Thoughts on my provisional build?

Markd250

First off, thanks to all the guys posting regularly here for their time and expertise!

I'm looking to try and build a new pc for gaming and photo editing, with a budget of €650-700 including monitor (which I haven't chosen yet). Doing it on a budget, I can accept not being able to play all games at very high quality. I have a copy of windows 7, but nothing else. I doubt I will overclock the processor. I aim to buy in the next couple of weeks.


Total build cost: €538.42 + €30 shipping
Samsung SpinPoint F3 1,5TB, SATA II (HD155UI) €53.43
Samsung SH-222AB bare schwarz SATA €16.22
ASRock H61M-VS (B3), Sockel 1155, mATX €46.91
Microsoft Comfort Mouse 4500 Blue Track €13.99
Sapphire HD 6850 1GB GDDR5 PCI-Express €126.79
Intel Core i5-2400 Box, LGA1155 €158.33
Xigmatek Asgard II Midi Tower - black/black, ohne Netzteil €33.50
8GB-Kit G.Skill RipJaws PC3-10667U CL9 €37.73
TP-Link TL-WN781N, 150Mbps, PCIe x1 €10.58
Super-Flower Amazon 80Plus 450W €40.94

Anyone share their thoughts on what I've put together?
Thanks!

Serephucus

The hard drive you've selected, while big, is slow. Might want to look into a 64GB SSD to go along with it. You can install your OS to it, as well as your most-used applications.

Since that system is coming in under budget, you might as well also chuck in a better motherboard. Never hurts, and this one will add extra features, such as Intel's SRT.

http://www3.hardwareversand.de/articledetail.jsp?aid=50899&agid=1603

Not sure (I'm sure deconduo will know this), but 450W might be pushing it. Might want a 550W model to be safe.

The rest looks good though.

Markd250

Thanks for the reply.

As much as I would love an SSD, I still have to fit a monitor into my budget! I was looking at this one:

http://www1.hardwareversand.de/articledetail.jsp?aid=30854&agid=1650
At €150 it would fit to my budget too.

If I buy an SSD at a later date, is it a real pain to move windows over to it?

Point taken on the PSW, I originally had chosen the 550W, but some similar builds on this forum had the 450W so thought I might save a few quid.

Apart from SRT, would the extra money spent on that motherboard make much difference?

Serephucus

Ah, woops, forgot about the monitor... yeah, that looks like a good one. I think a few people on here have it actually.

No, it's not really a pain, you just have to remember to disable your pagefile, system restore, hibernation, shadow copies, defragging... basically everything hard drive related in Windows, but you'd have to do that if you were installing it from new anyway.

You'd gain the ability to run a multi-GPU setup. Crossfire/SLI depending on what card you go for. H61 doesn't allow this.

Markd250

Thanks for the advice.

One more question, again on hard drive. Was just checking the specs again for the samsung, and the 1.5tb drive is 5400rpm, while the 1tb drive is 7200 rpm. Do you think the 1tb version would be a better buy? I suppose I can always buy more storage in future if I fill it up with photos.

KamSaw

Markd250 wrote: »

Thanks for the advice.

One more question, again on hard drive. Was just checking the specs again for the samsung, and the 1.5tb drive is 5400rpm, while the 1tb drive is 7200 rpm. Do you think the 1tb version would be a better buy? I suppose I can always buy more storage in future if I fill it up with photos.

The faster 1tb is better. You probably wouldn't fill 1.5tbs.

Serephucus

You'd be surprised how easily you can fill space... I have 3TB filled at the moment...

deconduo

Your first build is decent, the only changes I would make are the RAM and the Hard Drive. 450W is plenty for a single 6850


Total build cost: €532.39 + €30 shipping
Samsung SpinPoint F3 1000GB, SATA II (HD103SJ)|€48.29
Samsung SH-222AB bare schwarz SATA|€16.79
ASRock H61M-VS (B3), Sockel 1155, mATX|€47.93
Microsoft Comfort Mouse 4500 Blue Track|€13.99
Sapphire HD 6850 1GB GDDR5 PCI-Express|€128.11
Intel Core i5-2400 Box, LGA1155|€159.34
Xigmatek Asgard II Midi Tower - black/black, ohne Netzteil|€32.88
8GB-Kit G.Skill PC3-10667U CL9|€33.60
TP-Link TL-WN781N, 150Mbps, PCIe x1|€10.58
Super-Flower Amazon 80Plus 450W|€40.88

Markd250

My laptop is full, as is my external hdd, both 500gb!

Thanks for the advice guys, I'm amazed how far your money goes for a pc these days!

KamSaw

Serephucus wrote: »

You'd be surprised how easily you can fill space... I have 3TB filled at the moment...

Maybe it's just me used to rationing 300gb on my laptop :P