Please help with a new Gaming build

Connavar

Hi Guys,

I have been considering buying a new machine for a while and now that my 8800 gtx finally gave out it seems that it is time.

I hope to be ordering in the next week or 2, with a budget of €1300 including os. (I have speakers, mouse, monitor(1900x1080) and keyboard).

It will primarily be a gaming machine but will also be use for coding/work.

Also are there any trustworthy hardware review sites that ye could recommend as heard that tomshardware has gotten dodgey in the last few years and I havent been reading reviews for ages.

PS: I am not an nvidea/amd/intel fanboy so I am happy to go with the product with the best preformance reviews.

Thanks in advance,
Niall

merc.ie

Here's one from Scan.co.uk: http://www.scan.co.uk/savedbasket/8da62fef37314a41985692b91f9d9f92

If desired the case, CPU cooler and amount of RAM could be downgraded to lower the price. The GTX 570 should do you fine at 1920x1080 for the moment, and there's room to add another in the future. I'm hesitant to recommend a 580 because it seems that the new 28nm graphics cards might actually come out towards the end of this year, so going for a very expensive one now isn't such a great idea.

Fluffy88

I hope to build myself a computer in the near future for a very similar price and for similar work as what you said, some gaming and then coding/work. So I decided to make up a build along these lines it might help you out but be warned I am a nooooob so don't take me too serious.
And since I know very little about this some of the parts are just taken from when I seen others suggesting them, so some of the parts could possibly be upgraded to different/better models.

Thermaltake Element S BNS black €91.79
8GB-Kit G.Skill RipJaws-X PC3-12800U CL9 €68.89
Samsung SpinPoint F3 1000GB, SATA II (HD103SJ) €45.14
OCZ Agility 3 60GB 6,4cm (2,5") SATA3 €108.14
OCZ Agility 3 60GB 6,4cm (2,5") SATA3 €108.14
Intel Core i5-2500K Box, LGA1155 €172.44
ASRock Z68 Pro3 (B3), Sockel 1155, ATX €108.11
Sony NEC Optiarc AD-5260S, SATA, schwarz, bulk €17.79
Ultron Cardreader 75-in-1, intern, schwarz €8.43
Scythe Mugen 2 Rev. B, CPU-Kühler, für alle Sockel geeignet €33.99
Super-Flower Amazon 80Plus 650W €67.97
ASUS ENGTX560 Ti DCII/2DI/1GD5, 1024MB,PCI-E,2xDVI,HDMI €191.56
Total €1,022.39

I would also plan on getting a tutorial online to overclock the i5 to 4.5Ghz hopefully, but again complete noob with Overclocking so I might not do it either in-case I would damage the system.

And you should be able to grab a copy of Win7 Pro for €45 here all you need is to have a student(secondary/university) in your family or even a friend.

Connavar

Thanks guys. They look like nice builds. @merc.iei think I would definately go a bit smaller on the case. I knew someone with one of those and they re massive.

With regards to ram, would 8GB of 1333MHz be better than 4GB of 1600MHz?

IrishMetalhead

not really because games still barely use 4GB but if it might be a good idea if your just thinking of future proofing it a tad bit.
also merc's option is by far the best but it would be much cheaper to order from hardwarevrsand instead of scan (which works out to €1324.96 when converted to euros) also a 850 watt psu is abit of a waste for a single card set-up so here the few slight changes i'd recommend:

CPU: Intel Core i5 2500K - €172.54
http://www2.hardwareversand.de/articledetail.jsp?aid=41224&agid=1617

CPU Cooler: Corsair H70 - €76.34
http://www2.hardwareversand.de/articledetail.jsp?aid=38537&agid=669

Motherboard: MSI P67A-GD55 - €129.53
http://www2.hardwareversand.de/articledetail.jsp?aid=43884&agid=1601

RAM: 8GB G. Skill RipJaws-X 1600MHz - 64.16
http://www2.hardwareversand.de/articledetail.jsp?aid=44321&agid=1193

