Need advice of gaming rig ordering next week hopefully

Purdy

Purdy

Purdy

Caporegime
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4 Jan 2011
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So these are the parts I've picked out without looking awfully hard. I may have overspent/underspent in certain places or even missed parts ><. OcUK will build it for me and overclock, dunno if you need to know that.

The Ram is probably the place I had the least clue, so just went in to the top section, ideally I wanted this to be under 2k excl VAT. (or excl monitor whatever you want to look at it.)

Also want to stream with this. (SC2/DayZ/Dota2/DayZ(on arma3 engine I assume which will be a bit harder on the system I imagine.)

Also choice of case is down to wanting one that doesnt gather a tonne of dust on the outside and is very quiet.


YOUR BASKET
1 x Gainward GeForce GTX 680 Phantom 4096MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £539.99
1 x Asus VG278H 27" TRUE 120Hz 3D Widescreen LED Monitor with NVIDIA 3D Vision 2.0 Glasses - Black w/ FREE Borderlands 2 PC Game £499.99
1 x Cooler Master Cosmos II Ultra Tower Case - Black £284.99
1 x Intel Core i7-3770K 3.50GHz (Ivybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor (77W) - Retail £269.99
1 x Samsung 256GB SSD 830 Desktop Series SATA 6Gb/s KIT with Norton Ghost - (MZ-7PC256D/EU) £199.99
1 x Microsoft Windows 7 Ultimate - Retail (GLC-00181) £179.99
1 x Corsair Professional Series HX+ 1050W '80+ Gold' Modular Power Supply (CP-9020033-UK) £169.99
1 x MSI Z77A-GD65 Intel Z77 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard ** With FREE GeIL Black Dragon 8GB Kit ** £159.98
1 x Western Digital Caviar Black 2TB SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache - OEM (WD2002FAEX) £154.99
1 x G.Skill RipJawsZ 16GB (4x4GB) DDR3 PC3-17000C9 2133MHz Dual/Quad Channel Kit (F3-17000CL9Q-16GBZH) £124.99
1 x Seagate Barracuda Green 2TB SATA 6Gb/s Hard Drive - OEM (ST2000DL003) £91.99
1 x Noctua NH-U12P SE2 Dual Fan Quiet CPU Cooler (Socket LGA1366/LGA1156/LGA1155/LGA775/AM2/AM2+/AM3) £48.38
Total : £2,751.91 (includes shipping : £22.20).




£2271 excl VAT
 
YOUR BASKET
2 x Benq XL2420T 24" TRUE 120Hz 3D Vision 2.0 Widescreen LED Monitor & 3D Vision 2.0 Kit - Bundle with FREE Borderlands 2 PC Game £397.99 (795.98)
1 x Crucial RealSSD M4 512GB 2.5" SATA 6Gb/s Solid State Hard Drive (CT512M4SSD2) £341.99
2 x MSI GeForce GTX 670 OC 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card (N670GTX-PM2D2GD5/OC) £319.99 (639.98)
1 x Intel Core i7-3820 3.60GHz (Sandybridge-E) Socket LGA2011 Processor - Retail £227.99
1 x Microsoft Windows 7 Ultimate - Retail (GLC-00181) £179.99
1 x MSI X79A-GD45 (8D) Intel X79 (Socket 2011) DDR3 Motherboard £153.98
1 x NZXT Hale Power 90+ 850W '80 Plus Gold' Modular Power Supply £131.99
1 x Patriot Intel Extreme Masters 16GB (4x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Quad Channel Kit (PVI38G160C9K) £89.99
1 x Seagate Barracuda Green 2TB SATA 6Gb/s Hard Drive - OEM (ST2000DL003) £82.99
1 x NZXT Tempest 410 Elite Midi Tower Case - Black £69.98
1 x NZXT Havik 120 CPU Cooler (Socket 775/1155/1156/1366/2011/AM2/AM2+/AM3) £49.99
2 x NZXT FZ-140 Airflow Fan Series - 140mm £10.99 (21.98)
Total : £2,807.06 (includes shipping : £16.85).



You can remove one of the monitors, Socket 2011 for streaming as it needs a lot of processor support.
 
T345 said:
You can remove one of the monitors, Socket 2011 for streaming as it needs a lot of processor support.
Click to expand...

Definately only need one monitor as I already have a pretty nice one, it is my second monitor I am replacing.

Is sandybridge E as good as the Ivy?

Also the case looks a dust magnet for front/top and I'm honestly fed up of my antec sounding like a 747, so don't mind forking out for the case.

Also won't need that size of an SSD so can cut back, basically my OS/the odd game on it.

Also reason for the solo 680 is I may SLi it further down the line, so possibly better than getting 2 670s? Which I suppose may be better than one 680 but some games have issues with SLi still do they not?
 
Hmph.

