New Rig - circa 900-1300

dai

dai

dai

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Hi guys my Q660 rig has just failed with a BSOD and while I could expend time and energy identifying if it's memory or hdd or something else, I think its time to first look at the options of a new rig.

I will be gaming a lot and wanting to stably Overclock it.

Now I have seen that the new I7 4770K are highly recommended so I am keen to pick one of these up unless of course bang for buck wise you think I could do better?

My main questions are:

1. What's the best mobo for this cpu for stability and overclocking?
2. Most reliable ram when clocked and what size per pair?
3. Graphics Cards Wise Nvidia or AMD and which card model is the best performance for the price?
4. hdd I really am not too bothered about ssd - I''m more interested in large storage with relatively good seek times on a sata drive. I can be persuaded by ssd if budget allows of course.
5. Monitor wise what are the best gaming monitors for the price between 24" and 30"?

Thanks in advanced :)
 
YOUR BASKET
1 x MSI Geforce GTX 770 Gaming Edition 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £319.99
1 x Intel Core i5-4670K 3.40GHz (Haswell) Socket LGA1150 Processor - Retail £191.99
1 x Asus VN247H 24"Widescreen Super Narrow Bezel LED Monitor - Black £169.99
1 x Gigabyte Z87-D3HP Intel Z87 (Socket 1150) DDR3 ATX Motherboard £103.99
1 x Toshiba (7K3000.D) 3TB SATA 6GB/s 64MB Cache - OEM (DT01ACA300) HDD £83.99
1 x Samsung 120GB SSD 840 SATA 6Gb/s Basic - (MZ-7TD120BW) £74.99
1 x Corsair Carbide 300R Mid Tower Windowed Case - Black £69.95
1 x Patriot Viper "Black Mamba" Generation 3 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-19200C10 2400MHz Dual Channel Memory Kit (PV38G240C0K) £65.99
1 x XFX Pro 650W Core Edition '80 Plus Bronze' Power Supply £59.99
1 x Alpenföhn Matterhorn Pure Edition CPU Cooler (Socket 775 / 1150 / 1155 / 1156 / 1366 / AM2 / AM2+ / AM3 / FM1 / FM2) £29.99
Total : £1,187.35 (includes shipping : £13.75).



I not sure how good the monitor is I'm afraid, it might be worth asking in the Monitor section.

The 4670k is ample for gaming
 
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ok so I went with your choices as a basis, decided for now i can deal with my current 22" monitors. here is what I came up with for the full build: -

YOUR BASKET
1 x Sapphire HD 7950 Vapor-X OC 3072MB PCI-Express Graphics Card (11196-09-40G) £239.99
1 x Intel Core i5-4670K 3.40GHz (Haswell) Socket LGA1150 Processor - Retail £191.99
1 x Gigabyte Z87X-OC Intel Z87 (Socket 1150) DDR3 ATX Motherboard £164.99
1 x Corsair Dominator GT 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-17000C9 2133MHz Dual Channel Kit with DHX Pro Connector (CMT8GX3M2B2133C9) **SPECIAL** £99.95
1 x Antec P193 Super Midi Tower - Gun Metal Black £95.99
1 x Toshiba (7K3000.D) 3TB SATA 6GB/s 64MB Cache - OEM (DT01ACA300) HDD £83.99
1 x Samsung 120GB SSD 840 SATA 6Gb/s Basic - (MZ-7TD120BW) £74.99
1 x XFX Pro 850W Core Edition '80 Plus Bronze' Power Supply £71.99
1 x Liteon IHOS104-06 4x BD-ROM (Black) - OEM £29.99
1 x Alpenföhn Matterhorn Pure Edition CPU Cooler (Socket 775 / 1150 / 1155 / 1156 / 1366 / AM2 / AM2+ / AM3 / FM1 / FM2) £29.99
1 x Thermalright Chill Factor 3 Tube (4g) Thermal Paste £3.60
Total : £1,105.14 (includes shipping : £14.75).


edit - wrong psu initially
Does anything jump out to you as over priced or something I could pick up thats better than it in the price range? Thanks for the help :)
 
