All round PC

Hornd

Hi there,

I've been considering buying a new PC for a while and after having a bit of a look around here I've come up with a few options. I haven't built a pc before myself but i have a few friends that have and i really like their setup. I maybe going slightly over kill for my needs as I generally use it for not much more than College work/light programming and CSS but i feel would use it more if it could play new games. I feel if im going to spend money on a new pc i might as well get as good a pc as possible within a reasonable budget. Id like to stay within 800 quid but as a student lower is always better. No need to include peripherals.

With the help of Solitaire in a couple of other threads I came up with something along the lines of this. I just want to make sure that everything is compatible with each other and to see if anyone has any other suggestions. I'll be running win7pro 32bit most likely but could dual boot with 64 if that makes any difference!

Thanks!

Solitaire

Just get the 64-bit version, it doesn't have the major personality issues that XP64 (and to a lesser extent Vista 64 - although all versions of that OS had issues! :P) had

As for the build...
CPU is fine.
CPU cooler isn't, that thing you have is especially for low-clearance builds like low-profile cases and specialised mATX cases where the PSU overhangs the CPU. With a "normal" ATX midi-tower case a regular tower heatsink like the Hyper 212 Plus will be much more effective.
Mobo is okay, but for €8 more the GA-P55A-UD3 is better from a future-proofing perspective (USB3 and SATA3 support).
RAM is a bit pricey for HWVS. There's a good A-Data XPG-G DDR3-1333 CL8 kit lurking around €84, if that's out of stock some basic-looking but good Crucial Value DDR3-1333 should do you for under €80.
Graphics depends on your monitor more than anything. Given you're on a budget there may be no point going any higher than a HD5750 unless you're playing at 1080p resolution.
HDD is fine, usually spec a 1TB model at your price point but if you think you only need half a TB...
DVD is fine.
PSU is overkill unless you really intend on getting a second HD57*0 in the very near future. Even if you intend on heavy OCing a VX550 or even Basiq Plus should be fine. If you're not doing any hard-core OCing and/or adding stacks of HDDs or anything even a CX400 will do.
Case is a bit meh, at this price point I usually take the ~€35 Thermaltake V3 as the minimum as it has a modern-style internal layout and thus much more upgradeable fan-wise. You can add another 120mm up front as always, but also a couple of 120/140mm units up top thanks to the modern "PSU-at-the-bottom" design.

Hornd

Thanks man. Exactly the kind of things I want to hear!

I've got this pretty much now.



Actually I just noticed I didn't change the PSU. Probably change this to the corsair TX550. Is there any disadvantage or even advantage to the TX650 or is it basically just overkill?

The plan is to upgrade the monitor so the 5770 may come in handy but if I was to go with the 5750 is there any brand you would recommend?

Does the case come with one fan? And if so would you still recommend a second case fan?

I'll probably throw a fan controller in and potentially a wireless card as I'm not 100% where I'm going to put the new rig in the house. Is there anything to look out for besides the whole n+ thing.

Is there anything else you would change personally.

Bearing in mind I have never put a PC together (I'll get my mates to do it with me/for me...I'll supply the beer!) is there anything else I'll need to get like thermal paste etc.

Sorry for all the questions but it seems your the man around these parts thats in the know!;)

Solitaire

Basically the advantage of a TX650 is that it has a higher load ceiling and it will perform just a tad cooler and slightly more efficiently than the VX550 once the load starts to pass the ~300W mark. Thing is, in real life you'd be surprised at the amount of money and effort you'd need to put into a rig to even hit that amount consistantly. And the TX650 is pricier and has the reverse problem with efficiency - at lower loads it'll actually waste a tad more energy than the VX550.

