A little advice and checkover needed for a computer build

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G.T

G.T

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Paganisterr
Ak Paganister
Hi all.

Over the next month or two I'm going to be building a computer of my own - I fancy the challenge and I'm starting to dislike paying a premium for a pre-built computer, especially with some of the junk that comes with them.

I'm 95% sure on what to buy, and what's compatible with what etc, so I have an almost final list of parts and a case to buy when I receive the money. I would buy and build it now, but I'm going to wait for any final price drops because the P55 motherboard and processors have only just been released, so I presume they're being sold at a premium right now.

So far:

Case:
Antec Nine Hundred Two - £89.99

http://www.novatech.co.uk/novatech/prods/Components/Cases/Cases/NINEHUNDREDTWO.html


Motherboard:
Asus P7P55D (LGA1156 Socket) - £114.99

http://www.novatech.co.uk/novatech/specpage.html?ASU-P55D


Power Supply:
OCZ ModXStream Pro 700W Slient - £74.74

http://www.novatech.co.uk/novatech/prods/Components/PowerSupplies/OCZ700MXSP-UK.html


Processor:
i7 860 2.80Ghz (LGA1156 Socket) - £225.40

http://www.novatech.co.uk/novatech/prods/Components/Processors/IntelCorei7/BX80605I7860.html


RAM:
DDR3 4GB (2x2GB) G.Skill Ripjaw XMS3 2000mhz - £82.79

http://www.novatech.co.uk/novatech/specpage.html?GSK-4G1600


Video Card:
Sapphire ATI Radeon 5850

http://www.novatech.co.uk/novatech/specpage.html?SAP-5850


Hard Drive:
1 TB Samsung Spin Point SATAII 32mb cache - £56.92

http://www.novatech.co.uk/novatech/prods/Components/HardDrives-Internal/SATA500GBto1TB/HD103UJ.html


Optical Drive:
Optiarc Lightscribe AD-7421S SATA DVD writer - £18.96

http://www.novatech.co.uk/novatech/specpage.html?OPT-7241S


Wireless Card:
Netgear WG311 54Mbps PCI Adapter - £17.32

http://www.novatech.co.uk/novatech/prods/Networking-Wireless/WirelessPCICards/WG311GE.html


Currently it will be a total of £899.60!

I just need help with whether everything above will work together fine. Especially since I don't know much about power supplies, and whether everything will connect to it fine and whether it isn't too cheap or it isn't powerful enough, etc. The same with the wireless cards - I know nothing about them and some can be really dodgy... I can't cable up my computer directly because it's going to be upstairs.

The video cards I'm really indecided. I would go for a GTX285 but the price leap for the performance boost is hard to justify. I hear new Nvidia cards will be released at the end of this year, but no doubt they will have a huge premium price on them. ATI is good value for the performance too - I'm just worried there might be a replacement soon since all the cards have been out for a long time (for a graphics card cycle).

Also, is there any good guides on building computers? I'm new to it so I have very little idea of what I'm doing. I might just get someone to do it for me in the end, because to do it first time on a computer that's so expensive may not be a good idea... :P

I think I remembered everything on the list! :D
 
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Yeah there's probably bits and bobs I need to add later on - a card reader isn't one yet, but I know they aren't that expensive if I need one.

That's the other good thing about making your own PC too - you can replace and upgrade easily, and without voiding any warranty too...
 
Balls, just lost a big post :(

Okay, try searching around for prices, for starters I've found i7 at £200. Also, it says that Optical drive has an IDE interface, get one with a SATA interface. Ah, you've linked to the wrong one, that's the 222 not the 223!

http://www.play.com/PC/PCs/-/2149/1...ATA-Drive-Black/Product.html?searchtype=genre

http://www.buildyourown.org.uk/pc-building/

CPU Cooler? Unless I'm being blind somewhere.

You'll be fine, follow the guidelines. It isn't that complex, just don't be strong with certain bits. Don't pay someone several hundred quid to make it for you, any problems, I'm not far along the coast from you!
 
