My First Gaming PC Build.

Ok i can bring my price down to roughly £764.28 inc VAT - £636.90 exc VAT.

I Changed the Noctua NH-D14 Dual Radiator and Fan CPU cooler £67.99 for a
Xigmatek Gaia CPU Cooler (Socket LGA775/1155/1156/1366/AM2/AM3/FM1) £19.99

Heard some good reviews from it. So I can either improve soemthing else or just try keep price down. what you think?
 
The best improvement would be to go for a 670, but that's outside your budget. So no. If you can't wait for the 660ti then you'll have to go with the 560ti 448 which will do ok in BF3, and WoW wont be a problem. Reduce or remove anti-aliasing in BF3, or use FXAA if you have performance problems. That's the main killer in the game.

The xigmatek gaia is a 92mm fan. It's an OK cooler. If you can find a Thermalright True Spirit 120, that's the best price performance. Else, a Hyper 212 evo, or here, the matterhorn pure.

In any case, you shouldn't need to spend over £35 for a cooler to get reasonable overclock (4.2-4.4GHz), which is what you would expect to achieve on a ivybridge without too much trouble.
 
what is the best 670 to get? if i can lower price of something else I can opt to get better card.

Plus wouldnt thr 670's come down in price soon?
 
Lol, yeah, i'm being an idiot.

You should spec in a better gpu if you spending £800. 670 is decent, much better than the 560.

But which 670's is the best? couple do different ones of the 670's. Only orry I have is that the graphics card value will drop massively, like if someone brought the VERY latest GFX card it would lose lots of its value as soon as you leave the store.

So which 670?
 
The only variation is the fans that are put on, i'd be inclined to get the windforce one. I'm sure someone who's knows more will be able to clarify tho.
 
true, if op wants to spend 6 quid more ;p
the hsf is trash, so i wouldnt even count it in lol
6 quid for an extra 2 year warranty for a part that would 99.99999% not fail, idk...maybe for the extra peace of mind i guess
 
true, if op wants to spend 6 quid more ;p
the hsf is trash, so i wouldnt even count it in lol
6 quid for an extra 2 year warranty for a part that would 99.99999% not fail, idk...maybe for the extra peace of mind i guess

Its £6 for a higher resell value later on:p
 
but only if op keeps the receipt and box! ;p


If you don't understand that those items will keep the value of the CPU higher than just a plain CPU in a brown box then theres no hope.

If someone was to buy his chip after then they wont need to source a cooler for it.
 
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ahhh so many decisions...thought this was the fun part....well if you have unlimited budget I bet.

To cut price down, I will not get the 1TB Optical Drive and use the one in this system as I only need 500GB, dont need a huge amount of space as I dont play that many games.

I been debating to go for Gigabyte windforce Geforce 670 but the price tag does scare me.

So heres what its now come down to.

3rd Generation Intel® Core™ i5 3570K 3.40GHz Socket LGA1155 - Retail- £179.99
GIGABYTE GA-Z77-D3H Intel Z77 (Socket 1155) Motherboard - £86.99
ZOTAC GeForce GTX 560 Ti 448 1280MB GDDR5 - £179.99
corsair vengeance low profile 8gb (2x4gb) ddr3 pc3-12800c9 1600mhz dual channel kit - £35.99
intel 330 series 120gb 2.5" sata 6gb/s solid state hard drive - retail - £80.99
Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 1TB 32MB Cache Hard Drive SATA 6Gb/s 8.5ms 7200rpm - OEM - £68.39Corsair CX 600W V2 ATX2.2 80 PLUS® Power Supply - £54.98cooler master hyper 612s cpu cooler - £32.99******** Prowler Midi Case V2 - £29.98
TOTAL: £750.29 inc VAT - £625.24 exc VAT

Have to say mate that a ATI 7850 is a better card and they overclock very well.

Gigabyte 7850 - http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-100-GI&groupid=701&catid=56&subcat=411

How to get a 7850 past 1050MHz - http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?t=18389760

And get a modular PSU for better cable management.


Finally, don't try linking to competitors.
 
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Have to say mate that a ATI 7850 is a better card and they overclock very well.

Gigabyte 7850 - http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-100-GI&groupid=701&catid=56&subcat=411

How to get a 7850 past 1050MHz - http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?t=18389760

And get a modular PSU for better cable management.


Finally, don't try linking to competitors.

Is a Modular PSU where you plug in the only cables you need? If so any recommendations? + Im not sure what Wattage my system needs so going for 600w to be safe.

Yea apologies didnt know you were not suppose to link.

I never had a ATI I always been Nvidia, I also thought Nvidia suit best for BF3? or is that just a myth?
 
Thats correct, only the cables you need are used and thus in a small case its easier to keep the cabling tidy and improve airflow.

This PSU is fine for that setup and either a 7850 or GTX560ti 448 - http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CA-167-CM&groupid=701&catid=123&subcat=1103

7850 review (BF3 results) - http://www.guru3d.com/article/amd-radeon-hd-7850-and-7870-review/21

so £6+ and ATI Radeon HD 7850 will be a little bit better than GeForce 560 Ti.

btw when you connect your GFX to Monitor do you use HDMI cable or DVI, wodnering whats the best.
 
Simply put,

Both are digital signals so should be the same quality.

If your monitor has speakers then HDMI will transmit sound on the single cable.
 
hmmm ok thank you

All test runs have enabled:

DX11
Ultra mode
4xMSAAAA enabled
16x AF enabled
HBAO enabled
Level: Operation Swordbreaker

imageview.png


We test at Ultra quality mode, should your graphics card have severe issues running in this configuration, by all means select a lower quality level or disable MSAA, 4xA MSAA will cost you almost a third to half your framerate. The chart above shows various cards in 1920x1200.

So comes down to Gigabyte ATI Radeon 7850 HD OC Windforce 2x2048mb £185.99 or Zotac GeForce GTX 560 Ti £189.95

Im leaning towards the ATI, but please all tell me if you think its best too, comparing to the results that Stulid showed, he is right. Let me know, thank you.
 
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