Your Expert advice needed please!

MickH503

The graphics card in my 4 year old Medion (stop laughing!) PC gave up the ghost and I thought I'd get it going again by buying an ASUS EAH4870, but alas the power supply is not up to the challenge. So I am going to do a self build PC now instead of sometime next year that I was planning!

I've done a bit of reading from the previous posts here and have come up with the parts list below. At the moment I hope to use the 4870 in the new build along with a fairly new Seagate 1 TB HDD that I also have.

I really like the idea of using an SSD for the OS (I have Win7 HP), but know nothing about them. Anyone out there using one? Is it worth the price? Microsoft recommends minimum 20GB of disk space for Win7 64 bit, so would a 32GB SSD be enough or is it safer with a 64GB?

I don't plan on over-clocking, so do I need a new CPU cooler or would the stock one be good enough?

I remember someone on here recommending to change out the stock fans in the case, so I just picked a random 120mm fan - are they needed?

The PSU is probably overkill, but for the sake of a little extra now, hopefully it will last for a long time!

Does it look like all these components are compatible with each other? Any suggestions or advice? Anything I'm missing? Thanks!:D



Cooler Master HAF 922 Midi Tower Black x1 €92
Intel Core™ i5 Quad Processor i5-750 x1 €185
Gigabyte GA-P55-UD4, P55, Socket-1156 x1 €145.50
Crucial DDR3 1333MHz 6GB KIT CL9 x1 €122
Corsair SSD Extreme X64 2,5" 64GB x1 €209
Sony NEC Optiarc DVD±RW burner AD-7241S x1 €23
Zalman CNPS10X Quiet CPU Cooler x1 €46
Scythe Slip Stream 120mm Case Fan x3 €18 -- TOTAL €989.50

Leman_Russ

Drop the UD4 since you are not overclocking, get a UD2 or UD3.

64GB for a SSD is deffinitly the better option

6GB is wrong for an i5. The LGA1156 Socket supports Dual Channel Memory, you want 2x2GB or 4x2GB, not 3x2GB.

The Stock CPU Cooler with the i5 is a load of s**t. Buy an aftermarket cooler.

Also, don;t buy from komplett, eBuyer are much cheaper Info for registering from Ireland and make up a UK Phone number when you register, they only contact you by email anyway

Carne

Leman_Russ wrote: »

Also, don;t buy from komplett, eBuyer are much cheaper Info for registering from Ireland and make up a UK Phone number when you register, they only contact you by email anyway

I registered with eBuyer yesterday and didn't have to enter any postcode.

MickH503

Thanks for the suggestions ... I didn't go for the UD3 m/b because it doesn't have any Firewire, but the UD2 does, so I'll switch to that. I've switched to 4x 2GB of RAM and I switched to the CM 690 case as it has a front firewire connection.

List is now:

Cooler Master CM 690 Midi Tower Black x1 €67.51
Corsair HX 850W PSU x1 €149
Intel Core™ i5 Quad Processor i5-750 x1 €185
Gigabyte GA-P55M-UD2, P55, Socket-1156 x1 €87.50
Crucial DDR3 1333MHz 4GB KIT, CL9 x2 €176
Corsair SSD Extreme X64 2,5" 64GB x1 €209
Sony NEC Optiarc DVD±RW burner AD-7241S x1 €23
Zalman CNPS10X Quiet CPU Cooler x1 €46
Scythe Slip Stream 120mm Case Fan x3 €18

---

> TOTAL €961.01


Any recommendations for an aftermarket cooler? And is that SSD OK? I'll look at ebuyer tomorrow and see how the prices compare ... thanks for the advice.

Leman_Russ

Carne wrote: »

I registered with eBuyer yesterday and didn't have to enter any postcode.

They are gonna send your items to the UK then. You have to Put REP 123 or REP IRE as your postcode or it wont know you are in ireland

jonny72

Just check the SSD review first, I think those corsair models are okay, but just to be on the safe side.

There are SSD's which are much faster than other ones and also do not degrade/have issues.

Anandtech.com has done some great writeups on SSDs, they are the business, but still very expensive so choose wisely.

Carne

Leman_Russ wrote: »

They are gonna send your items to the UK then. You have to Put REP 123 or REP IRE as your postcode or it wont know you are in ireland

The weird thing is I didn't see any option to enter a postcode while I was registering. I gave my Irish address which stated Eire at their checkout so obviously they must know I'm not in the UK and then purchased one item via Google Checkout. Though Google Checkout currently has 'Not shipped yet' the last time I checked.

Sorry MickH503 for hijacking your thread

MickH503

Carne wrote: »

Sorry MickH503 for hijacking your thread

Ha ... no worries, it's all good information!

