Finally time for a new build!

Saadyst

Hey guys, finally time for a wanted upgrade - I don't really "need" one, but I have the cash at the moment and want to get a new case / build from where I am now.

I have a full tower cooler master stacker case that I bought a very long time ago, and it's just way too big for me these days. It's about 25kg with parts all in! I definitely want a smaller case this time around. The Fractal maybe?

With that said, my Q6600 has served me faithfully for years and years now... probably the best investment I've ever made in a processor!

I had an AMD 4870 in the system as well which I upgraded to a 6950 at some point last year. Was surprised to see the 7x series out so 'quick' after that

Anyway enough of that


1. What is your budget? €700-€1000 (stretch if it will make a significant difference)

2. What will be the main purpose of the computer? Gaming/Internet - Starcraft 2, Guild Wars 2, The Witcher 2, Mass Effect 3

3. Do you need a copy of Windows? No

4. Can you use any parts from an old computer? I have 2 x 256GB Corsair SSDs for this new build, not for RAID, just for the C drive and another for regular files etc.

5. Do you need a monitor? No


5b. If no, what resolution is your current monitor and do you plan to upgrade in the near future? 2560x1440. The only upgrade for me would be triple monitors and I can't do that (lack of space).

6. Do you need any of these peripherals? Keyboard/Speakers - my current keyboard is totally mank! :pac: I'd also like a new set of 5.1 speakers, my current ones don't have an optical connection.

7. Are you willing to try overclocking? Yes

8. How can you pay? Bank Transfer/Credit Card/Laser

9. When are you purchasing? Sooner the better!

10. If you need help building it, where are you based? [South Dublin City/Cork City/Kerry/etc.] - no help needed



I'd just like to add I don't mind waiting if something better is around the corner (next 3 months or so). When it comes to graphics cards, I prefer a compromise between graphics power and power usage - I don't need the most powerful card if it means a lot more noise, power draw and higher temps, but I understand it might be a necessary evil at the resolution I'm at.

Thanks for reading it and for any help!

Procrastastudy

I'm conscious of the fact I'm being a greedy piggy and doing lots of builds. This is because I'm procrastastudying - but seeing as no one else had done one and it's Saturday night I thought I'd do one more before hanging up fluffy's script for a while.

Item|Price
8GB-Kit Corsair Vengeance Low Profile schwarz PC3-12800U CL9|€44.00
WD Caviar Green 2TB Sata 6Gb/s|€101.84
Corsair Special Edition White Graphite Series 600T, ATX, ohne Netzteil|€149.00
Sapphire Radeon HD 7950 OC 950M, 3GB GDDR5, full retail|€345.00
ASRock Z77 Extreme4, Sockel 1155, ATX|€135.44
Intel Core i5-3570K Box, LGA1155|€217.93
Noctua NH-D14, Sockel AM2/AM2+/AM3/775/1366/1155/1156|€74.79
Shipping|€18.99
Total|€1086.99

Sell one of ya 256GB SSDs to get this on budget

Naff all coming out that will bother you (Trinty APU is about it) so buy buy buy! The 660ti is out but not ideal for your res monitor.

Saadyst

Procrastastudy wrote: »

I'm conscious of the fact I'm being a greedy piggy and doing lots of builds. This is because I'm procrastastudying - but seeing as no one else had done one and it's Saturday night I thought I'd do one more before hanging up fluffy's script for a while.

Item|Price
8GB-Kit Corsair Vengeance Low Profile schwarz PC3-12800U CL9|€44.00
WD Caviar Green 2TB Sata 6Gb/s|€101.84
Corsair Special Edition White Graphite Series 600T, ATX, ohne Netzteil|€149.00
Sapphire Radeon HD 7950 OC 950M, 3GB GDDR5, full retail|€345.00
ASRock Z77 Extreme4, Sockel 1155, ATX|€135.44
Intel Core i5-3570K Box, LGA1155|€217.93
Noctua NH-D14, Sockel AM2/AM2+/AM3/775/1366/1155/1156|€74.79
Shipping|€18.99
Total|€1086.99

Sell one of ya 256GB SSDs to get this on budget

Naff all coming out that will bother you (Trinty APU is about it) so buy buy buy! The 660ti is out but not ideal for your res monitor.

