Feel free to share your thoughts and/or help out No flaming please!

Also feel free to link to this, but please don't copy and paste any of it, it's all my own words and I've spent a lot of time doing it.

Thought about this for a little while, decided I'll have a go at making a guide for how to go about selecting components for building yourself a computer, pros and cons of different setups etc and what will go with what. I'll do a bit and see if people agree and what not

All the links in here are to scan.co.uk because I know they are good, and their stuff is laid out in a workable order for my purposes. Buy elsewhere by all means, but buy from a non-reputable seller at your caution and/or peril!

NO NEED TO READ STUFF IN GREY!
It may seem a little long, but frankly, if you want to spec/build a computer yourself you really should know about what you're buying, otherwise you should really get a friend/company to do it. Also I won't be going into the older stuff because it really is on its way out, and while it does serve a purpose if you want a v.cheap computer, it's not for me as I feel you should spend £5 more and give yourself some wiggle room for replacements/upgrades. Old kit may be cheap now, but as time goes by it'll be hard to find unless you want to scour ebay etc for used parts.

Logical Order

This to me seems a logical order to do things in, you may end up changing some of the components out in the end due to budget but this works quite well for the setup. All these are my impartial views, no slagging off companies please!

I'll go for this order:
PROCESSOR
MOTHERBOARD
MEMORY - RAM not Hard drives etc
GRAPHICS CARD
STORAGE
POWER SUPPLY
CASE
ACCESSORIES

So, let us begin!



This will help you start and you can build everything around it, you should start here!

Choose yourself a category!


A monster computer that will smash out everything you can throw at it, obscenely expensive


Working with any of the above you will appreciate the right kit to do so, this computer will play any games with ease providing you stick a reasonable graphics card in too.


A machine for spending hours on doing what gamers do best


A computer for basic office type things, spreadheets etc. This will also play games reasonably well with a half decent graphics card.

After choosing one of these scroll to to the relevant post to choose your chip, motherboard and memory:

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Bloomfield - That's what you're looking at. Make sure you get a motherboard and memory to match!!

So you want a big shiney computer with uber everything?? You better have a deep wallet



The i7 920/930 are good enough for pretty much anything, if you want more (and have a very large budget) you just choose a more expensive one! All these except the hexacore one have 4 cores that can run 2 threads each. The hexacore, as the name suggests, has 6 that run 2 threads each. A thread is a job given to the processor by the computer.

http://www.scan.co.uk/Shop/Computer-Hardware/All/CPUs-Intel/Intel-Core-i7-(Bloomfield)-Socket-1366

Intel Core i7 is pretty much the pinnacle of desktop computing at them moment, I won't go into the details because I'm sure a hundred people have already written down all the amazing things about it, the only thing I will point out is that we are looking at the LGA1366 version of this for uber shiney!



If you want to clock the nuts off it you should pay for a premium board that can handle it, if you want it to run well don't buy the cheapest one you can find.

If you don't want to read lots of reviews then choose yourself a middle of the price band board from Asus or Gigabyte. MAKE SURE ITS 1366!

http://www.scan.co.uk/Shop/Computer-Hardware/All/Motherboards-Intel/Socket-1366-Intel-x58-Bloomfield-Core-i7



We're talking system memory i.e. RAM, hard drives and such I will refer to as STORAGE.

MAKE SURE YOU GET TRIPLE CHANNEL DDR3!!!! Bloomfield uses DDR3 only! DDR3 refers to the interface between the Motherboard and the Memory, in that it's the 3rd iteration of desktop memory, not that it's 3 times as fast.

