first pc build (HELP!) :)

SA_22

ight so normally i just pay way to much for average stuff (DELL) because its normally alot easier and hassle free, but after seeing my 3 year old £1,200 laptop for less than £300 i'm kinda thinking i'm doing it wrong lol.

so i have £1,300 to spend, thinking £300 of that is going to be on monitors, keyboard, mouse etc, so around £1,000 for the build.

already started specing stuff out on www.computerplanet.co.uk... i know most of you are going to say build it yourself but with adding thinks like sound proofing and playing around with £1000 worth of little delicate cards with no experience doesn't sound like the best idea 2 me.. plus the 3 year warrenty etc. i've checked prices on some pieces, some where alil more and some where alil less. if theres a cheaper site hit me up with a link and i'll check it out

anyways this is what i have so far:

[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Computer Case : 1 x Sharkoon T9 Gaming Case (White)
CPU : 1 x Intel Core i7 3820 (4 x 3.6 GHZ)
CPU Heatsink : 1 x Intel Heatsink & Fan - Low Noise
Memory : 1 x Corsair 16GB PC3-12800 1600 MHz (4x4GB) - Lifetime Warranty (DDR3)
Graphics Card : 1 x NVIDIA GeForce GTX 670 - 2 GB - (PALIT) - (PCI-E)
Motherboard : 1 x Asus P9X79 (Intel X79)
Sound Card : 1 x Creative Sound Blaster Audigy 5.1 (PCI)
Networking : 1 x Motherboard Integrated Ethernet Lan (Broadband Ready)
Power Supply : 1 x XFX 850W ProSeries PSU - Low Noise
Hard Drive #1 : 1 x 120GB OCZ Agility 3 SSD SATA-III, Read 525MB/s, Write 500MB/s - Silent
Hard Drive #2 : 1 x 1 TB (1000 GB) SATA-III HDD 7200 RPM 64MB
Optical Drive #1 : 1 x Samsung 22x DVD Re-Writer/Reader /- RW- Black - Lightscribe (SATA)
Card Reader : 1 x Internal Card Reader 50-in-1
CPU Compound : 1 x Standard CPU Compound Supplied With Heatsink
Noise Reduction : Sound Proofing - Standard
System Tuning : Operating System Tuning

and that runs [/FONT][FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]£1325.99 [/FONT][FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]
[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]
heres a link to the setup so you can see the prices of each piece and other options [/FONT] http://www.computerplanet.co.uk/custom-pc-quote.php?id=174804


i do need to get the price down but this is where my lack of experience comes into it... if you guys had to drop £300 from this setup for work (max, zbrush udk) and gaming what would you drop or downgrade?

like i said i have no experience with stuff like this so any help or info would be awesome!!

thx guys!
[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]

[/FONT]

illo

get a i7 3570k and overclock it, will save you $100ish(not sure on euro savings)

sound cards are overrated imo, my mobo audio has 7.1 surround and it sounds just fine.

save $20 or something by re-purposing an old dvd drive if you can

upgrade heatsink to something from overclockers.net they do good reviews and can help you out there.

thats all I would change.

EtotheRic

I've been using the same ugly In Win case since 1996 or 97. It is really sturdy and doubles as a stepladder. Something like
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811108376&nm_mc=KNC-GoogleAdwords&cm_mmc=KNC-GoogleAdwords-_-pla-_-NA-_-NA

I wouldn't bother with that sound card. If anything get something later on if you need it. Put the money towards a larger SSD since the price has come down a lot. I'd spring a bit for a better heatsink as well. The intel ones aren't that great and it's way cheaper than burning out a cpu. If you get a full case you can also get a couple extra fans for really cheap to keep things cool in there. I installed one extra intake and one out-take fan.

What I do when I upgrade components is go to someplace like newegg or amazon, search for that component and comparable parts and read all the reviews and suggestions from other people. There are a ton of folks out there that spend a ton of time and money buying and testing and optimizing all that crap so you can really reap the benefits without spending all the time and money yourself by reading reviews.

edit: you can drop the price by dropping the SSD. That's more of a luxury.

Hope that is helpful to you.

