First build advice

DoBhrionn

1. What is your budget?
I don't really have a budget.

2. What will be the main purpose of the computer?
Gaming for the most part, as well as video/photo editing

3. Do you need a copy of Windows?
Yes.

4. Can you use any parts from an old computer?
Nope, all I have is laptops. All in the region of 2 years old and older.

5. Do you need a monitor?
Yes.

5b. If no, what resolution is your current monitor and do you plan to upgrade in the near future?

6. Do you need any of these peripherals?
Nope

7. Are you willing to try overclocking?
Yeah, I wouldn't mind trying my hand at it.

8. How can you pay?
Bank Transfer

9. When are you purchasing?
Within the next month or two.

10. If you need help building it, where are you based?
I have a few friends who have had experience in building their own PCs, so I should be fine.


After a few weeks of research I came up with the following:

Item Price
Asus Z77 Sabertooth €214.19
Intel Core i5-3570K S1155 3.4GHz 6MB €217.93
Scythe Mugen 3 €36.50
EVGA GeForce GTX 670 FTW €359.99
8GB-Kit Corsair Vengeance DDR3 1600 MHz CL8 €53.99
WD Caviar Black 1TB SATA €98.64
NZXT Phantom 410 Midi €99.01
Corsair HX750 €136.73
Dell UltraSharp U2312HM €196.56
Windows 7 Ultimate 64bit €163.79

Total €1,615.92

andy g

I would invest in a 3D/120hz monitor if you intend for gaming, probably just personal preference but I would never go back to 60hz

IrishMetalhead

okay couple of things, first off a copy of windows 7 ultimate would be a complete waste of money for a home computer, personally myself i think you made a grand choice in monitor since i prefer to have a ips panel instead of a 120hz monitor espiecally if your video editing like myself because I honestly think 3d gaming is just a fad that will die out eventually.
I would change your psu to a 650w instead aswell as 750w would be way overkill for that system and I would bother with a high performance drive at all since SSD's completely out class them in every single way apart from mass storage but thats why I reckon you'd be better off
with a SSD as your boot/app drive and a seperate HDD for mass storage and lastly I would use the Dark Rock Advanced for a CPU cooler since it's possibly the best
air cooler for socket 1155 at the momment.

Item|Price
Intel Core i5-3570K Box, LGA1155|€217.93
be quiet!Dark Rock Advanced|€49.62
ASUS SABERTOOTH Z77, Sockel 1155, ATX, DDR3|€214.19
8GB-Kit Corsair Vengeance DDR3 1600 MHz CL8|€53.99
Samsung SH-222BB schwarz|€16.65
Samsung SSD 830 128GB SATA 6GB's Paper Box|€100.80
Seagate Barracuda 7200 2000GB, SATA 6Gb/s|€101.73
EVGA GeForce GTX 670 FTW, 2048MB DDR5, PCI-Express|€395.59
NZXT Phantom 410 Midi - schwarz/orange, ATX, ohne Netzteil|€99.01
Corsair 650HX, 650 Watt|€100.69
Dell UltraSharp U2312HM|€196.56
MS Windows 7 Home Premium 64bit SB-Version Englisch|€88.33
Shipping|€18.99
Total|€1654.08

(also included a disc drive incase you need one if not then you can just remove it)

Procrastastudy

Complete e-peen overkill build. Love it

I'd go for a 7970 - more vRAM if you decide to get trip monitors and will whether the new games better. Get a voltage unlocked one and clock the balls off it for godlike frame rates. Check your video editing apps though some like nVidia cards.

In all honesty the RAM and Motherboard are way over the top - bearing in mind I, admittedly, have the same board - Glyph is selling one actually - have a look at the Selling Personal gear thread for a bargain!

IrishMetalhead

thats true actually but on the other hand the 670 has cuda so that might benefit you in video/phot editing depending on what software you are using but if you are thinking to upgrading to a triple display eventually then you can't beat 7970.
I'm personally not a fan of eyefinity myself tho tbh if I had the money to spend on three monitors I would go for a ultra high res monitor instead like a Dell U2711 or a U3011 but dear loard there expensive but I can still dream =P.

Procrastastudy

IrishMetalhead wrote: »

thats true actually but on the other hand the 670 has cuda so that might benefit you in video/phot editing depending on what software you are using but if you are thinking to upgrading to a triple display eventually then you can't beat 7970.
I'm personally not a fan of eyefinity myself tho tbh if I had the money to spend on three monitors I would go for a ultra high res monitor instead like a Dell U2711 or a U3011 but dear loard there expensive but I can still dream =P.

Catleap > U2711

IrishMetalhead

catleap is also first come first serve so it's fairly hard to find them in stock altho ebay usually has them but you'll have to trust a asian power-seller =/

Procrastastudy

Loads of us have - all of us happy apart from /\Ollog - and he's jinxed - got smacked by customer for €100 and a faulty monitor.

VenomIreland

Procrastastudy wrote: »

Catleap > U2711

No way, the U2711 may be a good bit more, but it is miles better in terms of build quality and features than a catleap.

