New general purpose PC.

mcgovern

1. What is your budget? €400-500

2. What will be the main purpose of the computer? Internet, media (HD movies, music etc), TV (will put a TV card in it), have a bunch of those Humble Bundles that I've bought but couldn't get to run, so would like it to play them.

3. Do you need a copy of Windows? No

4. Can you use any parts from an old computer? Can re-use hard drive, though if there was a good price on 2 TB drives I might stump up extra for them. Guess I can re-use DVD drive and card reader also. Coming from a 5 year old Dell so PSU, GPU not worth re-using.

5. Do you need a monitor? No

5a. If yes, what size do you need. n/a

5b. If no, what resolution is your current monitor and do you plan to upgrade in the near future? Connects to a 720p TV (which will be upgraded to 1080p at some stage) and a standard Dell 22" monitor. WMC running on TV, everything else on monitor (dual screen). Means I'd need VGA and DVI connections I guess, and HDMI in case of upgrade.

6. Do you need any of these peripherals? No

7. Are you willing to try overclocking? Yes (if its easy!)

8. How can you pay? Any

9. When are you purchasing? Next week I hope

10. If you need help building it, where are you based? Kildare, but should be ok.


Is it worth going for an i5 for what I need, or is an i3 enough?

Thanks in advance!

Serephucus

Something like this as a base would be good:

Item|Price
Total build cost: €371.37 + €30 shipping
8GB-Kit Corsair XMS3 DDR3-1333 CL9|€36.92
NZXT SOURCE 210 Midi-Tower - black, ATX, ohne Netzteil|€29.74
Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 - Pro PWM Rev.2|€14.49
Intel Core i3-2105 Box, LGA1155|€114.99
be quiet! SYSTEM POWER BQT S6-SYS-UA-350W 80plus bulk|€30.15
ASRock H61M/U3S3 (B3), Sockel 1155, mATX|€54.79
Crucial M4 64GB SSD 6,4cm (2,5")|€90.29


I've tried to pick parts for a quiet build, given that it's a HTPC, and possibly in a sitting room type area. I've also given you a processor with integrated HD 3000 graphics (vs. the regular 2000) and while it won't play games, it should handle any HD content just fine.

There's also a 64GB SSD to put an OS and any applications on, though you'll obviously need another drive for storage. There's enough in the budget for a 2TB drive, though they're expensive at the moment.

Hopefully I haven't forgotten anything.

mcgovern

Serephucus wrote: »

Something like this as a base would be good:

Item|Price
Total build cost: €371.37 + €30 shipping
8GB-Kit Corsair XMS3 DDR3-1333 CL9|€36.92
NZXT SOURCE 210 Midi-Tower - black, ATX, ohne Netzteil|€29.74
Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 - Pro PWM Rev.2|€14.49
Intel Core i3-2105 Box, LGA1155|€114.99
be quiet! SYSTEM POWER BQT S6-SYS-UA-350W 80plus bulk|€30.15
ASRock H61M/U3S3 (B3), Sockel 1155, mATX|€54.79
Crucial M4 64GB SSD 6,4cm (2,5")|€90.29


I've tried to pick parts for a quiet build, given that it's a HTPC, and possibly in a sitting room type area. I've also given you a processor with integrated HD 3000 graphics (vs. the regular 2000) and while it won't play games, it should handle any HD content just fine.

There's also a 64GB SSD to put an OS and any applications on, though you'll obviously need another drive for storage. There's enough in the budget for a 2TB drive, though they're expensive at the moment.

Hopefully I haven't forgotten anything.

Thanks, that looks good. What sort of options would that give me for upgrades down the line? I assume I could add a graphics card afterwards, and maybe upgrade the CPU in a couple of years?

Serephucus

If you want to add a graphics card, we'd have to upgrade the PSU a bit. What sort of graphics are we talking about? New games at max, Facebook games, casual games on decent-ish settings... etc.?

mcgovern

Serephucus wrote: »

If you want to add a graphics card, we'd have to upgrade the PSU a bit. What sort of graphics are we talking about? New games at max, Facebook games, casual games on decent-ish settings... etc.?

Facebook games, the games from the Humble Bundle, that sort of stuff. Have Crysis but not worried if it won't run that and have an X360 for current games.

Serephucus

This is probably overkill, but it would pretty much power any single GPU card on the market, bar the GTX 580, and 6970.

http://www2.hardwareversand.de/articledetail.jsp?aid=23718&agid=1627

This one is a bit cheaper, and would probably power anything up to a 6770. Bearing in mind though that the 7000 series of cards from AMD are currently rolling out, and are probably much better in terms of PSU requirements than the current line, so you might be able to get away with a 7770 or a 7870 or something.

http://www2.hardwareversand.de/articledetail.jsp?aid=48790&agid=1627

For light games, the second one will be fine, and will probably manage Crysis at low settings too if you add a 6770 or something similar.


As regards CPU upgrades, that board will let you run any i3/i5/i7 processor from either the Sandy or Ivy Bridge line, though it won't let you overclock, so in that sense, a 2500/2600K are probably out. If you want something that will allow you to overclock in the future (not really needed for what you'll be using it for) something like this would work.

http://www2.hardwareversand.de/articledetail.jsp?aid=46912&agid=1603

mcgovern

The case has gone out of stock, no estimated delivery date. The CPU is also out of stock but only until 14th so I can live with that.
Is this case a good replacement?

Serephucus

Yeah, it is. there's also this one, if you like the looks better. There's a Merc Alpha version that has space for two 120mm fans up top too.

mcgovern

Ordered before she finds out that I spent the money for non-valentines day use
Went with the cheaper of the 2 alternative PSUs and the mobo you originally recommended.
Thanks again!

mcgovern

So its ordered and it shipped today, and rather than creating a new thread I though I'd ask a few questions here in advance of receiving it.

About the SSD, I've never used one before, is there anything I need to do differently installing Windows etc?
My original plan was to keep the same HDD and so not worry about windows too much, but this complicates things a bit
I assume I can re-use my existing copy of Windows on the new PC, do I need to do anything with the old one first (Windows 7 Pro upgrade)?

Serephucus

As to whether you can re-use Windows or not, you should be able to. You might have to call Microsoft to get them to reactivate it for you (Google "OEM Windows new PC" or something similar).

As regards the SSD, make sure before you install Windows that you boot into your BIOS and set your drive mode as AHCI (vs. IDE), and that you only have the SSD plugged in when installing Windows as well. When it's installed, you'll have to disable hibernation and system restore, and probably your page file as well.