First time PC builder

[Graham737]

Ok, so the questions first:

1) What will you be doing with this PC? Gaming? Photoshop? Web browsing? etc
Mostly gaming - Skyrim is the game I have in mind for being able to play reasonably

2) What's your budget? Are tax and shipping included?
I've outlined a set of components below, I can perhaps stretch to a bit over £1000, although I'm going to be asking for some components for Christmas so best if they don't skyrocket in price. Taxes are automatically included in the UK, shipping should be in the budget.

3) Which country do you live in? If the U.S, please tell us the state and city if possible.
England

4) What exact parts do you need for that budget? CPU, RAM, case, etc. The word "Everything" is not a valid answer. Please list out all the parts you'll need.
As outlined below

5) If reusing any parts, what parts will you be reusing? Please be especially specific about the power supply. List make and model.
None

6) Will you be overclocking?
Not at first, may do later when more confident in it

7) What is the max resolution of your monitor? What size is it?
The one I have in mind is 21.5" 1920x1080 HDMI

8) When do you plan on building/buying the PC?
Over christmas (need to have chosen within a few days for christmas list)

9) What features do you need in a motherboard? RAID? Firewire? Crossfire or SLI support? USB 3.0? SATA 6Gb/s? eSATA? Onboard video? etc.
Not entirely sure of the benefits of RAID, I think the board outlined below is well-equipped for my purposes

10) Do you already have a legit and reusable/transferable OS key/license? If yes, what OS? Is it 32bit or 64bit?
See below

So, I've spent a few days going over components, I've come up with something based on common recommendations, listed as follows with prices from amazon.co.uk:

CPU:
Intel i5-2500K £161.60

Motherboard:
Asus P8P67 PRO Rev 3.1 £119.98

Video Card:
EVGA Geforce GTX 550 Ti 1GB 192-Bit £107.53

RAM:
Corsair Vengeance 8GB £42.82

HDD:
Western Digital 1TB (http://www.amazon.co.uk/Western-Dig...1_5?s=computers&ie=UTF8&qid=1320416803&sr=1-5) £59.99

DVD:
Asus Internal 24x CD/DVD burner £21.46

Case:
Antec 300 £44.98

PSU:
Corsair TX750 £84.76

Monitor:
Samsung B2230H £129.19

Mouse:
Logitech G400 £27.99

Speakers:
Logitech LS21 £23.99

Keyboard:
Microsoft Wired Keyboard 600 £8.49

OS:
So, as a student I can get a cheap 7 upgrade but I need to have vista or xp installed on there first. I can get XP for £39.90 and then do a clean install with a Windows 7 Pro 64-bit (which I'd like to run) upgrade for £38.49, much cheaper than a fresh install disc.

Total: £911.17

Firstly:
1) Has anybody built something similar, and do the component work well, and work together?
2) Any recommendations for improvements?
3) I understand SLI allows for dual-GPUs, which I can't afford now but is it simple to add a second video card in the future? I believe the mobo and video card above support this?
4) Is the OS plan feasible and sensible?

Thanks in advance

 

[Dangman]

Unfortunately we cannot guarantee a majority of the parts we recommend today won't go up in price by Christmas time. Especially the hard drive due to the floods in Thailand. So keep that in mind: You may not actually be getting good parts for the money with an old build list (any build list older than two weeks is old) by the time Christmas comes around due to the nature of the PC market.

Also just to be clear: You need to finalize your Christmas wish list within a few days? If so, or what? You won't get the parts at all?

To answer your questions:
1) Those parts will work together but some of those parts are just bad buys for the money
2) Plenty:

A) The biggest improvement need in your planned setup is GPU: It's simply too weak and a poor buy. Even if you use them in SLI, the GTX 550 TI SLI is stil a big waste of money. At the very minimum for your resolution, go with GTX 560 TI:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Asus-GeForc...1_1?s=computers&ie=UTF8&qid=1320418041&sr=1-1

B) That Antec 300 is a relatively cramped case with little to no cable management features. I recommend any of these cases over the crap Antec 300:
$50 - NZXT Source 210 Elite Black ATX Case
$50 - NZXT Source 210 Elite White with Black Front Trim ATX Case
$60 - Cooler Master HAF 912 RC-912-KKN1 ATX Case
$70 - Lian Li Lancool PC-K58 ATX Case
$80 - Lian Li Lancool PC-K56W ATX Case
$90 - Lian Li Lancool PC-K56 ATX Case
$90 - Cooler Master CM690 II Advance ATX Case
$90 - Lian Li Lancool PC-K7B ATX Case
$100 - Cooler Master CM690 II Advance nVidia Edition ATX Case
$100 - Cooler Master HAF 922 RC-922M-KKN1-GP ATX Case
$100 - Corsair Carbide Series 400R ATX Case
$100 - Lian Li Lancool PC-K58W ATX Case
$100 - Lian Li PC-7B Plus II ATX Case

C) That motherboard appears to be on sale right now. Hence the £120 price. It's a decent choice if you're buying now. However it may not be that price in December. As such, it's won't be a good buy then. Any of these other mobos should fit your needs just fine:
URL=http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128502]$120[/URL] - Gigabyte GA-Z68A-D3H-B3 Intel Z68 ATX Motherboard
$115 - MSI P67A-G43 Intel P67 ATX Motherboard
$133 - MSI P67A-G45 Intel P67 ATX Motherboard
$145 - MSI P67A-GD55 Intel P67 ATX Motherboard
$160 - MSI Z68A-GD55 Intel Z68 ATX Motherboard
$155 - MSI Z68A-GD55 (G3) Intel Z68 ATX Motherboard
$165 - Gigabyte GA-Z68X-UD3H-B3 Intel Z68 ATX Motherboard

3) Yes. Yes. But in your case GTX 550 TI SLI is a big waste of money.
4) Feasible yes, sensible, no. Google "Clean Install Windows 7 Upgrade". All you need to do is buy that Windows 7 Upgrade and you'll be set.

