Before buying PC please ask our advice first!

I'm thinking of putting this together:

A little thing, quickly: I also work in 3D production. As such, the quad-core processor is really useful (cores are used almost linearly in rendering - my workstation at work has two quad-core Xeon's and it uses up 100% of the juice - it's a joy to behold, but not one I can afford!) and ditto with the 16gb of RAM.

Right now, I have a Q6600, an Nvidia 8800GT and 4GB Ram. Games have gradually been getting choppier and choppier and, with Deus Ex round the corner and then BF3 later on in the year, I want a new machine. This one's lasted me 4 years and it's done a bang up job, but it's time to move on! Is there anything obviously ridiculous or silly with the build? I'm not in a massive rush - I hear the Bulldozer coming out soon from AMD will push the price of the Sandybridge Intel's down? - but is there any other reason for me to hold back, or anywhere that I'm wasting silly ammounts of money?

(I have a monitor, optical drives, SATA drives, an OS and peripherals already!)

Edit: Just realised the case is MicroATX!! Other than that...

Edit 2: Basically the exact same thing on Aria got down to £780 inc VAT. And a few of the prices were better on OCUK. I'll put together a mesh...

Edit 3:

OCUK: CPU (£156), GPU (£134)
Aria: Mobo (£121), SSD (£142), RAM (£94), PSU (£59), Heatsink (£24), Case (£30)

Total: £760

Thanks for all the feedback guys, it's much appreciated. Thanks for taking the time to do that Nabs, though it seems that with VAT added and with the extra 8GB RAM from my original quote added, it works out more or less the same. Still, it's all very helpful, as I can pick and choose the cheapest bits and bobs from the various places.

And Thanks for your impressions Miles. I do plan to overclock it, and whilst I haven't done so for a number of years now, I spent many-a-day fiddling about with voltages and multipliers and re-applying thermal compound, do I'm fairly familiar with the process (assuming it hasn't changed too much since 2007 or so!) That said, I don't plan to OC it for the sake of it. I'm sure at first, this should deliver me all the performance I need. I've only really survived this long because the majority of the games I play are Source based, which I'm pretty sure would run well on my phone if they were coded for Android, but with games like DX3 and BF3 coming out, I really need the extra juice!

Again, thanks everyone for their input.

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Looking for some advice and comments on this build: It's meant for a general use/light gaming, so not high end stuff. If people have improvements, or I've got something wrong in there could they suggest something different. However that price is the very maximum of the budget I've been given.

Hey, I'm new to this thread, but I'm going to be starting a BA(Hons) in Architecture at Plymouth in September, and I want/need a laptop for it. I am clueless when it comes to computer knowledge, as is my father, so any help would be appreciated.

As for usage, I don't play computer games, however I foresee a lot of CAD usage; AutoCAD, ArchiCAD, or something. I'm not sure quite which but I’m guessing something of that ilk. And then the rest will be for essays and research on the internet, and things like photoshop, google sketchup, stuff like that.

As for accessories:
speakers - bog standard is fine
Advise on the possibility of getting an extra computer screen to go in my room would be appreciated – not sure if it would be wise/worth it at this juncture?
Am considering the possibility of a graphics tablet mouse, worth it for CAD and photoshop stuff?
standard keyboard – nothing fancy, but usable


Price wise, i think the highest possible upper limit for everything is £600, but would prefer to spend well...as little as possible! ..about £500 (also, we know someone who can get us £100 off any HP laptop...but I guess that's buying direct from HP)

Any help would be appreciated, and please don't hesitate to ask for more details if needed.

What are you going to be using it for - this build will be pants for gaming - upgrade the GPU to an AMD 58xx or 68xx or 69xx alternatively nVidia gtx460 1Gb or 560ti +

might want to recheck your power supply...

Shop on Ebuyer/Scan/Aria. They'll have much lower prices. Aria are doing some good deals on RAM at the minute as well.

Go for an OEM version of the OS (it just comes in plain packaging and you can't use it for more than one machine but I've had no trouble just calling up MS and saying I've just made some major upgrades etc.)

With the saved money get a better case, Samsung 1TB F3 and a better motherboard.

What sort of games are we talking by the way? I'm selling my 5770 as soon as my new GPU arrives, which should be in the next couple of days. Just shy of 5 months old and never been overclocked.

This one isn't for me I already have two 6870's in crossfire, if you were offering me your GPU ^^. It'll just be games like Sims that'll be played on this (for family use mainly).

Thanks for the advice, I've never done a full build before from scratch only upgrade my gaming one a few parts a year. Will look at everything you've advised

-snip-

I've been thinking about a SSD for the new build I'm planning (for the OS and other programs, maybe a game or two) and came across this on hotdeals : http://www.ebuyer.com/246998-kingston-96gb-v-100-2-5-sata-ii-ssd-read-230mb-s-write-180mb-s-svp100s2-96g

Its definitely cheap, but the read and write speeds are a lot lower than others I've seen. On balance is it worth getting?

Or slightly more and get the OCZ-Solid 3 - similar read/write speeds, but double the capacity and only about £15 more!

My build's complete if you're interested, here.

Good work. Makes me want to move my rig in to an SG05. I'm gonna hunt for a decent SFF PSU now....