SA_22

ok without the sound card, ssd (:() and with a new heatsink (Arctic Cooling Freezer i30) its down to £1,229

tried the same setup with a i7 3570k that was overclocked but it barely saved anything with the £60 overclock service they have (but that was with a warranty to)

eto that case is fugly lol.. i just went with something that looks cleanish, lots of fans and lots of room for upgrading.

£200 left to drop or imma have a keyboard and mouse and no monitors

any thoughts?

m4dcow

• Don't do the overclocking service, it's a waste, it is easy enough to do on your own.
• Get a 660ti instead of a 670 saves £50.
• Drop the sound proofing, even if you are nutty about that, the case and fans it uses has more impact on sound anyway.
• Operating System tuning... what is that, it is £10 down the drain. They already look like they install a bunch of crap software that you don't need. Personally I would format that PC as soon as I get it.
• If you don't need a card reader drop it and get one later, there are decent external ones that are cheap, and end up being more convenient.

I did a config that came out like this:
Computer Case Sharkoon T9 Gaming Case (White)
CPU Intel i5 3570K - (4 x 3.4 GHZ) - Ivy Bridge - (Includes Free Order Of War Game)
CPU Heatsink Intel Heatsink & Fan - Low Noise
Memory Corsair 16GB PC3-12800 1600 MHz (4x4GB) - Lifetime Warranty (DDR3)
Graphics Card NVIDIA GeForce GTX 660 Ti - 2 GB - (PALIT) - (PCI-E) (Free Borderlands 2 Game)
Motherboard Gigabyte GA-Z77-D3H (Intel Z77) - VGA/DVI/HDMI
Sound Card Motherboard Integrated HD Sound
Networking Motherboard Integrated Ethernet Lan (Broadband Ready)
Power Supply Cooler Master 650W PSU - Low Noise
CPU Compound Standard CPU Compound Supplied With Heatsink
Hard Drive #1 120GB OCZ Agility 3 SSD SATA-III, Read 525MB/s, Write 500MB/s - Silent
Hard Drive #2 1 TB (1000 GB) SATA-III HDD 7200 RPM 64MB
Optical Drive #1 Samsung 22x DVD Re-Writer/Reader /- RW- Black - (SATA)
Operating System #1 Microsoft Windows 7 Professional 64 BIT (Genuine DVD & COA Included)
Grand Total Inc Vat:£1,064.62

With this config you could knock the OS down to Home Premium and save £30

I hope this helps.

Snader

I'd keep the SSD. Lots of performance gain there with loading times and such. The sound card isn't really necessary though, I agree - I'm personally using the onboard card and it works just fine with my 5.1 set.

The PSU sounds a bit overkill, maybe run a calculator on your setup variations?
http://extreme.outervision.com/psucalculator.jsp

I wouldn't bother with overclocking. I mean, there's a reason that faster chips are more pricey: hey should be produced with tighter tolerances to withstand extra strain - even though the architecture/design is the same. If anything, wait until you really start to feel sluggy in about 4 to 5 years and then squeeze it a bit.

SA_22

thx cow!
hmmm.. how much of a performance drop is that from what i configured? noticeable? £200 noticeable?

oh i forgot to take the operating tuning thing off, thinking of grabbing the key i'm using right now on my laptop... just gotta figure out how to transfer it, so that should save me £70 -£90

edit: thx shader i'll check it out now

m4dcow

Well the 660ti isn't that much of a performance drop from the 670, basically the options I put forth are good bang for your buck.

Overclocking is fairly easy nowadays and you would have no problem getting a 10% overclock with that chip but anything beyond that without better cooling and you risk instability which isn't worth it in my opinion.

Justin Meisse

If you price those parts out you will find you are paying someone a considerable chunk of your budget just to put pieces together and run an install.

SA_22

yeah?.. that sucks!

which site are you guys using to price each part up?.. i was using saverstore.com and i didn't see that much difference.

if i were to build it tho imma need help making sure every thing i do buy is compatible. and maybe some pointers and tips

EarthQuake

Why overclock in the first place? This is going to be a very, very fast computer that will likely handle 99% of what you throw at it without breaking a sweat. You can always overclock in a few years when you're actually doing things that will stress this system, but, honestly I don't see any realistic need to do so now. Keep it stock without the worries of extra heat, instability, reduced cpu life span, etc.

