Building a PC, need your guys help! :)

GWNiall

1. What is your budget? €800 - 1000

2. What will be the main purpose of the computer? Gaming/Recording/Photoshop/Programming - Battlefield, Minecraft, GTA, etc. - Would like to use as high details as possible.

3. Do you need a copy of Windows? No

4. Can you use any parts from an old computer? Nope

5. Do you need a monitor? Nope

5a. If yes, what size do you need. Nada

5b. If no, what resolution is your current monitor and do you plan to upgrade in the near future? [1920x1080/1440x900/etc.] Not too sure...think it supports 1080, might be wrong tho, have 2 and wanna use 2!

6. Do you need any of these peripherals? Nope, can sort them on my own.

7. Are you willing to try overclocking? Meh, I suppose so, but would prefer not to have to

8. How can you pay? Any way

9. When are you purchasing? End of September/Start of October (Want to get this in early, and be prepared)

10. If you need help building it, where are you based? I'm ok, South Dublin!

Procrastastudy

Item|Price
8GB-Kit G.Skill PC3-10667U CL9|€37.24
Samsung SSD 830 128GB SATA 6GB's Paper Box|€102.51
ASRock Z77 Pro3, Sockel 1155, ATX|€93.44
Super-Flower Amazon 80Plus 450W|€42.18
Corsair Special Edition White Graphite Series 600T, ATX, ohne Netzteil|€144.55
Gigabyte Radeon HD 7950, 3GB GDDR5, PCI-Express|€327.18
Intel Core i5-3450 Box, LGA1155|€183.20
Seagate Barracuda Spinpoint HD204UI 2TB SATA II|€99.96
Shipping|€18.99
Total|€1049.25

Over budget but there's a 600T in there so you can put it in a cheaper case and knock €100 off. You seemed to like it though.

If you are not purchasing until Sept / Oct this build will change. There are new APUs (CPU + GPU) coming out from AMD which may cause Intel to drop prices. There is also a new GPU coming out from nVidia that may change the current wisom on video cards. Currently unless you buy a 670 or 680 you buy an AMD card - this may change or AMD may drop prices.

You mention you have 2 monitors and you want to use both. Two monitors is fine for desktop work but you can't really game on two monitors. The bezel would be right down the middle obscuring interface elements - not least the crosshair in FPS game. If they are the same make and model and you can get a third one you can get either make of card. If you have different monitors you are limited to AMD. A word of caution though - a couple of us have tried multi-monitor gaming recently and haven't much liked it. There are some odd glitches/features that can annnoy.

Monotype

You could get a 7950 for €314
http://www.dabs.ie/products/best-value-vtx3d-ati-radeon-7950-hd-3gb-pci-express-hdmi-x-edition-86Y5.html?q=7950&src=16

and the Samsung 830 128GB for €101
http://www.dabs.ie/products/samsung-128gb-830-series-sata-6gb-s-2-5--ssd-basic-kit-819N.html?q=samsung%20830&src=16

... and use the coupon code
http://www.dabs.ie/articles/landingpages/landing-pages/coupons-updates-11650.html

to get €25 off orders of €400. That saves nearly €40 which you could invest in a 3570K CPU.

VTX3D is a cheaper brand but owned by powercolor which are a fairly big brand. A 7950 isn't really necessary for 1920x1080, but that is a good price. You can use two monitors with one graphics card but it's not so good for gaming - especially first person games where two screens means a split right down the centre.

GWNiall

GCDLawstudent wrote: »

Item|Price
8GB-Kit G.Skill PC3-10667U CL9|€37.24
Samsung SSD 830 128GB SATA 6GB's Paper Box|€102.51
ASRock Z77 Pro3, Sockel 1155, ATX|€93.44
Super-Flower Amazon 80Plus 450W|€42.18
Corsair Special Edition White Graphite Series 600T, ATX, ohne Netzteil|€144.55
Gigabyte Radeon HD 7950, 3GB GDDR5, PCI-Express|€327.18
Intel Core i5-3450 Box, LGA1155|€183.20
Seagate Barracuda Spinpoint HD204UI 2TB SATA II|€99.96
Shipping|€18.99
Total|€1049.25

Over budget but there's a 600T in there so you can put it in a cheaper case and knock €100 off. You seemed to like it though.

If you are not purchasing until Sept / Oct this build will change. There are new APUs (CPU + GPU) coming out from AMD which may cause Intel to drop prices. There is also a new GPU coming out from nVidia that may change the current wisom on video cards. Currently unless you buy a 670 or 680 you buy an AMD card - this may change or AMD may drop prices.

