Before buying PC please ask our advice first!

Original post by woofwoofkapow

Thats the one yeah.

I take it an i7 has a considerable price difference? and in what way will it struggle?

I was told that Geforce are more reliable than HD'S by a friend of mine, not a clue how true that is.

Yeah definitely, an i7 Ivy bridge on it's own costs about £250.
Well an i5 doesn't have hyper threading, which video editing deals with, but if it's not too much it could handle it, but it'll be slower than a i7 quite a lot.
Hyper threading applications is where an i5 can't compete with an i7 but on gaming it can.

You mean Nvidia and AMD, I would disagree, the higher end of Nvidia does outperform quite of AMD's high end stuff, but the AMD does have many advantages in it's graphics. Both companies perform well in certain areas, but also companies like XFX, HIS, etc play a part by taking the graphics card and changing and pushing the performance.

But a 6850 will kick the 550ti in terms of performance.

Reply 7123

bananarama2

Original post by Iqbal007

http://www.novatech.co.uk/laptop/range/nspirepro2450.html

Novatech nSpire Pro 2450 - 15.6" Intel i5 2450 Mobile Processor - 4GB DDR3 Memory - 500GB SATA Hard Drive - DVD Writer - Intel HM65 Chipset - NVIDIA GT540M Graphics

Just about £510 without windows :smile:

How does it compare to http://www.ebuyer.com/345802-lenovo-ideapad-g570-laptop-m51bpuk . Sorry for the questions. I used to know about the hardware, but I didn't keep up to date.

Reply 7124

Original post by TkTk

Are you sure 500watts is sufficient? I tried creating a 6850 build on Cyberpower and it was pushing me for a 700watt minimum! It's making me consider switching through to a 7770 purely as its stable on 500watts and performance shouldn't change much (right?). Oh, and I do intend to overclock btw!

Hmmm certainly sounds like a decent reason to switch motherboard, what about MSI? I could get a Z77 chip-set for the cheapest with them!

Finally, about RAM. What are your thoughts on 4x2gb rather than 2x4gb? Is there any advantage in terms of heat spreading?

Thanks for everything so far! :colone:

That's probably because they use poor quality ones. As long as it's got a decent amount of amps on the 12V rail and is 80%+ efficient 500W would do just fine (though as I said over-clocking and further upgrading means you might want to go for 600-650W). I'm personally going to be running a 3570K + GTX 670 on that 650W Coolermaster and it'll be absolutely fine with some headroom too.

And you can get a gigabyte for £70 so I doubt the MSI is cheaper: http://www.ebuyer.com/386271-gigabyte-ga-z77-ds3h-socket-1155-vga-dvi-hdmi-7-1-channel-audio-atx-motherboard-ga-z77-ds3h

The only complaint I've heard about this motherboard is that it doesn't allow for V-Core adjustments, though personally I didn't want V core adjustments (as it can shorten the life of your CPU) and I can overclock to 4.4GHz easily without it.

Furthermore, the reason I suggest gigabyte is their legendary customer service and RMA turn around times. Supposedly you can file an RMA and have it all finished with your working motherboard back to you within a week and that's normal. Whereas MSI may take 3-4 weeks + (I don't think I could handle being without a PC for that long!).

I'd go for 2 X 4GB Always - but mainly because I may at some point want 16GB (probably not likely but it leaves the possibility open).

Reply 7125

Original post by wcp100

How does it compare to http://www.ebuyer.com/345802-lenovo-ideapad-g570-laptop-m51bpuk . Sorry for the questions. I used to know about the hardware, but I didn't keep up to date.

Processor: The same
Ram: Lenovo has more, not sure whether you'll need that all
Screen: The resolution is the same
Hard drive: Lenovo has more storage, but you wouldn't need that much if your a standard user

Both have webcam.

The Novatech has the advantage of graphics as the GT540M is far better than the 6370M

Reply 7126

Chow mein

14

Bit stuck on whether to go for a GTX 570 or an HD 7850..

Although I do need to be careful as when I started planning this build I was going to get a 6850 but I can't stop extending my budget!

Reply 7127

Original post by Chow mein

Bit stuck on whether to go for a GTX 570 or an HD 7850..

Although I do need to be careful as when I started planning this build I was going to get a 6850 but I can't stop extending my budget!

7850 every time! Uses a lot less power and runs at a much lower temperature so leaves masses of headroom for overclocking if necessary. And I'm not an AMD fanboy, I've got a Nvidia for my latest build :tongue:

(edited 11 years ago)

Reply 7128

woofwoofkapow

Which 6850 in particular would you suggest? im having difficulty telling the different between the 6 ive filtered out.

Also, ' I would disagree, the higher end of Nvidia does outperform quite of AMD's high end stuff, but the AMD does have many advantages in it's graphics' I dont quite understand what you mean here.

Reply 7129

SMed

11

Original post by woofwoofkapow

Which 6850 in particular would you suggest? im having difficulty telling the different between the 6 ive filtered out.

The best 6850 is probably the Asus one. Overclocks as well as any, but is pretty quiet.

