[Duckington]

Hi,

I'm going to be attempting my first custom build of a PC soon (money issues permitting), and I've been doing some research and put together a list of components to build it with, but would like some advice if possible.

I can't attach an excel file it seems, so here is a link to what i've put together so far:
http://www66.zippysh...38694/file.html

And here is a basic list:

CPU AMD Bulldozer FX-8 Eight Core 8120 3.10Ghz
Case Coolermaster CM 690 II Nvidia edition
CPU Cooler Coolermaster Hyper 412S CPU Cooler
RAM Corsair Vengeance 16GB (4x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit
PSU 750W Cooler Master GX
Graphics Card Nvidia GeForce GTX 285 2GB (I already own this so will just take it out of old PC)
Motherboard Gigabyte GA-990XA-UD3 AMD 990X (Socket AM3+) Motherboard
Sound card Creative Labs Sound Blaster 5.1 VX - OEM
Hard Disk Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 32MB Cache Hard Drive SATA 6Gb/s <8.9ms 7200rpm - OEM
Optical Drive Novatech 4X SATA Slim Blu-Ray ROM Optical Drive USB 2.0
OS Windows 7 Home 64bit
Surge Protection Belkin SurgeMaster 4 Way Surge Strip - 2m (2 OF THEM)




Basically, I'd like to know:

A) Have I got the compatibility right between everything? Or are some of those components going to cause issues? (I've checked some motherboard/CPU support lists and I think those 2 are correct, but not totally sure about some of the others).

I was going to take the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 285 graphics card out of my current PC and use that to save money. Is that still a reasonably good graphics card? Or is it a bit obsolete now? (I've not had any problems running the latests games, but am thinking of the future in a year or so time... will I need to upgrade?)

C) Are there any parts of that list which you would recommend altering? If you know of a better component of a similar price, which you think would be a better fit for the build.


Thank you.

[modi123_1]

Quote

Case Coolermaster CM 690 II Nvidia edition

Any particular reason you are going with this case? Why not just do something like an Antec 300?

Quote

Sound card Creative Labs Sound Blaster 5.1 VX - OEM

The motherboard as 8 channels already - any particular reason for this?

Quote

Novatech 4X SATA Slim Blu-Ray ROM Optical Drive

Is this drive to size of a regular bay on a case, or is it actually slim? as in will leave a gap in a bay?

Don't forget to see if your case has fans.. you'll need a few to hole up on the back ports.

[Duckington]

In answer to all questions: "I don't know/Because I thought it looked cool"

[modi123_1]

Ah... okay I am not sure where to respond after that.

Per the case - I have that antec 300.. it's roomy, tons of bays, and solid. Oh and it's half the cost of the other.

For the sound card - well if that's the case then use what they gave you (turns out onboard sound isn't so shabby).. if it doesn't work then get the card.

As for the fans - yes.. you'll need a few more depending on the case you get.

As for your video card - sure.. it should be okay.. I mean everything is a 'bit dated' when you purchase it.. if you find it not suitable for your needs then drop for a new one with the saved cash.

I would rethink the optical drive then..

What are you upgrading from?

[Duckington]

modi123_1, on 21 July 2012 - 01:14 AM, said:

Ah... okay I am not sure where to respond after that.

Per the case - I have that antec 300.. it's roomy, tons of bays, and solid. Oh and it's half the cost of the other.

For the sound card - well if that's the case then use what they gave you (turns out onboard sound isn't so shabby).. if it doesn't work then get the card.

As for the fans - yes.. you'll need a few more depending on the case you get.

As for your video card - sure.. it should be okay.. I mean everything is a 'bit dated' when you purchase it.. if you find it not suitable for your needs then drop for a new one with the saved cash.

I would rethink the optical drive then..

What are you upgrading from?

Okay. I probably should have pointed out I know very little about this kind of thing, I was just following a list of components it said I needed and picking what I thought looked/sounded nice.

As far as the case goes, I do kind of want this one, I think it looks quite nice and seems to be reasonably roomy.

The sound card was just an optional thing I was thinking about, I don't really need it, so I imagine I won't bother, I don't do any sound editing or anything that might require one.

I'll have a look at the optical drives again and see if I can work out what size I need for the case.


What I have at the moment is something along the lines of:

CPU: AMD Phenom X4 940 ~3.0Ghz
Motherboard: GA-M720-US3 - Gigabyte
Case: Gigabyte ATX
RAM: 4GB DDR2 (well it was 4, but they seemed to downgrade it to 3 when I had BOSD issues)
Grahpcs Card: GeForce GTX285 2GB
HD: Seagate Barracuda 750GB
Opt Drive: 22x Samsung Sual Layer DVD RW - SATA
PSU: 550W ANtec



Thanks.

This post has been edited by Duckington: 21 July 2012 - 03:59 AM

[RudiVisser]

Ew AMD.

How much is this going to be costing you?

Personally I'd go for a new Ivy Bridge proc, you can get it bundled with a mobo and a little RAM for £399 (i7 3770k) or £349 (i7 3770) and then top it up with 4 8GB RAM sticks at £35 each, granted they're a little slower than what you're getting now, but to match your current spec you can just get 2 sticks and probably cheaper. Furthermore, you're not getting an SSD so won't see any benefit from having faster RAM anyway in most instances. You could probably save a few pence by getting the Mobo/Proc separately (and skipping the 4GB RAM included on that board), but you could also always sell the RAM on eBay

With regards to a soundcard, if you're looking for an additional card that has more punch with bass/headphones in general, then go for the Asus Xonar DG, it's like £28 and makes a significant difference without breaking the bank in any way.

EDIT: Regarding your current spec being cut down to 3, you sure they didn't just install a 32Bit OS?

This post has been edited by RudiVisser: 21 July 2012 - 04:05 AM

[Duckington]

Hi,

Hmm I'll take a look at the intel bundle and see if it works out as cheaper.

I was going to go for a reasonable amount of RAM, since I play quite a lot of high-spec games and also often have loads of programs open. I'm not actually sure what an SSD actually...is. Is that a different sort of storage? As opposed to a standard Hard Drive?

Regarding the 3GB RAM thing, yes, I remember now that was mentioned to me before.

[DarenR]

RudiVisser, on 21 July 2012 - 07:04 AM, said:

Ew AMD.

Processors are a preference.


I have never noticed any difference in itel or amd with close to the same specs.

[RudiVisser]

Duckington, on 24 July 2012 - 01:25 PM, said:

I was going to go for a reasonable amount of RAM, since I play quite a lot of high-spec games and also often have loads of programs open. I'm not actually sure what an SSD actually...is. Is that a different sort of storage? As opposed to a standard Hard Drive?

Yes, an SSD is based on flash memory and is blazingly fast, if you were to go for an SSD setup I'd suggest just using the SSD for a boot drive so you can get a 60-100GB sized drive and keep the costs down, then get a normal (7200+rpm) drive for your data.

Put it this way, once you go SSD (or at least an SSHD) you'll never go back

DarenR, on 24 July 2012 - 01:34 PM, said:

Processors are a preference.

I have never noticed any difference in itel or amd with close to the same specs.

Indeed they are a preference, and so given the choice I'd always go Intel. Intel's always offered more reliability for me and consistent workload processing along with a more solid (imo) virtualisation platform.