First time build advice.

[Dewinte]

Well in choosing between getting a performance laptop and a desktop with a netbook (or cheap equivalent) the desktop option is more and more tempting as I look into it and is incredible for the prices nowadays. I know these posts come up a lot but hey it's how someone who cares but isn't knowledgeable works.

My preliminary specs after researching for a while are a bit iffy, and any help would be great. Will add extra comments in parenthesis.

CPU - Intel i7-950 (it's only £20 more than the 930 and I like the slight stock clock bump)

Cooler - Noctua NH-D14 (AFAIK it fits with both MoBo's and the three RAM sticks will fit fine)

MoBo - Gigabyte GA-X58A-UD3R or Asus P6X58D-E (really not sure about the choice the Asus is £10 more and they seem to tie...)

RAM - Corsair XMS3 6GB (3x2G DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz (could get some Patriot C8 RAM for £10 more or Corsair Dominator C8 RAM is £28 more)

Case - Coolermaster HAF 922 or Xigmatek Utgard (Xigmatek is £13 cheaper)

PSU - Corsair TX 850W (wanted to make sure there is plenty of headroom in W but I've read the TX can be loud)

HDD - Samsung Spin Point F3 SATAII 1TB 32MB Cache (going to use RAID 0 and would get an SSD boot drive in future)

ODD - Sony AD-5260S-0B 24x DVD+/-RW

GPU - EVGA, Asus or Zotac 580 GTX (chosen as prefer a single powerful card, not sure about brand as they're reference cards the EVGA has best warranty and support apparently and Asus is meant to be slightly OCed according to the Asus site so maybe it's a higher bin? Asus are apparently not great with support, RMA and drivers according to forum posts £20 difference across the 3 cards)

Monitor - Dell U2311H, Dell SP2309W, Samsung/Asus/BenQ etc. (Expanded below.)

The monitor is the hardest thing I've had to research and look for and it's proving to be a ridiculous task with an huge array of monitors all with similar specs and very very different reviews some reviews even contradicting leading me to think it's down to panel lottery and/or subjective reviewers. The laptop I was and still am half considering is the Alienware m17x R2 with it's 1920x1200 RGBLED screen, it's very sad to look at the prices of similar panels in monitors. I can max out at £300-350ish at a push but any less is great of course. The all round quality of the screen is important as I enjoy good colour and so on to play games, watch video but also be able to read a lot of text.

Apologies for the ultra long first post but it reduces the questions a helpful poster might have to be able to comment. Hope everything is there, apart from that lastly I wanted to know if there were any other things I would need such as better cables if some parts come with low quality ones, or thermal paste if the stuff that comes with the Noctua isn't great. Tools and other possible parts would be helpful too so I can tot up a full cost of what I'd need to get sorted. Any other useful forum links and tips on these parts would be invaluable, will also carry on searching around for more info. Additional things are of keyboard, webcam and some speakers but I've sorted all of that. Thanks for any replies!

[AMDFTW]

the asus mobo or the look at the v2 version of the giga board

mushkin ram over the corsair

utgard FTW

i would wait out on GPU's

[Xochielt]

CPU - check

Cooler - check

MoBo - I'd take the Gigabyte... can't say why

RAM - Maybe some mushkin or GeIL...

Case - NZXT Phantom ( if you don't like it - check )

PSU - check

HDD - check

ODD - check

GPU - 2xGTX460 seems to be equal in performance, better in power consumption and much better in price :-)

Monitor - no clue :-P

[alicarve]

mushkin ram seems to be the way now and they fit under the noctua

Case wise choose what you like but you can pick up an nzxt phantom for £93 at the moment from ccl

graphics 2 gtx 460s are cheaper than 580 and possibly faster but if you want 1 go for the 1

monitor, LED monitors are meant to give better pictures and you want a good resolution so nothing lower than 1920*1080. Loads to pick from but i would stick with the manufacturers you said, Dell, Asus, Benq and samsung

[Dewinte]

Thanks for the tips so far!

-As all three of you suggested Mushkin I found this, Mushkin 6GB (3x2G DDR3 PC3-12800 8-8-8-24 Blackline and the price isn't too bad so a good choice? Thanks Alicarve for the info about the Mushkin RAM fitting under the Noctua, hoping that applies to the ones I found too.

-AMDFTW & Xochielt combined I looked at the v2 Gigabyte and the reviews look very good so I think that'll be the choice here too!

