Building my first computer (ish)

[Nokiacrazi]

I found a case thats amazing, that has USB 3.0 on the front! Only thing is - its about £140 LOL.

Cooler Master HAF X.

Quite sexual really...

Anywho question - Can someone tell me what/where I can get the best WHITE LED fan for 200mm, 120mm and 80mm? Thanks.

Same for the fan, but for GREEN LED.

Thanks.

Also, how would I control the LEDs? With a switch or would they just be simple on with power, off without power.

Also could I control the fan speeds? Thanks.

 

[InnocentCriminal]

Gross!

How anyone can find the HAF X an attractive chassis I really don't know.

 

[Exile_Chavez]

I found a case thats amazing, that has USB 3.0 on the front! Only thing is - its about £140 LOL.

Cooler Master HAF X.

Quite sexual really...

Anywho question - Can someone tell me what/where I can get the best WHITE LED fan for 200mm, 120mm and 80mm? Thanks.

Same for the fan, but for GREEN LED.

Thanks.

Also, how would I control the LEDs? With a switch or would they just be simple on with power, off without power.

Also could I control the fan speeds? Thanks.

White 200mm: XIGMATEK LED Fan Crystal series CLF-F2004 200mm Wh...

White 120mm: XIGMATEK Cooling System Crystal Series CLF-F1254 1...

White 80mm: XIGMATEK Cooling System Crystal Series CLF-F8254 8...

Green 200mm: XIGMATEK LED Fan Crystal series CLF-F2003 200mm Gr...

Green 120mm: XIGMATEK Cooling System Crystal Series CLF-F1253 1...

Green 80mm: could not find

I found these, all same brand, all same series so they all look the same. All looking pretty good, I have a Xigmatek 120mm in my case and it moves some air. Power on=LED on, power off= LED off, unless you wire in a switch. You would need a VR fan speed controller and fans with controllable speeds to do that.

 

[Nokiacrazi]

White 200mm: XIGMATEK LED Fan Crystal series CLF-F2004 200mm Wh...

White 120mm: XIGMATEK Cooling System Crystal Series CLF-F1254 1...

White 80mm: XIGMATEK Cooling System Crystal Series CLF-F8254 8...

Green 200mm: XIGMATEK LED Fan Crystal series CLF-F2003 200mm Gr...

Green 120mm: XIGMATEK Cooling System Crystal Series CLF-F1253 1...

Green 80mm: could not find

I found these, all same brand, all same series so they all look the same. All looking pretty good, I have a Xigmatek 120mm in my case and it moves some air. Power on=LED on, power off= LED off, unless you wire in a switch. You would need a VR fan speed controller and fans with controllable speeds to do that.

Much obliged, however, can I buy from Newegg from the UK?

Maybe I should have said before that I am in the UK

 

[InnocentCriminal]

Newegg don't deliver to the UK I'm afraid.

 

[Nokiacrazi]

Ah too bad.

EDIT : So I guess I don't need a £160 ASUS motherboard. Ive been told only to get that if I am going to do some hardcore overclocking.

So what would suit my needs - gaming, blu-ray, etc.

I aim to have this build

AMD Phenom II x4 965 BE or x6 1055T or x6 1090T BE, depending on other factors (mainly price, but also mobo)
OCZ DDR3 1600Mhz 4GB (2x2GB) Dual Channel - BE (AOD)
Coolermaster HAF X (maybe, its such a sexual case and soo roomy) or Coolermaster CM Storm
Coolermaster modular 600-700W
eventually AMD Radeon 6870, and then down the line another one of those to put in Crossfire.

So. Which motherboard is best in terms of price and performance. Please add more to the list or comment ask questions etc, but these are what im looking at.

ASUS Crosshair IV Formula - £155
Gigabyte 890FXA-UD7 - £165
Gigabyte 890FXA-UD5 - £161
Gigabyte 790FXTA-UD5 - £136
Gigabyte 890XA-UD3 - £106
Gigabyte 870A-UD3 - £76

Also, what actually is the Black Edition on AMD CPU/s and other things, RAM/ GPUS etc?

