Back again

Vikings

Got that bug again to upgrade the computer. 3 years ago (I searched and found my old threads in this forum :eek:) I built a computer so it is getting on. 9 months ago (I searched again) I had a post looking to upgrade it which I never did.

Now I want to... again.

Whats the opinions on this?

From HWVS: €595 incl delivery.



or

From OcUK: about €615 incl delivery.



*changed that processor to non oem for an extra £5.

I have a case, 1000w antec power supply, optical drive, keyboard & mouse, hard drive, wireless card so think I have everything covered. Might pick up this monitor for €115 from bargain alerts to go with, not sure yet. Also might buy a copy of windows 7, what's the cheapest place to buy this from?

Reading about the SSD I included one but i'm not 100% sold on it just yet, from the sounds of it once you go SSD you won't go back but i'm on a budget of around €600 so might upgrade to that later down the line.

Though HWVS is slightly cheaper than OCUK, the ability to pay by PayPal/credit card and receive it quicker appeals to me and for the sake of 20 quid would probably go down that route.

Any thoughts on the build itself? Anything I can replace with better/cheaper components?

Appreciate the help, I think I will actually get to upgrade this time

deconduo

Those are H67 motherboards, meaning you can't overclock with them. This would be my choice, a bit over budget but great value for money:

Total build cost: €606.40 + €30 shipping
Intel Core i5-2500K Box, LGA1155 €172.43
ASRock P67 Pro3 (B3), Sockel 1155, ATX €99.95
8GB-Kit G.Skill RipJaws-X PC3-10667U CL9 €49.89
Crucial M4 64GB SSD 6,4cm (2,5") €95.54
Club 3D Radeon 6950 1024MB, AMD Radeon HD 6950, PCI-Express €188.59

Do you have a CPU cooler already?

Burgo

Whats the PC going to be used for? Is your case mAtx or can you go for ATX?

In my case I would defiantly go for a p67 or z68 over the h67 boards.
If you are going for an SSD you'd want to go for one with sata 3 rather than 2, to take advantage of better read/write speeds.

Total build cost: €576.79 + €30 shipping
ASRock Z68 Pro3-M (B3), Sockel 1155, mATX €101.99
Intel Core i5-2500K Box, LGA1155 €172.43
8GB-Kit G.Skill RipJaws-X PC3-12800U CL9 €59.86
XFX RADEON HD 6870 900M 1GB DDR5 DUAL DP HDMI DUAL DVI PCI-E €141.72
OCZ Agility 3 60GB 6,4cm (2,5") SATA3 €100.79

Tea_Bag

and that 6gb kit in the OCuk basket is tripple channel so incompatable. you need 4 or 8gb dual channel. the Corsair vengeance ram in your first post will likely not fit under your heat sink cause it has really elaborate heat spreaders.

Burgo

Tea_Bag wrote: »

and that 6gb kit in the OCuk basket is tripple channel so incompatable. you need 4 or 8gb dual channel. the Corsair vengeance ram in your first post will likely not fit under your heat sink cause it has really elaborate heat spreaders.

Ah didn't notice the triple channel ram Didn't see a mention of any heatsink, and the and the standard intel one is grand even for a light OC, though it can be a touch too noisy for some people.

Tea_Bag

if this is the RAM he first selected, its got enormous heat spreaders:

http://www1.hardwareversand.de/articledetail.jsp?aid=40703&agid=1193

Vikings

Thanks for the replies guys, really just threw those specs together so appreciate your help!

I'll sit down and come out with another shot at it later or tomorrow, just bought a few games on the steam sale and have no space to install them so I might try squeeze in a 1tb hdd as well as the ssd. Not sure what's best to do there though on my budget. I'll come back with a few ideas!

Vikings

Is this any better?

deconduo

Better and cheaper hard drive:
http://www1.hardwareversand.de/articledetail.jsp?aid=28152&agid=689

Better SSD:
http://www1.hardwareversand.de/articledetail.jsp?aid=46113&agid=1145

Pretty sure that RAM kit is 1.65V which is bad for Sandy Bridge. This kit is cheaper and just as good:
http://www1.hardwareversand.de/articledetail.jsp?aid=44319&agid=1192

GPU is out of stock, get this one instead:
http://www1.hardwareversand.de/articledetail.jsp?aid=41505&agid=1004

Monotype

That's a laptop hard drive - is that intentional? Get the F3 1TB for €1 cheaper, IMO.
http://www4.hardwareversand.de/articledetail.jsp?aid=28152

Also it's madness going for a 3Gbps SSD when you are getting a board with 6Gbps.
http://www4.hardwareversand.de/articledetail.jsp?aid=46113

deconduo

Monotype wrote: »

That's a laptop hard drive - is that intentional? Get the F3 1TB for €1 cheaper, IMO.
http://www4.hardwareversand.de/articledetail.jsp?aid=28152

Also it's madness going for a 3Gbps SSD when you are getting a board with 6Gbps.
http://www4.hardwareversand.de/articledetail.jsp?aid=46113

Ninja'd ^_^

Leman

You also want to stay the hell away from anything OCZ with regards to SSDs. A large number of them have faulty firmware and/or controlers which causes BSOD or simply bricking. You'd be better off with an Crucial SSD linked by Monotype.

