8 Hours and no further forward

Noxia

Noxia

Noxia

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Joined
30 Dec 2010
Posts
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God I'm out of touch. Right, we're going for a gaming PC for a 1440p single screen setup. I'm not just asking for a spec me, I'm also explaining where I don't understand certain things so reasoning is much appreciated.
From my hours of research it seems I can't go far wrong with:

i5 3570k (Iybridge) this is about as far as I have got. My problem is that in the past I often rush in and don't give much thought to the parts, I judge based on price. So I've always gone for a £100 motherboard etc with no knowledge of what memory config works best etc.
I have NO idea what the benefits of the 6 different 1155 chipsets are, I have no idea why a £300 motherboard is 'better' than a £100 one from a gaming perspective.

Budget is ideally up to £1500 but flexible if justification can be had, would be cool if monitor (Asus PB278Q 27" Professional LED Multimedia Monitor - Black - £539.99) is factored in but this is by no means necessary.
I definitely want SSD for OS, I need an OS which is probably Windows 7 as I got lost on 8. I do want a closed loop cooler like the H80 I used to have with the quietest fans I can get.
I DO want to get a much higher end gfx card than I usually go for so the focus is getting the best one with minimal sacrifice to other areas. In the past I would sacrifice motherboard spec (again don't understand why some are so much more)
Many thanks for any replies, I shall be watching this thread intently.
Do not worry about case but PSU would be good.

I've always had Asus motherboards, no particular reason but I just feel 'safe' with them. Just a preference though.

Edit:

Confirmed parts:
i5 4670k
Asus Z87 Pro
 
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if your buying new then I would choose a haswell cpu paired with a z87 motherboard

gigabyte or asus,depends on budget/preference

im sure someone will sort you out


MSI HD 7970 GHz Twin FrozR OC BE 3072MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card with FREE GAMES MSI HD 7970 GHz Twin FrozR OC BE 3072MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card with FREE GAMES £259.99
(£216.66) £259.99
(£216.66)
Intel Core i5-4670K 3.40GHz (Haswell) Socket LGA1150 Processor - OEM Intel Core i5-4670K 3.40GHz (Haswell) Socket LGA1150 Processor - OEM £191.99
(£159.99) £191.99
(£159.99)
Gigabyte Z87X-OC Intel Z87 (Socket 1150) DDR3 ATX Motherboard Gigabyte Z87X-OC Intel Z87 (Socket 1150) DDR3 ATX Motherboard £167.99
(£139.99) £167.99
(£139.99)
Samsung 250GB SSD 840 EVO SATA 6Gb/s Basic - (MZ-7TE250BW) Samsung 250GB SSD 840 EVO SATA 6Gb/s Basic - (MZ-7TE250BW) £149.99
(£124.99) £149.99
(£124.99)
TeamGroup Vulcan GOLD 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-19200C10 2400MHz Dual Channel Kit (TLYD38G2400HC10TDC01) TeamGroup Vulcan GOLD 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-19200C10 2400MHz Dual Channel Kit (TLYD38G2400HC10TDC01) £89.99
(£74.99) £89.99
(£74.99)

total £871 so far
 
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Hi Wazza, I understand that is the newest of the lot, I just finally stumbled on Tom's hardware where they were recommending the 3570k above all due to performance and price. I read a few reviews of the Haswell K CPU's but they seemed rather unflattering. That said, I'm open to anything so I will take all advice on aboard including your suggestion. I see there are probably more Z87 motherboards than any other so that probably means something :)

Edit: Just flicking through your suggestions now, thank you. Not had a PC for 2 years now and want to do it 'better' than I have done.
 
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ivybridge is ok,but clock for clock haswell is 300mhz faster,plus it lets you run much higher memory speeds
 
Do the faster memory speeds make much difference in relation to gaming? I'm all for paying extra for performance but I guess it has to be a noticable amount to justify say 1800mhz ram over 1600 etc. Going with Haswell though, fine.
 
it will make a slight difference

but £89 for 2400mhz memory isn't bad tbh,slower memory costs nearly as much
 
Fair point. I notice on a lot of the benchmarking threads the maximum RAM seems to be about 4 or 8gb as you have put, is 16+ a waste for game applications? I imagine it would be handy on video encoding etc but I do not do that.
That GPU you have linked looks good but I have it in my head I would be spending double that to get me near the performance I wanted. I suppose Xfire is an option though
 
Ok cool. I have been reading motherboard reviews and seems the Asus Z87 Pro is good and is on offer this week.
 
