Computer Build Help

FreudianSlippers

Hey it has been a while since I've built a computer and I really need to build one asap. I have no idea what is good now and what is crap. I was wondering if someone could help me put a system together.
Essentially I want something powerful that will last me a good few years. I do 100% of my TV and film watching on my computer and a bit of gaming. I run dual monitors via hdmi. Essentially I'd like an all around performer that is powerful and in or around the €1000 price range. Any help or advice is appreciated.

Oh, I use ubuntu also.
Not that I'd actually buy from Dell, but for comparison I think I liked the sounds of these 2:
http://ireland.dell.com/ie/en/home/Desktops/alienware-aurora/pd.aspx?refid=alienware-aurora&s=dhs&cs=iedhs1&ref=dthp
http://ireland.dell.com/content/topics/segtopic.aspx/minicat/services_d00x8105?c=ie&cs=iedhs1&l=en&s=dhs

Thanks

cherryghost

I wouldnt take that Alienware anyway. Reading up that it overclocks terribly and heats up like theres no tomorrow.

Would you consider building one yourself from the ground up with our assistance?

leninbenjamin

Well, to get the ball rolling, mocked this up for you.

An i5 quad is probably what you want. Wont break the budget but has plenty of grunt in it. And a DX11 graphics card will keep you happy for a while. Tbh all this is probably more than you need though if all you're doing is a small bit of gaming. A Phenom II build could probably save you a bit and do everything you ask.

And to note: just made the list on komplett for convenience, you can probably get better prices on the likes of ebuyer/HWS.

Solitaire

What do you intend to recycle? Or do you need new drives and TV cards, etc.?

FreudianSlippers

leninbenjamin wrote: »

Well, to get the ball rolling, mocked this up for you.

An i5 quad is probably what you want. Wont break the budget but has plenty of grunt in it. And a DX11 graphics card will keep you happy for a while. Tbh all this is probably more than you need though if all you're doing is a small bit of gaming. A Phenom II build could probably save you a bit and do everything you ask.

And to note: just made the list on komplett for convenience, you can probably get better prices on the likes of ebuyer/HWS.

Cheers, I'll have a look at that now

Solitaire wrote: »

What do you intend to recycle? Or do you need new drives and TV cards, etc.?

I'm thinking of turning the old box into a ubuntu media server for the house, so I wouldn't be recycling anything.

FreudianSlippers

leninbenjamin wrote: »

Well, to get the ball rolling, mocked this up for you.

An i5 quad is probably what you want. Wont break the budget but has plenty of grunt in it. And a DX11 graphics card will keep you happy for a while. Tbh all this is probably more than you need though if all you're doing is a small bit of gaming. A Phenom II build could probably save you a bit and do everything you ask.

And to note: just made the list on komplett for convenience, you can probably get better prices on the likes of ebuyer/HWS.

Nice and quite a bit under budget... is it worth it for longevity of the system to bump up to 8 or 9 gb of RAM?

How does the i5-750 compare to the Phenom II X4 965 Black Edition?

Solitaire

Not worth it now, given the insane price of RAM lately there are now many advocating dropping down to 2GB for smaller systems; 4GB should be fine for upper-mid-range systems for a good while yet. By the time 8GB becomes vital you're probably looking at newer faster RAM anyway.

Off the top of my head the i5-750 is very roughly comparable to the X4-965, a bit weaker here and there, though its far from an apples-to-apples comparison. Suffice to say its seriously powerful without living in La-La-Land like the Nehalems. Another factor to consider is that the i5 has a lot more headroom for OCing; as is it runs a lot cooler than the monster AMD chip, which is already highly-stressed enough to ensure very little in the way of potential aftermarket gains unless you break out the liquid nitrogen It could manage a 15-20% increase in clock speed (you'd be lucky to hit 4GHz without turning your cooling system into swiss cheese) where the i5 could happily tolerate a clock-speed increase in excess of 50%. Think about the potential increase in performance Finally, the i5-750 doesn't rely on HyperThreading to gain an advantage over AMD CPUs; it has four physical cores. That's pretty important if you're dealing with apps that give HT indigestion. A lot of games fall into that bracket. The old "AMD is better for games" stereotype doesn't apply to the i5-750.

Now, to be cheeky and confuse you with choice, I've thrown up an example build... for under €750. Shipped.