Oops, yep, I linked the wrong one. SATA ones are better. :)

The main reason I'm not looking around for prices is that Novatech is literally a mile away from my house, so I can just collect from them. Plus, god forbid if anything doesn't work or goes wrong, I can just dump it on their desk. :P

I guess I need a CPU cooler, but doesn't that i7 come with its own one? If I'm going to overclock it I will probably need one then, but the case has good cooling anyway apparently so a stock one should be fine if I leave it be.

And ok thanks for the offer! The main thing I'm worried about it trying to make all the wires as tidy as possible... I'm useless with that kind of stuff.
 
The build looks good except for the ram. The voltage is too high for core i5/i7.
I would get this instead.
http://www.novatech.co.uk/novatech/...12800/1600MHz/G.Skill/F3-12800CL9D-4GBRL.html

If I were building this I would get the i5 750
http://www.novatech.co.uk/novatech/prods/Components/Processors/IntelCorei5/Intel/BX80605I5750.html
and spend the money I saved on the Ga P55 UD4.
http://www.novatech.co.uk/novatech/specpage.html?GBT-P55UD4

This board supports Sli and Crossfire video options. Also you can overclock the CPU well past the 2.8 ghz that the i7 860 runs at stock.

One more thing, ATI is releasing their 5850 and 5870 video cards next week. They are supposed to be twice as fast as the 4850/4870 and the 5870 will retail here in the US for $299

What size monitor are you going to use?

As for building your machine watch this video.
http://www.maximumpc.com/article/features/video_how_build_pc_ever_step_explained
 
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Okay, thanks for the heads up on the RAM. 👍

So even though it says in the description for the cheaper P55 it supports Crossfire, what exactly will the difference be with that more expensive P55? That is supports SLi too (because the cheaper one only says Crossfire)?

And yeah I just realised ATI's next lineup is a week away... I'll definitely be buying one of those then. :P

And currently I'm just going to be using a 32" Samsung TV with 1366x768 resolution. The HDMI doesn't display properly on it through a computer output (tried a few computers), and it works properly using VGA, so I'm going to be using that unless you have another suggestion?

I might buy another higher resolution 24" monitor anyway. I'll have to see what this is like first.


Edit: And I know the i5 and i7 gaming performances are pretty much identical, but I'm only really going to be a casual gamer on it because I use consoles a lot, and I still want the games to look good, hense why I want a good video card. Doing a computing course at uni I'd rather spend more on the i7 because it is faster at processing video and stuff like that because of its extra threads.
 
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On all of my builds i use motherboard bundles. They ensure compatibility and make the build process much easier.

I get them from here or here.
 
G.T
So even though it says in the description for the cheaper P55 it supports Crossfire, what exactly will the difference be with that more expensive P55? That is supports SLi too (because the cheaper one only says Crossfire)?


Edit: And I know the i5 and i7 gaming performances are pretty much identical, but I'm only really going to be a casual gamer on it because I use consoles a lot, and I still want the games to look good, hense why I want a good video card. Doing a computing course at uni I'd rather spend more on the i7 because it is faster at processing video and stuff like that because of its extra threads.
Click to expand...
The board you selected is a Micro ATX board. If you put a large card in the second slot you may have problems connecting your usb and front panel pins. Most of the new video cards are dual slot and are very long. The p55 UD2 says its crossfire x. Here is the board.
mb_productimage_ga-p55m-ud2_big.jpg

The GA-P55-UD4 is the 1st P55 board that supports both CF and SLI.
Here is the board.
mb_productimage_ga-p55-ud4_big.jpg

You will lose 1 PCI slot with a second card.

The only difference I see between these 3 CPUs are CPU speed.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...2E16819115214,N82E16819115213,N82E16819115215

Getting the the cheaper i5 750 to 3.0ghz will be easy.
 
GT3mich
The build looks good except for the ram. The voltage is too high for core i5/i7.
I would get this instead.
http://www.novatech.co.uk/novatech/...12800/1600MHz/G.Skill/F3-12800CL9D-4GBRL.html

If I were building this I would get the i5 750
http://www.novatech.co.uk/novatech/prods/Components/Processors/IntelCorei5/Intel/BX80605I5750.html
and spend the money I saved on the Ga P55 UD4.
http://www.novatech.co.uk/novatech/specpage.html?GBT-P55UD4

This board supports Sli and Crossfire video options. Also you can overclock the CPU well past the 2.8 ghz that the i7 860 runs at stock.

