New to building my own PC

[Theos Sairin]

So I'm brand spanking new to this PC Building malarky, I was directed to a website which helps you pick parts compatible with eachother, however I'm not too well versed in this kinda thing so I wanna run it by you people for your scrutiny. Budget is £1,500 ($2,354 USD), but I'm not gonna build this until September. I want a computer that is good for gaming (without stretching the budget), upgradeable, and will be capable of running DAW's such as Cubase with extensive sound editing. I haven't included a sound card as the website didn't give me the option to include one, but I need something GOOD that can handle as much as I can throw at it, so I need some suggestions. I was thinking the Sound Blaster Recon3D PCIe at £89.99, but no idea if it's compatible. Also the monitor needs to have a HDMI input for my 360, and I want something over 20 inches in size... See if you can think of something for this too =D. Speakers/headphones are not needed, got some already. Thanks for your help people.

 

 

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

 

CPU: Intel Core i7-2600K 3.4GHz Quad-Core Processor (£227.98 @ Novatech)

CPU Cooler: Zalman CNPS7000C-Cu Ball Bearing CPU Cooler (£15.53 @ CCL Computers)

Motherboard: Asus P8Z68 Deluxe ATX LGA1155 Motherboard (£181.97 @ Dabs)

Memory: G.Skill Value Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1333 Memory (£35.14 @ CCL Computers)

Hard Drive: Samsung Spinpoint M7E 500GB 2.5" 5400RPM Internal Hard Drive (£71.98 @ Dabs)

Video Card: Gigabyte GeForce GTX 680 2GB Video Card (£430.99 @ Dabs)

Case: Cooler Master Storm Enforcer ATX Mid Tower Case (£59.99 @ CCL Computers)

Power Supply: NZXT 650W ATX12V / EPS12V Power Supply (£95.58 @ Scan.co.uk)

Optical Drive: Samsung SH-B123L/RSBP Blu-Ray Reader, DVD/CD Writer (£48.98 @ CCL Computers)

Operating System: Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 (64-bit) (£67.35 @ Ebuyer)

Keyboard: Logitech MK120 Wired Slim Keyboard w/Optical Mouse (£18.99 @ Expansys)

Total: £1254.48

(Prices include shipping and discounts when available.)

(Generated by PCPartPicker 2012-05-29 13:00 BST+0100)

[Asulynn]

Huuuuge edit here, after what Hardy posted and doing some googling.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: Intel Core i7-3820 3.6GHz Quad-Core Processor (£215.94 @ Scan.co.uk)
CPU Cooler: Noctua NH-D14 SE2011 CPU Cooler (£72.98 @ Overclockers.co.uk)
Motherboard: ASRock X79 Extreme4 ATX LGA2011 Motherboard (£167.75 @ Scan.co.uk)
Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws Z Series 16GB (4 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory (£83.99 @ Dabs)
Hard Drive: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive (£69.54 @ Amazon UK)
Hard Drive: OCZ Agility 3 120GB 2.5" Solid State Disk (£76.99 @ Amazon UK)
Video Card: EVGA GeForce GTX 560 Ti 1GB Video Card (£167.99 @ Overclockers.co.uk)
Case: Cooler Master Storm Enforcer ATX Mid Tower Case (£59.99 @ CCL Computers)
Power Supply: Corsair 850W ATX12V / EPS12V Power Supply (£141.98 @ Dabs)
Optical Drive: Samsung SH-222AB DVD/CD Writer (£13.69 @ CCL Computers)
Monitor: Asus VE248H 24.0" Monitor (£152.91 @ Ebuyer)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 (64-bit) (£69.96 @ CCL Computers)
Keyboard: Logitech MK120 Wired Slim Keyboard w/Optical Mouse (£18.99 @ Expansys)
Total: £1312.70
(Prices include shipping and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2012-05-30 12:13 BST+0100)

Add to it:

Thermal Paste: Arctic Silver 5 + Cleaner (£4.95 @ Amazon UK) --- This is pretty essential for a CPU cooler.
Sound Card: ESI Maya44 XTe PCIe (£131.81 @ Amazon UK) -- Developed by the same people as Cubase, firewire capability and mic preamp.

£1449.46 All together. Doesn't leave much for a monitor; but the one included is more of an example of what you could realistically do. Asus is generally pretty nice. Samsung is always gorgeous. Ultimately it is up to you, and I would check your local brick & mortars for the monitor. Quality of display differentiates a lot between person to person and going off a picture on the internet really doesn't tell you much.

