The Student Room Group

Scroll to see replies

Reply 6580
Original post by TShadow383
Sup folks, not posted on here in ages.
I've got an interesting project :biggrin:

Mate of mine wants a PC he can fit under his coffee table that'll play any games he throws at it and handle high-end simulation work (needs serious CPU power).
Budget is about £1500.

This is what I have in mind:
http://i40.tinypic.com/11uhrvn.png
From what I've seen there might be clearance issues with the corsair rad, so I'm throwing in one of these just in case:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Scythe-Slip-Stream-Slim-SY1212SL12L/dp/B002A97IIG

There's still room in the budget for a wireless mouse/keyboard but I'm not going to bother speccing that because it's all down to preference really...

Thoughts?


Perhaps swap that HDD for this? http://www.scan.co.uk/products/1tb-seagate-st31000524as-barracuda-720012-sata-6gb-s-7200rpm-32mb-cache-85ms-ncq
Reply 6581
Original post by xAres
Replace the HD 6950 with the GTX 560 Ti. they're around same-ish performance but the 560 Ti is cheaper.
http://www.scan.co.uk/products/1gb-msi-gtx-560ti-oc-twin-frozr-ii-40nm-4200mhz-gddr5-gpu-880mhz-shader-1760mhz-384-cores



I agree, the GTX 560 Ti is a really good GFX card.
Reply 6582
I've decided to build my own pc. I'm going to be using it mostly for gaming but I only have a budget of £600. So far I've got a list of components that I feel would satisfy what I'm looking for. All the parts are from ebuyer, and are as follows:

Intel Core i3 550 3.2GHz Socket 1156 4MB L3 Cache Retail Boxed Processor
Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro rev 2 Socket 775, 1156, 1155, 1366, AM2, AM3 Heatpipe CPU Cooler
Asus M5A78L/USB3 AMD Socket AM3+ 8 Channel HD Audio ATX Motherboard
Gainward GTX 550 Ti Golden Sample 1GB GDDR5 DVI VGA HDMI PCI-E Graphics Card
Kingston 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 1600MHz HyperX Blu Memory Kit CL9 1.65V Non-ECC Unbuffered
Corsair 500W CX V2 PSU
Antec 300 Three Hundred Case
LiteOn iHAS124 24x DVD±RW DL & RAM SATA Optical Drive - OEM Black with Nero Essentials
WD 2TB 3.5" SATA-III 6GB/s Caviar Green Hard Drive - 64MB Cache - WD20EARX
Windows 7 Home Premium

I copied and pasted this exactly as I'm unsure on how much of it is necessary. If someone could check this to see if there are any improvements to be made or, more importantly, if for some reason it wouldn't work, it would be much appreciated.
Reply 6583
You've chosen a last-gen processor and then combined it with an AMD motherboard. They won't work together.
Reply 6584
Original post by Tom B.
You've chosen a last-gen processor and then combined it with an AMD motherboard. They won't work together.


As I said, this is my first self-built pc. So what would you recommend then, a different motherboard or processor?
Original post by Edsterr
I've decided to build my own pc. I'm going to be using it mostly for gaming but I only have a budget of £600. So far I've got a list of components that I feel would satisfy what I'm looking for. All the parts are from ebuyer, and are as follows:

Intel Core i3 550 3.2GHz Socket 1156 4MB L3 Cache Retail Boxed Processor
Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro rev 2 Socket 775, 1156, 1155, 1366, AM2, AM3 Heatpipe CPU Cooler
Asus M5A78L/USB3 AMD Socket AM3+ 8 Channel HD Audio ATX Motherboard
Gainward GTX 550 Ti Golden Sample 1GB GDDR5 DVI VGA HDMI PCI-E Graphics Card
Kingston 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 1600MHz HyperX Blu Memory Kit CL9 1.65V Non-ECC Unbuffered
Corsair 500W CX V2 PSU
Antec 300 Three Hundred Case
LiteOn iHAS124 24x DVD±RW DL & RAM SATA Optical Drive - OEM Black with Nero Essentials
WD 2TB 3.5" SATA-III 6GB/s Caviar Green Hard Drive - 64MB Cache - WD20EARX
Windows 7 Home Premium

I copied and pasted this exactly as I'm unsure on how much of it is necessary. If someone could check this to see if there are any improvements to be made or, more importantly, if for some reason it wouldn't work, it would be much appreciated.

Do you plan to upgrade/overclock later? Do you currently have a hard drive you can use? This will be a tight budget for a gaming pc.
Reply 6586
I'd change both really. Try to get an i3 2100 (or if you can stretch your budget an i5 2500k) and then a Socket 1155 motherboard.