Monotype

deconduo wrote: »

Ninja'd ^_^

It wouldn't be the first time. You're too fast and I'm a compulsive tab opener!
But it's all good advice so it just goes to reinforce what we're saying.

Vikings

Thanks for the help folks, that's the kind of expertise I am lacking but looking for!

How's this come together then?

deconduo

Don't get an mATX motherbaord. Get either of these:

http://www4.hardwareversand.de/articledetail.jsp?aid=43133&agid=1601

http://www4.hardwareversand.de/articledetail.jsp?aid=46922&agid=1601

The Z68 allows you to use write caching and the onboard video, but the P67 overclocks a bit better and is a better board overall. I would recommend the P67 as the write caching is designed for SSDs of 40GB or less. With a 64GB SSD you are better off using it as a stand alone drive.

Vikings

Cheers again!

Dabs... have pretty much the same build that I have done up there for about €700 with free shipping. Compared to HWVS's €640 with shipping. €60 more expensive but can pay by visa instead of bank transfer, and I have ordered from dabs before. Might send them an email asking for a discount to go with them!

Vikings

So still mulling over where to buy from and came up with the below from scan.co.uk.



That's the cheapest P67 mobo they have, is it cack? That comes in at the same price delivered as HWVS but saves me the bank transfer hassle - and a native english speaking customer support which is a plus.

If I went ahead with that, would I need to go for a non stock CPU cooler? I probably won't be doing much overclocking but a fair bit of gaming and some light photoshop/video editing.

Monotype

Memoryc have a better selection of RAM (free delivery and 5% off with code - see bargain alerts thread). 1.5V is recommended for Sandy bridge RAM. The motherboard isn't great, overclocks have been poor and some of the lower asus boards have had issues this round. I think investing a bit more would be worthwhile.

deconduo

That motherboard is fairly bad alright :P

You also want to be getting 1.5V RAM for Sandy Bridge. The 1.65V has a habit of causing problems.

Edit: You win this round Mono

Vikings

Going to try get this ordered this evening/tomorrow to have it next week - here's another silly attempt.



With this memory from memoryc for €68 delivered with 5% discount.



Total comes in at around €650. (Last build cost me that and lasted four years so keeping the fingers crossed for this one!)

Don't particularly want to spend any more than that as I will be looking to add a decent monitor, sound card and speakers down the line. Anything I should avoid from that list or is there alternatives in the same price ranges that are better options? I would go with HWVS but want to pay with credit card so rules them out.

Race is on deco/mono....

Monotype

Lol at that memory's heatspreaders - gskill's a good brand though.
The P8P67 still wouldn't be my first choice for motherboard. Given that you already have a powerful PSU, you should be getting a board capable of multiple cards. The P8P67's second slot is only x4. The MSI GD53 is about that price, IIRC.

Edit:
So this is the RAM?
http://www.memoryc.com/computermemory/ddr3ram/8gbgskillsniperpc312800cl9dualkit.html
It's probably the same as the G-Skill that's €3 or so cheaper, but you if you like the spreaders, then it's worth the price.

The GD53 is out of stock - "Item overdue since 28 June 2011."
http://www.scan.co.uk/products/msi-p67a-gd53-(b3)-intel-p67-s-1155-pci-e-20-ddr3-2133-sata-6gb-s-sata-raid-atx-sli-xfire
It's cheaper than the P8P67 or you could pay an extra £6 over the P8P67 for the GD55.
http://www.scan.co.uk/products/msi-p67a-gd55-(b3)-2x-pci-e-x16-sli-cfx-4xddr3-2133(oc)-gbit-lan-sata3-usb30-firewire

Vikings

Cheers mono, yep thats the ram but to be honest the only time I will see the spreaders is when I am installing them so will probably go with the cheaper ones!

Might just add a few quid to get the GD55 in that case.

What else would I need to get this upgraded and running? Thermal paste? What about a heat sink or will stock cooler be alright?