YOUR BASKET
1 x MSI HD 7970 Lightning BOOSTED Edition 3072MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card with FREE Corsair Vengeance M65 Mouse & OcUK Mega Mat!! £379.99
1 x Intel Core i5-4670K 3.40GHz (Haswell) Socket LGA1150 Processor - Retail £197.99
1 x Asus Z87-PRO Intel Z87 (Socket 1150) DDR3 ATX Motherboard £158.99
1 x Samsung 250GB SSD 840 EVO SATA 6Gb/s Basic - (MZ-7TE250BW) £149.99
1 x Corsair Carbide 540 High Airflow ATX Cube Case - Black £111.98
1 x Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 64-Bit - OEM (GFC-02050) £83.99
1 x Seagate Barracuda 2TB 7200RPM SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache - OEM (ST2000DM001) HDD £74.99
1 x XFX Pro 850W Core Edition '80 Plus Bronze' Power Supply £74.99
1 x Patriot Viper "Black Mamba" Generation 3 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-17000C11 2133MHz Dual CHannel Kit (PV38G213C1K) £65.99
1 x Alpenföhn K2 Mount Doom CPU Cooler £59.99
1 x LG GH24NSB0 24x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £16.99
Total : £1,396.39 (includes shipping : £17.10).

 
Thanks Idleman, going to have a look over your spec now.

I like the spec and had never heard of that cooler until now, certainly less hassle than a H100i. Is that gfx really cutting edge? Again I have it in my head that £350 is still in the average price range and thought (rightly or wrongly) that £400+ was premium but again this is baseless.
 
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Noxia said:
Thanks Idleman, going to have a look over your spec now.
Click to expand...

The case you can change to something more to your liking.
The ssd and hdd can be dropped for 128GB and 1TB, if that is enough for your needs.
I included the 850W unit as it is very good and at a great price. Also means you can add another card if you wish, in the future.
The K2 is one of the top air coolers. But you could get a CLC like the Corsair H100, if you preferred.
For an extra few quid, you could get the Asus Hero, which is a top board and good OCer.
Best thing to do is, if you have some idea of the mobo, Gpu, etc, that you want, then just have a look at some reviews.
 
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Aye, I have been using Tomshardware for most my reviews which is how I came to the mobo conclusion (which is states has good OC capability)
Cooler wise I favour lower volume but I've never had a PC quiet enough to make me happy so thats more of a pipe dream.
TH have the GTX 780 as their best buy option at the moment but comparing GPU's could take me a week alone. I'm conscious that I don't really need the very best performance as I tend to play games which are not that graphic intensive but there are some coming out in the future that I'd hope to play well like Star Citizen and X series games.
 
http://gpuboss.com/ http://www.anandtech.com/bench/GPU13/583

You can use these sites to compare Gpus. Also have a look on some of the forums associated with the games you are most likely to play. This will give you some idea as the performance of the Gpu at the resolution you will be playing at, may help you decide on which card suits your needs.

£125-30 gets you a decent sli/xfire capable mobo and a good OC. If you are not likely to want a dual card set up, then you could still get a very good mobo for around £100.
 
Thanks, I can see me surfing those sites into the early hours! I suppose one should never rule out the want to have SLI/Xfire in future. No point needlessly restricting myself.
 
Noxia said:
Thanks, I can see me surfing those sites into the early hours! I suppose one should never rule out the want to have SLI/Xfire in future. No point needlessly restricting myself.
Click to expand...

YOUR BASKET
2 x MSI HD 7950 Twin Frozr III Boost Edition 3072MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card **NEW REVISION** with FREE GAMES £189.95 (£379.90)
Total : £392.80 (includes shipping : £10.75).




YOUR BASKET
2 x Asus GeForce GTX 670 DirectCU II OC Gamer 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card **FREE SHIPPING** £197.99 (£395.98)
Total : £395.98 (includes shipping : FREE).



A couple of dual card alternatives.
 
Looking at a lot of the benchmarks it seems that SLI GTX 680 or a single GTX 690 out perform a lot of the cards I was looking at by a fair bit, then again they also cost more. I'd rather have a single 690 than two 680's though.
 
Noxia said:
Looking at a lot of the benchmarks it seems that SLI GTX 680 or a single GTX 690 out perform a lot of the cards I was looking at by a fair bit, then again they also cost more. I'd rather have a single 690 than two 680's though.
Click to expand...

Or a 7990? :D
 
I did spot the rather tasty looking 6gb 7990 due at the end of the month and at £499 seems a rather god buy yes. Going to be a tossup between the two. Also, I've finally learned that NVIDIAS naming convention bares little relation to the performance of the cards..
 
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