One more thing, ATI is releasing their 5850 and 5870 video cards next week. They are supposed to be twice as fast as the 4850/4870 and the 5870 will retail here in the US for $299

What size monitor are you going to use?

As for building your machine watch this video.
http://www.maximumpc.com/article/features/video_how_build_pc_ever_step_explained
Click to expand...

Months, not weeks, and yes, they will be #1. At least till GT300 rolls around, but seeing as NV is getting stupidly low yields (about 2%) it might be a while till they come out with their 40nm stuff.

And personally, im waiting for Gulftown.
 
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A week from today? I dont think so. They would already have to be in stores and e-tailer's by now. At least ONE person would leak info if that were the case. I wouldn't trust that site. Im going to guess and give 1-2 months before we get them in retail.
 
Okay, I may consider that motherboard then.

GT3mich
The only difference I see between these 3 CPUs are CPU speed.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...2E16819115214,N82E16819115213,N82E16819115215

Getting the the cheaper i5 750 to 3.0ghz will be easy.
Click to expand...

I'm basing my decision on benchmarks like these:

http://www.guru3d.com/article/core-i5-750-core-i7-860-870-processor-review-test/14

It's a lot faster as video transcoding. The link you provided doesn't say that the i7 has 4 cores and 4 threads, whereas the i5 is just 4 cores. Hense making the i7 better for those jobs.


Edit: Will this motherboard do?

http://www.tigerdirect.ca/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=5023027&CatId=4720

It's £115 at Novatech. It appears to be normal ATX and says it has SLi and Crossfire support. Just trying to save some pennies. :P

http://www.novatech.co.uk/novatech/...s/Intel1156P55ChipsetMotherboards/P7P55D.html
 
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Right okay thanks for checking.

So you would still suggest the UD4 board over the P7P55D Evo at Novatech? I could order the board from that website but if there is very minimal differences between the two I will just buy the Asus board from Novatech. :)
 
I personally prefer Gigabyte boards over Asus. Both make quality boards. The reason I won't buy Asus was because of a video card I bought for my brothers computer. It was a 4870 that he spent almost $200 from Newegg. After placing the order I started reading the customer reviews and became alarmed. The fan failure rate was incredible. Then I went to the Asus web site and checked out the forums for video cards. This particular card had over a 1000 posts of people complaining about the fan failing. The card is under warranty right? Get a new one. The problem was Asus was putting new fans on the returned cards and sending them back out. That is BS. I called my brother and told him the bad news. So sure enough in June his video card failed. I told him not to send the card back. I bought another VGA cooler last week and the card is running fine now. Oh well, live and learn.
 
opendriver
A week from today? I dont think so. They would already have to be in stores and e-tailer's by now. At least ONE person would leak info if that were the case. I wouldn't trust that site. Im going to guess and give 1-2 months before we get them in retail.
Click to expand...
http://www.hardware-infos.com/news.php?news=3187&sprache=1
Quoted from the article. Together with her smaller sister (HD 5850) the new HD 5850 shall officially be released on September, 23. Expected sales price: 399 US-Dollar.
 
I see you resolved the problem.👍
We need full specs and pics. Also a report one how easy your 1st build was.
Nice choice on the video card BTW. I'm sure it was worth the wait.
 
Yeah sorted out the RAM. :)

The build pretty much went uneventful. I got a friend to help me, but a lot of it was a bit simpler than I thought it would be.

Lots of the instructions were in the motherboard book (which is pretty good BTW). Everything slotted and plugged in as they should without much fus because there is a lot of room to play around with in the case. The only thing we forgot is the extra power cable for the processor. We turned it on and wondered why the CPU light was on on the motherboard. We read the instructions more carefully and it said "makes sure you connect this cable". :dunce: I guess a lot of people do the same thing if they said it like that. :P

I don't have a lot of pictures, but I have some to give you an idea.

81272865858751757317301.jpg


81272865959601757317301.jpg


p07100920271.jpg



And a full resolution picture of the final build:



The cable management was pretty good - there were cable ties already on the case where you loop everything through. But there still had to be some cable tying to be done in the case so we did that. That CPU power cable over the top of the video card couldn't be looped through without bending it with some force (the power socket is right next to where the cable would pop out) so we just left it. I might be able to tuck it away somehow.

