Hi everyone!

[Dom]

Hi guys, missed you all, I am hopefully making a return to my interest in computers and maybe to SF too
I have ordered parts for my first ever PC build, hopefully all goes well. It's nice to be back into computing!

Specs will be:
CPU: Phenom II X4 965 BE @ 3.4 GHz (Hopefully will overclock okay on the ASRock motherboard)
GPU: Club3D HD 7850 2048MB GDDR5 RoyalKing
Mobo: ASRock 890FX Deluxe 4
RAM: Crucial Ballistix 8GB 1600 MHz
Heatsink: CoolerMaster Hyper 212 EVO
HDD: Western Digital GreenPower 500GB 7200 RPM SATA III
PSU: Corsair CX500
Case: Zalman Z9 Plus
And some ordinary optical DVD RW drive.
Grand total of about £375 not including monitor, KB/M. Cheap because some parts might be *cough* second hand *cough cough*

Hopefully my previous knowledge I learned from these forums will help me in the future, I am going to a college route; going for 3/4 A Levels (Englishmen will understand this better ) Maths, Possibly Further Maths, Chemistry, Computing. I'm aiming to go to Bath University to do Computer Science and Maths with a work placement
I hope you all haven't forgotten me, and again it's nice to be back, thanks to my interest in PC gaming If I still have the knack for it I may have another go with designing in Photoshop and helping people with general issues

See you all soon once I got my new PC up and running

 

[Dom]

If anyone wants to add me on Steam, my nick is 'Domstar'. You will most likely see me playing TF2 and Just Cause 2

 

[whs]

Welcome back. That is a nice configuration. I would add a small SSD for the OS - makes a system soooo much faster.

 

[Dom]

Just out of my budget. First thing to upgrade as soon as I get the money. Then I will get a Piledriver CPU later on
*EDIT* 7200 rpm is plenty fast for me, I've been stuck on 5400 RPM for so long the extra speed is drastic and it is enough for now

 

[linnemeyerhere]

Welcome back DOM,
Please double check that Green WD drive, I own tons of them and I love them for BU drives but I would never use then for a primary drive. The green will throttle the rpms and if I'm not mistaken the most they spin up is around 5400. Look to Seagate as they tend to be a better value and they also have a hybrid drive with a small SSD built in, maybe that wont break the bank.

I've built 4 rigs with that 965be chip and it's still flat amazing for the money and will OC very well. One other thought is if you want to go FX later (great idea) then maybe plan for a little larger PSU now say 600-650w+. that way you can crossfire later and overclock without fear of getting to close the the 500's capacity.

 

[whs]

Just out of my budget. First thing to upgrade as soon as I get the money. Then I will get a Piledriver CPU later on
*EDIT* 7200 rpm is plenty fast for me, I've been stuck on 5400 RPM for so long the extra speed is drastic and it is enough for now

Yeah, unfortunately you are in the UK where prices are higher. I bought a 60GB SSD (which is ample for the OS) the other day from Newegg for $59.95. But bigger models are also available at abour $1 per GB.

Shop around, maybe you find a good deal in the UK too. In Germany they have good offerings too. Example:
Sandisk SSD 2,5" 128 GB They may even ship to the UK - not sure though.

 

[boohbah]

sandisk is here on amazon for £77

http://www.amazon.co.uk/SanDisk-SDS...id=1371738351&sr=1-1&keywords=128gb+ssd+drive

or here for £66

SanDisk SSD SATA III 2.5" 128GB Solid State Hard Drive | SDSSDP-128G-G25

p.s. Hi Dom

 

[Dom]

Welcome back DOM,
Please double check that Green WD drive, I own tons of them and I love them for BU drives but I would never use then for a primary drive. The green will throttle the rpms and if I'm not mistaken the most then spin up is around 5400. Look to Seagate as they tend to be a better value and they also have a hybrid drive with a small SSD built in, maybe that wont break the bank.

I've built 4 rigs with that 965be chip and it's still flat amazing for the money and will OC very well. One other thought is if you want to go FX later (great idea) then maybe plan for a little larger PSU now say 600-650w+. that way you can crossfire later and overclock without fear of getting to close the the 500's capacity.

I have seen the SSHD's, very interesting. I assume they use the inbuilt SSD rather as a cache? Almost as two seperate drives in one. I did consider the 500GB offered at overclockers.co.uk, same pirce as a 60GB SSD. But I looked at it after I had bought the GreenPower OH well I'm sure I'll manage, as long as it boots up fine I'm happy
And yes, when I next upgrade I won't just jump straight in, I will look at things like the PSU requirements, especially if I will opt for a crossfire upgrade in the future.

