Time for a new rig, advice appreciated

Spuds

Spuds

Spuds

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So my current rig is at the end of it's useful life and it's time to replace it with something a bit more beefy. After a nice Christmas bonus from work I have around £1,500 to play with and want to make sure I get something pretty future proof.

The current (very rough) spec I have in mind is:

Antec 300 Three Hundred Ultimate Gaming Case
Intel Core i7 3770K 3.50GHz (Ivybridge) Socket 1155 Processor
Zero Infinity Phantom Knight CPU Cooler
Gigabyte Z77X-UP4 TH Intel Z77 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard
TeamGroup Elite 16GB (2x8GB) DDR3 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit
2x HIS HD 7950 3072MB GDDR5
Samsung 120GB SSD 840 SATA 6Gb/s Basic
Seagate Barracuda 7200RPM 1TB SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache
Corsair Enthusiast Series TX750M High Performance 750W

I've only started researching things tonight, but any advice you guys can give me would be appreciated :)
 
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A better case would be a good idea, those Antec 300s are rather old and lack may of the features of similar priced more up to date cases.

What will you be using the computer for?

If it is gaming then you can drop the CPU down to an i5 3570K and 8Gb of RAM will be enough.
 
Firefly saved me a question. Are we talking OS, peripherals......the works? If you have two 7950s on the wish list it's pretty obivious you will be gaming, if you do a lot of video encoding then the hyperthreading on the i7 makes sense, if not save cash and get the i5K, with the difference in price it helps pay for a great heatsink to OC it :)

Once you tell us what you need and what it is for we can have some fun spec'ing :D
 
Gaming and photography (Lightroom/Photoshop) will be the main things it gets used for. Video editing is a possibility in another year or two when I look to upgrade my camera but not an immediate concern.

Mouse, keyboard, monitors, etc I already have from my current rig, so it's just the computer I'm looking to replace.
 
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for me your spec is good and for the case i still like it as well, what psu are you thinking of as 2 vga cards are going to take some powering?

so i'd drop 1 vga card or get the 6gb version if your running multi monitors etc at high res etc

for me also i'd drop the hdd and put in a second or 3 sdd 2x256gb and then if you need the storage space get an external as if its only storage you dont need it on 24/7

and i'd keep the i7, i did, even though most on here would give you more reasons to swap for a i5
 
YOUR BASKET
1 x MSI GeForce GTX 670 OC Twin Frozr Power Edition 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £311.99
1 x Samsung 256GB SSD 840 PRO SATA 6Gb/s Basic - (MZ-7PD256BW) £199.99
1 x Gigabyte Z77X-UP4 TH Intel Z77 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £167.99
1 x Intel Core i5-3570K 3.40GHz (Ivybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor (77W) - Retail £167.99
1 x Seasonic X-Series 850w '80 Plus Gold' Modular Power Supply £129.98
1 x Corsair Hydro H100i High Performance Liquid CPU Cooler (Socket 1155 / 1156 / 1366 / 2011 / AM2 / AM3 / FM1 / FM2) £99.98
1 x NZXT Phantom Enthusiast USB3.0 Full Tower Case - White £99.98
1 x Seagate Barracuda 2TB 7200RPM SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache - OEM (ST2000DM001) £78.98
1 x Patriot Intel Extreme Masters 16GB (2x8GB) DDR3 PC3-14900C10 1866MHz Dual Channel Kit (PVI316G186C0K) £71.99
1 x Asus 24x DVD±RW DRW-24B5ST SATA ReWriter - Black (Retail) £17.99
Total : £1,363.37 (includes shipping : £13.75).



You could use the i7 if you wish but the i5K is on offer :) The nvidia 670 has cuda support which should help with video encoding to help make up for the i5K not having hyperthreading.

The 840 Basic I'd forget about, either get the 830 or use the 840 Pro I put in the spec
 
Was looking at a 750W Corsair Enthusiast TX750M for the PSU, although I suspect with two graphics card that may not be enough
 
Ok, so a bigger PSU would be in order and consider dropping the i7 down to an i5. Is there much benefit to getting two smaller SSD's and RAIDing them as opposed to a single larger capacity one?
 