Vikings

So I ordered these from scan this morning:

Intel Core i5 2500K Unlocked, S1155 1 £136.17
MSI P67A-GD55 (B3), 2x PCI-E x16 SL 1 £93.67
1GB MSI HD 6870 HAWK, 4200MHz GDDR5 1 £112.68
1TB Samsung HD103SJ Spinpoint F3, S 1 £32.91

Getting my 8gb g.skill ram and the 64gb crucial m4 ssd from memoryc, the ssd is slightly more expensive from memoryc but I figure if I have any hassle with it I am only down the road from memoryc's offices if I need to go bang some heads.

Can't wait for monday

Monotype

The 2500K is fairly cool so the stock cooler would do for a while anyway even with some overclocking. Probably a bit noisy though. It's very small in comparison to others.

Vikings

Excellent.

Any advice on the install? (Already)

All I am keeping from my current build is case, dvd drive and power supply. Any particular order to remove, re-install to get it done right? Didn't order any thermal paste, will I need to get some of that? Would like to try get this together and up and running in an evening, last time I built I had issues with everything!!

In fact, this thread could get very long haha

Monotype

You usually get a small amount of paste on the heatsink.

Download the (motherboard) manual and have a look through it for some interesting reading.

Tea_Bag

Vikings wrote: »

So I ordered these from scan this morning:

Intel Core i5 2500K Unlocked, S1155 1 £136.17
MSI P67A-GD55 (B3), 2x PCI-E x16 SL 1 £93.67
1GB MSI HD 6870 HAWK, 4200MHz GDDR5 1 £112.68
1TB Samsung HD103SJ Spinpoint F3, S 1 £32.91

Getting my 8gb g.skill ram and the 64gb crucial m4 ssd from memoryc, the ssd is slightly more expensive from memoryc but I figure if I have any hassle with it I am only down the road from memoryc's offices if I need to go bang some heads.

Can't wait for monday

just out of interest, how much was shipping from scan? that 6870 is tempting.

EDIT: ha lol i thought fantastic bargain, but thats before vat was added right?

Vikings

No that was including vat - works out at £147.56 delivered to be precise. That is if you order it on its own, it is the cheapest 6870 on scan, they had more expensive ones but it meets my needs!

M00lers

Lads, don't forget that avforums (as well as a few other websites) members get reduced rate on shipping, you have to ring them to place your order though. e.g They quoted me £2.60ish for shipping on a case. Together with the today only page you can get decent bargains.

Vikings

Well got two emails yesterday from scan and memoryc to say my items have been despatched. Though I know it won't happen I still have an eye on the window for the post van to pull up outside

Just looked at my PSU, it's an Antec TruePower Quattro 1000w - TPQ-1000 (here) - that should see me through the next couple of years i'd imagine! (hope)

Vikings

Well everything arrived yesterday and I had an hour last night so I gutted the case and started installing the new bits.

Got as far as cpu, heat sink, ram, hard drive (normal).

Then realised my dvd drive was ide not sata and I have a sata only motherboard so going to pick up an optical drive in bricks and mortar later. Also realised the crucial m4 ssd I ordered is a 2.5 inch so it will have to sit on the bottom of the case until I can get some adapter to hold it in place. (i've read of people using duct tape for this :eek::eek:)

So I think I will be back this afternoon with some pictures for people to look over to see if I have everything connected right before I try boot and brick something

M00lers

You can stick the SSD anywhere really, it's not necessary to actually install it into a drive bay.

Serephucus

Indeed. Think of SSDs as giant USB drives. Do you very carefully place your USB drive squarely on your desk? I dunno about you, but I just **** it in a drawer or on the floor. At the moment, my SSD is hanging in my case from the SATA cables.

While I wouldn't advise doing this if you move you're case a lot - you'll end up with boot problems, thinking you have a graphics card problem, and pulling everything out, and replacing things with spares, and cursing at everything in sight for a while... ahem- and then realising your SATA connection came loose. - your SSD will be perfectly fine with the treatment.

Leman

Vikings, while you don't need a drive bay, I actually have a spare 2.5>3.5 adaptor I can send/sell you if you want. :P

Vikings

Cheers for the advice guys, might take you up on that Leman just want to get it up and running first

Here's a few pictures and questions before I try boot.

https://picasaweb.google.com/barrybol77/DropBox?authkey=Gv1sRgCJXM9YH7lq32bQ#5631060772614569794

There's about 6 pictures there, tried to picture every part of the board - below is as it stands:



So I have:

- cpu in, heatsink on - cpu fan connected.
- ram in
- mobo installed
- front of case useb/audio/power switch/led's etc connected
- power supply 24 pin connected
- cpu power connected via 8 pin
- hdd's installed via sata (power and connected)
- dvd drive installed
- gfx card installed - 2x6 pin connected

Is that everything now? Am I ready to try and boot? Any glaring errors?

