Fresh build

djshowdowndjshowdown London
edited December 2009 in Hardware
I have decided to abort an upgrade of my old system and am instead going to build a fresh system and put my old one in my bedroom to watch films and browse the net.

I have put together the following system and need to know A) If I have forgotten anything and B) If I could improve my selections, either replacing the parts for better 'bang for buck' parts or downgrading anything that you feel might be overkill.

Primary uses for this PC are as follows -

Music production
Coursework (office suite)
Light gaming (nothing more demanding than Street Fighter 4 or emulators)

Case:
http://www.ebuyer.com/product/143854/show_product_reviews

CPU
http://www.ebuyer.com/product/131823/show_product_reviews

RAM
http://www.ebuyer.com/product/146058

DVD RW
http://www.ebuyer.com/product/165168

PSU
http://www.ebuyer.com/product/152009

CPU Cooling
http://www.ebuyer.com/product/167505


I have no idea which Motherboard or Graphics card to get.

*Motherboard*
I would like something pretty current but it doesn't have to be cutting edge. Wifi would be a nice addition but not essential. More important than that it needs to have a PCI slot for my old soundcard (I have my reasons for wanting to keep it, primarily its solid and I don't want to buy a new one!)

*GPU*
This is one area where I have very little - no knowledge what so ever. Would like something quiet (my current sapphire x1650 pro has a really noisy fan) and efficient.

Please help as I would like to put the order in asap, my old computer is just annoying me!

Worth noting, I am in the UK so links to UK stores would be fantastic.

Thank you
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Comments

  • ardichokeardichoke Icrontian
    edited November 2009
    I hate to sound like a fanboy here, but if you're not going to build an i7 box, your money is better spent on an AMD system.

    http://www.ebuyer.com/product/172684

    That will cost you less and give you as good or better performance than the core2quad.
  • lordbeanlordbean Ontario, Canada
    edited November 2009
    With CPU tech as it is at present, I have to agree with Ardichoke. The only reason to go Intel is if you're planning to go balls-out into an i7 900 series platform. If you're not going to do that, stick with AMD.
  • djshowdowndjshowdown London
    edited November 2009
    Cool. As much as I have become an Intel fanboy, I am willing to trust you lot as I am completely out of the loop.

    So, any suggestions for the two missing parts?
  • ardichokeardichoke Icrontian
    edited November 2009
    If you decide to take our advice and go with the Phenom, I would personally recommend this board.

    http://www.ebuyer.com/product/158608

    That thing has about every bell and whistle that you could ask for.

    As for graphics cards... that's a bit more complicated of an issue. Right now I'm partial to the ATI cards especially the 5850, but that might not meet your quiet requirement. Someone else could probably chime in here with some better advice GPU-wise than me.
  • djshowdowndjshowdown London
    edited November 2009
    http://www.quietpc.com/gb-en-gbp/products/vga-cards/gv-r485mc-1gh

    Any good?
  • lordbeanlordbean Ontario, Canada
    edited November 2009
    HD4850s tend to run fairly hot. I wouldn't recommend purchasing a fanless version of that card, even if you have an extremely well-ventilated case. By the way, the BIOS settings of the fans on graphics cards built in the last year or two are extremely conservative. The fan won't even become audible until the card is choking to death on its own hot air.

    Also, if light gaming potentially includes any upcoming DirectX 11 titles, you may want to look into a 5000-series Radeon... the 5770 or 5750 may well fit into your budget.

    Edit for link. Took me some time to find one in Great Britain.

    http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/1GB-ASUS-HD5750-PCI-E-20%28x16%29-1150MHz-GDDR5-GPU-700MHz-Cores-720-2x-DL-DVI-I-HDMI
  • djshowdowndjshowdown London
    edited November 2009
    Good stuff Lordbean.

    How good is the ventilation on the case that I have listed? (Antec 300)

    Sorry I'm being so paranoid about every component but I won't have money to upgrade for ages after this so I wanna make sure I get it just right.
  • lordbeanlordbean Ontario, Canada
    edited November 2009
    The case you're looking at should be just fine. There's plenty of air circulation that's going to happen there.