The 560 Ti video card isn't exactly a GTX 680, but it was the best you could get price/performance for a long time. It's still very, very good. The card itself appears to be used a LOT in DAW builds.

That power supply is rather on the expensive side, but the PSU is literally the last thing you want to skimp on. Regardless of the type of system you're going for. I personally prefer the full modular designs (which is what that is), as all the cables detach directly from the PSU itself. Pretty sure you could get just as good for cheaper if you're not bothered by wire clutter.

The OCZ Agility 3 drive is what is known as a Solid State Drive (SSD); you've probably heard of them. Where the fastest HDD can read stuff at about 120mb/s, the slowest of SSDs can read at closer to about.. 555mb/s. As you can imagine, it is a HUGE performance increase for anything. As they're still really expensive per gig basis, they're generally used for the OS and main programs (For you, Cubase and the like), while using a standard HDD for storage.


Cheaper alternative, no modular PSU, different but still good brands here and there, more room for monitor:

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: Intel Core i7-3820 3.6GHz Quad-Core Processor (£215.94 @ Scan.co.uk)
CPU Cooler: Corsair Hydro Series H60 74.4 CFM Liquid CPU Cooler (£52.32 @ Scan.co.uk)
Motherboard: ASRock X79 Extreme4 ATX LGA2011 Motherboard (£146.39 @ Overclockers.co.uk)
Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws Z Series 16GB (4 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory (£83.99 @ Dabs)
Hard Drive: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive (£69.54 @ Amazon UK)
Hard Drive: OCZ Agility 3 120GB 2.5" Solid State Disk (£76.99 @ Amazon UK)
Video Card: Asus GeForce GTX 560 Ti 2GB Video Card (£179.47 @ Scan.co.uk)
Case: Cooler Master Storm Enforcer ATX Mid Tower Case (£59.99 @ CCL Computers)
Power Supply: XFX 850W ATX12V / EPS12V Power Supply (£109.99 @ Overclockers.co.uk)
Optical Drive: Samsung SH-222AB DVD/CD Writer (£13.69 @ CCL Computers)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 (64-bit) (£69.96 @ CCL Computers)
Keyboard: Logitech MK120 Wired Slim Keyboard w/Optical Mouse (£18.99 @ Expansys)
Total: £1097.26 (£1234.02 after sound/thermal)
(Prices include shipping and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2012-05-30 15:30 BST+0100)

 

[Hardy]

...and will be capable of running DAW's such as Cubase with extensive sound editing.

 

From a professional point of view, a consumer sound card will do jack shit. If you want ultra high quality sound going in and coming out, you will need one or more firewire audio interface/s with mic preamps. Most consumer interfaces and DAWs are ASIO based, so they will work within the Windows enviroment and allow you to connect powered studio monitors via TRS or XLR. If you want to do extensive sound production and editing, you will need a dedicated setup independent of your gaming rig and unless you've got a Pro Tools HD system, you will need the fastest CPU money can buy.

 

Cubase, Logic, Sonar, ACID, Fruitly Loops are all far from extensive because they lack the DSP power and stability of Pro Tools. Also, it would be worth pointing out that some video cards arn't fully compatible with certain DAWs and their drivers overload your CPU giving you playback errors and/or crackles, clicks & pops.

 

With your gaming rig, I would highly recommend a pair of studio monitors instead of regular PC speakers. They provide the absolute best possible sound quality which is compleletly uncolourised and give far better bass response since the monitors are usually inclosed in hardwood cabinets.

 

In a nutshell, expand your budget and invest in a PCIe Firewire card, a firewire audio interface and a decent pair studio monitiors if you want capabilities of running DAWs properly.

[Theos Sairin]

Thanks for the replies, extremely helpful! Okay yeah, first off I probably won't be using Pro Tools. As much as I would love to have Pro Tools, it costs way too much, and I probably won't be able to afford it. I still got programs to buy otherwise that are needed for my course, so unless I got some spare cash left over it won't be happening. My course is Music Composition for Film and Games, and about 90% of it will be using keyboards as a MIDI input rather than recording live. I remember at college using Logic and always running into problems with latency when I had a lot of effects on lots of channels going on. What I want is to avoid that. So out of the stuff Emylii picked out is that capable of doing what I want without running into problems?

