Is this a good build?

[Outright Villainy]

Hey all you fine peeps, I've been searching online for parts a lot, and was wondering was this a good build/price range?

Upgrade kit with CPU, mother board and ram:
Intel i3 2100, Asus P8H67-M (B3) Motherboard, Kingston 2 x 2 GB DDR3-1333 PC3-10600 CL9 ValueRAM. All together, €240

Graphics card: Sapphire Radeon 6850 - 1 GB GDDR5: €140

Case: Cooler master elite 332 PC TOWER: €66

Power supply: Corsair TX650W 650 Watt: €70

HDD: Samsung 1Tb Spinpoint f3: €50

Total: €565

So basically my aim here was to keep it under €600, while getting a good gaming rig out of it. Is this all good? I know games don't use quad core that much, so I'm okay with not shelling out for an i5 yet, and the 6850 seems good too. I'm mainly unsure about the others, the case, power supply and the motherboard. Are they too crappy/expensive?

Any help is much appreciated!

Edit: I've been checking prices in the uk now, I didn't realise that the euro and pound were actually so close now. It seems to work out a lot better from amazon, I was able to get a better build with the same price:

Processor - Intel i5 2400 - €157

Mobo. - €85

Graphics card - XFX Radeon 6870 - €157

Power - Corsair 500w - €50

HDD - Samsung spinpoint 1TB F3 - €50

Case - This or this. €36 or €50, depends on how cheap I am.

Ram - Corsair 4gb (2 x 2gb) - €25. Seems like an absolute steal, but I'm not sure about compatability etc.

Total- €560

Can't tell if I'm missing anything, but this seems like a much better deal.

[DWZippy]

I'd recommend going for an I5, to be honest. You'll know the difference with Quad Core when you use one, just for general PC use.

Other then that, looks the part - I'm not an expert with cases, I've never cared much to put effort into the - but the rest seems nice. I'd reccomend a smaller HDD to run as master, to keep your windows on. If there's a windows problem, you only lose the small drive when you have to reformat, which is nice. Otherwise, seems okay. You can upgrade the ram and GFX in line with what you need.

[Disclosure, I'm not an expert, I've only ever built 3 PC's myself.]

[CMaster]

I can't help but feel you should be able to get something packing a bit more punch for the money. I'm also a little uncertain about the cpu/mobo vs graphics card spend. On the one hand, yes graphics card is the biggest factor for games performance. On the other hand though, if you get a good core system, you can extend the life significantly with a graphics card upgrade in 2-3 years time, which isn't so possible otherwise.

Link a couple of suppliers for wherever you are from? Oh, and the power supply is probably overspecced yes, while the HDD is an excellent choice - the F3s get really good performance.

[Rii]

You could afford to shave some wattage off the PSU if doing so would free up enough cash to make the jump to an i5 palatable.

[Lukasz]

you won't go CF or SLI on that system so going 500W would save you some money indeed.
and then you can push for 6870 or for quad.

better gpu will give you better performance with games but quad makes everything non-game so much quicker. you can choose what you need more. extra fps or a bit higher quality settings or greater comfort with normal usage of the system.

try maybe a quad with AMD CPU and 6870 at the same time? with 6870 or 6850 cpu is not very important.

http://www.cpubenchmark.net/high_end_cpus.html

according to this 955 is better than your i3. same price. and 955 is quad.

[Outright Villainy]

Yeah, I wasn't so sure about the difference between dual core and quad, since I've heard most games only use dual core? I'll try and get a cheaper psu anyway, but the main thing is there's about 80 quid in the difference between an i3 and i5. If I'm only concerned about games, and not general use, would the jump to quad be worth it?

[Outright Villainy]

I can't help but feel you should be able to get something packing a bit more punch for the money. I'm also a little uncertain about the cpu/mobo vs graphics card spend. On the one hand, yes graphics card is the biggest factor for games performance. On the other hand though, if you get a good core system, you can extend the life significantly with a graphics card upgrade in 2-3 years time, which isn't so possible otherwise.

