Check my new gaming build

Shadows1990

Shadows1990

Shadows1990

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Joined
22 Jan 2008
Posts
1,311
Location
King's Lynn, Norfolk
Hi all :)

I've been out of the loop for a little while now, and I'm not really up to speed with the current tech and what works well with what. I'll have no problems putting the stuff together (hopefully :p )

  • OEM Intel Core i7-2600K 3.40GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor - OEM £236.99
  • OCZ Vertex 2E Bigfoot 120GB 3.5" SATA-II Solid State Hard Drive £179.99
  • Gigabyte P67A-UD3 Intel P67 Chipset (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard - (Sandybridge) £114.98
  • XFX Pro 650W Core Edition Power Supply £68.99
  • Corsair XMS3 6GB (3x2GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Triple Channel (CMX6GX3M3A1600C9) £67.99
  • Antec 100 One Hundred Ultimate Gaming Case - Black £43.99
  • Samsung SH-S223C/BEBE 22x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £13.19
  • Intel Official i7/i5/i3 CPU Cooler (Socket 1155/1156) £0.98

Total: £727.10

Just a couple of questions:
Will the triple-channel work in tri-channel mode on this motherboard with this RAM?
Will the PSU be sufficient for the setup I have posted?
Regarding cooling, will I be needing any other cooling for the case etc?

edit: I'll be using the system mainly for gaming. The monitor & TV I'll be using has a resolution of 1080p.
 
OK first thing, that ram is Triple Channel and the motherboard only supports dual. So get 2x 2GB of ram or 2x4GB.

Change the i7 for an i5 as you are only gaining hyper threading which won't count for much in games. Get a better HSF the stock cooler won't last you long if you plan on OCin.

And lastly get a better case!
 
Regarding cooling, are you going to use stocl Intel i7 heatsink or going to get a separate one? Are you planning on doing overclocking??

The case comes with top 140mm fan and rear 120mm fan, if you want a perfect airflow you could probably add 2 front fans or 1 side fan.

I am an Antec 300 user and in my current setup I use 5 fans (4x120mm and 1x140mm) all connected to fan controller so everything runs cool and quiet :)
 
Last edited:
SBD said:
OK first thing, that ram is Triple Channel and the motherboard only supports dual. So get 2x 2GB of ram or 2x4GB.

Change the i7 for an i5 as you are only gaining hyper threading which won't count for much in games. Get a better HSF the stock cooler won't last you long if you plan on OCin.

And lastly get a better case!
Click to expand...

I was originally looking at getting a i5 2500K, and as recommended, I'll change it to one :)
What cooler would you guys recommend for the i5?

jake9891 said:
Regarding cooling, are you going to use stocl Intel i7 heatsink or going to get a separate one? Are you planning on doing overclocking??

The case comes with top 140mm fan and rear 120mm fan, if you want a perfect airflow you could probably add 2 front fans or 1 side fan.

I am an Antec 300 user and in my current setup I use 5 fans (4x120mm and 1x140mm) all connected to fan controller so everything runs cool and quiet :)
Click to expand...

As above, I'm open to ideas on coolers/fans, so any help would be greatly appreciated.


What case would you guys recommend aswell?
 
Good cooling on that card, but I recommend a 560 TI? I watched a video comparing the 2 cards and the 560 TI cae on top and was even head to head in some benchmarks with the 570 : )
 
saintdefender said:
Good cooling on that card, but I recommend a 560 TI? I watched a video comparing the 2 cards and the 560 TI cae on top and was even head to head in some benchmarks with the 570 : )
Click to expand...

Thanks for the recommendation. Would it be worth the £50+ for the 560TI? Also, which brand of 560 should I look at?
 
I think the Antec 100 is a nice case, they are few things they could improve, such as reduce the size of the 'Antec' logo at front, use black coloured mic and headphones ports instead of pink/green and add reset button (couldnt see it on pics).

The main things I like about it tho is the airflow, washable filter at front (it helps a lot stopping the dust getting inside) and it's black all around. I think for a £43 it would be a good choice.
 
saintdefender said:
Good cooling on that card, but I recommend a 560 TI? I watched a video comparing the 2 cards and the 560 TI cae on top and was even head to head in some benchmarks with the 570 : )
Click to expand...

I disagree....

http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/330?vs=306

570>560....

Made a couple of tweaks, without swaying too much from your original spec...