YOUR BASKET
2 x Gigabyte ATi Radeon HD 7950 Windforce 3X 3072MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card with FREE FARCRY3, Hitman Absolution, Sleeping Dogs & 20% off MOH Warfighter PC Games £259.99 (£519.98)
1 x Intel Core i7-3770K 3.50GHz (Ivybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor (77W) - Retail £245.99
1 x Samsung 256GB SSD 840 PRO SATA 6Gb/s Basic - (MZ-7PD256BW) £199.99
1 x Seasonic X-Series 850w '80 Plus Gold' Modular Power Supply £129.98
1 x Gigabyte Z77X-D3H Intel Z77 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £112.99
1 x Corsair Carbide 400R Midi Tower Case - Black £84.98
1 x Patriot Intel Extreme Masters 16GB (2x8GB) DDR3 PC3-14900C10 1866MHz Dual Channel Kit (PVI316G186C0K) £71.99
1 x Alpenföhn K2 Mount Doom CPU Cooler (Socket 775 / 1155 / 1156 / 1366 / 2011 / AM2 / AM2+ / AM3 / FM1 / FM2) £59.99
1 x Seagate Barracuda 7200RPM 1TB SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache - OEM (ST1000DM003) £59.99
1 x Asus 24x DVD±RW DRW-24B5ST SATA ReWriter - Black (Retail) £17.99
Total : £1,520.38 (includes shipping : £13.75).

 
Spuds said:
Ok, so a bigger PSU would be in order and consider dropping the i7 down to an i5. Is there much benefit to getting two smaller SSD's and RAIDing them as opposed to a single larger capacity one?
Click to expand...

Is it the price of the 840 Pro that is making you consider raiding two smaller SSDs? If so the 830 is better than the 840 basic (i used the pro which is much faster), the 256GB 830 is around £150.

If you raid two SSDs to combine the capacity should one drive fail you lose all the data, that's true on mechanical drives as well.

My spec was just a rough idea of what's poss. You could save £50ish ditching the CLC cooler for a tower heatsink, a good one will be circa £50-60. I look forward to seeing what you put together yourself :)
 
honosuseri said:
Is it the price of the 840 Pro that is making you consider raiding two smaller SSDs?
Click to expand...

Nope, purely thinking about how much it would improve performance. My current rig has a RAID0 setup, but I've never been quite sure just how much of the improvement in performance was down the the RAID and how much was just from using newer drives.

After a little tinkering and looking at the suggestions above I've come up with this:

YOUR BASKET
1 x Intel Core i7-3770K 3.50GHz (Ivybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor (77W) - OEM £239.99
2 x Sapphire HD 7950 3072MB PCI-Express Graphics Card (11196-00-20G) with FREE FARCRY3, Hitman Absolution, Sleeping Dogs & 20% off MOH Warfighter PC Games £209.99 (£419.98)
1 x Samsung 256GB SSD 840 PRO SATA 6Gb/s Basic - (MZ-7PD256BW) £199.99
1 x Seasonic X-Series 850w '80 Plus Gold' Modular Power Supply £129.98
1 x Gigabyte Z77X-D3H Intel Z77 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £112.99
1 x Corsair Hydro H100i High Performance Liquid CPU Cooler (Socket 1155 / 1156 / 1366 / 2011 / AM2 / AM3 / FM1 / FM2) £99.98
1 x Patriot Intel Extreme Masters 16GB (2x8GB) DDR3 PC3-14900C10 1866MHz Dual Channel Kit (PVI316G186C0K) £71.99
1 x Cooler Master CM-690 II Lite Dominator Case - Black £62.99
1 x Asus 24x DVD±RW DRW-24B5ST SATA ReWriter - Black (Retail) £17.99
Total : £1,372.38 (includes shipping : £13.75).



I've ditched the second hard drive, this will mostly be for storing photos so I could probably just salvage the drives from my current rig.
 
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Spuds said:
Nope, purely thinking about how much it would improve performance. My current rig has a RAID0 setup, but I've never been quite sure just how much of the improvement in performance was down the the RAID and how much was just from using newer drives.