IrishMetalhead

but arn't the catleaps just factory rejected u2711's? or are they a sort of apple display?

VenomIreland

IrishMetalhead wrote: »

but arn't the catleaps just factory rejected u2711's? or are they a sort of apple display?

No, as far as I am aware they are both made by LG, but the catleaps are a (relatively) cheap S-IPS panel while the U27/3011 are H-IPS.

H-IPS basically gives better contrast and I *think* better viewing angles(which is a bit pointless since all IPS panels I know of have incredible viewing angles)

Procrastastudy

VenomIreland wrote: »

No way, the U2711 may be a good bit more, but it is miles better in terms of build quality and features than a catleap.

You have to take into account all factors. You can have two Catleaps (inc delivery and customs charges) for a U2711 from HWVS. A warranty on something with a very low failure rate and all the gubbings on the Dell which actually make it worse as a gaming monitor are not worth €310. If they're DOA they get taken back at no charge.

Catleaps (and all the Korean counterparts) use A- panels - e.g. you may have a dead/stuck pixel or two. For a discussion on the number of us that got dead pixels see the Catleap thread. Dell and Apple get A+ and charge 2x as much or in apple's case 4x as much. The difference being Mac users deserve it.

VenomIreland

Procrastastudy wrote: »

You have to take into account all factors. You can have two Catleaps (inc delivery and customs charges) for a U2711 from HWVS. A warranty on something with a very low failure rate and all the gubbings on the Dell which actually make it worse as a gaming monitor are not worth €310. If they're DOA they get taken back at no charge.

Catleaps (and all the Korean counterparts) use A- panels - e.g. you may have a dead/stuck pixel or two. For a discussion on the number of us that got dead pixels see the Catleap thread. Dell and Apple get A+ and charge 2x as much or in apple's case 4x as much. The difference being Mac users deserve it.

Oh don't get me wrong, the catleaps are still great value, but the Dell would still be a good bit better.

Why do you say it's worse for gaming? I've not had the ability to play on a catleap myself so I can't vouch for it, but I've had no problems (bar actually running some games at this resolution) with my U2711.

Procrastastudy

Every time you add in a component you increase the input lag.

Dell stick in a scaler, half a dozen different inputs, an OSD, brightness and contrast controls and a USB hub.

Catleaps (Q207SE) comes with a DVI-D input and brightness buttons that don't work properly.

VenomIreland

Procrastastudy wrote: »

Every time you add in a component you increase the input lag.

Dell stick in a scaler, half a dozen different inputs, an OSD, brightness and contrast controls and a USB hub.

Catleaps (Q207SE) comes with a DVI-D input and brightness buttons that don't work properly.

I didn't notice any input lag on this when I swapped from my old Samsung (which only had a DVI input IIRC, along with brightness and colour settings) to this U2711, also why would a passthrough USB hub cause input lag?

Procrastastudy

VenomIreland wrote: »

I didn't notice any input lag on this when I swapped from my old Samsung (which only had a DVI input IIRC, along with brightness and colour settings) to this U2711, also why would a passthrough USB hub cause input lag?

Dunno - monkey see monkey do from the catleap thread. I've never noticed it either but just what people report. I'm not very sensitive to it though tbh I'm quite happy at 40FPS in games.

In my honest opinion though unless the Dell was delivered by Penelope Cruz, who was mine to do with what I please for an hour I couldn't justify spending €310 more because of build quality. Then again I drive a Fiat 500 rather than an Aston Martin so it's different stroke for different folks.

VenomIreland

Procrastastudy wrote: »

Dunno - monkey see monkey do from the catleap thread. I've never noticed it either but just what people report. I'm not very sensitive to it though tbh I'm quite happy at 40FPS in games.

In my honest opinion though unless the Dell was delivered by Penelope Cruz, who was mine to do with what I please for an hour I couldn't justify spending €310 more because of build quality. Then again I drive a Fiat 500 rather than an Aston Martin so it's different stroke for different folks.

Fair enough, it is a lot to spend on a monitor (I'm still trying to tell myself that it was 100% worth it), and the catleaps are really good. 40FPS isn't that low either, it's around where I stop noticing major differences in increased frame rate.

To Daryl, if you can spare an extra €100 or so, go for the Catleap, you won't regret it (unless you are one of the small amount of unfortunate people).

Procrastastudy

VenomIreland wrote: »

Fair enough, it is a lot to spend on a monitor (I'm still trying to tell myself that it was 100% worth it), and the catleaps are really good. 40FPS isn't that low either, it's around where I stop noticing major differences in increased frame rate.

To Daryl, if you can spare an extra €100 or so, go for the Catleap, you won't regret it (unless you are one of the small amount of unfortunate people).