Last edited:
RJC said:
YOUR BASKET
1 x Sapphire HD 7950 Vapor-X OC 3072MB PCI-Express Graphics Card (11196-09-40G) £239.99
1 x Asus GeForce GTX 760 DirectCUII OC 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £209.99
1 x Intel Core i5-4670K 3.40GHz (Haswell) Socket LGA1150 Processor - Retail £191.99
1 x Asus VN247H 24"Widescreen Super Narrow Bezel LED Monitor - Black £169.99
1 x Gigabyte Z87-D3HP Intel Z87 (Socket 1150) DDR3 ATX Motherboard £103.99
1 x Toshiba (7K3000.D) 3TB SATA 6GB/s 64MB Cache - OEM (DT01ACA300) HDD £83.99
1 x Samsung 120GB SSD 840 SATA 6Gb/s Basic - (MZ-7TD120BW) £74.99
1 x Corsair Carbide 300R Mid Tower Windowed Case - Black £69.95
1 x Patriot Viper "Black Mamba" Generation 3 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-19200C10 2400MHz Dual Channel Memory Kit (PV38G240C0K) £65.99
1 x Alpenföhn Matterhorn Pure Edition CPU Cooler (Socket 775 / 1150 / 1155 / 1156 / 1366 / AM2 / AM2+ / AM3 / FM1 / FM2) £29.99
Total : £1,255.85 (includes shipping : £12.50).



I not sure how good the monitor is I'm afraid, it might be worth asking in the Monitor section.

The 4670k is ample for gaming
Click to expand...

What happened here mate, Two Opposing GPUs and no PSU? :confused:

dai said:
ok so I went with your choices as a basis, decided for now i can deal with my current 22" monitors. here is what I came up with for the full build: -

YOUR BASKET
1 x Sapphire HD 7950 Vapor-X OC 3072MB PCI-Express Graphics Card (11196-09-40G) £239.99
1 x Intel Core i5-4670K 3.40GHz (Haswell) Socket LGA1150 Processor - Retail £191.99
1 x Gigabyte Z87X-OC Intel Z87 (Socket 1150) DDR3 ATX Motherboard £164.99
1 x Corsair Dominator GT 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-17000C9 2133MHz Dual Channel Kit with DHX Pro Connector (CMT8GX3M2B2133C9) **SPECIAL** £99.95
1 x Antec P193 Super Midi Tower - Gun Metal Black £95.99
1 x Toshiba (7K3000.D) 3TB SATA 6GB/s 64MB Cache - OEM (DT01ACA300) HDD £83.99
1 x Samsung 120GB SSD 840 SATA 6Gb/s Basic - (MZ-7TD120BW) £74.99
1 x XFX Pro 850W Core Edition '80 Plus Bronze' Power Supply £71.99
1 x Liteon IHOS104-06 4x BD-ROM (Black) - OEM £29.99
1 x Alpenföhn Matterhorn Pure Edition CPU Cooler (Socket 775 / 1150 / 1155 / 1156 / 1366 / AM2 / AM2+ / AM3 / FM1 / FM2) £29.99
1 x Thermalright Chill Factor 3 Tube (4g) Thermal Paste £3.60
Total : £1,105.14 (includes shipping : £14.75).


edit - wrong psu initially
Does anything jump out to you as over priced or something I could pick up thats better than it in the price range? Thanks for the help :)
Click to expand...

Thats not a very balanced build. RAM is overpriced, the Motherboard while being worth the money may not be right for you build, that DVD drive isn't great, a £30 Blueray drive isn't gonna be good. obviously no monitor.

You can get a really good full gaming setup for this money. :)

Spec time:

This is a lot more balanced and ready for SLI .

