Imran Khan | Talented Web & PC Profesional » core i3

Core i3 Build – Asus P7P55D Motherboard

Imran — Tue, 30 Mar 2010 21:52:46 +0000

I’ve always been a fan of Asus when it comes to motherboards, so it was simply a choice of selecting an Asus motherboard for this build. Bearing in mind the CPU will be a i3 LGA 1156 processor, the range of possible motherboards was limited to one from the P55/H55/H57 range. The H55 and H57 make use of the i3 processors built in graphics. Motherboards from the H55 and H57 provide video outputs including DVI, VGA and HDMI. The P55 series of motherboards don’t allow this.

Bearing in mind the need to keep costs down, the motherboard chosen was one step up from the base model in the Asus P55 range of motherboards. The P7P55D is relatively cheap motherboard (just over £100) for i3, i5 and i7 processors. It’s ideally placed for future expansion as to upgrade, only the processor will need to be changed. It still has a rich mix of features as follows:

Intel LGA1156 Platform / Intel® P55 Express Chipset
ASUS Hybrid Technology
TurboV EVO – Ultimate O.C. Processor
T.Probe – Leading Active Cooling Technology
ASUS 16 Hybrid Phase Design
Quad-GPU CrossFireX Support!

Here’s some pictures of the motherboard:

Some links with reviews if you are interested:

Core i3 Build – i3 530 CPU

Imran — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 21:45:24 +0000

Choosing the CPU for this build was an easy choice as currently there are only two processors in the Core i3 range:

i3 530 (2.93 GHz) – Socket 1156
i3 540 (3.06 GHz) – Socket 1156

The 530 is priced at around £90 currently while the 540 is a little more expensive at around £110. There is very little difference in terms of performance which isn’t explained by the £20 difference in price. Is the extra 0.13 GHz worth £20? I don’t think so, which is why the CPU chosen for the i3 build is the i3 530. It will be quite an upgrade from the old system which is running a poor old Athlon XP at 2.8 GHz.

Initial plans are to not overclock the processor as it should provide plenty of performance. I will initially be using the stock cooler which comes with the retail boxed processor. Once I do decide to overclock, reports on the Internet show it is capable of hitting 4 GHz with the stock fan – so I may indulge in some mild overclocking depending on how brave I feel! J

Here’s a set of pictures of the processor:

Links to reviews of this processor

Core i3 Build – Raidmax Ninja Case

Imran — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 18:40:33 +0000

Ok, so this may not be the greatest case ever, but it was a cheap bargain which looked good. The case I’ve bought for the i3 build is a Raidmax Ninja. Snappy title if you ask me! It was a inexpensive model I found on eBay and the low price of £45 was too good to resist, so I bought it.

It has more than a passing resemblance to those famous Alienware cases. It gloss black and has enough room for an ATX motherboard. It has a nice windowed side panel with fan. It should hopefully be fine to house the low end components I’ll be putting into this machine. It looks reasonably spacious and it has some cable routing holes. Cable routing shouldn’t be that much of an issue as this system will only contain one hard drive and one optical drive.

Picture Gallery

Reviews

Building a triple set of Intel Core ix systems

Imran — Mon, 01 Feb 2010 00:10:34 +0000

I planned on building myself a new PC last year. Things never got round to the stage where I was actually buying components for various reasons like studying and welcoming my first child into the world (it was a baby girl by the way if you’re still following… ).

So, in 2010, I will be building a triple set of PC systems, all based around the Intel Core ix line. Two of these systems will be for other members of my family who need an upgrade. Seeing as I’ve got more time now (finished MSc, little girl is now 1 year old), I decided to build myself a new system as well.

I’m still planning (don’t laugh!) what components I will choose, but I’ve got three price points:

Core i3 System – maximum of £650
Core i5 System – maximum of £1,250
Core i7 System – maximum of £1,750

All three of the budgets don’t include a monitor, speakers or a keyboard and mouse. Existing peripherals will be used so as to allow the budget to be devoted to the components.

Naturally, the i7 system will be one I aim to build for myself, so it will contain quite a few high end parts.

I will post news about components bought, as well as photo galleries of the build process. The i3 system is due to be built first in the next few months.

Stay tuned for more news on my PC building activites in 2010. I will build these systems!