Hello there.

I was going to get one of these

http://3xs.scan.co.uk/ShowSystem.asp?SystemID=1298

But apparently I can save money buying things separately. But I have no idea which motherboard or processors to get.

Does say a socket 1155 processor work on any socket 1155 motherboard?

Looking now Isee there are 1155 ATX and 1155 H77 G77 ect

I have no idea what this means.

Is that bundle good value? If so I don't mind spending the money on getting it pre assembled because I also have no idea how to put a cpu in.

Or is any pc shopping savvy person got some buying suggestions with a £231 budget?

Also do I need to buy a new windows?

I personally feel like it's worth learning how to assemble it yourself because depending on what you do it could save you a lot of money.

Example:
Saturday night after a nice poker session your computer shuts down by itself. You have no idea why.

You investigate by Googling and come to the conclusion that it might be a heat related issue. You notice that your CPU's heatsink is no longer properly connected (it's loose) and have determined this is the likely problem.

You bought a quality heatsink so nothing broke, it just happened to become loose over time which is very normal. 15 minutes later you're happily back at the tables because you managed to re-attach it yourself.

If you didn't know how to do this, you might have to wait a few days to get it fixed and then some "Certified Personal Computer Technician" is going to charge you $90 for labor and then another $35 for a new heatsink because he's a douche, and on top of that he might ask you to pick it up on Wednesday.

You don't need a new copy of windows.
ATX is a type of case size. It's standard.
H77/G77/etc. is the CPU chipset name.

Yeah I need to get pc knowledgeto reduce long term cost ty for your reply.

I don't have a copy of windows 7 - I'm assuming your post says it needs to be reinstalled?

So ATX is a case size- I don't know what case size my case is :s

Just to test out then

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Intel-Sandyb...4711690&sr=8-1

this will go with this:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Asus-P8H61-M...4711972&sr=1-2

??? will any 1155 motherboard work with any 1155 cpu? Am I missing something?

OK think I'm going for the

i5 3570K as it has a very solid benchmark score for the price. Its only marginally more expensive than the i5 2500k- and the benchmark score is 1010 higher.

I only have a 4850 gpu but next purchase will be a 6850 or 6870

Sounds ok?

8gb 1600mhz ram also.

Now I need to decide on a motherboard. I search for 1155 socket and see lots of them. Very confused.

Then I assume I need a copy of 64 bit windows 7.

confuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuused halp

If you want to use the amount of your ram you're buying then yeah you would need the 64 bit version of 7. Without it, the system will be 100% blind to anything over 4gb and you'll end up with less because it factors in your video card's memory too at the 4gb cap.

The CPU is really good. Just Google around for motherboard reviews for the i5 3570k then pick one with a good price. I haven't built a new machine in a long time so I can't recommend a motherboard.

There are lots of socket 1155 boards. If you go on NewEgg and sort by Intel, 1155 socket, then I guess Z77 chipset if you're overclocking. Then with those you can sort by rating or price and narrow it down. You shouldn't have any problem finding a decent enough board around $100-$120. I own this one. I wish the reviews were a little better on the Z77 boards in that price range but mobos are usually the first thing to blame when something doesn't work, so who knows.

You could use the preview version of Win 8 for free until January. Otherwise, you probably want Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit OEM.

The various i5s from the last two generations are pretty close at least on the desktop side, but the problem is that their prices are as well. If you live near a MicroCenter there's a good chance you can score a very good deal on one.

By the way if you're not going to overclock then consider every i5 there is. In that case you could also choose motherboards between H61, H67, P77, Z68, H77, Z77 chipset and a couple more I can't remember. The trick with some of them is different feature sets, like a given H61 may not have USB 3.0 or SATA 6gbs/s ports. The H ones won't let you overclock. The P one requires you to have a separate video card. The 77 ones are newer and tend to have connectivity for USB 3.0 for front panel connections plus some other goodies.

If you don't want to think about all of that and maybe save a few $, then I'd just make sure it specifically has 2 SATA 6gb/s ports on the board. That will let you use the faster SSDs. Everything else isn't a big deal unless you have special needs.

You will need to know the size of your case though. If in doubt, buy a micro-ATX sized motherboard.

tyvm for the info

Now I'm undecided...

2500k and I can get a cheaper motherboard...

Probably gonna stick with the 3570k and a Z77

And I will have to buy a copy of windows right? I can't just plug my current HD in

My case seems fairly big... have no idea how I'm going to do this when I buy the parts.

Quite tempted to just upgrade this pc a little and then sell it and buy a whole brand new rig

The 2500k and the 3750k are pretty similar as far as their computing power. The newer one is a bit faster but the 2500k overclocks a bit better as far as heat. The integrated graphics are better on the 3750k but you won't care because you use a video card. In your case I'd favor the 2500k if it would save you $25. Otherwise the 3570k and Z77 is a solid choice, but about all of those motherboards should work.

Remember too there's lots of variations on these chips if you're not overclocking, the regular 2500, 2400, 2550, i7-2600 is sometimes on sale, and versions of the newer i5.

No your current HD won't work without a new Windows install.

I have bought this motherboard and this is the processor support list

http://uk.gigabyte.com/support-downl....aspx?pid=4147

I was looking to get an i5 3450 http://www.amazon.co.uk/Intel-FC-LGA...5395914&sr=8-1

looking at the support list it says stepping:no

some others say E1 ect

How do I know which ones are supported?

That's "n-zero", not "no." The processor will work. Any Ivy Bridge or Sandy Bridge CPU will be supported.

ok thanks.

It's always a good idea to check the supported RAM list as well, though it's much less picky about RAM than CPU.

Ram I highly doubt would be a problem.

Unsure about Hard drives...

Thinking I should get a cheap 60gb or 120gb to SDD install software onto- windows and games... good idea? And get another HD later on for movies.

Would I really need more than 120gb SDD?

I wonder how easy putting this together into a case is going to be...

Also how do I know what sort of PSU I need. I don't know if the one I currently have is sufficient. btw thankyou guys v much for giving advice, especially gonzo

120GB might be reasonable if you plan to install a lot of games and yeah, get a small/medium SSD for the important things and large SATA drive for movies/storage/etc..

Some more modern games take up a silly amount of space. Keep in mind though that games generally load stuff in memory before being in control of your character, so an SSD is usually only going to improve load times for games.

Example:
Most games have a loading screen right? When it's loading, it's taking all of the game assets (textures, sounds, models, etc.) from your HD and loading them in the RAM. When the game needs to access a certain sound effect, it will get it from memory not the HD.

As long as your case physically fits everything it will be easy and very straight forward to put everything in and screw it all together. The only difficult part is putting a heat sink on your CPU because it tends to require an amount of pressure that you would think might snap the motherboard in half. IMO watch Youtube videos once you know which heat sink you have.