Build Critique

Randomface74

Randomface74

Randomface74

Permabanned
Joined
9 Aug 2009
Posts
12,234
Location
UK
Idea:

- skimp on various things, including the CPU, to free up funds for the SSD and GPU
- the 2100 comes out quite favourably in benchmarks compared to my 920, which breezes through everything
- purpose is gaming (1920x1200), web, 1080p playback

Interested in opinions...

YOUR BASKET
1 x Gainward GeForce GTX 570 Phantom 1280MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £219.95
1 x Crucial RealSSD M4 256GB 2.5" SATA 6Gb/s Solid State Hard Drive (CT256M4SSD2) £185.99
1 x Microsoft Windows 7 Professional SP1 64-Bit - OEM (FQC-04649) £108.00
1 x Intel Core i3-2100 3.10GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor - Retail £89.99
1 x Gigabyte Z77-D3H Intel Z77 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £84.98
1 x Corsair Enthusiast Series TX650M High Performance 650W '80 Plus Bronze' Modular Power Supply (CP-9020002-UK) £74.99
1 x Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 500GB SATA 6Gb/s 16MB Cache - OEM (ST500DM002) £61.99
1 x Corsair Carbide 300R Mid Tower Case - Black £53.99
1 x Corsair Vengeance Low Profile 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (CML8GX3M2A1600C9) £43.99
1 x Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi Xtreme Audio 7.1 Sound Card - OEM (PCI-Express) (30SB104200000) £35.99
1 x Xigmatek Gaia CPU Cooler (Socket LGA775/1155/1156/1366/AM2/AM3/FM1) £17.99
Total : £992.84 (includes shipping : £12.50).

 
• i3 2120 is only £2 more (thats a £1 per extra 100Mhz;))

• Why Win7 Pro? Home premium will suffice?

• ATI 7850/7870 GFX card instead?
 
tbh if i were you and spending that budget i'd drop an extra 50/60 pounds and change the mobo/cpu for something more overclockable


and extra £60 would net you a 2500k cpu not sure how the z77 clocks but you can get a z68ap-d3 for the same price if it doesnt,

tbh a 2500k is going to offer a lot more potential than a 2100, will effortlessly push past 4.5ghz with a few simple bios changes and most likely be happy around 4.8 ghz.
 
YOUR BASKET
1 x MSI HD 7850 Power Edition Twin Frozr IV OC 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £219.95
1 x Crucial RealSSD M4 256GB 2.5" SATA 6Gb/s Solid State Hard Drive (CT256M4SSD2) £185.99
1 x Intel Core i3-2120 3.30GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor - Retail £91.99
1 x Gigabyte Z77-D3H Intel Z77 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £84.98
1 x OCZ ZT 650W '80 Plus Bronze' Modular Power Supply £79.99
1 x Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 64-Bit - OEM (GFC-02050) £79.98
1 x Seagate Barracuda 7200RPM 1TB SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache - OEM (ST1000DM003) £74.99
1 x Corsair Carbide 300R Mid Tower Case - Black £53.99
1 x Corsair Vengeance Low Profile 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (CML8GX3M2A1600C9) £43.99
1 x Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi Xtreme Audio 7.1 Sound Card - OEM (PCI-Express) (30SB104200000) £35.99
1 x Xigmatek Gaia CPU Cooler (Socket LGA775/1155/1156/1366/AM2/AM3/FM1) £17.99
Total : £984.83 (includes shipping : £12.50).



1tb hdd, 2120 cpu, 7850 and a modular psu.
 
Or, smaller ssd and a better mobo.

YOUR BASKET
1 x MSI HD 7850 Power Edition Twin Frozr IV OC 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £219.95
1 x Gigabyte Z77X-D3H Intel Z77 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £104.99
1 x Crucial RealSSD M4 128GB 2.5" SATA 6Gb/s Solid State Hard Drive (CT128M4SSD2) £95.99
1 x OCZ ZT 650W '80 Plus Bronze' Modular Power Supply £79.99
1 x Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 64-Bit - OEM (GFC-02050) £79.98
1 x Seagate Barracuda 7200RPM 1TB SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache - OEM (ST1000DM003) £74.99
1 x Corsair Carbide 300R Mid Tower Case - Black £53.99
1 x Corsair Vengeance Low Profile 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (CML8GX3M2A1600C9) £43.99
1 x Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi Xtreme Audio 7.1 Sound Card - OEM (PCI-Express) (30SB104200000) £35.99
1 x Xigmatek Gaia CPU Cooler (Socket LGA775/1155/1156/1366/AM2/AM3/FM1) £17.99
Total : £822.84 (includes shipping : £12.50).



Get your IB cpu here http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?t=18404051
 
Idleman said:
An extra year warranty, plus i think the TF cooler is better.
Click to expand...

The HIS seems good too;) - http://benchmarkreviews.com/index.p...k=view&id=924&Itemid=72&limit=1&limitstart=17 - the cooler is the same for the non-turbo version.

The 7850 cards seem to do 1000Mhz+ on the core without issue - http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?t=18389760

If the price difference was less, say £5-10 I could "get it", but a current £30 difference is too much and that can get something else, upgrade another component.
 
Last edited:
Go for the 2120, get a 7850 (2120 will likely bottleneck a 7850, but for the price difference it makes no sense getting a 6950 instead!) and a slightly lower power PSU since you're not going SLI/Xfire and buy two SSDs for raid instead of one large one. Use the savings to get a 1/2Tb storage drive.
 
If the price difference was less, say £5-10 I could "get it", but a current £30 difference is too much and that can get something else, upgrade another component.
Click to expand...