Triple channel kits will contain 3 sticks of RAM (Memory) and without at least 3 identical sticks of memory your kit will underperform. The speeds are obvious, faster is better, 1333/1600/1800+ measured in MHz

1333
http://www.scan.co.uk/Shop/Computer-Hardware/All/Memory/DDR3-(240-pin)-Triple-Channel-(1333Mhz)
1600
http://www.scan.co.uk/Shop/Computer-Hardware/All/Memory/DDR3-(240-pin)-Triple-Channel-(1600Mhz)
1800+
http://www.scan.co.uk/Shop/Computer-Hardware/All/Memory/DDR3-(240-pin)-Triple-Channel-(1800Mhz-plus)

Main differences between Core i7 Bloomfield (1366) and Lynnfield (1156):

The connections between the Processor and Motherboard, this is where the numbers come from.
Bloomfield is Triple Channel, that's that the processor has 3 "pipes" to the RAM rather than the 2 Channels of Lynnfield. This is only really noticeable if you are running complex programs that use a lot of memory bandwidth.

If in doubt, ASK someone, we're here to help!

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Lynnfield Is what you want!

In my opinion, this will be enough for anyone wanting to run 3dsMax, Maya, Photoshop etc, or to do loads of encoding from BluRay/DVD etc. You could run this on another system adequately, but if you're building it for this purpose it'd be a bit crazy not to go with the one that does it best

Bloomfield (see IWANTBIGSHINEYONE) is an option for you, but as you didn't go for big shiney you probably don't have £1500 to spank, this will do the job extremely well.



There is a dual core i5 modelled on the Clarkdale architecture but for Image/Video/3D i'd definitely recommend you give it a miss, because the programs you are looking at, provided they're not very old, are professional products and scale very well across multiple cores. You'll want a quad core.

This is slightly complex, but your budget should dictate here.

The Quad Cores are split, i5 and i7, with the main difference being that the i7 can run 2 threads (threads are workloads for the processor] at a time, that's not to say they work twice as quick, but they will be more efficient on multi-threaded applications (video encoding/manipulation or high end rendering programs are good examples)

Suffice to say, spending extra pennies on an i7 version will be noticeable if you do these types of things on your computer.

i5 Lynnfield
http://www.scan.co.uk/Shop/Computer-Hardware/All/CPUs-Intel/Intel-Core-i5-Socket-1156

i7 Lynnfield
http://www.scan.co.uk/Shop/Computer-Hardware/All/CPUs-Intel/Intel-Core-i7-(45nm-Lynnfield)-Socket-1156



Buy something middle of the road from a good company with all the features you need, firewire/raid etc, if you don't know what these are you probably don't need them

Companies I rate with these processors are Gigabyte, Asus, MSI.

Lynnfield is VERY good at knowing what to do with your cores. There is no real need to overclock it, it will do it itself, maybe not to stupendous speeds, but enough that you will thank it for it. If you are running an application with only one or two of the aforementioned threads and your other two cores are not used, it will ramp up the cores in use giving you more bang for your buck. Obviously if all the cores are in use you won't get the TURBO BOOST but having the extra cores working will offset this

http://www.scan.co.uk/Shop/Computer-Hardware/All/Motherboards-Intel/Socket-1156-Intel-P55-Lynnfield-Core-i5-and-i7



Be warned!!! Lynnfield NEEDS 1.5v memory, make sure you choose memory that is 1.5v!!!

Dual Channel DDR3 is the memory you want for this setup, 2GB should be enough for most stuff, but if you are going to be handling huge image files and heavy 3d work you should get 4GB minimum.

BE SURE you get either 2 or 4 sticks!!! If you get only 1 your system will not function as well as it could do, and if you get three you may as well have got 4 for stability and optimum working.

The speed of your memory obviously has an impact, but not as much as you may think. I'd go for 1600MHz stuff at the moment, because the price difference between that and slower stuff is very small.

