Custom Desktop Help

[McPhee]

A 1GB version is worth the extra, but the SE version is slightly weaker. It has fewer shaders and a lower clock.

 

Cheers for the head's up. Prime example of why I normally avoid NVidia, they have a habit of making buying a graphics card complicated (see 8800GTS/9800GTX/GTS250). Sadly, I've got sucked in to the 3D thing and fancy trying out 3D Vision.

 

Awesome, guys. Thanks a load! I definitely feel more confident about putting it together myself now. One question, connecting the cables looks potentially complicated. Is it? I assume the parts come with instructions.

 

Yup, it's as bad as it looks. The cables are a pain in the ass. Still, wouldn't want everything to be easy, would you?

 

With the power cables the PSU manual will help you tell which cable is which and the motherboard manual will tell you where to plug them. Same goes for the case manual for front panel lights/usb connectors etc. Not the most fun job, but it's difficult to go wrong with the power supply and the case cabling doesn't matter too much (you won't blow anything up).

 

My first build I forgot to hook up the power switch to the motherboard. Fun times. Took me an hour to work that out. I'd gone through everything else and was beginning to convince myself one of the components were knackered

 

AAlso, cases. What exactly should I look out for in one? They all seem the same to me. Would like one that looks cool, though.

 

Picking a case that looks cool is mostly the point. The more expensive the case the better quality the finish and the more marketing bull you'll get about how cool it'll keep your system.

 

Bare in mind the motherboard sizes the case will hold though. A Micro ATX case won't hold an ATX motherboard (but an ATX case can hold either an ATX or a Micro ATX board). Personally I quite like smaller cases (which is a shame because I'm about to go from my SG05 back to my Antec 900 ).

 

Is that graphics card good HoT? I'd like something that can run everything out now and in the near future with ease (I don't mind spending a little more).

 

Also (sorry, another question) I saw on pcspecialt.co.uk that you can order a computer with two graphics cards. Is it possible to have two working together? Just curious, really.

 

These days you can get a lot of graphics card for not a lot of cash. ATi and NVidia are advancing their tech too quickly, the games industry can't keep up. The side effect of this is where you used to need an expensive card to run the latest games well, you can now do it on a £120 card.

 

As for going for something more powerful, working up from the GTX460 we have:

 

GTX 460 768MB - £120

ATi 6850 - £150, GTX 460 1GB - £140, ATi 5850 - £140

ATi 6870 - £180

ATi 6950 -£220

...

 

There's more, but you start loosing value for money as you go up. Two years ago a 4870x2 was £400. All of the above cards are faster than it. Buying cheaper cards often is generally better than "investing" in a more powerful card now with a view to it lasting years.

NVidia card).

 

Running two cards is a possibility, two 460 768MB cards will be faster than one 6950, but you do get compatibility problems with running two at once. In one game you might get 190% of the performance of one card, in another you might only get 120%.

[Daft]

Again, thanks everyone so much!

 

I think I'm going to compile a list of the bits and bobs I like the look of and then pass it by everyone.

 

Any monitor recommendations? Something I could also plug my PS3 into would be a bonus (and do 3D would be a super bonus but I'm pretty sure that ain't going to be cheap and thus not happening but I thought I'd ask).

[McPhee]

Choosing a monitor is a PITA at the moment. The 120Hz (3D) ones are just that little bit (£50-£100) more than their regular 60Hz brethren. It makes sense to buy the 120Hz monitor really, but the 3D Vision kit is £110 on top and you need an Nvidia graphics card. It also won't do 3D from any other source, just the PC.

 

Just put my order in for an Asus P8H67-M Pro, Asus GTX460 and BeQuiet 530W PSU from Scan and i5 2400 from Overclockers. Should arrive Tuesday. Just need to sell the rest of my old gear now...

Edited January 10, 2011 by McPhee

[The fish]

Really? I heard getting a custom built computer was definitely cheaper.

