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New PC build. Looking for advice

S

sjw7

n00b
Joined
Apr 9, 2007
Messages
22
1) What will you be doing with this PC? Gaming? Photoshop? Web browsing? etc
It will be used as a general PC for work as well as internet browsing. The games I currently play are WoW and Eve(dual client) although I am looking at Civ5 plus Diablo3 when it comes out. I also encode videos and would be looking at encoding bluerays as well to store on my NAS.
2) What's your budget? Are tax and shipping included?
About £650
3) Where do you live?
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.
I deffinately need a new CPU, Graphics card, Mainboard, memory and Hard disk.
5) If reusing any parts, what parts will you be reusing? Please be especially specific about the power supply. List make and model.
I may reuse my case which is an Antec PC Performance Case (like this one http://ii.alatest.com/product/600x4...1040-10-Bay-400W-SOHO-Server-Case-Beige-0.jpg). Also the PSU which is a HIGHPOWER 500W ATX Power Supply Unit. I am open to replacing these parts if necessary but would prefer not to if possible so I can spend the money elsewhere.
6) Will you be overclocking?
Not sure but it would be nice to have the option
7) What size monitor do you have and/or plan to have?
Currently have a HP ZR24w as my main monitor but I do have a second 19" monitor that i would like to continue to use.
8) When do you plan on building/buying the PC?
Within 3-6 months
9) What features do you need in a motherboard? RAID? Firewire? Crossfire or SLI support? USB 3.0? SATA 6Gb/s? etc.
Fast disk access is a must as is the option to add a few hard disks. I would rather not get stuck with the option for just two HDs. I dont need crossfire or SLI as i aim to stick with a single graphics card. I would like one of the Sandybridge boards though.
10) Do you already have a legit and reusable/transferable OS key/license? If so, what OS? Is it 32bit or 64bit?
I would like to get a windows 7 64bit license (preferably ultimate) and am looking to see what deals there are available. I am a parent so I was wondering if there was any student offers available for this that arent just upgrades. This is separate to the budget above.


My current PC is as follows and its getting a bit long in the tooth now. I plan to overclock the CPU and graphics card to get the last out of it over the next few months.

Intel E6400 (2.13ghz)
4GB OCZ 6400 RAM
Gigabyte 965-DS3 Mainboard
EVGA Nvidia Geforce 8800 GTS 640MB Superclocked
HIGHPOWER 500W ATX Power Supply Unit
Antec PC Performance Case

The reason I am looking for an upgrade is that Wow is noticably slower since Cataclysm was released and rippting DVDs to my NAS is taking a very long time. Also the current system is four years old and i think its time for some new toys.

I am currently thinking of the following as a starting point.

Hard Disk - Seagate 500GB Momentus XT 2.5" Hybrid SSD/HDD SATAII 7200rpm 32MB Cache - OEM
CPU - Intel Core i5 2500K 3.3GHz Socket 1155 6MB Cache Retail Boxed Processor
Graphics - XFX HD 6950 2GB GDDR5 Dual DVI HDMI Dual DP Out PCI-E Graphics Card
Mainboard - ?
Memory - ?

I will admit that my knowledge of PC technology is several years out of date. The last time I looked at any of this was when i brought my last PC four years ago when Core2Duos and Nvidia 8800s were the latest thing. I am doing alot of reading to get my head around the new stuff thats available.

I am keen to take advantage of Intels QuickSync technology but I dont know if this can be done with a separate graphics card. Also the HDD above is a 2.5" and I am unsure if it is suitable for a desktop PC but seemed like a good compromise to get SSD like performance with a resonable bit of capacity and not spend a fortune.

I am currently an NVidia user and happy with them but from what i understand the 6950 is very good and i dont know what the Nvidia equivalent is at the moment. Lots of research to do in this area.

I have some time before i buy so can afford to wait if there is a new version of something out in the next couple of months that will be a better option for me.

Cheers

Simon
 
Two things:
1) You're planning this build way way too soon. Whatever parts we recommend can and will change a month from now let alone 3-6 months from now. So in other words, you're spending time researching parts that's gonna be out of date, out of stock, or outperfomed by the time you actually buy.

So please come back 2-3 weeks before your actual build date and ask for advice then. You'll end up with up-to-date advice that way.

2) You're looking at a new case and PSU no matter what.

To answer/address some of your questions/thoughts:
- Intel's QuickSync tech cannot be used with a seperate GPU IIRC
- That Seagate isn't totally suitable for a desktop PC
- Pretty much all of the WIndows 7 for students offer are upgrades.
 
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