...yep, you guessed it- I'm building a PC...some suggestions appreciated!

Shlippery

Gentlemen/Gentleladies of Boards,

I'm just a simple nobody on the the site who's hoping to build a new pc for myself. I'd like to think I can set a reasonable budget of €550-€600, maybe a bit more if necessary. I haven't had the flashiest computer in a while. I bought a Dell Studio 1535 when they came out and it's served me well so far, I've recently upgraded it to desktop status, by using it as a dual monitor jobby, but now I feel like it's time to invest in a proper tower for a proper modern experience!

http://imgur.com/a/nKdcA#QvUiV <- look at my mess. I've all the nice bits and bobs, speakers, a new mx518 for myself, headphones bla bla blah..its the serious stuff I need now! So, I'm hoping ye can direct a puzzled chap like myself on the right path.

I'm hoping for a gaming rig that'll be able to handle BF3 nicely, as many an hour was spent on BF2 on the old rig.. *tear

I've literally no clue where to start with this new fangled technology and what not, as you can see the brick box that sits in my room.

So, what do you suggest? I've a preference to an Intel i5 2500k, as I've seen that thrown around a lot..

I know I should probably just read the other threads and copy them but I want my own personal touch yano!

Cheers!

-

On a completely side note (because I'm sure ya'll like to be comfy while sitting at your pc ) where's a good spot to pick up a nice throne/seatygoodness to accompany my desk..? I can't pick a good site / place to look for one!

deconduo

Do you need a copy of Windows?

Shlippery

Ah, I knew I was forgetting something, no, I don't need a copy. I've that sorted already! Student rates etc

deconduo

Ok, slightly over budget but is a good build:

Total build cost: €590.98 + €30 shipping
Samsung SpinPoint F3 1000GB, SATA II (HD103SJ) €44.09
Samsung SH-222AB bare schwarz SATA €17.71
Xigmatek Asgard III Midi Tower - black, ohne Netzteil €32.63
Super-Flower Amazon 80Plus 450W €41.17
4GB-Kit G-Skill Ripjaws PC3-10667U CL9 €33.27
Intel Core i5-2500K Box, LGA1155 €173.55
ASRock P67 Pro3 (B3), Sockel 1155, ATX €100.97
ASUS EAH6870 DC/2DI2S/1GD5, AMD Radeon HD 6870, 1GB, PCI- Express €147.59

Shlippery

That looks pretty good , I'm not too pushed for hard drive space as I've a few externals and a big SATA drive in my old comp which I'd say I could fit in, granted the €44 is reasonable, is there anything you would recommend spending an extra few quid on, I'd happily spend another €20 or €30 to boost it a bit more!

That being said , I'm really appreciating the time you're taking for this deconduo, you seem to know your stuff , I'm guessing you like doing it! I don't wanna be annoying you or anything!

deconduo

You could add a cooler and up the PSU for some nice overlocking:
http://www3.hardwareversand.de/articledetail.jsp?aid=28326&agid=669
http://www3.hardwareversand.de/articledetail.jsp?aid=30069&agid=1628

paddylieback

Hi There Red,

Just saw your thread there.

Always with buying and setting up gaming computers is to spend a bit more usually on the Motherboard. Its really the most critical piece in the case and you dont want to have to go buy another in 12 months time. So the trick is to look for a motherboard ( if its for an I5, that should certainly do for BF3! ) with as many slots as possible, 4 if possible and plenty of SATA slots too. Ram can come in up to 4 or 8Gbyte's so again, the bigger it is the better and the less number of slots you occupy. If you are running windows 7 64 bit then this will utilse the full bandwidth of memory on the motherboard, i think for an i5 its 16G. For a 32 bit windows 7 i think its only 8G. Correct me if i'm wrong. Try to go for the 64 bit.

Once you have your motherboard sorted the rest should be fine. A good graphics card is also a must for fast games using a lot of 3d rendering. This takes up a lot of cpu time!! As you probably know anyway.
Hope this helps, any questions then don't hesitate to ask

Rich

paddylieback

Hi There Red,

Just saw your thread there.

