Roped in to help with new builds

[LeeRichLuck]

Hi all and thanks for the viewing.

I have recently built 2 pc's of my own, one for my office and the other as a media center in the lounge.
A friend now wants me to build him and his mate 2 identical tower units for general usage. They are both willing to spend £500 ish.
They will be using the PC's for the same reasons, being....

1. Play films via HDMI and blu-ray playback
2. Net browsing
3. Possible gaming ? (not essential)
4. Photo editing
5 General letter writing and music playing etc.

I have built my pc's with your help in the past and i call on you to guide me with a few ideas as to what i could use in these 2 new towers.

So far i have looked at,

Intel i3 540 or 550 at £80 - £93
Gigabyte MB GA P55 USB3 ATX £82
Gigabyte GT 220 DDR3 graphics £51

I can source the parts from either eBuyer or Amazon as i have accounts there so i need some help with a few other things like.

1. Ram (4gig or 6gig dependent on budget)
2. PSU

I will be putting a samsung Blu-ray in as well as a samsung 1TB HDD and using possibly an Antec 300 case along with Windows 7 64bit

So any ideas or revisions on the above will be most welcome, as i am new to PC builds myself i rely on seasoned peeps like yourselves to steer me in a better direction where needed lol.

Thanks for any advice/info offered, i will update and share my progress here for others to use too.

Regards for now,

Lee

 

[LeeRichLuck]

Ok, i have had to re-think a few things as stock is a problem so i am looking into these now, ?


GA-HA65M Motherboard
i3 2100 Intel CPU

The question i have is can i use triple channel ram on a dual channel MB? and if so is this ram ok ?

Kingston 6gig

I will be putting a Gigabyte GT220 1gig graphics card in it as well as a samsung Blu-ray so any ideas what a good PSU size/make would be ?

Thanks for any advice

 

[MrBlkfx1]

PSU wise 400W or greater would be just fine for your build.

 

[ihaveaname]

Going from ebuyer...

(your motherboard)
RAM
http://www.ebuyer.com/248449-kingst...rx-blu-memory-kit-cl9-1-5v-khx1333c9d3b1k2-8g
CPU
http://www.ebuyer.com/252537-intel-...mb-cache-retail-boxed-processor-bx80623i52300
Graphics card
http://www.ebuyer.com/251996-xfx-hd-5750-xxx-edition-1gb-ddr5-dual-dvi-dp-out-pci-e-hd-575x-zmd3
Tower (If your friends aren't into overclocking and aren't going to be swapping parts, any tower will do really. Also it might be better to buy a case from a local store as it could cost a bit to ship)
http://www.ebuyer.com/127584-coolermaster-elite-330-black-mid-tower-case-rc-330
PSU
http://www.ebuyer.com/240999-corsair-500w-cx-series-psu-cmpsu-500cx
HDD
http://www.ebuyer.com/252858-seagat...-s-hard-drive-7200rpm-32mb-cache-st31000524as
Optical drive
http://www.ebuyer.com/190838-liteon...ram-lightscribe-sata-optical-drive-ihas224-19

Hope this helps...

 

[hellokitty[hk]]

Going from ebuyer...

(your motherboard)
RAM
http://www.ebuyer.com/248449-kingst...rx-blu-memory-kit-cl9-1-5v-khx1333c9d3b1k2-8g
CPU
http://www.ebuyer.com/252537-intel-...mb-cache-retail-boxed-processor-bx80623i52300
Graphics card
http://www.ebuyer.com/251996-xfx-hd-5750-xxx-edition-1gb-ddr5-dual-dvi-dp-out-pci-e-hd-575x-zmd3
Tower (If your friends aren't into overclocking and aren't going to be swapping parts, any tower will do really. Also it might be better to buy a case from a local store as it could cost a bit to ship)
http://www.ebuyer.com/127584-coolermaster-elite-330-black-mid-tower-case-rc-330
PSU
http://www.ebuyer.com/240999-corsair-500w-cx-series-psu-cmpsu-500cx
HDD
http://www.ebuyer.com/252858-seagat...-s-hard-drive-7200rpm-32mb-cache-st31000524as
Optical drive
http://www.ebuyer.com/190838-liteon...ram-lightscribe-sata-optical-drive-ihas224-19

Hope this helps...

That looks decent to me, though I would just opt for four GB's of RAM. Also, if available at similar pricing, I'd choose the Samsung F3 1TB.

 

[captaincranky]

Hi all and thanks for the viewing.


1. Play films via HDMI and blu-ray playback
2. Net browsing
3. Possible gaming ? (not essential)
4. Photo editing
5 General letter writing and music playing etc.

I have built my pc's with your help in the past and i call on you to guide me with a few ideas as to what i could use in these 2 new towers.

So far i have looked at,

Intel i3 540 or 550 at £80 - £93
Gigabyte MB GA P55 USB3 ATX £82
Gigabyte GT 220 DDR3 graphics £51


Regards for now,

Lee

IMHO, you might try looking at an H-55 motherboard. The stock integrated graphics in the i3 series are almost as good as the GT-220. The P-55 board you've chosen must be used with an add-in video card.

Gigabyte's implementation of IGP graphics, includes DVI, HDMI, VGA....AND Display Port connectivity, something that separate cards do not offer.

The question i have is can i use triple channel ram on a dual channel MB? and if so is this ram ok ?

Well, yes you can. Although I have no idea why you would want to.

I will be putting a Gigabyte GT220 1gig graphics card in it as well as a samsung Blu-ray so any ideas what a good PSU size/make would be ?

