Looking for help choosing compnents for a gaming rig pls

Abacus

Abacus

Abacus

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21 Sep 2011
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69
Hi,

As the title suggests I am looking for some advice on what to buy as I attempt to upgrade my current rig pls. I mainly use the pc for gaming (aiming to play BF4 among others) so will be upgrading with that in mind. I hope to be able to use eyefinity with 3 monitors but if that is gonna cost a great deal more will settle for a single monitor setup.

Here is what I have at the moment:

CPU: AMD Phenom II x4 955 (Deneb 125w) stock cooler
MB: Gigabyte GA-770T-USB3
RAM:G Skill Ripjaws 4 Gb (2x2Gb) F3-12800CL7-2680 (PC3-10700)
GFX: HIS ICEQ Turbo 6950 2048MB running at 840Mhz Core 1280 Mem Clock
Power: XFX Pro 850W
Main HD: Seagate 500GB

I have recently picked up a Samsung840 pro 256GB ssd which I will install my OS on and a couple of games.

Here is what I am thinking about getting. I do plan trying to oveclock the cpu.

CPU: Intel Core i5-4670K 3.40GHz (Haswell) Socket LGA1150 Processor - Retail

The cpu I choose over the i5 3370K for future proofing. I believe my current power supply is Haswell ready.

Cooler: Noctua NH-D14 Dual Radiator CPU Cooler

MB: Asus Z87-A Intel Z87 (Socket 1150) DDR3 ATX Motherboard

This was a real unknown for me I picked this board as it seemed to be a good price yet would allow me to overclock and has all the features i thought I might need.

RAM: Corsair Vengeance Low Profile 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (CML8GX3M2A1600C9)

I choose these are they are low profile and would help with the install of the Noctua cooler, also because if I oc the cpu I dont think there would be any point getting any faster ram. However I am very open to suggestions. Also not sure if i should go for the 16 GB set instead?

GFX: HIS HD 7950 IceQ BOOST 3072MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card (H795QC3G2M)

This was my first choice but after seeing the deal for the Asus Matrix (listed below) I wonder if it is worth trying to stretch to that price? Also I wasnt sure about the R9 280X?

Asus HD 7970 Matrix Platinum 3072MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card

Thank you for any advice or help you can give me. :)

ps...Missed an 'o' in the title, sorry, dont think i can edit it :(
 
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Hey there, :)

Looks like you have a good idea of what you want.. id suggest this:

YOUR BASKET
1 x Sapphire Radeon R9 280X Dual-X OC 3072MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Card £221.99
1 x Intel Core i5-4670K 3.40GHz (Haswell) Socket LGA1150 Processor - Retail £169.99
1 x Gigabyte Z87X-D3H Intel Z87 (Socket 1150) DDR3 ATX Motherboard £119.99
1 x Patriot Viper "Sapphire Blue" 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-17000C11 2133MHz Dual Channel Kit (PV38G213C1KBL) £69.95
1 x Alpenföhn K2 Mount Doom CPU Cooler £59.99
Total : £653.30 (includes shipping : £9.50).



Firstly, what case do you have? I want to make sure the cooler i've picked will fit..

Its a similar design to the D14, and gets very similar results, i just prefer the look of it myself (I have a D14 by the way)

Gigabyte motherboard with Xfire/SLI support. (as your PSU can take Xfire cards. :)

I chose the 280X over the Matrix as its a daul slot instead of a triple slot which means Xfire is possible..

Picked Faster BLUE (matches the motherboard highlights) RAM. :)

Thoughts?
 
Hi there mate, thanks a lot for the help :)

Re having a good idea, tbh it was more of a rough idea after a fair bit of research. I am trying to put together something that will last but will give me good bang for my buck and is hopefully balanced.

The cpu I was fairly sure about, after that I knew if i provided some sort of idea it would give someone a better chance to help me.


Ok so my thoughts on your suggestions.

First off i need to learn to do that basket thing ;)

My case in an Antec P180 ...goes to look for a link...got it

It is a non windowed case so looks aren't too important.

Re the cooler I agree it does look better, but with a closed case it prob wont matter. What will be an issue is clearance for the ram. I know from another user's comments that the cooler and ram I picked fit together ok, not sure about your combination. However the ram you picked looks better value, which is always good :)

The motherboard idea is good, although it is unlikely I will ever have dual cards...by the time i can afford and look for an upgrade I will likely be better buying a single card. At least that is how it has been in the past :) I have made a mistake in the past and bought more expensive motherboards that are capable of doing far more than I would ever do which is why the one you suggests looks ideal.