Ok, I might suggest the Crucial SSD,
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=HD-006-CR&groupid=701&catid=14&subcat=1427

Depending what you're using your SSD for this may work out better. It's got slower Write speeds, but read speeds are faster, and as I imagine you'll probably have an additional hard drive that has all your data (the stuff you tend to write to a lot) you may want that SSD.

I upgraded the PSU to 750W (I know it's not in stock atm) but there was a reason, as the motherboard you chose (fine) supports crossfire but not SLI, and therefore if you wanted, in future you could crossfire if you wanted to, and 750 W should be fine to crossfire. In light of this I'd actually suggest you go for one of the ATI graphics cards...
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-147-OK&groupid=701&catid=56&subcat=1752

Something like that.

http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/293?vs=330
Is a comparison between the 6950 and 560. Also you may be able to unlock the 6950 to a 6970 which would give you even faster speeds.

Depending on when you're ordering the other graphics card option, - for basically the same price is to get one of the 480's, that are currently available for £220.
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-222-AS&groupid=701&catid=1914&subcat=1750
I just ordered myself one of these over the 560 I was considering.
http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/309?vs=306
Is the comparison between that and a 570 (more expensive obviously). The only issue with the 480 is that it has a higher power consumption and is louder. Again, the issue is if you choose to go with the nVidia option you can't add a second graphics card in future because of your motherboard choice, and you'd also need a more powerful PSU (something like 850W)

Oh, I threw a better case in as well....

IF you're not going to go Xfire you can also lower the PSU back to the 650W version, but yeah, this is the spec I made up with a 6950 in it. (cheaper than yours pre-graphics card (£674)



Product Name Qty Price Line Total
OcUK ATI Radeon 6950 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £214.99
(£179.16) £214.99
(£179.16)
Crucial RealSSD C300 128GB 2.5" SATA 6Gb/s Solid State Hard Drive (CTFDDAC128MAG-1G1) £179.99
(£149.99) £179.99
(£149.99)
Intel Core i5-2500K 3.30GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor - OEM £168.98
(£140.82) £168.98
(£140.82)
Gigabyte P67A-UD3 Intel P67 Chipset (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard - (Sandybridge) £104.98
(£87.48) £104.98
(£87.48)
XFX Pro 750W Core Edition Power Supply £73.99
(£61.66) £73.99
(£61.66)
Coolermaster CM-690 II Lite Dominator Case - Black £61.26
(£51.05) £61.26
(£51.05)
GeIL 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz VALUE PLUS Dual Channel (GVP34GB1600C9DC) £35.99
(£29.99) £35.99
(£29.99)
Akasa AK-CCX-4002HP Venom CPU Cooler (Socket LGA775/LGA1155/LGA1156/LGA1366/AM2/AM3) £35.99
(£29.99) £35.99
(£29.99)
Samsung SH-S223C/BEBE 22x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £13.19
(£10.99) £13.19
(£10.99)
Sub Total : £741.13
Shipping cost assumes delivery to UK Mainland with:
DPD Next Day Parcel
(This can be changed during checkout) Shipping : £10.50
VAT is being charged at 20.00% VAT : £150.33
Total : £901.96


kd
 
King Damager said:
I disagree....

http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/330?vs=306

570>560....

Made a couple of tweaks, without swaying too much from your original spec...

Ok, I might suggest the Crucial SSD,
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=HD-006-CR&groupid=701&catid=14&subcat=1427

Depending what you're using your SSD for this may work out better. It's got slower Write speeds, but read speeds are faster, and as I imagine you'll probably have an additional hard drive that has all your data (the stuff you tend to write to a lot) you may want that SSD.

I upgraded the PSU to 750W (I know it's not in stock atm) but there was a reason, as the motherboard you chose (fine) supports crossfire but not SLI, and therefore if you wanted, in future you could crossfire if you wanted to, and 750 W should be fine to crossfire. In light of this I'd actually suggest you go for one of the ATI graphics cards...
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-147-OK&groupid=701&catid=56&subcat=1752

Something like that.

http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/293?vs=330
Is a comparison between the 6950 and 560. Also you may be able to unlock the 6950 to a 6970 which would give you even faster speeds.

Depending on when you're ordering the other graphics card option, - for basically the same price is to get one of the 480's, that are currently available for £220.
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-222-AS&groupid=701&catid=1914&subcat=1750
I just ordered myself one of these over the 560 I was considering.
http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/309?vs=306
Is the comparison between that and a 570 (more expensive obviously). The only issue with the 480 is that it has a higher power consumption and is louder. Again, the issue is if you choose to go with the nVidia option you can't add a second graphics card in future because of your motherboard choice, and you'd also need a more powerful PSU (something like 850W)

Oh, I threw a better case in as well....

