Building a PC, advice please!

[Vrach]

Ok, so as the title says I'm building a PC, so without dragging this on too much, here is what I've been looking at so far.

GTX460 ( Possibly a GTX560 )
AMD Phenom ii x6 Black Series
8GB Ripjaws DDR3 RAM
AM3 Motherboard
1TB 7200RPM Hard Drive
800wt PSU

All together, that'll cost me around £340. ( Nabbing bits in deals on ebay is awesome! )

So, what do you guys think? Anything I can upgrade or change without adding too much more to the cost?

I'd say consider an i5/i7 instead of AMD, especially the 6 core that's gonna stand around looking useless in most games (most games atm use 3-4 cores). Coming from someone who both loves and uses AMD right now, Intel's just got superior tech atm from what I can see (or is at least better utilized).

Definitely a 560 rather than a 460 if you're aiming for a top range gig.

Be careful when buying a motherboard, check everything out twice. While you're at it, don't buy RAM at over 1333 MHz, it only works overclocked at higher speeds atm and it's prone to failing. Check compatibility between RAM and mobo as well as everything else obviously, don't want it bottle-necking you somewhere. Oh and 6GB of RAM is more than enough for your needs atm if you ask me (running everything on highest settings with 4GB myself). But up to you, not much difference.

Pick your PSU carefully. Don't (just) watch the Wattage, check the other specs about it (need to check if it's actually able to provide for everything in your PC, certain PSUs are built to have the wattage, but not be able to do it anyway, I forgot the whole deal about it, something with the number of 12v lines and the like, look it up) and if you ask me, grab yourself one of the 80+ certified PSUs - not getting one just means you're gonna be paying off the difference in house bills.

Oh and my last 2 cents. Before buying your custom built PC, go around. Check as many stores as you can. You might well be able to find a PC that's already put together by the company and these things can sometimes be priced cheaper. I've had several incidents where I've custom built a machine, triple checked everything and then just found a better configuration for less money in the store. Just avoid the ones with the OEM, they'll typically be marked up higher than what it would take you to buy a retail W7.

Speaking of a retail W7, since you're young enough to be a student, might wanna check this out:
http://e5.onthehub.com/WebStore/OfferingsOfMajorVersionList.aspx?ws=24df2766-530c-e011-bed1-0030487d8897&vsro=8&pmv=b01abaf7-4588-de11-8cd1-0030487d8897&cmi_mnuMain=20abd7bb-44c7-e011-ae14-f04da23e67f6
Need an ISIC (international student identification card) for it, but that's actually cheap enough to grab if only for that one discount.

 

[Cowabungaa]

A few friends have got the Phenom ii x6 and they've all said good things about it. PSU is, to be fair just so I have room to upgrade if needs be.

The main use of the PC is focused towards gaming, though I need to run Programs such as the Unreal Development kit and Autodesk Maya/Mudbox too.

There's pretty much nothing you would need, for doing the things you listed, that you need a whopping 800W PSU for. Really, it's wasted money and won't do your PSU any good either. Mind you, it's not just wattage you want either. You want your PSU to deliver enough amps as well. But if you get a PSU of a good brand you usually don't have to worry about that all too much. Just don't get pointless stuff.

But yes, it's a good CPU, no doubt about it. If you got the cash, sure go for it. I wonder by the way, what's your budget? Because you don't look to be too budget conscious. If that's indeed the case, why not go for an Intel i7 CPU? Nothing wrong with AMD, and they're fantastic for budget-conscious gamers, but if you don't care too much and just want power, go for Intel. An i7 quadcore is in the end quite a bit more powerful than AMD's hexacores. Having more cores isn't everything.

How much is that hexacore you're looking at anyway? That might help knowing what's the best option to take.

 

[Dectomax]

A few friends have got the Phenom ii x6 and they've all said good things about it. PSU is, to be fair just so I have room to upgrade if needs be.

The main use of the PC is focused towards gaming, though I need to run Programs such as the Unreal Development kit and Autodesk Maya/Mudbox too.

There's pretty much nothing you would need, for doing the things you listed, that you need a whopping 800W PSU for. Really, it's wasted money and won't do your PSU any good either.

But yes, it's a good CPU, no doubt about it. If you got the cash, sure go for it. I wonder by the way, what's your budget? Because you don't look to be too budget conscious. If that's indeed the case, why not go for an Intel i7 CPU? Nothing wrong with AMD, and they're fantastic for budget-conscious gamers, but if you don't care too much and just want power, go for Intel. An i7 quadcore is in the end quite a bit more powerful than AMD's hexacores. Having more cores isn't everything.

