Buying a new pc

[DJ12]

I am going to build myself a new and system based around the fx8350. I have all parts priced up that I want and it comes to about £550 this includes 16gb of ram and a corsair h110 and a Asus sabertooth 990 motherboard most of it from ebuyer. I would prefer to get it all from the same place if possible though for convenience.

Any other recommendations where I could get stuff from?

 

[Grall]

First, most critical piece of information needed: what country do you reside in...? Presumably the UK, but you know what they say about assumptions.

AMD CPUs tend to be power hungry and...not very fast, these days. From what I've read, this 4GHz chip seem to be quite the guzzler. Are you sure this is what you want? Intel will update their CPUs towards the summer, maybe you should wait to see if you can get something cooler running for roughly the same amount of money.

 

[DJ12]

Yeah I'm in the UK. Always been an amd fan so it's got to be that processor. With a view to up clocking it hence the sealed water cooler. Waiting is an option but don't know how long this pc is going to last.

 

[homerdog]

If it is typically cold where you live the FX cpu isn't so bad to be honest. Same with oldschool lightbulbs etc.

What about gpu?

 

[Tahir2]

So you want an AMD system, in the UK, want to shop at Ebuyer and have around £550.

Let me see what I can do:

Option 1:

Crucial 16GB kit (8GBx2) DDR3 1600 MT/s (PC3-12800) CL9 @1.5V Ballistix Sport UDIMM 240pin 389658 7 in stock £99.99 £99.99

AMD FX 9370 4.4GHz Socket AM3+ 8MB L3 Cache Processor 537493 15 in stock £159.99 £159.99

Asrock 990FX Extreme3 Socket AM3+ 7.1 Channel Audio ATX Motherboard 398369 7 in stock £73.98 £73.98

EVGA SuperNOVA NEX750B Semi Modular Bronze Power Supply 3 Year Warranty 630115 13 in stock £63.47 £63.47

Corsair Hydro Series H110 280mm High Performance Liquid CPU Cooler 462121 24 in stock £89.99 £89.99

Corsair Carbide Series 200R Windowed Compact ATX Chassis 612368 9 in stock £53.99 £53.99

Save as List Cart total inc vat: £541.41

The AM3+ platform is EOL though from my understanding. No GPU or HDD with that system (assuming you have one already.)

Option 2

Crucial 16GB kit (8GBx2) DDR3 1600 MT/s (PC3-12800) CL9 @1.5V Ballistix Sport UDIMM 240pin 389658 6 in stock £99.99 £99.99

EVGA SuperNOVA NEX750B Semi Modular Bronze Power Supply 3 Year Warranty 630115 13 in stock £63.47 £63.47

Corsair Hydro Series H110 280mm High Performance Liquid CPU Cooler 462121 24 in stock £89.99 £89.99

Corsair Carbide Series 200R Windowed Compact ATX Chassis 612368 9 in stock £53.99 £53.99

Asrock FM2A75 Pro4+ Socket FM2+ DVI HDMI 7.1 CH HD Audio ATX Motherboard 612112 11 in stock £50.73 £50.73

AMD A10 7850K Black Edition 3.7GHz Socket FM2+ APU 4MB Cache Retail Boxed Processor 613105 34 in stock £128.99 £128.99

Save as List Cart total inc vat: £487.16


Kaveri is a good chip - higher IPC and some major improvements. Some people are getting it to 4GHz+.

And the wildcard option 5

Crucial 16GB kit (8GBx2) DDR3 1600 MT/s (PC3-12800) CL9 @1.5V Ballistix Sport UDIMM 240pin 389658 6 in stock £99.99 £99.99

EVGA SuperNOVA NEX750B Semi Modular Bronze Power Supply 3 Year Warranty 630115 12 in stock £63.47 £63.47

Corsair Hydro Series H110 280mm High Performance Liquid CPU Cooler 462121 24 in stock £89.99 £89.99

Corsair Carbide Series 200R Windowed Compact ATX Chassis 612368 9 in stock £53.99 £53.99

Intel Core i5 4670K 3.40GHz Socket 1150 6MB Cache Retail Boxed Processor 467647 230 in stock £173.16 £173.16

Gigabyte GA-Z87-D3HP Socket 1150 DVI HDMI 7.1 Channel Audio ATX Motherboard 507047 12 in stock £92.94 £92.94

Save as List Cart total inc vat: £573.54

Haswell 4670K - very overclockable if you are lucky, more expensive but it is a good buy especially if you want to keep your system for a while.


