Hey all, im currently saving for a custom build (always used a laptop, not having to throttle games would be a godsend), you can find the part list I picked out here with links.

Here it is for you guys who don't like clickies:

CPU: Intel Core i5-3470 3.2GHz Quad-Core Processor (£148.79 @ Aria PC)
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-H77N-WIFI Mini ITX LGA1155 Motherboard (£85.97 @ Amazon UK)
Memory: Patriot Viper 3 8GB (1 x 8GB) DDR3-1600 Memory (£59.97 @ Overclockers.co.uk)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive (£50.20 @ Ebuyer)
Video Card: Sapphire Radeon HD 7950 3GB Video Card (£208.30 @ Amazon UK)
Case: BitFenix Prodigy (Black) Mini ITX Tower Case (£65.99 @ Aria PC)
Power Supply: Corsair CX 500W 80 PLUS Bronze Certified ATX12V Power Supply (£49.83 @ Dabs)
Other: Perixx PERIBOARD-208 (£8.99)
Other: Samsung Screen (£80.00)
Total: £758.04

This is my very fist pc that im putting together and would appreciate any insight/thoughts.

Case choice: Living in a small room, would prefer a small pc, thus, the best looking mini ITX I could find.
Memory: Going with a single stick of 8gb so I can buy a second once I have enough money later on. Would this be a problem? From what I read, single vs dual channel isn't too big of a difference.
Video card: Its either the 7950 or the 660ti. The 660ti seems slightly more powerful from the benchmark specs iv seen but the 7950 comes with a bunch of goodies, both are currently (roughly) the same price.

Respectfully asking people to leave fanboyism at the door, users that don't are banned from this.

Cheers!

1 decade ago*

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I would get a macaque

1 decade ago
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nice choice!

1 decade ago
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You're going to spend 208 quid on a graphics card and then look at a bad £80 TN monitor?

1 decade ago
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TN? Haven't picked a screen out yet.

1 decade ago
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If I'm correct, TN is the technology used in older TFT monitors. You should go with some LED monitor by someone like LG or BenQ. Also get 1080p so if you decide to watch movies etc. there are no black borders and the blurry quality doesn't make you strain your eyes too much.

1 decade ago
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Surely something like this should do fine with little or no quality loss?

1 decade ago
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Yeah, that seems alright. You don't need ultra low latency unless you're some professional competitive gamer.

1 decade ago
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Cheers.

1 decade ago
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IMO you need 24 inch;)

1 decade ago
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Which on do you happen to use?

1 decade ago
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The Samsung SyncMaster S24B350H, cuse I'm cheapskate:)

1 decade ago
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Thats well over 100 pounds :|

1 decade ago
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I got it for €130, which is about 100 pounds i guess?

1 decade ago
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You are incorrect intoxeus, TN stands for twisted nematic and is still used in the majority of monitors sold today... It has nothing to do with whether its and CCFL or LED monitor, that just refers the backlighting.

TN panels are still popular because they are affordable, have a higher refresh rate than any other type of panel, and plenty of people buy them cause they have no idea what they are doing.

1 decade ago
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You can't get IPS or PVA for 80 quid, so it's a TN - and that's thankfully on its way out.

1 decade ago
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Im going with samsung because a family member works with the company, thus discounts. How would something like this perform? How do I find out if something is 'TN'?

1 decade ago
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You google the monitor, and then you see "170°/160° Viewing Angle (Horizontal/Vertical)"

For IPS/PVA, you'll see 178 listed for both.

Then you go here and marvel at the poor technology from a decade ago.

1 decade ago
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I see, thanks for the insight.

1 decade ago
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TN monitors aren't that bad, but make sure the monitor you choose can be tilted towards your eyes because the colours on a TN screen change depending on your viewing angle. I have a Samsung TN screen that can't be tilted, and this problem sometimes bothers me. I'm sorry I didn't get a more expensive one.

1 decade ago
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I got an Asus VS229 screen. I paid 100€ for it, so little more than 80£. It's IPS, but it has good response times and a very good picture quality. Only a little bit of backlight bleeding in one corner, invisible during game play.

Here is an ultra-technical review. Consider that getting a "Good" rating from this website in this price range is a rare achievement.

1 decade ago
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Awesome, ty.

1 decade ago
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You're welcome. :)

1 decade ago
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Don't TNs have the best response time and refresh rate?
Edit: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zNc2fKuVnGU

1 decade ago
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ATI

Noooooooooooooooooooo.

1 decade ago
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This comment was deleted 5 years ago.

1 decade ago
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A lot of games are console ports and weren't designed with AMD in mind, since consoles used nvidia. Now, however, seeing that both next-gen consoles will use AMD technology, I'm pretty sure that will change, so going with an AMD card is a good choice.

1 decade ago
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My logic for leaning towards AMD, not sure if its accurate though, which is why im here.

1 decade ago
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At this point the two are relatively similar. AMD (previously ATI) used to have overheating issues, used more power for same performance and had software issues, but nowadays they're both good. As soon as next-gen kicks in, developers will adjust games for AMD users and Nvidia will be the one having driver issues.

1 decade ago
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Currently im torn between the 7950 and the 760. The AMD comes with some awesome games and both are roughly on par with each other. How much difference do you think having ports and using an AMD card is going to make and what card would you pick?

