Good Gaming build?

[Roach75]

done a lot of browsing and come up with this, it's a bit more than I'd wanted to spend but I want it to remain high spec for a good few years without upgrading any components.

Just want to know if it's all compatible and if I should consider any component alternatives. Will be used for gaming and general use.

Cooler Master HAF X USB 3.0 XL ATX Case
by Cooler Master

WESTERN DIGITAL WD1000CHTZ VelociRaptor 1TB (10000rpm) SATA 6 Gb/s 64MB Cache 3.5 inch Hard Drive
by Western Digital

Corsair CH-9000001-EU Vengeance M60 Performance FPS Gaming Mouse
by Corsair

Corsair CH-9000003-UK Vengeance K90 Performance MMO Mechanical Gaming Keyboard
by Corsair

Corsair CML8GX3M2A1866C​9R LP Vengeance 8GB 1866MHz CL9 DDR3 Memory Two Module Kit
by Corsair

Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium, Full Version (PC DVD), 1 User
by Microsoft Software

Logitech C920 HD Webcam
by Logitech

Samsung S24B370HS 24 inch Widescreen LED Monitor - Gloss Black (1920 x 1080 Full HD, 2ms, HDMI/VGA)
by Samsung

Asus SABERTOOTH Z77 Motherboard (Socket 1155, 32GB DDR3 Support, Intel Z77 Express, ATX, PCI-E 3.0, USB 3.0, Quad GPU AMD CrossfireX, Supports HDMI 1.4a)
by Asus

Corsair Gaming Series GS600 80PLUS Bronze 600W
by Corsair

Asus DRW-24B5ST 24x Internal SATA DVD Drive
by Asus

EVGA GF GTX 680 SC 2GB GDDR5 Graphics Card
by EVGA

Intel 3rd Generation Core i7-3770K CPU (4 x 3.50GHz, Ivy Bridge, Socket 1155, 8Mb L3 Cache, Intel Turbo Boost Technology 2.0)
by Intel


Thanks for reading

 

[Fire_fly]

There are a few improvements that can be made.

What is your total budget?

 

[triggerthat]

Drop the i7 for a 3570K. Not really necessary for gaming.

Swap the 680 for a Gigabyte 670.

 

[Roach75]

There are a few improvements that can be made.

What is your total budget?

This lot comes in at approx £1800, would prefer that figure not to go up, but if the amount was small for a great increase in performance I'd consider it.

 

[Remote_zero]

You wont need an i7 for gaming, the i5 3570k would be better suited.
The GTX680 isn't really worth the extra over a 670, so i'd go for that instead, will still max out all your games.
The sabertooth board looks nice, if your into that sort of styling, but it has it faults.
A much cheaper board could be just as good, UD3H maybe?
I don't see a SSD in your spec, it will make a massive difference in a build like this.
If you give me a minute i'll spec something up for you.

 

[Fire_fly]

YOUR BASKET
1 x Benq XL2420T 24" TRUE 120Hz 3D Vision 2.0 Widescreen LED Monitor - Black/Red £319.99
1 x Gigabyte GeForce GTX 670 Windforce 3X 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £319.99
1 x Intel Core i5-3570K 3.40GHz (Ivybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor (77W) - Retail £184.99
1 x Corsair Vengeance K90 Mechanical Keyboard & M90 Mouse (Elite Gaming Kit) - SAVING £15 - WAS £152.99 £137.98
1 x Gigabyte Z77X-D3H Intel Z77 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £112.99
1 x XFX 850W XXX Edition Modular '80 Plus Silver' Power Supply £94.99
1 x Samsung 128GB SSD 830 Notebook/Apple Series SATA 6Gb/s KIT with Norton Ghost - (MZ-7PC128N/EU) £85.99
1 x Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 64-Bit - OEM (GFC-02050) £69.98
1 x BitFenix Shinobi USB3.0 Gaming Case - Black £49.99
1 x Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 250GB SATA 6Gb/s 16MB Cache - OEM (ST250DM000) £46.99
1 x Alpenföhn Matterhorn Pure Edition CPU Cooler (Socket LGA2011/1366/1155/1156/775/ AMD AM3/AM3+/AM2/AM2+/FM1) £29.99
1 x GeIL Black Dragon 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C11 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (GD38GB1600C11DC) £23.99
1 x Samsung SH-224BB/BEBE 24x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £14.99
Total : £1,516.98 (includes shipping : £20.10).