 

Using what you gave me, I'm putting some stuff from the cheaper list in but changing some for more expensive too, overall I hope this looks okay (and some of the price changes for the same item... guess they update it every day):

 

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

 

CPU: Intel Core i7-3820 3.6GHz Quad-Core Processor (£227.99 @ Dabs)

CPU Cooler: Corsair Hydro Series H60 74.4 CFM Liquid CPU Cooler (£52.32 @ Scan.co.uk)

Motherboard: ASRock X79 Extreme4 ATX LGA2011 Motherboard (£146.39 @ Overclockers.co.uk)

Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws Z Series 16GB (4 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory (£83.99 @ Dabs)

Hard Drive: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive (£69.54 @ Amazon UK)

Hard Drive: OCZ Agility 3 120GB 2.5" Solid State Disk (£76.99 @ Scan.co.uk)

Video Card: Asus GeForce GTX 560 Ti 2GB Video Card (£179.47 @ Scan.co.uk)

Case: Cooler Master Storm Enforcer ATX Mid Tower Case (£59.99 @ CCL Computers)

Power Supply: XFX 850W ATX12V / EPS12V Power Supply (£109.99 @ Overclockers.co.uk)

Optical Drive: Samsung SH-222AB DVD/CD Writer (£13.69 @ CCL Computers)

Monitor: Asus VE248H 24.0" Monitor (£152.91 @ Ebuyer)

Operating System: Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 (64-bit) (£69.96 @ CCL Computers)

Keyboard: Logitech MK120 Wired Slim Keyboard w/Optical Mouse (£18.99 @ Expansys)

Total: £1262.22

(Prices include shipping and discounts when available.)

(Generated by PCPartPicker 2012-05-31 01:46 BST+0100)

 

Thermal Paste: Arctic Silver 5 + Cleaner (£4.95 @ Amazon UK)

Sound Card: ESI Maya44 XTe PCIe (£131.81 @ Amazon UK)

 

Total: £1,398.98

 

I'm leaving in the monitor because if I can find it I'll get to know if I like it (I probably will, I'm easily please) and if not I have an idea of the price range I can have.

 

I'll keep the video card as well, if it's as good as you say I'll be happy with it, plus it gives me that bit more money to add onto other stuff.

 

I have no idea about PSU's and modular this and that... I'll take the cheaper option you gave me because that seems more appealing to me. I won't be putting the computer together myself, I'll have someone who knows what they're doing helping me, so hopefully they can deal with the excess in cables. I'll be cable tying it anyway so that will hopefully improve the airflow.

 

I'll take your word on the CPU and Motherboard, I know they're two of the most important things so I'm trusting you on that one!

 

I'll keep the two hard drives and do what you say for the SSD, I like a fast running system and if that's faster then all the better in my opinion.

 

Thanks for the feedback.

[Hardy]

There is a consumer version of Pro Tools called M-Powered which is about a quarter of the price of the full featured version:

 

http://www.m-audio.c...roToolsMP9.html

 

I've seen it as cheap as $170 on ebay:

 

http://www.ebay.com....=item3a727f6dc6.

 

However, you must use a AVID approved M-Audio interface with it or it won't launch (check avid.com for a list).

 

MIDI and Audio streams (Waveforms) are handled by the DAW & CPU in almost identical ways. The only difference is MIDI's input is sourced from dashes on the corresponding note which tells the virtual instrument what note to play. The output then is handled the same as an audio stream.

 

That latency is occuring because those plugins you are using are inserting sample delays on that channel that are not being compensated for. Sample delays are the blocks of data and the time it takes to travel from your keyboard into your computer, being processed by the CPU & Plugin/s according to the buffer size and then fed back out into your monitors. Its the same when inserting hardware into the chain such as sending a dry signal out of your DAW into a Hardware Preamp -> Hardware Compressor -> Back into the DAW on a separate channel, all in real time.

 

You'd want to set the buffer size the smallest as possible without causing playback errors when tracking and then when mixing, set the largest possible buffer size without causing the software to lag. Even with the correct buffer size, the sound usually still does not quite line up perfectly - being out of phase - but is significantly better & reduces the amount of compensation needed.

 

As of M-powered 9, you have the option of Automatic Delay Compensation which us HD users have had for a long time and usually deals with that latency automatically up to so many samples per channel. I'm not fimilar with other DAWs but there should be some sort of compensation built in otherwise you'll have to manually compensate by putting sample delays on all the other channels or nudging the tracks back into phase.

