PC Building?
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Hi,
I want to buy a new computer, I've been considering between using a computer running either Windows or Mac OS. I'm now considering building a computer as it seems that I could get more for my money.
I will list the parts here and would appreciate it if you could advise as to whether this is a good set up, or what I could do to improve it and ofcourse point out if I'm missing anything.
Case
Corsair Carbide 300R Case - £62.00
http://www.ebuyer.com/351501-corsair-carbide-300r-case-cc-9011014-ww
[BPSU[/B]
Be Quiet Pure Pwer 730W Modular PSU - £85.49
Would this be sufficient, and would there be a better or cheaper option?
http://www.ebuyer.com/283838-be-quiet-pure-power-730w-modular-psu-bn183
Motherboard
Asus P8Z68-V PRO/GEN3 Socket 1155 Motherboard - £155.50
http://www.ebuyer.com/291654-asus-p8z68-v-pro-gen3-socket-1155-dvi-vga-hdmi-8-channel-audio-atx-p8z68-v-pro-gen3
CPU
Intel Core i7 2700K 3.50GHz Socket 1155 Processor - £231.81
http://www.ebuyer.com/289930-intel-core-i7-2700k-3-50ghz-socket-1155-8mb-l3-cache-retail-boxed-bx80623i72700k
CPU fan
http://www.ebuyer.com/195165-noctua-nh-d14-dual-radiator-and-fan-socket-lga1366-lga1156-lga775-am3-am2-nh-d14
Memory
Corsair 32GB DDR3 1600MHz Vengeance memory - £169.98
http://www.ebuyer.com/340480-corsair-32gbddr3-1600mhz-vengeance-memory-cmz32gx3m4x1600c10
HDD
Seagate 1TB HDD - £50.04
http://www.ebuyer.com/319639-seagate-1tb-barracuda-internal-hard-drive-st1000dm003
Graphics card
KFA2 GTX 660 2VGB GDDR5 PCI-E Graphics card - £156.50
http://www.ebuyer.com/409673-kfa2-gtx-660-980mhz-2gb-gddr5-dual-dvi-hdmi-displayport-pci-e-graphics-66nph7dn7dxz
Sound Card
Creative Sound Blaster Audigy SE 7.1 Sound Card £27.50
Optical Drive
Samsung DVD Writer - £13.98
http://www.ebuyer.com/397468-samsung-sh224bb-bebe-sh224bb-bebe
Cables
http://www.ebuyer.com/287031-6in-sata-to-right-angle-sata-serial-ata-cable-uk-sata6ra1
Cooling
Please suggest cooling for this setup, are fans sufficient?
So, is there anything I'm missing?
What would be involved in setting this up with regards to motherboard settings etc?
This would be to run Windows 8.
All helpful advice is appreciated!
I want to buy a new computer, I've been considering between using a computer running either Windows or Mac OS. I'm now considering building a computer as it seems that I could get more for my money.
I will list the parts here and would appreciate it if you could advise as to whether this is a good set up, or what I could do to improve it and ofcourse point out if I'm missing anything.
Case
Corsair Carbide 300R Case - £62.00
http://www.ebuyer.com/351501-corsair-carbide-300r-case-cc-9011014-ww
[BPSU[/B]
Be Quiet Pure Pwer 730W Modular PSU - £85.49
Would this be sufficient, and would there be a better or cheaper option?
http://www.ebuyer.com/283838-be-quiet-pure-power-730w-modular-psu-bn183
Motherboard
Asus P8Z68-V PRO/GEN3 Socket 1155 Motherboard - £155.50
http://www.ebuyer.com/291654-asus-p8z68-v-pro-gen3-socket-1155-dvi-vga-hdmi-8-channel-audio-atx-p8z68-v-pro-gen3
CPU
Intel Core i7 2700K 3.50GHz Socket 1155 Processor - £231.81
http://www.ebuyer.com/289930-intel-core-i7-2700k-3-50ghz-socket-1155-8mb-l3-cache-retail-boxed-bx80623i72700k
CPU fan
http://www.ebuyer.com/195165-noctua-nh-d14-dual-radiator-and-fan-socket-lga1366-lga1156-lga775-am3-am2-nh-d14
Memory
Corsair 32GB DDR3 1600MHz Vengeance memory - £169.98
http://www.ebuyer.com/340480-corsair-32gbddr3-1600mhz-vengeance-memory-cmz32gx3m4x1600c10
HDD
Seagate 1TB HDD - £50.04
http://www.ebuyer.com/319639-seagate-1tb-barracuda-internal-hard-drive-st1000dm003
Graphics card
KFA2 GTX 660 2VGB GDDR5 PCI-E Graphics card - £156.50
http://www.ebuyer.com/409673-kfa2-gtx-660-980mhz-2gb-gddr5-dual-dvi-hdmi-displayport-pci-e-graphics-66nph7dn7dxz
Sound Card
Creative Sound Blaster Audigy SE 7.1 Sound Card £27.50
Optical Drive
Samsung DVD Writer - £13.98
http://www.ebuyer.com/397468-samsung-sh224bb-bebe-sh224bb-bebe
Cables
http://www.ebuyer.com/287031-6in-sata-to-right-angle-sata-serial-ata-cable-uk-sata6ra1
Cooling
Please suggest cooling for this setup, are fans sufficient?
