Some help with my first build

IamSatai

Hey everybody,

My old computer has finally gotten to the point where It is struggling to do the tasks I need it to. So, I have decided to try build my own computer as a replacement. This forum has been a great help, so I thought I would run a few things by you guys, get some advice and make sure everything works together before I buy the parts. I've been wanting to do this in the past, so I have done quite a bit of research on each component, just thought it would be important to ask those with experience.


1. What is your budget?
I don't have a large budget. I wouldn't be willing to go much higher than €750, but less is always better.

2. What will be the main purpose of the computer?
I want it to be able to reasonably run graphics software such as Photoshop, cad software such as autocad and solidworks, and computational software such as Mathematica and Pari/GP. I'm not a hardcore gamer but I would like to play a few games such as skyrim with reasonably high graphics on my 1680x1050 screen.

3. Do you need a copy of Windows?
Nope

4. Can you use any parts from an old computer?
I've got lots of dvd drives around so I'm fine for that.

5. Do you need a monitor?
Nope.

5b. If no, what resolution is your current monitor and do you plan to upgrade in the near future?
I dual monitor with a 1680x1050 and a 1280x1024. The 1680x1050 is the main, and don't plan on upgrading any time soon.

6. Do you need any of these peripherals?
Nope

7. Are you willing to try overclocking?
I will in the future, but for now I won't. I'll get a cpu cooler when I want to overclock, unless otherwise is advised.

8. How can you pay?
Hoping to pay by paypal.

9. When are you purchasing?
I would like to get it this week, this old computer really dosn't have much life left in it. It isn't sounding or acting to healthily.

10. If you need help building it, where are you based?
With the help of the internet I should be able to figure it out, but I'm in Bray just in case.

Here is what I am thinking of getting:

Item|Price
Sapphire Technology ATI Radeon 6850 HD 775MHz 1GB PCI-Express HDMI|€120.79
Intel Core i5-3570K S1155 3.4GHz 6MB|€229.50
Corsair Vengeance 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 1600MHz CL9 XMP|€48.99
OCZ Technology 550W ZT Series Fully-Modular Power Supply|€67.13
Gigabyte Z77-DS3H S1155 Intel Z77 DDR3 ATX|€89.31
Corsair Carbide Series 300R Gaming Case|€82.13
Seagate 1TB Barracuda SATA 6Gb/s 64MB 7200RPM Hard Drive|€82.12
Shipping|Free!
Total|€719.97

As you can see, the GPU is used stock. I wanted to get some advice on this. Does anyone have any experience with dabs used stock, or should used stock be steered clear of? The condition of the GPU reads "This item has been opened for inspection" unlike most others which are described as "used item". If it was never used but just opened, I would be to happy save €40 by going with that one. I could also shave of another €20 by going with a used case. So really I'm asking if used stock is more trouble than it's worth, or would it be all right to save a bit?

Is this all the components I would need, or have I overlooked a vital component?

If you think this is an awful combination of parts, and that you could come up with something vastly better, I would be happy to see your choice. All advice is greatly appreciated. Thanks for the help.

Procrastastudy

You don't need it straight off the bat but an after market CPU cooler would be needed for over clocking - you could check adverts for a second hand, very reasonably priced - Coolermaster V8 Cough cough ahem!

Beyond that its not a bad build - might be cheaper from HWVS and a tray 2500K but apart from that.

6850 is a grand old card - if it's being sold by a retailer it will have some warranty attached to it so don't worry. Not sure how it stacks up against a 7770 which would be about the same cost.

I'm not sure on the PSU - read monotype's guide.

Bazzo

Procrastastudy wrote: »

You don't need it straight off the bat but an after market CPU cooler would be needed for over clocking - you could check adverts for a second hand, very reasonably priced - Coolermaster V8 Cough cough ahem!

Beyond that its not a bad build - might be cheaper from HWVS and a tray 2500K but apart from that.

6850 is a grand old card - if it's being sold by a retailer it will have some warranty attached to it so don't worry. Not sure how it stacks up against a 7770 which would be about the same cost.

