Build for friend critique please?

dunn2010

dunn2010

dunn2010

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Joined
6 Jan 2011
Posts
1,335
YOUR BASKET
1 x KFA2 GeForce GTX 670 EX OC 4096MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £359.99
1 x Intel Core i7-3770K 3.50GHz (Ivybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor (77W) - Retail £239.99
1 x Gigabyte Z77X-UD5H Intel Z77 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £158.99
1 x XFX 850W XXX Edition Modular '80 Plus Silver' Power Supply £94.99
1 x GeIL EVO Leggera 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-19200C11 2400MHz Dual Channel Kit (GEL38GB2400C11ADC) £79.99
1 x CM Storm Scout II Midi Tower Gaming Case - Metallic Grey £74.99
1 x Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache WD10EZEX - OEM ** Single Platter ** HDD £59.99
1 x OcUK 24x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £16.99
Total : £1,099.42 (includes shipping : £11.25).



Above is a build for a friend, main use is gaming

GFX card > hes dead set on nvidea and is planning on getting a second monitor in near future so the extra vram on this 670 should help out?

CPU: i have I7, 2 of our mates just got the I7 he dosent want to be behind us and wants it! so no budge on dropping to I5

gigabyte board heres where i need most advice, that UD5H is a great board and on sale however the other board ive pointed in his direction is the asus sabertooth which would you get?

he wont be overclocking cpu yet! however when he goes SLI and grabs another 670 in a year or so's time he will want to overclock cpu to get best performance out of his sli setup and he will buy a heatsink then also. (may convince him to just get heatsink now), which is why i pointed out sabertooth apparantly it gives really good stable overclock first time at lower temps and voltages than the gigabyte board?

PSU - enough wattage for sli and good make / model.

RAM - 1600mhz is enough and the performance gab between the two sets isnt astronomical however he wants the best and budget allows so why not put some 2400mhz in there :D?

case he had the original storm scout wants to upgrade to this one. personal choice

1tb hdd, hes getting an SSD next month probably 840 or vertex 4

optical drive bleh hardly use it.

Any comment / opinions appreciated exspecially on motherboard
 
Looks good.

If he wants an i7, he wants an i7. Though tell him, if he gets an i5 and get him and his mate to do benchmarks he can rub his £70 he saved in there face..

That motherboard is great and has great over clocking features. I would go for gigabyte over Asus. UK RMA if nothing else..

1600mhz is more than enough.

That psu is perfect.

I wouldn't feel ashamed passing that too a mate. Good build.
 
thanks for comments guys, think the I7 also comes down to the fact Crysis 3 the highest of high specs has listed you need an I7? maybes its going to be first game to spread into its virtual cores?
 
The first games to use Hyperthreading (the only difference) were a few total war games. Shortly after the idea was dismissed and never been used again. I would be surprised if any games were to start using Hyperthreading.
 
fair enough, was just wondering why it was spec'd as I7 could only think that the Virtual cores must be getting used. although it seems unikely games will ever fully utilize them, you never know crysis might just be the first.

we will just have to wait and see ^^

any comments / suggestions on the build itself though bacon?
 
Just show your mate this:

YOUR BASKET
2 x Sapphire HD 7950 3072MB PCI-Express Graphics Card (11196-00-20G) £239.99 (£479.98)
1 x Intel Core i5-3570K 3.40GHz (Ivybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor (77W) - Retail £167.99
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 Corsair Carbide 300R Mid Tower Windowed Case - Black £69.98
1 x Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache WD10EZEX - OEM ** Single Platter ** HDD £59.99
1 x Patriot Viper "Black Mamba" Generation 3 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (PV38G160C9K) £41.99
1 x Cooler Master Hyper 612S CPU Cooler (Socket 775 / 1155 / 1156 / 1366 / 2011 / AM2 / AM2+ / AM3 / FM1 / FM2) £31.19
1 x OcUK 24x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £16.99
Total : £1,092.59 (includes shipping : £13.75).



And this: http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/588?vs=555 (not the right cards, i know but it gives you the general idea)

Cheaper than your original spec and will be a good 80% better in games. :)
 
Doomedspeed said:
Looks good.

If he wants an i7, he wants an i7. Though tell him, if he gets an i5 and get him and his mate to do benchmarks he can rub his £70 he saved in there face..
Click to expand...

CPU: i have I7, 2 of our mates just got the I7 he dosent want to be behind us and wants it! so no budge on dropping to I5
Click to expand...

Damn, my eyes aren't as good as they used to be...
Click to expand...

Next stop Spec- savers. :D
 
Idleman said:
Next stop Spec- savers. :D
Click to expand...

That did make me laugh.. Made my Year so far.. :)

Im gonna regret that "eyesight" quote aren't i?

I was just offering up an idea..

For the same price you can get:

i7, GTX 670...

or

i5, 2 x 7950's...

I know which i'd go for..

1 mate will say: "i got an i7.. blah blah"

and he can reply with "i got an i5, which matches your i7 in game but i have 2 x 7950's which blitz whatever you could get for the same £"

:)
 
i got I7 as im going to be hosting a lot of virtual enviroments for a lot of my training :D

would an i5 not limit the xfire potential of the 7950's? or again would it be no difference from that to an i7?

p.s the 2 lads that just bought i7's aswell i originally qutoted them I5's but decided they wanted best cpu all round from 1155 socket so got i7 aswell ^^
 
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If you need the i7s Hyperthreading that's great. If your mate is just gaming it really isn't needed. The whole point of a custom build is tailoring it to the required useage.

YOUR BASKET
1 x HIS HD 7950 IceQ BOOST 3072MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card (H795QC3G2M) £239.99
1 x Intel Core i5-3570K 3.40GHz (Ivybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor (77W) - Retail £167.99
1 x Gigabyte Z77X-UD3H Intel Z77 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £129.98
1 x Silverstone Strider Plus 850W Modular '80 Plus Silver' Power Supply (SST-ST85F-P) £116.99
1 x Plextor M5 Pro 128GB Extreme Series Solid State Drive - (PX-128M5P) £99.95
1 x Seagate Barracuda 2TB 7200RPM SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache - OEM (ST2000DM001) HDD £72.98
1 x GeIL Black Dragon 16GB (2x8GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C11 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (GD316GB1600C11DC) **OcUK Exclusive** £71.99
1 x Corsair Carbide 300R Mid Tower Windowed Case - Black £69.98
1 x Alpenföhn K2 Mount Doom CPU Cooler (Socket 775 / 1155 / 1156 / 1366 / 2011 / AM2 / AM2+ / AM3 / FM1 / FM2) £51.98
1 x OcUK 24x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £16.99
Total : £1,053.83 (includes shipping : £12.50).



16GB of RAM is OTT for gaming but if he dabbles in video encoding etc it's nice to have more, RAM faster than 1600mhz makes naff all difference on the 1155 socket. SSD in the spec now not later, great heatsink to overclock the i5K, whilst it's on offer this helps pay towards the heatsink. Double the capacity on the HDD, I've used the HIS 7950 as it's the same price as the sapphire but clocked faster out of the box.

If he wants to play "top trumps" this spec probably beats what his friends have, whilst some parts might be OTT it is still geared towards gaming. Pretty obvious he is getting more for his cash. If he drops to 8GB of RAM he can get a 670 if he really is dead set on Nvidia
 
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