Other notes - 16GB is cool and all that but is it really necessary? Need to know what GPU you are using to really specify the power supply but a 750W should be good all the way to 780/290X with these systems.

Expect both systems to run very juicy when overclocked especially the AMD system whichever one you choose.

 

[Malo]

16Gb is great for running RAM drives for pagefiles, temp files and cache.

 

[homerdog]

And the [strike]wildcard[/strike] Best option 5

Fixed!

 

[DJ12]

Heres what I priced up.

AMD FX-8350 4GHz Socket AM3+ 8MB Cache Retail Boxed Processor £134.99 - isn't the 9370 just an overclocked 8350?

Corsair Hydro Series H110 280mm High Performance Liquid CPU Cooler £89.99

Gigabyte GA-990FXA-UD3 990FX Socket AM3+ 8 Channel Audio ATX Motherboard £103.50 (Although I will get a sabretooth board from Amazon for £114)

Corsair 16GB (2x8GB) DDR3 1866MHz Vengeance Pro Kit - Blue £149.76

Corsair C70 Vengeance Case - GunMetal Black £89.99 (Going for this case as it's one that fits the cooler without the need for any bodging, I'm not a good bodger)

If I went intel it would be for an i7, but I really don't like or want to buy an intel processor to be honest.

I already have a 900 watt PSU in my current PC with a lifetime warranty, recently bought a tahiti 7870 (the one with more shaders), I am also sorted for HDDs.

Not really a big component buyer, is there anywhere better than Ebuyer? looked at Dabs and in general it's more expensive.

 

[DJ12]

Ok I've relented in my hatred for Intel overnight so now it's on the cards. Well have to be a 4770k but the motherboard arena looks like I mine field. Is the Asus Maximus VI Hero C2 ok. Don't want to pay more than 150 for the motherboard

 

[Tahir2]

Ok I've relented in my hatred for Intel overnight so now it's on the cards. Well have to be a 4770k but the motherboard arena looks like I mine field. Is the Asus Maximus VI Hero C2 ok. Don't want to pay more than 150 for the motherboard

Wise decision to abandon the idea of an AM3+ system. FM2+ would have been a better option but the Intel route is the best still.

So you were about to go for an AMD 8350 but now a 4770K is a must? Can I ask why? Is it to get the mythical 8 threads of HyperT?
The 4670K would be faster than the 8350 in any case so are we just chasing specs here DJ12 or is there a specific need for 8 threads?

Motherboard wise my manufacturers of choice are: Asus, Asrock and Gigabyte in that order..Personally I don't believe the top end boards from these manufacturers add much value. Just go for the slots you need (e.g. you are Crossfiring or SLIing) and then choose a good manufacturer. The reason for this is that the onboard components usually are nowhere near as good as getting discreet components, in particular sound implementations. Just check out the latest techreport review - http://techreport.com/review/26113/gigabyte-g1-sniper-5-motherboard-reviewed/2

As for retailers try www.scan.co.uk too they often have good deals and the returns process is very good. I recently had a problem with some RAM frying on two AMD systems I was building which killed the CPUs too and Scan helped me out. The RAM you have chosen seems overpriced if you ask me. I have picked something faster and cheaper!

Lets see what I can do for you via Scan (I accept Paypal for this consultation service )


Scan


Corsair Vengeance C70 High Airflow Military Green Mid Tower Gaming Case with Side Window USB 3.0 2x120mm Fan w/o PSU
Scansure
£74.99 £89.99

Asus Z87-K, Intel Z87, S 1150, DDR3, SATA III - 6Gb/s, SATA RAID, PCIe 3.0 (x16), D-Sub (VGA) DVI-D HDMI, ATX
Scansure
£74.87 £89.84


Intel Core i7 4770K, S1150, Haswell, Quad Core, 3.5GHz, 3.9GHz Turbo, 1250MHz GPU 35x Ratio 84W Retail w/o Heat Sink Fan
Scansure
£208.17 £249.80


LN51715 16GB (2x8GB) Corsair DDR3 Vengeance Pro Series Silver, PC3-17066 (2133), Non-ECC Unbuffered, CAS 11-11-11-27, XMP, 1.5V
£116.50 £139.80

 

[Davros]

what have you got now ?
cpu clockspeed and ipc havnt jumped a huge amount in the past few years

 

[DJ12]

Chasing specs in a way, but I very rarely update so am looking long term here. When I last built a pc the x2 6800 was the best amd chip out there.

