Self-Build Computer for £750 - Please help

I

Iced_Bullet

New Member
I know there must be a million and one threads asking for tips and advice, so please bear with me. I'm looking for a computer that can do well at gaming, but the main reason is for rendering Images/Videos from Autodesk Revit and 3DS Max in my last year at Uni. A couple of years ago I may have been able to get by on my own. But since then I have ashamedly lost all knowledge of the latest tech! So I have come looking for some help.

Basically, I'm looking to build a PC for around £750 maximum, but I don't need a HDD (as I have a WD SATA 1TB) or a PCI sound-card as I already own them, along with my peripherals, OS and monitors. Everything else I will need.

My current spec is in my signature and I don't know if I can re-use the case and or PSU? I'm guessing it is not advised to re-use my PSU? And if you advise changing the case too, then I will do so!

I was looking at:

ASUS GTX 6600TI 2GB @ £217
http://www.ebuyer.com/393522-asus-g...-dual-dvi-hdmi-displayport-gtx660-ti-dc2-2gd5
i7 3820 3.6GHz 10MB @ £230
http://www.ebuyer.com/344683-intel-...2011-12mb-l3-cache-retail-boxed-bx80619i73820

But I have no idea which RAM/MB/PSU/Wireless card & Case to get!

Also, if the GPU and CPU aren't what you recommend, I will gladly look at alternatives! I have also toyed with the idea of an SSD for the OS, but I would rather go for more 'gruntier' components like the GPU and CPU.

Cheers, Toby!

Ps, I came here for advice on my current build 4.5 years ago! Strange how time flies!!
 
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Hey you're from Norfolk, so am I! Greetings from Norwich! :D

OK so PSU wise, I'm not entirely sure what you have there, so unless it's from a decent brand (Corsiar, OCZ, Antec, XFX, Seasonic etc) and is a good wattage, I'd probably advise picking up a new one. A good one to get right now is the CX 600 from Corsair. It's cheap, good quality and just about powers any card out there.

It sounds to me like you are interested in upgrading your graphics card, CPU, RAM and motherboard, correct? If so, depending on what you do, you don't need an i7. I usually advise against buying the i7 3820 anyway because the i7 3770K is in fact cheaper, faster, easier to overclock and the boards are cheaper too - so if you want/need an i7, get a 3770K, not a 3820.

If this is for gaming primarily, I wouldn't bother with an i7 at all - I'd get an i5 3570K and overclock it. For gaming, the i5 is all you need and more, so I wouldn't waste your money on the i7. With the money you save on the CPU, I'd spend on the graphics card. The 660 Ti is a good card, but the Radeon HD 7870 or 7950 would be a better choice in my opinion. Also consider the 670 because you may be able to afford it once you've saved money on the CPU.

Motherboard wise, you want to get a good Z77 board. The Gigabyte GA-Z77X-D3H and UD3H are good boards if you want to keep costs low. If you can afford it, get the UD5H or the UP4 because they are great boards for overclocking (if you're interested in overclocking?) Your CPU cooler should fit LGA 1155 as well as 775, but you might want to just check that first.

Wireless card, I tend to just get an PCIe x1 card. Netgear, Linksys and Belkin are good brands. They all work well though.

Do you need an optical drive too? If you do, your run of the mill SATA DVD-RW from Samsung, Asus or LG should work fine.

I hope you get a nice upgrade Toby! :good:
 
spirit said:
It sounds to me like you are interested in upgrading your graphics card, CPU, RAM and motherboard, correct? If so, depending on what you do, you don't need an i7. I usually advise against buying the i7 3820 anyway because the i7 3770K is in fact cheaper, faster, easier to overclock and the boards are cheaper too - so if you want/need an i7, get a 3770K, not a 3820.
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There is so much wrong with this, but one thing at a time.

1. Buying a CPU solely for Overclocking is not really the brightest idea. That aside, the 3820 is a very good overclocker. It is partially unlocked (max multi is 43 iirc). That aside the bclk is a lot more forgiving on 2011. Easy to hit upwards of 125. At max on most chips this gives you 5.250GHz, and more PCIe expansion than LGA1155 could dream of.

2. The motherboards are cheaper yes. But if you intend to run multiple GPUs in the future, the LGA1155 socket runs out of expansion really quickly. Generally on the order of 2 cards max unless you put ungodly amounts of money into it.