YOUR BASKET
1 x KFA2 Geforce GTX 770 EX OC 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card (77XPH6DV6KXZ) with FREE GPU Keyring £319.99
1 x Intel Core i5-4670K 3.40GHz (Haswell) Socket LGA1150 Processor - Retail £191.99
1 x Asus VN247H 24"Widescreen Super Narrow Bezel LED Monitor - Black £169.99
1 x Gigabyte Z87X-D3H Intel Z87 (Socket 1150) DDR3 ATX Motherboard £131.99
1 x Samsung 120GB SSD 840 EVO SATA 6Gb/s Basic - (MZ-7TE120BW) £86.99
1 x Toshiba (7K3000.D) 3TB SATA 6GB/s 64MB Cache - OEM (DT01ACA300) HDD £83.99
1 x XFX Pro 850W Core Edition '80 Plus Bronze' Power Supply £71.99
1 x Corsair Carbide 300R Mid Tower Windowed Case - Black £69.95
1 x Patriot Viper "Black Mamba" Generation 3 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-19200C10 2400MHz Dual Channel Memory Kit (PV38G240C0K) £65.99
1 x Corsair Hydro H100 Extreme Performance Liquid CPU Cooler *Manufacturer Refurbished Unit - 90 Day Guarantee £39.95
1 x Corsair SP120 Performance Series High Pressure - Dual Pack (CO-9050008-WW) £25.99
1 x OcUK 24x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £14.99
Total : £1,290.29 (includes shipping : £13.75).

 
Last edited:
hi,

so the changes I see you made are dropping the AMD Radeon card for a more expensive Nvidia Card. If I were to go up to that price wouldnt I be netter off with the Radeon 7990?

I also notice you changed from the OC Gigabyte board to another. Any reason why?

I also note the ram and case changes which save me some money too .

Thanks :)
 
dai said:
hi,

so the changes I see you made are dropping the AMD Radeon card for a more expensive Nvidia Card. If I were to go up to that price wouldnt I be netter off with the Radeon 7990?

I also notice you changed from the OC Gigabyte board to another. Any reason why?

I also note the ram and case changes which save me some money too .

Thanks :)
Click to expand...

I made quite a few changes. :)

You know the 7990's are £750-£800 right, im sure you meant the 7970's?

The 770 out performs the 7970 by just enough to make it worth it: http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/2013/05/31/nvidia-geforce-gtx-770-2gb-review/4

The motherboard is cheaper but still has all the great features you need. The OC board has a few features to help extreme overclockers, The board i've picked will be able to get you a great overclock too.. Great value.

The memory i've picked is faster, cheaper and looks better. :)
 
Doomedspeed said:
I made quite a few changes. :)

You know the 7990's are £750-£800 right, im sure you meant the 7970's?

The 770 out performs the 7970 by just enough to make it worth it: http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/2013/05/31/nvidia-geforce-gtx-770-2gb-review/4

The motherboard is cheaper but still has all the great features you need. The OC board has a few features to help extreme overclockers, The board i've picked will be able to get you a great overclock too.. Great value.

The memory i've picked is faster, cheaper and looks better. :)
Click to expand...

Apologies yes the 7970's i meant :)

Thanks for pointing out the memory and the motherboard choices; I've been away from the scene for a while - As you can probably tell i'm looking for the best bang for buck with good solid 24/7 stable Overclocking potential :)

On the otherside I'm not sure I want to buy a watercooling system, I've never set one up are they easy to do and is there much maintenance involved?
 
Last edited:
RJC said:
It was part of another build and ended deleting the wrong item. :eek:
Click to expand...

Haha, Rookie. :)

dai said:
Apologies yes the 7970's i meant :)

Thanks for pointing out the memory and the motherboard choices; I've been away from the scene for a while - As you can probably tell i'm looking for the best bang for buck with good solid 24/7 stable Overclocking potential :)
Click to expand...

No worries, the D3H will still be a great clocker and without lots of tweaking and fiddling it may be hard to tell the difference between the two boards.

We are here to help, an by that account i want to change my spec a little. It ttruns out some people have had issues fitting a h100 into the 300R, so maybe a Super Air cooler instead:

YOUR BASKET
1 x KFA2 Geforce GTX 770 EX OC 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card (77XPH6DV6KXZ) with FREE GPU Keyring £319.99
1 x Intel Core i5-4670K 3.40GHz (Haswell) Socket LGA1150 Processor - Retail £191.99
1 x Asus VN247H 24"Widescreen Super Narrow Bezel LED Monitor - Black £169.99
1 x Gigabyte Z87X-D3H Intel Z87 (Socket 1150) DDR3 ATX Motherboard £131.99
1 x Samsung 120GB SSD 840 EVO SATA 6Gb/s Basic - (MZ-7TE120BW) £86.99
1 x Toshiba (7K3000.D) 3TB SATA 6GB/s 64MB Cache - OEM (DT01ACA300) HDD £83.99
1 x XFX Pro 850W Core Edition '80 Plus Bronze' Power Supply £71.99
1 x Corsair Carbide 300R Mid Tower Windowed Case - Black £69.95
1 x Patriot Viper "Black Mamba" Generation 3 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-19200C10 2400MHz Dual Channel Memory Kit (PV38G240C0K) £65.99
1 x Prolimatech Black Megahalems CPU Cooler (Socket 775 / 1150 / 1155 / 1156 / 1366 / 2011 / AM2 / AM2+ / AM3 / FM1 / FM2) £49.98
1 x Corsair SP120 Performance Series High Pressure - Dual Pack (CO-9050008-WW) £25.99
1 x OcUK 24x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £14.99
Total : £1,300.32 (includes shipping : £13.75).



The Megahalems performs nearly as well as the dual tower air coolers, while not taking up a huge amount of space. though it doesn't come with fans, thats wh the SP120's are still there. :)
 
OK so I end up with the following based on your recommendations: -

YOUR BASKET
1 x KFA2 Geforce GTX 770 EX OC 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card (77XPH6DV6KXZ) with FREE GPU Keyring £319.99
1 x Intel Core i5-4670K 3.40GHz (Haswell) Socket LGA1150 Processor - Retail £191.99
1 x Asus VN247H 24"Widescreen Super Narrow Bezel LED Monitor - Black £169.99
1 x Gigabyte Z87X-D3H Intel Z87 (Socket 1150) DDR3 ATX Motherboard £131.99
1 x Samsung 120GB SSD 840 EVO SATA 6Gb/s Basic - (MZ-7TE120BW) £86.99
1 x Toshiba (7K3000.D) 3TB SATA 6GB/s 64MB Cache - OEM (DT01ACA300) HDD £83.99
1 x XFX Pro 850W Core Edition '80 Plus Bronze' Power Supply £71.99
1 x Corsair Carbide 300R Mid Tower Windowed Case - Black £69.95
1 x Patriot Viper "Black Mamba" Generation 3 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-19200C10 2400MHz Dual Channel Memory Kit (PV38G240C0K) £65.99
1 x Prolimatech Black Megahalems CPU Cooler (Socket 775 / 1150 / 1155 / 1156 / 1366 / 2011 / AM2 / AM2+ / AM3 / FM1 / FM2) £49.98
1 x Corsair SP120 Performance Series High Pressure - Dual Pack (CO-9050008-WW) £25.99
1 x OcUK 24x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £14.99
1 x Thermalright Chill Factor 3 Tube (4g) Thermal Paste £3.60
Total : £1,303.92 (includes shipping : £13.75).



I think that looks pretty good for the price; THank you for the help :)
 
dai said:
OK so I end up with the following based on your recommendations: -

YOUR BASKET
1 x KFA2 Geforce GTX 770 EX OC 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card (77XPH6DV6KXZ) with FREE GPU Keyring £319.99
1 x Intel Core i5-4670K 3.40GHz (Haswell) Socket LGA1150 Processor - Retail £191.99
1 x Asus VN247H 24"Widescreen Super Narrow Bezel LED Monitor - Black £169.99
1 x Gigabyte Z87X-D3H Intel Z87 (Socket 1150) DDR3 ATX Motherboard £131.99
1 x Samsung 120GB SSD 840 EVO SATA 6Gb/s Basic - (MZ-7TE120BW) £86.99
1 x Toshiba (7K3000.D) 3TB SATA 6GB/s 64MB Cache - OEM (DT01ACA300) HDD £83.99
1 x XFX Pro 850W Core Edition '80 Plus Bronze' Power Supply £71.99
1 x Corsair Carbide 300R Mid Tower Windowed Case - Black £69.95
1 x Patriot Viper "Black Mamba" Generation 3 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-19200C10 2400MHz Dual Channel Memory Kit (PV38G240C0K) £65.99
1 x Prolimatech Black Megahalems CPU Cooler (Socket 775 / 1150 / 1155 / 1156 / 1366 / 2011 / AM2 / AM2+ / AM3 / FM1 / FM2) £49.98
1 x Corsair SP120 Performance Series High Pressure - Dual Pack (CO-9050008-WW) £25.99
1 x OcUK 24x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £14.99
1 x Thermalright Chill Factor 3 Tube (4g) Thermal Paste £3.60
Total : £1,303.92 (includes shipping : £13.75).



