[subversive]

Hi,

There are so many out there and I would like some recommendations from the people here.

I am building my system around a Intel i7 ivybridge processor.

But, what would be a good motherboard and a PSU.

I know some motherboards have on-board graphics and sound. But I eventually want to connect two monitors, so I will be using an existing graphics card I have. As for sound, I do now know how good the on-board sound is on the new MB's, but I want to avoid that annoying buzzing noise, so I will be buying one, not now, but at a later stage.


As for Power supply, I think I need around 600Ws to power everything, but for safe keeping, I am going for a 750 or a 850 PSU, but I have no idea which one is a good one.

I will be searching for some reviews, in the mean time, I would like to know the opinion of you guys.

[1saintly]

Originally Posted by subversive

Hi,


As for sound, I do now know how good the on-board sound is on the new MB's, but I want to avoid that annoying buzzing noise, so I will be buying one, not now, but at a later stage.

Will you be using the speakers from..
http://forums.digitalspy.co.uk/showt...566&highlight=
what model are they?

Also you dont give a budget?

Have you ever built one before?

can you or have you ever installed windows?

What will you be using the PC for?

You will be advised its usually better to buy one.
Personally my 1st impressions from youre post are i would advise you to do that.

[subversive]

Originally Posted by 1saintly

Will you be using the speakers from..
http://forums.digitalspy.co.uk/showt...566&highlight=
what model are they?

Also you dont give a budget?

Have you ever built one before?

can you or have you ever installed windows?

What will you be using the PC for?

You will be advised its usually better to buy one.
Personally my 1st impressions from youre post are i would advise you to do that.

The current speakers are simple 2.0 logitech x-140s. They will be replaced by some thumping 5.1's in the near future.

Budget around £800 thats not including the monitor, keyboard, mouse, new speakers and sound card

ever built a pc, around 10 years ago.

yes I can install windows

what will I use the pc for, everything and more, the more includes hd video creation/editing, photo editing, coding and my new hobby, trading....

what else?

[noise747]

Not really into intels to be honest, but a mate of mine swear by gigabyte boards, but I never had much luck with them myself.

I like Asrock, they are not expensive for what they offer and yet seems to be reliable and as good as others over their price range.

As for which board is better for you, it depends on what you want. i just got myself a nice Asrock 970 Extreme 3, for around £56, ok it is AMd not intel, but it got what I want.


As for power supplies, coolermaster, corsair and Thermaltake seems to be ok. I got a Corsair in my second computer and I got a thermaltake tough power XT in this one.

[flagpole]

there are very few scenarios these days in which you need a separate sound card.

[Daedroth]

Unless you're planning on running 2x dedicated gaming graphics cards, you won't need more than 500W for the PSU.

You can get a decent low-powered graphics card such as an Nvidia N210 if you simply want to split your screens.

You only need a dedicated sound card if you're a massive audiofile too. I changed from a dedicated Creative Soundblaster card to the Asus onboard card, and it's identical.

[noise747]

Originally Posted by flagpole

there are very few scenarios these days in which you need a separate sound card.

And if you do require one then go for a Asus sonar, a mate got a budget one and it is really good for the price, certainly in games with his headset as it got a sort of surround sound which seems to work well.

I am thinking of getting one of the higher end sonar cards

[Smudged]

MB: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Gigabyte-GA-...1836342&sr=8-1

PSU: http://www.ebuyer.com/159918-antec-t...-psu-tp-550-ec

[subversive]

Originally Posted by Daedroth

Unless you're planning on running 2x dedicated gaming graphics cards, you won't need more than 500W for the PSU.

You can get a decent low-powered graphics card such as an Nvidia N210 if you simply want to split your screens.

You only need a dedicated sound card if you're a massive audiofile too. I changed from a dedicated Creative Soundblaster card to the Asus onboard card, and it's identical.

can I ask, when you plug your headphones in, can you hear a buzzing sound, or is it silent (of course when there is no music playing)

[subversive]

Originally Posted by noise747

Not really into intels to be honest, but a mate of mine swear by gigabyte boards, but I never had much luck with them myself.

