Looka Ma Build!

Buceph

As the slightly Scottish thread title says, what's this build like?

GPU - €375 - XFX ATI Radeon HD 865Mhz 5870 - http://www.dabs.ie/products/xfx-ati-radeon-hd-865mhz-1gb-pci-express-2-0-hdmi-xt-6B3M.html?refs=4294950465
CPU - €246 - Intel Core i7 Quad 860 2.80 8MB - http://www.dabs.ie/products/intel-core-i7-quad-860-2-80-8mb-656X.html?refs=4294950617
Motherboard - €153 - Gigabyte S1156 GA-P55-UD4 - http://www.dabs.ie/products/gigabyte-s1156-intel-p55-atx-ddr3-a-l-64SK.html?refs=4294950692-50509
Ram - Corsair Memory 4GB (2X2GB KIT) DDR3 1600MHZ (x2 so 8gigs in total) - €200 - http://www.dabs.ie/products/corsair-memory-4gb--2x2gb-kit--ddr3-1600mhz-240pin-unbuffered-50TW.html?refs=4294953829&q=12800
Case - €91 - Antec Nine Hundred - http://www.dabs.ie/products/antec-nine-hundred-ultimate-gamer-case-no-psu-49XS.html?refs=50882-44070000-42080000
PSU - €105 - Antec True Power 650Watt - http://www.dabs.ie/products/antec-true-power-650watt-120mm-67MX.html?refs=50882
Monitor - €175 - LG Electronics 22" W2261VP 5MS DVI - http://www.dabs.ie/products/lg-electronics-22--w2261vp-5ms-dvi-hdmi-hd-lcd-tft-65CV.html?refs=396680000-428550000

I'm at my max budget so if I have to spend more in one area, I'll have to cut back in another.

Is the PSU powerful enough for the components I'm getting and will it allow for upgrades in the future?

Some have said that the monitor needs to be upgraded, but I've had a basic 17inch Dell monitor for the past five years and I've never needed the black blacker or a wider viewing angle so I'm not too bothered.

Should I have gone for a 1366 base or is the 1156 the right one? I think the 1156 is what's aimed at me, and the other is for people who will be keeping fiendishly up to date.

And I've pigged out on the graphics card because I always figure it's worth doing so on either that or the CPU, and seeing as the next CPU is about €500, I went with the best GPU I could afford.

Anyway, if you need any more info I'll do my best to inform. And thanks for looking at this.

uberpixie

you could trim the cpu back to i5 for €100 less.

http://www.dabs.ie/products/intel-core-i5-quad-750-2-66-8mb-656Y.html?refs=4294950617

Only go the icore 7 if you are actually going to use software that benefits from HT, otherwise the bog i5 quad is perfect.

PSU: more than enough.

stephenmarr

you forgot a cooler

Buceph

stephenmarr wrote: »

you forgot a cooler

I thought that CPUs came with heatsinks?

If I need something else could you link to some decent ones from Dabs?

Anti

no no no, keep that i7-860 its a absolute beast, the 750 is good though but there is no virtualization on it so you will only ever see 4 cores instead of 8 with the 860. ALso the 860 will clock to 4ghz on stock volts too ! OH the cpu oes come with a stock intel heatsink, but its useless.

BadCharlie

Maybe this monitor
http://accessories.euro.dell.com/sna/productdetail.aspx?c=ie&l=en&cs=iedhs1&sku=324819
Also you could get a 5850 video card and spend the extra money on a sound card or headset/speakers. Or keep the cash and add another 5850 6months time.

death1234567

Anti wrote: »

OH the cpu oes come with a stock intel heatsink, but its useless.

+1. Get yourself a dacent cooler, they'll cost bollock all in comparision to your overall spend and will be the best money you'll spend.

Eg. Cheap one here

Venom

death1234567 wrote: »

+1. Get yourself a dacent cooler, they'll cost bollock all in comparision to your overall spend and will be the best money you'll spend.

Eg. Cheap one here

The hyper tx3 is pretty craptastic tbh. OP go for a CoolerMaster Hyper 212 Plus Cooler at least but if you plan to overclock I would suggest a high end cooler.

cian1500ww

Go with a Noctua NH-D14 cooler, best air cooler on the market at the moment, mine should be coming today

Buceph

If I had €50 to splash on a decent cooler (from Dabs, mind you) which should I get? I know I'm going to overclock at some point. I've done it with all my graphics cards and it's just the Dell PC I've had for ages that's been holding me back. I can't resist a good fiddle. Although I won't be doing anything too extreme, already had one graphics card die on me.


And cheers for all the help so far. I appreciate it.

Anti

why are you limiting yourself to dabs only? There are other good irish companies out there like Komplett.ie and elara.ie

Buceph

Anti wrote: »

why are you limiting yourself to dabs only? There are other good irish companies out there like Komplett.ie and elara.ie

I've compared prices and Dabs look to be about even with the rest. But I've bought off Dabs before and had good customer support. And if everything is bought off of one place it'll be easier to deal with them if there is actually any hassle.

Edit: If a good deal, I'd go elsewhere (within Ireland) but from what I've checked they're all much of a muchness.

ScumLord

Anti wrote: »

OH the cpu oes come with a stock intel heatsink, but its useless.

Is it? I'd heard fairly complimentary reviews of Intels stock cooler. I'm not saying it would be suitable for overclocking to much but I would have thought it's more than adequate and fairly quite from what I can remember (talking about the one that came with me E6600).

If your not going to start overclocking straight away the cooler could be an area where you could save a few pennys for now. Although it is messier having to replace the cooler down the road. (More a point of interest than anything.)

Solitaire

The E6600 wasn't exactly a hot-and-heavy CPU and required relatively little cooling to keep in check. All the current quads gobble up 90-130W under load rather than the 30-60W of the old C2Ds; the new cooler is basically the old one with a rather loud fan. And even then it can barely hold the quad i5/i7s in check 'Twas the same story in the Pentium D days, we've just been spared the inhumanity of it lately with Core2, that's all

Buceph: Do you really need that HD5870?! You only have a 1080p monitor, a HD5770 (or even an OCd HD5750) could keep you going. I'd recommend a HD5850 at most. The Antec 900 is definitely getting on a bit now. And everything seems very pricey. If you really wanted to blow so much on a comp I'd recommend HWVS or eBuyer. With components that expensive it could even end up cheapest ordering from multiple sites as prices/stock dictate, so long as you keep track of the seperate shipping costs!