I'm having a look about at different PSU's now. As for budget. I've got around a £400ish budget. ( It's more about waiting for my pay, this month I'll have £300ish spare, so I could wait until next month and have maybe £100/£200 more )

 

[Mafoobula]

A six-core CPU? Overkill, and could cause a bit of a bottleneck in your other processing components. Knock it down to quad-core and save yourself a bit. Trust me, a six-core, even in this era of obscenely detailed graphics, is not necessary.

The case is pretty important. Spend a minimum of $50 (£20-£30, I think) to get good air-flow, build quality and builder friendliness.
This is nice: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811146025 though it's not displayed on ebuyer. Alternatively, anything by Cooler Master is going to be of good to high quality.

I couldn't tell you what the quality of the average stock CPU cooler is, but if you're getting the OEM package (the CPU and nothing else, saves a little more), I think it's best to fork out for a high-speed cooler.

Definitely upgrade the video card, if only so you can play future games eventually. Or, as an alternative, go crossfire/SLI.
On a related note, if you go with the AMD CPU, you could save yourself a little more cash by going with the ATI video cards. Pairing the two AMD technologies should squeeze that much more efficiency out of the card.

Finally, instead of one big drive, go with two 500GB drives and put them in a RAID 0 configuration. All the capacity with greater speed.
Or, as someone mentioned above, get a little SSD for the games you most want to play, OR upgrade to a 10k RPM HDD. Both options are going to cost a pretty penny, and the 10k RPM HDDs generally don't go up to 1TB (600GB was the max I found on Newegg), but there's no denying it'll make your games run that much faster.

It should be noted that MaximumPC put together what they call a "value meal PC" which is pretty much a gaming computer on a tight budget. Theirs, case, hardware and software, cost just about $670, or about £420, and was able to play everything at respectable rates. Granted, they didn't take advantage of eBay, so maybe, even with the exact same components, yours would only be roughly £380-£400.
That said, I suggest you save up some more for your PC. It's good to keep to a budget, but this build has to last you at least 5-7 years if you want to get the value of your time and money out of it.

 

[Cowabungaa]

I'm having a look about at different PSU's now. As for budget. I've got around a £400ish budget. ( It's more about waiting for my pay, this month I'll have £300ish spare, so I could wait until next month and have maybe £100/£200 more )

I'm not an expert on the pound's financial strength, but I reckon that that's a pretty tight budget to build a good gaming PC with. If that's the case, I'd indeed go for AMD but knock it down to a quadcore, like their 965, and spend the cash you save on other quality parts. Remember that you need a good case too, and a fan to replace the horrible stock one. A good motherboard, even a barebones budget one, still costs a pretty penny as well.

As for PSU brands, Cooler Master, Chieftec, be quiet! and Corsair are good brands you could look at.

Oh and do yourself a favor, don't keep the side open, even if you're a clean freak. It just makes your computer so much more vulnerable. It's pretty sensitive stuff that's in there.

 

[Dectomax]

I'm having a look about at different PSU's now. As for budget. I've got around a £400ish budget. ( It's more about waiting for my pay, this month I'll have £300ish spare, so I could wait until next month and have maybe £100/£200 more )

I'm not an expert on the pound's financial strength, but I reckon that that's a pretty tight budget to build a good gaming PC with. If that's the case, I'd indeed go for AMD but knock it down to a quadcore, like their 965, and spend the cash you save on other quality parts. Remember that you need a good case too, and a fan to replace the horrible stock one. A good motherboard, even a barebones budget one, still costs a pretty penny as well.

As for PSU brands, Cooler Master, Chieftec, be quiet! and Corsair are good brands you could look at.

Oh and do yourself a favor, don't keep the side open, even if you're a clean freak. It just makes your computer so much more vulnerable. It's pretty sensitive stuff that's in there.

I've taken all the prices of the parts there and it totals at £340 which, for the specs,is actually a pretty decent buy I think. That includes the MB, GPU, CPU, RAM, PSU and Case.

 

[Cowabungaa]

I've taken all the prices of the parts there and it totals at £340 which, for the specs,is actually a pretty decent buy I think. That includes the MB, GPU, CPU, RAM, PSU and Case.

That's a pretty sweet-ass deal you made there then. Care to list the exact parts you're planning on getting at the moment?

 

[Private Custard]

Sounds like you don't need to be told much about computers, but I can give you some advice:

Make sure you got for something like a coolmaster or other decent brand of case.

For the love of god make sure your Mobo can actually handle 6GB of RAM, basically make sure it's 64bit.

Also, make sure you have a 64bit operating system, I'd also suggest buying the OS although this could add a good £100 to the cost.

An other important thing, have one set of fans as air intake and one set of fans as the out take, this causes a "breeze" in the case and keeps everything cooler.