Leman_Russ

Carne wrote: »

The weird thing is I didn't see any option to enter a postcode while I was registering. I gave my Irish address which stated Eire at their checkout so obviously they must know I'm not in the UK and then purchased one item via Google Checkout. Though Google Checkout currently has 'Not shipped yet' the last time I checked.

Sorry MickH503 for hijacking your thread

Hmm, that's a little odd lol.

Well, hope things work out for you anyway

Effluo

Op what will you be doing with this pc?

Also what exactly are the specs of your old pc?

MickH503

Effluo wrote: »

Op what will you be doing with this pc?

Also what exactly are the specs of your old pc?

Here are the original specs of the PC. I had added bigger HDDs and more RAM over the years. The PSU is only 400W. I will probably donate it to a friend in need of a working desktop (with a new cheapo graphics card).

The new rig will mostly be used for day-to-day stuff (email/ web/ MSoffice). I do a little gaming and would like to be able to run any newly available games if I want to. I do some video encoding occasionally and also, I want to learn how to use Photoshop CS4 at some stage!

Effluo

Well...
Your build is prob quite a bit of overkill for what you'll be doing with it.
You know that all a SSD really does is make windows and other programs start-up quicker. But if you want to go treat yourself, go ahead.

8gig's of ram is completely unnecessary. There will be no benefit to you and i think you should drop back to 4, which is extra hard to get anywhere near with Windows 7.

You have yet to state what the resolution of your screen is so getting the right gpu for you is not easy at this point.

And just one final thing is your power supply!!!! :O
Bottom line, You will never need 850watts

A good 450watt psu with a 4890 gpu would be more than adequate in that rig...

If you want to "futureproof" your psu then maybe the max should be a 650watt, which would cover for xfire or any other upgrade

MickH503

Effluo wrote: »

Well...
Your build is prob quite a bit of overkill for what you'll be doing with it.
You know that all a SSD really does is make windows and other programs start-up quicker. But if you want to go treat yourself, go ahead.

8gig's of ram is completely unnecessary. There will be no benefit to you and i think you should drop back to 4, which is extra hard to get anywhere near with Windows 7.

You have yet to state what the resolution of your screen is so getting the right gpu for you is not easy at this point.

And just one final thing is your power supply!!!! :O
Bottom line, You will never need 850watts

A good 450watt psu with a 4890 gpu would be more than adequate in that rig...

If you want to "futureproof" your psu then maybe the max should be a 650watt, which would cover for xfire or any other upgrade

Thanks for your suggestions ... my monitor supports max of 1680x1050 resolution. I think I've decided to drop the SSD after doing a bit of reading on anandtech.com ... just too expensive at the moment! If I added a second or third HDD in the future, how much extra load would it put on the PSU? I will probably scale back to 650W as you suggested. The 8GB of RAM was a bit of luxury all right, might drop back to 4GB for now and see how it works!

Effluo

At that resolution you could get this gpu and it would be excellent the 4870!
http://www.ebuyer.com/product/169206
Prob the best card for the money, at that resolution right now!


The only issue i'd have with that particular card is that it has a high power consumption at idle and load...
I'm also not sure if you want to go for a more economical 4770, uses a lot less power, but will not perform as well.

Check out some reviews of the cards and see what you think for yourself!

MickH503

Effluo wrote: »

At that resolution you could get this gpu and it would be excellent the 4870!
http://www.ebuyer.com/product/169206
Prob the best card for the money, at that resolution right now!


The only issue i'd have with that particular card is that it has a high power consumption at idle and load...
I'm also not sure if you want to go for a more economical 4770, uses a lot less power, but will not perform as well.

Check out some reviews of the cards and see what you think for yourself!

I already have one of these ... what do you think?

MickH503

This is what I'm thinking now ...

Cooler Master CM 690 Midi Tower Black x1 €67.51
Corsair HX 750W PSU x1 €129
Intel Core™ i5 Quad Processor i5-750 x1 €185
Gigabyte GA-P55-UD4, P55, Socket-1156 x1 €145.50
Crucial DDR3 1333MHz 4GB KIT, CL9 x1 €88
Samsung SpinPoint F3 1TB SATA2 32MB 7200RPM x1 €67
Sony NEC Optiarc DVD±RW burner AD-7241S x1 €23
Noctua NH-U12P SE2 CPU Cooler x1 €46
Scythe Slip Stream 120mm Case Fan x3 €18
Card reader 51-in-1 black, 3½ internal USB 2.0 x1 11.54 -> TOTAL €797.55

Effluo

Yeah that's the card i was recommending(pretty much)

Just keep that, it's fine!

Your cpu fan is very rich, are you overclocking?