Most of the stuff is similar to the last build. Given the future-proofing theme I went for a mobo with USB3 and SATA3 support on this occasion :P RAM has slightly tighter-than-average latencies while sticking to 1.65V. Graphics are designed to let you game comfortably at 1080p resolution; if you ever have difficulties you just throw another HD5770 in

Cooler isn't my first choice; that would be the Mugen 2, but HWVS still don't seem to have the Rev2 out with its crucial LGA1156 support PSU is cheap but very decent quality; if you don't want ugly be prepared to pay more money for a nice black TX650. If you want pretty and quality and full modularity then be prepared to pay out big money for a lovely HX650

Case is me playing Devil's Advocate; its the cheapest modern "bottom-loader" case out there, even cheaper than the Antec 200, if missing the trippy exterior and 140mm fan. If OCing I'd recommend getting the added three (decent) 120mm fans (and possibly reversing the included exhaust) to max the case's cooling capacity.

FreudianSlippers

Does the Powercolor have dual DVI? from the pics it looks as if it doesn't, but I saw a review of it online which had dual DVI and it looked a bit different.

How is this one as an alternative? http://www3.hardwareversand.de/articledetail.jsp?aid=28979&agid=1004

Mister Man

OisinT wrote: »

Does the Powercolor have dual DVI? from the pics it looks as if it doesn't, but I saw a review of it online which had dual DVI and it looked a bit different

The PowerColor HD 5770 Lister before has 1X VGA, 1 DVI, 1 HDMI i believe

leninbenjamin

Solitaire wrote: »

Given the future-proofing theme I went for a mobo with USB3 and SATA3 support on this occasion :P

Curious, because of the limited northbridge on i5's aren't the USB3/SATA3/PCIe devices effectively throttled if used together? Am I right in thinking the SATA3/USB3 has to piggy back off the PCIe lanes or something?

Solitaire

Seeing as HD5000s don't throttle too bad with the reduced PCIe bandwidth I'm not going to recommend €1000+ LGA1366 rigs to get around it. Besides, its only really the USB3 that might become all that handy before we have the next platform update...

FreudianSlippers

Solitaire wrote: »

Seeing as HD5000s don't throttle too bad with the reduced PCIe bandwidth I'm not going to recommend €1000+ LGA1366 rigs to get around it. Besides, its only really the USB3 that might become all that handy before we have the next platform update...

Are these 2 the same/similar?

http://www.pixmania.ie/ie/uk/4782472/art/gigabyte/ga-p55-usb3-1156-socket-p.html
&
http://www3.hardwareversand.de/articledetail.jsp?adp=0&aid=29308&agid=1305&apop=1

leninbenjamin

Solitaire wrote: »

Seeing as HD5000s don't throttle too bad with the reduced PCIe bandwidth I'm not going to recommend €1000+ LGA1366 rigs to get around it. Besides, its only really the USB3 that might become all that handy before we have the next platform update...

Well I was thinking more the other thing, save the few quid and go with bog standard USB2/SATA2 LGA1156 and not have to worry about potential throttling if you're going to do something like Football Manager? Just curious if it's a possible concern, I suppose existing SATA3 like the F3 wouldn't have the throughput to make have a serious impact?

FreudianSlippers

Ok, made a few small adjustments does this look ok?

Corsair TX650W 650 Watt

Sapphire HD 5770 1GB GDDR5 PCI-Express

NZXT LeXa S Midi-Tower - black, ohne Netzteil

Gigabyte GA-P55A-UD3, Intel P55, ATX, DDR3, PCI-Express

4GB-Kit A-Data XPG-G PC3-10667 CL8

Samsung SpinPoint F3 1000GB, SATA II (HD103SJ)

LG GH22NS40/NS30 bare schwarz SATA II

Xigmatek Cobra HDT-D984 Heatpipe Cooler 92mm

Intel Core i5-750 Box 8192Kb, LGA1156

Arctic Silver Céramique Wärmeleitpaste - 2,5 Gramm

FreudianSlippers

bump just to make sure these components will work together? cheers

Solitaire

All good except the cooler - D984 isn't that awesome and isn't compatible with LGA1156 either.

FreudianSlippers

Solitaire wrote: »

All good except the cooler - D984 isn't that awesome and isn't compatible with LGA1156 either.

This one better?

http://www.komplett.ie/k/ki.aspx?sku=494649

FreudianSlippers

Another thing, the Gigabyte GA-P55A-UD3 is out of stock from hardwareversand. Can you recommend an alternative? thanks

Solitaire

Yep, 212 is pretty good and one of the few dirt-cheap tower coolers with LGA1156 compatibility. Plus its available on HWVS

Are you sure about the UD3? Both it and the UD4 are showing up as in stock right now...

Dublin_Gunner

Solitaire wrote: »

Yep, 212 is pretty good and one of the few dirt-cheap tower coolers with LGA1156 compatibility. Plus its available on HWVS

Are you sure about the UD3? Both it and the UD4 are showing up as in stock right now...

And if thats unavailable for some reason - the Artic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro Rev. 2 is awesome for the price.
http://www2.hardwareversand.de/articledetail.jsp?aid=28345&agid=669
€15.94