The 670 single is tempting if it really is only 5% difference, I'm sure it'd eat my current 6950 which handles most things with ease.

How is it the Sandybridge E is better than Ivy? Isn't Ivy newer :p? (As you can see I'm pretty damn dumb at this stuff.)

Also whats the ramifications of going 4x4gb ram vs 2x8gb ram?

And I just can't shake the feeling at want that huge case due to it being very silent from what I've read from totalbiscuit considering he does so much recording. Also seems fairly sturdy.

Completely forgot my blu ray drive+sound card aswell, this is getting expensive qq
 
Ivybridge is an upgrade to sandybridge
Sandy bridge E is an upgrade to 1366 :D
not much of a difference apart from using Quad channel for 4x4
:)
You don't need to spend this much, maybe wait for Stulid or hono to spec you, I am a novice ;)
 
Re 670 vs 6950: http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/510?vs=598
So yeah, 670 would easily beat a 6950 (they're different generations as well so not really comparable... the AMD version of the 670 is the 7950 or 7970)

Not sure about Sandybridge-E vs Ivy... I'm not so good with CPU's tbh, I'll leave that to someone else or you could head over to the CPU forum itself and ask there :)

generally 2x8 gb is faster due to using fewer DIMM slots, so less for the memory controller to do in theory, so faster RAM

Another awesome air cooled case (and regarded by some as the quietest air cooled case) is the Silverstone Fortress FT02 or the Silverstone Raven RV02. They are exceptionally cool and exceptionally quiet...

Blu-ray drive will set you back around £60, something like this: http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CD-114-LG&groupid=701&catid=10&subcat=314

Sound cards aren't really necessary these days unless you're a proper audiophile, the mobo's on board sound is excellent so you probably don't need one.

Edit to add: Here is a comparison of the Sandybridge-E and the Ivybridge: http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/523?vs=551 I would say it's pretty close but the ivybridge takes it, I'll spec something up for you.
 
Last edited:
Oh actually thinking about it, I just bought my Senn HD650s + Fiio e17 amp/DAC, do i need a soundcard /dumb :p?

Also cheers for the case recommendation, would save me a fair bit.
 
Here's a spec:

YOUR BASKET
2 x Gigabyte GeForce GTX 670 Windforce 3X 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £349.99 (£699.98)
1 x Intel Core i7-3770K 3.50GHz (Ivybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor (77W) - Retail £251.99
1 x Microsoft Windows 7 Ultimate - Retail (GLC-00181) £179.99
1 x Gigabyte Z77X-UD5H Intel Z77 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £173.99
1 x Corsair Professional Series AX850 High Performance 850W Modular '80 Plus Gold' Power Supply (CMPSU-850AXUK) £154.99
1 x Silverstone Raven 2 RV02 Evo Midi Tower Case - Black (SST-RV02B-EW USB 3.0) £149.99
1 x Samsung Green 16GB (4x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C11 1600MHz 30nm Dual/Quad Channel Kit (MV-3V4G3D/US) £113.98
1 x Samsung 128GB SSD 830 Desktop Series SATA 6Gb/s Solid State Drive - (MZ-7PC128B/WW) £89.99
1 x Seagate Barracuda 7200RPM 1TB SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache - OEM (ST1000DM003) £69.98
1 x Phanteks PH-TC14PE CPU Cooler - Black (Socket LGA 2011/1155/1156/1366/775/AMD AM2/2+/AM3) £66.98
1 x LG CH10LS28 BD-ROM 10x BluRay ROM / DVDRW SATA-II Optical Drive - Black (OEM) £56.99
Total : £2,026.55 (includes shipping : £14.75).



Sli 670s for awesome graphics
i7-3770k... seems like it's better than SB-E
Win7 Ultimate aka allows 16gb or more of RAM
UD5H, one of the best mobo's out there
Fully modular (not semi modular) PSU, Corsair make some of the best PSUs, easily enough juice to power Sli 670s
One of the, if not the best air cooled case out there (also amazingly quiet and dust free)
Extremely fast RAM, also low profile
SSD for OS and games
HDD
One of the best CPU coolers out there
Blu-ray writer

Comes in at £2008 excl monitor, I would recommend a BenQ XL2420T to take advantage of higher framerates as you seem to do a lot of gaming, so I'd recommend a 120Hz TN monitor over a 60Hz IPS panel, or you could have a look at the ASUS that you first specced, it's up to you though.

I'd seriously recommend having a look at the Silverstone FT02 and RV02, they are very very good cases.
 
Honestly, I'm not sure I'd need Sli 670s, how long is it likely to be before I can't run something maxed out on a single 670? (Or near max that the difference isn't much when you're tweaking the final few settings.)

Really interested in that case now, looks a lot less bulky and will have a read to make sure it is quiet.

128gb SSD is all I need probably, I can't even see myself bothering putting steam games on it, the reason I want it bigger is I have a 40gb one or something at the moment and stuff auto writing to it is an absolute pain in the arse. (See .replay files for some games).

