Quick opinions on this build....

abelard

Just want some quick opinions on this before I purchase. Happy with the cost, but if anyone knows a way to shred a few euro off without impacting performance I'll happily hear it. Also are the components all fully compatible?


Total build cost: €819.47 + €30 shipping
8GB-Kit G.Skill RipJaws PC3-10667U CL9 €36.71
Samsung SpinPoint F3 1000GB, SATA II (HD103SJ) €109.90
Cooler Master Elite 334U black, ohne Netzteil €38.65
Super-Flower Amazon 80Plus 550W €52.68
Samsung SH-222AB bare schwarz SATA €16.46
Crucial M4 64GB SSD 6,4cm (2,5") €98.69
ASRock Z68 Pro3 Gen3, Sockel 1155, ATX €103.01
Intel Core i5-2500K Box, LGA1155 €195.88
Sapphire HD6870 1G GDDR5 PCI-E DL-DVI-I+SL-DVI-D / HDMI / DP €147.49

Purpose of the computer - general use, photo editing, media, gaming (not top end gaming performance, want it to be able to handle current stuff on high settings, and stuff on medium settings for the next few years. Am I right in saying I can add a second gfx card with this motherboard?).

Monitor I have - 1920x1080

Will also be getting Windows and some peripherals elsewhere.

I don't plan to overclock immediately, but would like to have the option to do so down the line. Does that mean the stock cooler will suffice for now, and I can buy a better heatsink when I go down the overclocking route?

Thanks for any help or advice.

FlyingIrishMan

abelard wrote: »

Just want some quick opinions on this before I purchase. Happy with the cost, but if anyone knows a way to shred a few euro off without impacting performance I'll happily hear it. Also are the components all fully compatible?


Total build cost: €819.47 + €30 shipping
8GB-Kit G.Skill RipJaws PC3-10667U CL9 €36.71
Samsung SpinPoint F3 1000GB, SATA II (HD103SJ) €109.90
Cooler Master Elite 334U black, ohne Netzteil €38.65
Super-Flower Amazon 80Plus 550W €52.68
Samsung SH-222AB bare schwarz SATA €16.46
Crucial M4 64GB SSD 6,4cm (2,5") €98.69
ASRock Z68 Pro3 Gen3, Sockel 1155, ATX €103.01
Intel Core i5-2500K Box, LGA1155 €195.88
Sapphire HD6870 1G GDDR5 PCI-E DL-DVI-I+SL-DVI-D / HDMI / DP €147.49

Purpose of the computer - general use, photo editing, media, gaming (not top end gaming performance, want it to be able to handle current stuff on high settings, and stuff on medium settings for the next few years. Am I right in saying I can add a second gfx card with this motherboard?).

Monitor I have - 1920x1080

Will also be getting Windows and some peripherals elsewhere.

I don't plan to overclock immediately, but would like to have the option to do so down the line. Does that mean the stock cooler will suffice for now, and I can buy a better heatsink when I go down the overclocking route?

Thanks for any help or advice.

Perhaps get a BitFenix Alpha/Beta Case? Its a little bit cheaper, looks nicer, and has 4 USB Ports on the top instead of two which is awesome.

I only bought a SSD for my build, its let me install WIN7 Ultimate 64Bit, All my programs such as Photoshop, multiple browsers, and some other programs, and a few Steam Games with 5GB left, its a bit of an annoyance having to uninstall games a lot if I want to play other ones but what I do is back the up onto a disc first so I won't have to download them again.
It will do me until I can get a larger hard drive either second hand or when the prices come back down.
I've heard Samsung hard drives aren't the best, WD is probably what you want to be looking at in terms of quality.
Some guy is selling a 1TB WD hard drive on adverts for 120 euro you could probably haggle that down if you want.

Stock Cooler is perfectly fine. I OC'ed my i5 2500k to 4.0Ghz and still played Skyrim with settings maxed out and it stayed under 40, its a little noisy though but nothing too loud.

marco_polo

Absolutely nothing wrong with the quality of Samsung drives relative to WD so I don't know where you got that from.

