# Assembling PC parts



## Faze (Mar 1, 2013)

Busy day today researching and buying some parts for my PC.
There's nothing wrong with her, but I've not really changed anything for a while, and have decided a little more speed and less noise would be nice.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/321712593332?_trksid=p2060353.m2749.l2649&ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/221287927576?_trksid=p2060353.m2749.l2649&ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/191861112707?_trksid=p2060353.m2749.l2649&ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/181638857264?_trksid=p2060353.m2749.l2649&ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/162054167871?_trksid=p2060353.m2749.l2649&ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/131676094553?_trksid=p2060353.m2749.l2649&ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT

I'm undecided about whether I should update the CPU.
At the moment I'm running a i7 2600 and the motherboard would only allow a i7 3770, so I don't really know if the gains would be worth the outlay.
A better CPU would have to mean a new motherboard, probably DDR4 memory and new windows :swoon:

Thoughts invited on the above, but I'm not an overclocker :thumbsup:

Oh and I bought 2 watches :drinks:


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## hughlle (Aug 23, 2015)

I don't know What you use your computer for, but until recently I ran a q6600 and something cheap gpu. It ran all the latest games and software just fine. The new old i5 is nice but not needed. Upgrading should be based on usage.

Noise is a whole different thing, and can be very very cheap


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## Roger the Dodger (Oct 5, 2009)

Faze said:


> Busy day today researching and buying some parts for my PC.
> There's nothing wrong with her, but I've not really changed anything for a while, and have decided a little more speed and less noise would be nice.
> 
> http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/321712593332?_trksid=p2060353.m2749.l2649&ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT
> ...


 Are you pi$$ed?....... :laugh:


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## William_Wilson (May 21, 2007)

I faced the i7 2600 question last fall autumn when my old Intel motherboard packed up. A new four core i7 is expensive and not that much faster in many respects. A six core i7 is really expensive and an eight core is just stupidly expensive. My i7equipped with 32gb of ram and SSDs is fine editing RAW images, audio files and MIDI files with Ableton Live.

Later,
William


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## xellos99 (Dec 17, 2015)

You say you want a little more speed. I have a i7 2600k running at stock speed and my computer is fast as hell. I think your problem is elsewhere if things are slow loading etc. Maybe malware or bloated with too much. I would start over from fresh because the new PC`s are not noticeably faster. Also get a "lightweight" antivirus. Some of them are very taxing on the system and make them run poorly


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## DJH584 (Apr 10, 2013)

xellos99 said:


> Also get a "lightweight" antivirus


 Any particular one that you would recommend?

David


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## xellos99 (Dec 17, 2015)

DJH584 said:


> Any particular one that you would recommend?
> 
> David


 ESET NOD32


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## DJH584 (Apr 10, 2013)

Thanks for the info xellos. Will give that alook.

David


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## wookie (Apr 27, 2009)

hughlle said:


> I don't know What you use your computer for, but until recently I ran a q6600 and something cheap gpu. It ran all the latest games and software just fine. The new old i5 is nice but not needed. Upgrading should be based on usage.
> 
> Noise is a whole different thing, and can be very very cheap


 I was still running two q6600 in my household up until recently, I still have one in my own desktop mildly overclocked to 3.2 per core, As I don't game or do much other than a bit of photoshop and film encoding plus some internet and film watching the q6600 is still more than capable, I did fit a nice Samsung ssd to it last year to modern it up a bit though.

My wife's media centre used to have a q6600 but I fancied a tinker so did the 771 mod to it, Quite easy to do with a small file and a special sticker. It now has a xeon quad running at 3.6 per core but would probably clock much higher, I think I paid £15 or so for the xeon cpu, If more people realised how easy it is to run a 771 cpu in a 775 board I doubt they would be cheap on ebay any more.