Yeah, I had a friend who was trying to build a PC and didn't understand the 32/64-bit stuff...First thing I checked. The MB is 64-bit and can hold up to 16Gb of RAM.

Not sure on a case yet, I'm just looking for the expensive bits first. As I said, I'm not really that bothered by the flashy lights and stuff, a nice, sleek design will do. ( I don't intend on pummelling it either )

When it comes to lights and stuff neither do I. But the reason why I brought up the case was because you can get some really decent ones that have a MASSIVE intake fan on the front just below the power button, the means that you can use that as intake and all the ones you put in as outtake.

Also, I just remembered, Heat conducting glue stuff (I can't remember the name right now) that you put on between the Processor and the heat sink for it, it sticks the heat sink to the top of the processor but my word does it increase the rate of heat transfer from the processor to the heat sink. Increases both life and speed of it.

I'll have a looksie for cases, if I can find an awesome shiny one for cheap-ish I'll pick it up.

Think the stuff is just called Thermal Paste/Thermal Glue? I wont be the one putting that on. ( Don't trust myself! )

It is called thermal paste and is totally impossible to fuck up applying it, google a guide or two on it but its simple. If you can butter bread you can put thermal paste on a processor.

You have noooooo idea, I'm the type of person who trips over a flat surface! :')
Still a few weeks till I'll have all the bits, so I'll dig through a few guides before hand.

believe me I am exactly the same, if there is something to trip on or knock over you can be sure I will be the idiot that does it. I still managed to build my first computer including applying the thermal paste without breaking anything though lol.

I would recommend you have a old credit card to hand though, it makes spreading the paste evenly so much easier. If you don't have one to hand then one of those small rulers will suffice.

An old credit card isn't needed.

The Phenom II CPUs are designed so the cores are dead-centre. The correct method for applying thermal paste to then is to put a little blob (3-4mm wide, spherical in shape) onto the centre of the CPU, lay on the heatsink, twist a few degrees in either direction and then bolt it down tight.

Contrary to what needs to be done to other processors, a thin layer doesn't need to be spread beforehand, and most modern heatsinks don't need lapping.

 

[Tubezz]

Unless you find 2x rams with 3gb each you should not use 6 gb ram.

Since AMD is using dual channel and therefor if you are using 3x rams you will actually loose performance.

So I would suggest that you either find 2x 2gb ram or 2x 4gb ram.

Ooooh, didn't know that! Thanks, I might hop it up to 2x4GB then. Sticking with OCZ RAM though, I love their make haha.

EDIT: Just found these: http://www.ebuyer.com/274404-corsair-16gb-4x4gb-ddr3-1333mhz-xms-memory-kit-cl9-9-9-9-24-1-5v-cmx16gx3m4a1333c9

Edit: On second thought, they might actually be worse than standard Corsair 8GB...Due to PErf loss...

My bad.

You can use 2&4 sticks of ram but not 1&3 sticks so if you want u can go with 4x4 gb ram

 

[Dectomax]

I've taken all the prices of the parts there and it totals at £340 which, for the specs,is actually a pretty decent buy I think. That includes the MB, GPU, CPU, RAM, PSU and Case.

That's a pretty sweet-ass deal you made there then. Care to list the exact parts you're planning on getting at the moment?

GTX560:
http://www.ebuyer.com/254483-kfa2-gtx-560ti-oc-1gb-gddr5-dual-dvi-hdmi-out-pci-e-graphics-56ngh6hs4ixz

AMD Phenom II x6:
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/AMD-Phenom-II-X6-Six-Core-1100T-Black-Edition-3-30GHz-/250888497825?pt=UK_Motherboards_CPUs&hash=item3a6a1eaaa1#ht_500wt_1125

8GB Ripjaws DDR3 RAM:
http://www.ebuyer.com/240498-g-skill-8gb-2x4gb-ddr3-1333mhz-ripjaws-memory-kit-cl9-9-9-9-24-1-5v-f3-10666cl9d-8gbrl

Power supply (Not sure on yet):
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/BFG-800W-ES-800-ATX-Power-Supply-BFGR800WESPSU-/170694317681?pt=UK_Computing_PowerSupplies_EH&hash=item27be2c9671#ht_2038wt_1108

Motherboard (Looking for a specific one - Prices looking around £50ish)

 

[Private Custard]

Snip

I'd strongly advise you to look at an aftermarket CPU cooler too as the standard AMD unit, although cooling well, makes a hell of a lot of noise under load, even if you're not overclocking.

It was the first thing I changed when I moved all my stuff into a new (now old!) case.

EDIT: The Asus M4A78LT-M LE falls within your mb price range. I used the non-LE version and it served me well.

