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New build ~€1000

  • 17-10-2012 9:38am
    #1
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 2,345 ✭✭✭


    1. What is your budget? ~€1000 not including monitor

    2. What will be the main purpose of the computer? Predominantly gaming (BF3,Skyrim,Diablo etc) but also some audio recording/editing and some light video editing. Want to record in game footage

    3. Do you need a copy of Windows? Yes

    4. Can you use any parts from an old computer? No

    5. Do you need a monitor? Yes

    5a. If yes, what size do you need. Aiming for a Yamakasi Catleap 27'' (2560x1440)

    6. Do you need any of these peripherals? No

    7. Are you willing to try overclocking? No. I'm a noob when it comes to computer tech so wouldn't feel comfortable

    8. How can you pay? Visa Debit

    9. When are you purchasing? Hopefully before Christmas but would consider waiting till the new year if it meant better parts would be coming into my price range

    10. If you need help building it, where are you based? N/A


    Additional info: I would like to have a blu-ray disk drive.

    This is my first time building a pc. I don't know a lot on the tech side of things at all, but I have a couple of friends who can help me put it together.

    My main concern is being able to afford a graphics card good enough for playing games on high settings with the catleap. I've been playing on a console for the past few years, so I know it'll be a massive improvement on what I'm used to either way, but still don't know whether I have the budget to have games looking good and still get a good framerate at that resolution

    I'm open to suggestions of course!


Comments

  • Moderators, Science, Health & Environment Moderators Posts: 10,088 Mod ✭✭✭✭marco_polo


    The lack of overclocking makes it just about possible to tick all the boxes and remain under budget. HD 7950 is pretty decent for Catleap resolution gaming and should even handle BF3 at very close to maximum settings.

    You could also get rid of the HDD and get a 256GB SSD now, with the intention of adding the HDD later on?

    Item|Price
    BitFenix Merc Alpha|€32.23
    Super-Flower Amazon 80Plus 550W|€53.68
    ASRock H77 Pro4/MVP|€79.79
    Intel Core i5-3570 Box|€187,59
    8GB-Kit G.Skill PC3-8500U CL7|€32.46
    Sapphire Radeon HD 7950 Boost, 3GB GDDR5|€288.65
    Samsung SSD 830 128GB SATA 6GB|€85.16
    Hitachi Deskstar 7K1000.D 1TB|€65.91
    Asus BC-12B1ST Blu-Ray Combo|€58.58
    LogiLink Wireless LAN 300 Mbps PCI|€14.64
    Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium 64-Bit (SB-Version)|€81,71
    Shipping|€18.99
    Total|€999.39

    Although it looks like it, I wasn't actualy aiming to hit exactly €1000 :pac:


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 2,345 ✭✭✭Somnus


    That's great Marco_Polo, just have a couple of questions.

    Will I need a fan for cooling? I know the power supply has one and the graphics card (appears?) to have some. But will I need one for the system in general?

    And while I said I wouldn't try overclocking, I might depending on how easy it is for something to go wrong and the CPU be damaged. Is it something doable for someone new to pc building?

    Other than that I'm very happy with your suggestions! Appreciate it


  • Moderators, Science, Health & Environment Moderators Posts: 10,088 Mod ✭✭✭✭marco_polo


    Dr.Poca wrote: »
    That's great Marco_Polo, just have a couple of questions.

    Will I need a fan for cooling? I know the power supply has one and the graphics card (appears?) to have some. But will I need one for the system in general?

    The CPU comes with a cooler and the case has one rear fan installed, with the option to add a few more 120mm fans on the top and side if needs be. It should be fine as is though starting off.

    And while I said I wouldn't try overclocking, I might depending on how easy it is for something to go wrong and the CPU be damaged. Is it something doable for someone new to pc building?

    Other than that I'm very happy with your suggestions! Appreciate it

    it is very easy to do nowadays, for a beginner it is just a matter of changing the frequency multiplier in the BIOS. If you stick to this only, and avoid messing around with advanced setting like CPU voltages , then it is very safe and carries pretty well zero risk of damaging the CPU. You will eventually (and quite safely if you stick soley to the multiplier) find a celing where a further stable increase is not be possible CPU without upping voltages etc. This is a very good point for a beginner to stop and be satisfied with their first overclocking effort. :)

    Unfortunately I hadn't factored overclocking into the previous build, so if you wanted to try overclocking it will add to the cost of the build.

    The main reasons are firstly that H77 motherboards do not support overclocking, primarly because the CPU frequency multiplier cannot be changed on these. You would also have to change more expensive z77 board, something like this would do the trick, but will add another 15 euro onto the price.

    Secondly higher end Intel CPUs come in two flavours, the regular version which cannot be overclocked and a 'K' version. As you have probably already guessed this also costs extra :). The i5-3570K is about 30 euro more expensive than the vanilla i5-3570.