 

I would search your DAW's latency on youtube for practical examples but here is a video that should apply to most DAWs:

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cFImXaWwAe0

 

and a professional example of hardware latency:

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kI16kRjJn1s

[zaboo]

Don't you normally get student prices for software used in education? My brother is studying audio engineering and I know that he gets discounts on his software through his school.

[Theos Sairin]

Generally speaking, a lot of software can be bought cheaper for students, I just gotta wait til I'm at uni so I know how much. I know that there's the cheaper version of Pro Tools but it's more the cost of the external interface I'm worried about. It all adds up in the end but I guess it's sandwiches and pasta for the next few months >.> cheers for the videos, that'll help out hugely.

 

So is the rig set up good to go? At least then I know what I'ma be buying.

[Supa]

CPU: Intel Core i7-3820 3.6GHz Quad-Core Processor (£227.99 @ Dabs)

CPU Cooler: Corsair Hydro Series H60 74.4 CFM Liquid CPU Cooler (£52.32 @ Scan.co.uk)

Motherboard: ASRock X79 Extreme4 ATX LGA2011 Motherboard (£146.39 @ Overclockers.co.uk)

Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws Z Series 16GB (4 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory (£83.99 @ Dabs)

Hard Drive: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive (£69.54 @ Amazon UK)

Hard Drive: OCZ Agility 3 120GB 2.5" Solid State Disk (£76.99 @ Scan.co.uk)

Video Card: Asus GeForce GTX 560 Ti 2GB Video Card (£179.47 @ Scan.co.uk)

Case: Cooler Master Storm Enforcer ATX Mid Tower Case (£59.99 @ CCL Computers)

Power Supply: XFX 850W ATX12V / EPS12V Power Supply (£109.99 @ Overclockers.co.uk)

Optical Drive: Samsung SH-222AB DVD/CD Writer (£13.69 @ CCL Computers)

Monitor: Asus VE248H 24.0" Monitor (£152.91 @ Ebuyer)

Operating System: Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 (64-bit) (£69.96 @ CCL Computers)

Keyboard: Logitech MK120 Wired Slim Keyboard w/Optical Mouse (£18.99 @ Expansys)

Total: £1262.22

(Prices include shipping and discounts when available.)

(Generated by PCPartPicker 2012-05-31 01:46 BST+0100)

 

Thermal Paste: Arctic Silver 5 + Cleaner (£4.95 @ Amazon UK)

Sound Card: ESI Maya44 XTe PCIe (£131.81 @ Amazon UK)

 

Total: £1,398.98

You won't really need an H60 with that build. Your processor isn't unlocked, so you'd actually be fine with a CM Hyper 212 EVO or something along those lines. CPU air cooling is generally much quieter than GPU air cooling, so if you're worried about heat/sound output, you won't have to worry. I had a CM Hyper 212+ for a while, and my i7-950 at 4ghz wasn't going anywhere near 65c under load.

 

Don't get the OCZ Agility 3. The ones I've used (for friends machines), have been a pain in the ass. I'd recommend any of the Intel, Samsung, Crucial, or Patriot SSD's over it.

 

I kind of don't want to go anywhere near the case or power supply, because I'll be ranting on about how you could be doing much better.

I'm leaving in the monitor because if I can find it I'll get to know if I like it (I probably will, I'm easily please) and if not I have an idea of the price range I can have.

That's the exact monitor I have actually, and it was so good I got a second one.

I'll keep the video card as well, if it's as good as you say I'll be happy with it, plus it gives me that bit more money to add onto other stuff.

Unless you plan on doing some pretty heavy duty gaming, the 560 Ti will be fine, but I'd personally wait and see what the GTX 660's have to offer. Kepler has so far been a huge step up from Fermi (I went from a 580 to a 680, and the jump was still pretty big. Up 25-30fps in some games.)

 

I have no idea about PSU's and modular this and that... I'll take the cheaper option you gave me because that seems more appealing to me. I won't be putting the computer together myself, I'll have someone who knows what they're doing helping me, so hopefully they can deal with the excess in cables. I'll be cable tying it anyway so that will hopefully improve the airflow.

Generally, the modular power supply will allow for better airflow, because there won't be as many wires. But a good case is just as important. Something cheap will offer less expansion for you, so you'll end up having bunches of wires sitting at the bottom of your case, disrupting air from being cleanly distributed throughout your case from the bottom intake fan, or disrupting air from being cleanly pulled from your case by the bottom exhaust fan (whatever your case has).

