For editing high def videos mainly.

Around £600ish, tower only.

Dedicated graphics would be nice.

are you fairly PC savvy?

go on to Ebuyer and spec one up. One of my favourite things to do whilst on a conference call in a language I don’t understand is muck around on Ebuyer building up super douper computers 😀

Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro rev 2 Socket 775, 1156, 1155, 1366, AM2, AM3 Heatpipe CPU Cooler 176157 476 in stock £15.03

Gigabyte GTX 460 OC 1GB GDDR5 OC Edition Dual DVI HDMI PCI-E Graphics Card 232853 94 in stock £146.49

Intel Core i5 2500K 3.3GHz Socket 1155 6MB Cache Retail Boxed Processor 251596 174 in stock £161.10

Asus P8H67-M LE H67 R3.0 Socket 1155 8 Channel HD Audio mATX Motherboard 260186 4 in stock £79.39

Asus Xonar DG 5.1 Surround Sound Card with Built in Headphone Amp PCI – OEM 246650 152 in stock £21.95

Galaxy Black Mid Tower Case with Blue Bubble Light LED Strip – 450W PSU 136491 29 in stock £37.98

Hitachi 2TB 3.5″ Deskstar Coolspin SATA-III 6GB/s Hard Drive – 5900rpm 32MB Cache – HDS5C3020ALA632 254429 72 in stock £54.99

Corsair 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 1600MHz XMS3 Memory Kit CL9 1.65V 247677 28 in stock £77.15

Cart total inc vat: £594.08

Job done! 😀

Nice. I’ll have a play on there later.

Only problem is I haven’t got a version of windows to put on. This is how the PC Worlds seem to get a lot of business. When you add on the cost of windows operating system to a custom build it makes the big chain store options more competitive.

Exactly as peterfile suggests, though if it’s for HD videos, I’d save some money on the GFX card (if you’re not playing games), and spec a core i7-2600k instead of the core i5. Video editing is the one area you will definitely notice the difference of an i5 over i7.

ALSO, and this is very important, do not but an H67 motherboard as suggested above, buy a P67 or a Z68, as the H67 do not allow you to overclock, and if you’re buying a “k” processor with unlocked core multiplier, they’re built to be overclocked!

I’d also spend a bit more on a reliable, branded PSU capable of about 600W or more, but that’s just me. And I’d also go for a 7200rpm Samsung F3 HD as these are about the fastest conventional HD’s.

Oh, and as long as you’re not planning on changing motherboards any time soon, OEM windows 7 is about £70. So not a bank breaker.

Ebuyer do have a couple of deals on i5 machines currently though, not as high specced as above, but all in including windows for less than £600. More convenient probably, but I’d rather build my own myself.

Chillblast usually come quite highly rated in mag tests, they can supply overclocked comps too.
http://www.chillblast.com/home.php?cat=363

What about a nice Phenom II 1100?

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/PC-COMPUTER-AMD-PHENOM-1100T-GTX460-8GB-DDR3-1000GB-/110699065512?pt=UK_Computing_DesktopPCs&hash=item19c62db0a8

Some good options there. I was just going to buy this Laziness Building my own is really appealing but I haven’t built one for years

Those 6 core Phenoms get left for dead by a core i5 even on stock settings, let alone an overclocked i5 or i7! AMD have been seriously left behind the last few years, and they’re getting further and further away from catching up, not closer and closer.

The above PC you’ve linked to on eBay would be very poor performance for the money compared to a similarly expensive Intel processored machine. Long gone are the days where more cores or more clock speed equalled more power, now it’s how you utilise what you’ve got that counts, and Intel do it much better.

Some good options there. I was just going to buy this Laziness Building my own is really appealing but I haven’t built one for years

Whoah there, you can get better than that for £400 now, off the shelf with an OS! That’s a very poor buy…

Build your own, it’s no harder than it ever was, in fact it’s probably easier… Or if you’re anywhere near Worcester, bung me the bits I’ll build it for you to quell my boredom next week!

Halifax so thanks for the offer but… 🙂

I need to build my own don’t I. Should be fun. Look out for a ‘what does x beeps from my motherboard mean?’ thread

Googling i5 vs i7. It’s like going back to school 🙂

Wild Saturday night

LOL no worries, only trying to fill my week next week as nothing planned right now anyway!

Yeah, you do need to build your own… For reference, just checked out the benchmarks on the processors listed so far…

Core i7-2600k 9730
Core i5-2500k 7186
Amd Phenom X6 1100T 6290
Core 15-650 3149

So as you can see, the machine you linked to is WAY underpowered (these scores are all relative to each other), and even a stock clock Phenom X6 1100T is twice as powerful as it. And then the i5-2500k is 15% faster than that again (on stock clock), and the i7-2600k another 30% faster again. And for HD video editing, you NEED as much processing power as you can get.