    Finally although you could stick with the stock cooler for some light overclocking, I would recommend getting a third party cooler. Personally I prefer to get one regardless as I find most the stock ones tend to become fairly audible at very high loads (Although you wouldn't nescessarly call them loud either).

    You could by all means start with the stock cooler and replace it at a later date if you find it unsatisfactory. Something like the Coolermaster Hyper 212 is a decent starter cooler and not too expensive as 28 euro.

    Overclocking is certainly something to consider, but it does carry a not trivial extra cost for you. However it would boost both the performance and longevity of the build especially for CPU intensive tasks like video editing and encoding, and a select few games which tend to get CPU bound such as Skyrim. On balance given how easy it is even for complete novices to safely and easily bump these chips up to to 4.5 GHz +, I would strongly consider giving it a whirl.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 3,191 ✭✭✭uncle_sam_ie


    Why a Blue-Ray player? Is because you want to watch BR movies?


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 893 ✭✭✭U_Fig


    Why a Blue-Ray player? Is because you want to watch BR movies?

    Personally I'd remove the blu-ray player and pump the extra 50 into getting a 3570k and z77 board and maybe an aftermarket cooler.. Then add a bluray later on.. Also if you mainly play bf3 then going for an Nvidia card might be better..the seem to perform better than amd and especially at such a high resolution this might make it a little better


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  • Moderators, Science, Health & Environment Moderators Posts: 10,088 Mod ✭✭✭✭marco_polo


    Couldn't disagree with that, if 1000 is a hard limit better to put in good foundtions and add the extras like bluray later.

    You are not wrong about NVidia cards and the main reason I chose the HD7950 was price, but also because one thing that AMD cards do very well is scale impressively at the ultra high resolutions and close gaps on on NVidia cards that were there at lower resolutions. you could argue that they are a slightly more cost effective gaming solution with such a monitor.

    For example in these reviews the HD7970 starts to do much better against the GTX 670/680s when they get all the way up to 2560X1600.

    http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/geforce-gtx-670-review,3200-5.html

    http://www.hardwarecanucks.com/forum/hardware-canucks-reviews/54954-amd-radeon-hd-7970-3gb-ghz-edition-review-6.html

    http://www.legitreviews.com/article/1925/5/


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 2,345 ✭✭✭Somnus


    Why a Blue-Ray player? Is because you want to watch BR movies?

    Yeah I have a bit of a Blu-Ray collection
    U_Fig wrote: »
    Personally I'd remove the blu-ray player and pump the extra 50 into getting a 3570k and z77 board and maybe an aftermarket cooler.. Then add a bluray later on.. Also if you mainly play bf3 then going for an Nvidia card might be better..the seem to perform better than amd and especially at such a high resolution this might make it a little better

    Thanks for the input, nothing is set in stone so I'm happy for different suggestions. I wouldn't mind skipping the Blu-Ray player if the money would actually go to some use as you suggested. Would you get all that stuff for around the €50?

    As for BF3, it's not gonna be my main game as such. I'll be playing a mixed bag of stuff, so it's not gonna be specifically BF3. I'd probably be splitting most of my gaming between shooters and rpg's. Love Fallout,Elder Scrolls, Bioshock etc as well you know?
    marco_polo wrote: »
    Couldn't disagree with that, if 1000 is a hard limit better to put in good foundtions and add the extras like bluray later.

    Again, I'm good with forgetting the Blu-Ray drive for now if I can get a core improvement with the money!
    I wouldn't mind going a little over the €1000 if it was worth it, but I'm fairly stuck at that budget for now.

    Was talking to a friend about the build and he seemed to be of the opinion that the front of that case doesn't look like there's a lot of air flow? I don't have any experience so don't really know.


  • Moderators, Science, Health & Environment Moderators Posts: 10,088 Mod ✭✭✭✭marco_polo


    He wouldn't be wrong about the relatively small front air inlet, but for its budget price it has reasonable enough thermal performance albeit nothing special. All in all though you do get a fair bit for your 32 euros.

    http://www.anandtech.com/show/4913/bitfenix-merc-alpha-how-much-can-39-can

    Ultimately something has got to give somewhere to keep within budget, and personally I rather keep the money to spend elsewhere. It certainly not at the top end of the scale, but even with some mild overclocking is should be more than capable of keeping the selected components cool enough to that they don't start to overheat.

    After all once it keeps the components reasonably cool and quiet, how often are you going to be dipping a thermometer in there and regretting it because the case temperature is 3-4 degrees higher than it would be in a more expensive one :) (As all of the other cases in the review are, some of them by a substantially amount).