You mention you have 2 monitors and you want to use both. Two monitors is fine for desktop work but you can't really game on two monitors. The bezel would be right down the middle obscuring interface elements - not least the crosshair in FPS game. If they are the same make and model and you can get a third one you can get either make of card. If you have different monitors you are limited to AMD. A word of caution though - a couple of us have tried multi-monitor gaming recently and haven't much liked it. There are some odd glitches/features that can annnoy.

Yeah hadn't planned on gaming with the dual monitors, mainly use it for coding, web design, etc.

Is that i5 better than the 2500k Box version? How do you know that I liked the 600T? :P


Also, was thinking about a 32SSD just to boot off? Do I really need a 128GB?

Procrastastudy

GWNiall wrote: »

Yeah hadn't planned on gaming with the dual monitors, mainly use it for coding, web design, etc.

Is that i5 better than the 2500k Box version? How do you know that I liked the 600T? :P


Also, was thinking about a 32SSD just to boot off? Do I really need a 128GB?

Because you quoted half a page of photos! A 64GB SSD would be okay but you needf to keep program data and some user data on it as well to keep your system as fast as possible - especially given you HDD will spin down a lot.

i5 = family, K = unlocked for over clocking, 2500 = 2nd Gen (or Sandybridge) 3570 = 3rd Gen (or Ivybridge), box = with cooler and 3 year guarantee, tray = no cooler and warranty of the seller.

GWNiall

Mmmkay, yeah just checked, love that case.

So you recommend the 3450 over the 2500k?

Procrastastudy

GWNiall wrote: »

7. Are you willing to try overclocking? Meh, I suppose so, but would prefer not to have to

Only because of that line. If you're going with that case, an overclockers wet dream, I'd be suggesting a 2500K or 3570K and trying to get it to around 4.8Ghz

You need to spend significant amounts of money on a cooler so factor that in - it pays dividends in the longevity of the system in my opinion.

GWNiall

GCDLawstudent wrote: »

GWNiall wrote: »

7. Are you willing to try overclocking? Meh, I suppose so, but would prefer not to have to

Only because of that line. If you're going with that case, an overclockers wet dream, I'd be suggesting a 2500K or 3570K and trying to get it to around 4.8Ghz

You need to spend significant amounts of money on a cooler so factor that in - it pays dividends in the longevity of the system in my opinion.

If I were to go for the 3570K, how much extra would that set me back? What about cooling? Assuming that's not included above?

Procrastastudy

The options are:

Item|Price
Intel Core i5-2500K Tray, LGA1155|€180.00
Intel Core i5-3570K Box, LGA1155|€220.41
Thermalright HR-02 Macho|€33.89
Noctua NH-D14, Sockel AM2/AM2+/AM3/775/1366/1155/1156|€67.99
Corsair Hydro Series H100 (Sockel 775/1156/1366/AM2/AM2+/AM3/FM1)|€103.77
Corsair Hydro Series H80 (Sockel 775/1156/1366/AM2/AM2+/AM3/FM1)|€94.34
Shipping|€18.99
Total|€719.39

The difference between the 2500K and 3570K are discussed at length on other threads. I have been a major proponent of the 3570K but with the 2500K being available as a tray SKU (no cooler) at €182 makes me reconsider that position as prices stand at the moment.

Cooling is really however much you want to spend. The Macho is going to be fine for the cooler running 2500K and okayish for the 3570K. The Noctua is the bees knees for air cooling with the H80 and H100 being marginally better water cooling solutions. Not being rude - Do the math

Even though the 3570K tray is €1 cheaper - the box comes with a three year Intel guarantee where as the 2500K is back to HWVS - CPUs simply don't go wrong so isn't much of a factor - that said a euro isn't much of a beer token.

GWNiall

GCDLawstudent wrote: »

The options are:

Item|Price
Intel Core i5-2500K Tray, LGA1155|€180.00
Intel Core i5-3570K Box, LGA1155|€220.41
Thermalright HR-02 Macho|€33.89
Noctua NH-D14, Sockel AM2/AM2+/AM3/775/1366/1155/1156|€67.99
Corsair Hydro Series H100 (Sockel 775/1156/1366/AM2/AM2+/AM3/FM1)|€103.77
Corsair Hydro Series H80 (Sockel 775/1156/1366/AM2/AM2+/AM3/FM1)|€94.34
Shipping|€18.99
Total|€719.39

The difference between the 2500K and 3570K are discussed at length on other threads. I have been a major proponent of the 3570K but with the 2500K being available as a tray SKU (no cooler) at €182 makes me reconsider that position as prices stand at the moment.

