Building a PC. £500<=Budget<£650.

[Nota']

I will be using the PC mainly for gaming. The budget is not rock solid, but I need very good motivation to go above £650, and of course the less money spent, the better.

This is a running project, so you won't be judging my potential rig just yet. I already have a Hanns G 1680x 1050 monitor, mouse, and a keyboard (which I may or may not upgrade). Everything else needs to bought.

Starting with Motherboard.
I was thinking of this: http://www.microdirect.co.uk/Home/Pr...l-LGA1156-DDR3

Alternatives: http://www.microdirect.co.uk/Home/Pr...Intel-H55-Core
http://www.microdirect.co.uk/Home/Pr...rboard-LGA1156

Problems with the first option is that it has an integrated GPU (which I'm paying for but I doubt I'll want). I am assuming it can be disabled somehow and a better GPU used instead.

Thanks in advance.

Ok here is my current selection. Getting close to building, just need to get some more money for it.
Case: http://www.microdirect.co.uk/Home/Product/49161/Coolermaster-Case-HAF912---NO-PSU-S031926
DVD Drive: http://www.microdirect.co.uk/Home/Product/43008/Samsung-22X-SH-S223C-BEBE-SATA-black-S025706
Processor: http://www.microdirect.co.uk/Home/Pr...156-2-8GHz-8MB
CPU Cooler: http://www.microdirect.co.uk/Home/Product/47096/Coolermaster-Hyper-212-Plus-4-Heat-Pipes-CPU
GPU:http://www.microdirect.co.uk/Home/Pr...-Vapor-X-PCI-E
Hard drive: http://www.microdirect.co.uk/Home/Pr...ve-Caviar-SE16- Should I look for a 1 TB drive instead? I think it would be possible to fit 2 500GB drives in the case and connect to HD, can someone confirm?
RAM: http://www.microdirect.co.uk/home/pr...ory-module-4gb - With the intention of getting more when money comes in.
Mother Board: http://www.microdirect.co.uk/Home/Product/48408/Asus-Motherboard-P7P55-LX--LGA1156-DDR3-ATX
PSU: http://www.microdirect.co.uk/Home/Product/31042/Corsair-PSU-650W-CMPSU-650TX-ATX12V-v2-2--5-year- I think this will be enough. GPU is 450W, Hard Drive is 9.5W (remember might be having 2 of these). I dont know how much power the fans that come with the case and the fan I will be buying cost use, RAM is 1.5V (remember might be having 2 of these, and I dont know how this translates into W), and the only value of CPU power is Thermal Power 95W, and I assume Mobo uses negligible power. Can someone confirm if this is enough power?
+ £122 for Win 7 Home Edition

Mobo and Win 7 Home Edition are out of Stock atm.
Total Cost: £711

[Bolkonsky]

Internal GPU's can be disabled. On most modern motherboards, they're disabled by default as soon as you put in a graphics card. Asus makes good stuff, but the motherboard would be one of the last things I'd decide on. First, you want to decide what you want for a computer, and then find a motherboard to match.

[Nota']

Thats exactly the opposite of what someone told be when I was starting this project. Oh well, nothing is fixed until I buy it. I will probably be using Intel and Nvidia, but I am open to suggestions, especially on the GPU side. Any comments on the MoBo itself?

Edit: I'm sure you'll have worked out by now that I'm pretty ignorant when it comes to hardware, and this is a first when it comes to constructing computers for me. Basically don't overestimate my knowledge

[Bolkonsky]

Well, what do you want/need it to do? What type of games will you be playing?

Whatever you do play, it'll be at a relatively low res (I too have a Hanns G, 1400x900) so you'll be able to skimp a little with the GPU. I'd recommend a DirectX 11 card (nvidia preferrably, ATI drivers seem to have conflicts with a lot of games,) with close to a gigabyte of memory, but you could probably settle for ~700 megs, depending on whether or not you're hoping to play Crysis 2 on high.

Then again, I'm running a pair of 9500 GTs, so I might not be the best person to talk to about modern graphics cards.

