£2200 budget - in dire need of help

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29 Sep 2011
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825
(note: this is my first time ever to be building a computer)

I haven't owned a new computer in over 5 years and people keep giving me conflicting advice about building a computer. I want to build a new PC in February or march , I know what I want to get out of this computer.

- Optimized for the best performance so I can get the most out of my money.

- Air cooled and not liquid cooled, I am not letting a single drop of water near my machine
I want the best air cooling money can buy if possible.

- optimized for as little power consumption as possible for a pc of this price


This is my current build:

Asus Maximus IV Extreme-Z Intel Z68 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard [90-MIBG20-G0EAY00Z]

Intel Core i7-2600K 3.40GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor - Retail [BX80623I72600K]

Corsair Vengeance Blue 16GB (4x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual/Quad Channel Kit (CMZ16GX3M4A1600C9B)


Hitachi Deskstar 7K3000 2TB SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache 7200RPM - OEM (0F12115) (HDS723020BLA642) [HDS723020BLA642]

OCZ Agility 3 120GB 2.5" SATA-3 Solid State Hard Drive (AGT3-25SAT3-120G) [AGT3-25SAT3-120G]

Akasa AK-CC4008HP01 Venom Voodoo CPU Cooler (Socket LGA775/LGA1155/LGA1156/LGA1366/LGA2011/AM2/AM3 [AK-CC4008HP01]

Corsair Professional Series AX1200 High Performance 1200W Modular '80 Plus Gold' Power Supply (CMPSU-1200AXUK) [CMPSU-1200AXUK ]

Corsair Obsidian 650D Gaming Midi Tower - Black

Sapphire ATI Radeon HD 6990 4096MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card with FREE Deus Ex PC Game [102-C20601-00-AT]

I'd like to go with an SDD drive 150 - 170 GB and also a hybrid drive as my drive with the most space about a Terabyte
 
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if your building in feb/march, then buy in that time too, and post a thread a couple of weeks beforehand. we really cant give much info now because new tech will have come out, and prices will have changed beyond recognition by then.

what i can tell you is this:

the next gen graphics cards should be out around that time (ATI 7000 series and Nvidia 600 series). these look to be FAR more energy efficient than current cards, with some estimates saying you will get more than double the graphics power per watt.
also, if history is anything to go by, the ATI cards will be more power efficient than the Nvidia ones, but this could change
i would also advise against the cards that have two graphics processors on one card, as these are incredibly noisy and produce a lot of heat. its better to go with two equivalent single cards, and undervolt them if you want the power saving

processors: sandybridge E and ivybridge will probably be out by then, which will probably be the prcessors to go for. no idea what AMD have planned, but going by the flop that was bulldozer i dont have much hope for it

HDD: dont get a hitachi deathstar. youmight want something with green in the name if low power consumption is the aim, but personally i;d go for the higher speed drives because the HDD is the limiting factor in most places

case: if you love the look of the corsair 650D then go for it because looks are the most important part of an expensive case. however, you can do a lot better for air coolin than the 650D, because is designed to be a halfway house for air cooling and watercooling. the silverstone raven/fortress are the best air cooled cases you can get
 
and to expensive...

yeah, £475 is a bit much for the TJ11

while i think about it, since your buying in several months it would probably be worth having a wander round the forums to see if you can get your post count up. if you get over 250 posts and have been a member for over 90 days then you get free shipping. you can get that kind of post count in no time if you head over to general discussion and the other parts of the life section
 
I Don't know if the Silverstone Fortress 2 FT02B-W Windowed Gaming Case - Black [SST-FT02B-W] is right for me.
2 front USB ports is not enough, I need 3 or 4 on the front of the case.
and the tray is not removable.

hmm fortress 3 looks interesting... I will wait and see if any better cases come along in 4 or 5 months time though.
 
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As already mentioned, come back in a couple of months closer your actual build time. Sandy-E and maybe the 7xxx GPU's might be out by then...

As for air cooling though. Noctua DH-14, Phanteks or Silver Arrow are the 3 kings of Air Cooling. Personally I'd grab a DH14 or Phanteks for the colour options. However with any of these you'll have to change your RAM because Vengeance is too high profile, so I'd get a low profile set :)

kd
 
I Don't know if the Silverstone Fortress 2 FT02B-W Windowed Gaming Case - Black [SST-FT02B-W] is right for me.
2 front USB ports is not enough, I need 3 or 4 on the front of the case.
and the tray is not removable.

hmm fortress 3 looks interesting... I will wait and see if any better cases come along in 4 or 5 months time though.

you can always get front bay devices that add extra USB slots and whatever.

also, the fortress 3 really isnt great for a high end PC because it only fits mATX motherboards
 
personally i would change the case to an aerocool xpredator evil black/orange.
and the cpu cooler should be the noctua nh-d14.
overall good choices though, looks like ur gonna have an excellent rig!
 
personally i would change the case to an aerocool xpredator evil black/orange.
and the cpu cooler should be the noctua nh-d14.
overall good choices though, looks like ur gonna have an excellent rig!

I can't find the "aerocool xpredator evil black" on overclockers.co.uk currently. very nice case as long as it doesn't break the bank.
 
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