[Iqbal007]

(Original post by RipperRoo)
When using an SSD do you just install all your commonly used games and programs on it, and then install the rest of your things and store general files on your HDD? and if you wanted to play a game that was on your HDD, could you just transfer it over to the SSD and swap it with other another? (do you have a limited number of writes?

Also, I think this is what I'm going to go for, hoping to order tomorrow :

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: Intel Core i5-3570K 3.4GHz Quad-Core Processor (£177.97 @ Ebuyer)
Motherboard: Asus P8Z77-V LX ATX LGA1155 Motherboard (£90.38 @ Ebuyer)
Memory: Corsair Vengeance 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory (£42.41 @ Ebuyer)
Hard Drive: Samsung Spinpoint F3 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive (£70.00 @ Ebuyer)
Hard Drive: Crucial M4 128GB 2.5" Solid State Disk (£78.99 @ Ebuyer)
Video Card: Sapphire Radeon HD 7850 2GB Video Card (£179.99 @ Ebuyer)
Case: Fractal Design Define R3 Black Pearl ATX Mid Tower Case (£69.10 @ Ebuyer)
Power Supply: Corsair 650W ATX12V / EPS12V Power Supply (£78.30 @ Ebuyer)
Optical Drive: Samsung SH-222AB DVD/CD Writer
Total: £799

You know you can get the Coolmaster enforcer case and 650 watt Coolmaster power supply for a £100?

Not sure about SSD's as their generally new technology, but they should have a longer life expectancy then the older ones.....you'll realise when performance starts getting hampered.

[RipperRoo]

(Original post by Iqbal007)
You know you can get the Coolmaster enforcer case and 650 watt Coolmaster power supply for a £100?

Not sure about SSD's as their generally new technology, but they should have a longer life expectancy then the older ones.....you'll realise when performance starts getting hampered.

Yeah I considered that deal but I like the look of the fractal case and would like something nice and quiet. I've also seen a lot of bad things said about Coolermaster PSUs.

[Iqbal007]

(Original post by RipperRoo)
Yeah I considered that deal but I like the look of the fractal case and would like something nice and quiet. I've also seen a lot of bad things said about Coolermaster PSUs.

The enforcer does look amazing and are amazing.
I haven't had any problems with mine at the moment.

[Killjoy-]

Subscribing

[Banishingboredom]

I'm going to need a new laptop for uni, ideally one as small and light as possible but with a good battery life.
I don't need it for gaming, but want something that runs quickly with good speakers and keyboard.

I've been saving up for a while so budget isn't really an issue. I won't mention the dreaded "M" word otherwise i'll get a sea of negs, but they are doing quite a good student discount I see.

Your advice would be invaluable, and much appreciated.

[Killjoy-]

Does this seem like a well specced laptop (for the price)?
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Pavilion-dv7.../dp/B006OJ4JYY

Good things I notice:
-1600 x 900 screen
-Radeon 7470M
-the i5
- 2 USB 3 ports
- 6GB of RAM
- ITB hard drive size
- Beats audio (seems like a gimmick?)
- aluminium chassis

[pcorbett94]

After a life of adamantly using desktops and refusing to use laptops, I'm having to face the fact that when I go away to uni, it would be so much more simple to have a laptop. I only have a small budget (around £400-500). I want quite a wide laptop as I can't work with small keyboards. Doesn't have to power any games, but it needs to be as fast as possible by my budget, so as much RAM and proccessor speed as possible. Any suggestions?