The graphics card I am unsure about, do you think I would need more than a 7950 Boost, I may be wrong but I believe the 280X lies somewhere inbetween the 7950 and the 7970 (basically a 7970 with lower clock)?

Thanks again for your help, hopefully this is what you were after thoughts wise.
 
Nice case. :) The cooler will fit in there easy so no worries there..

The choice between the K2 and the D14 is yours, as they are both similar in perofrmance and noise.. THough the K2 is a few £'s cheaper (currently).

That RAM won't affect the Cooler, as it is (just) low profile..

Id still keep that motherboard even if you not planning on daul cards (as you'd be paying £105-£110 for a non-Xfire board anyway, so you may aswell have that option, it may also help resale value).

The 280X is actually better than the 7970.. Its a re-branded 7970ghz edition (with a bit of a tweak).. For the price, its a great choice IMO...

Otherwise you could get a 7970 Matrix (for a similar price) (this is a ghz edition card), though you won't be able to Xfire it (as its 3 slots).
 
Morning :)

Thanks to all of you for your feedback.

@Jasseh - thanks for the shopping basket link :p

@fowler002 - re 4770K: its a good suggestion but I am pushing my budget as it is and I think the 4670K will be ok for what I am wanting, thanks all the same though :)

@Doomedspeed - Thanks for sticking with me :) Thats good news re the ram and the cooler and I am sold on the motherboard, cheers. Not so good news is the fact that the 280X seems to have gone up in price overnight about £20 :( Given the price increase would you change your recommendation at all or stay with it, I notice there is an msi card at £229?
 
Abacus said:
@Doomedspeed - Thanks for sticking with me :) Thats good news re the ram and the cooler and I am sold on the motherboard, cheers. Not so good news is the fact that the 280X seems to have gone up in price overnight about £20 :( Given the price increase would you change your recommendation at all or stay with it, I notice there is an msi card at £229?
Click to expand...

Good news. :)

Like i say feel free to do your own research on reviews and things, don't take my reccomendations as gospel (but i know they will all work together with no issues).

That sneaky price hike. :)

That MSI card is actually a better choice IMO. My GPU has the same cooler and its quiet and cool. A good price aswell.. I'd go for that one if your getting a 280X.
 
I do like to have a look about but always appreciate someone in the know pointing me in the right direction, your recommendation sounds good to me thank you.

Yeah the price hike was unexpected but you snooze you loose...literally in this case lol:p

Good news re the MSI, thank you. :)

I think that is me sorted...now to work out what I have forgotten :D

EDIT just looked at the MSI connections, my current card has 2 DVI-I inputs for eyefinity, so this one might cause me a problem :/

EDIT 2 would i simply be able to buy an hdmi to dvi cable to hook up one of my monitors? Previously had 2 x dvi outputs and a mini display port to dvi output/adaptor?
 
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Abacus said:
EDIT just looked at the MSI connections, my current card has 2 DVI-I inputs for eyefinity, so this one might cause me a problem :/

EDIT 2 would i simply be able to buy an hdmi to dvi cable to hook up one of my monitors? Previously had 2 x dvi outputs and a mini display port to dvi output/adaptor?
Click to expand...

I use HDMI and DVI to HDMI for mine so you should be fine doing that.
 
Jasseh said:
I use HDMI and DVI to HDMI for mine so you should be fine doing that.
Click to expand...

Thank you :)

I have 3 monitors with dvi and vga connections, so I would have:

(gfx to monitor)

1 dvi to dvi
1 mini port to active miniport/dvi adaptor
1 hdmi to dvi ....this would be the 'new' one for me, would you mind suggesting a cable I can use to do this pls? I think I know what to use but made a mess of something like this in the past so want to make sure ;)
was looking at this
 
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Abacus said:
1 hdmi to dvi ....this would be the 'new' one for me, would you mind suggesting a cable I can use to do this pls? I think I know what to use but made a mess of something like this in the past so want to make sure ;)
was looking at this
Click to expand...

That should be fine, I'm using the same cable for mine (although I could have done with buying a shorter one really).
 
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