Leman

Did you remember to plug in the PSU to the wall? That's a major cause of failure (I wish I were kidding .:P)

That looks complete. Only way to be sure is to boot!

Vikings

Yep. Unfortunately no dice.

All plugged in, pressed the power button. The case fan attempted to move but didn't get started, nothing else came on.

There is a light going to the power button on the mobo.. not sure what/where gone wrong

Leman

Either the Mobo is incorrectly mounted and causing a short, or something isn't plugged in right.

Double check that the ram is fully inserted and that all the plugs are fully plugged, and if that still doesn't work, try placing the ram in the other two slots.

Tea_Bag

unplug everything that isnt critical to boot. HDD, DVD, fans etc. just leave mobo, CPU, GPU and ram. try again. if it fails, do you have a spare GPU and PSU handy?

Serephucus

To improve on Tea Bag's idea - assuming his doesn't work of course - pull everything out of the case, sit the motherboard on the bag it came in, and have only the following in the loop:

PSU, motherboard, CPU (and cooler ), GPU, 1 RAM module, 1 HDD, monitor.

Recheck your cables, make sure everything's where it should be. You shouldn't even need to plug in any of the small motherboard crap, just ATX, CPU and GPU power, and HDD and power/data.

If nothing happens there, it's either a motherboard or PSU problem, if you hear your PSU and HDD running, then you either have a motherboard or GPU problem.

Vikings

Ok unplugged dvd, both hard drives and case fan - went to boot, can hear the psu make a noise but nothing boots up.

When I have the psu plugged in and switched on, the motherboard has a light on it.

Have my old graphics card alright but no spare psu to try.

Anyone in the Lucan/Dublin area want to help me? (:o... probably bricked something knowing my luck)

Serephucus

I have about an hour or two free, but I can't get out to you. Do you have Skype/Google Talk or something?

Vikings

Just want to talk Serephucus for his help earlier, did a little troubleshooting and narrowed down to a faulty motherboard or processor.

Going to pick up a p8p67 pro off kucyk on adverts (good timing) and try that see how I get on then. Will report back!

Skerries

just as an aside i used a velcro strip to attach my ssd to the case so i can easily get at it without it moving

quarryman

Vikings wrote: »

When I have the psu plugged in and switched on, the motherboard has a light on it.

I had something similar when i put together my new build recently. Turns out i had missed a power connection to the mobo, seems they have more now since the Pentium 4 days...

The mobo would have a light but not power up when i hit the power button.

And THEN when it still didn't work i realised i had forgotten to flick the PSU on (there's a separate switch for it at the back).

Leman

Did you remember to test to see if it works if you take the Mobo out of the case and just lie it on top of the antistatic baggy? Like I said, it might be caused by a standoff causing a Short.

Serephucus

I had him try that. Didn't work. He also tried a PSU with an old motherboard and that worked fine.

Leman

RIght. That sucks.*:( I know how upsetting it can be to get a faulty bit of hardware and the ungodly hassle it brings.

Vikings

Lads, the phrase so close yet so far has never been more apt.

Picked up the new motherboard earlier and got went to a mates for a second brain. Tested the old GD55 a bit before coming to the conclusion it was bricked.

Pulled out the cpu and heatsink and put it into the P8P67 and success! With just cpu and heatsink out of case and psu hooked up it started up and stayed running. So got to plugging in the rest of the parts. When I had EVERYTHING wired up, same as I had with the gd55 board and booted up it worked. So turned it off and plugged in mouse, keyboard and monitor and booted up again. Stayed up and running but nothing on display.

Had a quick look around and reseated the sticks of ram. This is the only change I made and now it wont boot. I removed absolutely everything from the board and tried to boot, just cpu and heatsink and still nothing.

The heatsink fan spins for about 2-3 seconds and then cuts out. When I had everything still plugged in there is a number of led's on the 6870 that would also come on for the 2-3 seconds before everything cut out.

At wits end with it all at the minute!! I can't think of anything else to try - please god don't tell me this motherboard has gone kaput on me? I think I would cry!

Vikings

Back at it again this morning.

Here is what is happening:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=npovQzoTngE

Press power switch, cpu comes on for about 2 seconds and goes off. Stumped. Nothing else connected.

Vikings

Very strange one here: when I have the cmos jumper in the clear position, hit the power switch and then remove the jumper, the system powers on and stays running. But if I put the jumper back on and try to start it again it doesn't work.

Any ideas?