 

Definitely - I just went to PC Specialist (the cheapest place I know) and stuck in as close to my computers specifications as I can (the only difference being I have 2GB more RAM). Including a monitor, I paid £585 for all the bits and built it myself almost exactly 2 years ago. The same machine on PC Specialist today costs £599.

 

Unfortunately, since building my PC I'm totally out of the hardware loop as I have no interest in upgrading anytime soon, and as such I can't offer you much advice. The only thing I can say is remember to put the stand-offs in behind the motherboard - I, being a n00b, didn't, and it should have been fried when it shorted. As such, I can vouch for the durability of Gigabyte motherboards...

Edited January 10, 2011 by The fish

[Daft]

Uuuurm, what does that mean? Stand-offs?

 

 

 

Okay, so if I'm going to break it down (Yes, I need to make this simple for myself) the parts I need, with help from the list Phee posted, are,

 

Case

Fan

CD Drive

CPU (The i5, it looks like)

RAM

HDD

Mother Board

Graphics Card

 

Is that it? Do I need a sound card? Anything else I should chuck in while I'm putting this together?

 

Is it a good idea to have USB3 since all that is happening?

[McPhee]

You need a power supply.

 

By 'Fan' do you mean a CPU cooler? 'Retail' boxed processors come with one, and these days they're pretty good. You only tend to need to buy one if you're going to overclock.

 

Sound cards are no longer needed. Motherboards come with on-board sound, usually up to 7.1 channel surround. Only people who are really anal about audio pick them up these days, and even then it's better to buy the system, see how the on-board sound fares and then buy a sound card if it doesn't cut the mustard.

 

USB3 is one of those "Why not?" sort of things. It doesn't add much to the price of motherboards these days and by the end of the year should be common in new devices/peripherals that need the extra bandwidth.

 

EDIT: Figured these threads might be useful:

 

http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?t=18046396

 

http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?t=17185358

 

http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?t=18156654

Edited January 10, 2011 by McPhee

[jayseven]

Daft; if you were going to budget £1000 for the comp, I'm sure you can simply hire someone to put it together for you. Or bribe a techie friend with some booze!

[Daft]

Hmmm, how much cheaper would it be to buy all the parts from somewhere like Scan instead of getting PCSpecialist to do all the work?

[Pyxis]

If you want a nice looking case, I'd definitely recommend the Fractal Design R3:

 

 

I bought it in black just recently and its great! Perfect for cable management as you can hide all of the cables behind the motherboard tray and it just looks perfect. It is nice and quiet too. It has lots of padding on the inside to absorb any noise.

 

 

I upgraded from a cheap £29.99 case and the difference in quality and noise reduction is huge. This one costs £79.99 though..

Edited January 12, 2011 by Pyxis

[Daft]

Hmmm, that does look pretty but if I stick with PCSpecialist (I'm swaying about building it myself, I'm not that worried about doing it but it doesn't appear to be that much cheaper if I did and this was I can get a whole computer warranty) they have a limited number of cases to choose from.

 

Anyway, these are the current stats I'm on,

 

Case

COOLERMASTER HAF 922 MID TOWER GAMING CASE

 

Processor (CPU)

Intel® Core™i7-2600 Quad Core (3.40GHz, 8MB Cache) + HD Graphics

 

Motherboard

ASUS® P8H67-M LX SI: MICRO ATX MAINBOARD, LG 1155, SATA 6.0Gb/s

 

Memory (RAM)

8GB KINGSTON HYPER-X GENESIS DUAL-DDR3 1600MHz, X.M.P (2 x 4GB KIT)

 

Graphics Card

1GB ATI RADEON™ HD5770 - DVI,HDMI,VGA - DirectX® 11

 

Memory - 1st Hard Disk

1TB WD CAVIAR GREEN WD10EARS, SATA 3 Gb/s, 64MB CACHE

 

1st DVD/BLU-RAY Drive

24x DUAL LAYER DVD WRITER ±R/±RW/RAM

 

