Forum Articles
  Welcome back Join CF
You are here You are here: Home | Forum | Building a pc

You are currently viewing our boards as a guest which gives you limited access to view most of the discussions, articles and other free features. By joining our Virgin Media community you will have full access to all discussions, be able to view and post threads, communicate privately with other members (PM), respond to polls, upload your own images/photos, and access many other special features. Registration is fast, simple and absolutely free so please join our community today.


Welcome to Cable Forum
Go Back   Cable Forum > Computers & IT > General IT Discussion
Register FAQ Community Calendar

Building a pc
Reply
 
Thread Tools
Old 13-11-2010, 16:48   #1
martyh
Guest
 
Location: newcastle upon tyne
Services: Sky Q silver bundle Sky Q 2TB box Sky Q mini box Sky fibre unlimited Sky Talk evenings and week
Posts: n/a
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
  Reply With Quote
Advertisement
Old 13-11-2010, 16:59   #2
Peter_
Permanently Banned
 
Join Date: Jan 2009
Location: In a world of no buffering!!
Services: Samsung V+ XL TV XL Phone 30Mb Superhub Samsung Galaxy 3 32GB sd card In a world of no buffering!
Posts: 20,915
Peter_ is seeing silvered starsPeter_ is seeing silvered starsPeter_ is seeing silvered starsPeter_ is seeing silvered starsPeter_ is seeing silvered starsPeter_ is seeing silvered stars
Peter_ is seeing silvered starsPeter_ is seeing silvered starsPeter_ is seeing silvered starsPeter_ is seeing silvered starsPeter_ is seeing silvered starsPeter_ is seeing silvered stars
Re: building a pc

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

http://www.digitalpromo.co.uk/
Peter_ is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 13-11-2010, 16:59   #3
MTJR
Inactive
 
Join Date: Nov 2010
Posts: 112
MTJR is a jewel in the roughMTJR is a jewel in the roughMTJR is a jewel in the roughMTJR is a jewel in the roughMTJR is a jewel in the rough
Re: building a pc

How much RAM is it exactly?
MTJR is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 13-11-2010, 17:02   #4
martyh
Guest
 
Location: newcastle upon tyne
Services: Sky Q silver bundle Sky Q 2TB box Sky Q mini box Sky fibre unlimited Sky Talk evenings and week
Posts: n/a
Re: building a pc

Quote:
Originally Posted by Masque View Post
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 ----------

Quote:
Originally Posted by MTJR View Post
How much RAM is it exactly?

they are 2 gb cards x2
  Reply With Quote
Old 13-11-2010, 17:05   #5
MTJR
Inactive
 
Join Date: Nov 2010
Posts: 112
MTJR is a jewel in the roughMTJR is a jewel in the roughMTJR is a jewel in the roughMTJR is a jewel in the roughMTJR is a jewel in the rough
Re: building a pc

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.
MTJR is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 13-11-2010, 17:08   #6
martyh
Guest
 
Location: newcastle upon tyne
Services: Sky Q silver bundle Sky Q 2TB box Sky Q mini box Sky fibre unlimited Sky Talk evenings and week
Posts: n/a
Re: building a pc

Quote:
Originally Posted by MTJR View Post
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?
  Reply With Quote
Old 13-11-2010, 17:15   #7
MTJR
Inactive
 
Join Date: Nov 2010
Posts: 112
MTJR is a jewel in the roughMTJR is a jewel in the roughMTJR is a jewel in the roughMTJR is a jewel in the roughMTJR is a jewel in the rough
Re: building a pc

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.
MTJR is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 13-11-2010, 17:19   #8
martyh
Guest
 
Location: newcastle upon tyne
Services: Sky Q silver bundle Sky Q 2TB box Sky Q mini box Sky fibre unlimited Sky Talk evenings and week
Posts: n/a
Re: building a pc

Quote:
Originally Posted by MTJR View Post
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 ,
  Reply With Quote
Old 13-11-2010, 18:40   #9
Ramrod
[NTHW] pc clan
 
Ramrod's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jun 2003
Location: Tonbridge
Age: 57
Services: Amazon Prime Video & Netflix. Deregistered from my TV licence.
Posts: 21,960
Ramrod has a golden aura
Ramrod has a golden auraRamrod has a golden auraRamrod has a golden auraRamrod has a golden auraRamrod has a golden auraRamrod has a golden auraRamrod has a golden auraRamrod has a golden auraRamrod has a golden auraRamrod has a golden auraRamrod has a golden auraRamrod has a golden auraRamrod has a golden auraRamrod has a golden auraRamrod has a golden auraRamrod has a golden auraRamrod has a golden auraRamrod has a golden aura
Re: building a pc

Lots of RAM >/= 6 gig
>/= i5 intel cpu
64 bit win 7
get the best GPU that he can afford
Ramrod is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 13-11-2010, 19:05   #10
MovedGoalPosts
Inactive
 