 

[Nokiacrazi]

Also - what SSD should I get? Obviously under £100-£250 would be ideal...

Should I get it only so big that I run Windows/drivers on it?

Or do I want it with Windows/drivers & games and any other programmes I regularly use?

 

[InnocentCriminal]

Also - what SSD should I get? Obviously under £100-£250 would be ideal...

Should I get it only so big that I run Windows/drivers on it?

Or do I want it with Windows/drivers & games and any other programmes I regularly use?

I think those questions only you can answer. Personally, I'd get two 'affordable' drives so that I can RAID them and have both Windows and games on them.

 

[Nokiacrazi]

I think those questions only you can answer. Personally, I'd get two 'affordable' drives so that I can RAID them and have both Windows and games on them.

I don't really know that much about SSD drives. All I want is a system for gaming and watching stuff etc. I have simply heard that to get a system with very fast loading times, copying times, transfer times and in general high/fast performance you need to use an SSD drive. I don't even know how you install or set these up. Do you use PCI-E slots or is it the traditional power and SATA leads? Then is it plug and play? Or do you have to do something extensive?

And what's this RAID business? Thanks.

 

[InnocentCriminal]

Two types of SSD, the first being SATA based, to get the most out of an SSD you need the new SATA 6Gbps (incorrectly referred to as SATA3) on your motherboard. Otherwise you'll be bottlenecking the drive with anything slower.

The other type, is a PCIe based SSD - which, instead of using the SATA bus it uses PCIe instead allowing much higher data rates. However, SSDs of either type are still expensive for the capacities on offer.

Simplistically, you can treat an SSD as a normal, mechanical drive but with a few deferences; one of these being, you can't defrag it. I recommend you read up as much as you can about SSDs before purchasing one. This buyer's guide might help.

RAID stands for Redundant Array of Independent Disks - varying types of RAID but the main two are RAID 0 (Known as Striping) which allows you to use two identical drives as one big one. So, for example say you bought two SATA6Gbps 120GB SSDs and configured them in RAID 0, you'd have (theoretically) a 240GB. The benefit of doing this would be the increased performance you'd get if both drives were used independently. The negativity of striping the drives would me, if one fails, the other other does too.

The other most commonly used one is RAID 1 - mirroring. Pretty self explanatory. One drive copies the other, so if one dies, you can disconnect and carry on as if nothing has happened. It's for people that don't like backing things up.

The others, well they're not as commonly used and again, I recommend you read up on it as see if it floats y'boat.

 

[Nokiacrazi]

Hmm....might have to wait a bit. What do you think of that Samsung F3 1TB drive? Sounds like one of the fastest drives (mechanical drive) so far? And only £41..

 

[InnocentCriminal]

They're awesome, I have one. I also have the original 1TB F1 which is also awesome. I'm thinking about picking up another as I'm running out of storage space.

 

[Nokiacrazi]

Coolermaster HAF X Case (£139.99) or Coolermaster Storm Scout (£69.99)

Arctic Power Pro 750W Modular 14cm Fan PSU - 4x PCI-E 8x SATA (£62.70)

Gigabyte GA-890GPA-UD3H 890GX Socket AM3 HDMI DVI VGA Out 8 Channel Audio ATX Motherboard (£98.49)

AMD Phenom II X6 1055T 2.80GHz (Socket AM3) Processor - Retail (£130.54)

OCZ PC3-12800 4GB (2x2GB) 1600MHz DDR3 240pin DIMM AMD Black Edition XTC Computer Dual Channel Memory Kit (AOD Ready) (£73.99)

Samsung HD103SJ Spinpoint F3 1TB Hard Drive SATAII 7200rpm 32MB Cache (£40.88)

Comes to £546.37 using the HAF X.
Comes to £476.37 using the Storm Scout.

Will add a Radeon 6870 down the line.

Is this a good build? Does anything bottleneck the other?

Will I be able to run 2x Radeon 6870s in crossfire in the future with this build?