Memory Card Reader

INTERNAL 52 IN 1 CARD READER (XD, MS, CF, SD, etc) + 1 x USB 2.0 PORT

 

Power Supply

CORSAIR 650W TX SERIES (TX650) 80+ ULTRA QUIET PSU (£78)

 

Processor Cooling

TITAN FENRIR EVO EXTREME HEATPIPE CPU COOLER (£39)

 

Sound Card

ONBOARD 6 CHANNEL (5.1) HIGH DEF AUDIO (AS STANDARD)

 

USB Options

6 x USB 2.0 PORTS @ BACK PANEL (MIN 2 FRONT PORTS) AS STANDARD

 

Operating System

Genuine Windows 7 Home Premium 64 Bit - inc DVD & Licence (£79)

 

Office Software

FREE Microsoft® Office Starter 2010 (Limited functionality Word & Excel)

 

Keyboard & Mouse

Logitech® Wireless Desktop® MK250 Keyboard and Mouse Combo (£19)

 

Warranty

3 Year Silver Warranty (1 Year Collect & Return, 1 Year Parts, 3 Year Labour) (£5)

 

 

Price: £931.00 including VAT and delivery.

 

Yeah, maybe a little overkill with some bits.

 

My main issue is that I don't think that i7 is a sand bridge...but I can't tell. And I'm might as well get the newest version.

 

Anyway, this is only like a preliminary set up. Let me know what you think

[Emasher]

On a desktop, I wouldn't bother with the wireless keyboard, changing batteries can be a pain. Wireless mice also tend to lag a little bit.

 

In terms of building it yourself, its not as hard as it sounds. I just built my first PC a couple weeks ago. You just need to read up on how to install the various parts, how to deal with static, etc. Even the cables aren't that difficult, most of them only fit into one socket, and in general, you just need to read the manuals to figure out where to plug stuff in otherwise. The hardest part really was installing the CPU and cooler.

[Daft]

Good point. I'll probably used a wired mouse but I quite like having a wireless keyboard.

 

Yeah, I'm fine with building it myself now but I'm not bothered either way. Plus, I'd be much happier knowing I have a warranty for the whole system (I know realistically it's not that big a deal but it's a little peace of mind).

 

After I finalise all the parts I'll check what the price is like on Scan (or if there's any other place someone wants to recommend) and see if it's cheaper enough for me to bother with.

[Sméagol]

Had a quick look at your list.. It looks fine. Personally I'd prefer a ATX motherboard, but that's me. I would skimp on the CPU cooler though, having a 3rd party (and better) CPU cooler is only necessary if you're going to overclock, which I don't think is something you'll be doing, in which case the stock cooler will be fine. And I would spend that and some extra on a better videocard, like a HD6850.

[Daft]

Cool, so I got rid of the 3rd party cooler and upgraded the GFX Card to a HD6850.

 

The motherboards are all restricted to ASUS. I upgraded to the P8P67 because the one I had selected had no USB 3. To be honest, I have no idea what difference the difference motherboards make. Anyone fancy explaining this to my dumb self?

 

BTW people, you've been loads of help. Thank you!! : peace:

 

Motherboard

ASUS® P8P67: USB 3.0, SATA 6.0GB/s, CrossFireX™ SUPPORT

 

Graphics Card

1GB AMD RADEON™ HD6850 - 2 DVI,HDMI,mDP - DirectX® 11, Eyefinity 3 Capable

 

 

Total: £997

[Sméagol]

The difference on motherboards is purely in features. For every CPU, there is a reference design, so all motherboards have a certain standard functionality. But on top of that, they can load extra features, such as extra USB connections, onboard sound / LAN, extra SATA connections, legacy support (I don't consider that a feature however), and all sorts of extras to cater to overclocking.

If you don't go overboard (you aren't, with just the 1 videocard and 1 HD to connect), then you almost don't have to think about it. If you are going overboard, then you'll have to make sure everything's compatible and physically fits.