    I would still definitely recommend you purchase a graphics board with included fan, though.
  • BuddyJBuddyJ Dept. of Propaganda OKC Icrontian
    edited November 2009
    I recommend the NZXT Beta Evo case over that Antec. It's slightly cheaper and a heck of a good rig. Check out mertesn's review of it here.

    http://icrontic.com/articles//nzxt-beta-evo-review
  • djshowdowndjshowdown London
    edited November 2009
    Yeah I will trust your judgement lordbean and get one with a fan, just trying to avoid a machine that whines at me all the time!

    Buddy that case looks well specced but aesthetically, its not pretty. For me anyways. Is there anything similar to that which maybe is a bit more sleek? I like plain cases generally but there are exceptions to that rule. I like the Antec 300 and 900 cases at the moment. I really like the high end lian-li cases but I'm not looking to spend that much.

    It is tempting though!
    http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CA-134-LL&groupid=701&catid=7&subcat=187
  • djshowdowndjshowdown London
    edited December 2009
    ardichoke wrote:
    I hate to sound like a fanboy here, but if you're not going to build an i7 box, your money is better spent on an AMD system.

    http://www.ebuyer.com/product/172684

    That will cost you less and give you as good or better performance than the core2quad.

    Am I missing something or is the following a more advanced processor for less money?

    http://www.ebuyer.com/product/164047/show_product_reviews
  • primesuspectprimesuspect Beepin n' Boopin Detroit, MI Icrontian
    edited December 2009
    The 955 is better than the 945, yes.
  • BuddyJBuddyJ Dept. of Propaganda OKC Icrontian
    edited December 2009
    Go for the 965BE if you're going AMD.
  • lordbeanlordbean Ontario, Canada
    edited December 2009
    I had such a hard time resisting messing around with my dad's PC when I built it for him a couple of months ago. We went with a 965BE, but since he's not really an enthusiast end-user (just a gamer), he doesn't do the whole overclocking thing. Almost felt like a travesty to me to leave a 965 black at stock speed, but at least he's guaranteed to be covered under warranty if something goes wrong with it.
  • djshowdowndjshowdown London
    edited December 2009
    You guys are too much. Just when I think I have decided on the best parts, you find me better ones lol.

    I found a 965 for £135 which I think is justified so that's one component down.

    Mobo's, I have had pretty good luck with Asus so I found one that I think has everything I need (I'm guessing I should stay away from the ones with on board ATI graphics and get a separate GPU right?)

    http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MB-327-AS&utm_source=froogle

    Good choice, bad choice?

    Scan.co.uk are still awaiting stock for the 5750 but I found it elsewhere, just wanna make sure this is the same one.

    http://www.tekheads.co.uk/product/Asus-ATi-Radeon-HD5750-1GB-GDDR5-Dual-DVI-HDMI-DisplayPort-PCI-E-Graphics-Card-Retail_22277.html

    Almost there guys, now I just gotta choose a cpu fan, case and ram. Case I think I have found (that sexy new NZXT one) so its just cpu fan and ram. I think 4GB should be sufficient for quite a while and the cpu fan I have no clue what to get. This maybe? http://www.ebuyer.com/product/176157

    It seems tekheads.co.uk and overclockers.co.uk both have stuff that ebuyer don't. This makes things better as I have more choice but my goodness am I getting baffled!!!!

    Thanks for putting up with me. I planned to buy this system a while ago but got stuck in a bit of a financial rut. You are all on my Xmas card list!
  • lordbeanlordbean Ontario, Canada
    edited December 2009
    The graphics card you picked out is indeed the correct unit.

    For your motherboard, I notice the store you linked it from also carries Gigabyte... given a choice between Asus or Gigabyte, I (and I'm sure many members of this community) would select Gigabyte for the build quality of their Ultra Durable boards. All of my personal computers use Gigabyte motherboards. This, or this if you can stomach the extra 35 pounds, would be my board of choice for your build.

    For a relatively inexpensive cooling setup, your choice of HSF is probably fine - I wouldn't be expecting it to perform in the same class as a 30-40 pound cooler, but it ought to at least be a chunk better than the AMD stock cooler.
  • djshowdowndjshowdown London
    edited December 2009
    Great stuff.

    So what would be the benefit of the UD5 over the UD4?
  • lordbeanlordbean Ontario, Canada
    edited December 2009
    Future expandability, basically. Specifically, you can plug more graphics hardware into the FXTA board. Unless you plan on becoming a serious gamer, you don't really need the more expensive one - the XTA-UD4 will do just fine.
  • djshowdowndjshowdown London
    edited December 2009
    Yeah my gaming is pretty much restricted to Xbox so I will go with the cheaper option.