MickH503

Effluo wrote: »

Yeah that's the card i was recommending(pretty much)

Just keep that, it's fine!

Your cpu fan is very rich, are you overclocking?

Probably not, but that one was recommended on here. Do you have a suggestion for another maybe smaller one?

Effluo

Well you should certainly go cheaper!

IMO unless you're heavily overclocking or have extreme fear of hearing a fan in your pc then just go with something like this

http://www.guru3d.com/article/coolermaster-hyper-tx3-review/7

Sounds perfect for you and komplett do it
http://www.komplett.ie/k/ki.aspx?sku=461496

Don't forget you'll also need some thermal paste
http://www.komplett.ie/k/ki.aspx?sku=460665

Unfortunately komplett only have this type in stock atm

Leman_Russ

If you are not overclocking, swap the Mobo for a UD3, not a UD4.

MickH503

Leman_Russ wrote: »

If you are not overclocking, swap the Mobo for a UD3, not a UD4.

The UD3 doesn't have Firewire, which I'd like to have.

Effluo

Maybe you could save a bit and go for this ASUS then instead, it has two firewires

http://www.komplett.ie/k/ki.aspx?sku=487821&view=detailed#ProductTabs

Leman_Russ

MickH503 wrote: »

The UD3 doesn't have Firewire, which I'd like to have.

/facepalm. I forgot you said that already lol

MickH503

Leman_Russ wrote: »

/facepalm. I forgot you said that already lol

You're a Gigabyte fan aren't you? I have heard others recommend them, so that's why I'm sticking with the UD4!!

Effluo

You hear people thumbing them and downing them.
Some with all brands i guess

Leman_Russ

MickH503 wrote: »

You're a Gigabyte fan aren't you? I have heard others recommend them, so that's why I'm sticking with the UD4!!

Well in any case you should be able to overclock really REALLY well then

batman2000

Well Mickh503, I like that build very much.

MickH503

In the end this is what I went with:
Cooler Master CM 690 Midi Tower Black
Corsair HX 650W PSU
Intel Core™ i5 Quad Processor i5-750
Gigabyte GA-P55-UD4, P55, Socket-1156
Crucial DDR3 1333MHz 4GB KIT, CL9

I put it all together and had a wierd problem ... when I powered it on, the fans would spin for 4 or 5 seconds and it would power off again, then do the same again 7 or 8 seconds later. After a bit of messing around I discovered that I could power it on with the RAM removed and it would stay powered up. It didn't matter what combination of my 1 or 2 sticks of RAM I tried.
I got a loan of a stick of Crucial 1066MHz DDR3 RAM and installed it and it worked perfectly. So I started the process of returning my RAM, etc ... then I updated the BIOS on the motherboard, installed my original "bad" RAM and it works ok! Just wondering if anyone has seen this before?

Leman_Russ

MickH503 wrote: »

So I started the process of returning my RAM, etc ... then I updated the BIOS on the motherboard, installed my original "bad" RAM and it works ok! Just wondering if anyone has seen this before?

Yup. It's why you always update the BIOS as soon as you get the PC Just make sure you keep checking the gigabyte website. Gigabyte release new bios very often (sometimes 2 or 3 in a week).

You started overclocking yet?

MickH503

It's a bit of a problem though if the system won't power up to allow you to update the BIOS! If it wasn't for my generous pal that loaned me some RAM, I'd still be waiting for replacement RAM that probably wouldn't work either!:D

haven't tried over clocking yet ... I don't want to fry the CPU!

Leman_Russ

MickH503 wrote: »

It's a bit of a problem though if the system won't power up to allow you to update the BIOS! If it wasn't for my generous pal that loaned me some RAM, I'd still be waiting for replacement RAM that probably wouldn't work either!:D

haven't tried over clocking yet ... I don't want to fry the CPU!

Ah sure, overclocking is a piece o' pish!
What heatsink are ya usin?

MickH503

Leman_Russ wrote: »

What heatsink are ya usin?

Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro Rev2

Leman_Russ

MickH503 wrote: »

Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro Rev2

Good, so it's not stock

What ya wanna do to start id go tot he BIOS settings, go to the MIT, go to Frequency, then CPU Features, and disable EIST, C1E, Turbo, C3/C6 etc state, then go to voltage and Disable Load Line Calibration. For voltage, set the vcore to "normal" and the Dynamic vCore (dVid i think it is labeled, it should be right under the vCore and be greyed out until you set the vcore to "Normal") at auto. Leave everything else at auto, boot up.

Then post a screenshot of what CPUz (google it :P) reports on the CPU and Memory tabs (you can run it twice and place them side by side for a single screenshot), and what Realtemp (google it :P) reports your idle temps at.