So save £350 on card, extra 150 on HDDs since I need the space tbh, steam library alone is >1TB.


Only problem I'm having picking the Asus is will it seem pixely as a 1080p monitor at the size? I mean I want the size for DayZ(continually leaning into my screen and its a 24" to try and spot people ha.) and also MMO's look lovely on a big screen and I'm not much of a serious FPSer anymore. And I want 3D for the thrill/gimmick of it for a few weeks no doubt :p
 
A single 670 will run pretty much everything maxed out at the moment, you can always pick up another one in a year or two when it starts to flag and you want to pick up performance...

If you like that case look some of the other Silverstone cases, some are expensive but my god are they nice cases.

I assumed you were happy with 1TB storage, I skimmed through your original spec and missed the storage there, my apologies. Spending £150 on HDDs should get you around another 2TB, bringing it to 3TB in total.

The Asus gets very good reviews, I can imagine at that price point people will say if it looks pixely and I can't find any reports of that, so it should serve you well. :)
 
ozzymundo said:
A single 670 will run pretty much everything maxed out at the moment, you can always pick up another one in a year or two when it starts to flag and you want to pick up performance...

If you like that case look some of the other Silverstone cases, some are expensive but my god are they nice cases.

I assumed you were happy with 1TB storage, I skimmed through your original spec and missed the storage there, my apologies. Spending £150 on HDDs should get you around another 2TB, bringing it to 3TB in total.

The Asus gets very good reviews, I can imagine at that price point people will say if it looks pixely and I can't find any reports of that, so it should serve you well. :)
Click to expand...

Cheers, think I will go the 670, I mean no reason to spend £150 extra for the extra 2gb ram on the 680 gpu is there? I mean I'll be playing GW2/Arma-Dayz/SC2/Dota2. Generally games with amazing graphics aren't that good anyways or long enough to be worth investment i.e. crysis, metro and with the games I play my CPU will be the thing that is getting hit most (I think :p).

Yeah those cases are nice, seen that Antec P193 also looks very very nice, but heard fans are humming on anything but quiet which I honestly don't think I can stick another month let alone on a whole new case. Is it worth investing in a fan controller for the Silverstone?

And as far as storage I think I'll go 2tb for steam+music etc. and 1tb for recording/rendering videos I guess
 
People saying it is quiet ;o

God damn it I wish someone did a huge comparison on them all of sound levels. It also looks very slick too
 
Alright managed to bring this down a bit again, even with the 680 (considering it for SLi later down the line, maybe not.)

The only thing I'm concerned about really now is case+ram, wondering what the quietest case is I can get under £150 and still looking respectable. Some of those Silverstone Ravens looks amazing, just not too many raving about how quiet they are.
Ram wise I have it in my head 2x8gb would be better, but I mean I don't even understand those channel malarky stuff on the side when choosing a section so what do I know :p


YOUR BASKET
1 x Gainward GeForce GTX 680 Phantom 4096MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £515.99
1 x Asus VG278H 27" TRUE 120Hz 3D Widescreen LED Monitor with NVIDIA 3D Vision 2.0 Glasses - Black w/ FREE Borderlands 2 PC Game £479.99
1 x Intel Core i7-3770K 3.50GHz (Ivybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor (77W) - Retail £251.99
1 x Microsoft Windows 7 Ultimate - Retail (GLC-00181) £179.99
1 x Gigabyte Z77X-UD5H Intel Z77 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £173.99
1 x Silverstone Raven 2 RV02 Evo Midi Tower Case - Black (SST-RV02B-EW USB 3.0) £149.99
1 x G.Skill RipJawsZ 16GB (4x4GB) DDR3 PC3-17000C9 2133MHz Dual/Quad Channel Kit (F3-17000CL9Q-16GBZH) £124.99
1 x Corsair Enthusiast Series TX 850W V2 High Performance '80 Plus Bronze' Power Supply (CMPSU-850TXV2UK) £104.99
1 x Samsung SpinPoint F4 EcoGreen 2TB SATA-II 32MB Cache - OEM (HD204UI / ST2000DL004) £99.98
1 x Samsung 128GB SSD 830 Desktop Series SATA 6Gb/s Solid State Drive - (MZ-7PC128B/WW) £89.99
1 x Seagate Barracuda Green 2TB SATA 6Gb/s Hard Drive - OEM (ST2000DL003) £82.99
1 x Phanteks PH-TC14PE CPU Cooler - Black (Socket LGA 2011/1155/1156/1366/775/AMD AM2/2+/AM3) £66.98
1 x LG CH10LS28 BD-ROM 10x BluRay ROM / DVDRW SATA-II Optical Drive - Black (OEM) £56.99
Total : £2,405.48 (includes shipping : £22.20).

 
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