So, is there anything I'm missing?
What would be involved in setting this up with regards to motherboard settings etc?
This would be to run Windows 8.
All helpful advice is appreciated!
0
Comments
It will offer you by far the biggest real world performance increase.
i wouldn't bother with 32GB of RAM either. unless your requirements are pretty niche you wont use it. if you buy 2x8GB if you feel the need in future you can always buy it then. when it will be half the price. you also need a windows version above Home Premium for >16GB
cooling shouldn't need anything special. cpu and gpu combined it's still only just over 200W. with the two case fans and psu fan it's not that much.
Looks like motherboard all ready has 7.1 stuff.
32GB Ram might be over kill to maybe go for 16GB.
If you're comfortable enough with doing a bit of work there's no reason your new computer can't run both Windows and OS X.
A quick look online indicates that people have managed to build Hackintoshs with those components.
I'd probably go for a Gigabyte motherboard though as Hackintosh builds seem to have fewer problems with Gigabyte boards. Can't comment on the graphics card since i've not needed more than integrated graphics for many years now.
Just finished building my second Hackintosh. Using:
Carbide 200R case,
cheap generic 400W PSU,
Gigabyte GA-Z77-DS3H (v 1.0) motherboard,
i3 3225 CPU,
16GB of Crucial Ram,
256GB Crucial M4 SSD,
OS X 10.8.3 Mountain Lion.
Already had the SSD so the total cost was about £370. The machine flies and Mountain Lion runs perfectly so far (without even the occasional kernel panic or graphics glitch of my last build).
Stuck 2 HDDs (1TB, 250GB) in my old system. Installed Mountain Lion on the smaller drive and Windows 7 on the larger one and my sister is extremely pleased with her new Hackintosh/Windows machine.
I do agree with the previous posters that 32GB of RAM is probably overkill, the sound card is likely unnecessary and that a SSD is a must these days.
The stock cooler is enough for the CPU in my experience, especially if you clean off the stock paste and use something like Artic Silver.
My Carbide 200R came with both a front and back 120mm fan, so the 300R is likely to as well. I had an extra 120mm fan lying about so i fitted it too, but it never comes on except for a couple seconds at boot.
I've been looking more at building my own computer though, it seems that I could get far more for my money this way, but I'm very concerned about causing any faults through not putting it together properly (either physically or with regards to software)
I thought the RAM might have been a bit over the top, but then again, I thought it might be good for the future? Would I be better just getting something like 16GB? My current laptop has 2GB and has trouble with basic multitasking so I'd be wary about going below 8GB to be honest.
I was looking at SSD's but they seem quite expensive, and it seems I can mainly find 2.5" ones. If I bought one of those could I get a 3.5" mount for the tower?
If I was to build a computer to these specs, I would hope to use it for gaming, music editing etc instead of just basic computing. But with the amount of components on the market I'm really not sure which would be most suitable.
Also, Esot-eric, you mention stock cooler - do these come with the processor? I've never bought a processor before.
When building a computer are there any settings with regards to jumpers or anything on the motherboard that I need to be aware of, or anything else I should look into first?
All SSD are 2.5" they come with a thing. And you're case may have s slot for it. You only need a small one to use in conjunction with an HDD.
Mother board will come with a manual. But there should be nothing to change.
Usually CPU's come with a cooler yes. The retail ones.
Good luck
A modern half decent PC should never not have an SSD now a days. They speed the PC up more than RAM!
I will NEVER build a PC without an SSD ever again at home.
So would I have iTunes itself on the SSD, but all the music etc on the 1TB drive? Would this still be fast though?
Currently I don't need a lot of space, but if I built a computer of these specs I'd want to do some gaming and as such I'm not sure whether I could run a SSD only one, or if I'd need a bigger HDD.