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 3,191 ✭✭✭uncle_sam_ie


    Dr.Poca wrote: »
    Yeah I have a bit of a Blu-Ray collection



    Blue Ray on a PC is a hassle. The pain is you need software to play the movies and that's about another 50-70 euro's http://www.corel.com/corel/product/i...anguageCode=en
    And, getting it work right is painful because of all the DRM crap from the movie companies force on us. You will buy a movie and find out you need to wait a week or two for your software to be updated. A friend of mine said the software was worse than any virus. Plus, your monitor and video card need to be HDCP compatible or it won't work at all.
    I'm just giving you a heads up is all. A lot of people don't realise this.


  • Banned (with Prison Access) Posts: 1,435 ✭✭✭areyawell


    Blue Ray on a PC is a hassle. The pain is you need software to play the movies and that's about another 50-70 euro's http://www.corel.com/corel/product/i...anguageCode=en
    And, getting it work right is painful because of all the DRM crap from the movie companies force on us. You will buy a movie and find out you need to wait a week or two for your software to be updated. A friend of mine said the software was worse than any virus. Plus, your monitor and video card need to be HDCP compatible or it won't work at all.
    I'm just giving you a heads up is all. A lot of people don't realise this.

    plenty of ways around it with a quick google


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  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 2,345 ✭✭✭Somnus


    marco_polo wrote: »
    He wouldn't be wrong about the relatively small front air inlet, but for its budget price it has reasonable enough thermal performance albeit nothing special. All in all though you do get a fair bit for your 32 euros.

    http://www.anandtech.com/show/4913/bitfenix-merc-alpha-how-much-can-39-can

    Ultimately something has got to give somewhere to keep within budget, and personally I rather keep the money to spend elsewhere. It certainly not at the top end of the scale, but even with some mild overclocking is should be more than capable of keeping the selected components cool enough to that they don't start to overheat.

    After all once it keeps the components reasonably cool and quiet, how often are you going to be dipping a thermometer in there and regretting it because the case temperature is 3-4 degrees higher than it would be in a more expensive one :) (As all of the other cases in the review are, some of them by a substantially amount).

    Yeah you're right of course. He has his own pc overclocked, so it's probably just habit for him to point it out! I'll leave out the Blu-Ray player for now. Would that money make up the difference on the better components U_Fig suggested?
    The 3570k and z77 board you linked to earlier and some cooler then? That'd only be a little over budget and would mean I could oc using the frequency multiplier right?

    So I'll ditch the Blu-Ray
    Blue Ray on a PC is a hassle. The pain is you need software to play the movies and that's about another 50-70 euro's http://www.corel.com/corel/product/i...anguageCode=en
    And, getting it work right is painful because of all the DRM crap from the movie companies force on us. You will buy a movie and find out you need to wait a week or two for your software to be updated. A friend of mine said the software was worse than any virus. Plus, your monitor and video card need to be HDCP compatible or it won't work at all.
    I'm just giving you a heads up is all. A lot of people don't realise this.

    Thanks for the info. Just more reason to leave it out for now then. I can look into it further down the line


  • Moderators, Science, Health & Environment Moderators Posts: 10,088 Mod ✭✭✭✭marco_polo


    I only suggested it because for around 30 euro that is about as good as you will get. I certainly wouldn't feel tied to my suggestion as there are plenty of quality cases around so once it it does the basics like thermals and noise, and is ideally easy to work with, it is largely a matter of , budget, personal taste and/or what extra features you want. (Thinking about it some more I don't thing the Merc has USB 3.0 front panel connectors so that might be an issue for you).

    I would certainly encourage you to have a look around other threads to see what else is on offer, or browse through some of the cases on HWVS from good manufacturers like NZXT, Fractal, Corsair, Antec, Thermaltake, Coolermaster etc. Pick a budget and read some reviews on each.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 2,345 ✭✭✭Somnus


    Ok, so this is what it's looking like at the minute based on the feedback

    Item|Price
    BitFenix Merc Alpha|€32.19
    Super-Flower Amazon 80Plus 550W|€54.05
    Sapphire Radeon HD 7950 Boost, 3GB GDDR5, Full Retail|€288.65
    Samsung SSD 830 128GB SATA 6GB's Paper Box|€86.58
    Hitachi Deskstar 7K1000.D 1TB SATA 6GB's|€67.18
    LogiLink Wireless LAN 300 Mbps PCI Karte 802.11n 2T2R|€14.64
    Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium 64-Bit (SB-Version)|€82.41
    Intel Core i5-3570K Box, LGA1155|€208.05
    ASRock Z77 Pro4-M, Sockel 1155, mATX|€83.99
    8GB-Kit G.Skill RipJaws PC3-8500U CL7|€32.54
    Shipping|€18.99
    Total|€969.27

    When it comes to the disk drive, is there any recommended brand? They're all in and around the same price, but is there anything I should avoid?

