Feedback on a new gaming PC please :)

SneakBS

SneakBS

SneakBS

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7 Jul 2011
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85
Hi Everyone.

It's been quite awhile since I last built a PC and so much has changed. I'm looking to replace an athlon X2 6000 to play the latest and greatest on top res for at least a little while to come. I have spec'd up the machine below (Budget of no more than £1200 if I can help it) Was wondering if I have made any bad choices or whether there is anything I should add like water cooling or solid state disks etc...

If I have gone a little too far on some items or if I won't see benefit from them compared to an alternative please tell me :)

All input appreciated.

Coolermaster CM690-II Advanced Case - Black - £79.99
Intel Core I7 970 3.20GHz Hex Core Processor - £439.99
Asus Sabertooth Intel X58 Mainboard - £149.98
Corsair XMS3 6GB 1600MHz CAS9 Memory Kit - £52.79 (Might upgrade to 12GB 3 x 4GB)
OcUK GeForce GTX 570 1280MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card - £249.98 Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 1TB SATA 6Gb/s 32MB Cache - OEM (ST31000524AS) - £43.99
OcUK 22x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - £16.99
Asus Xonar DG 5.1 PCI Sound Card with built in Headphone AMP - £20.99
Corsair TX 850W V2 Power Supply -£109.99

-------------

Current System
Asus M2N-SLI DELUXE (nVidia nForce 570SLI Chipset)
AMD Athlon 64 X2 6000+
4GB RAM DDR2 (2 x 2GB)
NVIDIA GeForce 9800 GT (Current Resolution - 1920x1080 @ 60Hz)
850W Antec PSU
Single 500GB SATA Hdd
Windows 7 (x64)
DVD/RW Drive
Onboard Sound
22" ViewSonic Monitor (VX2260WM)
Case - Thermaltake Mambo (Not a great choice at the time...)
 
case - good
GPU - good
PSU - good.

Although have you considered Sandybridge?

for much cheaper...

YOUR BASKET
1 x Intel Core i7-2600K 3.40GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor £239.99
1 x Asrock Z68 Extreme4 Intel Z68 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £144.98
1 x Corsair Vengeance Low Profile 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (CML8GX3M2A1600C9) £71.99
1 x Thermalright Silver Arrow CPU Cooler (Socket LGA1366/LGA1155/LGA1156/LGA775/AM2/AM3) £50.99
Total : £519.35 (includes shipping : £9.50).



Sandybridge is latest and greatest atm. 2600K top trumps pretty much everything, and the 2500K closely behind. You probably don't even need a 2600K but since you want the best...

Could save on memory as well, and cooler. Need to check if cooler fits in CM 690 II first.

EDIT : Should be fine.
 
Last edited:
replace the CPU/mobo/RAM then just add a SSD
i5 2500k/Asrock Z68 Extreme4/4GB XMS3/SSD
reuse your current HDD, optical drive and PSU
 
olivier renault said:
case - good
GPU - good
PSU - good.

Although have you considered Sandybridge?

for much cheaper...

YOUR BASKET
1 x Intel Core i7-2600K 3.40GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor £239.99
1 x Asrock Z68 Extreme4 Intel Z68 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £144.98
1 x Corsair Vengeance Low Profile 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (CML8GX3M2A1600C9) £71.99
1 x Thermalright Silver Arrow CPU Cooler (Socket LGA1366/LGA1155/LGA1156/LGA775/AM2/AM3) £50.99
Total : £519.35 (includes shipping : £9.50).

Click to expand...

much better:
YOUR BASKET
1 x Crucial RealSSD M4 128GB 2.5" SATA 6Gb/s Solid State Hard Drive £183.98
1 x Intel Core i5-2500K 3.30GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor £164.99
1 x Asrock Z68 Extreme4 Intel Z68 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £144.98
1 x Kingston HyperX Genesis Grey 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (KHX1600C9D3X2K2/8GX) £59.99
1 x Thermalright Silver Arrow CPU Cooler (Socket LGA1366/LGA1155/LGA1156/LGA775/AM2/AM3) £50.99
Total : £616.33 (includes shipping : £9.50).
 
Whats the performance difference between the CPU's? Since I'm gonna be spending quite abit on this I didn't want to cut corners again...

And I always used to hear bad things about asrock... have them improved?
 
Last edited:
Jony27 said:
replace the CPU/mobo/RAM then just add a SSD
i5 2500k/Asrock Z68 Extreme4/4GB XMS3/SSD
reuse your current HDD, optical drive and PSU
Click to expand...