The efficiency of a modern PSU starts to tail off under 30% of its load and it gets nasty under 10-15%. Thing is the i5-750 is a strong CPU and many things it does won't even tax it enough to push it into the higher p-states. Most of the time it'll just be sitting around idle - that includes basic apps, web browsing, media playback and so on. The amount of energy it'll need in this semi-idle state is the same regardless of PSU, but the stronger the PSU, the less efficient it will be supplying this small amount of energy. Given this will be the most common condition for the PC the bigger PSU can get through a few quid more electricity per year as the machine sits around idle or doing tasks the i5 finds trivial All in all not a big thing, but it does make overspecifying a PSU too high a bit of a waste unless you have a guaranteed upgrade (that increases system power consumption a fair whack) coming in the very near future.

As for monitor... depends on whether the upgrade will be a 1080p jobbie or not. Odds are it will be nowadays, and that makes the biggest saving, a 512MB HD5750, a waste of time (512MB framebuffer Full-HD no likey! ). If you could get it a lot cheaper than the card listed above and you like tweaking there could be call for an Asus HD5750 (1GB) as those are designed for overvolting. But odds are the HD5770 1GB is just a better idea if you're going for a monitor upgrade soon; 1080p is where its at nowadays.

The case comes with a single 120mm fan; its probably a TT stock fan, which have blue LEDs and can be just a little noisy if they're sticking out of the front of the case like when I, uh, "retrofitted" one on my naff case.... Not a huge issue, just hook it up to a PWM mobo fan header and drop it down to 80-90% speed using an app like Speedfan. LEDs dim a wee bit and noise drops right off. As for more fans... depends on the next question. A lot.

What do you (or your mates ) intend to do to this rig regarding overclocking? Its easy enough to OC a graphics card but overvolting and/or (indirectly) fiddling with the CPU speed is a bit more time-consuming. If you don't intend on doing it you don't even need a CPU cooler as big as the Hyper nor will you need a platoon of fans. If you(r mates) do its a good idea to add a couple of fans and hook them up to a fan controller (not sure how many PWM-enabled fan headers the UD3 has ). And another good idea to get some rubber pegs if you can instead of the naff self-detonating grub screws most fans come with! They can help reduce the amount of vibration transferred to the case. Oh yeah, the Hyper has some thermal paste included; a lot of non-ultra-high-end models do now. Not the same quality as Arctic Silver 5/7 but you probably don't need that level of nit-picking even with a moderate OC.

You can throw in some extra fans if you want; one at the front at least if you're OCing. There are allegedly spaces for one 120mm fan at the top and one below; which is funny because there's two grills at the top. And funnier still they both look unusable as the mobo mounts too close to the top edge of the case. D'oh

Hornd

So from the sounds of it I'll probably go with the VX550. If, on the unlikely chance I do want to crossfire would it be necessary to replace the PSU or should be fine aslong as I'm not overclocking, which realisticly I wont be doing.

As i probably wont be OCing, you are saying its probably unnecessary to go with the 212 as the stock fan would be grand. But for 20 quid would you be inclined to go with it anyway.

Are we talking rubber pegs like this - http://www1.hardwareversand.de/articledetail.jsp?aid=25216&agid=42:confused:

Also I think im going to need a wireless card cause im putting it up in the spare room. I had a quick look around on the internet for cards that have win7 32 and 64bit compatibity and found a couple of names but nothing concrete. Does anyone here use wireless cards/USB adaptors with win7 and if so what make?

Again thanks for your input! Your help has been invaluable:p

Solitaire

If you don't want to OC too much but know the horrors of the Intel stock fan on a 95W CPU you don't need to stick with the 212, think about getting one of these instead. Smaller, cheaper, quieter

Yup, those pegs Not vital but always a good idea in case a fan bearing begins to shift asymmetrically and starts making excess vibration... If you're not OCing loads you don't need to fully kit out the case with a wall of fans anyway, just get what you need.

And the vast majority of wifi adaptors are better off being managed by Win7's integrated drivers than their own ones! :P Been that way since XP Service Pack 2 to be honest! Grab an internal (or external USB, if you fancy saving a few pennies) wireless-N card, make sure its a full-range 300mbps model as opposed to one of the cut-down reduced-range 150mbps versions. Haven't seen much other than praise for the TP-Link ones, and they're dirt cheap to boot.