    And Marco_Polo, when you mentioned the Coolermaster fan. Is that a fan that would sit on the case, or is it a replacement for the one on the cpu? In the product descripion it says cpu cooler. Just a bit unsure.
    Might have a look at some other cases too but overall I'm very happy with the suggestions, especially dropping the Blu-Ray player to up the core components.


  • Moderators, Science, Health & Environment Moderators Posts: 10,088 Mod ✭✭✭✭marco_polo


    Its a CPU cooler alright so you just wouldn't use the stock one at all. There are OEM ( termed 'tray' versions on HWVS) versions of the CPU that come without a cooler, but they are only about 4 euros cheaper anyway, and to the best of my knowledge the warranties on those OEM chips are much more limited than on the full retail boxed version.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 893 ✭✭✭U_Fig


    marco_polo wrote: »
    Its a CPU cooler alright so you just wouldn't use the stock one at all. There are OEM ( termed 'tray' versions on HWVS) versions of the CPU that come without a cooler, but they are only about 4 euros cheaper anyway, and to the best of my knowledge the warranties on those OEM chips are much more limited than on the full retail boxed version.

    well the warrenty is voided by using aftermarket cooling anyway..so if you habe a problem and need to send the cpu back it's handy to have the stock cooler...they can't prove you used a different cooler..

    for a good not too expensive cooler see

    Arctic Cooling Freezer 13 pro


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 2,345 ✭✭✭Somnus


    U_Fig wrote: »
    well the warrenty is voided by using aftermarket cooling anyway..so if you habe a problem and need to send the cpu back it's handy to have the stock cooler...they can't prove you used a different cooler..

    for a good not too expensive cooler see

    Arctic Cooling Freezer 13 pro

    Are the coolers easy enough to change?

    And in regards to the disc drive, is there anything I should avoid? There's one's there for €12 but that seems very cheap to me? Is something around €20 gonna be more reliable?


  • Site Banned Posts: 1,678 ✭✭✭Andy!!



    Blue Ray on a PC is a hassle. The pain is you need software to play the movies and that's about another 50-70 euro's http://www.corel.com/corel/product/i...anguageCode=en
    And, getting it work right is painful because of all the DRM crap from the movie companies force on us. You will buy a movie and find out you need to wait a week or two for your software to be updated. A friend of mine said the software was worse than any virus. Plus, your monitor and video card need to be HDCP compatible or it won't work at all.
    I'm just giving you a heads up is all. A lot of people don't realise this.

    Sounds like a PS3 might be feasible... by the time youve bought a drive and the software youd be at more than half the cost of one, plus its a console with some decent exclusives. Plus they just came out with a super slim version, and you dont have to worry about updates for the BD stuff, the ps3 does that automatically.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 2,345 ✭✭✭Somnus


    U_Fig wrote: »
    well the warrenty is voided by using aftermarket cooling anyway..so if you habe a problem and need to send the cpu back it's handy to have the stock cooler...they can't prove you used a different cooler..

    for a good not too expensive cooler see

    Arctic Cooling Freezer 13 pro

    Read up on that cooler a bit and it definitely seems like a good one for my price range. Thanks for that U_Fig.
    It'd fit on to the cpu I have picked out easily enough I assume? I am a complete noob to building.
    Andy!! wrote: »
    Sounds like a PS3 might be feasible... by the time youve bought a drive and the software youd be at more than half the cost of one, plus its a console with some decent exclusives. Plus they just came out with a super slim version, and you dont have to worry about updates for the BD stuff, the ps3 does that automatically.

    I have a PS3, but it's broken at the minute. The Blu-Ray thing doesn't really bother me at the minute though. I'll look into it at some later date.


    Ok, so I'n almost done with this build, just waiting for a response in regard to the DVD drive, they're all in and around the same price €12-20. Is there anything to avoid or are they all pretty much the same?


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 893 ✭✭✭U_Fig


    personally I've never installed that particular one... some of the bigger ones can be a bit tricky to install... but nothing that a second set of hands can't overcome.. just read the instructions or they're YouTube videos on how to do it..

    and as far as the disk drive.... i'm not 100% sure but i can't see there being much of a difference between a cheap one and an expensive one really


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 1,815 ✭✭✭imitation


    I got one of these CPU Coolers for my new build, I delighted with it, its nice and quiet and keeps the CPU at a reasonable temperature. I think its a solid investment for 30 quid.

    It's actually easier to fit than the intel fan in some ways because you don't have to brute force the fan onto the motherboard, but instead hold on a backing plate at the other site of the mother board and bolt it on. Just make sure you don't put the backing plate on the wrong way around like I did. You'll also have to put the plate on before you put the motherboard into the case.


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