- As for the case... I'll need to have a look at some reviews and see what the Phantom has to offer. It may sounds silly but all the pictures I saw of it were white and with it being more expensive than the HAF 922 and the Utgard I didn't give it another look. Having looked since I've found prices similar to the CCL £109 (inc. VAT) and in black which looks great much preferred looks to the HAF 922. I'll check out the NZXT a bit more see what I think of it over the other two options, I think it'll come down to airflow, noise and looks as they all have decent cable management and more slots than I'll use.

- The GPU well that's just a personal preference, the other choices are mainly priceerformance balancing acts. The GPU for me is purely and I know it not very cost effective, but I prefer a single powerful card to avoid SLI issues with dual cards for now. Also I would like to have PhysX and the use of CUDA so the 69xx ATI's aren't for me. With the Alienware m17x ATI was the preferred choice for now but while I have the choice for PhysX and CUDA I'll take it. Hope that makes my reasoning clear!

For the GPU choice still wondering what if anything might separate the companies, I think I'll not count Zotac or Gigabyte and look at Asus with it's slight OC and OV but 3 year warranty and lower support performance vs EVGA's more reference card with good support, RMA and 10 year warranty (way over the life the GPU will have with me).

Monitor I'm still kinda clueless for now I agree the choice is between a good LED from a decent brand or the Dell U2311H, guess it'll stay quite ambiguous haha I may just go with the Dell panel as the information on other sub £300 monitors are so conflicting.

[alicarve]

if you can get the mushkin ridgebacks, i think they are meant to be better choice, from the reviews on here they seem to be a good choice

gpu wise I like my asus cards and the asus gtx580 review on here was really good too

[tinytomlogan]

Corrr blimey thats an essay, its so late now I can barely see Ill have to sit down and read the novel tomorrow!

Welcome along from YouTube though fella, I will be back to answer your questions

[Dewinte]

Originally Posted by Alicarve

if you can get the mushkin ridgebacks, i think they are meant to be better choice, from the reviews on here they seem to be a good choice

gpu wise I like my asus cards and the asus gtx580 review on here was really good too

Yea using the Aria website the Mushkin's are a bit odd as the OC3D video has redline ridgebacks and Aria has a redline with a different heatsink or black ridgebacks also a cheaper radioactive set all with the same timings apart from the heatsink difference I wonder what else sets them apart as RAM lol enough for them to release separate ones.

Very nicely suggested by Tiny Tom Logan the NZXT HALE90 PSU and found the 850W on Scan for £139 looks very nice and in the video review of the Phantom god it sways me to the white after seeing it in the video, the pictures don't do it justice. Matching case and PSU looks great haha it's a shame Aria don't stock it as picked out everything from them to make life simple.

Also looking at the Mushkin small SSD's as a boot drive, didn't even know SSD prices reached down there for small drives looks pretty damn good might chuck one in! Just gonna have to massage the price out a bit and when I can get the cash together pull the trigger, shouldn't be long.

@tinytomlogan lol this 4 year old Alienware's keyboard is worn to my fingers after essay typing don't even realise how much I type as it's faster than talking but then I look up see a wall of text and think meh **** cutting it down. It's a novel a half with this reply, thanks for the welcome and the upcoming answers! Great community

Edit: Seems I used the wrong section for the post, dropped the ball on that one.

[F-alienware]

I gotta say that the Bitfenix survivor is the sexiest case in the world right now. Sadly it seems that you can't get one ATM for love nor money

[Dewinte]

Originally Posted by AlienALX

I gotta say that the Bitfenix survivor is the sexiest case in the world right now. Sadly it seems that you can't get one ATM for love nor money

It really does look very nice lol but I also really like the Colossus case as that one looks great too. My problem is seeing the Bitfenix Colossus for more than the Phantom I think I can sacrifice the lights although the Bitfenix logo looks awesome... If the Bitfenix case had more over the Phantom I could be tempted, I'm guessing the review will be out before I make a purchase though seeing as you can buy them from Aria already so will see, hopefully Tom compares the Phantom in passing (not outright I bet that's not really allowed with a new product). The Survivor is very good to look at and sleek, especially the finish on the edge trim. I wouldn't be carrying my PC anywhere so I don't think the effort it takes to get inside and the relatively cramped size fit my needs, if I was going to carry it around then it's a hell of a choice!

I'm also wondering how long the performance versions of the GTX 580 will take to start coming through considering I wont get the cash together to go ahead with the build for about 3ish weeks so wondering how much longer it'd take for a good non-reference card to come through.