[BIGEYE]

I have bought a 'Today Only special price' PC from an online retailer. The pc is delivered in component form for you to put together yourself. The processor is a Intel Core i5 2500K 1155, Sandy Bridge, the mobo is MSI P67A-G45 (B3). The list of components didn't mention anything about a graphics card, so I ordered 2GB Palit GTX 560 Ti as well.
I now see that the CPU has graphics in built. Have I bought a graphics card that I don't need, or will the CPU built in graphics cause me problems? Appreciate any advice, as I may still be able to cancel the gfx card.

TIA

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I see you have built a computer before, so please ignore some of my advice, as I posted before checking your other posts on this site.
That motherboard does NOT have integrated graphics.
Here is the link.
http://www.msi.com/p...#/?div=Overview

A processor or CPU - central processing unit here is the link to yours
http://ark.intel.com...ache, 3.30 GHz)
so although Intel included the integrated graphics on this

Intel® Core™ i5-2500 Processor
(6M Cache, 3.30 GHz)
you still have to look at the motherboard and chipset specifications
If you look at the motherboard and see the image of the I/O plate that is the Input Output connectors you will see that there are not graphics ports. - so in answer to your particular question NO you have not wasted your money.

However you make no mention of the PSU - power supply unit and you need to establish what power supply you need,
Here is the link to the graphics card
http://www.hardwareh...oise-temps.html
That card at full load requires 321watts of power.
You are therefore looking at a substantial power supply.
Use this to calculate the minmum and then add a safety margin
http://extreme.outer...culatorlite.jsp
You have to be looking at 600 watts to be on the safe side., I would think.

You also make no mnetion of hard drive or memory.
The memory acceptable is on the motherboard link.

The best advice I can give you on the information you have provided is to read the article on this link written by a member of GeekstoGo and read other articles as well.
http://www.geekstogo...r-own-computer/
If you have NEVER built a system, I would urge you to acquire an old but working computer. Take it completely to pieces. Rebuild it and see if it still works.
The cost of acquiring an old working system, if you do have to buy it, could prove to be very well spent if it saves you making an expensive mistake with the actual system you are building.

If anti-static precuations, stand-offs for the motherboard, dual core, thermal paste, are matters not specifically within your present knowledge, to name just a few, then please do a lot of reading and studying before you try building what is obviously going to be an expensive system.

If you are successful and it is your first build you will feel great when it is completed, but ONE wrong connection to the motherboard, or a little lack of knowledge and a bent pin as you inset the CPU, will spell disaster.
Please come back with any further questions.

Edited by Macboatmaster, 23 April 2011 - 07:38 PM.

[Macboatmaster]

I see you have built a computer before, so please ignore some of my advice, as I posted before checking your other posts on this site.
That motherboard does NOT have integrated graphics.
Here is the link.
http://www.msi.com/p...#/?div=Overview

A processor or CPU - central processing unit here is the link to yours
http://ark.intel.com...ache, 3.30 GHz)
so although Intel included the integrated graphics on this

Intel® Core™ i5-2500 Processor
(6M Cache, 3.30 GHz)
you still have to look at the motherboard and chipset specifications
If you look at the motherboard and see the image of the I/O plate that is the Input Output connectors you will see that there are not graphics ports. - so in answer to your particular question NO you have not wasted your money.

However you make no mention of the PSU - power supply unit and you need to establish what power supply you need,
Here is the link to the graphics card
http://www.hardwareh...oise-temps.html
That card at full load requires 321watts of power.
You are therefore looking at a substantial power supply.
Use this to calculate the minmum and then add a safety margin
http://extreme.outer...culatorlite.jsp
You have to be looking at 600 watts to be on the safe side., I would think.

You also make no mnetion of hard drive or memory.
The memory acceptable is on the motherboard link.

The best advice I can give you on the information you have provided is to read the article on this link written by a member of GeekstoGo and read other articles as well.
http://www.geekstogo...r-own-computer/
If you have NEVER built a system, I would urge you to acquire an old but working computer. Take it completely to pieces. Rebuild it and see if it still works.
The cost of acquiring an old working system, if you do have to buy it, could prove to be very well spent if it saves you making an expensive mistake with the actual system you are building.

If anti-static precuations, stand-offs for the motherboard, dual core, thermal paste, are matters not specifically within your present knowledge, to name just a few, then please do a lot of reading and studying before you try building what is obviously going to be an expensive system.

If you are successful and it is your first build you will feel great when it is completed, but ONE wrong connection to the motherboard, or a little lack of knowledge and a bent pin as you inset the CPU, will spell disaster.
Please come back with any further questions.

Edited by Macboatmaster, 23 April 2011 - 07:38 PM.

[iammykyl]

Gday Bigeye,

The 2500 and the 2500K both have integrated graphics but the K donates that the graphics is disabled and the overclocking feature is enabled. If you look at the Motherboard, a P67, you will see it does not have any video outputs whereas a H67 Motherboard does have video outputs.

So you were correct to have ordered a video card. Very good one I might say. There should be no conflicts having the onboard graphics.

[BIGEYE]

Thanks guys for the reassurance. A bit more detail of the components:

PSU = 650W Coolermaster RS650-ACAAE3-UK GX, 80 PLUS, 85% Eff', SLI/CrossFire, , EPS 12V, 120mm Fan
HDD = 1Tb Seagate ST1000DL002 Barracuda Green, SATA 3Gb/s, 5900rpm, 32MB Cache, I will be fitting a second 1TB Samsung drive from my older PC.
RAM = 8GB (2x4GB) Corsair Vengeance DDR3 PC3-12800 (1600), Non-ECC Unbuffered, CAS 9-9-9-24, XMP, 1.50V

I am running Windows XP Pro (32 bit) on my machine ATM, and have reluctantly bought Windows 7 Ultimate 64 bit for my new build. Got it cheap from a students software site.

[Macboatmaster]

Good luck with the build..
If it was me I would partition the Seagate, keeping the Operating system separate form the programs and another partition for your personal data.
Depending of course on what your intentions are with the second drive.
Some basic ideas are here
http://answers.micro...82-d05155f4cd17


and Seagate of course offer free their diskwizard which I use. I find it ideal. Especially for easy image, backup and transfer
http://www.seagate.c...oads/discwizard

Edited by Macboatmaster, 24 April 2011 - 05:09 AM.

[Digerati]

None of the i3, i5, or i7 CPUs have real built-in graphics. But they do have some coding to work in conjunction with specific on-board Intel GMA graphics solutions for a better, some would say the best, on-board graphics solution. Of course, that means only specific Intel based motherboards will work in that configuration, but that does not mean you have to use that graphics solution with those CPUs. You can certainly use an AMD/ATI graphics solution with an Intel CPU.

Now whether you spent your money wisely or not is another matter. The i5/GMA integrated graphics solutions is excellent, very capable of supporting the needs for most users who need good graphics for Internet surfing, watching DVDs and videos, school and work papers, email, etc., assuming an ample amount of RAM is present too. A motherboard and decent card used for gaming (and maybe bigger power supply to support that card) probably costs more than a good motherboard with Intel GMA graphics.

Unless the computer has a primary function of pretty serious gaming (in which I hope the PSU is a good one), you may have spent more than you needed.