advice on new computer

[JoeBloggs]

I am looking at a new home computer. Would like some advice. Take a look and let me know your thoughts and you wil be able to judge my budget!

 

http://img176.imageshack.us/i/compw.jpg

Edited October 28, 2010 by JoeBloggs
messed up link

[Domino]

What, no SSD?

[EduTech]

also, have a look at these guys Custom Built Computers & Custom Gaming PCs - Computer Planet you can get some beasts of here for your kind of budget :-)

 

James..

[GREED]

All looks good to me, except you are using the devil of a processor... AMD all the way! I got a Phenom II x4 9650 (generously bought by a previous workplace) with 8GB RAM Win7 64bit...

[featured_spectre]

change the board from Asus to gigabyte and you have a decent machine

[JoeBloggs]

change the board from Asus to gigabyte and you have a decent machine

 

any reason for this?

[flyinghaggis]

What, no SSD?

 

Agreed, lose the Velociraptor and get an SSD instead.

[GREED]

How much are SSDs today?

[Arthur]

How much are SSDs today?

Price varies massively depending on capacity and speed. You could get a 40GB Corsair F40 for £83 or a 960GB OCZ IBIS for £2,200. Both SSDs use the same controllers (SandForce's SF-1200), only the IBIS has four of them vs. one on the F40 and 24x more flash.

Edited October 28, 2010 by Arthur

[localzuk]

You seem to be scrimping on the power supply. I'd say go for a modular power supply, so you don't have cables lying around all over the place, and also one with a decent warranty and quality.

 

SSD is way out of price range at the moment IMO.

[Arthur]

Agreed, lose the Velociraptor and get an SSD instead.

Definitely. Even the 7,200rpm 2TB WD Caviar Black beats a VelociRaptor. I would go for a 64GB/80GB SSD plus a 1TB/1.5TB HDD if you can afford it. If not, a 1TB Samsung SpinPoint F3 would be an excellent choice.

 

I'm surprised no one else has mentioned it, but that OcUK Value PSU is a shockingly bad choice, especially considering the PSU is the most important part of a computer - I definitely wouldn't scrimp on this as you will regret it later on. A decent 500w PSU is more than enough for a gaming PC like this. I would look at PSUs made by Corsair, XFX or Seasonic.

 

Edit. Localzuk beat me to it.

Edited October 28, 2010 by Arthur
Spelling

[maestromasada]

SSD is surely the way to do, if you have a school (sch.uk) e-mail address, save yourself a few ponds and get it here: Microsoft Ultimate Steal/ dig it because they also have Win7 64-bit, I got it myself through this for just 30 ponds. They adversise it as upgrade but you can do a clean install

[GREED]

SSD is surely the way to do, if you have a school (sch.uk) e-mail address, save yourself a few ponds and get it here: Microsoft Ultimate Steal/ dig it because they also have Win7 64-bit, I got it myself through this for just 30 ponds. They adversise it as upgrade but you can do a clean install

 

I'm an Open Uni student so got office 2010 pro plus for £40! Very impressed!

[Arthur]

SSD is way out of price range at the moment IMO.

I reckon even JoeBloggs could afford a decent SSD...

 

150GB WD VelociRaptor (£107.97) + 1TB Hitachi DeskStar 7k1000.C (£40.98) = £148.95

 

vs

 

60GB Corsair F60 (£93.53) + 1TB Samsung HD103SJ (£41.94) = £135.47

 

or

 

64GB Crucial RealSSD C300 (£109.39) + 1TB Samsung HD103SJ (£41.94) = £151.33

[Arthur]

JoeBloggs. Just in case you are wondering why I chose the Samsung HDD over the Hitachi HDD. Read this article and you will see why.

[mrbios]

How about this: http://i52.tinypic.com/2qwiy5e.png

 

You don't really need 12GB or memory do you?

 

Just realised i missed the PSU off, anything of £50+ would do it justice, something like maybe: OCZ ModXStream Pro 500w Silent SLI Certified Modular Power Supply [OCZ500MXSP-UK] Power Supplies OCZ or something

[Arthur]

If I was spending my own money today, this is what I would buy (without going too OTT)...

 

http://www.mini.adsl24.co.uk/images/forums/MyGamingPC_2010_10.png

 

However, if I could wait until early next year I would get one of Intel's new 32nm processors (Core i5-2500K or Core i7-2600 perhaps?) and a P67/H67 motherboard, especially since they are moving to a new socket (LGA1155).

 

As mentioned above, you could save a bit of money if you qualify for the educational discount on Windows 7, and if you reused your current mouse and keyboard or chose a smaller SSD. Based on the requirements of current and future games, I would say a 1GB graphics card is the absolute minimum. The Geforce GTX460 is an excellent choice as it is significantly faster than a Radeon HD 5750, even more so when overclocked.

 

You don't really need 12GB or memory do you?

I agree. 6-8GB is enough for the majority of gaming PCs. Given that Joe has selected a Radeon HD 5750 I would say he doesn't actually need triple-channel RAM and a socket 1366 processor either.

[GREED]

Still Intel

 

 

[Tim_H]

The radeon 6800 series of cards came out just over a week ago, the 6870 is a pretty good mid-range card is extremely close to the nvidia 470 in performance.

 

More info at AMD Radeon HD 6870 And 6850: Is Barts A Step Forward? : The New Radeon HD 6000 Family

[JoeBloggs]

I ended up purchasing, but with several differences.

Went with an SSD, 2TB samsung HDD, 6870 GFX, i7 950, better RAM (1600Mhz), better PSU, and a better CPU cooler. Ended up costing 1200, but overall a good improvement! Thanks for all your suggestions

Edited November 1, 2010 by JoeBloggs

[mac_shinobi]

@ Arthur - ref the SSD's you suggest

 

Anyone looked at the OWC offerings Pro or RE Versions ( RE = Raid Edition I presume )

 

http://eshop.macsales.com/shop/internal_storage/Mercury_Extreme_SSD_Sandforce

 

OWC Enterprise-Class SSDs

 

I believe memoryc.co.uk or even using parcel2go.com to register a USA address and ordering one from the USA would do the trick - not sure how warranty etc would work though but if memoryc can sort it out - prolly better to order through memoryc

 

Plenty of reviews around the OWC Mercury SSD line - although I would like to know the difference performance wise etc between the different SSD's that OWC do

 

There is a comparison between the C300 and the OWC drive and the OWC beats the C300 from what I could gather anyway

 

http://macperformanceguide.com/SSD-RealWorld-SevereDuty.html

Edited November 1, 2010 by mac_shinobi

[tech_guy]

If it was me I'd up the psu - 550w is never going to be enough especially if you upgrade anything in the future.

[JoeBloggs]

If it was me I'd up the psu - 550w is never going to be enough especially if you upgrade anything in the future.

 

better PSU,

 

[mrbios]

If it was me I'd up the psu - 550w is never going to be enough especially if you upgrade anything in the future.

 

To be honest your both wrong and right with that comment

 

A decent branded PSU by a company like PC&C of 550w would be fine (especially as components are focusing on using less power these days) but a 550w of a budget brand would obviously be crap

 

Unless your using SLI/Xfire in major expensive setups there isn't ever really any need for anything above a nice 600w PSU

[mac_shinobi]

To be honest your both wrong and right with that comment

 

A decent branded PSU by a company like PC&C of 550w would be fine (especially as components are focusing on using less power these days) but a 550w of a budget brand would obviously be crap

 

Unless your using SLI/Xfire in major expensive setups there isn't ever really any need for anything above a nice 600w PSU

 

So a 600W sea sonic PSU then ??