New PC build for December, advice wanted (preferably ITX)

[echn111]

Due to circumstances, may need to sell my PC and build a new one. My last build was in late 2008 (i7 920) with a few upgrades to components later, so I'm a bit out of touch with the latest developments. As this wasn't planned, would appreciate any advice.

1) What will you be doing with this PC? Gaming? Photoshop? Web browsing? etc
- Light work, light gaming, the occational movie as it'll be connected to a 5.1 surround sound system. Needs to be very quiet.

2) What's your budget? Are tax and shipping included?
- Would prefer to save money, but willing to spend more to ensure a quiet energy efficient PC. Don't mind spending a bit more to get a powerful PC, but nothing that's overkill. And as I'll be putting my own time into the the build, I can pay a bit extra, within reason, for asthetic reasons.

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

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.
Probably need the most help on the CPU and motherboard.

- CPU. Probably one of the Sandy Bridge CPU's, perhaps one of the new Sandy Bridge E's. (EDIT) Thinking of the i5 2500k as it looks like the Sandy Bridge E's are 135TDP. The i5 2500k is not much of an upgrade on my 3 year old i7, but at least it's slightly more energy efficient.
- Motherboard that has the latest USB and SATA formats. (EDIT) Thinking of the Zotac Z68 ITX. Can switch to mini-ATX if that's considered to be a bad idea.
- GPU (SLI/Xfire is out of the question). Was hoping for something better than my 5870, either in terms of energy efficiency/noise or power. Preferably both. (EDIT) Had a look at what's around out there and can't see anything that's much of an upgrade. Might even consider a 6870 as it's energy efficient while being 'almost' the same performance wise. But if anything new coming out soon, I can wait
- SSD. Decent 120GB compatible with the latest SATA version. Was considering either the OCZ Vertex 3 or the much cheaper Corsair Force Series (not GT)
- PSU. Looking at this high end fanless Seasonic 460w.
- Case. If I go ITX, then probaly this Lian Li Q11 ITX case simply because it looks nice. Wish it could handle 3 hard drives (+SSD), but I'll settle for two if necessary. If I have to get something bigger, looking at this Silverstone FT03.
- Memory. No idea but whatever works.

5) If reusing any parts, what parts will you be reusing? Please be especially specific about the power supply. List make and model.
Windows 7, keyboard, mouse, 1900x1200 monitor, sound system, hard drives.

6) Will you be overclocking?
Will be undervolting. May overclock if the CPU speed is under 3.0Ghz.

7) What is the max resolution of your monitor? What size is it?
1900x1200 monitor

8) When do you plan on building/buying the PC?
If all the parts are available now, will build it next weekend. If not, will build over the next 2 months. Willing to use IGP if need to wait on the GPU side.

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.
- Latest SATA and USB. Preferably highly energy efficient.

10) Do you already have a legit and reusable/transferable OS key/license? If yes, what OS? Is it 32bit or 64bit?
Win7 64bit.

 

[tiraides]

I recommend sticking with microATX unless you really don't want to overclock. I say this as the Z68 miniITX boards from AsRock and Zotac (the only two manufacturers currently making ITX Z68 boards) have some notable flaws that some of us here would consider serious deal-breakers. However, those flaws mainly deal with overclocking performance.

Please elaborate further as to what you mean by "light work" or "light gaming." You may be better off using your existing HD 5870 for gaming as you know what to expect from that card. Regarding movies, are you streaming them, using DVDs, or (planning on) going with Blu-ray discs?

Are you going to buy most of your parts from Scan, or are you also considering a few other UK/EU-based retailers?

 

[echn111]

Yes seriously rethinking the ITX idea, not only due to the overclocking limitations, but also because it limits my upgrade options in the future, and ITX cases like the Lian Li Q11 ITX can't fit normal sized AMD GPU's like the 6870. Probably going to switch to the Silverstone FT03 mini-ATX case and get a fan powered PSU. Any recommendations for a decent motherboard that for 1 GPU at the most, with the latest USB and SATA standards? Only reason I picked the Z68 is because it seemed like the latest M/B standard around but I'm not quite clear on the advantages...

'Light gaming' as in Skyrim @ 1900x1200. Light work involves the use of MS Office and ripping blu rays. Movies will be played from ripped files, not streamed.

Can't stay with the 5870 as it's part of the sale, so no choice but to upgrade to something newer (and a bit fustrated that there hasn't been much progress with GPU's for a while). Flexible in my choice of suppliers, but I like scan as I have an option for free delivery.

 

[tiraides]

I like the look of the Silverstone FT03 myself, but it will be the start of a series of expensive purchases:

- You'll need to find a slot-loading notebook optical drive, which costs comparatively more than a 5.25 inch optical drive and also requires an adapter so you could use standard ATX SATA power and data cables. And as you know, a BD-ROM drive costs more than a DVD burner. (And don't look at the Silverstone-branded optical drives; at Scan, they're insanely expensive.)

- You could go with the lower-powered Intel Core i5-2400S, which runs at 65 watts, but I've read reviews stating that it doesn't perform as well as the "plain" i5-2400.

- We don't recommend any SSD that uses an SandForce controller as they've had a litany of problems. The Crucial m4 SSD is what we normally recommend here for good performance (the Intel 510 is also good, but it's more expensive).