Link a couple of suppliers for wherever you are from? Oh, and the power supply is probably overspecced yes, while the HDD is an excellent choice - the F3s get really good performance.

Oh, I'm from Ireland, hence why everything is balls expensive. Main suppliers i've seen crop up in any google search have been Piximania and Dabs. There's not much around here to be honest, and Amazon uk isn't much better...

[Outright Villainy]

Okay, I've tried to up the cpu and lower the power supply, and i'm getting a 6870 over a 6850 since it's only a tenner difference right now.

Half way build: intel i5 2400 - €160

Mobo: uh, this thing. - €105
To be honest, i know little about what makes a good mobo, it's been the hardest to research.

Ram sauce: 2 x 4gb DDR3 - €30


Grafix: Sapphire Radeon 6870 -€150

Power supply: Corsair 500w - €50

Case: same as before -€65

HDD: Samsung spinpoint F3 - €50

Total cost, €610. So that's €45 more than before, but I can live with that if it's worth it. What say you guys?

[Rii]

Looks good to me!

Mobo: uh, this thing. - €105
To be honest, i know little about what makes a good mobo, it's been the hardest to research.

Yeah, motherboards are terrible. For the most part unless you're planning to get into overclocking and so have to worry about unlocked multipliers and power phases and stuff it's about ensuring that you pick one compatible with your planned CPU and with enough ports and slots of the right type to support everything you want to plug into it now and might conceivably want to plug into it later. So far as I can see the difference between the P8H67-M (which you linked earlier) and P8H67-M EVO (above) is that the latter supports USB3.0 and a handful of the more esoteric ports: DisplayPort on the onboard graphics output, FireWire, eSATA. It's up to you to decide whether the extra flexibility and future-proofing offered by those features is worth it to you.

Incidentally this PC is running an Asus P8H67-M PRO (paired with an i5-2500 and Radeon 6850) and so I can confirm that the motherboard choice is basically sound in that it is not made of cheese and the bits will fit together and such. :P

[Outright Villainy]

Looks good to me!



Yeah, motherboards are terrible. For the most part unless you're planning to get into overclocking and so have to worry about unlocked multipliers and power phases and stuff it's about ensuring that you pick one compatible with your planned CPU and with enough ports and slots of the right type to support everything you want to plug into it now and might conceivably want to plug into it later. So far as I can see the difference between the P8H67-M (which you linked earlier) and P8H67-M EVO (above) is that the latter supports USB3.0 and a handful of the more esoteric ports: DisplayPort on the onboard graphics output, FireWire, eSATA. It's up to you to decide whether the extra flexibility and future-proofing offered by those features is worth it to you.

Incidentally this PC is running an Asus P8H67-M PRO (paired with an i5-2500 and Radeon 6850) and so I can confirm that the motherboard choice is fundamentally sound in that it is not made of cheese and the bits will fit together and such. :P

Much obliged!

Oh, one last thing, since I'm not too fussed about the extra slots and stuff, would This be okay, to save a few pennies?

[Rii]

Much obliged!

Oh, one last thing, since I'm not too fussed about the extra slots and stuff, would This be okay, to save a few pennies?

Interesting model. Compared to the no-suffix P8H67-M you gain USB3.0 but lose two RAM slots, the ability to plug in old-style PATA hard drives and trade one PCI-E slot for a PCI slot. Unless you're planning to add a bunch of addon cards the latter is all much of a muchness (sound cards and wi-fi would be the two most common at this point I think, although the latter can be done with USB modules instead). Having only two RAM slots should be fine if you're going with 4GB modules right off the bat, by the time you'd be wanting to add more RAM (if ever within the lifespan of the system) larger modules would probably be available anyway and Asus is generally pretty good in terms of updating their motherboards to support such things.