 

[Roach75]

You wont need an i7 for gaming, the i5 3570k would be better suited.
The GTX680 isn't really worth the extra over a 670, so i'd go for that instead, will still max out all your games.
The sabertooth board looks nice, if your into that sort of styling, but it has it faults.
A much cheaper board could be just as good, UD3H maybe?
I don't see a SSD in your spec, it will make a massive difference in a build like this.
If you give me a minute i'll spec something up for you.

No rush, I had hoped the HDD I got would be good enough, I don't really need 2 drives as most of the space will be used by game installs, and it's my experience that most games don't like being installed in drives other than C:

I am still running an XP machine though.

Main thing is making sure that it will still be high spec in 6-8 years, I might not have the money again till at least that long.

P.S are sound cards required these days, or are the built in ones good enough now?

 

[Fire_fly]

You can pick up a 256GB SSD for around £150, should be able to handle most things. The will be much quicker and quieter than those 10,000 RPM drives.

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=HD-156-SA&groupid=701&catid=2104&subcat=2394

 

[Remote_zero]

YOUR BASKET
1 x Benq XL2420T 24" TRUE 120Hz 3D Vision 2.0 Widescreen LED Monitor - Black/Red £319.99
1 x MSI GeForce GTX 670 OC Twin Frozr Power Edition 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card (N670GTX PE 2GD5/OC) £311.99
1 x Intel Core i5-3570K 3.40GHz (Ivybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor (77W) - Retail £184.99
1 x Corsair Vengeance K90 Mechanical Keyboard & M60 Mouse (Elite Gaming Kit) - SAVING £15 - WAS £149.98 £134.98
1 x Cooler Master HAF X-M Midi Tower Windowed Case - Black £119.99
1 x Gigabyte Z77X-D3H Intel Z77 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £112.99
1 x XFX 850W XXX Edition Modular '80 Plus Silver' Power Supply £94.99
1 x Samsung 128GB SSD 830 Notebook/Apple Series SATA 6Gb/s KIT with Norton Ghost - (MZ-7PC128N/EU) £85.99
1 x Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 64-Bit - OEM (GFC-02050) £69.98
1 x Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache WD10EZEX - OEM ** Single Platter ** £61.99
1 x Alpenföhn K2 Mount Doom CPU Cooler (Socket LGA1156/1155/1366/AM2/AM2+/AM3/AM3+/FM1) £59.99
1 x Logitech C270 HD 720p 3 Megapixel Webcam (960-000803) £23.99
1 x GeIL Black Dragon 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C11 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (GD38GB1600C11DC) £23.99
1 x OcUK 22x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £13.99
Total : £1,643.96 (includes shipping : £20.10).




I think that's everything, i see firefly has beat me to it with an almost identical build though.
I've kept your case, i'm guessing you like it. I've put in a great heatsink, so you can get a killer overclock, but it could well be a bit overkill for you.
I would strongly advise on a SSD for your system and some games, it will make the single biggest difference to your experience.
Onboard sound is certainly good enough unless your going to be hooking up real high end audio equipment.

 

[EdGey]

I'd take a 680 any day with that budget...

