Build for i5 (1155)

OmniPirate

OmniPirate

OmniPirate

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Joined
16 May 2011
Posts
8
Hi,

After almost four years my s775 rig is ready for retirement and I am afraid I am almost totally ignorant to the latest tech. I am taking over my monitor, mouse, keyboard and graphics card but everything else needs replacing. My 8800gtx died last year and I had to replace it with gtx 470 - which was not ideal - I was not in a position to splash out on the 480 and didn't have time to wait for the 500 series. I have never used SLI before, nor have I overclocked anything before, I am interested in trying both with this new build. The PC will be used largely for gaming, as a htpc and web browsing with billions of tabs open. The plan as it stands:

Intel Core i5-2500K 3.30GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor with FREE Operation Flashpoint Red River Game £155.99
(£129.99) £155.99
(£129.99)
Gigabyte P67A-UD3-B3 Intel P67 Chipset (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard - (Sandybridge) ** B3 REVISION ** £105.20
(£87.67) £105.20
(£87.67)
OCZ Agility 3 60GB 2.5" SATA-3 Solid State Hard Drive ** PRE ORDER PRICE ** (AGT3-25SAT3-60G) £99.98
(£83.32) £99.98
(£83.32)
Corsair TX 750W ATX SLI Compliant Power Supply (CMPSU-750TXUK) £79.98
(£66.65) £79.98
(£66.65)
Coolermaster CM-690 II Advanced Dominator Case - Black £76.99
(£64.16) £76.99
(£64.16)
Microsoft Windows 7 Bundle - Home Premium 64 Bit £68.40
(£57.00) £68.40
(£57.00)
Options applied to the above product:
Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB SATA 6Gb/s 32MB Cache WD10EALX - OEM £48.98
(£40.82) £48.98
(£40.82)
Akasa AK-CCX-4002HP Venom CPU Cooler (Socket LGA775/LGA1155/LGA1156/LGA1366/AM2/AM3) £38.99
(£32.49) £38.99
(£32.49)
Corsair XMS3 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (CMX4GX3M2A1600C9) £35.99
(£29.99) £35.99
(£29.99)
Sony Optiarc AD-5260S 24x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £15.98
(£13.32) £15.98
(£13.32)

I don't really have a set budget, but lets say £900 as a soft limit. I am willing to increase it a little if there are some significant improvements.

My main concerns are as follows:

1) Is it worth trying to SLI two 470's? Are they going to roast my motherboard? Is it the best way to spend £150 extra on this build, might it be better to stick it out with the 470 and buy something else in 12 months or so?

2) Is the power supply enough if I do SLI?

3) Are there any major advantages to a more expensive case? (such as Lian Li PC-B25FB Aluminium Midi Tower Case - Black or the HAF X)

4) If I wait a couple of weeks to make sure the z68 don't fall apart am I likely to see any major improvements over the board I listed above. I read a review of the Asus P8Z68-V PRO Intel Z68 that made it sound very attractive.

This post ended up including a lot more text than I had initially intended. Sorry about that. Any advise or assistance would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks.
 
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1.Yes. Sli 470s will beat a 580 in some games.
2.Yes.
3. Not really, The HAFX is nice and can fit a E-ATX mobo in it, with a nice fan by the GFX cards.
4. not if your using SLI anyway. theres no point in hybrid.

Do it, Get the HAF X and Sli 470's and OC the crap out of everything.

Also the HAFX can fit WC in it if your up for it. should get some nice headroom on the Cards
 
infernox said:
1.Yes. Sli 470s will beat a 580 in some games.
2.Yes.
3. Not really, The HAFX is nice and can fit a E-ATX mobo in it, with a nice fan by the GFX cards.
4. not if your using SLI anyway. theres no point in hybrid.

Do it, Get the HAF X and Sli 470's and OC the crap out of everything.

Also the HAFX can fit WC in it if your up for it. should get some nice headroom on the Cards
Click to expand...

Like it:)
 
stulid said:
This motherboard - http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MB-170-MS&groupid=701&catid=5&subcat=1906

Has SLI and crossfire support at 8X/8X, the Gigabyte above don't it does it at 16X/4X

SLI GTX470 is very quick:)

For example - http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/312?vs=299 - thats GTX470 vs Crossfire 6950 2GB cards, and you can get a Zotac GTX470 for £150 at OCUK to add to your one.
Click to expand...

Thanks a lot Stulid, I will switch the motherboards and add in a secound 470. :)
 
OmniPirate said:
Nope, it is going into retirement as a web browsing machine for my GF. It does have a 500gb HDD but a 1TB is very cheap now and I'd have to buy a small HDD for the old machine anyway.
Click to expand...

Ah, in that case the only thing to add onto what's already been said is that to reduce temps further you could buy another CPU fan in a push/pull config. In some of the benchmarks it reduces the temps by 2-3 degrees at load but that was on Nehalem CPUs, not sure how much difference it makes to Sandy Bridge.
 
infernox said:
1.Yes. Sli 470s will beat a 580 in some games.
2.Yes.
3. Not really, The HAFX is nice and can fit a E-ATX mobo in it, with a nice fan by the GFX cards.
4. not if your using SLI anyway. theres no point in hybrid.

Do it, Get the HAF X and Sli 470's and OC the crap out of everything.

Also the HAFX can fit WC in it if your up for it. should get some nice headroom on the Cards
Click to expand...

Great response, thanks. Anyone have any advice on Watercooling? I have never done it, the idea of water inside my PC has always made me feel like I might be having a small panic attack. I dont much like the look of the HAFX and it is a bit more expensive, but I like the idea.
 
OmniPirate said:
Great response, thanks. Anyone have any advice on Watercooling? I have never done it, the idea of water inside my PC has always made me feel like I might be having a small panic attack. I dont much like the look of the HAFX and it is a bit more expensive, but I like the idea.
Click to expand...

Dont go water cooling then, stick to a good air cooler like the Venom.
 
Depends what sort of overclocks he wants and how much he wants to spend.

roughly speaking, and being conservative by about 200MHz...

Hyper 212+ (4.4GHz) -> Corsair A50 (4.6GHz) -> Kuhler H2O (4.8GHz) -> Silver Arrow / NH-D14 (4.8GHz) -> Proper water cooling (5GHz+).

Not sure how far the motherboard will go. It's not designed for extreme overclockings, but should do quite well.
 
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