 

[roostuf]

Not really a good computer builder, but i suppose you should get a good graphics card as well.

 

[Dectomax]

Snip

I'd strongly advise you to look at an aftermarket CPU cooler too as the standard AMD unit, although cooling well, makes a hell of a lot of noise under load, even if you're not overclocking.

It was the first thing I changed when I moved all my stuff into a new (now old!) case.

EDIT: The Asus M4A78LT-M LE falls within your mb price range. I used the non-LE version and it served me well.

Thanks for the advice on the MB, I'll check it out in a second, just to make sure it fits with everything else!

 

[Bigsmith]

An other important thing, have one set of fans as air intake and one set of fans as the out take, this causes a "breeze" in the case and keeps everything cooler.

This.

So many people build high-spec custom PCs and forget to keep it aerated. Seriously, for minimal extra cost you can double your fans and significantly prolong your PC's life.

Was thinking of adding water cooling to it at a later point, possibly. Though I plan on keeping the side open. ( I'm a clean freak, so there's not much dust in my house...)

I feel that, for the cost, water cooling really isn't worth it. You've got the risk of a pipe going and destroying your entire computer as well as having to drill holes into the side of the case for the pipes to go through.

(note: don't take anything I've said as fact about water cooling, I've only had to research the application of water cooling for my college course.)

As for keeping your case open, well, I have a friend that has a computer that for four weeks didn't have a case and was just on his shelf, it looked fantastic I must say. :3

Also, first time in my entire time on these forums where I've been quoted with "This." 'Tis nice to see my college course is paying off. :3

 

[Private Custard]

Snip

I'd strongly advise you to look at an aftermarket CPU cooler too as the standard AMD unit, although cooling well, makes a hell of a lot of noise under load, even if you're not overclocking.

It was the first thing I changed when I moved all my stuff into a new (now old!) case.

EDIT: The Asus M4A78LT-M LE falls within your mb price range. I used the non-LE version and it served me well.

Thanks for the advice on the MB, I'll check it out in a second, just to make sure it fits with everything else!

No problem

As for a PSU, if you're a clean freak, you'll be wanting a modular PSU, so you only have the power cables connected that you actually need.

I'd recommend Corsair. It'll cost a little more, but you don't want to skimp and cut corners on the very core elements of a build.

 

[Cowabungaa]

le snip

Okay, and what about the case and cooling fan(s)? For a fan I'd recommend an Arctic Cooling cooler. They're very easy to install and perfect for a budget-conscious PC builder.

As for the PSU, really, you'd be better off buying a completely new one as it's such a vital component that can screw a lot of other stuff up in your computer. Again, drop that thing and go for a shiny new 550W be quiet! PSU. It's a fantastic little thing, and I'm using it in a system comparable to yours.

 

[MajWound]

Don't hold back. Spend spend spend. You won't regret it.

Also, make sure you have more than enough wattage in your power supply. I added two extra hard drives, a video card, and a CD burner to what was originally a core system. The power supply literally exploded. Literally. Fire and smoke and sparks. I'm alright though.

 

[solidstatemind]

Rules of thumb for building a PC these days:
1) Research your purchases around the web: www.anandtech.com and the venerable www.tomshardware.com usually have good performance benchmarks for processors and video cards. You can dig a little deeper and get benchmarks on RAM and HDD, but those are usually not where your performance bottlenecks happen.

2) Never, never, NEVER buy used motherboards, CPUs, Video Cards, and RAM. Those can all be overclocked, and there are few companies that allow warranties to be transferable. Get it in the box and wrapped, else you risk throwing your money down a hole.

3) There are price-points, where most components go from cheap to very expensive in a leap. Look for that price point (at a site like www.pricewatch.com) and target it. A perfect example- and just an example, not a recommendation- Intel Core i7 processors are all clustered around $250 to $300 up to the i7 960, and then the i7 965 and better jump to more than $500. You buy as close to the edge of the price-hike as you can afford.

4) Always buy a brand-name PSU. I cannot tell you how much of a pain in the ass it is to troubleshoot system problems related to an off-brand CPU that is failing or isn't putting out power consistently enough.

5) Unless the ambient temperature in your computer room is very high, or you plan to overclock, stock cooling with decent airflow through your case will be enough. Don't waste your money getting massive aftermarket cooling. If you decide to overclock in the future, you can always buy the aftermarket stuff then.

In regards to your personal situation: I run a core i7 processor with 8 GB RAM and a GTX460. I can play pretty much anything at the highest resolutions with most or all of the details turned up to the max, with a smooth framerate of about 30-40 fps. For what you say you want, the GTX460 would be enough, but looking forward, you'd probably extend the amount of time before you had to get a new card by at least six months or so if you went ahead and got the 560.