 

[[WU-TANG]GZA]

YOUR BASKET
1 x Benq XL2420T 24" TRUE 120Hz 3D Vision 2.0 Widescreen LED Monitor - Black/Red £319.99
1 x Gigabyte GeForce GTX 670 Windforce 3X 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £319.99
1 x Intel Core i5-3570K 3.40GHz (Ivybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor (77W) - Retail £184.99
1 x Corsair Vengeance K90 Mechanical Keyboard & M90 Mouse (Elite Gaming Kit) - SAVING £15 - WAS £152.99 £137.98
1 x Gigabyte Z77X-D3H Intel Z77 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £112.99
1 x XFX 850W XXX Edition Modular '80 Plus Silver' Power Supply £94.99
1 x Samsung 128GB SSD 830 Notebook/Apple Series SATA 6Gb/s KIT with Norton Ghost - (MZ-7PC128N/EU) £85.99
1 x Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 64-Bit - OEM (GFC-02050) £69.98
1 x BitFenix Shinobi USB3.0 Gaming Case - Black £49.99
1 x Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 250GB SATA 6Gb/s 16MB Cache - OEM (ST250DM000) £46.99
1 x Alpenföhn Matterhorn Pure Edition CPU Cooler (Socket LGA2011/1366/1155/1156/775/ AMD AM3/AM3+/AM2/AM2+/FM1) £29.99
1 x GeIL Black Dragon 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C11 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (GD38GB1600C11DC) £23.99
1 x Samsung SH-224BB/BEBE 24x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £14.99
Total : £1,516.98 (includes shipping : £20.10).

I like the look of this as a whole. although I would change RAM to this:

YOUR BASKET
1 x GeIL EVO Leggera 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-17000C11 2133MHz Dual Channel Kit (GEL38GB2133C11DC) £35.99
Total : £39.90 (includes shipping : £3.26).

 

[Remote_zero]

I'd take a 680 any day with that budget...

5% performance increase for almost £100. i doubt he'd even notice a difference.

 

[Remote_zero]

I like the look of this as a whole. although I would change RAM to this:

YOUR BASKET
1 x GeIL EVO Leggera 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-17000C11 2133MHz Dual Channel Kit (GEL38GB2133C11DC) £35.99
Total : £39.90 (includes shipping : £3.26).

That RAM is a bargain, defiantly go with that.

 

[EdGey]

5% performance increase for almost £100. i doubt he'd even notice a difference.

I highly doubt it's only 5% faster across the board.

fake edit: I've just looked, you're right according to tomshardware. Jesus Nvidia...

 

[Roach75]

had a look at 2133mhz RAM before, but I don't think any of the motherboards I've looked at support it.

Why is it that the I5 is preferred over the I7 for gaming when it's an older gen model?

Also, quality of manufacture is more important to me over performance, I don't recognise 3-4 of the manufacturers on those lists, are the good ones?

 

[Remote_zero]

had a look at 2133mhz RAM before, but I don't think any of the motherboards I've looked at support it.

They list their recommended frequencies, they will all support it.
You probably won't notice much difference, unless you use a lot of RAM hungry software. But for the price its nice to have it there.

Why is it that the I5 is preferred over the I7 for gaming when it's an older gen model?

The main difference between the two is that the i7 uses hyperthreading, which isn't used in modern games, gaming performance will be the same.
Some tests actually showed worse framerates with an i7.

Also, quality of manufacture is more important to me over performance, I don't recognise 3-4 of the manufacturers on those lists, are the good ones?

They are all reputable brands, any particular you are uncomfortable with?

 

[Roach75]

not really, I guess like most occasional shoppers, you go with what you know most of the time...

interesting about the CPU difference, does having the Ivy bridge version of the i5 and no the the sandy bridge give it the same issues as the i7?

