Building my own PC

CoolHotCold

Well I simply love these threads as i get to design systems that I don't need but enjoy building.

Heres my list for roughly £500

Intel i5 2.5GHz SandyBridge
Foxcon H67 Motherboard
G.Skill 4GB RAM 16000MHz
2 Hitachi 500GB HDD
OCZ Silent 500w Modular PSU
Samsung 22x DVD writer
ATI 5850 MSI Graphics Card
One OCuk Tsunami case

Total cost £530

gonzo127

interesting build CHC

the modular PSU is a good choice, possibly better than the corsair one i picked out mainly because it being modular,
also the motherboard is a good choice by the looks of it it very simular to the gigabyte one i spotted in design but cheaper and with 4 RAM slots not 2 and 2 x16x pci-e slots instead of 1x16 and 1x4

not sure on the case as i have never seen one of them in real life, however i know the coolermaster 330 is a great little case

RAM - with the op not planing on overclocking i think the gskill one is probably overkill (but still a good price)

mr_fishbulb

alexlyne wrote: »

Based on my own personal experience, consider using a solid state drive rather than a platter drive - especially for the OS. Yes they are expensive for what they are, but they do make a huge difference. You can get 64gb for under £100, which sounds like a lot for not much space.. better to go for 128gb for around £175 if you can afford it - put the OS on that, and use a separate HDD for storage.

I'd recommend a SSD too, but from my experience 64GB would be plenty.

I've partitioned off a 60Gig space on my platter drive for the operating system. I have Windows 7 and lots of Image processing programs on there (Photoshop, etc) and I'm just over half full. All my documents are on the other partition.

rmg1

Thanks for all the tips folks. Would I get the OS from the same place as the kit or would I go elsewhere?
I'm currently running XP on my steam-powered machine and I'm looking to jump straight to Windows 7 on the new one.
Obviously I don't need the full, top spec version, but I don't fancy the bargain-basement one either.

CoolHotCold

Aye Gonzo, the Foxcon comes with a decent warranty of 3 years and the G.Skill was just on offer and the specs are very decent.
The PSU for 1st time builders you can't beat a modular one, less issues with cable management, so less of a problem to them. The Corsair you recommended would be fine too. I think so long as you stick to a well known brand and stay away from el cheapo's your looking pretty in the long run.

rmg1, you would purchase the OS from the same place (or any depending on price) but because you have about 5GB total RAM in the system I'd recommend 64-bit Windows 7.


Yes SSD's are brilliant, I've had mine in my various MacBook Pros for 2 years now and I would never look back, BUT for desktop systems and for what the OP is doing I don't see a significant price/performance increase for him. My mac boots from cold to fully loaded in under 6 seconds.

This is my recomendation for windows 7

Also, as me and Gonzo have stated Retail i5's (albeit slightly different) you shouldn't have to worry about thermal paste, as it should come with some on already. The preinstalled stuff isn't the greatest but works fine under normal conditions, if you wanted you could purchase some paste (Artic Silver is my recommendation) and do it yourself, but not nessary.

gonzo127

windows 7 home premium 64 bit OEM is £75 or retail for £115 at ebuyer

- however please take into account the license differences between OEM and retail

CoolHotCold

OEM versions of Windows 7 are identical to Full License Retail versions except for the following:

- OEM versions do not offer any free Microsoft direct support from Microsoft support personnel

- OEM licenses are tied to the very first computer you install and activate it on

- OEM versions allow all hardware upgrades except for an upgrade to a different model motherboard

- OEM versions cannot be used to directly upgrade from an older Windows operating system

I should further Edit to clarify, There seem to be two types of OEM Licences, branded and unbranded. Branded means you really are locked to one type of motherboard or BIOS, but doesn't affect many people as only Dell/Hp/Acer/etc can get them. Unbranded OEM licences are the ones Overclockers, Ebuyer, Dabs, Aria, etc sell and are "locked" to the first Motherboard installed, The licence (which is what you are really paying for) allows you to replace if faulty but not upgrade on a whim(But hard to enforce or follow). Long and short is, if say down the line you want to upgrade your motherboard and Windows automatic activation goes "No" you simply phone up, activate over the phone and at the most get put through to india to answer "Yes its only on one system", "No I didn't upgrade, my MotherBoard blew".

Lil306

Quite like these topics myself, as it's true you get to play around with specs.

IMO, if you want a "fast" PC, but not heavily into gaming I'd work on a spec like this, it's pretty much similar to the first one posted.

Sandy Bridge CPU
Gigabyte H67 M/B (inbuilt graphics, saves money on a seperate card)
4GB RAM
60GB OCZ Vertex 2e (rapid ssd) - O/S only
1tb sata hdd (for data) - data only

That above bundle will see you at around £400

Add in a case with psu and you're looking at £450, you can get a cheap graphics card for around £50 I had an nvidia 8400gs and whilst it wasn't the fastest i could still play Call of Duty on it.

spakkker

Why on earth a 460 for a non-gamer ? A "good" graphics card isn't needed for video editing is it ?

CoolHotCold

lots of Vram
Besides, the configs both me and Gonza posted will last for a while.