Always with buying and setting up gaming computers is to spend a bit more usually on the Motherboard. Its really the most critical piece in the case and you dont want to have to go buy another in 12 months time. So the trick is to look for a motherboard ( if its for an I5, that should certainly do for BF3! ) with as many slots as possible, 4 if possible and plenty of SATA slots too. Ram can come in up to 4 or 8Gbyte's so again, the bigger it is the better and the less number of slots you occupy. If you are running windows 7 64 bit then this will utilse the full bandwidth of memory on the motherboard, i think for an i5 its 16G. For a 32 bit windows 7 i think its only 8G. Correct me if i'm wrong. Try to go for the 64 bit.

Once you have your motherboard sorted the rest should be fine. A good graphics card is also a must for fast games using a lot of 3d rendering. This takes up a lot of cpu time!! As you probably know anyway.
Hope this helps, any questions then don't hesitate to ask

Rich

johnmcdnl

paddylieback wrote: »

Hi There Red,

So the trick is to look for a motherboard ( if its for an I5, that should certainly do for BF3! ) with as many slots as possible, 4 if possible and plenty of SATA slots too. Ram can come in up to 4 or 8Gbyte's so again, the bigger it is the better and the less number of slots you occupy. If you are running windows 7 64 bit then this will utilse the full bandwidth of memory on the motherboard, i think for an i5 its 16G. For a 32 bit windows 7 i think its only 8G. Correct me if i'm wrong. Try to go for the 64 bit.

Rich

for the 32 vs 64 bit - 32 bit can only work with something between 3-4GB of RAM and 64 bit can handle up to 16exabytes (16 Million TB) RAM - that's a big number to even comprend :pac: in the real world a lot of OS's are limited to a far far far lower number than that but most motherboards today can't even support more that 24-32-48GB RAM so we're a long way from ever being in trouble with the 64 bit limit - 64 bit is the only way to consider going even if you only want 4GB and it allows for expansion in the future as well...

it's basically because 32 bits means it can read 2^32 bytes = 3GB give or take but 2^64 =64EB

pretty straight forward and an easy choice - go 64 bit

Fluffy88

Also 32bit has been dying a slow and painful death for years. I don't see a reason not to get 64bit, unless maybe you want to keep using your 15 year old printer.

Shlippery

Cheers people, really appreciate this, I'm hoping to order something tomorrow and begin the wait! Will probably add an extra chunk to the mobo, and then consider upgrading it again in the future, I don't mind going to a bit over budget. Any suggestions on the motherboard front?

I'm torn whether to do the whole build myself or to just pay €20 for hardwareversand to build it themselves. I reckon I'd be able for it..but I'd **** myself if anything went wrong..

deconduo

The Red Leper wrote: »

Cheers people, really appreciate this, I'm hoping to order something tomorrow and begin the wait! Will probably add an extra chunk to the mobo, and then consider upgrading it again in the future, I don't mind going to a bit over budget. Any suggestions on the motherboard front?

I'm torn whether to do the whole build myself or to just pay €20 for hardwareversand to build it themselves. I reckon I'd be able for it..but I'd **** myself if anything went wrong..

If you're in Dublin I'm happy to help out with building it Would save you a bit of money.

Shlippery

Ah I'm in Galway, thanks for the offer though, I reckon I'll take the leap and do it myself for the experience. My only worry would be the wiring really and power supply but I'll do some research on that, aside from that I know where everything goes and what fits into what !

Shlippery

I'm hoping to order this today, and I'm gonna stick to your build deconduo, but the card you picked has since gone out of stock! Any other close ones you recommend? Cheers.

deconduo

This one should do the job:
http://www1.hardwareversand.de/articledetail.jsp?aid=39467&agid=1004

It just has the reference cooler, but its cheaper.

Shlippery

Thanks a million deconduo, gonna order it now. Painful wait begins! I'll stick up a few pictures to show the results however it may turn out when the time comes!

Shlippery

So, hardwareversand recieved my money this morning, and shipped it at bout 6pm, hopefully that means I'll see it this week, which would be great, a lot sooner than expected -
I'm just playing with my old piece of kit, a friend of my parents built it / upgraded it a few years ago, its a glorified mess inside, but it has these two sata hard drives, will i be able to transfer these straight into my new box? Or what is sata 2/ 3 (just trying to catch up with tech :P)

With regards to the 2500k and overclocking, I stuck with the stock cooler for now, would I be able to overclock it a small bit without need for an aftermarket one?