Also, with the 680 vs the 670, would you not recommend getting it if you could, and not have to justify the extra cash? If it's definitely not worth it then I'd consider going back to the 670, it's what I looked at 1st anyway)

 

[honosuseri]

My take on it

YOUR BASKET
1 x MSI GeForce GTX 670 OC Twin Frozr Power Edition 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card (N670GTX PE 2GD5/OC) £311.99
1 x Benq XL2410T 24" TRUE 120Hz 3D Widescreen LED Monitor - Black £239.99
1 x Intel Core i5-3570K 3.40GHz (Ivybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor (77W) - Retail £184.99
1 x Gigabyte Z77X-UD3H Intel Z77 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £129.98
1 x Corsair Vengeance K90 Mechanical Gaming Keyboard £99.98
1 x Fractal Design Define R4 Midi Tower Case - Titanium Grey £99.98
1 x XFX 850W XXX Edition Modular '80 Plus Silver' Power Supply £94.99
1 x Samsung 128GB SSD 830 Notebook/Apple Series SATA 6Gb/s KIT with Norton Ghost - (MZ-7PC128N/EU) £85.99
1 x Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 64-Bit - OEM (GFC-02050) £69.98
1 x Seagate Barracuda 2TB 7200RPM SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache - OEM (ST2000DM001) £68.99
1 x Thermalright Silver Arrow SB-E CPU Cooler (Socket LGA 2011/1366/LGA1155/LGA1156/LGA775/AM2/AM3/FM1) £52.79
1 x Gigabyte M8000X 6000DPI Gaming Mouse - Black £39.98
1 x GeIL EVO Leggera 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-17000C11 2133MHz Dual Channel Kit (GEL38GB2133C11DC) £35.99
1 x Creative Live! Cam Chat HD 5.7 Megapixel Webcam With Built In Microphone £30.98
1 x LiteOn IHAS124-04 24x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £15.98
Total : £1,580.30 (includes shipping : £14.75).

 

[Remote_zero]

You defiantly want ivy bridge, clock for clock its a better chip.
Have a read of this if your still unsure
http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/gaming-cpu-review-overclock,review-32546-4.html

 

[[WU-TANG]GZA]

had a look at 2133mhz RAM before, but I don't think any of the motherboards I've looked at support it.

Why is it that the I5 is preferred over the I7 for gaming when it's an older gen model?

Also, quality of manufacture is more important to me over performance, I don't recognise 3-4 of the manufacturers on those lists, are the good ones?

The i5 is preferred as currently games do not take advantage of Hyper Threading, this may change as time goes by but it's not likely. Certainly not likely that a well clocked Quad Core such as the i5 Ivybridge will need replacing before other things in the build.

It's not an older gen model, same gen just different model. Gaming just doesn't use the benefits of the i7.

I'd say all of the manufacturers/products listed are quality.

Here is what I would get up to £1800 for gaming:


YOUR BASKET
2 x EVGA GeForce GTX 670 FTW 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card (02G-P4-2678-KR) £319.99 (£639.98)
1 x Benq XL2410T 24" TRUE 120Hz 3D Widescreen LED Monitor - Black £239.99
1 x Intel Core i5-3570K 3.40GHz (Ivybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor (77W) - OEM £179.99
1 x Samsung 256GB SSD 830 Series SATA 6Gb/s Solid State Drive - (MZ-7PC256B/WW) £149.99
1 x Fractal Design Define XL USB3.0 Full Tower Case - Black Pearl £119.99
1 x Gigabyte Z77X-D3H Intel Z77 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £112.99
1 x XFX 850W XXX Edition Modular '80 Plus Silver' Power Supply £94.99
1 x Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 64-Bit - OEM (GFC-02050) £69.98
1 x TT eSports MEKA Mechanical Gaming Keyboard £64.99
1 x Thermalright Silver Arrow SB-E CPU Cooler (Socket LGA 2011/1366/LGA1155/LGA1156/LGA775/AM2/AM3/FM1) £52.79
1 x Logitech G300 Gaming Mouse (910-002489) £29.99
1 x GeIL Black Dragon 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C11 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (GD38GB1600C11DC) £23.99
1 x Samsung SH-224BB/BEBE 24x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £14.99
Total : £1,821.29 (includes shipping : £22.20).







Big SSD should last you a while. Loads of GPU grunt and those cards have the 680 cooler and PCB rear exhaust too so will keep the case nice and cool