I threw together this spec quickly, obviously the graphics card, etc can be changed;

http://i41.tinypic.com/2lvguj7.png
Can anyone help me out here;
I wish to buy a laptop.

I will use it for
-school work (all office programs)
-browsing the net (forums, social networking)
-using photoshop now and again
-occasionally making films with movie maker [NB I usually record in 1080p HD so this needs to be supported]
-the odd online flash game

I want it to be nice and fast, I don't have a great knowledge of computers so could someone else please tell me the sort of specs required for the above tasks. Also if anyone knows of a specific laptop that would meet my reqs please send me a link! :biggrin:

I am thinking of a Windows 7 OS, as a mac would probably be out of my price range.

I am feeling a max of ~£500, but if there is one that does my required tasks for less than that, please let me know!
Original post by Tom B.
I'd change both really. Try to get an i3 2100 (or if you can stretch your budget an i5 2500k) and then a Socket 1155 motherboard.

I threw together this spec quickly, obviously the graphics card, etc can be changed;

http://i41.tinypic.com/2lvguj7.png

Fairly good build although you could probably shave a little bit off of that by changing the power supply to a 500W~ OCZ, coolermaster or corsair. The motherboard should be fine as long as you don't plan to crossfire or SLI in the future. However if you don't plan on overclocking you may be able to save yourself even more money by going with a H67 mobo. Hard drive's a bit dodgy - prices are high right now due to flooding in Thailand but they're not due to go down any time soon.

Scan Computers International
You wont see those prices ever again according to the manufacturers.
Stocks predicted to be in free flow by August/Sept 2011 but demand is still short of approx 60 million+ drives worldwide. You seriously will not see the old prices for a long time to come.
Reply 6589
Original post by Tom B.
I'd change both really. Try to get an i3 2100 (or if you can stretch your budget an i5 2500k) and then a Socket 1155 motherboard.

I threw together this spec quickly, obviously the graphics card, etc can be changed;

http://i41.tinypic.com/2lvguj7.png


I've just had a quick look at that link and it looks great, but I might need to spend more time to check it properly, other than that it looks great thanks.
Reply 6590
Original post by alexs2602
Do you plan to upgrade/overclock later? Do you currently have a hard drive you can use? This will be a tight budget for a gaming pc.


To answer your questions - yes, I will want to upgrade/overclock in the future, no I don't have a hard drive that I can use, and yes, I know it's not a lot of money but I've got to start somewhere.
(edited 12 years ago)
Reply 6591
Original post by alexs2602
Fairly good build although you could probably shave a little bit off of that by changing the power supply to a 500W~ OCZ, coolermaster or corsair. The motherboard should be fine as long as you don't plan to crossfire or SLI in the future. However if you don't plan on overclocking you may be able to save yourself even more money by going with a H67 mobo. Hard drive's a bit dodgy - prices are high right now due to flooding in Thailand but they're not due to go down any time soon.


I feel quite stupid for asking but what does crossfire and SLI mean? However I think I probably will overclock in the future.
Original post by PrinceUpsb
Can anyone help me out here;
I wish to buy a laptop.

I will use it for
-school work (all office programs)
-browsing the net (forums, social networking)
-using photoshop now and again
-occasionally making films with movie maker [NB I usually record in 1080p HD so this needs to be supported]
-the odd online flash game

I want it to be nice and fast, I don't have a great knowledge of computers so could someone else please tell me the sort of specs required for the above tasks. Also if anyone knows of a specific laptop that would meet my reqs please send me a link! :biggrin:

I am thinking of a Windows 7 OS, as a mac would probably be out of my price range.

I am feeling a max of ~£500, but if there is one that does my required tasks for less than that, please let me know!

Macs are also a total rip off.

I'm not really a laptop person but generally speaking you should be looking for one with an intel i3/i5 2xxx processor(i.e.: i3-2330M) and 4GB+ RAM.
Original post by Edsterr
I feel quite stupid for asking but what does crossfire and SLI mean? However I think I probably will overclock in the future.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scalable_Link_Interface

Original post by Edsterr
To answer your questions - yes, I will want to upgrade/overclock in the future, no I don't have a hard drive that I can use, and yes, I know it's not a lot of money but I've got to start somewhere.

The problem is to overclock you need a K version processor(intel i5-2500K is very popular) so you either need a bigger budget or you'll have to get it further down the line when you can afford it. When you do overclock you need a third party CPU cooler - I suggest a Gelid Tranquillo rev 2. As long as you don't plan to get dual graphics cards at any point that motherboard will be fine, as will the power supply wattage.