@OP - That board only has only one PCIe slot so a future crossfire setup would not be possible with that board.

That aside from that I really don't see much that could be trimming from this build without sacrificing some performance.

Serephucus

FlyingIrishMan wrote: »

I've heard Samsung hard drives aren't the best, WD is probably what you want to be looking at in terms of quality.

Dunno where you heard that. I've bought seven Samsung drives over the past five years, and they're all still working perfectly. Of the two WD drives I've owned in that same period, one of them is dead.

OP, looks like a good build. Wouldn't change anything for what you'll be using it for, and in short, to answer all your questions: yes.

abelard

marco_polo wrote: »

Absolutely nothing wrong with the quality of Samsung drives relative to WD so I don't know where you got that from.

@OP - That board only has only one PCIe slot so a future crossfire setup would not be possible with that board.

That aside from that I really don't see much that could be trimming from this build without sacrificing some performance.

Ah, thanks for pointing that out, what motherboard would you recommend that would allow potential crossfiring in the future?

And will the build handle current games at high settings?

edit: I see the second question was answered by Serephecus above, thanks.

marco_polo

abelard wrote: »

Ah, thanks for pointing that out, what motherboard would you recommend that would allow potential crossfiring in the future?

And will the build handle current games at high settings?

edit: I see the second question was answered by Serephecus above, thanks.

The ASRock extreme 3 has 2 X PCIe slots, but is 17 quid dearer.

http://www3.hardwareversand.de/articledetail.jsp?aid=50900&agid=1601

Or this MSI also has 2 X PCIe slots and is a gen 3 revision as well. As a bonus is also little cheaper.

http://www3.hardwareversand.de/articledetail.jsp?aid=52008&agid=1601

I am not really up to date with what z68 boards are hot and which are not for overclocking though, so one of the other lads may be able to point you in an even better direction.

daz801

the motherboard he has down there is crossfire ready.

marco_polo

daz801 wrote: »

the motherboard he has down there is crossfire ready.

http://www.asrock.com/mb/overview.asp?Model=Z68%20Pro3%20Gen3

Thats some technological achievement by ASRock with only one PCIe slot.

Tij da feen

marco_polo wrote: »

http://www.asrock.com/mb/overview.asp?Model=Z68%20Pro3%20Gen3

Thats some technological achievement by ASRock with only one PCIe slot.

That's one PCIe-3 slot. It also has 3 PCIe-2 slots. The PCIe-3 slot won't even get it's full bandwidth with the Sandy-Bridge so he has enough slot for crossfire support.

marco_polo

Tij da feen wrote: »

That's one PCIe-3 slot. It also has 3 PCIe-2 slots. The PCIe-3 slot won't even get it's full bandwidth with the Sandy-Bridge so he has enough slot for crossfire support.

Indeed it has 3 X PCI 2.0 slots.

3 X PCI 2.0 X1 slots.

abelard

marco_polo wrote: »

Indeed it has 3 X PCI 2.0 slots.

3 X PCI 2.0 X1 slots.

So just to be absolutely sure, I'm fine to crossfire with this in the future?

Tij da feen

marco_polo wrote: »

Indeed it has 3 X PCI 2.0 slots.

3 X PCI 2.0 X1 slots.

Woops, sorry about that. Mis-read the info on the site. I'll just go hang my head in shame.

marco_polo

abelard wrote: »

So just to be absolutely sure, I'm fine to crossfire with this in the future?

No they are only good for PCIe X1 cards like this (Tv Tuners Wireless etc) not full slot PCIe X16 Graphics cards, so my original point definately stands.

Tij da feen

abelard wrote: »

So just to be absolutely sure, I'm fine to crossfire with this in the future?

This one will be able to crossfire, it's 20 quid dearer though.

abelard

marco_polo wrote: »

No they are only good for PCIe X1 cards like this (Tv Tuners Wireless etc) not full slot PCIe X16 Graphics cards, so my original point definately stands.

Sorry, I understand you now. I'll upgrade to the one you mentioned in your earlier post. Thanks very much for the help.

abelard

I forgot I'll also need a wireless card with this - any suggestions for something decent?