[Iqbal007]

(Original post by Killjoy-)
Does this seem like a well specced laptop (for the price)?
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Pavilion-dv7.../dp/B006OJ4JYY

Good things I notice:
-1600 x 900 screen
-Radeon 7470M
-the i5
- 2 USB 3 ports
- 6GB of RAM
- ITB hard drive size
- Beats audio (seems like a gimmick?)
- aluminium chassis

Beat;s audio is kind of a gimmick, it's just a brand thing.
But HP have issues with their build.

http://www.ebuyer.com/366447-acer-as...p-lx-rcf02-183
Acer Aspire 5750G Laptop
- Intel Core i7 2670QM 2.2GHz
- 6GB RAM + 640GB HDD
- 15.6" HD LED
- Webcam + NVIDIA GT540M
- Windows 7 Home Premium 64
£630.48

[Iqbal007]

(Original post by pcorbett94)
After a life of adamantly using desktops and refusing to use laptops, I'm having to face the fact that when I go away to uni, it would be so much more simple to have a laptop. I only have a small budget (around £400-500). I want quite a wide laptop as I can't work with small keyboards. Doesn't have to power any games, but it needs to be as fast as possible by my budget, so as much RAM and proccessor speed as possible. Any suggestions?

http://www.ebuyer.com/350100-samsung...np300e5a-a0huk

Samsung 300E5A Laptop
- Intel Core i5 2450M 2.5GHz
- 6GB RAM + 500GB HDD
- 15.6" HD LED
- Webcam + Bluetooth
- Windows 7 Home Premium 64

under £500

But ideally if you don't think this is good, you should be looking out for an i5 processor and at least 4gb of ram. You could also wait for summer, as the new laptops with Ivy processors will be out.

[pcorbett94]

(Original post by Iqbal007)
http://www.ebuyer.com/350100-samsung...np300e5a-a0huk

Samsung 300E5A Laptop
- Intel Core i5 2450M 2.5GHz
- 6GB RAM + 500GB HDD
- 15.6" HD LED
- Webcam + Bluetooth
- Windows 7 Home Premium 64

under £500

But ideally if you don't think this is good, you should be looking out for an i5 processor and at least 4gb of ram. You could also wait for summer, as the new laptops with Ivy processors will be out.

Thanks. I assume a Dual-core Intel Pentium B950 processor is a much slower processor as it's pentium instead of i5? Just doing a small search around ebay and the same laptop with this processor showed up.

I apologise, I have very little knowledge of the difference between processors.

[Killjoy-]

(Original post by Iqbal007)
Beat;s audio is kind of a gimmick, it's just a brand thing.
But HP have issues with their build.

http://www.ebuyer.com/366447-acer-as...p-lx-rcf02-183
Acer Aspire 5750G Laptop
- Intel Core i7 2670QM 2.2GHz
- 6GB RAM + 640GB HDD
- 15.6" HD LED
- Webcam + NVIDIA GT540M
- Windows 7 Home Premium 64
£630.48

Thank you.

About Beats - I thought as much.
I'm not sure about Acer - I've heard a lot of people complain about that brand.
The spec doesn't seem bad at all though, especially the graphics card.

[Iqbal007]

(Original post by pcorbett94)
Thanks. I assume a Dual-core Intel Pentium B950 processor is a much slower processor as it's pentium instead of i5? Just doing a small search around ebay and the same laptop with this processor showed up.

I apologise, I have very little knowledge of the difference between processors.

Yeah your right, pentium is a old brand name, the new generation are much faster and more efficient.

[Iqbal007]

(Original post by Killjoy-)
Thank you.

About Beats - I thought as much.
I'm not sure about Acer - I've heard a lot of people complain about that brand.
The spec doesn't seem bad at all though, especially the graphics card.

The graphics card is perfectly fine, Acer does have some issues mainly regarding overheating.

If you got your own windows cd then this is very good specs http://www.novatech.co.uk/laptop/ran...ckedition.html

[quotidian]

How important is an up-to-date pc case? I'm thinking of building a pc but I'm trying to keep the budget down so I was wondering about stripping the guts out of one of the old pcs (circa 2003) that are just lying here unused and installing a new psu and components into it, definitely I would be upgrading the fans and possibly a water cooler or cpu fan.

Would the old case be harder to cool?

Thanks
A.