I agree, its a valid point, but you also have to take into consideration personal preference. Considering the OP could have chosen a similar 570 for £20 less. But at the end of the day, it comes down to the OP`s choice.
 
My take, many will know what's coming lol

YOUR BASKET
1 x Intel Core i5-3570K 3.40GHz (Ivybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor (77W) - Retail £179.99
1 x HIS HD 7850 IceQ X 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card (H785QN2G2M) £179.99
1 x Asrock Z77 Extreme6 Intel Z77 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £169.99
1 x Crucial RealSSD M4 128GB 2.5" SATA 6Gb/s Solid State Hard Drive (CT128M4SSD2) £95.99
1 x Seagate Barracuda Green 2TB SATA 6Gb/s Hard Drive - OEM (ST2000DL003) £89.99
1 x Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 64-Bit - OEM (GFC-02050) £79.98
1 x Cooler Master Silent Pro Modular 600W '80 Plus Bronze' Power Supply £62.99
1 x Zalman Z9 Plus Tower Case with Fan Controller - Black £52.99
1 x GeIL Dragon 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C11 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (GD38GB1600C11DC) £37.99
1 x Zalman CNPS10X Extreme CPU Cooler (Socket 754/939/940/AM2/775/1155/1156/1366) £26.99
Total : £976.88 (includes shipping : FREE).




Budget case maybe but has 4 120mm fans, fan controller and digital temp display and cable management. No USB3 ports but the highend Z77 mobo adds these with it's "break out box".

IB uses less power than SB CPUs also has a better IGP which should help the quicksync tech. You also need IB for the PCI-Express 3 lane to function. Mobo will allow you to dual card the GPU and has lucid MVP to give a free boost to the GPU. Has THX rated onboard audio (so should be very good) and the mobo is capable of overlclocking that IB 3570K CPU. Included ample RAM for gaming (8GB) at a lower price and the kit is colour matched to the mobo, if that matters to you.

Smaller SSD but much more room for storage on a 2TB eco drive. PSU is modular as IB & the 7850 use less power than last gen. tech, that should cover the power needed to Xfire the GPU. Heatsink is branded alongside the case. It's a good budget cooler and includes a wired remote that can be stored ontop of the heatsink.

The GPU i've chosen has already been discussed. It appears to be on some offer as it says "X left at this price". I wouldn't blame you for spending more on a GPU, it just seems like a good bargain at that price.

Hope this helps, any questions or problems come build day we are happy to help. You also get free P&P, i almost forgot to mention it myself :)

P.S Have you considered running the developers copy of windows 8 instead? You could hold off your purchase of the OS then ;) You could upgrade from a dvd writer to a bluray player/dvd writer and use quicksync to help RIP/encode the bluray disks even faster to the 2TB storage drive in 1080P
 
Last edited:
An update....

YOUR BASKET
1 x Sapphire HD 7850 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £199.99
1 x Crucial RealSSD M4 256GB 2.5" SATA 6Gb/s Solid State Hard Drive (CT256M4SSD2) £185.99
1 x Intel Core i3-2120 3.30GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor - Retail £91.99
1 x Gigabyte Z77-D3H Intel Z77 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £84.98
1 x Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 64-Bit - OEM (GFC-02050) £79.98
1 x Corsair Enthusiast Series TX650M High Performance 650W '80 Plus Bronze' Modular Power Supply (CP-9020002-UK) £74.99
1 x Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 500GB SATA 6Gb/s 16MB Cache - OEM (ST500DM002) £61.99
1 x Corsair Carbide 300R Mid Tower Case - Black £53.99
1 x Corsair Vengeance Low Profile 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (CML8GX3M2A1600C9) £43.99
1 x Xigmatek Gaia CPU Cooler (Socket LGA775/1155/1156/1366/AM2/AM3/FM1) £17.99
Total : £895.88 (includes shipping : FREE).

 
billysielu said:
An update....

YOUR BASKET
1 x Sapphire HD 7850 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £199.99
1 x Crucial RealSSD M4 256GB 2.5" SATA 6Gb/s Solid State Hard Drive (CT256M4SSD2) £185.99
1 x Intel Core i3-2120 3.30GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor - Retail £91.99
1 x Gigabyte Z77-D3H Intel Z77 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £84.98
1 x Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 64-Bit - OEM (GFC-02050) £79.98
1 x Corsair Enthusiast Series TX650M High Performance 650W '80 Plus Bronze' Modular Power Supply (CP-9020002-UK) £74.99
1 x Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 500GB SATA 6Gb/s 16MB Cache - OEM (ST500DM002) £61.99
1 x Corsair Carbide 300R Mid Tower Case - Black £53.99
1 x Corsair Vengeance Low Profile 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (CML8GX3M2A1600C9) £43.99
1 x Xigmatek Gaia CPU Cooler (Socket LGA775/1155/1156/1366/AM2/AM3/FM1) £17.99
Total : £895.88 (includes shipping : FREE).

Click to expand...

I honestly think that big SSD is crippling your build bud. I would go with 128GB you could always add another one later and use that solely for games if you so wished. 128GB is a good reasonable size, especially if you have a good sized storage drive, tbh 500GB is a bit "meh", 1TB isn't much more (£13 ish).

Your mobo doesn't dual card either, you can say it doesnt bother you but you have a PSU spec'd with enough juice to do so. If you like the build it's your money buddy. My PSU choice was cheaper and more than adequate for a single GPU. Although it's your build, your rules :)
 
The SSD is based on knowing what stuff I have now and how much of that I would want on an SSD - it just wouldn't fit on a 128GB :)

The PSU is up for debate tho.
 
 
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