I'll probably upgrade the cooler when I gather a bit more money, err, at what point will I know when to stop over-clocking? I know I'm pretty much a newb at this, but hey, it's the only way I'll learn.

I wanna do as much research as possible while I wait!

Fluffy88

You can take those old SATA2 drives out and use them in SATA3 ports but your board has 4 SATA2 ports anyway so just plug them in there. No problems. Although HDD's are so cheap that a lot of people say never recycle HDD's just buy new one's but that costs money :P

With the stock cooler you will be able to do some mild overclocking I think 4.0Ghz is around what the stock cooler can handle.

To know when to stop is a very complicated, but since you and I are newbs we can keep it simple. Do an overclock, say to 3.8Ghz, boot into windows run a few benchmark programs to make sure it's stable at that and more important that the temps are still acceptable. If all is good push the OC to 4.0Ghz boot into windows and check. All is good go again. Keep pushing it up until either the computer no longer boots into windows, it becomes unstable(fails one of the tests) or temps are too high. Bring the OC back to where things were okay, then that is your limit.
You can start upping the voltages but even though it's not hard to do, you might want to stay clear but you can get higher clocks if your willing to do it. I found this article on overclocking extremely useful, I would recommend it to anyone thinking about trying to OC. It's very long but worth the read.
http://www.overclock.net/intel-cpus/225371-intel-cpu-essentials-collected-guides.html
The first link and "Newbie Guide to Overclocking" are very good also the memory guide in the second one it great too. You will only need a spare 5 hours or so :P

Shlippery

I picked up a TX3 for myself, for peace of mind and the hopes of doing a little overclocking.
I'm hoping I haven't shot myself in the foot by getting a 450w psu. Can I get a little re-assurance that it'll be ok for some mild overclocking (with the help of the new heatsink?) I don't plan on upgrading this machine for a whileen.

I think the PC has arrived in Ireland today..so fingers crossed for delivery tomrorow at some point! Suspense is killing me at this stage..I've done so much researching, I can't wait to get dug into it..!

Shlippery

I'm as happy as a pig in ****..

I have it all in front of me now. There goes my day



Real fun starts now. Prepare for the onslaught of queries when **** goes wrong.

Thanks again deconduo, I stayed pretty true to your build! Just hope I don't struggle with the 450w, but we'll see how I get on

Shlippery

Ok, I realise I'm triple posting, which is probably frowned upon, but I'm in a little dilemma, or at least I think I am, I'm not sure.. I managed to put it together, however the card doesn't have a VGA slot, so gotta hold off to get a dvi adaptor / new monitor before I can really test the card. I've an old 128mb piece of crap from my old pc which managed to work as a temporary card , I could get the bios screens up etc, but once I exited out of that it just beeped, and went to a black screen with a flashing _.

Err, while I was looking at my 6870 too, it said minimum requirements were a 500W psu, but mine's only 450W, am I royally screwed without a new psu, or ...should I get away with it?

/ confused dude

Sorry bout the million questions, I'm liking the experience of this and whatnot, just sorta panicy about the power supply..and the likes..

deconduo

The Red Leper wrote: »

Ok, I realise I'm triple posting, which is probably frowned upon, but I'm in a little dilemma, or at least I think I am, I'm not sure.. I managed to put it together, however the card doesn't have a VGA slot, so gotta hold off to get a dvi adaptor / new monitor before I can really test the card. I've an old 128mb piece of crap from my old pc which managed to work as a temporary card , I could get the bios screens up etc, but once I exited out of that it just beeped, and went to a black screen with a flashing _.

Err, while I was looking at my 6870 too, it said minimum requirements were a 500W psu, but mine's only 450W, am I royally screwed without a new psu, or ...should I get away with it?

/ confused dude

Sorry bout the million questions, I'm liking the experience of this and whatnot, just sorta panicy about the power supply..and the likes..

If you can get into the BIOS screen you should be good. You know how to install windows right?

Don't worry about the PSU, 450W is plenty. I build a system for a friend with pretty much the same setup and his has been running perfectly for a few months now.

Shlippery

It lives.