I like Asrock, they are not expensive for what they offer and yet seems to be reliable and as good as others over their price range.

As for which board is better for you, it depends on what you want. i just got myself a nice Asrock 970 Extreme 3, for around £56, ok it is AMd not intel, but it got what I want.


As for power supplies, coolermaster, corsair and Thermaltake seems to be ok. I got a Corsair in my second computer and I got a thermaltake tough power XT in this one.

to be honest, I like the sound of 8cores, hence why I am looking at AMD..

[subversive]

Originally Posted by Smudged

MB: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Gigabyte-GA-...1836342&sr=8-1

PSU: http://www.ebuyer.com/159918-antec-t...-psu-tp-550-ec

Thanks for the links

I was looking at the asus on-line psu calculator and it seems to think I need a 600w psu, based on the fact I will be using a dedicated graphics card, the ati radeon 4870hd

[c4rv]

Originally Posted by subversive

to be honest, I like the sound of 8cores, hence why I am looking at AMD..

unless you have a highly multi-threaded app then ivy bridge i7 will be quicker and use a lot less power.

TBH, apart from entry level stuff with integrated GPU, there is nothing from AMD that interested me right now. Bang for buck and outright performance and power usage all favour intel.

[Smudged]

Originally Posted by subversive

Thanks for the links

I was looking at the asus on-line psu calculator and it seems to think I need a 600w psu, based on the fact I will be using a dedicated graphics card, the ati radeon 4870hd

500w or 550w is fine for that card as long as it's a decent PSU. Your maximum system power consumption with a i7 CPU and that card is very unlikely to exceed 300w.

The 4870 is quite power hungry by today's standards though, so If you're not using it for gaming I would consider something newer and/or less powerful to save some £'s on electricity.

[neo_wales]

Originally Posted by Daedroth

Unless you're planning on running 2x dedicated gaming graphics cards, you won't need more than 500W for the PSU.

You can get a decent low-powered graphics card such as an Nvidia N210 if you simply want to split your screens.

You only need a dedicated sound card if you're a massive audiofile too. I changed from a dedicated Creative Soundblaster card to the Asus onboard card, and it's identical.

For what the difference in price is the guy should go for a 650+w PSU, 500w really is base level these days. Most on board sound cards are pretty good these days although I run my sound out through a good quality amplifier and Speakers.

[noise747]

Originally Posted by subversive

to be honest, I like the sound of 8cores, hence why I am looking at AMD..

it sounds nice, but sadly there is very little that supports 8 cores, but saying that, there is very little that support quad core.

I stay with AMD because I think they give you more for your money on the lower end, sure Intel may be a bit better at the higher end. the other reason I stay away from Intel is because I remember the dirty tricks they played to try and knock out AMD and no doubt other CPu processors, which is why we now only got two in the market.

[noise747]

Originally Posted by c4rv

unless you have a highly multi-threaded app then ivy bridge i7 will be quicker and use a lot less power.

TBH, apart from entry level stuff with integrated GPU, there is nothing from AMD that interested me right now. Bang for buck and outright performance and power usage all favour intel.

My Phemon II quad core seems to handle some things a lot better than my mates I7 and cost a lot less.

[noise747]

Originally Posted by neo_wales

For what the difference in price is the guy should go for a 650+w PSU, 500w really is base level these days. Most on board sound cards are pretty good these days although I run my sound out through a good quality amplifier and Speakers.

true, but don't go too high as it will be wasted.

[archiver]

Originally Posted by neo_wales

For what the difference in price is the guy should go for a 650+w PSU, 500w really is base level these days. Most on board sound cards are pretty good these days although I run my sound out through a good quality amplifier and Speakers.

But everything is more efficient these days. I used a 500W PSU on my old AMD dual core and thought I may need to upgrade it for my new i5 (single GPU) game machine, but the new stuff uses 100W less than the old!