If you really want to know the difference between motherboards, you'd have to give specific examples .

 

As for shops, I can't advise on that, I only have experience with Dutch shops (obviously). But in general, there are several ways of doing things. If you like to build your own computer, and you order seperate components, than you could use a (UK) pricewatch site to painstakingly calculate prices for various combinations of products ordered from a number of shops, factoring in shipping costs. There's a Dutch site which is awesome at this, which keeps track of the prices of several shops, and factors in the shipping costs for you, but I don't know of a UK equivalent. However, I didn't want to get my stuff in too many packages, so I just went with the 2 shops which seemed reliable too me, and together were cheap enough.

The other way is to simply buy a complete computer. You could just go to a shop and buy a desktop, like a Dell or Acer or whatever, and they're fine. Or you can go to a specialist, who sells components, but they often also offer to build the computer for you, for a little extra. This is what you seem to be planning now. The advantage is, none of the hassle, and all of the support, just like you would buy a Del, and you still get to select each individual componentl. You're missing out on all the fun stuff though .

[Nolan]

That Core i7 you selected is a Sandy Bridge.

 

8GB of RAM is quite a lot, but I really don't have the knowledge to know if that's overkill for Video Editing. You can probably get by with 4GB and 1333 for speed instead of 1600. That could certainly help save some money pounds.

[McPhee]

For a bit of price comparison:

 

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/productlist.php?groupid=43&catid=1917&sortby=priceAsc

 

http://3xs.scan.co.uk/

 

If the video editing you're planning on doing is particularly intense then the i7 2600 (either regular or 'K' edition) would probably be worth the extra. The 2500 is plenty powerful, but the addition of hyperthreading will make quite a big difference in some programs. Same goes for buying 8GB RAM. 4GB is generally plenty, 8GB for specialist applications. Then again, DDR3 prices have dropped so hard that it's almost rude not to go 8GB.

Edited January 13, 2011 by McPhee

[Daft]

Okay, so I'm on the home straight with this. Again, thank you guys! Internals have been nailed down. Only a few things left.

 

Where is the WiFi? Dumb question, I'm sure but the last desktop I bought ages ago now didn't have wi-fi so I don't know if it's standard or not.

 

For the case I've gone for the Coolermaster Sileo 500: Quiet Midtower Case. My friend has it and says it's really quiet. So it looks like a safe bet.

 

Finally, for a monitor I've been pointed to a HannsG HH251DPB 24.6 inch LCD TFT Monitor.

 

My other friend says it's pretty good but I'm not sold. Any thoughts?

 

Edit: This looks pretty. http://www.amazon.co.uk/Samsung-P2450H-24-inch-Widescreen-Monitor/dp/B002DPYQSW

 

 

 

 

 

EDIT EDIT: Okay, stoopidity sorted out. Just added the Wireless card. But there is a choice between PCI and PCI-E. I picked the latter since I think it's newer. Is there a difference?

Edited January 14, 2011 by Daft

[Sméagol]

PCI-e is a newer standard, and potentially faster, but for your networkcard, it won't matter (I think). It's mostly a matter of what spare slots you have. Since newer stuff makes use of the PCI-e slots, it's usually the PCI slot which doesn't get used. So it is a perfect match for things like network cards. You could also have bought a wifi dongle, in that case you would use up a USB port instead of your PCI-e slot.

 

I don't have experience with the HannsG brand, but I hear they're good. I'd personally go for the Samsung though, I know they're good. I have a XL2370 myself, which I'm pretty happy about.

[Daft]

Okay guys, I've placed the order.

 

 

Just need to find a monitor now. I've got a couple weeks until the computer arrives.

[Sméagol]

Post pictures of the work in process! They get me to drool almost as much as pictures of hot models :p.

[Daft]

I got PCSpecialist to build it in the end (I know I'm bad, but their three year warranty for £5 was too appealing). I will definitely be rooting around inside it, though. I want to see how it all fits together so when I upgrade any bits I'll be ready.