I just took it apart and started over - I'm using the stock cooler for the i2500k at the moment cos my TX3 won't sit properly on it, one of the 4 legs is focked. It's running fine and dandy, picked up a little adaptor for the DVI>VGA so everything is running smoothly..now I'm just installing steam and everything and playing everything at full with ease. Thanks so much deconduo

Worth every penny!

PseudoFamous

The Red Leper wrote: »

It lives.

I just took it apart and started over - I'm using the stock cooler for the i2500k at the moment cos my TX3 won't sit properly on it, one of the 4 legs is focked. It's running fine and dandy, picked up a little adaptor for the DVI>VGA so everything is running smoothly..now I'm just installing steam and everything and playing everything at full with ease. Thanks so much deconduo

Worth every penny!

You forgot to include pictures with your post. I feel you should amend that. >.>

Shlippery

I didn't forget, I'm in the middle of it now!

Shlippery

The Red Leper wrote: »

I didn't forget, I'm in the middle of it now!

And..the grand finale..

http://imgur.com/a/qoDkH#qHocZ
^piccies in there.

Nothing too fancy, but I'm happy for first job all on my own, easier than I expected! Just a pity bout the heatsink giving me bother...! I'll take another stab at that in a week or two!

I'd embed the photos...but they're massive and muck quality!

EDIT:

To do..take out that stock cooler , and add in my TX3 once I fix one of the clips I may or may not have broken, then try a little cablemanagement...and then the overclocking stage!

and just out of curiosity..I went onto dells website, and priced an alienware, with the same spec.. it came to €1369~ or there abouts, for pretty much the exact same machine..

Mine went to €616.18.. delighted!

Asmodean

Oh im so excited! Pretty much in the same boat as you red, even in galway too lol
should be ready to order in a few weeks. Im not gonna risk building it myself though as i dont have the best patience. Happy gaming!

ps

dell are a crazy rip off. They're charging almost twice as much for the gpu i chose alone!

Shlippery

Just a quick update to say, this is one of the best things I've done, completely advise anyone else to give it a go. The difference is spectacular and it's really not that hard at all. So rewarding being able to play everything at max, i'm still adjusting to the fact that I can play things at max resolution and max everything with little difficulty, when before I hesitated goin anything over 800x600 full screen!!

Just throwin that in there for any curious potential newbie builders!

Monotype

It's good to see someone excited about their build and a good success story. :cool:

paddylieback

Glad to see your all building.....best way to go and not as hard as people make out, once you have some clue about PC's...

Shlippery

deconduo wrote: »

Ok, slightly over budget but is a good build:

Total build cost: €590.98 + €30 shipping
Samsung SpinPoint F3 1000GB, SATA II (HD103SJ) €44.09
Samsung SH-222AB bare schwarz SATA €17.71
Xigmatek Asgard III Midi Tower - black, ohne Netzteil €32.63
Super-Flower Amazon 80Plus 450W €41.17
4GB-Kit G-Skill Ripjaws PC3-10667U CL9 €33.27
Intel Core i5-2500K Box, LGA1155 €173.55
ASRock P67 Pro3 (B3), Sockel 1155, ATX €100.97
ASUS EAH6870 DC/2DI2S/1GD5, AMD Radeon HD 6870, 1GB, PCI- Express €147.59

^ This was a great shout. So happy with it, BF3 runs like a beaut but lets fast forward to now but I've a bit more cash now lying aroudn, if I were to put a further €100-120 into this, what would get me the best bang in the "minor upgrade" category..would say, a better PSU be an idea and something like http://www.corsair.com/hydro-series-h40-high-performance-liquid-cpu-cooler.html be an idea?

I'd love to do a little overclocking since the 2500k can handle it but I've always been a bit wary of the 450w PSU...and any dangers there might be!

I know, I should give others a chance, but I've the itch to go tinkering around inside the pc again..I've 2 monitors now, with the hopes of a 3rd after x-mas for a good strong eyefinity setup!

Cheers..

deconduo

The Red Leper wrote: »

^ This was a great shout. So happy with it, BF3 runs like a beaut but lets fast forward to now but I've a bit more cash now lying aroudn, if I were to put a further €100-120 into this, what would get me the best bang in the "minor upgrade" category..would say, a better PSU be an idea and something like http://www.corsair.com/hydro-series-h40-high-performance-liquid-cpu-cooler.html be an idea?