Cooling is really however much you want to spend. The Macho is going to be fine for the cooler running 2500K and okayish for the 3570K. The Noctua is the bees knees for air cooling with the H80 and H100 being marginally better water cooling solutions. Not being rude - Do the math

Even though the 3570K tray is €1 cheaper - the box comes with a three year Intel guarantee where as the 2500K is back to HWVS - CPUs simply don't go wrong so isn't much of a factor - that said a euro isn't much of a beer token.

Am I looking into this too much? :S

I think I would be willing to OC it, so I guess my Q is that if I got the 2500k Box and OC'd to 4.8, would that suffice, and if so, would I need extra cooling (Assuming so), and would the Macho suffice?


This is what I am at atm:


Item|Price
8GB-Kit G.Skill PC3-10667U CL9|€37.24
ASRock Z77 Pro3, Sockel 1155, ATX|€93.44
Super-Flower Amazon 80Plus 450W|€42.18
Corsair Special Edition White Graphite Series 600T, ATX, ohne Netzteil|€144.55
Gigabyte Radeon HD 7950, 3GB GDDR5, PCI-Express|€327.18
Seagate Barracuda Spinpoint HD204UI 2TB SATA II|€99.00
Intel Core i5-2500K Box, LGA1155|€203.93
Sony NEC Optiarc AD-7261S LS, SATA, schwarz, bulk|€21.76
Shipping|€18.99
Total|€988.27

And this:

http://www.dabs.ie/products/samsung-64gb-830-series-sata-6gb-s-2-5--ssd-basic-kit-819M.html


Sorry for all the Q's. New to PC building, and just don't wanna find that my GPU is far too powerful for CPU or that I've basically spent all this money on an overpowered calculator XD

Does that seem like a solid build, I would like it to last a couple years, and be able to upgrade when necessary.

Procrastastudy

Don't worry you can never ask too many questions!

4.8Ghz is some serious OCing IMHO - others may differ. I'd be looking at a top end air cooler or the H80 or H100. In all honesty the 3.4Ghz stock speed would be fine for most modern games. I would take your time and start looking into it bit by bit and OCing bit by bit. You should be able to see 4.0Ghz on the Macho and by using stock voltages.

Its one thing to over-clock by upping multipliers - when you start messing with voltages you want to know roughly what you are doing. For that you need to do fair bit of reading / watching youtube clips.

In my mind the build you have there is the best value - OC dream build. The 7950 is a great card to OC, but, chances are you won't need to do that straight away.

You will also need to OC your memory - I would actually recommend the 1600Mhz vengeance stuff if its not much more expensive than the G.Skill on reflection. If you have the budget I'd also now go for the 550W PSU.

Don't rush it use the machine on stock for a couple of weeks - I think you'll be blown away by the stock performance.

Just by way of some back up to my claims - my 600T is arriving tomorrow - the 7950 is my next purchase and I have the i5-3570 (only reason to go with the 3570 is if you are going to use multiple GPUs)

Procrastastudy

Bit of reading for you:

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/game-performance-bottleneck,2737.html

GWNiall

GCDLawstudent wrote: »

Bit of reading for you:

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/game-performance-bottleneck,2737.html

Cool, thanks man, been doing some reading today, and I think that's the build I'm gonna go for, gonna stick on stock for a while and OC when I feel I need to.

If I go for the Box 2500k, would I need extra cooling our would that suffice on stock and pick it up later if needs be?

Monotype

Sandy Bridge runs fairly cool. You'll be okay with the stock cooler, even with some mild overclocking. To achieve a quieter build and higher overclocks, you can get a better heatsink later on.

Procrastastudy

If you're in Dublin and the tray is still cheaper I've a stock cooler you can have.

The tray is back to HWVS for issues where as the box is three years with Intel - not that it really matters with CPUs. I might even have some crap thermal paste (no worse than the stuff in the box) you can have too.

Sorry in typical sods law timing I've actually managed to sell the thing.

GWNiall

GCDLawstudent wrote: »

If you're in Dublin and the tray is still cheaper I've a stock cooler you can have.

The tray is back to HWVS for issues where as the box is three years with Intel - not that it really matters with CPUs. I might even have some crap thermal paste (no worse than the stuff in the box) you can have too.

Sorry in typical sods law timing I've actually managed to sell the thing.

Ha ha. Typical. No problem. Think I'm gonna run this build at stock and then if I decide to OC in the future pick up some better cooling.

Thanks for the offer though and all the help.