1066
http://www.scan.co.uk/Shop/Computer-Hardware/All/Memory/DDR3-(240-pin)-Single-Dual-Channel-(1066Mhz)
1333
http://www.scan.co.uk/Shop/Computer-Hardware/All/Memory/DDR3-(240-pin)-Single-Dual-Channel-(1333Mhz)
1600
http://www.scan.co.uk/Shop/Computer-Hardware/All/Memory/DDR3-(240-pin)-Dual-Channel-(1600Mhz)

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Phenom II/Clarkdale/Lynnfield

There is a lot of kit out there that will run your games, but the trick is getting only what you need, and not overdoing it here.



I'll delve into the dual/quad core thing . It's a large bone of contention at the moment, only games made within the last couple of years have utilised more than 2 cores, and even then the differences between the duals and quads have been small. GTA 4 and Supreme Commander are the only games I KNOW OF that really appreciate more than 2 cores.

For the large debate of quad/dual cores I'll leave it up to you to decide what's best, but if you need the computer now, and cheaply, get a dual. If you want it to last a long time get a quad. You can always upgrade a dual core the future mind you if it all goes quads all of a sudden.

Also, this a a very good test of the dual/quad theory which suggests that quads may be the way to go, lol. Bit-tech.net


Choosing which type

Intel vs AMD

I'll do this simply, without going into to much detail. An Intel processor at this point will be faster than an AMD processor with the same number of cores, at the same speed. However the AMD offerings are a fair amount cheaper, as you'll see if you have a peek at them. My personal opinion is the Intel ones have the edge performance wise, but you'll get more bang for your buck with AMD, especially as the AMD chips love to be overclocked

Sorry I haven't been more specific here, if you're left wondering, price up an AMD and an Intel dual core system and see what works out cheapest for you

Dual Cores

Intel i3 - Clarkdale
http://www.scan.co.uk/Shop/Computer-Hardware/All/CPUs-Intel/Intel-Core-i3-(32nm-Clarkdale)-Socket-1156
AMD Phenom II X2
http://www.scan.co.uk/Shop/Computer-Hardware/All/CPUs-AMD/AMD-Phenom-II-(S-AM3)-Dual-Core

Quad Cores

Intel i5 - Lynnfield
http://www.scan.co.uk/Shop/Computer-Hardware/All/CPUs-Intel/Intel-Core-i5-Socket-1156
AMD Phenom II X4
http://www.scan.co.uk/Shop/Computer-Hardware/All/CPUs-AMD/AMD-Phenom-II-(S-AM3)-Quad-Core



You've already chosen your Processor at this point so I'll split it up

AMD Motherboards

No matter which AM3 processor you've chosen the boards remain the same

There are a number of different motherboards available for AM3, the socket that all the new AMD processors use, but I'm going to narrow it down for you, because I'm good like that

AMD 770/760 - These are budget boards that perform admirably. Don't worry about integrated graphics, it's not for you gamer! Anything by Asus, Gigabyte or MSI will do you fine, if you're going to overclock, get a recommendation or read some reviews. Make sure it's AM3, not AM2+ or you're limiting your hardware.

WATCH YOU DON'T GET A DDR2 ONE BY ACCIDENT! It's will be in the board's specs, running DDR2 memory will severly limit your upgrade/replacement chances, not to mention that DDR2 is going up in price, while faster DDR3 is coming down.
http://www.scan.co.uk/Shop/Computer-Hardware/All/Motherboards-AMD/Socket-AM3-AMD-770

AMD 880/890 This is a premium board that has extras, it's going to run a little better and will most likely be keener to overclock your processor. If you do want to overclock, read some reviews or get a recommendation. If not, pick yourself up a nice board from a reputable company, then you can't really go wrong.