Reply 7130

Original post by woofwoofkapow

Which 6850 in particular would you suggest? im having difficulty telling the different between the 6 ive filtered out.

Also, ' I would disagree, the higher end of Nvidia does outperform quite of AMD's high end stuff, but the AMD does have many advantages in it's graphics' I dont quite understand what you mean here.

If you're spending £250-300+ on a graphics card, go Nvidia (though their cheapest desktop card of this generation so far is a 670 at £310 - the 7870 is still currently unchallenged price-wise). If you're spending less, go AMD.

As for which brand 6850 to go. It really depends on the price. I'd aim for Gigabyte, EVGA or MSI for their returns support. The ASUS DirectCU is supposedly a little cooler and quieter but I hear their RMA is horrendous.

(edited 11 years ago)

Reply 7131

Original post by Chow mein

Bit stuck on whether to go for a GTX 570 or an HD 7850..

Although I do need to be careful as when I started planning this build I was going to get a 6850 but I can't stop extending my budget!

Hassi has a point about the 7850, also it's quite cheap for meaning new and they are fixing up the little issues it has, so isn't performing optimally so performance should increase in it's current state a bit without overclocking.

Reply 7132

Original post by woofwoofkapow

Which 6850 in particular would you suggest? im having difficulty telling the different between the 6 ive filtered out.

Also, ' I would disagree, the higher end of Nvidia does outperform quite of AMD's high end stuff, but the AMD does have many advantages in it's graphics' I dont quite understand what you mean here.

The brands I would look at for the 6850 are MSI, Sapphire and XFX.
Asus is pretty good, it's supposed to be cooler with it's specific cooling.
Tell us what you find, because anything around £120 then your hitting 6870 terrority.

AMD have their advantages and Nvidia have theirs.
AMD gives vale for money performance such as the 6850 which gives amazing results despite it's low price compared to Nvidia. But Nvidia overall gives better performance at a higher cost, like it's top end graphics card that cost a lot.

Reply 7133

SMed

11

You can get MSI 6850 for £84: http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-163-MS

I get free delivery from them too. :biggrin:

Reply 7134

woofwoofkapow

Found this; MSI R6850-PM2D1GD5/OC for £84 as SMed said

the next one up is Asus EAH6850 DC/2DIS/1GD5/V2 for £112

Is there going tobe any difference between the two, theres a pretty drastic price difference.

Reply 7135

CustardCreams

Getting together components for a new desktop, just posting here to get a second opinion

*Windows 7 - 64 Bit

*Tower: Cooler Master HAF 922

*Processor: Intel Core i7-2600k Sandy Bridge 3.4GHz

*Heatsink: Noctua NH-D14

*Ram: G.SKILL 16GB Ripjaws X Series Dual Channel

*Graphics Card: Nvidia Geforce GTX 560Ti

*Mother Board: ASRock Z68 Extreme4

*Power Supply: Corsair TX750 V2

*Storage Drive: Samsung Spinpoint F3 1TB

*Boot Drive: OCZ Vertex 3 SSD 120GB

Anything anyone would change?

Reply 7136

Original post by SMed

You can get MSI 6850 for £84: http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-163-MS

I get free delivery from them too. :biggrin:

Is it 250 posts and 3 months to get free delivery?

Original post by woofwoofkapow

Found this; MSI R6850-PM2D1GD5/OC for £84 as SMed said

the next one up is Asus EAH6850 DC/2DIS/1GD5/V2 for £112

Is there going tobe any difference between the two, theres a pretty drastic price difference.

The difference is minute for that difference in price. And MSI has the better warranty support by far.

Reply 7137

Original post by CustardCreams

Getting together components for a new desktop, just posting here to get a second opinion

*Windows 7 - 64 Bit

*Tower: Cooler Master HAF 922

*Processor: Intel Core i7-2600k Sandy Bridge 3.4GHz

*Heatsink: Noctua NH-D14

*Ram: G.SKILL 16GB Ripjaws X Series Dual Channel

*Graphics Card: Nvidia Geforce GTX 560Ti

*Mother Board: ASRock Z68 Extreme4

*Power Supply: Corsair TX750 V2

*Storage Drive: Samsung Spinpoint F3 1TB

*Boot Drive: OCZ Vertex 3 SSD 120GB

Anything anyone would change?

Would help if you told us what price you're getting each of these components for - because there's no use suggesting something that is way out of price range in comparison.

But I would change that Vertex 3 for certain. Get either a Crucial M4, Samsung 830 or a SanDisk Extreme (preferably one of the first two, though).

Reply 7138

SMed

11

Original post by woofwoofkapow

Found this; MSI R6850-PM2D1GD5/OC for £84 as SMed said

the next one up is Asus EAH6850 DC/2DIS/1GD5/V2 for £112

Is there going tobe any difference between the two, theres a pretty drastic price difference.

It's just that the Asus isn't on offer right now, so it's at inflated prices. I got the same Asus 6850 for £90 3 months ago.

I'm not really sure about warranty differences, my first Asus arrived DOA and it was promptly replaced with a new one 2 days later. But that was by OcUK, not Asus.

Reply 7139