Here, you've chosen a motherboard that will allow the use of the Intel Graphics. The Sandy Brige integrated video is better than the Clarkdale, so you don't need the card for Blu-Ray playback.

Were you to find out I'm wrong, you can always buy an add-in card later, but not the GT-220, it's junk, and it's obsolete. Think along the lines of a GT-430 or above.

 

[Leeky]

My build using www.scan.co.uk:

CPU: AMD Phenom II X6 1090T Black Edition, Thuban, Sok AM3, 3.2GHz, 9MB Total Cache, 125W, Retail £133.08
Mobo: Asus M5A78L LE, AMD 760G, AM3+, PCI-E 2.0 (x16), DDR3 2000(OC), SATA 3GB/s, SATA RAID, ATX £53.74
RAM: Corsair Memory XMS3 Classic 8GB DDR3 1600 MHz CAS 9 XMP Dual Channel Desktop CMX8GX3M4A1600C9 £54.19
HDD: 1TB Samsung HD103SJ Spinpoint F3, SATA 3Gb/s, 7200rpm, 32MB Cache, 8.9ms, NCQ £39.49
Case: NZXT Beta Evo - Black £35.65
PSU: 600W Corsair Gaming Series GS600, 80 Plus, 80% Eff', SLi, EPS 12V, 140mm Fan, Blue LED, 48A +12V £53.94
GPU: 1GB XFX HD6770 Super Eyefinity5 DDR5 Single SLOT PCI-E card with 5 x Mini DP £87.20
BD: Samsung SH-B123L/BSBP 12x BD-ROM & DVDRW Combo Player OEM £44.86

Total including delivery is £518.93

You won't find much better at this price range. The GPU is good for moderate gaming, and the latest generation as well. You also have 8GB RAM and a hexacore (6 core) CPU, which will munch through any task you're friends can throw at it.

In my honest opinion its an awesome build for the price, and I use and recommend Scan all day long.

Also, the motherboard is a brand new AM3+ (Bulldozer) design, so will support the to be released CPU's from AMD. This allows for you to update the CPU's later on to the very latest.

 

[LeeRichLuck]

Thanks peeps for the info, i am really liking the setup above Leeky cheers, I think i will go for this, i have never used AMD or Asus, what are the pro's and con's between AMD and Intel ? is it just price ?

I am joining Scan as i type lol

EDIT ! scrap that, the 2 blokes i am doing this for both cant afford to pay any more then £500 inc an OS ! so back to the drawing board..,so

Basing it on what CaptainCranky suggested here is my revised idea ?

i3 540 Socket 1156
Gigabyte GA-P55 mb
Gigabyte GT430 1gig
Corsair 500w PSU

I will be putting W7 32bit on the 2 units so i only need 4gig of ram, all other componants i can source but some advice on Ram would be most appreciated. Would this be any good for the system ?

Corsair 4gig XMS3
or
Kingston Hyper X blu

Dont know if 1 module is better then 2 or vice versa ?

Thanks thus far, i will be keeping your list though Leeky for a future build of my own lol

 

[Leeky]

Choose 4 GB of RAM that is on the motherboards compatibility listing.

For your motherboard that would be: http://download.gigabyte.eu/FileList/Memory/mb_memory_ga-p55-usb3.pdf

So: http://www.scan.co.uk/products/4gb-...600)-cas-8-8-8-24-new-connector-dhx-bemp-165v

Or from eBuyer: http://www.ebuyer.com/186677-kingst...rx-memory-kit-cl9-1-65v-xmp-khx1600c9d3k2-4gx

If your going anything other than LGA1366 always install in pairs to run dual channel (1366 is triple channel), with matched pairs. Never purchase separate sticks as these have not been certified as fully comparable with one another.

 

[LeeRichLuck]

Thanks again leeky, your a star, I am ordering the parts now so will let you all know how I get on.

Thank to all who helped thus far.

Have a great weekend.


Full list of parts attached

 

[LeeRichLuck]

Hi all, just wanted to update and get this thread closed. All the parts came and fell together, PC's run a dream and work a treat.

A MASSIVE THANKS to all who offered support, its trully appreciated.

Kindest regards,

Lee.

 

[Leeky]

Its like seeing double of everything!! :haha:

Glad its all up and running (x2), and your happy!

 

[LeeRichLuck]

LOL i am trying to attach 2 more pics but cant for some reason ?

Thanks Leeky glad you posted actually, can you take a look at my graphics card thread as i would appreciate your input matey

 

[Leeky]

I've had a wee look, but it seems pretty well replied to already. HDMI isn't one of my more well known subjects either, I don't even use it. :haha:

 

[LeeRichLuck]

LOL zero replies so far matey ;p

https://www.techspot.com/vb/topic169316.html

Thanks for taking a look all the same pal

 

[Leeky]

Ah, looking at the wrong thread. :haha:

Have replied though.

 

[LeeRichLuck]

Your a star, still cant upload the last 2 pics...? Techspot must have a problem, i will try later.

Cheers again

 

[Leeky]

It will be the size of them most likely thats causing them to fail. If you reduce the size to below 1920x1080 they should be fine.

Also, the file size if its about 200KB will cause it to fail if your attaching them to your posts.

 

[LeeRichLuck]

Mmmmm the uploader did the first 2 fine, it must resize them as they are all the same size ?
I will try again tomorrow failing that i will manually resize them, Thanks Leeky.


EDIT Done it i just resized them for ease check out post #11 for final pics.

Thanks again all