Rig me!

[Toxteth]

Hi guys, I'm looking to build me a new rig.

I'm not going to bore you with what I have now as I want EVERYTHING but a Hard Drive.

I'm toying with what's best to get, are i3 and i5 processors worth getting or should I just grab an i7?

Graphics card wiase I was thinking an ATI 5870.

RAM - 6GB + as I have to do large renders for my course so the more the merrier.

I have a copy of Windows 7 Pro 64 bit ready and waiting to be installed.

Just ideas of what to avoid and what to get. Case and all!

Price, Ã,£600 - Ã,£800.

Cheers!

[T-Bag]

i5 is probably what you'll be after. I'll be watching this thread with interest as I'll be spending next month or the month after's pay cheque on a new computer now that my holiday is all over.

[RizZy]

I just had a quick look around & I think your gonna struggle to stay under Ã,£800 with both i7 & a 5870, although it's probably the way I'd go (& did) it might cost you a few quid more.

[Toxteth]

Is an i7 worth the extra then?

[RizZy]

I couldn't really tell you the difference between the i7/5/3 - have a search for some speed comparison charts to get a better idea if it's worth it - http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/charts/2009-desktop-cpu-charts-update-1/3DMark-Vantage-1.0.2,1396.html is just one to start with, I went with the i7 920 because I could afford to, but from what I recall at the time (the i5 & i3 had just come out) people thought they where worth a look at, I don't know how AMD chips will run for your coursework as intels always been the way to go for apps as far as I know.

[RizZy]

I found a better cpu benchmark for you Tox, the other one I posted is a bit out of date, try this one - Linky

Both the times I've built my rigs I've picked the cpu I wanted 1st & worked everything else out from there, so, thats your 1st job.

Just for the sake of it -

[kregoron]

double the memory on the rig rizzy posted and you should be good to go

[Toxteth]

K totalled up, blowing my budget a little but that's not a massive issue as I just found out I'm getting the full grant next year

Ã,£850 ish so far. which leaves about Ã,£50 for a case. My current one is a light aluminium case, great for transport, but is loud as anything. I want something a bit quieter. Any suggestions? On the Overclockers recommendations was http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CA-101-AN

[RizZy]

I've got the Antec 902, it's a nice case, from what I recall the 300 is just as nice. Depending on what gfx card you've opted for check that'll fit - my 5870 only just gets in my 902, there big ol' cards.

[Benny]

Can't recommend these guys enough. Why muck about and take the skin off your knuckles when you can do it the easy way.
http://www.pcspecialist.co.uk

Case   STYLISH SILVER/BLACK TRIDENT CASE + 2 FRONT USB
Processor (CPU)   IntelÃ,® Coreâ„¢i7-860 Quad Core (2.80GHz, 8MB Cache)
Motherboard   ASUSÃ,® P7H55-M SI: MICRO ATX VALUE MAINBOARD,USB 2.0 & SATA 3.0Gb/s
Memory (RAM)   4GB SAMSUNG DDR3 DUAL-DDR3 1333MHz (2 X 2GB)
Graphics Card   1GB ATI RADEONâ„¢ HD 5830 PCI EXPRESS - DirectXÃ,® 11 (Special Offer)
2nd Graphics Card   NONE
3rd Graphics Card   NONE
Memory - 1st Hard Disk   250GB SERIAL ATA 3-Gb/s HARD DRIVE WITH 8MB CACHE (7,200rpm)
2nd Hard Disk   NONE
1st DVD/BLU-RAY Drive   24x DUAL LAYER DVD WRITER Ã,±R/Ã,±RW/RAM
2nd DVD/BLU-RAY Drive   NONE
Memory Card Reader   INTERNAL 52 IN 1 CARD READER (READS XD, MS, CF, SD, etc)

[kregoron]

im sure their great Benny

but why spend so the same on a rig thats actually a lot slower?
rad 5830 graphics instead of the above posted 5870..
the mobo is a H55 based, H55 is not as fast as the P55 chipset, as the H55 was made for i3/i5 low end, mainly for hte onboard gpu utilization.
half the memory if he went with my suggestion and doubled the memory to 8 gig, totalling around 850'ish..

[DrSteam]

Compare pcspecialist with these guys http://www.powerc.com/uk/gp/custom%20gaming%20pc%20home/1/pg/pc.main Me and Sithvid both bought an identical rig from these guys last year. They have good customer service, delivery, aftercare support etc etc.

[Toxteth]

Well guys, I bought that rig, pieced it together and it's working a charm.

A question though. I didn't buy a new HD as I thought I would use my current one, but install windows 7 over the top of it. Now you probably know going from XP to win 7 is a bit of a mission.

Is it worth me writing it over my current HD or should I just grab a new one and transfer all my software over afterwards? What I was planning on doing was saving all my docs and software onto me external HD, then reinstall it all onto the HD once it has win7 on.

Otherwise I was going to invest in something like a 1TB Samsung HD103SJ Spinpoint F3, SATA 3Gb/s, 7200rpm, 32MB Cache, 8.9 ms, NCQ, leave in the old HD as a backup HD, and then transfer all the software over.

Any thoughts? BTW my current HD is 300GB and about 3 yr old.

[RizZy]

Buy another one, but that's just me, I've ended up with 4 drives in my current rig - I brought a 1tb hdd just because I could, I remember thinking 30gb was massive back in the day, so it had to be done.

Put windows on the smaller drive & everything else on t'other is what I'd do, hdd's are so cheap now it's no big deal to buy a few & spread things around.

[kregoron]

buy a new drive, the F3 spinpoints are nice and fast