OC'ing top-end hardware these days is nothing more than measure-bating, OMG I GOT THE BEST BENCHMARKS U GUYSSSS

Not to mention that I7's overclock automatically when needed.

My recommendations:

Buy a mid-range simple case that is low key with tool-less drive bays etc. "Gamer" cases tend to be really obnoxious looking, but hey if thats your thing go for it, just make sure you're not paying too much extra for see through windows and blinking LEDs(ie: stuff that has no effect on your computer's performance).

Keep the SSD, infact get a bigger one, 256GB is getting reasonable these days.

Keep the Intel fan, its super easy to swap out later for a quieter/better fan if it is necessary.

Skip the 850w PSU, that is way, way more wattage than this system needs. Buy yourself a quality 80+ certified 600w psu. More watts doesn't = better, a more efficient PSU that covers your needs is best. Modular is also a very nice feature to have.

Drop down to a 660ti or 560ti, this will save you some money now and you'll likely not notice the difference in performance. I prefer to upgrade GPU's every couple years, instead of overpaying for the high end stuff, and still needing to upgrade every 3 or so years. You can buy a $200 GPU every two years or a $400 GPU every 3 years, thats sort of how I look at it.

almighty_gir

i'd budget £800 on the machine, and the rest on a good monitor setup.

also, there are more than just a couple of performance monitoring sites which claim the Asus p67 series of motherboards (and the i5/i7 sandybridge processors that go with them) actually outperform the new ivybridge stuff.

EarthQuake

almighty_gir wrote: »

i'd budget £800 on the machine, and the rest on a good monitor setup.

This is good advice but 500 pounds is probably a bit excessive, he should be able to get a quality 22-24" e-IPS panel monitor for under 350 pounds, shouldn't he? Unless he wants to get 2x 24"s, then 500 may not be enough.

Here is a good thread that goes over panel type(which is good for arts etc) and good models for value these days: http://www.polycount.com/forum/showthread.php?t=101860

almighty_gir

http://accessories.euro.dell.com/sna/productdetail.aspx?c=uk&l=en&s=dhs&cs=ukdhs1&sku=294438&~ck=baynoteSearch&baynote_bnrank=3&baynote_irrank=0
http://accessories.euro.dell.com/sna/productdetail.aspx?c=uk&l=en&s=dhs&cs=ukdhs1&sku=609020&~ck=baynoteSearch&baynote_bnrank=4&baynote_irrank=0

neither of those are particularly cheap, especially when you see their cost in USD... in fact it's an absolute rip-off.

Blaizer

OC is not very useful unless if you are going to do rendering and encoding almost all the days, and that whole system you put is very expensive.

With 750 euro you could build a great computer, including SSD and 16 gb ram.

EarthQuake

almighty_gir wrote: »

http://accessories.euro.dell.com/sna/productdetail.aspx?c=uk&l=en&s=dhs&cs=ukdhs1&sku=294438&~ck=baynoteSearch&baynote_bnrank=3&baynote_irrank=0
http://accessories.euro.dell.com/sna/productdetail.aspx?c=uk&l=en&s=dhs&cs=ukdhs1&sku=609020&~ck=baynoteSearch&baynote_bnrank=4&baynote_irrank=0

neither of those are particularly cheap, especially when you see their cost in USD... in fact it's an absolute rip-off.

Yeah but the 2412 is only L322, so, like I said under L350. But yeah, you guys always get shafted, seems like its usually a 1:1 dollar to pound ratio on tech stuff. Computers, monitors, cameras, etc, I would assume you guys would be used to it by now. =P

Here are some budget friendly e-IPS screens:
[ame="http://www.amazon.co.uk/Asus-VS229H-Widescreen-Monitor-Headphone/dp/B005HIRFYO/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1346167477&sr=8-1"]Asus VS229H 21.5 inch Widescreen IPS Monitor (DVI, VGA, HDMI, 1920 x 1080, 14ms, Headphone Jack) - Black: Amazon.co.uk: Computers & Accessories[/ame] L122 each, buy two for that price!