Make sure it's AM3!
http://www.scan.co.uk/Shop/Computer-Hardware/All/Motherboards-AMD/Socket-AM3-AMD-890FX-890GX

Intel Motherboards

For your i3 – Get a H55 or H57 board, that is what i3 is designed for, you may be able to get the more powerful P55 but compatibility problems have been had, you may have to c*ck around a LOT to get it working. Having said that, check around, a P55 board would be a large advantage

http://www.scan.co.uk/Shop/Computer-Hardware/All/Motherboards-Intel/Socket-1156-Intel-H55-Clarkdale-Core-i3-i5

For your i5 – I really do recommend a P55 motherboard, there's no reason to get the H55/H57, unless you need to save some funds, which may work out false economy as it will probably limit your processor and memory some

http://www.scan.co.uk/Shop/Computer-Hardware/All/Motherboards-Intel/Socket-1156-Intel-P55-Lynnfield-Core-i5-and-i7



Both systems use the same memory bar one rule:
You need 1.5v memory for your Intel make sure it's 1.5v or it won't work!

Any Dual Channel DDR3 kit will fit your needs here, no special requirements other than to make sure you choose an even number of sticks up to 4. 2GB will do you for most games if you don't have the cash for 4GB. Speed is not a huge factor in this set-up but it will still help. It comes in 1066/1333/1600MHz flavours, though as the prices stand at the moment, you may as well get 1600 stuff

1066
http://www.scan.co.uk/Shop/Computer-Hardware/All/Memory/DDR3-(240-pin)-Single-Dual-Channel-(1066Mhz)
1333
http://www.scan.co.uk/Shop/Computer-Hardware/All/Memory/DDR3-(240-pin)-Single-Dual-Channel-(1333Mhz)
1600
http://www.scan.co.uk/Shop/Computer-Hardware/All/Memory/DDR3-(240-pin)-Dual-Channel-(1600Mhz)

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Sempron II/Athlon II/Clarkdale



AMD vs. Intel

Or more appropriately Semprom II/Athlon II vs. Clarkdale. There is little noticable difference between the two in processing power when using them for this purpose. The main difference is in the onboard graphics processors that are available for them. Unfortunately for Intel the general gist of this is that the AMD offerings are much better than the Intel ones.

So at this point I'd have to recommend your go AMD for your computer unless you plan to add a graphics card to your shopping list, which of course will make any modern games you play look better. By no means make your decision based on this information alone there are some very nice features which may swing you to over to Intel.

I'll give a very quick round up of the processor families I've mentioned:

AMD Sempron II

There is only one processor as I write this, it's a single core processor and it's what you should choose if you want the cheapest office/browser computer you can make. It's a cheap and cheerful processor that will happily run your office programs and internet browsers.

http://www.scan.co.uk/Shop/Computer-Hardware/All/CPUs-AMD/AMD-Sempron-Socket-AM3

AMD Athlon II

Athlon II is a capable processor family that comes in dual (X2), triple (X3) and quad (X4) core varieties. Since you're only going to be running basic stuff at this point you may only need an X2 at the most. If you want more cores it will cost you, understandably. Please note that going from a X2 to an X4 will not double the speed of your computer, it will definitely be faster providing you are running a reasonably new operating system (eg. Windows Vista/7) but simple programs such as word processors and internet browsers will not need three or four cores.

X2
http://www.scan.co.uk/Shop/Computer-Hardware/All/CPUs-AMD/AMD-Athlon-II-Dual-Core-Socket-AM3
X3
http://www.scan.co.uk/Shop/Computer-Hardware/All/CPUs-AMD/AMD-Athlon-II-Triple-Core-Socket-AM3
X4
http://www.scan.co.uk/Shop/Computer-Hardware/All/CPUs-AMD/AMD-Athlon-II-Quad-Core-Socket-AM3

Intel's Clarkdale

Clarkdale is Intel's Core i3. They are all dual core processors which is no bad thing at this level and there are some advantages to them. As a rule Intel processors are faster than AMD ones with of same speed and number of cores, although AMD's are considerably cheaper and so you can get a faster processor with more cores for the same price, potentially negating this advantage. What is great about the Core i3 is that it will self overclock. Please don't read overclock as break your computer and/or decrease its life. Providing you give it a well ventilated case and a good power supply this Turbo Boost will noticably speed up your computer all on it's own giving it an edge over the AMD processors. This is not a required element for an office/browser, but it is a very nice feature.

