New PC Advice

[Chris D]

Well, holy shit. I'm finally buying a new PC!

\o/

And I need the help of you, ValveHelpLifeTime.net!

Some of you may know I work in IT, and back when I last built a PC I worked quite closely with PC hardware. Now I'm a little bit out of touch as I'm working with servers and networking all day.

My aim is as follows:

To build a decent spec mid-size ATX tower PC. Not top of the range, sort of mid-level. Approximate budget, around £300-400 GBP so not a lot of money to play with. I know this can be done.

I have some questions:

• Intel or AMD? My personal preference was always Intel.
• AMD or nVidia? Quite ambivalent.
• Should I shop around multiple (UK) retailers or stick to one such as eBuyer? Any other recommendations?
• I'm keen on getting a mobo that supports UEFI
• I quite like the look of this motherboard: http://www.ebuyer.com/351595-gigaby...displayport-8-channel-audio-ga-z77x-ud3h-wifi
• Recommendations on SSDs? Do I just get an SSD for booting and a traditional HD for general storage? Or should I spend some extra cash and go all out SSD?
• Core i5 or i7? Probably i5 for my budget.

Any other advice gratefully received.

 

[Vegeta897]

-Intel
-Find a good discount
-Dunno
-UEFI?
-Looks okay except for 1600 max memory mhz. For that price I think it should be higher? But I don't know how much stuff costs over there.
-Going all out SSD on your budget would be insane. Get a modest 120gb to boot from.
-i5

 

[Chris D]

UEFI is the new style BIOS that boots in seconds.

Thanks for the reply Veg

 

[Hectic Glenn]

In the loop at the moment, just finished building my new PC too. Lots of echoing of Vegeta pretty much.

Intel, i5 for sure. The mobo you picked is excellent. SSDs are price crashing at the moment - look into the Samsung 830 series for good value 120GB drive for OS. Best value HDD's right now are 2TB (size to cost ratio).

I think you'll struggle to stay under £400 with a case, PSU, GPU, CPU and mobo etc. In terms of etailers, just shop around for value but consider shipping costs since they all use couriers.

www.scan.co.uk
www.overclockers.co.uk

 

[ShinRa]

Well, holy shit. I'm finally buying a new PC!

\o/

And I need the help of you, ValveHelpLifeTime.net!

Some of you may know I work in IT, and back when I last built a PC I worked quite closely with PC hardware. Now I'm a little bit out of touch as I'm working with servers and networking all day.

My aim is as follows:

To build a decent spec mid-size ATX tower PC. Not top of the range, sort of mid-level. Approximate budget, around £300-400 GBP so not a lot of money to play with. I know this can be done.

I have some questions:

• Intel or AMD? My personal preference was always Intel.
• AMD or nVidia? Quite ambivalent.
• Should I shop around multiple (UK) retailers or stick to one such as eBuyer? Any other recommendations?
• I'm keen on getting a mobo that supports UEFI
• I quite like the look of this motherboard: http://www.ebuyer.com/351595-gigaby...displayport-8-channel-audio-ga-z77x-ud3h-wifi
• Recommendations on SSDs? Do I just get an SSD for booting and a traditional HD for general storage? Or should I spend some extra cash and go all out SSD?
• Core i5 or i7? Probably i5 for my budget.

Any other advice gratefully received.

Heres my take:

• Intel
• nVidia
• No idea I'm in the US.
• Why?
• That's a nice one, but depends what CPU you pick.
• SSD's are coming down in price. What I did was went with an SSD for everything I use at the moment (booting, games, applications.) and have a regular drive for my not so daily files (pictures, movies, etc.)
• There are some i7's that could fit into that budget, but at the risk of cutting corners elsewhere. Stick with i5. It'll get the job done for mid spec.

 

[Rorschach120]

-Intel. Always.
- If you plan to do anything 3D you have to go with nVidia, lots of game only support it with nvidia drivers... Otherwise go with what's cheapest. My AMD HD6850 still runs games at highest settings and I got it around 2 years ago

- As for the rest I'm not from the UK so I would go with what is better for the cost as far as MBs. I say always get a Corsair PSU, flawless.

-The i5 is most cost effective and isn't that much different from the i7 besides hyperthreading... But hyperthreading up to that many virtual cores isn't utilized by any games. Nor should it be, it's absurd. I have an i7 2600k and nothing I've done has made it lock up or slow down, the best processor I've ever owned and well worth the money. The i5 should be perfect though.

 

[Chris D]

Thanks guys.

Need to shop around a little, but so far I've got this:

http://www.ebuyer.com/lists/list/71543

Over budget, but I think I was being too optimistic.

 

[Omnomnick]

Thanks guys.

Need to shop around a little, but so far I've got this:

http://www.ebuyer.com/lists/list/71543

Over budget, but I think I was being too optimistic.

Seems nice. Be prepared to spend over budget that trying to force it under, better to end up with a more powerful PC than you anticipated as opposed to having a worse one.