Don't have a problem reusing the PSU but the rest is suspect.. Having some issues that I can't pin down (Prompting me to think about this new machine)
 
Since your comments I made a revised selection... The only things I'm not sure on now is the cooling as the Thermalright Silver Arrow CPU Cooler seems to be out of stock everywhere and the graphics card.. I do like the GTX 570 but not sure whether it is over kill as give it 2 months and something 10x better will be out...

Coolermaster CM690-II Advanced Case - Black - £79.99

OcUK GeForce GTX 570 1280MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card - £249.98

Intel Core i7-2600K 3.40GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor [BX80623I72600K] £239.99 inc VAT

Asus P8Z68-V PRO Intel Z68 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £149.98

Corsair Vengeance 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C8 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (CMZ8GX3M2A1600C8) [CMZ8GX3M2A1600C8] - £79.99

Samsung SpinPoint F3 1TB SATA-II 32MB Cache - OEM (HD103SJ) [HD103SJ] - £40.99
 
olivier renault said:
the 2600K is the best CPU of the moment. Remmeber that it costs almost 1/2 the 970 :)
Click to expand...

i5 2500k is exactly the same for gaming as the i7 2600k:
http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/288?vs=287
look at the FPS scores near the bottom.

its because the only difference between the i5 2500k and the i7 2600k is hyperthreading, which pretty much no game on the market can take advantage of.

oh, when i say only difference, i forgot to mention that the i5 2500k is £75 cheaper

*edit*
speaking of money saving, heres some cheaper RAM with identical performance:
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MY-094-KS&groupid=701&catid=8&subcat=1517

as an added bonus, it wont get in the way of 95% of custom coolers that are on the market like the vengeance will
 
SneakBS said:
Would the i5 work with all the other kit listed?
Click to expand...

yep. also, you might want to check my edit :)

if you were really into video editing, CAD/CAM work, major photoshop work, etc then i would recommend the i7 2600k, but if your just gaming then the i5 2500k is the way to go
 
Honestly I'm just completely overwealmed there are so many options! Photoshop and webdesign are a strong possibility but I don't think it would make too much difference for those. The ram you mentioned says S Latency: 9-9-9-27 2N the other said XMP 8-8-8-24 values at 1600MHz, 1.50V not sure if this makes a huge difference??
 
Hopefully 2 final questions for the class ;)

1) Cooling options - What are they? Do I bother or as long as I'm not overclocking should it be ok with standard stuff?

2) Graphics cards - Which brand looking at the GTX 570 (which im still not sure is hte best option...) there are 5 brands on OC and I cannot see any difference between them.. whats the better brand?
Zotac GeForce GTX 570 1280MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card
MSI GeForce GTX 570 OC Twin FrozR III Power Edition 1280MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card [N570GTXTWINFROZRIIIPOWEREDITION/OC]
OcUK GeForce GTX 570 1280MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card
Gainward GeForce GTX 570 1280MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card
MSI GeForce GTX 570 1280MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card [N570GTX-M2D12D]


And thanks for your help so far really helping :)
 
SneakBS said:
Honestly I'm just completely overwealmed there are so many options! Photoshop and webdesign are a strong possibility but I don't think it would make too much difference for those. The ram you mentioned says S Latency: 9-9-9-27 2N the other said XMP 8-8-8-24 values at 1600MHz, 1.50V not sure if this makes a huge difference??
Click to expand...

Nope.

http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/memory/2011/01/11/the-best-memory-for-sandy-bridge/1

As for the cooler, you can leave overclocking for later but having a half decent cooler will help the CPU staying cool anyway.
 
there will be very little difference between all of those cards. Nvidia make the card, then MSI/Zotac/Gigabyte/whatever add either the standard cooler, or a custom cooler, then sell it on. the different price is down to the prices OcUK can get them in for.
the only differences you may find are differences in quality control at MSI/Zotac, etc, meaning you will be less likely to get a card that overclocks badly from the better brands. also, the customer service/RMA will be different between brands.

however, you will find a difference between the MSI twin frozr III and all the other ones, as it is the only one that has a custom cooler, which will help dramatically with overclocking. it may also have been a cherry picked graphics card, meaning it was found to be one of the best overclockers of the ones that came to the factory.

personally, as much as i like the twin frozr III cooler and its overclockability i dont think i could justify the £46 extra over the standard MSI version
 
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