http://www.scan.co.uk/Shop/Computer-Hardware/All/CPUs-Intel/Intel-Core-i3-(32nm-Clarkdale)-Socket-1156



AMD

There are a LOT of options at the moment, as we're inbetween two generations of AMD motherboards, all of my recommendations will have built in graphics i.e you won't need a graphics card, this does not mean you cannot add one at a later date or that a graphics card will not perform as well should you add one. Please note that your processor will perform pretty much the same in any of these, the difference will mainly be HD video playback and it's ability to run games at low settings/resolutions.

Brands apply here as everywhere, I recommend Asus, Gigabyte or MSI.

AMD 760G

This is a great little chipset that is cheap and will be the first choice for price. Make sure the board says 760G not 770 if you don't want to buy a graphics card.

http://www.scan.co.uk/Shop/Computer-Hardware/All/Motherboards-AMD/Socket-AM3-AMD-770

AMD 785G

A bit more expensive and with more powerful onboard graphics.

http://www.scan.co.uk/Shop/Computer-Hardware/All/Motherboards-AMD/Socket-AM3-AMD-785G

AMD 880G

Newer and slightly more expensive/powerful than the 785G. Make sure the board says 880G not 870/890 if you don't want to buy a graphics card.

http://www.scan.co.uk/Shop/Computer-Hardware/All/Motherboards-AMD/Socket-AM3-AMD-890FX-890GX

Intel

H55/H57

These are the chipsets allow you to use the integrated graphics of the Core i3, the graphical processor is contained within the same package as the central processor on i3. As the numbers suggest the H57 is slightly better than the H55. More expensive doesn't necessarily mean better it usually means more features/extras that you may or may not need

http://www.scan.co.uk/Shop/Computer-Hardware/All/Motherboards-Intel/Socket-1156-Intel-H55-Clarkdale-Core-i3-i5



Both systems use the same memory bar one rule:
You need 1.5v memory for your Intel make sure it's 1.5v or it won't work!

Any Dual Channel DDR3 kit will fit your needs here, no special requirements other than to make sure you choose an even number of sticks up to 4 your board may only fit two sticks in it, so be sure to check! 2GB is a great amount for a basic computer, although if you're going for super cheap you may be fine with 1GB (2x 512MB sticks). Speed is not a huge factor in this set-up. It comes in 1066/1333/1600MHz flavours.

1066
http://www.scan.co.uk/Shop/Computer-Hardware/All/Memory/DDR3-(240-pin)-Single-Dual-Channel-(1066Mhz)
1333
http://www.scan.co.uk/Shop/Computer-Hardware/All/Memory/DDR3-(240-pin)-Single-Dual-Channel-(1333Mhz)
1600
http://www.scan.co.uk/Shop/Computer-Hardware/All/Memory/DDR3-(240-pin)-Dual-Channel-(1600Mhz)

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A note, some of these cards are enourmous, and may not fit in the case you have your eye on, check the size of them before you choose your case!!!

Ok, this is scary! Graphics cards are a large debating factor for gamers. In the red corner is Ati and in the green is Nvidia, although I like to think I'm not like that, favouring only certain cards irrelevant of who makes them.
I'm going to stick to a few cards to simplify this, if you want to know more there are plenty of group tests, facts and figures to be found by going to sites like bit-tech.net

Ok! These are in price/performance order, take your pick dependent on your budget, do not skimp on this if your rig is for gaming!

If you're here building an image/video machine then you need only buy something resonably priced like a 5750 to give you multiple screens should you need/want them, however if you're buying for 3d then I'd recommend a GTX460 or more, but if that's too much a 5770 should do nicely providing you're not using 2 30" screens.

ATI 5750 To be had for as little as £90!