Just to add I'm not a complete retro head when it comes to computers and I do have an ok lenovo i7 laptop but to be honest I've not warmed to it and it sits idle most of the time.

wook


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## Silver Hawk (Dec 2, 2003)

Hope you don't mind if I partially hijack this topic, but there seem to be a lot of knowledgeable people w.r.t. to PC hardware here... :thumbsup:

I want to replace my existing tower Win10 PC....it is a Dell Inspiron 620 - Core i3 2120 3.3 GHz, with 4GB RAM and 500 GB hard disk. I want something faster but do not need more disk space as I store everything in the cloud. I do not have time to build anything from components, so it has to be an off-the-shelf solution. I'm thinking an SSD based system for starters....

I've had some great help & advice from @PC-Magician (many thanks Jon!) and will probably buy from eBuyer. But where I really need help is in the choice of processor --- the choice is overwhelming and I have no idea where to even start....I'm sort of assuming i5 is better than i3, and i7 is better than i5....but that is about the limit of my understanding and I have no idea what "better" really means although I hope one of the "better" attributes is "faster". I have no idea what the numbers like "2120" (above) mean. Oh, and I assume quad core is "better" than dual core. And AMD versus Intel....wouldn't know where to start...

As for use: the most taxing thing I'll be using it for is regular raw image editing which Capture One, Photoshop etc and very occasionally video editing with Sony Vegas Movie Studio. My budget is approx £400...don't think (hope) I need to spend more than that....

Over to you experts...all suggestions gratefully received. :yes: :notworthy:


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## Krispy (Nov 7, 2010)

To be honest Paul, and I hope the purists will forgive me, but I doubt you'll notice the difference between AMD and Intel for what you want to use it for. Although, in my experience only, I've seen far better value in the AMDs than Intels.

As you say, the higher number the better so get the most cores of the highest model number your budget allows for.

The biggest performance improvement I've ever seen is by switching to SSDs. Firstly a 128gb one for my system drive, then a couple of TBs for file storage. The read / write times are phenomenal compared to traditional disks, my system boots and gets me to the desktop within 10 seconds of the BIOS loading. I started with an OCZ drive which failed within a week, so I can't recommend them. I switched to Samsung SSDs and haven't had a days problem. The second biggest improvement was by adding as much RAM as the OS could recognise and I could afford.

I'm still running an old AMD phenom quad core CPU but with the drive and RAM upgrades, I reckon it'll see me through for the foreseeable.

If you're buying new, see if you can find one with USB 3 ports on the motherboard and SATA 3 connections to get the most out of the drives.

And ebuyer are great!

If quiet is your thing though, have a look at https://www.quietpc.com


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## artistmike (May 13, 2006)

^^^^ I agree, I use an AMD eight core machine which didn't cost an arm and a leg and it does all I need and will for the foreseeable future. I put in a hybrid drive lately which helps with booting etc and I watch TV, use simulators, use Adobe Photoshop etc. and have no problems at all.

I'm convinced that much of the time, that good housekeeping, both software and hardware, will always improve a PC's performance and noise levels, often more than just attempting small upgrades.


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## William_Wilson (May 21, 2007)

I stopped using AMD several years ago when they were more hype than reality, therefore I can't provide any useful insight into their modern performance. My practical experience is with Intel and as has been said above, the highest clocked multicore i series with the most memory and an SSD provides excellent results. The i7 was intended for multimedia processing and is quite quick at it. The six and eight core versions are rather expensive and perhaps best suited for full time editing duty, while the four core versions are very good for graphic and audio rich general purpose machines.

Later,
William


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## xellos99 (Dec 17, 2015)

Silver Hawk said:


> Hope you don't mind if I partially hijack this topic, but there seem to be a lot of knowledgeable people w.r.t. to PC hardware here... :thumbsup:
> 
> I want to replace my existing tower Win10 PC....it is a Dell Inspiron 620 - Core i3 2120 3.3 GHz, with 4GB RAM and 500 GB hard disk. I want something faster but do not need more disk space as I store everything in the cloud. I do not have time to build anything from components, so it has to be an off-the-shelf solution. I'm thinking an SSD based system for starters....
> 
> ...