My thoughts are get the best I can within reason (discounted the fx9590 because I could've easily got close to that spec with the 8350) then it should do me for a good couple of years at least.

I've dealt with scan recently so sent them a cheeky email earlier seeing if they would price match amazon as they are considerably more expensive.... No reply lol

 

[Tahir2]

Personally if it was my money I would save the £70 odd and go for the i5-4670K.

What do you think about my suggestion on saving some money on not going for a super expensive, everything integrated but the kitchen sink motherboard?

Have had these top end boards and in the end the differences in features in practise are negligible.

 

[DJ12]

what have you got now ?
cpu clockspeed and ipc havnt jumped a huge amount in the past few years

amd X2 6800 black edition (not that I've ever felt the need to overclock it with the heat it kicks out with standard settings) 3.2ghz dual core.

 

[Lightman]

Just last weekend I've built i7 4770K on MSI Z87-G45 Gaming board (upgrade from Z68-GD65 and i5 2500K) and must say that if not only gaming on your PC then go for 8 threads!
My i5 Sandy overclocked a lot better than Haswell [4.5 GHz @1.3V stable and up to 4.8GHz benchable when feeded 1.35V versus around 4.2GHz on Haswell at 1.29V, possibly more with more volts], but in the end my scores are quite a bit better on i7 and on top of that it uses less power at idle and under load than i5 did.

I'm AMD supporter where makes sense and own Kaveri A10-7850K system, but for enthusiast gaming desktop currently Intel's advantage is too great to ignore.


Anyway when shopping for parts have a look at Aria.co.uk as they can be cheapest in UK quite often
I paid £199.90+VAT for my i7 and they have amazing deal on SSD today (£32.00+VAT for 120GB Mushkin).

Have fun building your PC!

 

[Alexko]

No one seems to have asked the most important questions, yet:

1) What will you be using your new computer for?
2) In what way is your current machine inadequate for this usage?

It's hard to give anything more than generic, borderline irrelevant advice without having the answers to these questions.

 

[Lightman]

Personally if it was my money I would save the £70 odd and go for the i5-4670K.

What do you think about my suggestion on saving some money on not going for a super expensive, everything integrated but the kitchen sink motherboard?

Have had these top end boards and in the end the differences in features in practise are negligible.

I've decided to go for MSI Z87-G45 Gaming instead of GD65 exactly for that reason. They differ in very small details like number of SATA ports, other than that are identical. With saved money I upgraded my planned i5-4670K to i7-4770K and don't regret it!

 

[Tahir2]

No one seems to have asked the most important questions, yet:

1) What will you be using your new computer for?
2) In what way is your current machine inadequate for this usage?

It's hard to give anything more than generic, borderline irrelevant advice without having the answers to these questions.

To watch multiple streams of porn in HD obviously... #DonJon

 

[Grall]

Is the Asus Maximus VI Hero C2 ok. Don't want to pay more than 150 for the motherboard

If you don't mind uATX, the Maximus VI Gene is a fabulous board. You're probably not going to SLI/crossfire your graphics anyway, are you? If so, you really don't need a shed-load of PCIe slots, especially as 11xx class CPUs only offer 16 true, native lanes.

uATX chassis are sleeker, lighter and generally better looking (IMO). Not as easy to work in generally, granted, (although the Silverstone Fortress FT02 isn't terrible in that regard, you just need to watch the length of your PSU and its associated cables or else you can't get the side panels back on... Oh, and 12" dickmonster graphics cards have a hard time fitting as well if you want to keep the lower 120mm fan cage, however it can be removed to give more room (and you can stick in two 80mm fans in its stead if you like.)

 

[DJ12]

No one seems to have asked the most important questions, yet:

1) What will you be using your new computer for?
2) In what way is your current machine inadequate for this usage?

It's hard to give anything more than generic, borderline irrelevant advice without having the answers to these questions.

Gaming, emulation and video streaming. My current pc is could limited in most tasks these days and way to noisy. The thought of 1080p wasn't on the cards when it was built originally. I've upgraded the gpu twice due to failures but other than that I've shown it no love