To clarify slightly; you cannot overclock the i3-2100
(edited 12 years ago)
Reply 6594
Original post by alexs2602
Fairly good build although you could probably shave a little bit off of that by changing the power supply to a 500W~ OCZ, coolermaster or corsair. The motherboard should be fine as long as you don't plan to crossfire or SLI in the future. However if you don't plan on overclocking you may be able to save yourself even more money by going with a H67 mobo. Hard drive's a bit dodgy - prices are high right now due to flooding in Thailand but they're not due to go down any time soon.


The guy had a 2TB drive in his original spec so I assumed that's what he's after. Cheapest I could find on Scan.

Original post by Edsterr
I've just had a quick look at that link and it looks great, but I might need to spend more time to check it properly, other than that it looks great thanks.


No problem. Have a look around Overclockers UK and Overclock.net forums if you want to learn more.
There is too many pages for me to read and find out this, but is it really better to build your own PC then to buy it from say PC World?
What if I don't know how to build my own pc, and if I don't want to build it myself? Are there any website that offers cheap labour and does all the fitting?
I was thinking of getting a PC for extreme gaming and multimedia, I want good sound card, graphics cards etc. I am lost when it comes to computer parts so I would be greatful if someone could maybe provide a spec of a computer that would be worth the money.
Reply 6596
Original post by Tom B.
The guy had a 2TB drive in his original spec so I assumed that's what he's after. Cheapest I could find on Scan.


The only reason I wanted the 2TB HDD was because it was £67 off on ebuyer, so I would still be more than happy with 1TB instead.
Original post by Killerstorm2
There is too many pages for me to read and find out this, but is it really better to build your own PC then to buy it from say PC World?
What if I don't know how to build my own pc, and if I don't want to build it myself? Are there any website that offers cheap labour and does all the fitting?
I was thinking of getting a PC for extreme gaming and multimedia, I want good sound card, graphics cards etc. I am lost when it comes to computer parts so I would be greatful if someone could maybe provide a spec of a computer that would be worth the money.

Generally speaking it gives you a lot more flexibility than buying a prebuilt pc from a manufacturer such as acer and the like. It also allows you to upgrade at a later date more easily. There are guides all over the place to help with building and it's a lot easier than you'd think. As long as you're careful you shouldnt have a problem. If you had a budget that would be a good place to start. By extreme multimedia what are you trying to say? Would you be planning on overclocking?

Oh and it's cheaper.
(edited 12 years ago)
Reply 6598
@Tom B
I was wondering if you had any more suggestions for components such as the case, motherboard...etc, as I'm going to be buying from ebuyer due to being more familiar with it, but unfortunately it does not have all the parts you suggested. I know it would probably be easy enough to find equivalent parts but I don't want to end up getting the wrong thing, as I would of if I hadn't checked here first.
Original post by Edsterr
I've decided to build my own pc. I'm going to be using it mostly for gaming but I only have a budget of £600. So far I've got a list of components that I feel would satisfy what I'm looking for. All the parts are from ebuyer, and are as follows:

Intel Core i3 550 3.2GHz Socket 1156 4MB L3 Cache Retail Boxed Processor
Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro rev 2 Socket 775, 1156, 1155, 1366, AM2, AM3 Heatpipe CPU Cooler
Asus M5A78L/USB3 AMD Socket AM3+ 8 Channel HD Audio ATX Motherboard
Gainward GTX 550 Ti Golden Sample 1GB GDDR5 DVI VGA HDMI PCI-E Graphics Card
Kingston 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 1600MHz HyperX Blu Memory Kit CL9 1.65V Non-ECC Unbuffered
Corsair 500W CX V2 PSU
Antec 300 Three Hundred Case
LiteOn iHAS124 24x DVD±RW DL & RAM SATA Optical Drive - OEM Black with Nero Essentials
WD 2TB 3.5" SATA-III 6GB/s Caviar Green Hard Drive - 64MB Cache - WD20EARX
Windows 7 Home Premium

I copied and pasted this exactly as I'm unsure on how much of it is necessary. If someone could check this to see if there are any improvements to be made or, more importantly, if for some reason it wouldn't work, it would be much appreciated.


Try

http://www.dabs.com/products/asus-intel-performance-bundle--includes-p8z68-v-lx-motherboard--intel-core-i5-2500k---8gb-ddr3--7VJG.html?src=2

P8Z68-V LX Motherboard, Intel Core i5-2500K & 8GB DDR3


http://www.dabs.com/products/asus-intel-premium-bundle--inc-p8h61-m-le-usb3-motherboard--intel-core-i3-2100---2gb-ddr3-memory--7X1V.html?src=2

P8H61-M LE/USB3 Motherboard, Intel Core i3-2100 & 2GB DDR3 Memory

Latest