[ame="http://www.amazon.co.uk/VS239H-Monitor-monitors-20-23-inches/dp/B006K12Q5A/ref=sr_1_2?s=computers&ie=UTF8&qid=1346167541&sr=1-2"]ASUS VS239H 23" Full HD LED Monitor: Amazon.co.uk: Computers & Accessories[/ame]
L167, again two for under L350, not bad at all.

http://accessories.euro.dell.com/sna/productdetail.aspx?c=uk&l=en&s=dhs&cs=ukdhs1&sku=620155&~ck=baynoteSearch&baynote_bnrank=10&baynote_irrank=0 L250 for the 23" dell ultra sharp.

All of these are 1920x1080 instead of 1920x1200, but honestly for the price you can't complain too much, and on the 23 and smaller screens thats actually a very good res.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/CROSSOVER-27Q-LED-P-27-DVI-Dual-S-IPS-QHD-2560X1440-16-9-Pivot-Tilt-Monitor-/110869169169?pt=Computer_Monitors&hash=item19d0514411 Not for the faint of heart(eBay from korea), but at L235 thats about what we pay for it, awesome price for a 27" IPS screen with crazy ass resolution.

Cojax

Quality comes at price. I bought a Dell 30" IPS not to long ago. Worth every penny imo. Not much out there that can compete with its level of fidelity. You get what you pay for when it comes to computer hardware.

EarthQuake

Blaizer wrote: »

OC is not very useful unless if you are going to do rendering and encoding almost all the days, and that whole system you put is very expensive.

With 750 euro you could build a great computer, including SSD and 16 gb ram.

Exactly, and if you're doing serious rendering work like that you're looking at entirely different hardware, like a dual-cpu system or something.

SA_22

@EarthQuake: wait you mean that the blinking flashy neon lights dont make it run faster :O lol
yea i hate cases like that, only reason i chose that one was because it was the cheapest on that site with the most fans. but still would prefer a cleaner looking one

yeah i was looking at getting 2 of them ( [ame="http://www.amazon.co.uk/Asus-VS229H-Widescreen-Monitor-Headphone/dp/B005HIRFYO/"]Asus VS229H 21.5 inch Widescreen IPS Monitor[/ame]) if i can save a little more on the machine i might go for something a bit better, but i can always upgrade my main screen later on

@almightly_gir : yea i think imma need to just pick up the parts myself and make it see if that gets the price down, just need to find a good uk site or shop to pick stuff up from!

and fuck yes we get ripped off! when i bought this laptop i made it on us site first by mistake and just kept going. then made the same one on a uk site and was like WTF. we really do get screwed over here on electronic stuff!!!


ok so does anyone know of a good site that i can look for the parts cheaper? not having much luck finding a gd 1 as of yet

thanks for all the help and input so far guys you've been super helpful!!!

almighty_gir

i tend to buy my parts from either:

www.scan.co.uk or www.overclockers.co.uk

depending which is cheaper at the time.

in fact, regardless of which is cheaper for the rest of the stuff, order the SSD and ram from here, RIGHT NOW. http://www.scan.co.uk/shops/sitepage.aspx?SSPID=986

SA_22

thx almightly!! (offtopic: rogue came out sick!! gd job!!)

right so i used the 2 sites almighty posted to price up something similar to what i had:

cooler master sileo 500 silent case______________________£54.78
intel core i7 3820 cpu___________________________________£235.40
artic cooling freezer xtreme heatsink____________________£29.99
Rasurbo 650w modular psu___________________________£58.38
Asus pqx70 intel x79 socket 2011 motherboard______________£196.55
Corsair memory vengeance 16gb 2x8gb ddr3 1600mhz________£73.39
Palit 2gb nvidia geforce gtx 660ti______________________£249.19
seagate barracuda 7200rpm 1tb sataIII 64mb_____________£59.65
kingston hyperx ssd 120gb___________________________£64.98
asus 42x dvd+rw__________________________________£20.99

total___________________________________________£1043.09

around £200 cheaper - 3 year warranty and things like that

anything in there that wouldn't work with another part or is just stupid to have?

any part i should replace?

anything just not needed?

would like to get the price down alil more if possible with out making a notable change in the performance

m4dcow

I don't know why you seem to be leaning towards Sandy Bridge E processors (socket 2011). While the processor is about the same cost as a 3770k, the performance is slightly lower, and you are paying an arm and a leg for a socket 2011 motherboard.