 

[Graham737]

Unfortunately we cannot guarantee a majority of the parts we recommend today won't go up in price by Christmas time. Especially the hard drive due to the floods in Thailand. So keep that in mind: You may not actually be getting good parts for the money with an old build list (any build list older than two weeks is old) by the time Christmas comes around due to the nature of the PC market.

Also just to be clear: You need to finalize your Christmas wish list within a few days? If so, or what? You won't get the parts at all?

Well, that's the difficult part - I can't really afford to built anything worth a damn by myself, so I need to ask for some of these as gifts, and people are already asking what I want for christmas, so...

To answer your questions:
1) Those parts will work together but some of those parts are just bad buys for the money
2) Plenty:

A) The biggest improvement need in your planned setup is GPU: It's simply too weak and a poor buy. Even if you use them in SLI, the GTX 550 TI SLI is stil a big waste of money. At the very minimum for your resolution, go with GTX 560 TI:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Asus-GeForc...1_1?s=computers&ie=UTF8&qid=1320418041&sr=1-1

I had read that the 550 was a worthwhile budget buy; perhaps a little too budget to be worthwhile?

B) That Antec 300 is a relatively cramped case with little to no cable management features. I recommend any of these cases over the crap Antec 300:
$50 - NZXT Source 210 Elite Black ATX Case
$50 - NZXT Source 210 Elite White with Black Front Trim ATX Case
$60 - Cooler Master HAF 912 RC-912-KKN1 ATX Case
$70 - Lian Li Lancool PC-K58 ATX Case
$80 - Lian Li Lancool PC-K56W ATX Case
$90 - Lian Li Lancool PC-K56 ATX Case
$90 - Cooler Master CM690 II Advance ATX Case
$90 - Lian Li Lancool PC-K7B ATX Case
$100 - Cooler Master CM690 II Advance nVidia Edition ATX Case
$100 - Cooler Master HAF 922 RC-922M-KKN1-GP ATX Case
$100 - Corsair Carbide Series 400R ATX Case
$100 - Lian Li Lancool PC-K58W ATX Case
$100 - Lian Li PC-7B Plus II ATX Case

Similarly, I'd heard good things about Antec, but obviously I'm going to have to reconsider. I do need to keep prices down if possible, I'll see if I can get those sensibly priced in the UK

C) That motherboard appears to be on sale right now. Hence the £120 price. It's a decent choice if you're buying now. However it may not be that price in December. As such, it's won't be a good buy then. Any of these other mobos should fit your needs just fine:
URL=http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128502]$120[/URL] - Gigabyte GA-Z68A-D3H-B3 Intel Z68 ATX Motherboard
$115 - MSI P67A-G43 Intel P67 ATX Motherboard
$133 - MSI P67A-G45 Intel P67 ATX Motherboard
$145 - MSI P67A-GD55 Intel P67 ATX Motherboard
$160 - MSI Z68A-GD55 Intel Z68 ATX Motherboard
$155 - MSI Z68A-GD55 (G3) Intel Z68 ATX Motherboard
$165 - Gigabyte GA-Z68X-UD3H-B3 Intel Z68 ATX Motherboard

Even if that price would stay level, would you recommend any of these boards over the Asus?

3) Yes. Yes. But in your case GTX 550 TI SLI is a big waste of money.
4) Feasible yes, sensible, no. Google "Clean Install Windows 7 Upgrade". All you need to do is buy that Windows 7 Upgrade and you'll be set.

Thanks, I wasn't aware you could do that with an upgrade disc

 

[Dangman]

Well, that's the difficult part - I can't really afford to built anything worth a damn by myself, so I need to ask for some of these as gifts, and people are already asking what I want for christmas, so...

Ahh fair enough.

I had read that the 550 was a worthwhile budget buy; perhaps a little too budget to be worthwhile?

Yeah too low budget to be worthwhile. Especially considering your high resolution. Then again, even if you had a resolution of 1280x1024, that GTX 550 TI still would have been a bad buy for the money considering that the cheaper HD 6770 outperforms GTX 550 TI. With your resolution and considering that it's Skyrim we're talking about, you need every ounce of GPU power possible.

Similarly, I'd heard good things about Antec, but obviously I'm going to have to reconsider. I do need to keep prices down if possible, I'll see if I can get those sensibly priced in the UK

Good luck. If there are any cases that you see and may want to buy, let us know and we'll inform you whether or not it's a good choice.

Even if that price would stay level, would you recommend any of these boards over the Asus?

If the Asus stays at its current £120 price, I would recommend that Asus over the other mobos I've mentioned assuming that the other mobos don't go lower in price as well. However, if any of those mobos are cheaper than the Asus and/or the Asus goes back to its original price, I would not recommend the Asus.

Thanks, I wasn't aware you could do that with an upgrade disc

No prob.