[Nota']

I will be playing Total War games for the most part but I intend to get a new FPS, Ghost recon FS.
To be more specific I want a computer that I can upgrade, hence looking at MoBos first, because I do not intend to be buying new computers every 2 years. I want a computer that can play these games on at least high (as opposed to ultra) and have a decent Frame rate. I also prefer it to be at least slightly future proof without upgrading (what can I say, I'm lazy, and messing with hardware is quite a bit of effort )

I think I'll start looking at CPUs now, and will remember your gpu tips for later.
PS. This computer is running only one 9500 GT

Edit: Oh dear, looking through processors, a decent one might cos half my budget, time to lower standards me thinks.

[Juli26]

http://www.microdirect.co.uk/Home/Pr...O-PSU-S031926-
http://www.microdirect.co.uk/Home/Pr...black-S025706-
http://www.microdirect.co.uk/Home/Pr...156-2-8GHz-8MB
http://www.microdirect.co.uk/Home/Pr...Heat-Pipes-CPU
http://www.microdirect.co.uk/Home/Pr...E-2-0-16x-Mini
http://www.microdirect.co.uk/Home/Pr...ve-Caviar-SE16
http://www.microdirect.co.uk/Home/Pr...eries-DDR3-4GB
http://www.microdirect.co.uk/Home/Pr...l-Core-i7-Core
http://www.microdirect.co.uk/Home/Pr...V-v2-2--5-year


...for 680£. If you play a little with the parts though, you can lower the price (for example if you find a better case which is cheaper or if you swap the evga gtx460 gard for a palit gtx460 one). I picked up and Intel CPU and a Nvidia card since you wanted it that way. You will have good framerates on high/very high at 1920x1080 (or 1920 x 1200). With your current monitor the card is an overkill so you can switch that for a gts450 but if you dont change it, the card will be useful for a couple of years without needing to upgrade it.

[Nota']

Thanks a lot, am currently checking the selection. So far so good. Am currently compareing your suggested mobo with the one i was thinking about.
The P7P55D costs £34.50 more, and as far as I can see it is better only the following ways: 2 Ps/2 ports instead of 1, 2x 3.0 USB ports instead of 0, comes with RAID controllers.
There might be more that I've missed. Anyway, will the 3.0 USB be that useful, I can't think of any devices that use it atm. RAID might be good but I will need more hard disks which will push up the price. So is it worth it?

[Bolkonsky]

RAID will probably be pretty useless if you're just planning to game. As far as I know it's mainly a business/server tool. As for USB 3.0, I'd say hold off on it.

1. I don't think there's even proper drivers for it.
2. You can always buy a PCI-E card for ~$30 if/when it actually gets used for something.

[Nota']

Looking at RAM. The max capacity of each Mobo is 16GB, with 4 DIMM slots. For upgradability I thought it be best to get a 4GB module or two, so when it comes to upgrade time I dont have to replace some old ones. For comparison, Juli's suggested option, and the one I've been looking at. The one Ive looked at has slightly higher CAS latency. It does have no buffering in the name. Is this missing something vital? It is £22 cheaper.

[Bolkonsky]

You'll be fine without a buffer, and the latency wouldn't make enough of a difference to justify spending more money, in my opinion. Corsair's a good name as well, I'd just be more concerned about overheating than anything else, but that probably won't be an issue anyways.

[Nota']

Well Juli suggested a Coolmaster case, so I would think its not a problem then. But I might have to buy a different, probably inferior case, which might not be as good. Is over heating a common problem with this kind of 4 gb ram module?

[Juli26]

You can switch the mobo for other p55 ones. I picked that one only because of usb 3.0. Be careful though with the brand.
About the ram, if you take 1x4 instead of 2x2 I believe the performance will suffer.
About the heating you must take in consideration that the CPU and GPU are the 2 parts that heat the system the most and no, it will not affect the ram as much as you think.

[Nota']

Now looking at the CPU Links: Microdirect and Intel
1. I cant find a power requirement, just a Thermal power 95 W spec, which might be the actual power, but I thought it meant the amount of energy it would release through heat.
2. On the Intel link theres a spec under memory saying '# of Memory Channels: 2' Does this mean it can only support two RAM modules? I don't really know what it means.

[Juli26]

Now looking at the CPU Links: Microdirect and Intel
1. I cant find a power requirement, just a Thermal power 95 W spec, which might be the actual power, but I thought it meant the amount of energy it would release through heat.
2. On the Intel link theres a spec under memory saying '# of Memory Channels: 2' Does this mean it can only support two RAM modules? I don't really know what it means.