Cool, thanks for that! Just a few questions tho...

Firstly, going to need a PSU, I suppose around 600W would be fine?

I've seen pictures of the Corsair case that you recommended... any idea how this fares against the Fractal R4? My preference is for the R4, mainly as it's a very simple design - I don't need to see the glowing / flashing lights as well.

The corsair does look quite subtle so it might be ok on the design front, however, in terms of temps / noise, is it better or worse than the R4? I've read a review or two saying the cable management isn't terribly easy in the R4, but it is do-able. On the other hand the Corsair is better in this regard but the trade-off is size and cost. I'd prefer in that case to put some work in and have a smaller case overall.

Cheers once again for any input

weisses

Can i suggest a bigger GPU for maxing out your games now and in the future ...Bin doing some reading

"best gpu for 2560x1440" ... used that in Google and loads of people saying get a 7990 or 680

But those bloody budgets

Saadyst

mmm yeah, those cards tho are closer to the €500+ mark :eek: ... and that's just a bit too much to be able to justify to myself!

Procrastastudy

Ooops regards PSU Read Monotype's guide grab a nice modular one.

I'm not sure v the Fractal - I have the 600T and love it but a few guys recommend the R4 right enough.

680 or 7990 - That doesn't make a lot of sense. The 670 gives you 95% of the performance of the 680 - the issue with both nVidia cards at very high resolutions is 'only' having 2GB vRAM. The 7990 is more like €1000 I assume you mean the 7970. The 7950 speced is the same as a 7970 with one VRM missing and one of the core block thingies (technical name :P) turned off. I can see where your going with the 680 given the 384 bit wide memory bus but the 7950 has that at a much lower price point, performance of a 670 at stock when over clocked and has an extra 1GB of vRAM.

weisses

Do you need a 2 tb disk with those 2 ssd's ?

75 quid for that cooler looks a bit much ...

antec nine hundred case for 50 euro less

Just looking to make things a bit cheaper for the bigger gpu :-)

depending on the HD you could save almost 200

http://www1.hardwareversand.de/3072+MB/55671/Gigabyte+Radeon+HD+7970+WindForce+3X%2C+3GB+GDDR5%2C+PCI-Express.article

This card is 50 euro more expensive then the 7950

Procrastastudy

weisses wrote: »

Do you need a 2 tb disk with those 2 ssd's ?

75 quid for that cooler looks a bit much ...

antec nine hundred case for 50 euro less

Just looking to make things a bit cheaper for the bigger gpu :-)

depending on the HD you could save almost 200

Why would you go for a more expensive GPU which would be limited by your processor over clock and refresh on your monitor at the expense of cooling the CPU to get better over all system performance?

The only place to go is the 7970 and that's hardly worth the extra.

Hmm not a bad price for a 7970.

weisses

yeah 7970 sorry ...... all those numbers

weisses

Procrastastudy wrote: »

Why would you go for a more expensive GPU which would be limited by your processor over clock and refresh on your monitor at the expense of cooling the CPU to get better over all system performance?

The only place to go is the 7970 and that's hardly worth the extra.

I am playing at 1080p so maxing out for that resolution is easier then at 1440p

Some are saying the 7950 will do fine .. others recommending the 7970 and for 50 euro more why not

I use an coolermaster Hyper 212 plus cooler for 40 euro that is highly recommended And 395 euro for a windforce 7970 is a no brainer then for me

Saadyst

I don't really "need" the 2TB at the moment, I can definitely take one from my current PC if it helps things. Well, it'll cover for the PSU at least. I wanted to offload this PC to someone but I suppose they can live with a bit less storage

I think the R4 is also €30-40 cheaper than the 600t.