Don't you normally get student prices for software used in education? My brother is studying audio engineering and I know that he gets discounts on his software through his school.

Depends on where you are. If you're in the U.S., the chances of being able to get discounts on programs is high. Some companies don't have that option, however. I'm not sure how companies that develop sound editing programs license for students, so I can't comment on it, but to give you an idea the products Adobe sells to students are generally 20% what they usually are for any other consumer.

 

Since he's in the UK, he might simply not get this option.

 

FINAL NOTE: I'd say, get a Patriot Pyro 120GB SSD (1GB/$1 price range right now), or a Samsung 830 128GB (I personally have one of these, upgraded it over an OCZ Vertex 2 120GB, and it was retarded how much easier it was to work with).

 

If you want advice on the case, cooling or... Whatever else I whined about, lemme know. I'll see if I can make it worth the time/money.

[Asulynn]

FINAL NOTE: I'd say, get a Patriot Pyro 120GB SSD (1GB/$1 price range right now), or a Samsung 830 128GB (I personally have one of these, upgraded it over an OCZ Vertex 2 120GB, and it was retarded how much easier it was to work with).

Legitimate question: What was different about it to make it easier to work with? I'm using the Agility 3 myself at the moment, and it was literally as easy as plugging it in and installing an OS. Did a few tweaks to the OS afterwards, but they weren't essential. Haven't had a problem with it yet.

 

Few miscellaneous comments since he pretty much left the second build I listed untouched:

 

The H60 was surprisingly the cheapest thing listed for the socket type on that site at the time. Never touched the case; but the PSU I'd generally prefer Corsair over any other brand. But for an 850W (which isn't necessary, but for the spirit of future upgrade room through possibly SLI.. Could probably still comfortably drop to a 750W) from a good brand, you're not going to find much cheaper that is at least semi-modular. I've worked with several XFX ones and haven't found one that was straight up bad. They also use the same exact manufacturer as Corsair, so.. Eh.

 

Of course, this won't be until September. Parts and prices are going to vary between now and then.

[Supa]

Legitimate question: What was different about it to make it easier to work with? I'm using the Agility 3 myself at the moment, and it was literally as easy as plugging it in and installing an OS. Did a few tweaks to the OS afterwards, but they weren't essential. Haven't had a problem with it yet.

 

Few miscellaneous comments since he pretty much left the second build I listed untouched:

 

The H60 was surprisingly the cheapest thing listed for the socket type on that site at the time. Never touched the case; but the PSU I'd generally prefer Corsair over any other brand. But for an 850W (which isn't necessary, but for the spirit of future upgrade room through possibly SLI.. Could probably still comfortably drop to a 750W) from a good brand, you're not going to find much cheaper that is at least semi-modular. I've worked with several XFX ones and haven't found one that was straight up bad. They also use the same exact manufacturer as Corsair, so.. Eh.

 

Of course, this won't be until September. Parts and prices are going to vary between now and then.

Might have been the one I got, but it was just being a pain in the ass to work with. Configured no differently than my Vertex 2 at the time, and no different than my Samsung 830 right now. Crashes, hangs, it was just being dumb.

[Asulynn]

Ah, I see. Sounds like it might have been an old/bad firmware version. Your apprehension with it is totally understandable though.

[Supa]

More than likely. All I know is I probably wouldn't recommend it again. I'd recommend a Samsung 830, which I've had no issues with so far. Set it up, installed Windows 7, and it's been running flawlessly.

[Theos Sairin]

Can anyone recommend a case? Supa, you said that you'd rant about the case cos it could be so much better, can you elaborate and advise?

 

To be honest I didn't think I was doing too bad choosing a Cooler Master case... Was it the brand, the model, the size or the price you didn't like?

 

Also is it simply much better to get a DVD/CD writer optical drive rather than one with blu-ray? I know that cost wise blu-ray discs cost more, added on the optical drive costing more then cost wise it's not good, but does it have a performance drag as well on the DVD/CD aspect? If you think it's just not a good idea to get it then I won't.

[Hardy]

http://www.coolermaster.com/product.php?product_id=6640

 

I've seen these on ebay for as cheap as $110, including postage, without a PSU. In my opinion, such a good choice. I've never had a problem. Simple but effective with plently of cooling and with the option of adding another two fans. You dont really need any tools either although I still use a phillips head to fasten the cards.