[Outright Villainy]

Interesting model. Compared to the no-suffix P8H67-M you gain USB3.0 but lose two RAM slots, the ability to plug in old-style PATA hard drives and trade one PCI-E slot for a PCI slot. Unless you're planning to add a bunch of addon cards the latter is all much of a muchness (sound cards and wi-fi would be the two most common at this point I think, although the latter can be done with USB modules instead). Having only two RAM slots should be fine if you're going with 4GB modules right off the bat, by the time you'd be wanting to add more RAM (if ever within the lifespan of the system) larger modules would probably be available anyway and Asus is generally pretty good in terms of updating their motherboards to support such things.

Alright, I'll probably go with the cheaper one then. I wouldn't need a sound card too much, but I do need wifi, but from what I understand from what you said I could do that anyway?

Anyways, thanks for all the help, this whole business is very confusing.

[Rii]

Alright, I'll probably go with the cheaper one then. I wouldn't need a sound card too much, but I do need wifi, but from what I understand from what you said I could do that anyway?

Anyways, thanks for all the help, this whole business is very confusing.

Yeah, you can get Wi-Fi in the form of a little USB dongle instead. No major advantages or disadvantages either way, and cheap too. I dunno why onboard Wi-Fi has never really taken off on the desktop, just one of those things I guess...

And no problem. =)

[duff]

Yeah, you can get Wi-Fi in the form of a little USB dongle instead. No major advantages or disadvantages either way, and cheap too. I dunno why onboard Wi-Fi has never really taken off on the desktop, just one of those things I guess...

And no problem. =)

Make sure you get a decent one. I got a cheapo from pc world and it was disconnecting reguarly and slow as hell.

[CMaster]

I've got a cheap PCI express (x1) wireless card. Works excellently.

I think the reason wireless hasn't really taken off for desktops, is when the computer isn't moving it's not that hard to put cables in, and as cable networks are both more reliable and easier to set up than wireless... There's always the network through your power cables option as well.<url=http: www.ebuyer.com="" store="" networking="" cat="" network-accessories="" subcat="" powerline-adapters]network="" through="" your="" powerline="" option[="" url]="" as="" well.<="" body=""></url=http:>

[Outright Villainy]

I've got a cheap PCI express (x1) wireless card. Works excellently.

I think the reason wireless hasn't really taken off for desktops, is when the computer isn't moving it's not that hard to put cables in, and as cable networks are both more reliable and easier to set up than wireless... There's always the network through your power cables option as well.<url=http: www.ebuyer.com="" store="" networking="" cat="" network-accessories="" subcat="" powerline-adapters]network="" through="" your="" powerline="" option[="" url]="" as="" well.<="" body=""></url=http:>

Is that power cable option reliable? It'd be ideal if it were, but this is the first I've ever heard of it!

[CMaster]

Is that power cable option reliable? It'd be ideal if it were, but this is the first I've ever heard of it!

I know several people who think it's brilliant. The reviews on Ebuyer there are full of praise for how well it worked for them.
However, my Dad did have some issues - in the evenings it got rather slow. Could be an issue with dirty power in his area, haven't heard of similar things from anyone else. It;s obviously not as good as dedicated cat5e cabling, but by all accounts it does the job. (if you're in a shared house, it also means you won't be overloading the wifi. 4+ people using 802.11g at the same time tends to make things chug).

[Outright Villainy]

I know several people who think it's brilliant. The reviews on Ebuyer there are full of praise for how well it worked for them.
However, my Dad did have some issues - in the evenings it got rather slow. Could be an issue with dirty power in his area, haven't heard of similar things from anyone else. It;s obviously not as good as dedicated cat5e cabling, but by all accounts it does the job. (if you're in a shared house, it also means you won't be overloading the wifi. 4+ people using 802.11g at the same time tends to make things chug).

Well sharing wifi isn't too much of a problem, I'd probably have it to myself most of the time. So it's better than just regular wifi then? If so I'll probably go for it.