Building a pc

My son(13yrs) wants to build a new pc for himself ,i have agreed to buy the parts he wants as his christmas present .I don't know that much about the tech side of building pc's just the basics ,to be honest my son knows more than me and he has done a lot of research over the last couple of months .If possible i would like any of the techy guys on the forum to have a look at the list below and see if there are any problems which stand out .Many thanks in advance

Sapphire HD5770 1GB Graphics card - £103.99

ASRock AM3 M3A770DE/A/ASR Motherboard Socket S/L 5200MT/S £49.78

2x Kingston ValueRAM Memory 1333Mz DDR3 Non-EEC DIMM £24.89

Cosair CMPSU-400CXUK 400w PSU £34.46

AMD Phenom II X4 Quad 3.2GHz Processor 4x512KB £117.61

CIT CSCITI002 Screwless Gaming Case With Silver Side Vents - Black £28.20

he has sourced all these parts from amazon

He wants to run a 64bit os possibly windows 7
(any thoughts on this)
he will be using it chiefly for online gaming

he already has a wireles N card and hard drives ,the only thing i'm not sure about is the ram he has chosen

[Peter_]

Has he bought the parts yet, if not give this site a look before he does.

http://www.digitalpromo.co.uk/

[MTJR]

How much RAM is it exactly?

Originally Posted by Masque

Has he bought the parts yet, if not give this site a look before he does.

http://www.digitalpromo.co.uk/

no not yet Masque he has just got the list prepared for me and used amazon to give me an idea of cost ,but any decent sites are welcome

---------- Post added at 17:02 ---------- Previous post was at 17:00 ----------

Originally Posted by MTJR

How much RAM is it exactly?

they are 2 gb cards x2

[MTJR]

I'd go for a minimum of 6Gb personally if he's going to run Windows 7 64-bit.

In fact, chuck as much RAM in as he can afford.

Originally Posted by MTJR

I'd go for a minimum of 6Gb personally if he's going to run Windows 7 64-bit.

In fact, chuck as much RAM in as he can afford.

that's what i said after all why have the potential for loads of ram and not use it ,any thoughts onn the mother board and processor?

[MTJR]

The motherboard and CPU sound fine to me. Having experience of the AMD's I prefer to go Intel but that's more a preference thing rather than anything else.

I can't say I had a bad experience of AMD chips. Just prefer Intel.

Originally Posted by MTJR

The motherboard and CPU sound fine to me. Having experience of the AMD's I prefer to go Intel but that's more a preference thing rather than anything else.

I can't say I had a bad experience of AMD chips. Just prefer Intel.

Thanks ,

[Ramrod]

Lots of RAM >/= 6 gig
>/= i5 intel cpu
64 bit win 7
get the best GPU that he can afford

[MovedGoalPosts]

400 W PSU might be marginal, depending on how many hard drives he adds to the system.

It's worth looking closely at the case too. Make sure it genuinely is big enough inside. Nothing worse than finding today's GPU card wont fit as a hard disk must be squeezed in. Look also at the provision for fans. Budget cases may not include many of these but it's important to get a good air curculation especially to the GPU.

I'm assuming that the CPU is a retail rather than OEM version so would be supplied with a stock cooler fan.


Amazon may be a reasonable place to start looking for stuff, but it's got to be worth checking out some of the dedicated suppliers out there:
In no particular order or recommendation:
www.ebuyer.co.uk
www.overclockers.co.uk
www.scan.co.uk
www.aria.co.uk
www.novatech.co.uk

4 gig of ram with windows 7 64 bit is absolutely fine built loads of fully loaded systems with 4 gig. 6 gig with a triple channel mobo

You could save money on the cpu by going with an Athlon II instead of the Phenom only difference is Lvl2 cache and benchmarks show the Athlon II performing equally clock for clock with the phenoms

Originally Posted by Rob

400 W PSU might be marginal, depending on how many hard drives he adds to the system.

It's worth looking closely at the case too. Make sure it genuinely is big enough inside. Nothing worse than finding today's GPU card wont fit as a hard disk must be squeezed in. Look also at the provision for fans. Budget cases may not include many of these but it's important to get a good air curculation especially to the GPU.

I'm assuming that the CPU is a retail rather than OEM version so would be supplied with a stock cooler fan.


Amazon may be a reasonable place to start looking for stuff, but it's got to be worth checking out some of the dedicated suppliers out there:
In no particular order or recommendation:
www.ebuyer.co.uk
www.overclockers.co.uk
www.scan.co.uk
www.aria.co.uk
www.novatech.co.uk

cheers rob ,very helpfull ,yes the cpu comes with a fan ,the box is reviewed as being very spacious (although a tad plasticy) the psu he has chosen is the minimum required to support the mother board(with 1 120gb hd) and the gpu he wants which is connected to the psu so it may be worth upgrading that

[damien c]

A few question's that might help with recomending component's to get the best for what he want's and within budget.

