advice on new PC

Smilie · 29-10-2009, 22:27

Hi guys

need some help here
think its about time i upgrade my PC

and these are more or less the main conponents im looking to get

i7 860
2x2gig ram (most likely a pair of cosairs)
ATI 5750 or 5850
2xsata HDD might be 4

the things i want help is

what mobo should i get??
im not looking to use SLI or crossfire or overclocking
only things i want on the board are sound card, LAN and RAID and all mobos should have that
so i could just get any under Â£90 P55 ATX mobo with a brand i like??

RAM
as i don't overclock should i get DDR3 1600??
is that the speed the CPU and mobo runs at??

how many watts PSU would i need??
i currently using a old tagan 380W on this rig would this be ok??
or would i most likely need something bigger??
i currently have 2 working HDD but might be upto 4
as i also have 2 here which is in a bad state RAID 0 and after i copy stuff from them i will format them and see if they work

if i should get a PSU what size should i get??

thanks for any advice given

DocDutch · 30-10-2009, 04:53

okay 1st thing the PSU is not going to work with what you want you'll need at least a good make 500 Watt or above psu.

Mobo, well any P55 would be alright, just have to look at the features you want.

Those 2 other drives you got are they Sata or IDE and also your dvd drives are they sata or ide reason for asking is that on all new mobo's you only get 1 IDE connection so for either 2 hd's or 2 cd/dvd drives.

The memory is alright, shouldnt have too many problems with that? Also which OS are you going to put on it, as you are thinking about 4gb of mem already you'll most likely be looking at a 64bit OS.

30-10-2009, 07:54

My machine only pulls 385 watt under full load all cores and GFX mind you you need headroom you need a 500 watt jobbie

If you are spending all that moola I personally would opt for a 1366 i7 720 and a P6T mobo ok its gonna cost you more but your are spending 300 quid on a GFX that isnt gonna be used to its limits with games what they are

Smilie · 30-10-2009, 13:06

thanks guys

@DocDutch
all my HDD are SATA only DVD rom is IDE
but i might buy a new SATA 1 anyway
and i already got Win7 ready for install (1 of the reason i want to upgrade my PC)
and i'll be installing 64bit version

@Zing
is that a typo?? do u mean a 1366 i7 920??
i thought that the 1156 i7 860 is more or less as fast as the 1366 i7 920
and in some cases faster

30-10-2009, 13:34

yes its a typo

Well I aint so sure TBH the reviews ive read have said the 1366 is better but remember you need triple channel ram. It all depends on how much you want to spend in total. If I was buying now I would go with the 920 6 gig of ram and either the P6T or a DFI mobo but thats me. The P55 route is cheaper

damien c · 31-10-2009, 17:20

the dual channel kits of ddr3 are more expensive than the triple channel kit's.

i think there is about Â£50-Â£100 dearer for the 1366 over a 1156.

31-10-2009, 18:03

Quote:

Originally Posted by damien c

the dual channel kits of ddr3 are more expensive than the triple channel kit's.

i think there is about Â£50-Â£100 dearer for the 1366 over a 1156.

Dual channel kits are not more expenasive than triple channel kits

Corsair dominator 6 gig kits are around 150 quid whereas the same Dual channel is 110 quid. Ok you pay a slightly higher price per stick but the kit is cheaper unless that is what you meant

Smilie · 31-10-2009, 21:33

i was only looking to spend Â£500 to upgrade
but realise it would go nearer Â£600
things i need
CPU
motherboard
memory
GPU
PSU
DVD ROM

the reason i looking at 1156 was because looking at some benchmarks
and reading some reviews (tomshardware firingsquad)
the 1156 i7 860 is as fast as 1366 i7 920 and in afew cases faster
the 1366 mobo looks better for the future (new CPUs) but chances are by the time i would want to upgrade there'll be newer socket

did thought i be saving alot of money with a 1156 system
but realise that 1366 mobo prices have gone abit