I think that looks pretty good for the price; THank you for the help :)
Click to expand...

No worries,

By the way the cooler comes with thermal paste and appearently its very good. :)

Looks awesome. :)
 
YOUR BASKET
1 x BenQ XL2411T 24" TRUE 144Hz 3D Vision 2.0 Widescreen LED Monitor - Black/Red £249.95
1 x MSI HD 7950 Twin Frozr III Boost Edition 3072MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card **NEW REVISION** £239.99
1 x Intel Core i5-4670K 3.40GHz (Haswell) Socket LGA1150 Processor - Retail £191.99
1 x Gigabyte Z87X-OC Intel Z87 (Socket 1150) DDR3 ATX Motherboard £164.99
1 x XFX Pro Series 850W XXX Edition Modular '80 Plus Bronze' Power Supply £94.99
1 x Samsung 120GB SSD 840 EVO SATA 6Gb/s Basic - (MZ-7TE120BW) £86.99
1 x Seagate Barracuda 2TB 7200RPM SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache - OEM (ST2000DM001) HDD £74.99
1 x BitFenix Ronin Tower Case - Black £69.95
1 x Patriot Viper "Black Mamba" Generation 3 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-19200C10 2400MHz Dual Channel Memory Kit (PV38G240C0K) £65.99
1 x Corsair Hydro H100 Extreme Performance Liquid CPU Cooler *Manufacturer Refurbished Unit - 90 Day Guarantee £39.95
1 x OcUK 24x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £14.99
Total : £1,294.75 (includes shipping : FREE).



The 7950 comes with the MEGA games bundle so that helps sweeten the deal. 144Hz gaming panel included in the spec. The Ronin chassis can take the H100 CLC the 300R and similar cases (Shinobi etc) can't
 
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Both setups look great.

I think i'm going to plump for the nvidia 770 build and take the Asus monitor for now. THe Ben-Q looks awesome though so might have to pick one of those up next pay day for a dual monitor setup.

Although it looks like my card issuers fraud detection has kicked in so I have overnight to think about it! That Ben-Q Monitor does look awesome.. hmmm Might have to find some extra pennies for it!
 
Last edited:
Doomedspeed said:
That Ben Q is great, 144 hz too. Great gaming display
Click to expand...

I ended up going for that as the monitor in the end - a little over what I was looking to spend but I think the system will benefit overall :)

Should all be with me Saturday - Looking forward to having a play about. I hope I've not lost the ability to build lol :)
 
dai said:
I ended up going for that as the monitor in the end - a little over what I was looking to spend but I think the system will benefit overall :)

Should all be with me Saturday - Looking forward to having a play about. I hope I've not lost the ability to build lol :)
Click to expand...

The SSD is on pre-order fella so you'll have to wait for that to come into stock before everything is dispatched. a lot of the parts I spec'd were pre-order too but I was trying for the best bang for buck ;)

I went off your brief which is why I picked that X-OC mobo and monitor. The 770 is good being a "Super Duper" 680 basically. I went with the 7950 as it helped pay for the 144Hz panel, it could OC to close the gap on a 7970 and you cop'd plenty of games with it.

It's your build so your rules at the end of the day. I hope we helped more than hindered. Did you use your free P&P?
 
Ohh i didnt notice that It was on pre-order, I checked saturday delivery for me to start building it the weekend. I might have to give them a ring shortly to see what can be done I guess.

I stuck with the Nvidia card and took the BenQ in the end as i felt going over the budget slightly for those pieces of kits would last me longer overall :)

Indeed you all helped a great deal - pointed me in the right place to look as it were and allowed me to pose the questions I neede dto make my decision.

Thanks :)
 
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