I'd love to do a little overclocking since the 2500k can handle it but I've always been a bit wary of the 450w PSU...and any dangers there might be!

I know, I should give others a chance, but I've the itch to go tinkering around inside the pc again..I've 2 monitors now, with the hopes of a 3rd after x-mas for a good strong eyefinity setup!

Cheers..

Even overclocked you can't draw more than ~300W from that system so don't worry about the PSU

Serephucus

*ahem*

You could also look into a 64GB SSD boot drive.

I know I've been recommending these left, right, and centre, but they're bloody awesome. :P

Shlippery

http://imgur.com/0HkZX

Good to know deconduo, but I still want more

Thanks Serephucus, I've the X530's already, slightly older, but they do the trick!

I really can't decide what I need.. I'll go for eyefinity once I get a loooong desk / workstation sorted! But at the mo, I just wanna pick around inside the case... decisions decisions decisions! It really is addictive..

Serephucus

The Red Leper wrote: »

decisions decisions decisions! It really is addictive..

Don't I know it...

SSD - Yay, nay?

You could look into sound proofing for the case, better case fans, a fan controller, CCFLs (if you're into that sort of thing), a wall/desk mount for your monitor(s)....

(Yup, I'm fantastic for putting ideas in peoples' heads, leading them to spend amounts of money on things. )

Shlippery

SSD sounds delightful, but at the moment they're getting more expensive rather than cheaper right? Thailand etc?

I would like to quieten it down a bit...it's making this really really annoying noise every so often...like a whirring bzzy up and down noise from the PSU..every once and a while for a few minutes..I don't think it's a wire clipping the fan..I'm sure I'll figure it out though. I'm still on the stock cooler which is annoying, so I wouldn't mind changing that..agh..

Monotype

The Red Leper wrote: »

SSD sounds delightful, but at the moment they're getting more expensive rather than cheaper right? Thailand etc?

That's HDDs, although prices may be going up a little to take advantage of the increased demand as a result.

Shlippery

Might leave SSD til the new year, but say..

Possibly a ridiculous question, I have this at the moment, 4gb RAM, in two slots. Dual Channel
http://www2.hardwareversand.de/articledetail.jsp?aid=29670&agid=1192&lb

Would there be any problem buying another two? And does the different "Mhz" make much of a difference? I'm not really clear on the different RAM types..
http://www.memoryc.ie/products/description/4GB_G_Skill_DDR3_PC3_17000_2133MHz_RipjawsX_Series_for_Sandy_Bridge-9_11_9_28-Dual_Channel_kit/index.html

Monotype

Just buy the same as what you have.
http://www.memoryc.ie/products/description/4GB_G_Skill_DDR3_PC3_10666_1333MHz_Ripjaw_Series-9_9_9_24-Dual_Channel_kit_for_Intel_LGA1156_Core/index.html

Your money would be wasted on the faster RAM, it would only run at the speed of the slower.

Shlippery

deconduo wrote: »

Ok, slightly over budget but is a good build:

Total build cost: €590.98 + €30 shipping
Samsung SpinPoint F3 1000GB, SATA II (HD103SJ) €44.09
Samsung SH-222AB bare schwarz SATA €17.71
Xigmatek Asgard III Midi Tower - black, ohne Netzteil €32.63
Super-Flower Amazon 80Plus 450W €41.17
4GB-Kit G-Skill Ripjaws PC3-10667U CL9 €33.27
Intel Core i5-2500K Box, LGA1155 €173.55
ASRock P67 Pro3 (B3), Sockel 1155, ATX €100.97
ASUS EAH6870 DC/2DI2S/1GD5, AMD Radeon HD 6870, 1GB, PCI- Express €147.59

Hey again. Sorry for bumping the thread but I've a craving to do something with this PC again now that I'll have a bit of money after X-mas...what would ye recommend now that we're one year on since my original build, not that I've any issues, but I wouldn't mind mixing it up a bit, say if I was to lob another €200-300 onto it..only adjustment I made since I got it was adding in another 4gbs ram bringing it up to 8gb! I was thinking of an SSD but not sure which one to look at these days?..and perhaps a solid 24" - 27" monitor..

here's how my setup looks at the mo! http://i.imgur.com/beWIh.jpg (cable management not my strong point!)