I'm not sure on the PSU - read monotype's guide.

I was looking at them side by side recently enough, benchmarks, reviews etc. As far as I can tell the 7770 has significantly lower power consumption, but the 6870 will outperform it pretty solidly.

IamSatai

Thanks for the help.

It is reassuring that you think it's not a bad build, I've seen a few too many of these threads where you want to redo the list. I'm glad to see I'm on the right track at least.

Yeh, I wasn't sure about that psu either. The super-flower amazons seem to have a good name here so I'm making a list from HWVS to see what it comes too, just there's no discount on the gpu from them though.

The 2500k's are nice, but for only an extra €10 I don't see why I wouldn't go for the 3570K. A good cpu is important for the computational software to shorten calculation times.

From what I have researched, the 6850 is better than the 7770, though it is more expensive by about €30. I'm looking at the 6870 on HWVS though. I'll stick up my list from HWVS when I have it completed for you guys to check out.

Procrastastudy

The 2500K used to come as a tray SKU for a very good price - looks like its gone

IamSatai

Ok, just put together a list from HWVS. The gpu is better and I feel more confident with this psu.

Item|Price
Sapphire HD6870 1G GDDR5 PCI-E DL-DVI-I+SL-DVI-D / HDMI / DP|€154.12
Intel Core i5-3570K Box, LGA1155|€218.09
ASRock Z77 Pro3, Sockel 1155, ATX|€91.34
8GB-Kit Corsair Vengeance DDR3 1600 MHz CL9|€45.14
Corsair Carbide Series 300R, ATX, ohne Netzteil|€68.05
Seagate Barracuda 7200 1000GB, SATA 6Gb/s|€78.63
Super-Flower Amazon 80Plus 550W|€54.51
Shipping|€18.99
Total|€728.87

How does this look, and is this everything needed to get the computer working? Also, is the shipping always €19 from HWVS, or does it depend on what your getting? I'm just not sure where it is coming up with €19 from.

Procrastastudy

€19 flat rate - no SSD?

IamSatai

I was hoping for an SSD, but it would have pushed it a bit over the price I would be willing to go to. The way I see it is I can pick up a cpu cooler to overclock and an SSD at a later point if I feel the need for a bit more speed, but right now I could do without spending much more on this. I haven't done too much research into which SSD to get because of this, If I was to go for one which would you suggest?

Bazzo

Samsung SSD 830 128GB SATA 6GB's Paper Box

This one is pretty good value.

IamSatai

That would be nice, just couldn't stretch my budget to that right now. I will more than likely pick one up another time.

Thanks for all the help Procrastastudy and Bazzo, I'm pretty happy with my list now. I think I'll order in the next few days when a bit more money comes in. If you have anything more to suggest for a first time builder, please do. I'll check this thread every now and then, and I'm sure I'll be back with some more questions.

Just thought of something. If I wanted to plug in three monitors, could I use the two slots in the graphics card and the one in the motherboard, or would I need another graphics card for that? I do have an old nvidea geforce 7300 LE(from a dell dimension 9150) I could use if that works, or would that be asking for all kinds of trouble?

Procrastastudy

6870 supports 3 monitors - purely for educational purposes have a look at my ad - that's the adapter you need.

IamSatai

Ah so that's how it's done. Thanks for all the help.

Procrastastudy

Watch out though you need active adapters.

Squarewave

IamSatai wrote: »

Ok, just put together a list from HWVS. The gpu is better and I feel more confident with this psu.

Item|Price
Sapphire HD6870 1G GDDR5 PCI-E DL-DVI-I+SL-DVI-D / HDMI / DP|€154.12
Intel Core i5-3570K Box, LGA1155|€218.09
ASRock Z77 Pro3, Sockel 1155, ATX|€91.34
8GB-Kit Corsair Vengeance DDR3 1600 MHz CL9|€45.14
Corsair Carbide Series 300R, ATX, ohne Netzteil|€68.05
Seagate Barracuda 7200 1000GB, SATA 6Gb/s|€78.63
Super-Flower Amazon 80Plus 550W|€54.51
Shipping|€18.99
Total|€728.87
How does this look, and is this everything needed to get the computer working? Also, is the shipping always €19 from HWVS, or does it depend on what your getting? I'm just not sure where it is coming up with €19 from.

