New Build, Last Advice Before I Hit Buy

~lynks

~lynks

~lynks

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Joined
3 Jul 2011
Posts
27
build2.jpg


Hi folks,

I'm about to buy the spec above and have the usual questions - am I making any errors with the components? Or could I knock any money off without losing performance?

I may have gone a bit tight with the RAM, I haven't upgraded in years and 8GB seems like an astronomical amount to me, but most manufacturers only seem to list 16 and 32 in the quad channel kits. This makes me wonder if 8GB is enough for a machine like this. I have also gone for the 1600MHz RAM, is that OK for a Z77 Ivybridge setup?

Mostly just looking for peace of mind before I hit the 'bankrupt me now' button. :p

Many thanks as always.

Edit: Forgot to ask, will that heatsink fit inside this case? The case is listed as 207mm wide, the heatsink as 151mm high, 56mm for the case gap + motherboard mounting + cpu heatspreadder, sound ok? I don't seem to have much intuition on this one.
 
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Do yourself a favour and change the RAM to 2x4GB rather than 4x2GB. That way you can upgrade to 16GB in the future if you really need it. With 2x4GB you are limited to just 8GB all the time and will give you 0% upgrade options (unless you completely replace the 4x2GB for 4x4GB). You'll find that nowadays with a gaming PC of today's standards 95% of people opt for 8GB or more.

The rest is fine, although I would choose a HD 7850 instead of GTX 570. 7850 is the best GPU ~£200 on the market today. Fact.
 
Thanks for the reply Barry, the 2 slot RAM did cross my mind, but i wasn't sure if that was allowed with a quad channel rig, or if running in dual channel would be much slower.

I checked anandtech for the GTX 570 vs the 7850 and the 570 seems to win overall, but not by much. Any other thoughts on this?
 
~lynks said:
Thanks for the reply Barry, the 2 slot RAM did cross my mind, but i wasn't sure if that was allowed with a quad channel rig, or if running in dual channel would be much slower.

I checked anandtech for the GTX 570 vs the 7850 and the 570 seems to win overall, but not by much. Any other thoughts on this?
Click to expand...

Is it a quad channel motherboard? I checked one website and it said dual channel (I can't see that detail on the product on OCuk). It does have 4 DIMM slots but that can still be dual channel!

I am going on what a lot have people have told me. All the threads where people ask for the best graphics card to buy sub £200, most people say the 7850. According to the 570 listed on Anandtech it has a 732MHz/1464MHz Core clock as opposed to 7850 with 860MHz but the 7850 has 775MB more memory and a better memory clock.

The 7850 is THE card to overclock as well, according many overclocking websites/videos.

No doubt the 570 is a good card still. However, I would wait until you get a few more replies before you click buy. :)
 
+1 for 2x4GB RAM and HD 7850 2GB recommendations

A 2x4GB kit like this one is just as fast, a bit cheaper and easier to upgrade than the 4x2GB in the OP. Also, the LGA1155 platform only uses up to dual channel memory mode - so you don't gain any bandwidth increase for going with four sticks over two.

As for the GTX 570 graphics card - yes the GTX 570 does beat the HD 7850 at stock speeds. However, please bear in mind that the HD 7850 is known to overclock extremely well (see here) and carries much more VRAM.

The case supports CPU coolers up to 165mm tall - so that Xigmatek will work fine.

Presumably this system is mainly for playing games, or are there other intensive applications you will be running on it?
 
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cmndr_andi said:
+1 for 2x4GB RAM and HD 7850 2GB recommendations

A 2x4GB kit like this one is just as fast, a bit cheaper and easier to upgrade than the 4x2GB in the OP. Also, the LGA1155 platform only uses up to dual channel memory mode - so you don't gain any bandwidth increase for going with four sticks over two.

As for the GTX 570 graphics card - yes the GTX 570 does beat the HD 7850 at stock speeds. However, please bear in mind that the HD 7850 is known to overclock extremely well (see here) and carries much more VRAM.

The case supports CPU coolers up to 165mm tall - so that Xigmatek will work fine.

Presumably this system is mainly for playing games, or are there other intensive applications you will be running on it?
Click to expand...

Thank you for elaborating further to my post! I forgot to mention the LGA1155 and dual channel limitation.

There you are lynks, hope that has cleared it up for you. :)
 
Thanks a lot for all the feedback everyone.

cmndr_andi said:
+1 for 2x4GB RAM and HD 7850 2GB recommendations

A 2x4GB kit like this one is just as fast, a bit cheaper and easier to upgrade than the 4x2GB in the OP. Also, the LGA1155 platform only uses up to dual channel memory mode - so you don't gain any bandwidth increase for going with four sticks over two.