Graphics Card: 1280MB MSI GeForce GTX 570 OC Edition - €259.31
http://www2.hardwareversand.de/articledetail.jsp?aid=45529&agid=707

SSD: 64GB Crucial M4 - €96.59
http://www2.hardwareversand.de/articledetail.jsp?aid=46113&agid=1145

HDD: 1TB Samsung SpinPoint F3 7200rpm - €45.14
http://www2.hardwareversand.de/articledetail.jsp?aid=28152&agid=689

Disc Drive: Sony Sony NEC Optiarc AD-5260S DVD+RW - €17.64
http://www2.hardwareversand.de/articledetail.jsp?aid=36861&agid=699

Case: Corsair Grahpite 600T White Edition - €142.79
http://www2.hardwareversand.de/articledetail.jsp?aid=47538&agid=631

PSU: Corsair 650HX - €99.90
http://www2.hardwareversand.de/articledetail.jsp?aid=28059&agid=1629

OS: Windows 7 Home Premium 64bit - €114.74
http://www2.hardwareversand.de/articledetail.jsp?aid=29181&agid=185

Shipping - €30

Total - €1248.68

merc.ie

Hardwareversand isn't really that much cheaper then scan. Scan has the advantage of accepting credit cards and having no chance of a language barrier.

The speed of ram doesn't matter so much with the 2500k, it's overclocked using a multiplier and not with the FSB. Aside from that there's almost no performance difference between 1333 and 1600. But they are usually very close in price so get the faster stuff if it's a good deal.

If the 650 case is not to your liking, this is a smaller, cheaper alternative - http://www.scan.co.uk/products/coolermaster-haf-912-plus-black-mid-tower-case-w-o-psu

Serephucus

Specced something similar to MetalHead's build above, but with a 2TB HDD, slower RAM (like that makes a difference), and a faster SSD. €1,307 + €7 delivery. I don't understand why people here almost always look at HWVS.

slave1

It's littered across this forum to go for the student W7 64bit upgrade for a better OS that you have included and cheaper too, just install as a trial and then activate with the key and it's perfect with a new build and no existing OS

IrishMetalhead

Serephucus wrote: »

Specced something similar to MetalHead's build above, but with a 2TB HDD, slower RAM (like that makes a difference), and a faster SSD. €1,307 + €7 delivery. I don't understand why people here almost always look at HWVS.

faster ssd? highly doubt it the m4 is currently the fastest sata3 ssd on the market altho that does seem to very subjective at the momment

Sephiroth_dude

Serephucus wrote: »

Specced something similar to MetalHead's build above, but with a 2TB HDD, slower RAM (like that makes a difference), and a faster SSD. €1,307 + €7 delivery. I don't understand why people here almost always look at HWVS.

what site was that priced on?

Serephucus

Dabs.ie

@MetalHead: I'm not positive, but I'm pretty sure the Agility 3 is faster.

Fluffy88

As you all know I don't know what I'm talking about with this stuff but I read a good in-depth article on the different SATA 6Gb/s drives out there. I can't really tell which is best, different drives are good at different things, but OCZ does seem to be up there in terms of speed.

Here is the article
http://www.anandtech.com/show/4421/the-2011-midrange-ssd-roundup/1

Tar.Aldarion

Serephucus wrote: »

Specced something similar to MetalHead's build above, but with a 2TB HDD, slower RAM (like that makes a difference), and a faster SSD. €1,307 + €7 delivery. I don't understand why people here almost always look at HWVS.

I'd be wary about bundles like that with ram, mobo, cpu etc, they are a rip off.
That would be nearly 100e cheaper on HVS bought separately.

Monotype

Welcome back IrishMetalHead, I haven't seen you around lately.

Serephucus wrote: »

€1,307 + €7 delivery. I don't understand why people here almost always look at HWVS.