A great little card, it will destroy your old favourites and do modern titles some justice on a 17" monitor, 1440x900 or 1280x1024. It will also stretch to a HDTV at 1080p (1920x1080) provided you sacrifice some of the lighting/smoothing effects.

ATI 5770 About £140

It's got to be, at about £140 this card performs brilliantly. Playing most games at 1920x1080 (1080p) with the majority of the bells and whistles turned on. Stop here if you're on a reasonably tight budget.

NVidia GTX460 About £170

An excellent card, this will almost definitely play games with all the options cranked up at 1920x1080 (1080p) or 1920x1200 wich is normal for a 16:10 24" monitor Go for the 1GB it is worth the extra money! Also, a warning it is noisy and runs very hot.

ATI 5850 About £240

Hellishly powerful and will hammer out games at 2560x1600, a 30" monitor, provided you don't want the AA on!

ATI 5870 About £320

A monster, frankly, anyone wanting to go further than this may need to get a mental health checkup This will hammer out games with the majority of the setting maxxed on a 30" monitor, 2560x1600. You can have some AA too!

On to madness!!!

Nvidia GTX 480 About £390

Nvidias fastest card to date, runs horrendously hot and loud with the stock cooler, but at this price you may aswell pay for one with an improved cooler, just don't expect it to be nice to your electricity bill! Drawing a staggering 160 Watts on idle and up to 355W on full belt. However it is the next logical step from an ATI 5870 if you want more oomph.

ATI 5970 About £500

This is basically two 5870s together in one package, a la X-Fire, without the compatibility issues the motherboard X-Fire can bring, but still not without it's problems. It also draws ridiculous amounts of power, but no more than the GTX 480, in fact a little less, at 150W idle and 340W fully loaded, but you can afford a power supply to give it that happily, can't you

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This is going to be short, I've decided to make it so!

A selection of three. A blisteringly fast small one, a very quick large one, and a cheap but good one.

Some background, the storage side of things is generally hard drives, they are one of the only parts of a computer that still retain a mechanical funtion, along with optical disc drives (CD/DVD/Blu-Ray), cooling components and switches i suppose There are also devices called SSDs nowadays. These are a new thing (relatively) and contain no moving parts in much the same way as a memory stick, or RAM do not. SSDs are very expensive still, although they can be much faster than their mechanical cousins in certain scenarios.

Blisteringly fast!

Sorry I cannot in good faith recommend you one of these, and will have to point you to a group test by bit-tech.net. The reason for this is that because they are new, it is a rapidly changing area and I haven't had enough interest in them to have a good grasp of where they are at.

Bit-Tech.net SSD buyer's guide

Quick and large!

The Samsung F3 1TB is a huge drive which is by far one of the fastest hard drives available and has a very reasonable price tag at around £45

Cheap as chips!

The 320GB Western Digital Caviar Blue is by no means the fastest, nor slowest, drive around, with easily enough room for all your documents and and music, and enough for quite a lot of films with a nice price of around £31

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Great start keep it up

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Monolith - Asus P5KE-WiFi, Intel Q6600 @ 3.6Ghz, XFX GTX275, 22" TFT + 19" TFT, 12" TFT Case Mounted
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Redemption HTPC - Zotac 9300 ITX, Intel Q9450, 4Gb G.Skill 6400, LG Bluray Drive, OCZ ModXstream 400W, 2x 1Tb Samsung, Windows 7 Home. 32" Toshiba LCD TV.
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Thanking you! Lynnfield done

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Didn't read all of it but had a scour through. I think this is a great idea you had. As Craig said keep it up.

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I don't suffer from insanity, I enjoy every minute of it.
The only way to attain sanity is through insanity.
I'm not as think as you drunk I am.
Death is certain, Life is not.
The voices in my head may not be real, but they have some good ideas!

Thanks Bangled Am doing that just now!

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Thanks nice and informative to beginners like me, cant wait for the rest!