 Ok Ebuyer. Buy this on sale for : HP ProDesk 400 G3 SFF Desktop for £419.99. Upgrade it yourself to 8gb RAM ( very easy to do honestly )

It has SSD but only 128GB, however ok if you use cloud like you say.

Why that one ?

The CPU is i7 6700. It is considerably stronger than your current PC.

Your old one score about 3800 on one of the tests online called cpubenchmark.

The i7 6700 score about 10000. The test does not tell the whole story but it gives you an idea for a difference maybe.


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## Faze (Mar 1, 2013)

SSD is the way to go, I've just this last 2 hours fitted a Samsung 850 EVO 250GB, which replaced a Samsung 840 EVO 120GB and I can notice the difference on loading and converting video. I used the migration DVD supplied with the SSD and it copied over all programs, operating system, including emails. All I had to do was unplug my other drives to establish the new SSD as the boot.
I've also been a i7 user for a while after moving from Q6600 and find the AMD structure a bit baffling.

While researching this spring clean, the best processor to use with my motherboard socket was the i73770, but I found out there is a S and a K version, the S is locked, the K is unlocked for overclocking.
So the K is dearer, but if you don't overclock the S is a bargain.

Another titbit I picked up, was that the Samsung 500 is faster than the 250 and the 250 is faster than the 120. So bucks = speed.


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## William_Wilson (May 21, 2007)

A note on Windows system migration. Windows 10's "File History" folder within the Control Panel contains everything necessary to create a Win 10 image file and boot disc which will provide you with a complete recreation of your existing OS, programs and files on a new drive and system. Windows 7 through 10 is quite effective at reestablishing itself on new hardware, I've done it many times.

Later,
William


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## PC-Magician (Apr 29, 2013)

Silver Hawk said:


> Hope you don't mind if I partially hijack this topic, but there seem to be a lot of knowledgeable people w.r.t. to PC hardware here... :thumbsup:
> 
> I want to replace my existing tower Win10 PC....it is a Dell Inspiron 620 - Core i3 2120 3.3 GHz, with 4GB RAM and 500 GB hard disk. I want something faster but do not need more disk space as I store everything in the cloud. I do not have time to build anything from components, so it has to be an off-the-shelf solution. I'm thinking an SSD based system for starters....
> 
> ...


 SSD

Quad core

8 to 16 GB Ram

There is a lot of choice with regard to types of processor both AMD and Intel so you really need to look at the benchmarks for the processor fitted to the pc's motherboard.

I think you will find a compromise will need to be found cost against spec.

Graphics in your case could be an issue I am not sure on that but don't be thinking that a decent gaming graphics card will handle CAD for example they don't always handle such things that well, you would need somthing like an Nvidia Quadro card for CAD etc.


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## William_Wilson (May 21, 2007)

Igerswis said:


> I built my own gaming rig recently and one thing I would say is....never again! Initally bought a ready made rig from eBay for around £1.5k as I've never built a system from scratch. Then decided it wasn't enough for my needs so ended up making another system. Around 6 months and £10k later and am still not finished, after breaking motherboards and having incompatible ram etc. It's a slipperly slope but I had an open chequebook so was fortunate to be able to experiment and make mistakes. Six months later and it works great but it's only about 90% of where I want it to be. Needs better radiators and fans next.
> 
> If your looking for a basic computer thats upgradeable, take a look at Scan's pre-built 3XS systems: SCAN. They also have 'today only' offers on with some decent cpu and motherboard bundles. £1k on a computer these days gets you something pretty special. There will always be limitations on upgrading older computers but its a balance of spending a large amount and not upgrading it for a few years, or having something ona budget and changing it more frequently, depending on usage.


 Ummm... that does look impressive, but what does it get you beyond benchmarks?