1. 95 W is the requirement.
2. No, It means you can use up to 2 channels. Like I said I think performance will suffer(a little) if you go with 1 x 4 instead of 2 x 2. Someone can correct me with this though because I'm not sure.

[karamazovmm]

1. 95 W is the requirement.

No it isnt, the only brand that reads TDP as the power drawn is Nvidia. This is the power that is dissipated as heat.

2. No, It means you can use up to 2 channels. Like I said I think performance will suffer(a little) if you go with 1 x 4 instead of 2 x 2. Someone can correct me with this though because I'm not sure.

To use RAM in dual channel memory you have to, as you said, pair it with the same kind of RAM and size. The problem of going dual channel or single channel is that your benchmark performance will suffer, you wont notice at all in real use or in intensive applications, actually faster ram is not felt either, the size of the RAM however is the most important part.

Sorry if I'm being stupid here but, does this mean I can only utilise 2 modules? Or is it something related to the DDR3 stuff about my memory?
*The moment everyone realises I'm an idiot *

No, not at all. This is something that was made popular when DDR2 modules came out.

Edit 1: Processor has Physical Address Extensions: 36 bit. This is anything to be worried/consider about?

that is to pass instructions, meaning the cpu is "thinking", Sim will probably correct me here, expanding much further the answer.

Edit 2: After learning that you shouldn't mix different RAM modules, if I went with the current RAM this would limit me to a maximum of 8GB (4 DIMM slots) assuming I will be able to get hold of the same modules. Is there any forseeable reason that in the future 8GB will not be enough?

Im actually tending to prefer 8g instead of 4g, just because depending on what software you use, you are going to feel some "slow downs", and I put it this way mainly because is not smething that you are going to notice, if you arent pushing the pc. An example is ow firefox handles the memory, it caches everything, leading to a much higher usage of memory, and if you are like me you are using it with 8+ tabs open, its going to drain some good memory, another instance is that windows 7 uses the RAM as a cache for fechting things, leading it to open things faster and to also find things faster, you have to realize hat in windows 7 your memory is always going to be fully utilized, its not wasted there idling its going to be used for something

And I would still wait for the SB fix to get th mobo and the processor.

For the GPU I would go for the gtx 560ti, depending on the price the 6950, since it can be a much faster card if you flash the 6970 vbios on it.

What PSU have you bought? I ould go for the corsair 650w the TX line is good or the 550w

[Bolkonsky]

that is to pass instructions, meaning the cpu is "thinking", Sim will probably correct me here, expanding much further the answer

As far as I know, it just enables the processor to work with 64 gigs at a time, or something of the sort.

[Nota']

Sorry if I'm being stupid here but, does this mean I can only utilise 2 modules? Or is it something related to the DDR3 stuff about my memory?
*The moment everyone realises I'm an idiot *

Edit 1: Processor has Physical Address Extensions: 36 bit. This is anything to be worried/consider about?

Edit 2: After learning that you shouldn't mix different RAM modules, if I went with the current RAM this would limit me to a maximum of 8GB (4 DIMM slots) assuming I will be able to get hold of the same modules. Is there any forseeable reason that in the future 8GB will not be enough?

[Juli26]

Sorry if I'm being stupid here but, does this mean I can only utilise 2 modules? Or is it something related to the DDR3 stuff about my memory?
*The moment everyone realises I'm an idiot *

No you are not an idiot and it's only natural that you want to know things that you don't know. Like they say in my country - better to ask than to remain uninformed . About your question, this should inform you very well.

Edit 1: Processor has Physical Address Extensions: 36 bit. This is anything to be worried/consider about?

To be fair I dunno what that means but you shouldnt be worried

Edit 2: After learning that you shouldn't mix different RAM modules, if I went with the current RAM this would limit me to a maximum of 8GB (4 DIMM slots) assuming I will be able to get hold of the same modules. Is there any forseeable reason that in the future 8GB will not be enough?

At the moment and for at least a couple of years 4GB should be enough. When the time when you will need more than 4GB comes will be the time when you would be better if you change all the system instead of only upgrading the RAM.

[Nota']

Ah thankyou. Unfortunatly I cant rep you again. so when it comes to building the computer, I should have one module on each bank, so as to take advantage of this. Just checking

[Robertclive]

Is this your first time building a pc