3. Memory bandwidth is higher on 2011, but that is generally useless unless you need something like a RAMdisk.

all of the above is assuming you need an i7. What the OP intends to do will make a lot of decisions clearer.
 
spirit said:
Hey you're from Norfolk, so am I! Greetings from Norwich! :D
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Cool, I'm from sleepy ol' Dereham! It's a small world!
spirit said:
If this is for gaming primarily, I wouldn't bother with an i7 at all - I'd get an i5 3570K and overclock it. For gaming, the i5 is all you need and more, so I wouldn't waste your money on the i7. With the money you save on the CPU, I'd spend on the graphics card. The 660 Ti is a good card, but the Radeon HD 7870 or 7950 would be a better choice in my opinion. Also consider the 670 because you may be able to afford it once you've saved money on the CPU.
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Really, I'm interested in getting this upgrade for rendering in Revit and 3DS Max, so I'm my limited knowledge I would say it's mainly about the processor? I've also toyed with the idea of keeping my 8800GTS and seeing how that goes. That way I can save my student pennies! I don't really game very much these days and may get the XBox 720 when it comes out, even though I like PC gaming overall.

spirit said:
Motherboard wise, you want to get a good Z77 board. The Gigabyte GA-Z77X-D3H and UD3H are good boards if you want to keep costs low. If you can afford it, get the UD5H or the UP4 because they are great boards for overclocking (if you're interested in overclocking?) Your CPU cooler should fit LGA 1155 as well as 775, but you might want to just check that first.

Wireless card, I tend to just get an PCIe x1 card. Netgear, Linksys and Belkin are good brands. They all work well though.
Do you need an optical drive too? If you do, your run of the mill SATA DVD-RW from Samsung, Asus or LG should work fine.
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OK, thanks. And regarding the optical drive, I currently have a samsung blu-ray drive. But the software for the drive isn't supported on Windows 8, which I strangely seem to prefer over Windows 7! So not sure how I am going to play that one yet. I may have to buy a new drive (as it is cheaper than buying the latest software that is supported in W8!!

wolfeking said:
1. Buying a CPU solely for Overclocking is not really the brightest idea.

all of the above is assuming you need an i7. What the OP intends to do will make a lot of decisions clearer.
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Thanks for the reply, I think I am aiming for an i7 yes, over an i5. Due to the need for rendering and I'm not sure how much OC'ing I will get into. At this stage I have too much Uni work to be getting on with without trying to OC a computer, especially when I've lost my "techy" edge, I can't afford for it to go wrong time-wise!



E: I've now finalised a few more things:

i7 3770 3.5GHz: http://www.ebuyer.com/349026-intel-...b-cache-retail-boxed-processor-bx80637i73770k
Gigabyte Z77X-UD5H [possibly on recommendation of spirit]: http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MB-388-GI
Kingston HyperX Blu 16GB http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MY-121-KS

Now need to find a PSU and case. I've decided I'm keeping my 6600 GPU for now and see how it goes!

Any recommendations for case/PSU?

I found this PSU: http://www.ebuyer.com/429985-corsair-cx-series-cx600m-atx-power-supply-cp-9020060-uk
And this case: http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CA-163-AN

Total: £675 (when i include a wireless thingy)

Can anyone see anything that wouldn't work? Or recommend slightly differently?
 
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Bad choice of case, it's old. Get something like this indeed http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CA-078-NX much newer and has much better cable management. Or if you like the look of the Antec, this might be a good option http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CA-020-FD or the R3.

PSU looks fine, should power your 8800 without a problem.

Get the 3770K, not the 3770. You can overclock the 3770K.

Personally I don't see why you'd even think about a 3820 unless you need to have more than 32GB of RAM. Not many people need more than 2 GPUs anyway, but if you want more GPUs and need lots of RAM, go for the 3820. the 3770K is a great choice and your build should be fine for what you want to do.
 
I agree with spirit. Get the 3770k.
It takes less than two seconds to overclock if you have an ASUS or Gigabyte motherboard (possibly others too). With Gigabyte and ASUS they have auto-overclocking features, which'll bring your CPU to ~4.2GHz in a reboot.
 
Thanks both. In terms of slightly futureproofing the PSU... If I decided in 6 months time to slap a £250 GPU inside, would the 600W PSU above be suitable? Or would it be advised to go for a 750W?
 
Depending on what GPU you go for 600W should be fine. What kind of GPU did you have in mind?
 
Might want to go for a Corsair TX 650 V2 but unless you want two or more of them then 650W is going to be plenty for you. :)
 
wbt50 said:
If you have that to spend on a GPU. May I recommend a GTX 670. Awesome video card!
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Thanks, I may buy it in 6 months time. It depends. I'll see where I am when I've finished Uni. As it stands at the minute I don't game much. I may do when I leave and therefore need a higher GPU.

I will definately be back if I do!

spirit said:
Might want to go for a Corsair TX 650 V2 but unless you want two or more of them then 650W is going to be plenty for you. :)
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Thanks, I went for the 650M in the end.

I have just bought:

3770K 3.5GHz
Arctic Cooling Freezer 13 Extreme Pro
Corsair TX650M PSU
Antec P183 V3 (Even though you advised against it, I went for style over substance :cool:)
2 x 8gb Corsair 11-11-11-30 XMS3
Gigabit Z77X-UD5H

Should be here by Saturday (if the snow lets it!!!)

Thanks for you help spirit.
 
That looks like a solid build to me.
Great choice on the Gigabyte board, proving to be a very solid board for me.
 
Hopefully the snow will be on its way out. Over here in Wymondham (yeah I live in Wymondham, not Norwich) it's still thick.

Good choice of parts but you'll struggle with cable management in that case I think. I'll be interested to hear you get on with that case!
 
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