Later,
William


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## xellos99 (Dec 17, 2015)

Igerswis said:


> I run a 4K screen and gaming on that with max settings on the latest games takes a huge amount of processing power, especially if you want to get decent frame rates.
> 
> I also use use it for editing photos in batches and scanning a huge amount of documents. We're taking hundreds of pages in one go along with a decent scanner. Saves a surprising amount of time compared to an average system.


 You do know a £3K PC has most of the power of a £10K. Not much noticeable difference probably. You suffer serious diminishing returns past a certain point.


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## xellos99 (Dec 17, 2015)

Igerswis said:


> The sum of all the parts is significantly less than 10k. Yes I agree with you on the law of diminishing returns but it was an opportunity for me to learn whilst building my own.
> 
> That's why I think ready made systems from the likes of Scan etc are much better than making your own and having the headache of ensuring all the parts are compatible. Not to mention the headache you have if you break anything whilst assembling it. The amount of pins I've bent on the motherboards.....


 You should join a PC building forum like I used to be part of. It is a massive help honestly, they would have checked your parts list and told you any compatibility issues before you bought anything. They would also advise on case size and what size rads etc. You tried very advanced PC building and the more advanced the more problems can happen. A simple PC is considerably easier to build, the watercooling and fancy motherboard and RAM would probably have cased trouble for even experienced PC builders. I have built loads of PC`s but I would not like to try building your one. You made one like the top skilled builders on overclockers forms do, infact if you show them that they would be amazed that is your first build.


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## wookie (Apr 27, 2009)

Igerswis said:


> I run a 4K screen and gaming on that with max settings on the latest games takes a huge amount of processing power, especially if you want to get decent frame rates.
> 
> I also use use it for editing photos in batches and scanning a huge amount of documents. We're taking hundreds of pages in one go along with a decent scanner. Saves a surprising amount of time compared to an average system.


 Hi

May I ask what sort of overclock you attaining with your cooling setup ? it would be a shame to hear you were running the CPU at stock speeds with that sort of facility for keeping things cold, or was that setup really installed more for the GPU cooling ?.

I don't think I would be able to resist wringing out the cpu with that nice cooling equipment :yes:

wook


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## William_Wilson (May 21, 2007)

Igerswis said:


> I run a 4K screen and gaming on that with max settings on the latest games takes a huge amount of processing power, especially if you want to get decent frame rates.


 Why not a 4-way SLI with GTX Titan 12GB video cards?

Later,
William


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## dobra (Aug 20, 2009)

Could I creep in and ask a question please?

My desktop PC has a motherboard, Gigabyte GA-78LMT-USB3 with ATI Radeon 3000 IGP, 8Gig memory and with integrated video. The latter is the problem, as it is slow, so I thought I would buy a Gigabyte video card for about £50 from that Amazon emporium. Don't really want to spend more, as I have never played computer games, just photography, a bit of video and of course, writing.

Am I heading in the right direction? Any thoughts.....

Thanks

mike


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## xellos99 (Dec 17, 2015)

dobra said:


> Could I creep in and ask a question please?
> 
> My desktop PC has a motherboard, Gigabyte GA-78LMT-USB3 with ATI Radeon 3000 IGP, 8Gig memory and with integrated video. The latter is the problem, as it is slow, so I thought I would buy a Gigabyte video card for about £50 from that Amazon emporium. Don't really want to spend more, as I have never played computer games, just photography, a bit of video and of course, writing.
> 
> ...


 I have a spare Nvidia GTX 660. I was going to put it in sales soon for about £60


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## Faze (Mar 1, 2013)

xellos99 said:


> I have a spare Nvidia GTX 660. I was going to put it in sales soon for about £60


 Just wondered about @dobra 's PSU wattage.


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## xellos99 (Dec 17, 2015)

Faze said:


> Just wondered about @dobra 's PSU wattage.


 Yes good point, would have to check compatibility first.


