Very First Build

jbegg1987

jbegg1987

jbegg1987

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Joined
12 Jan 2013
Posts
11
Hi,

After having read countless posts on this forum I decided it was time to dive in and ask for some help and advice. This is going to be my first time so please be gentle.

For some time now I have been considering building myself a gaming PC. However I have many other expensive hobbies so I kept putting it off. Recently I had a very nasty climbing accident (I fell from 30 feet and my protection failed) which resulted in a very badly broken back. Luckily I never suffered any from of paralysis and I am now on the long road to recovery. Plus side of this is I now have quite a lot of free time so the custom pc is now top of the agenda!

My main use will be for gaming but I am also a budding photographer so will be looking to do quite a lot of photo processing as well as other general tasks. My budget is around about £900, I can stretch this and obviously under budget would be great also! For the time being I'm looking to output to a HD TV and further down the line possibly dual monitors. I already have a copy of windows 7 and can make do with an old keyboard and mouse for the time being. I don't plan on overclocking right of the bat but imagine i will in the future and maybe even buy a second gpu for crossfire. I Think i Will become quite obsessed when i have started and will probably constantly be tinkering and upgrading however i would like a decent amount of longevity out of the machine if thats possible. After a lot of research I came up with this build:

Intel Core i5-3570K 3.40GHz (Ivybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor

MSI Z77A-G45 Intel Z77 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard

Corsair Vengeance Blue Low Profile 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit

XFX FX-797A-TDFC Radeon HD 7970 Graphics Card 3GB GDDR5 PCI Express 3.0 x16 Dual Mini DisplayPorts/HDMI/Dual-Link DVI-I (Double Dissipation Edition)

Corsair 2013 Edition Gamer Series GS 600W '80 Plus Bronze' Power Supply

Samsung SH-224BB/BEBE 24x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black)

OCZ Vector 128GB 2.5" SATA 6Gb/s Solid State Hard Drive

Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache WD10EZEX - OEM ** Single Platter ** HDD

BeQuiet Dark Rock 2 CPU Cooler

Zalman Z11 Plus Midi Tower Gaming Case - Black

Which comes in at about £950. As you can see I have a kind of blue lack theme going on here with the exception of the GPU which is silver and red. On that subject I chose this GPU because I can pick it up from a local shop for £260 which I found t be an amazing price for any 7970 card.

Please let me know what you think of this build and any advice/suggestions would be greatly appreciated!!!

Thanks in advance

Jason
 
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-D3H Intel Z77 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £112.99
1 x Plextor M5 Pro 128GB Extreme Series Solid State Drive - (PX-128M5P) £99.95
1 x XFX Pro Series 750W XXX Edition Modular '80 Plus Bronze' Power Supply £79.99
1 x GeIL Black Dragon 16GB (2x8GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C11 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (GD316GB1600C11DC) **OcUK Exclusive** £71.99
1 x BitFenix Shinobi USB3.0 Gaming Windowed Case - Black £59.99
1 x **B Grade** Seagate Barracuda 7200RPM 1TB SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache - OEM (S (HD-257-SE) £50.00
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 : £946.07 (includes shipping : £12.50).



16GB of RAM could be overkill but hey ho. I did use the K2 mount doom cooler but did an edit and dropped to the 612S to help pay for the RAM
 
Last edited:
Have also included a multi card reader and a 750W Psu should you go xfire. Left out the Gpu as you are getting that elsewhere.

YOUR BASKET
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 Plextor M5 Pro 128GB Extreme Series Solid State Drive - (PX-128M5P) £99.95
1 x XFX Pro Series 750W XXX Edition Modular '80 Plus Bronze' Power Supply £79.99
1 x Corsair Carbide 300R Mid Tower Case - Black £64.99
1 x Alpenföhn K2 Mount Doom CPU Cooler (Socket 775 / 1155 / 1156 / 1366 / 2011 / AM2 / AM2+ / AM3 / FM1 / FM2) £51.98
1 x **B Grade** Seagate Barracuda 7200RPM 1TB SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache - OEM (S (HD-257-SE) £50
1 x Patriot Viper "Black Mamba" Generation 3 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (PV38G160C9K) £29.99
1 x LG GH24NS95 24x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £19.99
1 x Akasa Internal 6-slot Multi Card Reader with Superspeed USB 3.0 port (AK-ICR-07U3)
 £9.98
Total : £702.86 (includes shipping : £12.50).

 
Thanks Very much for your quick responses.

Both look like very good systems.Out of curiosity what particular reasons are there for choosing these builds over the one I had considered?

I had never even considered a card reader! Good call! I hear that the 300r is a great case however I fancy something a bit flashier, if that makes sense! Do you think the GPU I am looking it is a good choice?

Thanks again.
 
both builds looking good, idle has gone for 8gb and a beasty cpu cooler which is route i would go...

if another 8 gig is needed down the line, just buy it. its not that expensive.

After having read countless posts on this forum I decided it was time to dive in and ask for some help and advice. This is going to be my first time so please be gentle.
Click to expand...

i remember my girlfriend saying that to me 4 and a half years ago ^^
 
Yeah that case is along the right lines!

It's the double dissipation edition of the card!

Been looking for a while really hoping to order n the next week or so. Pretty excited!

I was wondering how long it would take for someone to take the bait with regards to the be gentle comment!
 
Dunn your sure thats not because I visited last night ;)

Case wise do you have a space limitation? I can think of a lot of large cases which look IMO awesome but are bigger than midi's by quite a bit.
 
I don't particularly have a space limitation however my fiancée might object to turning our spare room into mission control!!! What did you have in mind? My budget with regards to the case is pretty tight!
 
 
Sorry for a little offtopic, but I noticed that op chose Corsair GS600 2013 Gamers Edition PSU first. I have it as well and I heard from someone here on the forums that there is supposedly a problem with those - fan not spinning. True, fan in mine isn't spinning at all, but description sais its due to power saving feature. PSU is barely warm after 6 hours of working (25-28 C) so I dont know whats going on after all. I filled a webform to OcUK, but would like to hear your opinions as well.

KR
 
Review of the higher rated PSU:

http://www.guru3d.com/articles_pages/corsair_gs800_review,2.html

Quiet Operation
A good gaming power supply must provide the cooling you need when you're pushing it hard, but it should be quiet when you're not. GS Series PSUs accomplish this through excellent efficiency — it generates less heat, so it requires less cooling — and a temperature-controlled 140mm fan that automatically adjusts its speed to meet demand. It doesn't even spin up until it's needed.
Click to expand...
 
dunn2010 said:
both builds looking good, idle has gone for 8gb and a beasty cpu cooler which is route i would go...

if another 8 gig is needed down the line, just buy it. its not that expensive.
Click to expand...

Idleman and I actually posted pretty much identical rigs at the same time (I had the Shinobi though), we knock around together too much on here lol So I edited mine to include 16GB of RAM to stop it looking like a double post ;)

If he is using windows home premium then 16GB is the max amount of RAM allowed. In that case 8GB of RAM now and the better cooler makes sense, as he can drop in another 8GB kit if and when it's needed later. If he has a pro or ultimate version of windows he can use more than 16GB of RAM, so starting with 16GB isn't such a bad idea if he thinks he needs a "semi-pro" rig.

I look forward to seeing what he settles on :)
 
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