You could cut psu down to 450w and save yourself €10.
Go for this card if it's back in stock by the time you're ordering and a Bitfenix merc case and you'll be able to squeeze a 64gb ssd into the budget too. It'll only be able to hold the OS and a few games/programs but it'll still make a massive difference to the build!

Eboggles

Squarewave wrote: »

You could cut psu down to 450w and save yourself €10.
Go for this card if it's back in stock by the time you're ordering and a Bitfenix merc case and you'll be able to squeeze a 64gb ssd into the budget too. It'll only be able to hold the OS and a few games/programs but it'll still make a massive difference to the build!

I highly doubt the 6870 is coming back in stock, it's been EOL for a while now and they're being phased out. Problem is, there's no good 28nm card from €120- €200, and that's the largest market.

Squarewave

Eboggles wrote: »

I highly doubt the 6870 is coming back in stock, it's been EOL for a while now and they're being phased out. Problem is, there's no good 28nm card from €120- €200, and that's the largest market.

I thought as much. Another option is to get a 6850 and overclock it but they seem to have increased to the same price as 6870s so it wouldn't be worth it financially

Bazzo

Eboggles wrote: »

I highly doubt the 6870 is coming back in stock, it's been EOL for a while now and they're being phased out. Problem is, there's no good 28nm card from €120- €200, and that's the largest market.

It seems to be currently in stock on both dabs and HWVS though?

Eboggles

Bazzo wrote: »

It seems to be currently in stock on both dabs and HWVS though?

I know they are, but if you have a look they're risen sharply in price and there's a lot less to choose from.

Bazzo

Eboggles wrote: »

I know they are, but if you have a look they're risen sharply in price and there's a lot less to choose from.

True, but they're still within the same price range as the 7770, which was the other suggestion.

IamSatai

Thanks for the suggestions everybody. I have worked on the list and have come up with a few more questions.

What do you guys think of the i5-2550k. It is €185 on HWVS, compaired to €220 for the 3750k and €205 for the 2500k. What would the downsides of the 2550k be, and would the other two really be worth 20-35 quid?

I am now looking at the 7770 instead of the 6870. It isn't as good a graphics card, but it is newer technology and is €40 cheaper. With driver updates in the future and making use of newer technology in future games it should close the gap between it and the 6870 even more. I'm looking at this one; Gigabyte Radeon HD 7770 OC, 1GB GDDR5, PCI-Express. It only has one dvi and no vga, so what adapter should I be looking at? One of my monitors is vga only.

HWVS have run out of stock on the 550W superflower amazons, so if I went with the 450W would that give me enough power? It's also a bit cheaper which is nice.

If I was to make these changes, the price would be down to around €650. This means I could consider a ssd. Are they really worth it?

IamSatai

Just noticed that MSI R6870-2PM2D1GD5/OC, 1024MB, PCI-Express will be back in stock on the 21st, so I think I will have to go with that one over the 7770. Its only another €25.

Procrastastudy

IamSatai wrote: »

Thanks for the suggestions everybody. I have worked on the list and have come up with a few more questions.

What do you guys think of the i5-2550k. It is €185 on HWVS, compaired to €220 for the 3750k and €205 for the 2500k. What would the downsides of the 2550k be, and would the other two really be worth 20-35 quid?

2550K has no iGPU - good and bad points to this.
3570K is the latest technology and a bit quicker than the 2500K at stock
2500K runs cooler

IamSatai wrote: »

I am now looking at the 7770 instead of the 6870. It isn't as good a graphics card, but it is newer technology and is €40 cheaper. With driver updates in the future and making use of newer technology in future games it should close the gap between it and the 6870 even more. I'm looking at this one; Gigabyte Radeon HD 7770 OC, 1GB GDDR5, PCI-Express. It only has one dvi and no vga, so what adapter should I be looking at? One of my monitors is vga only.

What are you spending total on a GPU now? I'd probably just shell out on a 7850.