[Theos Sairin]

The price is attractive, as well as the tool-less functions, however the case doesn't appeal to me that much in itself... I guess for me looks are quite important with the case, and as nice as it does look it's not to my taste. I read some reviews and while it is a GOOD case it isn't anything special, short of the tool-less solutions, and compared to similar cases it only runs cooler when idle, not when under load... While it probably would suit my needs, I guess I like to go over the top! Good suggestion though, cos that is a really nice case.

 

I've spent a lot of the last day or two reading up on cases so I could be a bit more clued up... I hoped I've made a good choice anyway! I've looked at a lot of cases too and perhaps that has affected my opinion of what "look" case to go for. I've decided that, as large as they may be, I like the full-tower cases a bit more than mid-tower - not just cos the size appeals to me for bragging rights but because it does offer a lot for future upgrades, and I do want to upgrade in the future, plus the features seem to be more attractive to me personally.

 

The original case I chose (purely at random) was part of Cooler Master's "Storm" series - so happens the case I like the most out of what I've seen is the Cooler Master Storm Trooper, the full tower case from that series. Offers a HUGE amount of space for whatever hardware is shoved in there, still with the tool-less solutions seen in the Centurion 5 ii, and I haven't seen any bad reviews (the only bad comments were about small things that wouldn't bother me in the slightest, things like 200mm fan noise, fan control beeps, etc.). In fact everything I saw about the case I loved, EXCEPT for one thing - the price. Cheapest I saw it at was £99.99 ($155), which is rather expensive. However I don't think I'll be looking for a new case any time soon, so I figure it's worth the money. Oh and I looked at the measurements too, it's 23.8 inches tall which WILL fit under the desk when I go uni!

 

 

A combination of the case and the optical drive will definitely make me go close to / over budget, but I can stretch it. But I still don't know if the optical drive is worth it for the Blu-Ray... So much money for the function of Blu-Ray, highly debatable if it's worth it or not. I guess that's a personal preference again but I would like to know if has an impact on the efficiency of the cd/dvd aspect of the drive? Or is it maybe simpler to buy the CD/DVD writer and then upgrade later if I feel the need?

 

 

Lastly (for now), looking at the Hard Drive I don't know what to pick. There's the possibility of problems with the Agility 3, whereas Supa rates the Samsung 830 series, which in 128gb is only £3 more than the Agility 3. 8 more gig for £3 seems good to me, especially if you agree it's a reliable SSD.

 

 

Either way here is what I'm looking at now (subject to edit):

 

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

 

CPU: Intel Core i7-3820 3.6GHz Quad-Core Processor (£227.94 @ Scan.co.uk)

CPU Cooler: Corsair Hydro Series H60 74.4 CFM Liquid CPU Cooler (£50.21 @ Amazon UK)

Motherboard: ASRock X79 Extreme4 ATX LGA2011 Motherboard (£167.75 @ Scan.co.uk)

Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws Z Series 16GB (4 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory (£83.99 @ Dabs)

Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive (£67.69 @ CCL Computers)

Storage: Samsung 830 Series 128GB 2.5" Solid State Disk (£77.98 @ Dabs)

Case: Cooler Master Storm Trooper ATX Full Tower Case (£107.58 @ CCL Computers)

Power Supply: XFX 850W ATX12V / EPS12V Power Supply (£109.99 @ Overclockers.co.uk)

Optical Drive: Sony AD-7261S-0B DVD/CD Writer (£14.50 @ CCL Computers)

Monitor: Asus VE248H 24.0" Monitor (£165.37 @ CCL Computers)

Operating System: Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 (64-bit) (£70.34 @ CCL Computers)

Keyboard: Gigabyte KM7580 Wireless Slim Keyboard w/Optical Mouse (£18.99 @ Amazon UK)

(Prices include shipping and discounts when available.)

(Generated by PCPartPicker 2012-08-15 12:23 BST+0100)

 

Thermal Paste: Arctic Silver 5 + Cleaner (£5.15 @ Amazon UK)

Sound Card: ESI Maya44 XTe PCIe (£127.32 @ Amazon UK)

Video Card: Asus GeForce GTX 560 Ti 2GB Video Card (£170.99 @ Advancetec.co.uk)

 

Total: £1,465.79

[Asulynn]

A combination of the case and the optical drive will definitely make me go close to / over budget, but I can stretch it. But I still don't know if the optical drive is worth it for the Blu-Ray... So much money for the function of Blu-Ray, highly debatable if it's worth it or not. I guess that's a personal preference again but I would like to know if has an impact on the efficiency of the cd/dvd aspect of the drive? Or is it maybe simpler to buy the CD/DVD writer and then upgrade later if I feel the need?