1 decade ago
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The difference probably won't be very noticeable, you can check current benchmarks of virtually identical cards from the two brands and see. If I recall correctly, the Dirt series ran smoother on Nvidia cards (3-5 fps more than on an identical AMD card), whilst Batman Arkham City ran smoother on AMD (about the same difference).

I also plan on upgrading soon, when I bring my old desktop PC back, which is still rocking an ancient Nvidia GT 9500. I'd definitely go with AMD, however I'll get a rebrand (Sapphire or Gigabyte), due to better cooling and faster speeds. I see you've done the same. I've noticed that when looking at similar cards, AMD is usually significantly cheaper and comes with games, so that's a bonus. All Nvidia has is PhysX, which probably won't be utilized as much anymore.

1 decade ago
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I use AMD right now, and don't like the drivers. On Windows they are tolerable, but if you are planning on running *nix, then you should consider Nvidia more.

1 decade ago
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I like the look of the Prodigy case and thought about it myself but ultimately didn't mainly because I realized that I had plenty of space for a regular sized PC. My only concerns about the Prodigy is lack of upgradeability and the size might mean it'll run hot or loud. Overall I like your build

I found a good tutorial video on how to put the Prodigy together back when I was deciding what to build. Here it is.

1 decade ago
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Saw that when I was looking up cases, very helpful!

1 decade ago
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1 decade ago
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You might want to consider the 760 for your GPU; it's a bit cheaper than the 7950 and 660 Ti, doesn't have the memory bandwidth problems of the 660 Ti, and is slightly more powerful than either in most situations.
With the money that you save by getting the 760, you can also change to a 3570K or a 4670K.

1 decade ago
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Wow, its not cheeper, roughly the same price, but the benchmarks are higher than both the 660ti and the 7950. I had not considered it earlier due to it being new, I just assumed it would be expensive.

Ill look up some reviews and such, cheers!

1 decade ago
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Here's the benchmarks, the 7950 and the 760 appear to be roughly similar, a couple exceptions in either case here and there. So now my choice is between a 7950 and a 760.

1 decade ago
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Take a look at these specs. The 7950 will do better with higher res textures and more post-processing due to its higher memory bandwidth, but the 760 seems to be more powerful overall.

1 decade ago
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Cheers. I suppose it comes down to which one's price drops/goes on sale first for me then.

1 decade ago
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I agree, I think spending an extra $50 on CPU for 3570K is worth it.

1 decade ago
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Change the memory from 1x8 gig to 2x4gig and get dual channel bandwidth, which is faster.

1 decade ago
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I was unsure if I should go with dual channel or single and slot another 8gig stick in later. Supposedly there is little performance drop but I doubt ill ever need 16gigs of ram and could just save for an ssd instead.

1 decade ago
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Where are the monkeys?!

1 decade ago
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1 decade ago
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Here I am!

1 decade ago
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That configuration seems nice to me. Also, thanks for the giveaway!

1 decade ago
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Looks good overall, If I were you I'd go with the FX-8350 and a 760 but that's just personal preference.
Also don't forget to add a couple of fans cause things will get hot on a mini-itx case.

1 decade ago
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The problem with the 8350 is that you simply don't need that many cores. Games will usually only use 2-4 of those, so performance ends up coming down to individual core power, which Intel delivers.

1 decade ago
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Problem with having a mini is your lack of upgrade room. For what you have there, it shouldn't be a problem (though I'd double check that the graphics card will fit), but if you want to add video capturing cards / more hard drives / more memory etc. etc. you'll eventually run into some problems. Also, if this is your first rig that you're putting together, then I'm going to assume you have no experience with cable management (which can be a bitch for newbies in a mini case). Cable management is pretty important for air flow, and since you're using a stock heat sink (another assumption) you're gonna need all the help you can get.

Save yourself the headache and get a mid-sized case. Especially for your first build. Once you get the hang of it, then look into something smaller, though you probably won't unless you frequently go to LAN parties with your desktop (or something).

1 decade ago
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Might want to go with a "K" version of the i5 for the sake of flexibility. You may not be doing any OC'ing since cooling is rather difficult in one of those mini cases, but you'd have the option if your temps were low enough. The 3570K is 0.2GHz faster stock, plus has the OC capabilities, and is only £30 more.

1 decade ago
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I don't really want to OC anything for my first build, but ill keep this in mind.

1 decade ago
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I came for the monkeys. I cannot find any monkeys. I demand monkeys.

1 decade ago
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Monkeys, as requested.

1 decade ago
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Woot!

1 decade ago
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Memory wise I'd look at cclonline.co.uk rather than Overclockers. I've had a bad experience with them where they sent me non working parts and then refused to replace or refund the order.

1 decade ago
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Get a SSD as a system drive, you'll thank me.
And a chimp

1 decade ago
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Ill save for one after this build is complete. Is it a hassle to pop in later?

1 decade ago
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Very easy to change it later on.

1 decade ago
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Your build seems to be missing something man.

1 decade ago
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Lemons, clearly.

1 decade ago
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And bishes, i don't see no bishes!

1 decade ago
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Closed 1 decade ago by ND1Razor.