The only major issues I had with components not working properly after installation was the RAM (which was solved by changing a setting in the BIOS) and the bloody network card. Even though it says Vista compatible, the official Netgear driver doesn't work properly with Vista (keeps saying it fails). I tried moving PCI slots like a few suggested, hense why it's in the 3rd PCI slot (I haven't bothered to move it back :P), but in the end they just suggested to use a third party driver which works absolutely fine. And that was a sticky on the Netgear forums too, haha. Ironic. :D


My 3D Mark 06 score:

3dmark06q.jpg



Although that was done through HDMI to HDMI which doesn't seem to run resolutions properly (keeps doing 4:3 resolutions). So now that I'm running through DVI to VGA all is fine and it should detect properly. So maybe the score will change a tad.

Games run like a dream, by the way. 1360x768 Very High 2x AA in Crysis I get a consistent 40fps, dropping to 25 or so under heavy action. Nice. :)

Also I have updated the final specification in the first post. :)
 
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Looks good!👍 As for the 4 pin connector, I've built 2 computers with the Antec cases with PSUs onthe bottom. I ran the wire under the MB up to where it connects to the board. It just reaches. They need to make the wire 1 or2 inches longer.
 
nice build :) It looks like the first DX11 game will be dirt 2, since all the others seem to have gotten delayed. I also ordered a sapphire 5850, but mine wont be here for around 6 days or so.

I wonder how well that cpu OC's with aftermarket air cooling. it probably gains a lot, similarly to how the 920 gains a lot from oc but its not necessary for most games. it also depends on if the game is CPU intensive or not. :P
 
I used the Asus TurboV Evo software to overclock the CPU just out of curiosity and it managed to reach 3.3ghz without a problem before I stopped the test because I thought it might not be doing it any good because I'm using the stock cooler. A few minutes later the system locked, so I just dropped it to 3ghz again. :P
 
Gigabyte has similar software. Its not very stable when overclocking. Its always better to do it in the bios. Remember, when you push up the speed of the chip you need to add voltage in tiny amounts to keep the system stable. The way I do this is I up the speed until it wont go into windows then I add voltage until it runs stable. Also you need to watch your temps. DL this program.
http://www.alcpu.com/CoreTemp/
I run this at windows start up. You need to know what your system runs at stock compared to similar systems before you begin. If your using the intel cooler then I wouldn,t try overclocking too much. There are plenty of good after market coolers out there that are reasonable in price. I'll look at Novatech and see what they have and post.

Edit/ This cooler
http://www.novatech.co.uk/novatech/prods/Components/Cooling/CPUCoolers/Noctua/NH-U9B.html
with this mounting plate should do the trick.
http://www.novatech.co.uk/novatech/prods/Components/Cooling/CPUCoolers/Noctua/NM-13.html

BTW, this is the best air cooler out there right now.
http://www.novatech.co.uk/novatech/prods/Components/Cooling/CPUCoolers/Prolimatech/PRO-MEGA.html

Or you can wait until there are more options for your board. There aren't many yet.
 
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Yeah I'll probably wait. There's a ton of easier to install coolers for the 920s but hardly any for the 860 yet.

This Asus software also does increase the voltages depending on the frequences it's increased to but I'm not sure if it's reliable enough I guess
 
I have another question.

I was reading a while back that Crossfiring on a P55 motherboard isn't as effective than crossfiring on a X58 motherboard (something to do with the X58 fully supporting x16 whereas the P55s don't). Unless they have released better P55 motherboards, I didn't realise that according to these benchmarks that there is a small difference? Maybe I'm reading the tables wrong?

Is it worth Crossfiring these cards then? I won't be upgrading right now maybe when the prices drop.
 
Everything I've read points to very little speed loss when the PCI e slot goes from 16 to 8x8. The numbers in those graphs you linked too point that out. Now I can't wait till Tuesday when my second 4870 1gb card arrives so I can get my Xfire up and running. If I were you I'd wait until the 5850's start dropping in price. The card is plenty fast on its own.
 

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