If you buy a processor in a retail box, and not an OEM version, it'll come with a heat-sink and fan. This will be more than sufficient, especially in a large case with good airflow.
16GB of RAM will be enough for the time being. If you ever need more it'll likely be substantially cheaper to buy by then.
Games can take up a lot of space, and you're going to want them installed on the SSD for speed reasons, so if you're going to have a few of them go for a larger SSD. The money saved from only getting 16GB RAM should be able to bump you from a ~250GB SSD to ~500GB.
If you decide not to go SSD then a hybrid HDD/SSD drive is the next best thing. No where near as fast as a SSD, but faster than a HDD.
My first PC was pre-built and after that I always built my own after seeing how easy it was.
Sadly if I go for a Mac, i will lose that ability to build my own.
i agree with the others on here, get a SSD for Os and software.
Hackintosh? I managed to make 2 of them after 5 or 6 attempts... Admittedly, they're never the same...
PSU is good, more than adequate, but what I don't understand is 32GB of memory... why? There's nothing out there that I'm aware of that will push an 8GB system. It's just a waste of money.
Some of the money you've saved on the memory can go towards either upgrading to the 660ti, or maybe going for a Radeon HD7850, both are better than the vanilla 660.
I have to agree on the SSD post as well. I've just built a £700+ system for a friend with one, and it's truly amazing to watch Win7 boot in less than 14 seconds.
Definitely don't bother with the sound card, I think you'd have to be an audiophile to appreciate the difference between that and the built in one.
I'm in the process of speccing out a £700+ system for my son, and I have a watercooling system which I'll be fitting for him. It will make it pretty much silent, as well as being able to safely Overclock it if needed. There's some good kits out there if you fancy it.
Ofc it will do, but the slight fps increase in 99% of games isn't worth paying the extra for.
Don't take my word for it, Tom's Hardware and lots of other sites say the same.
that would only be relevant for gaming though. there are other reasons to have a decent cpu.
Defiantly go the SSD route, again the bigger/best you can afford; they do make a real difference in performance.
Fair point, but Treble doesn't really state if he'll be using it for gaming or massive multi row excel files etc.
It's just that if it's for gaming the money could be better spent elsewhere.
the reason i stick to amd is they have generally sort to retain compatibility between processor/socket evolutions. which is particularly important when you have OEM bios activated versions of windows.
The spec is complete overkill, something like this would more sensible (still overkill, but not so much):
Corsair Carbide 300R case - £62.00
Intel i5-3570K retail CPU - £166.79
Gigabyte GA-Z77X-D3H Motherboard - £100.25
Be Quiet! 530W Pure Power L8 Power Supply - £63.08
Corsair 16GB (2x8GB) DDR3 XMS3 RAM - £79.99
Samsung 840 Series Pro 128GB SSD - £104.98
Seagate 1TB HDD - £50.04
Samsung DVD Writer - £13.98
£641.11
That's £340 cheaper and includes a SSD (using stock CPU cooler and integrated graphics/sound). By all means get a better CPU cooler to reduce noise and a dedicated graphics card but not a £150 one for basic games!
I think there are a few reasons why I stuck with AMD. what you said above hold true, also because Intel played dirty in the past, i also had good service from AMD, even years ago when I had a K5 that failed because the heatsink fan was not working and AMD just sent me a new CPU.
i also think they offer good value for money, sure they may not have the power of Intel, but they do or did offer good performance for the price.
Sadly they did not do so well with the bulldozer, I don't know if their current crop is ok as I have got no need to replace mine yet.
Oh yeah and they are the underdogs, ok I know they are still a pretty large corporation, but compared to Intel they are tiny.
Whereas with AMD, once an architecture gets a feature all the processors tend to get it, from the cheapest to most expensive.
If the OP is only going to run Windows on the machine then i'd say go with an AMD processor. An i7 is complete overkill for their stated uses. An AMD A8 5500 should be more than sufficient.
If the OP wants a Hackintosh or to dual-boot Windows and OS X then Smudged's list of components is good except i'd go with the Gigabyte GA-Z77-DS3H motherboard instead. It's about £35 cheaper and is more compatible with OS X (especially if you can get the Rev 1.0 board). Hackintosh buyers guides can be found here.
http://www.amazon.co.uk/AMD-ADX640WFGMBOX-Athlon-II-640/dp/B003M7BLOW/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&qid=1365162765&sr=8-4&keywords=amd+quad
Genuinely don't see myself upgrading for quite some time as it still plays all the new games that are released with the right graphics card.