Get yourself a 3770k and a nice z77 board, and you can easily save £100.

I would put a few extra dollars towards a power supply like:
http://www.scan.co.uk/products/650w-corsair-enthusiast-series-tx650m-modular-85-eff-80-plus-bronze-sli-crossfire-eps-12v-quiet-fan-
because I have never heard of Rasurbo.

SA_22

its more of i have no idea what sandy bridge is and its just what was on the selection list from the first site than me leaning towards it lol.. most of this stuff is completely new to me, last time i had any part in making a pc the specs started like 512gb ram 500mb harddrive dialup interwebs...... you get the point!

like i said any info on these things you wanna throw at me would be awesome!!

ight i'll take a look at 3770k and a new motherboard!

link didn't work, but i'll see what i can find

thx!!

m4dcow

Dunno why the link didn't work, but search for this Corsair Enthusiast Series TX650M, it's a solid power supply and should suit your needs.

As for the whole Sandy Bridge E thing, basically the socket 2011 processors were supposed to be these super enthusiast type chips, but they got released 6 months too late and are slightly under par with the newer generation of consumer level processors. So while now a Socket 2011 processor may be comparable in price to a 1155 socket processor, the cost of the motherboard is definitely not. The z77 chipset boards are the top chipset for the 1155 socket cpus, start at around £70 whereas the x79 socket 2011 boards start at £200.

If you want decent system setups together tomshardware.com has system builds for various budgets every month so you can read through those to get an understanding or at the very least a nice parts list.

Andreas

EarthQuake wrote: »

Buy a mid-range simple case that is low key with tool-less drive bays etc. "Gamer" cases tend to be really obnoxious looking, but hey if thats your thing go for it, just make sure you're not paying too much extra for see through windows and blinking LEDs(ie: stuff that has no effect on your computer's performance).

I'm right with you on that one. Another thing that gets to me are empty bays wasting space. I'm currently planning my very first build. Anyone know of a reasonably priced, strong, and most importantly small case that I can put a decent system together in? I'll be going with pure SSDs I think (potentially 2 256GBs), so that'll save on space. It would be great if it had a tool-less side cover removal system and bay system, and crapton of fans and ventilation with a dust cover and .

(Sorry for the hijack SA)

SA_22

dont worry about it Andreas hope you get what your looking for!!

ok so i added the 3770 and a z77 motherboard and changed the psu:

cooler master sileo 500 silent case______________________£54.78
intel core i7 3770k ivybridge_____________________________£251.00
artic cooling freezer xtreme heatsink____________________£29.99
650w Corsair psu___________________________________£77.58
Asus p8z77-v intel z77 1155 ivybridge_____________________£144.91
Corsair memory vengeance 16gb 2x8gb ddr3 1600mhz________£73.39
Palit 2gb nvidia geforce gtx 660ti______________________£249.19
seagate barracuda 7200rpm 1tb sataIII 64mb_____________£59.65
kingston hyperx ssd 120gb___________________________£64.98
asus 42x dvd+rw__________________________________£20.99

old total________________________________________£1043.0 9

new total____________________________________________£1026.46

not a huge difference...

anything i have not going to work with the new motherboard and cpu etc?

anything else i should change up?

fine paying just over £1000 for it but anything i can save without a huge performance drop would be awesome!!

again thx guys you rock!!

EarthQuake

SA_22 wrote: »

dont worry about it Andreas hope you get what your looking for!!

ok so i added the 3770 and a z77 motherboard and changed the psu:

cooler master sileo 500 silent case______________________£54.78
intel core i7 3770k ivybridge_____________________________£251.00
artic cooling freezer xtreme heatsink____________________£29.99
650w Corsair psu___________________________________£77.58
Asus p8z77-v intel z77 1155 ivybridge_____________________£144.91
Corsair memory vengeance 16gb 2x8gb ddr3 1600mhz________£73.39
Palit 2gb nvidia geforce gtx 660ti______________________£249.19
seagate barracuda 7200rpm 1tb sataIII 64mb_____________£59.65
kingston hyperx ssd 120gb___________________________£64.98
asus 42x dvd+rw__________________________________£20.99

old total________________________________________£1043.0 9

new total____________________________________________£1026.46

not a huge difference...

anything i have not going to work with the new motherboard and cpu etc?

anything else i should change up?

fine paying just over £1000 for it but anything i can save without a huge performance drop would be awesome!!

again thx guys you rock!!

