At a bit of a loss - Spec me a £1k base unit

BrenOS · 16 Feb 2011 at 12:50

Been a while since I've built my own system and am at a bit of a loss where to start...hoping OcUK can help

I need a big powerful system, but not so much on the graphics side of things. I play poker online semi-professionally and keep a very large database of information here. I run several poker applications at once, multi-table the poker rooms whilst the database software polls my two screens. I'll also have itunes and web stuff in the background and the Core2Duo/4GB RAM isn't cutting it anymore.

I do a bit of Photoshop, InDesign and some video editing from time to time. And I'd like to be able to play Civ5 and the latest Command & Conquer games on max with no issues. I've got a PS3 for the other stuff but I'm not exactly a big gamer anyway. It is my assumption then that a ~£150 GFX will do fine and I should spend on CPU, RAM and potentially a SSD. Am open to SLI config if more cost effective to get 2x weaker cards.

I'm thinking CPU MOBO RAM, SSD for win7+apps, then 2tb HDD for storage.

Immediate thoughts were top level i7 and 6gb+ tri channel DDR3 but have seen the 6 core AMDs for a lot less. I have no idea on motherboards these days either and if they are tri-channel or dual-channel or what.

Also I've immediately assumed I need to shell out £1k all in for CASE, PSU, CPU, MOBO, RAM, GFX, SSD, HDD, DVD when that also may not be the case.

All advice welcome and of course would love to see some suggested specs to give me more ideas. Cheers

stulid · 16 Feb 2011 at 12:54

Redmint · 16 Feb 2011 at 13:00

Phenom X6 alternative to Stulid's build which would save you some cash and still be fine for your needs:

AMD Phenom II X6 Six Core 1075T 3.00GHz (Socket AM3) - Retail £149.99
(£124.99) £149.99
(£124.99)
Gainward GeForce GTX 460 GS 1024MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £131.99
(£109.99) £131.99
(£109.99)
Crucial RealSSD C300 64GB 2.5" SATA 6Gb/s Solid State Hard Drive (CTFDDAC064MAG-1G1) £99.98
(£83.32) £99.98
(£83.32)
G.Skill RipJawsX 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (F3-12800CL9D-8GBXL ) £85.99
(£71.66) £85.99
(£71.66)
Gigabyte GA-870A-UD3 AMD 870 (Socket AM3) DDR3 Motherboard £81.98
(£68.32) £81.98
(£68.32)
Seagate Barracuda Green 2TB SATA 6Gb/s Hard Drive - OEM (ST2000DL003) £65.99
(£54.99) £65.99
(£54.99)
Antec 100 One Hundred Ultimate Gaming Case - Black £43.99
(£36.66) £43.99
(£36.66)
BeQuiet Pure Power L7 530W Power Supply £40.98
(£34.15) £40.98
(£34.15)
Samsung SH-S223C/BEBE 22x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £11.99
(£9.99) £11.99
(£9.99)

Sub Total : £594.07
Shipping cost assumes delivery to UK Mainland with:
DPD Next Day Parcel
(This can be changed during checkout) Shipping : £10.50
VAT is being charged at 20.00% VAT : £120.91
Total : £725.48

Sleeve · 16 Feb 2011 at 13:09

Redmint said:
Phenom X6 alternative to Stulid's build which would save you some cash and still be fine for your needs:

AMD Phenom II X6 Six Core 1075T 3.00GHz (Socket AM3) - Retail £149.99
(£124.99) £149.99
(£124.99)
Gainward GeForce GTX 460 GS 1024MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £131.99
(£109.99) £131.99
(£109.99)
Crucial RealSSD C300 64GB 2.5" SATA 6Gb/s Solid State Hard Drive (CTFDDAC064MAG-1G1) £99.98
(£83.32) £99.98
(£83.32)
G.Skill RipJawsX 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (F3-12800CL9D-8GBXL ) £85.99
(£71.66) £85.99
(£71.66)
Gigabyte GA-870A-UD3 AMD 870 (Socket AM3) DDR3 Motherboard £81.98
(£68.32) £81.98
(£68.32)
Seagate Barracuda Green 2TB SATA 6Gb/s Hard Drive - OEM (ST2000DL003) £65.99
(£54.99) £65.99
(£54.99)
Antec 100 One Hundred Ultimate Gaming Case - Black £43.99
(£36.66) £43.99
(£36.66)
BeQuiet Pure Power L7 530W Power Supply £40.98
(£34.15) £40.98
(£34.15)
Samsung SH-S223C/BEBE 22x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £11.99
(£9.99) £11.99
(£9.99)

Sub Total : £594.07
Shipping cost assumes delivery to UK Mainland with:
DPD Next Day Parcel
(This can be changed during checkout) Shipping : £10.50
VAT is being charged at 20.00% VAT : £120.91
Total : £725.48

I personally would go for this build.