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## dobra (Aug 20, 2009)

Thanks for the responses folks. Just found out the PSU is 750 watts and the graphics interface is *PCIe x16 v2.x *and anything above or below will affect the bandwidth. Whatever that means...

mike


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## xellos99 (Dec 17, 2015)

dobra said:


> Thanks for the responses folks. Just found out the PSU is 750 watts and the graphics interface is *PCIe x16 v2.x *and anything above or below will affect the bandwidth. Whatever that means...
> 
> mike


 Yes 750w is ALOT, I was going to say 500w is plenty. There is another complication, does it have a cable with something that looks like this ? You need it to go into a Graphics card


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## William_Wilson (May 21, 2007)

dobra said:


> Could I creep in and ask a question please?
> 
> My desktop PC has a motherboard, Gigabyte GA-78LMT-USB3 with ATI Radeon 3000 IGP, 8Gig memory and with integrated video. The latter is the problem, as it is slow, so I thought I would buy a Gigabyte video card for about £50 from that Amazon emporium. Don't really want to spend more, as I have never played computer games, just photography, a bit of video and of course, writing.
> 
> ...


 Mike, for the price you have in mind, you should be able to pick up an Nvidia Geforce GT 730 with 1 or 2GB of DDR3 ram. Not a phenomenal card by today's standards certainly, but a definite step up from your onboard graphics.

Later,
William


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## Qtronic (Jan 8, 2016)

Buy a Mac


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## William_Wilson (May 21, 2007)

Better yet, don't! :biggrin:

Later,
William


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## dobra (Aug 20, 2009)

I have a Mac, I won't.... :toot:


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## Silver Hawk (Dec 2, 2003)

Krispy said:


> To be honest Paul, and I hope the purists will forgive me, but I doubt you'll notice the difference between AMD and Intel for what you want to use it for. Although, in my experience only, I've seen far better value in the AMDs than Intels.


 Went with AMD Dave :thumbsup: ....and a big thank you to @PC-Magician (Jon) for recommending CCL. Ordered a customized tower on Sunday night and it is being delivered tomorrow morning even though initial estimate for delivery was Wed 18th. Really looking forward to it. For £350:



AMD FX-6300 Six Core 4.1GHz turbo


StarTech PCI Wireless N A


Kingston Value RAM 2 x 4GB


Intel 535 Series (240GB SSD)


Gigabyte NVIDIA GeForce


DVD Drive


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## Krispy (Nov 7, 2010)

Show off! 

Looks like a good 'rig' for the money...


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## William_Wilson (May 21, 2007)

Silver Hawk said:


> Went with AMD Dave :thumbsup: ....and a big thank you to @PC-Magician (Jon) for recommending CCL. Ordered a customized tower on Sunday night and it is being delivered tomorrow morning even though initial estimate for delivery was Wed 18th. Really looking forward to it. For £350:
> 
> 
> 
> ...


 Good for you. The first two SSDs in my system are Intel 535 480GB drives and they are quite quick with my photo files. One caution though, if you plan to use the Intel software to create a system image and recreate it on the new system - it failed miserably for me. Windows 10 image software works well and quickly.

Later,
William


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## William_Wilson (May 21, 2007)

Igerswis said:


> I have gone through forums but just not posted on them. Started with a ready made Dell XPS that had a water cooled CPU and then over the years I upgraded the GPUs and water cooled them in their own loop. This was my first build from scratch and it's not up there with the experienced guys as they craft their own panels and braided cables. They produce a work of art rather than just a bunch of components assembled together.
> 
> The CPU is 3.0GHz as stock, now running a stable 4.5GHz. Cards are clocked too but the RAM is set to the XMP profile.
> 
> Two Titan X are plenty for what I use it for. A third or even quad card don't really add much in terms or raw gaming frame rates as the drivers are often not optimised for the setups and then theres heat and power to deal with. The new Pascal cards have been released by Nvidia and the top end ones should be released in another year or two which is when I'll look to upgrade mine.


 ... But you'd have a system with a four way SLI bridge :biggrin:

Later,
William


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