This looks like a very balanced, good system. The only thing I would suggest downgrading is going from a 660ti to 560ti, this will save you L50-75(from prices on amazon.co.uk), and won't really make any difference for 3d art. You might notice a difference in gaming, so depending on your priorities you should consider it. If you do more 3D than gaming I would say go for it, more gaming than 3D, keep the 660ti.

Everything there looks compatible as well.

Looking at benchmarks that 3770K is a hair faster than the 3820, so yeah saving L20 and getting a little better cpu is a good idea. Though its not really a significant difference either way. Oh, but maybe you can find a slightly less expensive MOBO too, not entirely familiar with these.

glottis8

Looks good. 1500 dlls is about what i spent on my rig, and it has lasted me over 5 years now. Running everything on high. Now i need a new processor. But its still money well spent.

glottis8

http://www.pcgamer.com/2012/08/30/introducing-the-pc-gamer-ultimate-pc-hardware-guide-out-now/

Cube Republic

My experience from building machines for several years:

Good case is really important, if you skimp on this then your parts could get hot. Read the reviews etc. I nearly cooked an SLI set-up with bad ventilation.

I've tried onboard sound on Asus boards and got an earth hum when the drives spin up. Might be better with modern chips, but I've used my sound card across several builds, so I wouldn't know. I'd not bother with creative if you're using it to play music, Asus sound cards are superior.

Solid state drives rock and are reliable, crucial have been my flavor of choice and I've heard good reports about samsung, intel and corsair. On the other hand my friends and I have had nothing but problems with OCZ and sent 4 back between us.

Not sure about skimping on graphics, if you're rendering on CUDA, then the more cores the merrier.

I've been using the corsair all-in-one water coolers for a few years now and they offer excellent performance.

Be careful with large air coolers as this can conflict with the ram heatsinks if they are tall.


Don't bother with the tuning, the Asus boards OC automatically via a modern GUI in the BIOS. You only need to press a button. (I run an Asus board)

What power supply are you going to use?


Hope this helps

uncle

I built almost identical setup few day ago and so far it is excellent. (btw, Thanks EQ and other guys for tips).
Biggest difference was actually gtx560 card.
As for case, I can suggest Zalman z9 u3 - it is simply amazing. Great materials, 3 inbult fans, very good air flow. I think it fits your setup too. I'm not too fon of front design, but it has everything I need.


http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811235036

SA_22

thx for the reply's everyone!!

will read through them properly tomorrow when i'm not 98% asleep, just having a quick flick through ryan's 300 pages of awesomeness before i find somewhere warm and dry to crash

SA_22

thx glottis i'll try picking up a copy before i get to it!

@cube: you have any suggestions for a better case?.. i do prefer quieter cases but if theirs something better out there for roughly the same price..

yea i think im just going to try out the on board sound at first if i do run into any problems i can always pick one at some point.

damn that sucks!.... yeah i'm probably going to be reading alot of reviews for all the parts before i buy just incase!

is 660ti skimping? heard it was pretty much the same as the 670 just alil cheaper. i mean i do wanna play some games on this thing to, but the most rendering it will be doing is stills

what are the water coolers like to install?.. putting it together myself for the first time having a part with water in it scares the shit out of me!! lol

using 650w Corsair psu.

@uncle: that case was sounding gd man but damn its ugly... i dont really have anywhere to put/hide the case were it would stay cool, so its probably going on my desk unless i can think of another solution, so the cleaner and less revolting the better!



ok so i have to wait until around the end of this month to pick up the pieces to build this, but should give me sometime to better research the parts and maybe save alil on prices, but if you guys have any help, advice or knowledge of any better parts let me know!!

thx again guys!!!

almighty_gir

graphics card wise:

i'm running an AMD 6950HD 2GB. people have been telling me "you won't be able to run x or y", but actually there's not a single game that i've tried that's been released since the card, that has even remotely challenged it. i get 60fps on everything (i force vsync).