BrenOS · 16 Feb 2011 at 13:09

Thanks so far

I assume the AMD 6cores are infact 3 physical cores with 3 virtual?

Is tri-channel memory not required?

stulid · 16 Feb 2011 at 13:10

BrenOS said:
Thanks so far

I assume the AMD 6cores are infact 3 physical cores with 3 virtual?

Is tri-channel memory not required?

Tri-channel memory is for the socket 1366 intel i7 systems.

the AMD cpu is a true six core.

comparison - http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/185?vs=287

eddyc · 16 Feb 2011 at 13:14

Why the crucial SSD and not the OCZ vertex 2e? Faster write speed.

Also will you be overclocking the cpu?

stulid · 16 Feb 2011 at 13:19

eddyc said:
Why the crucial SSD and not the OCZ vertex 2e? Faster write speed.

Its cheaper and much faster read speed.

eddyc · 16 Feb 2011 at 13:22

The vertex can be had for £90 elsewhere. Not sure why it is so expensive on OCUK.

I don't know much about SSD so: is write speed not so important?

stulid · 16 Feb 2011 at 13:25

eddyc said:
The vertex can be had for £90 elsewhere. Not sure why it is so expensive on OCUK.

I don't know much about SSD so: is write speed not so important?

Both important, the crucial in no slouch at writing, but you only install programs once, then read the program to run multiple times.

eddyc · 16 Feb 2011 at 13:28

stulid said:
Both important, the crucial in no slouch at writing, but you only install programs once, then read the program to run multiple times.

Yes guess thats true. Its just that I just bought the Vertex 2 to replace my old Vertex 30GB. Oh well!

stulid · 16 Feb 2011 at 13:32

eddyc said:
Yes guess thats true. Its just that I just bought the Vertex 2 to replace my old Vertex 30GB. Oh well!

nothing wrong with either, buy the cheapest!!!!

if the OCZ was cheaper than the C300, trust me, you would see it in the above specs.

eddyc · 16 Feb 2011 at 13:33

Cheers!

BrenOS · 16 Feb 2011 at 13:35

Thanks for the info so far. Seems there is quite a tradeoff in performance/cost with the i7/x6 solutions, so I guess more of a headache

Redmint · 16 Feb 2011 at 13:57

BrenOS said:
Thanks for the info so far. Seems there is quite a tradeoff in performance/cost with the i7/x6 solutions, so I guess more of a headache

It really depends how much you want to spend and how much time you spend on the Photoshop, InDesign and video editing. If max performance is what you're after then Stulid's build is excellent, however if you'd rather save a bit of cash and have a system which is still pretty quick and a big upgrade on your Core 2 Duo then the Phenom X6 is a nice option.

I would be inclined to believe that for your poker/database work the Phenom X6 would be more than good enough, however I can't speak from first hand experience here and it's not the kind of thing you can quickly check in hardware reviews.

BrenOS · 16 Feb 2011 at 14:25

Aye thanks for the input, I appreciate it's not something that can be answered wholly.

I think I'm leaning towards paying the extra whack for the Intel i7, and trying to justify a bigger SSD and maybe BD-RW too :rolleyes:

stulid · 16 Feb 2011 at 14:26

blue-ray is a nice touch.

Redmint · 16 Feb 2011 at 14:28

Yep had one of the Samsung blu-ray drives in my rig for a while now, quite nice being able to watch blu-ray on my PC when the TV downstairs is busy.

Also I'm thinking that eventually PC games will be released on blu-ray...

morguk · 16 Feb 2011 at 17:08

King Damager · 16 Feb 2011 at 17:36

For your photo editing etc... I'd definitely go 2600k over 6core AMD... There's not even really a competition...

Would go for the c300 myself as well, because as said you only write once for the stuff you stick on an SSD and read lots more times

Blu-ray is a very nice touch though, and I'd say it was worth it, also it's up to you as it is your budget, but you might want to look into nicer (but more expensive) cases. Don't get me wrong the Antec 100 is a good case, but yeah there are some nicer cases if you're willing to spend more!

kd