You should get the best processor you can afford (the Core i7-2600k) and scrimp on the other stuff (like expensive GFX card) for now, just buy decent motherboard, CPU and 4GB of RAM to get you going. Unless you’re playing lots of games (in which case upgrade the GFX card) then you won’t really need any other niceties.

Googling i5 vs i7. It’s like going back to school

Wild Saturday night

Haha, wild indeed!

All you need to know difference wise is the i7 uses Hyperthreading, whereas the i5 does not. This makes the i7 appear as though it’s an 8 core processor to the OS, even though it’s actually a 4 core. For most things, this makes no difference whatsoever, especially gaming, so for most people a Core i5 is plenty. Most video editing software benefits from being able to make use of the Hyperthreading capabilities of the i7’s though, which buys you an extra 30-40% performance straight away.

If you were building a gaming machine, I’d say save your money, buy an i5 (or even a new i3), but as you want to edit video, the i7 is king!

http://www.cpubenchmark.net/cpu.php?cpu=AMD+Phenom+II+X6+1090T

look at the CPU Value (CPU Mark / $Price ) graph on that link

looks like the AMD Phenom II X6 1090T and the Intel i5-2500k are good perf/value

yes its based on US prices from somewhere… looks like 20 quid seperates those two here (i5 2500k costing more)… but the AMD motherboards are significantly cheaper

Think mboy’s out pedalling and I could do with some knowledge asap.

Does anyone know of a reason why this little shopping list won’t go together? Size of the cpu fan vs the case is a possible sticking point.

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/252535 (237.91) (processor)

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/173791 (65.82) (os)

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/124927 (43.98) (psu)

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/173804 (38.99) (hd)

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/267772 (150.81) (mobo)

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/244940 (49.06) (ram)

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/143854 (49.88) (case)

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/245376 (26.72) (cpu fan)

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/233152 (8.99) (keyboard)

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/129233 (11.42) (cd rom)

Also should I be buying a better spec of RAM to go with such a build or will the difference be negligible?

I already own a mouse

That’s ECC RAM, you want non-ECC RAM – right?

I hadn’t even spotted that. Schoolboy error.

This instead then – http://www.ebuyer.com/product/248767

Ill probably get chronically flamed for saying this but you could get an AM3 mobo for 50 quid and a AMD Phenom II X6 1055T for 130..

which would save you 200 quid.. no doubt the i7 will be faster.. but will the extra speed (only noticeable in some tasks) be worth the extra 200 quid?

Think mboy’s out pedalling and I could do with some knowledge asap.

Trying to fix my cars brakes actually! 🙁

Looks a good build, pretty high spec, couple of changes I’d make personally based on preference (Antec case is nice, but at £50 is £20 more than a just as good coolermaster one, a DVD writer is only an extra £4 over a reader, PSU I’d spec a bigger brand, and I’d probably go for slightly cheaper mobo), but that’s just me and it’s only preferences.

You gonna put a dedicated GFX card in? Even if you’re not gaming, a mid range one can make a difference for video editing and playback. Even a 2nd hand 8800GTX or something would be grand…

Ill probably get chronically flamed for saying this but you could get an AM3 mobo for 50 quid and a AMD Phenom II X6 1055T for 130..
which would save you 200 quid.. no doubt the i7 will be faster.. but will the extra speed (only noticeable in some tasks) be worth the extra 200 quid?

You make a good point, but Z68 boards start at 90 quid so he could save 60 there, and the i5-2500k would also save another 75 quid… For £65 more than the Phenom, the i5 would still be quite a bit quicker for most things, and eminently more overclockable. You could also still buy an LGA775 board for £35 and a Q8400 or Q9400 for just over £100, that would be cheaper than the Phenom and just as quick for 95% of anything you might do with the computer. And AMD Phenom’s draw 125W at full power, the Intel chips only 95W. I’m not an intel employee or fanboy or anything, but AMD seem rather redundant these days and the sales charts show this.

Anyway, if you’re gonna buy a PC and keep it a while, buy the best processor you can afford at the time. Everything else is relatively cheaply and easily upgraded.

AMD are a bit behind but Bulldozer will even things up.

I think think for around £300 an AMD system will be worth considering still with a Phenom 955 or even a Phenom 980, the 6 core ones too though not sure how often that many will be of use.

thanks to a previous thread on here I’ve recently bought a new PC – check out pc specialist as an alternative to ebuyer. Hours of fun! I started down the overclocked 2500k route but If you’re not going to overclock (good for high intensity gaming), you don’t need the k version. I eventually settled on the standard 2500 so didn’t need an upgraded cooler or PSU. Helps to keep you in budget. As above, recommend P67 or Z68 series over H67 mobo.

As above, recommend P67 or Z68 series over H67 mobo.

Conversely, if you’re not going to overclock, you may as well buy an H67 board and save yourself a load of cash! You only need the P67 or Z68 if you’re going to overclock.