so while future proofing is important, i guess. you don't need to go balls out on a card just because someone else says so. and really, the performance difference between the two cards is so minimal that anything your card struggles with, the 670 will as well.

on water coolers.

i'm using the corsair H60, it's practically fool proof. you install the mounting sprues on the back of the motherboard (behind the cpu chassis), mount the cpu as normal, apply thermal gunk, and then mount the cooling block. just follow the instructions with the cooler, it's easy man. all of the tubing comes pre-prepared so you don't have to worry about that. although i WOULD strongly advise linking it up to the PSU and turning it on for 30 mins on a desk somewhere out of the way BEFORE putting it into your system, just to check for leaks.

EarthQuake

Any setup that requires "checking the cooling liquid for leaks" before installing in to your expensive electronics is not "fool proof". Watercooling systems are for enthusiast PC builders who need them for very specific reasons, not first time builders. Generally people watercool to get entirely silent systems, or to do extreme overclocking, so unless you need to do one of those, don't waste your time and money on it.

RE: video card, the video card is the single easiest thing thing to replace besides maybe ram. No need to worry about future proofing it, just buy a new one in 2-3 years if you need to. You'll end up doing this weather you spend L200 or L400, because of the pace new video cards come out at. 660ti is totally fine, a 560ti would be fine too, you won't find a game/app that stresses it out with that system unless you're doing something really specific, like super anti-aliasing on a high res 27" screen.

almighty_gir

what i meant by fool proof was, the installation is no harder than a stock fan for the corsair watercooler.

testing it for leaks is a common sense thing.

Justin Meisse

yeah, I wouldn't recommend going water cooled if it's your first time. Plus you had everyone helping you cut out needless costs only to go spend that saved money on a water cooler :P

Kwramm

in my last 2 PC builds it wasn't the cooling that made most noise but the fast spinning harddisks. The only fan that made a bit of noise was the video card one under heavy load.

Seriously, don't worry about watercooling. The times where PCs make noise like vacuum cleaners are over.

SA_22

yea i was just curios about the water cooler, maybe next time!

thx for the info guys you rock!

SA_22

woo took long enough for me to get the money for this but its time to buy stuff!

just checking for prices and reviews right now and trying to make sure everything is compatible with what i want

so far the case has bad reviews for overheating so looking for a new 1 right now... and the cpu hdd are on sale so should save alil there

any last thoughts before i go spending this £1500?

SA_22

ok got everything ready to order just going to post everything up and see if you guys see a problem (not compatle, missing parts etc) or if anything should be switched out for something else.

has changed alil from my last specs but seems like most of the parts i wanted or slightly better parts were on sale.. so i could stretch my budget out alil more

just over budget by £21 with delivery on everything but happy with what i'm getting

ok heres what we have so far

amazon:

[ame="http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B001EWXX6Q/ref=ox_sc_act_title_1?ie=UTF8&smid=A3P5ROKL5A1OLE"]Logitech Illuminated Keyboard[/ame]

2x [ame="http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B008F7GVZS/ref=ox_sc_act_title_1?ie=UTF8&smid=A3P5ROKL5A1OLE"]LG IPS224V 22 inch LED Backlit IPS Monitor[/ame]

[ame="http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B002276Z12/ref=ox_sc_act_title_3?ie=UTF8&smid=A2TT8BN63D5B1U"]2M DVI-D Monitor Cable, Black, 2 Metre, DVI Dual Link, Gold Plated, 1.8M / 6ft[/ame]

overclocker.co.uk

Corsair Enthusiast Series TX 650W V2 High Performance '80 Plus Bronze' Power Supply (CP-9020038-UK)
Seagate Barracuda 7200RPM 1TB SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache - OEM (ST1000DM003)
NZXT Avatar S 1600 DPI Gaming Mouse - Black
IC Diamond 7-Carat Thermal Compound (1.5g)