Bear in mind this will mainly be for gaming.

I may also add a SSD...

 

[Nokiacrazi]

bump, need a quick reply otherwise prices will rise again

 

[InnocentCriminal]

I'd say get the Scout and save some money to go towards something of greater worth such as the GFX or SSD.

 

[Nokiacrazi]

Yeah my brother would probably shoot me if I spent £140 on a case what do you think of the case?

 

[InnocentCriminal]

Personally, I think the HAF series look shite! Aesthetics aside, they cool brilliantly. The Scout looks great and can cool brilliantly for it's price. I was planning on picking the case up for myself so that my GF can have my 300.

If I was in your situ, I'd go for the Scout so that I could put the saved money towards something else. I'd also read/watch a crap load of reviews to really make my mind up.

 

[Nokiacrazi]

What do you think of this motherboard : Gigabyte GA-890GPA-UD3H 890GX Socket AM3 HDMI DVI VGA Out 8 Channel Audio ATX Motherboard

I would probably put it with:
AMD Phenom II X6 1055T 2.80GHz (Socket AM3) Processor - Retail
OCZ PC3-12800 4GB (2x2GB) 1600MHz DDR3 240pin DIMM AMD Black Edition XTC Computer Dual Channel Memory Kit (AOD Ready)
Arctic Power Pro 750W Modular 14cm Fan PSU - 4x PCI-E 8x SATA

in the Scout case!

 

[InnocentCriminal]

What do you think of this motherboard : Gigabyte GA-890GPA-UD3H...

Is the onboard GFX necessary? If not, get an 880 chipset.

 

[Nokiacrazi]

Is the onboard GFX necessary? If not, get an 880 chipset.

Onboard is not necrssary. Didn't realise.that was difference between versions.

 

[Nokiacrazi]

Is the onboard GFX necessary? If not, get an 880 chipset.

Onboard is not necrssary. Didn't realise.that was difference between versions.

 

[Nokiacrazi]

So would you say this is more appropriate for my build?

Gigabyte GA-880GA-UD3H 880GA Socket AM3 8 Channel Audio ATX Motherboard £79.92 inc. vat
or this
Gigabyte GA-880GM-UD2H 880G Socket AM3 8 Channel Audio mATX Motherboard £58.99 inc. vat
or this
Gigabyte GA-870A-UD3 870 Socket AM3 8 Channel Audio ATX Motherboard £77.40 inc. vat
or this
ASUS M4A88TD-M EVO/USB3 880G Socket AM3 HDMI DVI VGA Out 8 Channel Audio MATX Motherboard £75.29 inc. vat

By the way, if you could recommend any AM3 motherboards that suit my needs it would be great - not limited to Gigabyte in any way, but I would prefer Gigabyte, Asus or MSI tbh.

 

[InnocentCriminal]

What features d'you absolutely need?

Any 880 based board that you like the layout of will suffice I'm sure.

 

[Nokiacrazi]

J

What features d'you absolutely need?

Any 880 based board that you like the layout of will suffice I'm sure.

I would like to be able to run 2 6870s in crossfire eventually. Also I would like it to not bottleneck any other components.

 

[Nokiacrazi]

Asus M4A79XTD EVO 790X Socket AM3 8 channel audio ATX Motherboard

After reading up on that Mobo, it seems like it will suit my needs perfectly!

EDIT : just seen this one, about two pounds cheaper : Asus M4A88T-V EVO/USB3 880G Socket AM3 ONboard 128MB Memory DVI VGA HDMI Out ATX Motherboard. Probably suits my needs too...Its a 880 so im not sure..hmmm

If there's a reason why I shouldn't get it or I should consider another, perhaps same price, marginally lower/higher price, or I should go for a completely different one, please say

Anywho, I will probably use this with a Phenom II x4 965 BE or a Phenom II x6 1055T or a Phenom II x6 1090T BE... OCZ Black Edition DDR3 1600Mhz 4GB ram (dual channel) and a Radeon 6870 (x1 to start with then maybe x2)

Can anyone tell me what black edition is?