I dunno about you, but I hardly ever use the drive I have. Everything I play is digital through Steam, MMOs go through a download client on their respective sites and everything I watch is streamed. Outside of operating system disks my DVD drive is virtually useless; which even then, I don't need disks for. That's personal experience, though. What you could do is bump it up to this http://pcpartpicker....l-drive-bd5750h (12ish more) and be able to burn to Bluray. Those Bluray disks hold like 50gb a piece. That's a lot of storage (downside, reads as a Bluray). There's also bluray movies - of course - so more power to you if that's what you're after. If you're not after it for Bluray's themselves, then it makes zero difference over a standard DVD drive.

 

Lastly (for now), looking at the Hard Drive I don't know what to pick. There's the possibility of problems with the Agility 3, whereas Supa rates the Samsung 830 series, which in 128gb is only £3 more than the Agility 3. 8 more gig for £3 seems good to me, especially if you agree it's a reliable SSD.

Go fer it. Samsung is generally always great with.. everything they make. Damned Koreans.

 

If this is still going to be held off until September, check back then. Hardware comes and goes so fast. Both in price and in what's new/good.

[Hardy]

I'd rather wait until bluray becomes more standard before getting too much into it. Its nice having some good movies in blueray now but it'll be a long time in my opinion before everyone upgrades their entire dvd library to bluray. The good news is the prices of the blank discs are coming down. I've seen a spindal of 50 for about $80 at 50GB each, not sure of the quality though.

[Theos Sairin]

I dunno about you, but I hardly ever use the drive I have. Everything I play is digital through Steam, MMOs go through a download client on their respective sites and everything I watch is streamed. Outside of operating system disks my DVD drive is virtually useless; which even then, I don't need disks for. That's personal experience, though.

I don't make much use of my CD/DVD player at the moment anyway, but I do like owning physical disks for music/games/dvd's, adds to the authenticity. Even then I don't own a huge catalogue of things, but enough to make use of it anyway. As for making use of Blu-Ray, it would be purely for watching films in HD. As much as I can download them illegally it takes up a huge space and even then doesn't look as nice as it could do. I don't know if I would make use of it enough for it to be worth it but at least I always have it for the future as well.

 

What you could do is bump it up to this http://pcpartpicker....l-drive-bd5750h (12ish more) and be able to burn to Bluray. Those Bluray disks hold like 50gb a piece. That's a lot of storage (downside, reads as a Bluray). There's also bluray movies - of course - so more power to you if that's what you're after. If you're not after it for Bluray's themselves, then it makes zero difference over a standard DVD drive.

Hmm it doesn't interest me that much writing to Blu-Ray. I can see situations I would make use of writing to Blu-Ray but that only entails someone else receiving the disk and THEN they have to have Blu-Ray as well, and in the end DVD may be lower in quality for what I would send but it's more universal. So if I were to choose a drive I would choose the one I picked out, the extra price for writing to Blu-Ray I really don't think I'd make use of it.

 

I'd rather wait until bluray becomes more standard before getting too much into it. Its nice having some good movies in blueray now but it'll be a long time in my opinion before everyone upgrades their entire dvd library to bluray. The good news is the prices of the blank discs are coming down. I've seen a spindal of 50 for about $80 at 50GB each, not sure of the quality though.

Hmm well as I'm not interested in writing to Blu-Ray, I can only really judge on the film side of it. It is true, it will be a long time before people upgrade to Blu-Ray completely, films are still coming out on DVD and Blu-Ray so people will buy the cheaper option. But you're right, it's not really the standard so it probably isn't worth it right now. I can always upgrade to it in the future, so yeah con's outweigh the pro's - I'll go for a CD/DVD writer similar to the one before (the one before has disappeared off the site and I can't be bothered to hunt it down again)

[Supa]

Right now it isn't worth it to get a bluray player. People that say "oh, well I'll have it for the future" or kind of kidding themselves. No need to spend that kind of money when $20 buys you a great DVD burner.

[Hardy]

...and by the time 'the future' rolls around, that model is long outdated/discontinued in favor of better, usually cheaper units. There is no such thing as 'future proof.'