Dabs' delivery has gone down again!
The reason why I'd normally put down HWVS builds is because quite often they're a bit cheaper. Just a little bit cheaper is enough to make a fuss for some people. Plus they have a better selection of PSUs than many places. I've actually never used them myself and have used dabs and scan several times. Dabs can have fantastic deals, but their prices are like yo-yos and not consistently cheap prices of HWV. Scan are definitely better value for some items. Usually the higher end builds. There's more requests for low and mid builds here though.

If you want one of the best drives, get the OCZ Vertex 3 - better yet, the Vertex 3 Max IOPS. The agility has high max speeds stated, but I'm trusting OCZ less and less - especially in their covered up drop in size and performance on the switch to 25nm with the V2 and A2 drives (and still sell them as larger drives than they are). There's also a lot of issues with the new sandforce drives in general - Corsair recalled their 120GB Force 3 drives but OCZ say theirs are fine, despite quite a lot of complaints. If you want reliability, Intel and Corsair appear to be the ones to go to.

Connavar

As a matter of interest. Would the 850w cpu recommended by merc be enough if I wanted to go sli in the future? If it is it might be worth the extra €30

Monotype

850W is plenty for two overclocked 570s with and an overclocked processor - you'll have a lot of room to spare.
If SLI is unlikely, get a lower rated PSU as you won't be running at optimum efficiency.

IrishMetalhead

thanks monotype ive been away for awhile to study for my exams for the comptia course.

anyways you may to worry about the mobo aswell if your planning to upgrading to sli in the future to see it support sli in atleast 8x mode but lukily the p67a-gd55 does where the p8p67 does not

Connavar

Just ordered the build that IrishMetalead suggested. Thanks for the help. Will probably be asking for more later as it will be my first attempt at assembling a whole PC

Connavar

Hi guys,

I have just put my machine together and have it up and running(after having a real pain getting the Corsair cpu cooler installed)

Are there any programs that I should run to make sure all is working as it should?

Thanks
Niall

deconduo

Get a temperature monitoring program like HWmonitor. Then run Prime95 for about 4 hours to make sure your temperatures are ok (and that you get no crashes or bluescreens)

Ninite.com is also handy for installing a bunch of common programs at once.

IrishMetalhead

don't forget to upload some pictures so we can admire your work :P

Connavar

Ok heres some images. Still a couple of things to sort out.
1. The front audio ports arent working
2. There is only one usb socket for front usb on the motherboard and the case needs 2

Any help with the above is greatly appreciated

deconduo

Looks good.

For the audio thing, I've always had trouble trying to get the case headers to work for that. Usually the case will have a HD Audio and an AC97. Try swapping whatever one you have in for the other.

For the USB, double check the manual to make sure there isn't a 2nd USB slot. I know a lot of motherboards can have them placed quite far apart from each other. If not, then you're just out of luck unfortunately.

Burgo

1. have you connected them to the mobo? if so try switching between the hd audio and ac97, if its not one its usually the other :P

2. do you have one of these adapters? (the big one )

Connavar

Thanks for the quick replies.
Will check the ac97 connector now. Not sure if I have that adapter but I will have a look now

IrishMetalhead

regardless of the small issues how are you liking the new set-up?
love the way the case looks like storm-trooper armor

Connavar

Pretty sweet so far. 10 second startup time is pretty damn nice.
I just have to get used to installing things in the second hard drive now

Forgot to mention that I fried my old hard drive during the build process. Cant get it to read on the new or old comp now

deconduo

IrishMetalhead wrote: »

regardless of the small issues how are you liking the new set-up?
love the way the case looks like storm-trooper armor

Yeah its a great case and you've done a decent job with the build. Looks very neat and tidy.

Connavar

deconduo wrote: »

Yeah its a great case and you've done a decent job with the build. Looks very neat and tidy.

Thats because you cant see whats behind the tray

IrishMetalhead

lol my current comp as like that at first for the first two months or so but then i got board and managed to tie down every cable behind the tray and since it was on a non-modular power supply it took quite a while, so you'll probably get round to it at somepoint aswell

Connavar

The fact that I know its there is starting to bug me alright