What sort of a budget are you looking at max?

What will the pc be used for?

Who will be building it for him?

The Amd quad core's are not bad and neither are the mobo's but personally I would avoid Asrock, and go with Asus or Gigabyte instead.

Ram go for a named brand like the one's you posted because cheap brand's normally are not that good.

Try to spend a little extra on the graphic's card and go for a Nvidia GTX 460 1GB as they are better than the Ati 5770's and also, Nvidia have better driver support than Ati which is a shame because some of there card's are very good but they lack good driver's.

Power supply I would recommend a 600w minimum or a Corsair 750w modular they are more expensive but, it will allow for further upgrade's in the future and also being modular will aid in air flow within the case.

The case is not a bad choice for the price probably the best at that price but having built a pc in it, I know that for a pc such as the spec above what you have posted you will need to add more fans and also mod the, case to fit more in as it is not that good for strong airflow which component's of that nature need.

If you wanted a pc that would last quite a while for a 13 year old then this would be my recommendation:

Case
http://www.scan.co.uk/products/72ant...op-fan-w-o-psu

Cpu
http://www.scan.co.uk/products/amd-p...he-125w-retail

Gpu
http://www.scan.co.uk/products/1gb-g...s-dl-dvi-mhdmi

Hdd
http://www.scan.co.uk/products/ss1tb...-89-ms-ncq-oem

Ram
http://www.scan.co.uk/products/4gb-%...9-9-24-dhx-16v

Mobo
http://www.scan.co.uk/products/asus-...3gb-s-raid-atx

Dvd
http://www.scan.co.uk/products/samsu...sata-black-oem

Psu
http://www.scan.co.uk/products/750w-...-year-warranty

Windows
http://www.scan.co.uk/products/micro...tem-single-oem

Total £730

It is more than the one you posted that he has looked at but this will be allot better and last longer and, not only that but will allow for further upgrades allot easier.

Just a recomendation of course as it is more than you are looking at but it depends really on what it will be used for though in the end.

Originally Posted by damien c

A few question's that might help with recomending component's to get the best for what he want's and within budget.

What sort of a budget are you looking at max?

What will the pc be used for?

Who will be building it for him?

The Amd quad core's are not bad and neither are the mobo's but personally I would avoid Asrock, and go with Asus or Gigabyte instead.

Ram go for a named brand like the one's you posted because cheap brand's normally are not that good.

Try to spend a little extra on the graphic's card and go for a Nvidia GTX 460 1GB as they are better than the Ati 5770's and also, Nvidia have better driver support than Ati which is a shame because some of there card's are very good but they lack good driver's.

Power supply I would recommend a 600w minimum or a Corsair 750w modular they are more expensive but, it will allow for further upgrade's in the future and also being modular will aid in air flow within the case.

The case is not a bad choice for the price probably the best at that price but having built a pc in it, I know that for a pc such as the spec above what you have posted you will need to add more fans and also mod the, case to fit more in as it is not that good for strong airflow which component's of that nature need.

If you wanted a pc that would last quite a while for a 13 year old then this would be my recommendation:

Case
http://www.scan.co.uk/products/72ant...op-fan-w-o-psu

Cpu
http://www.scan.co.uk/products/amd-p...he-125w-retail

Gpu
http://www.scan.co.uk/products/1gb-g...s-dl-dvi-mhdmi

Hdd
http://www.scan.co.uk/products/ss1tb...-89-ms-ncq-oem

Ram
http://www.scan.co.uk/products/4gb-%...9-9-24-dhx-16v

Mobo
http://www.scan.co.uk/products/asus-...3gb-s-raid-atx

Dvd
http://www.scan.co.uk/products/samsu...sata-black-oem

Psu
http://www.scan.co.uk/products/750w-...-year-warranty

Windows
http://www.scan.co.uk/products/micro...tem-single-oem

Total £730

It is more than the one you posted that he has looked at but this will be allot better and last longer and, not only that but will allow for further upgrades allot easier.

Just a recomendation of course as it is more than you are looking at but it depends really on what it will be used for though in the end.

Thanks for the excellent post Damien c my budget is 400-500 £'s so if i take off the the not needed components (HDD ,windows,dvd) then you aren't that far off ,he will be using it for online gaming and he will be building it .

[damien c]

I suggest if he has not done it before you get someone who you know has to help him when it come's to the, heatsink for the cpu as too much pressure on it will crack the board.

Glad to help.