Cheers lads, any suggestions appreciated, even minor!

areyawell

Another 4GB of ram(dirt cheap these days, 20 quid) and maybe an SSD(64GB one for operating system and main programs 70 quid). That graphics card still run games smoothly at full settings?

Shlippery

Yea, I mean, I'm still only playing BF3 if anything and that runs excellently. PC is really standing the test of time.
What's the most reliable brand these days with regards to SSD? I'd nearly pickup Windows 8 and do a fresh install on an SSD as an option.. and maybe get a 24" monitor with IPS, if the difference is as big as i'm reading!

tuxy

areyawell wrote: »

Another 4GB of ram(dirt cheap these days, 20 quid)

Pointless, 8gb is more than enough for any game. 12 GB makes no sense.

For an ssd both the samsung 840 pro or crucial m44 are good. Get 128 gb so you can fit windows and the games you play the most.

For the monitor have a look at the dell u2312hm or dell u2412m. Both good ips monitors. The 23" is 1920x1080 and the 24" is 1920x1200.

Shlippery

Yea, another 4gb seems like a bit of a waste. I'm going to the states in a week so might pick up an ssd over there, not sure if I'll be saving much getting it abroad, but may as well treat myself!
Monitor wise, are there any 27" IPS monitors that aren't crazy expensive? I may just push the boat out...feel like spoiling myself with poor financial decisions! I'm browsing around various sites...and not sure which to indulge in.

Shlippery

tuxy wrote: »

Pointless, 8gb is more than enough for any game. 12 GB makes no sense.

For an ssd both the samsung 840 pro or crucial m44 are good. Get 128 gb so you can fit windows and the games you play the most.

For the monitor have a look at the dell u2312hm or dell u2412m. Both good ips monitors. The 23" is 1920x1080 and the 24" is 1920x1200.

Picked up a 250gb SSD recently...and the u2412m arrived today..which is fantastic. http://imgur.com/Rswlz
Unfortunately I seem to have hit an odd bottleneck..the 6870 won't support the third monitor? It's an old vga I was using with a DVI-Vga adaptor.. so I had, left monitor on the vga. new one on DVI and the third one on HDMI..unfortunately this doesn't look too promising unless I either replace the third monitor! ...although two might suffice I guess!

Serephucus

Swap connections on monitors, if the same connection isn't sending signal to the monitor, you'll need a new card. Lots of cheaper AMD cards won't support more than two monitors, even though they have the connections for three.

Shlippery

I tried to mix & match to no avail, quick google though on the eyefinity page says something about a display port connection for the third monitor. Wonder if this would work.

"What are the basic requirements for connecting multiple displays?
Connecting multiple monitors for AMD Eyefinity technology couldn’t be simpler. There are four easy rules to remember:

The first two monitors can connect to the graphics card with any display output on your product: HDMI, VGA, DVI or DisplayPort.
The third (or greater) display must be connected to the graphics card via DisplayPort.
If your monitor does not have a DisplayPort connection, you will need an inexpensive active DisplayPort adapter for it. DVI to DP adapters can be had for less than $30 USD.2
Every family of GPUs supports a different maximum number of displays."

DVI to display port adapter....anyone have any experience? Not sure I wanna invest in a cable if it's no good!

marco_polo

A single Link Displayport to DVI like this Sapphire is good up to a resolution of 1920x1200, anything higher and you will need an expensive powered Active adapter. It should be all you need to get that third monitor running.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/aw/d/B00433C5Y4/ref=aw_d_detail?pd=1&qid=1358205275&sr=8-2

Shlippery

marco_polo wrote: »

A single Link Displayport to DVI like this Sapphire is good up to a resolution of 1920x1200, anything higher and you will need an expensive powered Active adapter. It should be all you need to get that third monitor running.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/aw/d/B00433C5Y4/ref=aw_d_detail?pd=1&qid=1358205275&sr=8-2

Yea, I'm going to get something like that, Mini Displayport to VGA, active adaptor..round the same price. Should do the trick. I'm fairly sure my 6870 has the smaller square version (mini dp right?), just need it for my 20" monitor, so won't need to do anything crazy.