Gaming new build

Nutty_Death · 11 Jul 2012 at 13:02

Planning on building a gaming PC in a few months time that I will OC and hopefully keep for several years with occasional upgrades. I'm deciding upon hardware now and I will purchase at some point this year once I have saved up and hopefully by then parts will have reduced in price a bit as well. The plan is to use the mATX form factor and try and keep things fairly quiet.

There will be 2 stages to the build as I won't have all the money straight away + the HD4000 should temporally serve my needs for basic gaming. Anyway, less rambling and on with the specs.

First Stage
Intel Core i5-3570K 3.40GHz (Ivybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor
Alpenföhn K2 Mount Doom CPU Cooler
Asus Z77 Maximus V Gene Intel Z77 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard
Samsung Green (MV-3V4G3D/US) 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C11 1600MHz (Bought as it's on offer today)

Fractal Design Define Mini Computer Case
680W Be Quiet Straight Power E9 CM BN199, 93% Eff', 80 PLUS Gold (still considering PSU's)

Second Stage a few months later
Asus GeForce GTX 670 DirectCU II 2048MB
128GB Crucial m4 mSATA 6Gb/s SSD

My monitor is a 24" 1920x1200 for reference.

Thanks

mickyflinn · 11 Jul 2012 at 13:18

Might be worth considering the Asrock Z77 Extreme4 M Intel Z77 £97.99 inc VAT , which will save you £50

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MY-307-CS&groupid=701&catid=8&subcat=1517

Would also go for low profile ram like Corsair Vengeance Low Profile 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MY-307-CS&groupid=701&catid=8&subcat=1517

Also cheaper Akasa Venom 750w Modular '80 Plus' Power Supply £76.98 inc VAT

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CA-055-AK&groupid=701&catid=123&subcat=

Nutty_Death · 11 Jul 2012 at 14:16

mickyflinn said:
Might be worth considering the Asrock Z77 Extreme4 M Intel Z77 £97.99 inc VAT , which will save you £50

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MY-307-CS&groupid=701&catid=8&subcat=1517

Would also go for low profile ram like Corsair Vengeance Low Profile 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MY-307-CS&groupid=701&catid=8&subcat=1517

Also cheaper Akasa Venom 750w Modular '80 Plus' Power Supply £76.98 inc VAT

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CA-055-AK&groupid=701&catid=123&subcat=

I've noticed you have the Asrock mb and the 3570k cpu. What cooler are you using?

Need to reed up on the asrock mb to see what the difference is between that and the asus vgene. It does look like the pci layout is better.

The Kingston ram looks fairly low profile as it is but it's probably better to get low profile ram to be safe.

Thanks

Name · 11 Jul 2012 at 15:25

Quick question, whats the difference between LP and non LP ? i recently got nonLP and was wondering what problems/benefits it brings. Or is it purely for more space in the case. lol rhymes

Stinger53 · 11 Jul 2012 at 15:29

Deaths_Calling said:
I've noticed you have the Asrock mb and the 3570k cpu. What cooler are you using?

Need to reed up on the asrock mb to see what the difference is between that and the asus vgene. It does look like the pci layout is better.

The Kingston ram looks fairly low profile as it is but it's probably better to get low profile ram to be safe.

Thanks

the kingston is low profile

Nutty_Death · 11 Jul 2012 at 15:43

Stinger53 said:
the kingston is low profile

Which would you choose between the two mentioned?

regarding the motherboard. I'm not particularly experienced with overclocking and I do like how easy it sounds with the Asus. Obviously I will learn as I go. The audio quality also sounds fairly good with the Asus, which i another bonus. In my eyes at the moment the £40 is probably worth it as I don't mind spending a little bit more on things if it will mean that this PC will last longer.

Stinger53 · 11 Jul 2012 at 17:39

both are good. so go with cheapest one. i have the vengance but the high profile set

Nutty_Death · 12 Jul 2012 at 08:36

Stinger53 said:
both are good. so go with cheapest one. i have the vengance but the high profile set

Thanks I'll do that. Might end up going for which every is black, since it seems like all the parts will be that colour.

I think the only things i'm not that sure on now are the PSU, as i'm very slightly concerned about how loud it might be. Apart from that it seems like a great PSU though.

Then there is the cooler, which I don't really know much about but I like it as it seems like it might be fairly quiet, especially if i'm not using it to its full potential. I am limited to a cooler with a max height of 160mm though.

Nutty_Death · 12 Jul 2012 at 08:50

Just found the thread about the Samsung Green ram........
No experience of OC'ing ram but the thread makes it sound great!!

Would it be a worthwhile investment for the aforementioned build?

olivier renault · 12 Jul 2012 at 09:15

If you want to play around with overcflcoking the memory, sure. If not, get the regular stuff.

As for the cooler, There are cheaper solutions that will do a good job. That megahalem looks good if you want to push the overclocking, if you just want something sensible, you have the Matterhorn Pure, Hyper 612S, True Spirit 120, True Spirit 140. All are reasonably quiet. If you want ultra quiet, the Dark Rock 2, Gelid Tranquillo. Performance roughly scale with price, the True Spirit 120 punching slightly above its weight. Any of these good for 4.2-4.4GHz, over £30, 4.4-4.6GHz.

Nutty_Death · 12 Jul 2012 at 09:44

olivier renault said:
If you want to play around with overcflcoking the memory, sure. If not, get the regular stuff.

As for the cooler, There are cheaper solutions that will do a good job. That megahalem looks good if you want to push the overclocking, if you just want something sensible, you have the Matterhorn Pure, Hyper 612S, True Spirit 120, True Spirit 140. All are reasonably quiet. If you want ultra quiet, the Dark Rock 2, Gelid Tranquillo. Performance roughly scale with price, the True Spirit 120 punching slightly above its weight. Any of these good for 4.2-4.4GHz, over £30, 4.4-4.6GHz.

Thanks as far as the quiet coolers go, the Gelid Tranquillo and Shadow Rock look good. Unfortunately the Dark Rock's wouldn't fit inside the case, due to being over 160mm in height.

Just quickly read up on oc'ing ram. There seems to be little real world benefit, other than seeing numbers increase. I'm not bothered about getting great scores in benchmarking programs, more about actual performance.

Nutty_Death · 18 Jul 2012 at 08:32

Updated my first post with what feels like a lot more final spec.
What do you think?

for reference I have several hd's that I can use till I get the SSD.

Nutty_Death · 15 Aug 2012 at 20:59

Well the build is happening and I almost have all the parts. Just expecting a few deliveries. The only difference to the first threads specs is that I went with the Corsair AX650 Gold PSU. Thought it was worth splashing out as it will last me a while.

Now to read up on building a computer as it's been almost 10 years since my last build, although that part should be fairly straight forward. Then it's learning about OC'ing again...

No GPU or SSD yet either. Just going to use a 2.5" hdd to tide me over.

Nutty_Death · 17 Aug 2012 at 19:36

Gutted cooler hasn't arrived so the build will have to wait till next week. Tempted to use the stock cooler but it's not worth the hassle.