suggestions to get the ball rolling:

-Motherboard and CPU
Asrock P67 Pro 3 & Intel i7-2600k (£370)
-Graphic card
Nvidia GTX560Ti (£210)
-Sound Card
I haven't a clue about these, budgeting £50 :P
-Case
A lot of case choice is about aesthetics, but perhaps a Corsair Graphite 600T? (£130)
-Power supply
Corsair HX650 (£100)
-1TB hard drive
Western Digital 1TB Black (£80) plus maybe a 60GB SSD boot drive? (£100 extra)
-DVD burner
Whatever you need, most are pretty similar and about £15.
-Card reader
Whatever you need, budgeting £20
-Memory:
Corsair Vengeance 2x4GB (£100)
-Cooler:
Corsair H50 (£52)

-Total:
About £1230.

That's just a set of suggestions to get you going. There are quite a lot of Corsair parts in there, I'm sure others will suggest comparable alternatives - this is just me throwing something together to get the discussion going.

EDIT: I posted before I saw Judas's response. Compare and contrast where we agree/disagree and come to your own conclusions :P
He mentioned not knowing about good UK sites - I'd strongly reccomend OCUK, Ebuyer and Novatech.

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pispy

Oh awesome... thank you Judas and blibbax... and thank you for reminding me about the memory... I appreciate the time that both of you took to put together this list for me.

I am going over each part/s and looking online at pricings and sites in the UK where I can get them from. It will take me abit of time as I have to find sites that accept my visa card like amazon.com UK does or uses PayPal..lol..

I use to live in the states in NE Philadelphia (was a kiwi gone wild lol) and so miss Neweggs.. Tigerdirect... Compusa and cable internet lol.. not to mention Philly cheese-steaks..

blibbax

Feel free to come back with any questions, and let us know what you decide on

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Takaharu

eBuyer or OcUK - they take either.

One massive problem that you'll have, however, is finding a company that doesn't require you to have your shipping address as your billing address for the first order. eBuyer and OcUK both require your first order to be shipped to your billing address. I don't know about other companies, however.
Amazon UK might be worth checking but their prices are a little higher as they don't specialise in computer components. They are definitely competitive though, can't argue there.

I'm still inclined to recommend AMD, personally. With that kind of budget, a 6-core is well within reach. What's the general consensus on 1100t vs 2600k? Are 1155 processors now ok to use again?

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blibbax

The socket 1155 motherboards do still suffer from the SATA bug, but this effects a small percentage of boards, and can be fixed via RMA before it becomes a problem (to the best of my understanding).

In terms of performance, while an 1100T based system would probably be cheaper than a 2600k based system, there's no way it could compete. The 2600k is faster than the i7-980x in most applications, and faster than the 950 in all applications. It's already well established that the 1100T can at best compete with the lower end i7 quads.

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Takaharu

That hurt

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blibbax

Sorry, didn't mean to offend :P

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synthesis204

I'd like to point out that it can reach higher clocks then a 980X but doesn't necessarily surpass it in most situations :P

And...a 950 can still destroy an 1100T, so no worries Tak.

I would go with blibbax's recommendations. I can't really find fault with anything, but if you're only budgeting £50 for a sound card it would probably be better to use the integrated audio (you will NOT find a noticeable difference in the integrated sound card and a £50 one).

And just fyi, ASRock is a sub-brand of ASUS, so it is very similar to ASUS branded boards. The rig blibb listed would destroy any game on the market at the moment.

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pispy

Thank you for all your guys input here.. Sorry that I have been slow to respond back as I'm presently getting meself ready to move across to Western Australia.

In regards to the sound card, I'm not real tidy on which card to get. The bf needs to have a good card that provides the stereo mix funtion as we both play music in paltalk. He is presently testing out the Asus Xonar DG PCI 5.1 before committing to the higher end card of that manufacturer. He may transfer that card to the newer comp but I'm not sure on that. However it would be nice to hear your guys views for the different sound cards and components.

synthesis204

Sound cards breed a different sort of enthusiast. I personally use a ASUS Xonar D2 PCI card (with 5 and 7.1 surround sound ability) and it honestly sounds great, but it really is dependent on what speaker/headset you use. My Sennheiser 428's sound a little tinny on them but my Sharkoons sound good.

I would recommend something in the ASUS Xonar or Creative XFi Titanium line. Both are high quality stuff with (mostly) functional drivers.

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Donate the spare computing power of your PC to help to cure alzheimers, ALS, huntington's, parkinson's disease and cancer:
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Takaharu

I use an ASUS Xonar D2X and would definitely recommend an ASUS product. When I was doing my research it worked out as a very nice bang for the buck and is definitely worth every penny in conjunction with either my Razer Moray headphones or Z-5500 speaker system. The D2X has an optical/coax input as well as output, though I have never tested them. Personally, I was going for a decent level soundcard because the onboard audio on my laptop was noticeably better than the onboard on the P6X58D-E that I was previously using. Liking what I was hearing, I decided to go higher on my desktop PC. Very nice software that comes with it too, ignoring the out-dated free playback software; plenty of functionality for my likings (though I'm not an audiophile - they might want more, I wouldn't know).

Anyway, yeah, from my research the ASUS soundcards were quite happily competing with Creative soundcards that were more expensive.

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Judas

By stereo mix what do you mean?

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Tyrsonswood

"What you hear" is what it was called in XP

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pispy

Gee again sorry for being a slow mo to respond...

Thank you again for responding to my post. and for helping me decide with parts and such.

Tyr has it right about stereo mix. For creative cards "What you hear" functions is basically the stereo mix that you would find that comes with some sound cards. It allows you to play music through the card instead of putting your mic up against the speakers or another way we say it on pal.. stereo mix allows you to play music mic free..

My sound card is only a cheapo bugger.. envy24 .. It does ok .. so long as me sound in the room don't sound like a bunch of static.. Im cool.. lol but its not the best of cards however it is good enough for gaming

also thank you for mentioning the headsets cos I was wondering about that.

There is one other component and that is a webcam... He has a old webcam. It is a Intel CS330 and my cam is 10 years newer than his but bugger me his cam is way clearer than mine however the manufacturer has stopped support on it the buggers so its really hard finding drivers for a win7 64bit OS. So I guess its time for a update for that as well.. Any ideas?

Thanks again in advance.

Judas

All realtek audio chips have this option as well.

It's Stereo Mix as well.. and all you need to do is go into the Sound Control panel.... go to recording.. right click and select "show disabled devices" then enable it.... adjust it to your likeing.. and voilla... done

as for the webcam... get a logitech camera with a Glass lens... a good one with an amazingly clear picture... take a look at the 720p cameras... they are pretty amazing.. but of course you pay a premium.... and support is always amazing.. i've a webcam that is now 14 years old that STILL works.... even in windows 7

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