I am new at building computers, but know quite a bit about hardware. What processor should i get, this needs to be decided first so i can determine the motherboard. Would like the processor to be AMD. The computer will be mainly used for heavy gaming, light video edting/graphics, web browsing, downloading. Whats your opinions on DDR3 Rams? They have faster clockspeeds but are they worth it. Or just stick to DDR2? What is the process of buidling a computer? After installing all hardware, do i have to manually(disc) install each of the drivers i.e. motherboard, gfx card etc... How to i install the driver for the Cd/dvd driver? Do have to tweak any setting in the motherboard. Then install OS by selecting a cd drive to boot. I am not into overclocking but it maybe nessessary in the future. Max Budget £1000 (computer) without speakers, screen, etc... Is it worth building a computer or shall i just get one of these. http://www.alienware.co.uk/product_pages/desktop_all_default.aspx The specs arent brilliant but builidng one is harder than just buying one. thanks
AMD fanboy here, I recently had the same dilemma since I do a little of everything If you can afford it I would go with a low wattage Quad Core but if your on a budget but want some serious bang for the buck the AMD KUMA 7750 comes in 2.7 & 2.8ghz and has many features availaible in the phenom yet are dual core much cheaper and have the l3 cache are overclockable can use 1066ram. I was very suprised with the performance as far as mobo you can go AMD/ATI 780 chipset or 790 ECS, ASUS, MSI, BIOSTAR, FOXCONN all have some highly rated boards I own two ecs full atx and have a foxcon microatx in my htpc. Amazing performance and you can upgrade these to the Quad Core & AM3 processors later as your budget allows. This was my main reasoning behind purchasing them because I want a QuadCore Deneb badly but my budget is very limited and its very expensive. Here is a link to several AMD processors by price low to high http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE&N=2010340343 50001028&name=AMD
£1000 is a relatively high budget, so resorting to dual cores certainly won't be necessary. If this does not include the peripherals there's no need to even resort to an AMD. While most AMD CPUs are competitive on price, they only go up to the mid-high end hardware. By spending more, you can get better stuff from Intel to give better performance. Building a PC does require more effort than building one, but it also saves you several hundred pounds, which for the sake of a couple of hours' work, is usually worth your while.
Intel Core i7 920 Gigabyte EX58-UD4 XFX Radeon HD4870X2 2x2GB Corsair XMS3 PC12800 Corsair HX 620W Power supply WD Caviar Black WD1001FALS 1TB LG GH22NS40 22x DVD Writer NZXT Tempest case
Thats over £1000, i like processor and mobo, but ill cut the graphx card down to a lower spec and higher gfx ram, the ram is good. No need for 1TB HD. I want X2 500GB HD (raid 0-1, 1 duplicating the other). As for the rest need the best plextor dvd r/rw or even hd and blu-ray. Not sure.
Plextor stuff has gone downhill recently, I see no evidence that it's any better than LG and Optiarc stuff.
I have always had excellent performance and reliability from Lite-on my external drive is over 6 years old and still ticking. Here is a great article from computer shopper on three different build on different budgets with complete mobo, drive, ram and video reccomendations I have built the lowest cost one with a few tweaks to make it better and used Vista here ya go http://computershopper.com/feature/build-a-budget-pc-250-500-or-750
Just a small addition.... If you do plan on getting the i7, make sure you get DDR3 ram cause LGA1366(i7 motherboards) only support DDR3. Im not sure if DDR2 RAM will fit but if it does it will definately not work. But I would get the build Sammorris specified, you probably wont be gaming hard enough for a 4870x2 though, a 4870 or 4890 are also good choices. P.S. stay away from prebuild computers like alienware and Ibuypower.
Why what is wrong with pre-built computers? Liker alienware Ok This is what i would like to spend on each part max budget Mobo £100-150. specs hold 16gb ram, X2 pci x16 slots, (the gfx slots) ATI crossfire. Intel or AMD Proccessor (£100-200) ATI GFX (only 1 for the mo) £150 RAM £100 ddr2/ddr3 depends on mobo and the processor HD £100 Cooling Equipment: £150 including heatsink. Case: £50 Power supply: £50 CD/DVD Rom: £20 CD/DVD RW: (Use Old Plextor PX-755A) or if i got money left may buy a new plextor depends on how much money i got left. What else do i need for the internals? I really want i top mobo/processor, i can upgrade the rest as time goes on. The core unit needs to be top, the rest can be budget gear and later on i'll slowly upgrade them. I am keen on the i7 but not sure if i can have ati crossfire alongside it. This is the first build, need all the help i can get. The do's and don't when building a computer. Thanks
For what your asking for, you may might have to spend alittle more on a PSU if you want to power a 100-150£ GFX card. A good quality case comes with tons of pre-build cooling so you should actually reverse your case and cooling prices and since you want the top mobo you should probably ease up on the ram price and get what you really want because a cpu, unlike a GFX card, cant be doubled (Xfire and SLI) so you'll have to replace the whole thing for an upgrade. heres a good Build. Antec Nine Hundred Black Steel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case - Retail Western Digital Caviar SE16 WD6400AAKS 640GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive - OEM XFX HD-489A-ZDFC Radeon HD 4890 1GB 256-bit DDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready Video Card - Retail CORSAIR CMPSU-650TX 650W ATX12V / EPS12V SLI Ready CrossFire Ready 80 PLUS Certified Active PFC Compatible with Core i7 G.SKILL 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 1066 (PC2 8500) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory Model F2-8500CL5D-4GBPK - Retail GIGABYTE GA-EP45-UD3R LGA 775 Intel P45 ATX Intel Motherboard - Retail Intel Core 2 Quad Q9550 Yorkfield 2.83GHz LGA 775 95W Quad-Core Processor Model BX80569Q9550 - Retail ZALMAN CNPS9700 LED 110mm 2 Ball CPU Cooler - Retail Almost any cd-dvd drive will do. and I left about 200 so you can change or upgrade what you want. this is just a basic, good build for the money.
Apart from the CPU cooler, that's a good build. You'd get similar results with a cheaper (and quieter) Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro.
Yea your probably right, thats just a popular fan that almost everyone likes, I use a noctua CPU cooler. Not very popular but is probably the coolest you'll ever get on air. I wouldve chosen him a i7 instead of the q9550, but that leads to needing a way more expensive MOBO, DDR3 only RAM and a LGA1366 cpu cooler, which they dont have to many out now. I wont really benefit if he's not vido editing or using CAD, the 4870 should please all his gaming needs.
I cant buy from newegg. UK And need of different too ram, no one uspplies that in uk. Will kingston ram do?
My mistake. Have you chosen a shop to buy this stuff from yet? http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/1GB-...R5-GPU-750MHz-800-Cores-2x-DL-DVI-I-HDTV-HDCP http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/6GB-...atched-XMS3-with-Classic-Heat-Spreader-CoreI7 [IF USING AN I7] http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/4GB-...8500(1066)-240Pin-NonECC-Unbuffered-CAS-5-EPP [IF USING A CORE 2] Having also read Killer's build list, I'd avoid using that case. There are much better designs out there. This is one of them: http://www.ebuyer.com/product/131551
Been reading the gigabytes Mobo's Manual and i got a few questions. Not very difficult to install hardware but Bios seems hard. What options can i leave default on the BIOS. What needs to be changed? Dependent on CPU, GFX card etc... Are these the steps to get pc going. Install Hardware, power up. Config Bios Make Partion. Install Os Install Drivers. Finish Should i wait for windows 7?
