Sub €1000 custom desktop help

boru05

Hey folks,

I'm not particularly tech-savvy when it comes to building and upgrading a PC but it strikes me that I must be able to do better than buying off Dell (who have served me well btw). Reading previous threads etc, it seems that ordering a custom rig from HWVS might be an option but I'm not too confident in doing it without some help - hopefully someone can point me in the right direction! Requirements are as follows:

I need to buy a rig (circa €1000) which will be used primarily for photo editing, CAD and standard office apps but from time to time will be also used for video editing.

I have a monitor (Dell WFP2407) 1920x1200 and keyboard, mouse etc so all I need is the tower and all the little bits and pieces inside it. I also have Windows 7 Ultimate (64bit) and MS Office.

Case: It's going to be under a desk, so it doesn't matter what it looks like although it must have at least 2 USB ports in the front. In terms of cooling I've no idea - but the quieter the better.

Power: Again no idea - I suppose this depends on GPU etc

Mobo: Must have at least 2 USB3 ports and a decent no. of old USB ports as well. Don't need external sound card, so onboard sound should be OK. Oh and obviously LAN.

CPU: Core i7 - what flavour, I've no idea but fast. I'm not interested in the new Sandy Bridge at the moment, equally I don't want AMD unless there is a good reason

GPU - I was thinking of some flavour of gtx 460 or maybe HD 5770/5870 - again, all suggestions welcome. The Dell monitor is DVI but I definitely want a HDMI-out onboard too.

RAM - 8 Gb of some sort of fast RAM should be plenty for my needs at the mo?

Harddrive - 1TB (2x500 Gb) RAID 0 although - if possible within the budget a small SSD as an OS boot drive would be great (prob. too expensive though?)

Wireless - also need a wifi card installed (

Optical - DVD +/- RW required.

Also I need this to be all put together by someone as there is no way I could do it! (presumably HWVS do this for a fee?).

Any help at all would be great!

Jonny7

Go to hardwareversand.de, choose English and go to PC configurator - configure the PC you would like and post the pic up here - then you'll generally get a buzz of activity of people recommending other parts or saying your ram is incompatible, and usually after a few posts you'll have the perfect PC for your budget

Just some info

http://www.anandtech.com/show/4083/the-sandy-bridge-review-intel-core-i5-2600k-i5-2500k-and-core-i3-2100-tested
Just a heads up - Sandy bridge is very good, better performance than i7 for a much better price, but if you insist on i7 then plenty of choice

USB3 is backwards compatible with USB2 so no worries there

SSD is well within your budget

HWS build for 20 euros, from my experience its a good tidy build

boru05

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Okay - I've taken your advice and put together a HWVS build. I've also looked at some reviews/previews of the Sandy Bridge stuff and have decided to build a rig based on this platform (hence the socket 1155 mobo). I intend to add the Core i5 2500k CPU when it becomes available (should be around €200-€250?)

All comments are welcome. In particular, is that the correct type of RAM and is there enough power? I know there's LAN on the mobo but I want the option of Wifi down the line. The main consideration was somewhat futureproofing - hence picking a mobo with USB 3 headers (and thus the case).

I meant to click the €20 "they'll build it option" as well.

Thanks for all the help!

Monotype

Get a better PSU.
Eg.
http://www3.hardwareversand.de/articledetail.jsp?aid=31373

Not in stock, but if you need it soon, go for the earthwatts 650W or the superflower amazon 650W.

If you need to save money, get the 550W superflower amazon instead.

Those 6Gbps drives look like a waste of money. There's not any reviews around on them but they're probably slightly worse than the blacks, which were fine but not worth the marginal cost over something like a 1TB Samsung F3 or even the 1TB Seagate 7200.12 which are about €50 on hardwareversand.

boru05

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OK - so this is the final build that I have gone with. The strength of the € v. £ at the moment has meant that it's cheaper to buy from the UK - plus Aria will OC and ensure stability for 48hrs (and guarantee everything). I might also buy a SSD for the boot drive.

I'm buying ex VAT so it works out roughly to about €830 inc. shipping and building.

Thanks for all the help. I haven't ordered yet so any other comments would still be appreciated!

Skerries

does that cpu have a mobo and ram as well?

Komplett-Tech: Ryan

Considering that price is in sterling i would hope so

Nice setup though, although i would change the craphics card to the standard version. You will easilly be able to overclock it yourself to those speeds without any issue, would probably save you about 20 euro or so.

Monotype

How did you get that PSU at £49? Shows up £59 for me in one place and £55 in another. Seems a bit shifty. Maybe they're just trying to get rid of them because they're crap.
Some much better quality PSUs:
http://www.aria.co.uk/Products/Components/Power+Supplies/650W+or+less/XFX+Pro+Series+650W+80%2B+Bronze+Certified+Single+Rail+?productId=41846
http://www.aria.co.uk/Products/Components/Power+Supplies/Modular+650W+or+less/Antec+TruePower+New+Series+650W+Modular+Power+Supply+?productId=40313

boru05

Skerries wrote: »

does that cpu have a mobo and ram as well?

The bundle contains the following:

• Intel® 2nd Generation Core™ i5-2500K Overclocked @ 4.50GHz - Four Thread CPU
• 4GB Mushkin Silverline 1333MHz 9-9-9-24
• MSI P67A-C45 Intel P67 (Socket 1155) DDR3 PCI-Express Motherboard
• Gelid Tranquillo CPU Cooler
• Arctic Silver 5 Thermal Compound
• Pre-Assembled & Tested
• 1 Years Warranty

boru05

Monotype wrote: »

How did you get that PSU at £49? Shows up £59 for me in one place and £55 in another.

It's ex VAT and they're offering a web special on it as well

http://www.aria.co.uk/Products/Components/Power+Supplies/650W+or+less/Coolermaster+GX650+80Plus+Certified+?productId=41771

Monotype

Ah sorry, I missed that. I'd still recommend the antec which is £49 ex VAT at the special offer price. It's semi-modular too.