Honestly its different strokes - if it goes wrong you can guarantee I'll being saying (to myself :P) should have bought the fing Dell :P

DoBhrionn

IrishMetalhead wrote: »

okay couple of things, first off a copy of windows 7 ultimate would be a complete waste of money for a home computer, personally myself i think you made a grand choice in monitor since i prefer to have a ips panel instead of a 120hz monitor espiecally if your video editing like myself because I honestly think 3d gaming is just a fad that will die out eventually.
I would change your psu to a 650w instead aswell as 750w would be way overkill for that system and I would bother with a high performance drive at all since SSD's completely out class them in every single way apart from mass storage but thats why I reckon you'd be better off
with a SSD as your boot/app drive and a seperate HDD for mass storage and lastly I would use the Dark Rock Advanced for a CPU cooler since it's possibly the best
air cooler for socket 1155 at the momment.

Item|Price
Intel Core i5-3570K Box, LGA1155|€217.93
be quiet!Dark Rock Advanced|€49.62
ASUS SABERTOOTH Z77, Sockel 1155, ATX, DDR3|€214.19
8GB-Kit Corsair Vengeance DDR3 1600 MHz CL8|€53.99
Samsung SH-222BB schwarz|€16.65
Samsung SSD 830 128GB SATA 6GB's Paper Box|€100.80
Seagate Barracuda 7200 2000GB, SATA 6Gb/s|€101.73
EVGA GeForce GTX 670 FTW, 2048MB DDR5, PCI-Express|€395.59
NZXT Phantom 410 Midi - schwarz/orange, ATX, ohne Netzteil|€99.01
Corsair 650HX, 650 Watt|€100.69
Dell UltraSharp U2312HM|€196.56
MS Windows 7 Home Premium 64bit SB-Version Englisch|€88.33
Shipping|€18.99
Total|€1654.08

(also included a disc drive incase you need one if not then you can just remove it)

The windows choice was more of a 'spur of the moment' type of thing. The Home Premium seems the logical method.
I have no interest in 3D gaming, as much as it would be nice to say 'I have a 3D monitor' at the local. I'd probably use it once in a blue moon...
I wasn't entirely sure about the PSU, I chose the 750W just in case.
I am planning on getting an SSD at some point in the future. I won't bother with one for now. As much I'd like one, I don't see it as a huge necessity. I quite like the Barracuda, seems to have a better value for money.
That fan is considerably quieter at almost half the dB than the Scythe, not sure is it totally worth the extra few euros as the fans with the case might drown out the silence..

Procrastastudy wrote: »

Complete e-peen overkill build. Love it

I'd go for a 7970 - more vRAM if you decide to get trip monitors and will whether the new games better. Get a voltage unlocked one and clock the balls off it for godlike frame rates. Check your video editing apps though some like nVidia cards.

In all honesty the RAM and Motherboard are way over the top - bearing in mind I, admittedly, have the same board - Glyph is selling one actually - have a look at the Selling Personal gear thread for a bargain!

Exactly!
I considered that at one point, it's just the price tag. Also, I will at most use two monitors. I don't have the space for a third.
That's another thing, I don't mind buying second hand, but preference is towards new. I'll most certainly have a look through that thread

VenomIreland

DoBhrionn wrote: »

I am planning on getting an SSD at some point in the future. I won't bother with one for now. As much I'd like one, I don't see it as a huge necessity.

If you put it off till later, you'd need to reinstall windows when you get the SSD.

DoBhrionn

VenomIreland wrote: »

If you put it off till later, you'd need to reinstall windows when you get the SSD.

I don't mind doing that

Procrastastudy

When you install partition C to be 119GB - that way you can image it and dump it on an SSD.

Monotype

Not a great idea to be cloning windows to SSD from HDD. Better off with the clean install.

A 550W PSU would be plenty including extensive overclocking, unless you're considering SLI.

Procrastastudy

Monotype wrote: »

Not a great idea to be cloning windows to SSD from HDD. Better off with the clean install.

A 550W PSU would be plenty including extensive overclocking, unless you're considering SLI.

Whaaaa? Mines working grand

Monotype

I didn't say it wouldn't work. You're just far better off with a clean install.

Edit:
Er... that's not a sarcastic wink, you are better installing fresh. :cool:
... yes, sunglasses that's better, to unlock the full blinding potential of the SSD.

Procrastastudy

No I wasnt saying it wasn't - you're my Yoda - I was just questioning why powerful master.

Monotype

There's a lot of minor bits and pieces.

1) Windows will tweak itself to run with an SSD. It most likely will not do this when you clone. You will have to have to go disable defragmentation for the SSD, enable TRIM and all the extra small things. SSDs often come with software for this but they often throw in/leave out stuff.
2) A lot of the time cloning from HDD to SSD just plain doesn't work.
3) Chipset and AHCI drivers may need to be changed as you'll often find that they'll play a more important role in the higher speeds of SSDs. Ideally, you don't want a load of old drivers floating around.
4) Fresh install is good for cleaning up the general muck build up of programs once in a while.
5) Aligning sectors and offsets, differences in technology and stuff like that that I can't remember. The software sometimes takes care of some of this but if it doesn't, it can slightly diminish performance or reduce life.

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/113967-ssd-alignment.html

Speed tests are nearly always a bit lower on a cloned operating system vs a new install. We're not really talking about anything much noticeable, but you might as well get the best out of your drive.
Basically, a lot of stuff is probably taken care of if you use new cloning software but to be sure, just do a new install.