MovedGoalPosts's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jun 2003
Location: 127.0.0.1
Age: 61
Posts: 15,868
MovedGoalPosts has a pair of shiny starsMovedGoalPosts has a pair of shiny starsMovedGoalPosts has a pair of shiny starsMovedGoalPosts has a pair of shiny starsMovedGoalPosts has a pair of shiny starsMovedGoalPosts has a pair of shiny stars
MovedGoalPosts has a pair of shiny starsMovedGoalPosts has a pair of shiny starsMovedGoalPosts has a pair of shiny starsMovedGoalPosts has a pair of shiny starsMovedGoalPosts has a pair of shiny starsMovedGoalPosts has a pair of shiny starsMovedGoalPosts has a pair of shiny starsMovedGoalPosts has a pair of shiny starsMovedGoalPosts has a pair of shiny starsMovedGoalPosts has a pair of shiny starsMovedGoalPosts has a pair of shiny starsMovedGoalPosts has a pair of shiny starsMovedGoalPosts has a pair of shiny starsMovedGoalPosts has a pair of shiny starsMovedGoalPosts has a pair of shiny starsMovedGoalPosts has a pair of shiny starsMovedGoalPosts has a pair of shiny starsMovedGoalPosts has a pair of shiny starsMovedGoalPosts has a pair of shiny starsMovedGoalPosts has a pair of shiny stars
Re: building a pc

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
MovedGoalPosts is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 13-11-2010, 19:34   #11
Zing
Guest
 
Posts: n/a
Re: building a pc

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
  Reply With Quote
Old 13-11-2010, 19:36   #12
martyh
Guest
 
Location: newcastle upon tyne
Services: Sky Q silver bundle Sky Q 2TB box Sky Q mini box Sky fibre unlimited Sky Talk evenings and week
Posts: n/a
Re: building a pc

Quote:
Originally Posted by Rob View Post
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
  Reply With Quote
Old 13-11-2010, 22:42   #13
damien c
cf.mega poster
 
Join Date: Sep 2007
Location: warrington
Age: 39
Services: Tivo, 100mb, Mobile
Posts: 1,454
damien c has reached the bronze age
damien c has reached the bronze agedamien c has reached the bronze agedamien c has reached the bronze agedamien c has reached the bronze agedamien c has reached the bronze agedamien c has reached the bronze agedamien c has reached the bronze agedamien c has reached the bronze agedamien c has reached the bronze agedamien c has reached the bronze agedamien c has reached the bronze agedamien c has reached the bronze age
Re: building a pc

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.
__________________
7900X3D, 64Gb Corsair 6000Mhz, Gigabyte Aorus RTX 4080 Super, Samsung 980 Pro 2Tb NVME
2x Unraid Servers, 180TB Storage between Supermicro CSE-846 & Dell R720 with DS4246 48 Drives total, 4x Intel Xeons, Quadro P2000, 96Gb DDR3 each
damien c is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 13-11-2010, 22:56   #14
martyh
Guest
 
Location: newcastle upon tyne
Services: Sky Q silver bundle Sky Q 2TB box Sky Q mini box Sky fibre unlimited Sky Talk evenings and week
Posts: n/a
Re: building a pc

Quote:
Originally Posted by damien c View Post
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 .
  Reply With Quote
Old 14-11-2010, 09:22   #15
damien c
cf.mega poster
 
Join Date: Sep 2007
Location: warrington
Age: 39
Services: Tivo, 100mb, Mobile
Posts: 1,454
damien c has reached the bronze age
damien c has reached the bronze agedamien c has reached the bronze agedamien c has reached the bronze agedamien c has reached the bronze agedamien c has reached the bronze agedamien c has reached the bronze agedamien c has reached the bronze agedamien c has reached the bronze agedamien c has reached the bronze agedamien c has reached the bronze agedamien c has reached the bronze agedamien c has reached the bronze age
Re: building a pc

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.
__________________
7900X3D, 64Gb Corsair 6000Mhz, Gigabyte Aorus RTX 4080 Super, Samsung 980 Pro 2Tb NVME
2x Unraid Servers, 180TB Storage between Supermicro CSE-846 & Dell R720 with DS4246 48 Drives total, 4x Intel Xeons, Quadro P2000, 96Gb DDR3 each
damien c is offline   Reply With Quote
Reply


Currently Active Users Viewing This Thread: 1 (0 members and 1 guests)
 

Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

BB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is On
HTML code is Off

Forum Jump


All times are GMT +1. The time now is 18:15.


Server: osmium.zmnt.uk
Powered by vBulletin® Version 3.8.11
Copyright ©2000 - 2025, vBulletin Solutions Inc.
All Posts and Content are © Cable Forum