IF you're not going to go Xfire you can also lower the PSU back to the 650W version, but yeah, this is the spec I made up with a 6950 in it. (cheaper than yours pre-graphics card (£674)



Product Name Qty Price Line Total
OcUK ATI Radeon 6950 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £214.99
(£179.16) £214.99
(£179.16)
Crucial RealSSD C300 128GB 2.5" SATA 6Gb/s Solid State Hard Drive (CTFDDAC128MAG-1G1) £179.99
(£149.99) £179.99
(£149.99)
Intel Core i5-2500K 3.30GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor - OEM £168.98
(£140.82) £168.98
(£140.82)
Gigabyte P67A-UD3 Intel P67 Chipset (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard - (Sandybridge) £104.98
(£87.48) £104.98
(£87.48)
XFX Pro 750W Core Edition Power Supply £73.99
(£61.66) £73.99
(£61.66)
Coolermaster CM-690 II Lite Dominator Case - Black £61.26
(£51.05) £61.26
(£51.05)
GeIL 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz VALUE PLUS Dual Channel (GVP34GB1600C9DC) £35.99
(£29.99) £35.99
(£29.99)
Akasa AK-CCX-4002HP Venom CPU Cooler (Socket LGA775/LGA1155/LGA1156/LGA1366/AM2/AM3) £35.99
(£29.99) £35.99
(£29.99)
Samsung SH-S223C/BEBE 22x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £13.19
(£10.99) £13.19
(£10.99)
Sub Total : £741.13
Shipping cost assumes delivery to UK Mainland with:
DPD Next Day Parcel
(This can be changed during checkout) Shipping : £10.50
VAT is being charged at 20.00% VAT : £150.33
Total : £901.96


kd
Click to expand...

Thanks for that kd :)
I'm not really a big fan of blue LEDs in cases, so I've made a minor adjustment and changed the case to a Antec 300. I'm assuming by the specs page for the case it should be fine with this build?
 
stulid said:
Cheaper, all black interior

http://www.antec.com/Believe_it/product.php?id=MjY5NA==

http://www.antec.com/Believe_it/product.php?id=MTEzMQ==
Click to expand...

From those pics, I do like the look of the 100 more :)
Thanks for all the help guys :)

My updated build now looks like this:
  • OcUK ATI Radeon 6950 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £214.99
  • Crucial RealSSD C300 128GB 2.5" SATA 6Gb/s Solid State Hard Drive (CTFDDAC128MAG-1G1) £179.99
  • Intel Core i5-2500K 3.30GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor - OEM £168.98
  • Gigabyte P67A-UD3 Intel P67 Chipset (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard - (Sandybridge) £104.98
  • XFX Pro 750W Core Edition Power Supply £73.99
  • Antec 100 One Hundred Ultimate Gaming Case - Black £43.99
  • GeIL 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz VALUE PLUS Dual Channel (GVP34GB1600C9DC) £35.99
  • Akasa AK-CCX-4002HP Venom CPU Cooler (Socket LGA775/LGA1155/LGA1156/LGA1366/AM2/AM3) £35.99
  • LiteOn IHAS124-19 24x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £14.99

New total: £886.49
 
Could someone just give a final check over this build, I hope to put the order in this week, along with a monitor (I already have a hard drive that I'll use for now):
  • Asus GeForce GTX 480 1536MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card with Far Cry 2 £219.98
  • Intel Core i5-2500K 3.30GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor - OEM £168.98
  • MSI P67A-C45 Intel P67 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard - (Sandybridge) £104.99
  • Antec High Current Gamer 520W Power Supply £56.99
  • Antec 100 One Hundred Ultimate Gaming Case - Black £43.99
  • Akasa AK-CCX-4002HP Venom CPU Cooler (Socket LGA775/LGA1155/LGA1156/LGA1366/AM2/AM3) £35.99
  • OCZ Special OPS 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C8 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (OCZ3SOE1600LV4GK) £25.99
  • LiteOn IHAS124-19 24x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £14.99
  • Akasa AK-FN059 120mm Ultra Quiet Viper Cool Fan - 3/4 Pin £13.26

Thanks :)
 
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