scan.co.uk

Intel Core i7 3770K,1155, Ivy Bridge, Quad Core, 3.5GHz, 5 GT/s DMI, 650MHz GPU, 8MB Smart Cache, 35x Ratio, 77W,Retail
Asus P8Z77-V LE, Intel Z77, S 1155, DDR3, PCIe 3.0 (x16), D-Sub (VGA)/ DisplayPort/ DVI-I/ HDMI, ATX
Cooler Master Hyper 412S CPU Cooler 4x DT Heatpipes with 120mm Silent Fan - Supports Intel and AMD CPUs
16GB (2x8GB) Corsair DDR3 Vengeance Low Profile Jet Black, PC3-12800 (1600), Non-ECC, CAS 10-10-10-27, XMP, 1.5V
120GB Kingston HyperX, 2.5" SSD, SATA III - 6Gb/s, SandForce, MLC-Flash, Read 555MB/s, Write 510MB/s, 85k IOPS Max
NZXT Phantom 410 Black Performance Mid Tower Case with 2x120mm and 1x140mm Fans USB 3.0 w/o PSU
2GB Palit GTX 670, 28nm, PCIe 3.0 (x16), 6008MHz GDDR5, GPU 915MHz, Boost 980MHz, Cores 1344, 2x DL DVI, DP, HDMI
LG GH24NS90 24x DVD±R, 12xDVD±DL, DVD+RW x8/-RWx6 ,12xRAM with M-DISC Support, SATA, Black, OEM
Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium 64 Bit SP1, Operating System, Single, - OEM
Norton Internet Security 2012 3PC's 1 Year Complete Protection from Viruses and Spyware UK Retail
2m CAT 6 UTP PVC INJ Moulded Patch Cable - Black
Thermaltake Tt eSports Shock Gaming Headset White with MIC
Creative Labs A60 2.0 Speakers 4 W Sound System

total of £1521 with delivery

going to order it later on today so if you see something wrong/stupid let me know!!

and thx for the help i've gotten from u guys so far!!!

nick2730

wow you spent alot lol, its a good setup nothing wrong just a little overkill in my opinion ha then again i dont have 1500 laying around.

Post in here or PM me if you need anyhelp done thia a bazillion times

SA_22

yea probably lol but around what i was aiming for.. + i havnt had a pc in along time so needing to pick up monitors keyboards and all that stuff to and i want it last awhile before i upgrade

thx dude!! probably hear from me in a couple days lol!!

not missing any cables or stupid shit like that am i?

also motherboard i've got has a built in network card right?..

Spiffy664

I am not sure if this has been brought up yet or not, as I haven't gotten through the whole thread, bu the sandy bridge i7 e series overclocks SLIGHTLY better (on air) then the current gen ivy bridge. The difference is minimal, and its due to the ivy bridge using thermal paste instead of solder between the chip and the plate. A japanese article covers it with where they took it apart and improved its performance by creating better heat transfer. Not exactly amateur friendly prospect, disassembling a CPU. lol.

That being said, the average high end user won't notice a difference. I have an ivy bridge, a butt load of ram, some SSDs, some big GPUs, and my computer eats polygons and spits renders without heat issue. At that point do I really care that sandy bridge is pushing a little higher overclocks? Not really

SA_22

lol yea spiffy i did start off with 1 but dropped it since i was advised on here and other places that theres not a massive improvement for the price difference..

haha i could disassemble it with a hammer.......? lol

does thermal paste come with the heatsink? or am i better off picking some up just incase?

EarthQuake

It will come with thermal paste.

Andreas

Stock coolers actually come with strips of paste on the copper these days, which then melts and works the same way. Do dedicated coolers not have that?

EarthQuake

Andreas wrote: »

Stock coolers actually come with strips of paste on the copper these days, which then melts and works the same way. Do dedicated coolers not have that?

They:

A. have it pre-applied
or
B. come with a tube

I've purchased extra thermal paste before but never needed to use it. The only time you need thermal paste is if you're a dork and "don't trust" the stuff that comes with the HS and need to apply your own, or you're cleaning/reapplying an existing heatsink. The pre-applied stuff is generally better, otherwise its easy to over-apply.

Andreas

Yeah sounds like the realm of the benchmarking dork alright hah.

SA_22

lol so i ordered half of it... went to order stuff from scan and my card was blocked... lol shit happens every time i spend money lol dumb!.. rang bank got my card unblocked then rang scan at 5:35 and got a message saying they close at 5:30 lol.... guess i'll have to order the rest tomorrow..... stupid lol