IamSatai wrote: »

HWVS have run out of stock on the 550W superflower amazons, so if I went with the 450W would that give me enough power? It's also a bit cheaper which is nice.

Should be grand - as long as power consumption figure keep going down.

IamSatai wrote: »

If I was to make these changes, the price would be down to around €650. This means I could consider a ssd. Are they really worth it?

In my view yes - makes the whole machine more nippy and some games with BF3 and Shogun 2 really benefit - others not so much.

IamSatai

All right, so I've got some good news. I have an external 1tb seagate hard drive, so I had the bright idea of opening the casing and I found this inside; Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 1TB SATA 3 6GB/s. This means I can leave it out of the parts list. I made a few changes to parts and this is how it is looking now.

Item|Price
ASRock Z77 Pro3, Sockel 1155, ATX|€91.34
Corsair Carbide Series 300R, ATX, ohne Netzteil|€68.54
Intel Core i5-2550K Box, LGA1155, ohne integrierte Grafik|€185.00
Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO - Intel/AMD|€27.99
8GB-Kit Corsair Vengeance Low Profile schwarz PC3-12800U CL9|€44.00
Super-Flower SF550P14XE Golden Green Pro 80plus gold|€73.65
MSI R6870-2PM2D1GD5/OC, 1024MB, PCI-Express|€139.00
Shipping|€18.99
Total|€648.51

I swapped the psu for a more expensive one which has gotten great reviews and is gold standard, and I have thrown in a cpu cooler. As you can see without having to worry about the hard drive, I'm €100 under my max budget. This most defiantly makes me happy, but I have sort of gotten used too the idea of spending a bit more . So, what should I be doing with this new found room in the budget? I quite like the idea of a 7850 instead of a 6850, which would be an extra €60 or more depending on which one. Or should I go for a ssd as suggested before? Would it be a better idea to go for an upgrade on one of the other parts? Or should I sit back happy being €100 under budget? All suggestions are welcome.

Procrastastudy

IamSatai wrote: »

All right, so I've got some good news. I have an external 1tb seagate hard drive, so I had the bright idea of opening the casing and I found this inside; Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 1TB SATA 3 6GB/s. This means I can leave it out of the parts list. I made a few changes to parts and this is how it is looking now.

Item|Price
ASRock Z77 Pro3, Sockel 1155, ATX|€91.34
Corsair Carbide Series 300R, ATX, ohne Netzteil|€68.54
Intel Core i5-2550K Box, LGA1155, ohne integrierte Grafik|€185.00
Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO - Intel/AMD|€27.99
8GB-Kit Corsair Vengeance Low Profile schwarz PC3-12800U CL9|€44.00
Super-Flower SF550P14XE Golden Green Pro 80plus gold|€73.65
MSI R6870-2PM2D1GD5/OC, 1024MB, PCI-Express|€139.00
Shipping|€18.99
Total|€648.51

I swapped the psu for a more expensive one which has gotten great reviews and is gold standard, and I have thrown in a cpu cooler. As you can see without having to worry about the hard drive, I'm €100 under my max budget. This most defiantly makes me happy, but I have sort of gotten used too the idea of spending a bit more . So, what should I be doing with this new found room in the budget? I quite like the idea of a 7850 instead of a 6850, which would be an extra €60 or more depending on which one. Or should I go for a ssd as suggested before? Would it be a better idea to go for an upgrade on one of the other parts? Or should I sit back happy being €100 under budget? All suggestions are welcome.

Check the 2550K - I've seen almost no one with them which gives me pause for thought.

Defo go for a 7850 - have a looking the hardware discussion threads and find an voltage unlocked one for over-clocking to get the best out of it.

PSU is overkill in all honesty - read Monotype's guide and have a chat to him if he's about. If you're on a budget is doesn't make a huge amount of sense to spend money where you don't need to.

If you have the spare cash in the budget try and squeeze in an SSD but not at the expense of the GPU or CPU.

Check the Pro3 has all the features you need - its been pointed out recently it doesn't have an optical out - how much of an issue that is - is a matter for you really.