    I would like to overclock at some point but budget takes priority. Which Ram would be good for this rig? I will be multitasking and making music on this rig which is very VERY resource hungry.
  • lordbeanlordbean Ontario, Canada
    edited December 2009
    These modules appear to be the best price on overclocking-conscious RAM on that site. If you plan on heavy multitasking, you may want to figure on purchasing 2 kits (4 modules, 8GB total RAM), unless you're sure 4GB is going to be enough.
  • djshowdowndjshowdown London
    edited December 2009
    Yeah 4gb is gonna have to be for now. There are workarounds when you are making tracks and you start to run out of memory. I will just have to utilise them. I would elaborate but I don't want to put you to sleep :P

    So system as it stands is as follows

    RAM
    http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MY-037-GS&groupid=701&catid=8&subcat=1387

    MOBO
    http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MB-231-GI&groupid=701&catid=5&subcat=1481

    GPU
    http://www.tekheads.co.uk/product/Asus-ATi-Radeon-HD5750-1GB-GDDR5-Dual-DVI-HDMI-DisplayPort-PCI-E-Graphics-Card-Retail_22277.html

    CPU
    http://www.tekheads.co.uk/product/AMD-Phenom-II-X4-965-3.4Ghz-Socket-AM3-BLACK-Edition-125Watt---Retail_24627.html

    Case and optical drive I'm still not sure on.

    I had my heart set on that NZXT Hades case but I cant find it in UK.
    I did stumble upon this though.
    http://www.xcase.co.uk/Lian-Li-PC-60FW-Aluminium-Black-Case-Window-No-PSU-p/lili-pc60fw.htm

    Any thoughts?
  • djshowdowndjshowdown London
    edited December 2009
    Sorry I meant this one
    http://www.xcase.co.uk/PC-7FW-Black-Aluminium-Chassis-Window-No-PSU-p/lili-pc-7fw-b.htm

    I think its the new version but I'm not sure
  • lordbeanlordbean Ontario, Canada
    edited December 2009
    That case would probably work fine, but the feature set looks a little bit slim for the asking price. My preference tends to run toward Cooler Master's High Air Flow series - they offer a very good feature set and build quality for the price, and they're surprisingly quiet for the number and size of fans included. The HAF 922 would fit the bill perfectly for your build.
  • djshowdowndjshowdown London
    edited December 2009
    Anything similarly featured but a little bit more 'vanilla' looking maybe?

    I know, I'm boring.

    Lordbean, really do appreciate your time pal
  • lordbeanlordbean Ontario, Canada
    edited December 2009
    Amusingly also a Cooler Master product... This here feels pretty "vanilla" to me, but should still provide pretty good cooling for the price. The one downfall - it only comes with a single fan installed in the rear, so you may need to purchase additional fans to increase the cooling potential if required.

    Edit - that may not be a good option after all. It comes with one of those CPU air tunnel things on the side panel - your custom CPU cooler likely wouldn't fit in with it. I'll look for other options.
  • lordbeanlordbean Ontario, Canada
    edited December 2009
    Here is my updated suggestion. Comes preinstalled with rear and top fans, and includes mount points for more on the front and side. Still conveys a fairly "vanilla" feel, I think.
  • djshowdowndjshowdown London
    edited December 2009
    djshowdown wrote:
    Snip

    Case:
    http://www.ebuyer.com/product/143854/show_product_reviews

    Snip

    Great minds think alike!

    Only thing that has now put me off though is the lack of a removable Motherboard tray.

    Found the following for £149.99
    http://www.overclock3d.net/reviews.php?/cases_cooling/cooler_master_atcs_840_aluminium_atx_case/1

    Overkill?
  • lordbeanlordbean Ontario, Canada
    edited December 2009
    Overkill. That's about 100 pounds more than you need to spend on your case.
  • djshowdowndjshowdown London
    edited December 2009
    Think we are any closer with this?
    http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CA-164-CM&groupid=701&catid=7&subcat=29
  • lordbeanlordbean Ontario, Canada
    edited December 2009
    That line of cases is excellent if you want noise dampening - the whole point of the design is to give the PC the smallest ambient dB as possible. Considering you're into music creation, that may well be exactly what you want.
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