I'll check out the PSU thread, thanks!

Procrastastudy

I got my 7950 before they sneaked up the price - I've not seen any reviews of that 7970 but giving it the benefit of the doubt - yes I would agree not a bad price.

Looking at google for recommendations isn't the best way to judge performance. I'm sure if you look hard enough someone is going to insist that jamming pencils in your eyes cure cancer. Have a look at the benchmarks - the Noctua blows (see what I did there?) most other coolers out of the water. The 3570K runs hot and needs decent cooling if you're looking for decent over-clocks.

weisses

Procrastastudy wrote: »

I got my 7950 before they sneaked up the price - I've not seen any reviews of that 7970 but giving it the benefit of the doubt - yes I would agree not a bad price.

Looking at google for recommendations isn't the best way to judge performance. I'm sure if you look hard enough someone is going to insist that jamming pencils in your eyes cure cancer. Have a look at the benchmarks - the Noctua blows (see what I did there?) most other coolers out of the water. The 3570K runs hot and needs decent cooling if you're looking for decent over-clocks.

I did research the cooler and its a good one .... As for all hardware there is a price/performance aspect and when i build my systems i try to balance things out ... If you are gonna overclock to the max then buy the best cooler. I have a 2500k overclocked running just fine .. dunno How hot that 3570k gets tbh

weisses

Maybe a good read for OP

http://uk.hardware.info/reviews/2855/amd-radeon-hd-7950--7970-round-up

Saadyst

weisses wrote: »

Maybe a good read for OP

http://uk.hardware.info/reviews/2855/amd-radeon-hd-7950--7970-round-up

Yeah, sadly no benches at 2560x1440.. :eek:

weisses

Saadyst wrote: »

Yeah, sadly no benches at 2560x1440.. :eek:

http://www.tomshardware.com/charts/2012-vga-gpgpu/12-Starcraft-2-DirectX-11-C-Extreme,Marque_fbrandx32,2966.html

Maybe this is of use ?

Saadyst

Going a bit (!!!!) over budget here but, after removing the hard drive, adding a PSU and keyboard and upping to a 7970:

Item|Price
FRACTAL DESIGN Define R4 Arctic White|€111.76
ASRock Z77 Extreme4, Sockel 1155, ATX|€135.44
8GB-Kit Corsair Vengeance Low Profile schwarz PC3-12800U CL9|€44.00
Intel Core i5-3570K Box, LGA1155|€217.93
Noctua NH-D14, Sockel AM2/AM2+/AM3/775/1366/1155/1156|€74.79
Corsair Professional Series HX750 80PLUS Gold 750W|€136.73
Gigabyte Radeon HD 7970 WindForce 3X, 3GB GDDR5, PCI-Express|€395.00
LOGITECH G105 Gaming Keyboard USB black|€44.06
Shipping|€18.99
Total|€1178.70

I'll just wait a while before adding in a decent set of 5.1 speakers.

Any input?

Procrastastudy

Any Input is quite Apt - the keyboard will be a German layout.

Have you checked to see if that GPU is voltage unlocked? Only an issue if you're bothered OCing it tbh.

Saadyst

Ahaha.. very good, removed that now

It says http://hardocp.com/article/2012/02/08/gigabyte_radeon_hd_7970_oc_video_card_review/3 that it was able to be overclocked... that should be ok then right?

Procrastastudy

Saadyst wrote: »

Ahaha.. very good, removed that now

It says http://hardocp.com/article/2012/02/08/gigabyte_radeon_hd_7970_oc_video_card_review/3 that it was able to be overclocked... that should be ok then right?

Looks good! P-Scores when you've got i up and running please!

Saadyst

Will do, thanks for the help! Finally managed to get past the HWVS ordering process