As for the GTX 570 graphics card - yes the GTX 570 does beat the HD 7850 at stock speeds. However, please bear in mind that the HD 7850 is known to overclock extremely well (see here) and carries much more VRAM.

The case supports CPU coolers up to 165mm tall - so that Xigmatek will work fine.

Presumably this system is mainly for playing games, or are there other intensive applications you will be running on it?
Click to expand...

OK, switching to the 7850 at £199, and I have dropped the motherboard price and gone with asus to match the ati card, that motherboard is also on offer.

Switched to a PC3-12800 2x4GB, thank you for clarifying the dual/quad channel issue.

This rig will be used for gaming, so ideally needs to be capable with the likes of BF3. I work from home and dual boot to Debian Linux for my job, when I will regularly be running server daemons with >3000 threads (until now I have done this on a single core AMD 3400+, and am hugely looking forward to having such a vast CPU upgrade).

Thanks again to everyone for the advice.
 
You'll be fine with that system running BF3, mate.

You should hit 30-40FPS with ultra settings at stock which is still decent and since the overclock ability is huge you should surpass that by at least 10FPS.

Are you getting the Sapphire or the HIS? I would recommend the former.

Keep us updated. :)
 
Barry1987 said:
You'll be fine with that system running BF3, mate.

You should hit 30-40FPS with ultra settings at stock which is still decent and since the overclock ability is huge you should surpass that by at least 10FPS.

Are you getting the Sapphire or the HIS? I would recommend the former.

Keep us updated. :)
Click to expand...

Thanks for all the feedback Barry, went with the Sapphire as I have owned one before (The beast that was the Sapphire Radeon 9800XT, the envy of all my friends playing Farcry maxed out :P) and because it has two fans...which seemed sensible.
 
Just to highlight, that particular Asus P8Z77-V LX board can only run the second main PCIE slot at x4 speed (while the Gigabyte board you originally picked can run this second slot at full x8 speed) and it doesn't support SLI (while the gigabyte does).

Therefore, if you plan to ever use crossfire or SLI then I would go with the Gigabyte board.

As for compatibility, why do you say you would rather go with an ASUS board with an ATI (AMD) card? Gigabyte Z77 boards works just as well with AMD cards as ASUS boards AFAIK.
 
cmndr_andi said:
Just to highlight, that particular Asus P8Z77-V LX board can only run the second main PCIE slot at x4 speed (while the Gigabyte board you originally picked can run this second slot at full x8 speed) and it doesn't support SLI (while the gigabyte does).

Therefore, if you plan to ever use crossfire or SLI then I would go with the Gigabyte board.

As for compatibility, why do you say you would rather go with an ASUS board with an ATI (AMD) card? Gigabyte Z77 boards works just as well with AMD cards as ASUS boards AFAIK.
Click to expand...

Crossfire is not something I have ever really considered, I don't upgrade frequently at all, only when I really start to struggle to play anything (I can play skyrim on my single core, 1GB ram system surprisingly well). As a result, buying a second card is never on the cards...as it were.

And in terms of compatibility, I actually don't remember where I got the idea from that Asus and ATI work better together. Are they part of the same organisation or something? Someone probably mentioned it to me once, and I've just assumed it was correct ever since.
 
Fair enough with the dual graphics card option - a single HD 7850 should do you great for quite a while and by the time you want to upgrade the card a new generation (or two) of cards will likely already be out. It also allows you to save a bit on the motherboard - though if you do want to just save money I would personally go with this board.

As for ASUS working better with ATI graphics - well that may have been the case a long time ago - but these days Gigabyte works just as well with ATI (AMD) graphics cards as ASUS boards. Also, Gigabyte offer a superior RMA service (UK based) if anything goes wrong - so when offered equal boards at equal price the usual recommendation is to go with the Gigabyte one over the ASUS one.
 
cmndr_andi said:
Fair enough with the dual graphics card option - a single HD 7850 should do you great for quite a while and by the time you want to upgrade the card a new generation (or two) of cards will likely already be out. It also allows you to save a bit on the motherboard - though if you do want to just save money I would personally go with this board.

As for ASUS working better with ATI graphics - well that may have been the case a long time ago - but these days Gigabyte works just as well with ATI (AMD) graphics cards as ASUS boards. Also, Gigabyte offer a superior RMA service (UK based) if anything goes wrong - so when offered equal boards at equal price the usual recommendation is to go with the Gigabyte one over the ASUS one.
Click to expand...

Given that my prejudice was probably outdated and/or completely wrong, I have taken your advice and gone with the board you suggested.

Order now placed, looks like I'll be on potato waffles and baked beans until the next payday :p

Thanks for all the advice, this forum never fails.
 
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