I use one of these, which is great as it's normally silent and only starts the fan when necessary: http://www.nesteq.net/gb/products/po...ies/asm_xzero/

[subversive]

Originally Posted by Smudged

500w or 550w is fine for that card as long as it's a decent PSU. Your maximum system power consumption with a i7 CPU and that card is very unlikely to exceed 300w.

The 4870 is quite power hungry by today's standards though, so If you're not using it for gaming I would consider something newer and/or less powerful to save some £'s on electricity.

I will be buying a second monitor and the card which I have supports two displays.

I will be saving around £130 if I don't buy the equivalent of that GPU card.

[subversive]

Originally Posted by noise747

it sounds nice, but sadly there is very little that supports 8 cores, but saying that, there is very little that support quad core.

I stay with AMD because I think they give you more for your money on the lower end, sure Intel may be a bit better at the higher end. the other reason I stay away from Intel is because I remember the dirty tricks they played to try and knock out AMD and no doubt other CPu processors, which is why we now only got two in the market.

AMD are the underdog, hence why I was thinking of going with them.

[Smudged]

Originally Posted by archiver

But everything is more efficient these days. I used a 500W PSU on my old AMD dual core and thought I may need to upgrade it for my new i5 (single GPU) game machine, but the new stuff uses 100W less than the old![/url]

Exactly. A i7 Ivy Bridge CPU is 77W.

Originally Posted by subversive

I will be buying a second monitor and the card which I have supports two displays.

I will be saving around £130 if I don't buy the equivalent of that GPU card.

Yes, I just meant that if you don't need the performance of the 4870 (i.e. you're not gaming) then there are cheap, more power efficient options. If you need that level of performance then it would be better to use the 4870 rather than shell out for a new card.

[neo_wales]

Originally Posted by subversive

AMD are the underdog, hence why I was thinking of going with them.

AMD are a great way of putting together a budget machine that performs fine, but they don't compare to the i7 you said you are basing your new system on, you would very clearly see the difference in performance. If you have the budget stick with the i7, if you want to save a few quid go the AMD route.

[noise747]

Originally Posted by subversive

AMD are the underdog, hence why I was thinking of going with them.

Maybe that is the reason why I have stayed with AMd, my first Pc July 1997 had a Cyrix 166 chip in, then I went for a AMD 200Mhz and that was it, I stayed with AMD ever since.

Maybe it was from coming from the Amiga that made me stay with the smaller CPU producer.

I only ever paid out for one Intel machine and that is my laptop, which I only use now and again. If I get another laptop it will be AMD.

I have got a Intel Celeron tower that came my way, but i have never used it myself, I did lend it out for a couple of weeks last year.

My next update is a decent video card, that will be ATI or AMD as it is now, but I am no hurry for that.

[subversive]

Originally Posted by noise747

Maybe that is the reason why I have stayed with AMd, my first Pc July 1997 had a Cyrix 166 chip in, then I went for a AMD 200Mhz and that was it, I stayed with AMD ever since.

Maybe it was from coming from the Amiga that made me stay with the smaller CPU producer.

I only ever paid out for one Intel machine and that is my laptop, which I only use now and again. If I get another laptop it will be AMD.

I have got a Intel Celeron tower that came my way, but i have never used it myself, I did lend it out for a couple of weeks last year.

My next update is a decent video card, that will be ATI or AMD as it is now, but I am no hurry for that.

I am looking at the AMD fx 6200.

[subversive]

Originally Posted by neo_wales

AMD are a great way of putting together a budget machine that performs fine, but they don't compare to the i7 you said you are basing your new system on, you would very clearly see the difference in performance. If you have the budget stick with the i7, if you want to save a few quid go the AMD route.

I agree, after looking at the benchmarks, intel i7 and i5 does take the amds to town.

I have read that its because most programs, etc are written for intel chips. I don't know anything about that to be honest.

but in terms of value for money, amd kicks arse