Just out of my budget. First thing to upgrade as soon as I get the money. Then I will get a Piledriver CPU later on
*EDIT* 7200 rpm is plenty fast for me, I've been stuck on 5400 RPM for so long the extra speed is drastic and it is enough for now

Yeah, unfortunately you are in the UK where prices are higher. I bought a 60GB SSD (which is ample for the OS) the other day from Newegg for $59.95. But bigger models are also available at abour $1 per GB.

Shop around, maybe you find a good deal in the UK too. In Germany they have good offerings too. Example:
Sandisk SSD 2,5" 128 GB They may even ship to the UK - not sure though.

I was considering an SSD at first, but to be honest I really only want a top performer drive (~500mbps R/W) like a Crucial M4. I have a USB 2.0 drive I could have used, but that thing is slow and I don't actually own any other HDD's apart from the GreenPower one.
Either way SSD's are slowly dropping in price, so I'm sure when I next dip my hand into my pocket, they'll be far cheaper.

 

[Frank1]

Hope things go well for you in college, Dom...

 

[Dom]

Hi boohbah
That is really cheap. I never considered Novatech due to their awful website layout I have experienced before.
A 60GB SSD suits my needs, not to mention buying another later and putting it in RAID 0 dramatically increase R/W speeds.
I'll have a look round

 

[Dom]

Hope things go well for you in college, Dom...

Thank you very much...!

 

[whs]

I was considering an SSD at first, but to be honest I really only want a top performer drive (~500mbps R/W) like a Crucial M4.

Don't get fooled by the R/W speeds. For the OS they are relatively irrelevant. The OS performance stems from the fast access time. The OS processes mainly 4K blocks and for those these 'fantastic' R/W speeds do not apply anyhow.

I use 7 SSDs ranging from a 2008 first gen Intel, a 2008 model OCZ to their latest Vector model and anything in between (including one M4). The OS performance on any one of those is nearly the same within a small margin. The main difference is betwwen those that have TRIM and those that don't have TRIM or where the OS does not support it (like all pre-Windows 7 systems).

 

[Dom]

I was considering an SSD at first, but to be honest I really only want a top performer drive (~500mbps R/W) like a Crucial M4.

Don't get fooled by the R/W speeds. For the OS they are relatively irrelevant. The OS performance stems from the fast access time. The OS processes mainly 4K blocks and for those these 'fantastic' R/W speeds do not apply anyhow.

I use 7 SSDs ranging from a 2008 first gen Intel, a 2008 model OCZ to their latest Vector model and anything in between (including one M4). The OS performance on any one of those is nearly the same within a small margin. The main difference is betwwen those that have TRIM and those that don't have TRIM or where the OS does not support it (like all pre-Windows 7 systems).

So I can just go for a cheap, trusted brand SSD and it will still perform well? And I may be interested in recording gameplay. I've heard you need a very good SSD for recording 1080p@30 fps.
Thanks for all the advice so far

 

[whs]

So I can just go for a cheap, trusted brand SSD and it will still perform well?

Based on my experience the answer would be yes. Even lesser known makes are OK. I have e.g. one Mushkin SSD which is excellent.

I am not sure about your game recording problem because I know absolutely nothing about games. But I have done a lot of screen recordings of videos and never noticed any particular problem.

 

[koolkat77]

Welcome back Dom

 

[Dom]

Welcome back Dom

Thanks! I've already tried helping out in general discussion, felt good to be back haha

 

[boohbah]

Hi boohbah
That is really cheap. I never considered Novatech due to their awful website layout I have experienced before.
A 60GB SSD suits my needs, not to mention buying another later and putting it in RAID 0 dramatically increase R/W speeds.
I'll have a look round

no worries, that was just some examples to show its fairly cheap here too.
ps, if your doing screen recordings of games then give mirillis action a whirl, you can try it free
here

Action! - The world's No. 1 gameplay recorder and Windows desktop recorder!

 

[Dom]

Hi boohbah
That is really cheap. I never considered Novatech due to their awful website layout I have experienced before.
A 60GB SSD suits my needs, not to mention buying another later and putting it in RAID 0 dramatically increase R/W speeds.
I'll have a look round

no worries, that was just some examples to show its fairly cheap here too.
ps, if your doing screen recordings of games then give mirillis action a whirl, you can try it free
here

Action! - The world's No. 1 gameplay recorder and Windows desktop recorder!

I have used dxtory and it more or less only reduces about 5 fps, much like Mirillis Action. I have come across youtubers who used MA, who say its one of the best recorders for pc out there.

 

[boohbah]

yeah it is, when ive done a full screen recording of the desktop and played it back fullscreen my son thought it was the destop. there is no difference in quality.

tip. when you get the trial of action they will send you offers at a reduced price.
it was about $19 recently

 

[Joan Archer]

Welcome back Dom it's nice to see you again, good luck with the build.