[Intriguing Alias]

(Original post by quotidian)
How important is an up-to-date pc case? I'm thinking of building a pc but I'm trying to keep the budget down so I was wondering about stripping the guts out of one of the old pcs (circa 2003) that are just lying here unused and installing a new psu and components into it, definitely I would be upgrading the fans and possibly a water cooler or cpu fan.

Would the old case be harder to cool?

Thanks
A.

Really depends on the case. Also, if you're building a gaming PC then the graphics card may not fit depending on what you're looking at getting.

What sort of budget are you looking at? A great quality case can be had for £50 which can be well worth it in the long run.

[quotidian]

(Original post by hassi94)
Really depends on the case. Also, if you're building a gaming PC then the graphics card may not fit depending on what you're looking at getting.

What sort of budget are you looking at? A great quality case can be had for £50 which can be well worth it in the long run.

I'm thinking on around 300 - 500 preferably with a decent monitor but I could live with it playing through my TV or using a spare monitor until I save up the cash for a decent one.

I'm not wanting a real benchmark busting setup just something that would be a decent alternative to my ps3 for gaming.

[Rainingshame]

(Original post by Iqbal007)
http://www.ebuyer.com/350100-samsung...np300e5a-a0huk

Samsung 300E5A Laptop
- Intel Core i5 2450M 2.5GHz
- 6GB RAM + 500GB HDD
- 15.6" HD LED
- Webcam + Bluetooth
- Windows 7 Home Premium 64

under £500

But ideally if you don't think this is good, you should be looking out for an i5 processor and at least 4gb of ram. You could also wait for summer, as the new laptops with Ivy processors will be out.

In a laptop i'd say at least 6GB it uses some of the RAM on the graphics.

[Iqbal007]

(Original post by quotidian)
How important is an up-to-date pc case? I'm thinking of building a pc but I'm trying to keep the budget down so I was wondering about stripping the guts out of one of the old pcs (circa 2003) that are just lying here unused and installing a new psu and components into it, definitely I would be upgrading the fans and possibly a water cooler or cpu fan.

Would the old case be harder to cool?

Thanks
A.

The newer cases are much bigger and give more space for improvement and more places for fans for airflow. What is your old case?

(Original post by quotidian)
I'm thinking on around 300 - 500 preferably with a decent monitor but I could live with it playing through my TV or using a spare monitor until I save up the cash for a decent one.

I'm not wanting a real benchmark busting setup just something that would be a decent alternative to my ps3 for gaming.

Without a monitor you can expect an i5 with a 6850 graphics card maybe a bit more like an 6870

[Iqbal007]

(Original post by Rainingshame)
In a laptop i'd say at least 6GB it uses some of the RAM on the graphics.

Even then 4gb isn't used much at all as the person's not gaming. 6gb maybe if it's an integrated graphics.

[Intriguing Alias]

(Original post by quotidian)
I'm thinking on around 300 - 500 preferably with a decent monitor but I could live with it playing through my TV or using a spare monitor until I save up the cash for a decent one.

I'm not wanting a real benchmark busting setup just something that would be a decent alternative to my ps3 for gaming.

Perhaps this:

i5 3570k - £173 - Amazon
MSI Z77A-G43 - £74 - Dabs
Casecom 6788 Case - £28 - Ebuyer
Corsair 500W CX V2 PSU - £51 - Ebuyer
LiteOn iHAS124 DVD Drive - £14 - Ebuyer
Corsair Vengeance 1600MHz 1 X 4GB RAM - £22 - Amazon
Seagate Barracuda 7200RPM 500GB HDD - £53 - Ebuyer

That's £415 so you can put the rest of your budget on a graphics card, preferably at least £90 on a 6850.

Though if you have a DVD Drive and a good case you can save money there. It's not very realistic to get a gaming PC (even if a low end one) and a monitor for <£500. You can pick up good full HD monitors with HDMI for about £120 when you get the money.