After a little tinkering and looking at the suggestions above I've come up with this:

YOUR BASKET
1 x Intel Core i7-3770K 3.50GHz (Ivybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor (77W) - OEM £239.99
2 x Sapphire HD 7950 3072MB PCI-Express Graphics Card (11196-00-20G) with FREE FARCRY3, Hitman Absolution, Sleeping Dogs & 20% off MOH Warfighter PC Games £209.99 (£419.98)
1 x Samsung 256GB SSD 840 PRO SATA 6Gb/s Basic - (MZ-7PD256BW) £199.99
1 x Seasonic X-Series 850w '80 Plus Gold' Modular Power Supply £129.98
1 x Gigabyte Z77X-D3H Intel Z77 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £112.99
1 x Corsair Hydro H100i High Performance Liquid CPU Cooler (Socket 1155 / 1156 / 1366 / 2011 / AM2 / AM3 / FM1 / FM2) £99.98
1 x Patriot Intel Extreme Masters 16GB (2x8GB) DDR3 PC3-14900C10 1866MHz Dual Channel Kit (PVI316G186C0K) £71.99
1 x Cooler Master CM-690 II Lite Dominator Case - Black £62.99
1 x Asus 24x DVD±RW DRW-24B5ST SATA ReWriter - Black (Retail) £17.99
Total : £1,372.38 (includes shipping : £13.75).



I've ditched the second hard drive, this will mostly be for storing photos so I could probably just salvage the drives from my current rig.
Click to expand...

Good choice if I don't say so myself ;)

I don't think the H100i is worth the premium, considering a £60 air cooler performs very well in comparison while saving £40.
 
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I would go for the retail CPU.

For the extra £6 you get a shiny box, 2 years extra warranty, and a stock cooler which is a useful back up.
 
If you want a closed loop cooler, you can go for the H60 and use Push/Pull with either the Corsair SP120/AF120 or BitFenix Spectra Pros.
 
YOUR BASKET
2 x Gigabyte ATi Radeon HD 7950 Windforce 3X 3072MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card with FREE FARCRY3, Hitman Absolution, Sleeping Dogs & 20% off MOH Warfighter PC Games £259.99 (£519.98)
1 x Intel Core i7-3770K 3.50GHz (Ivybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor (77W) - Retail £245.99
1 x Samsung 256GB SSD 840 PRO SATA 6Gb/s Basic - (MZ-7PD256BW) £199.99
1 x Seasonic X-Series 850w '80 Plus Gold' Modular Power Supply £129.98
1 x Gigabyte Z77X-UD3H Intel Z77 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £129.98
1 x Cooler Master CM-690 II Lite Dominator Case - Black £62.99
1 x Corsair XMS3 16GB (2x8GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C11 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (CMX16GX3M2A1600C11) £59.99
1 x Thermalright Silver Arrow SB-E CPU Cooler (Socket 775 / 1155 / 1156 / 1366 / 2011 / AM2 / AM2+ / AM3 / FM1 / FM2) £58.79
1 x Asus 24x DVD±RW DRW-24B5ST SATA ReWriter - Black (Retail) £17.99
Total : £1,442.18 (includes shipping : £13.75).



Just tinkered a little more. The OEM CPU you used only has a 1 year warranty, the retail has 3 years (includes a heatsink you wont need too). Saved a little cash on the RAM. Mobo is better with some nice geeky extras (nothing wrong with dropping to the one you used though).

The GB 7950 has a 3 year uk based warranty (as does the mobo) and a much better cooler, it's also clocked faster out of the box. As you are doubling on up on the free games, you can either gift them or sell them to recoup some cash. Added a tower heatsink as an alternative to the CLC cooler, what's nice about the CLC is that you see more of the internals and the heat is directed straight out of the case. A good tower heatsink will cool the CPU just as well and be quiet but you might find the internal temps in the case are a little higher, which means the GPUs might run a little warmer.

Specs looking good though bud. Would love to see a build log with pretty pics :D
 
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Didn't notice the warranties were different between the OEM and retail version of the processor; makes sense to stick with the retail and just throw the stock cooler in the rest of my spare bits.

Otherwise I think I'm just about sorted. Many thanks for the help, will try to remember to pop a few pics up when I get her built :)
 
Spuds said:
Didn't notice the warranties were different between the OEM and retail version of the processor; makes sense to stick with the retail and just throw the stock cooler in the rest of my spare bits.

Otherwise I think I'm just about sorted. Many thanks for the help, will try to remember to pop a few pics up when I get her built :)
Click to expand...

No worries bud. Might be worth chucking the spec up before you order just incase there are some better deals.
 
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