Build Spec Request

Dirk Diggler

Dirk Diggler

Dirk Diggler

Soldato
Joined
6 Jan 2013
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22,328
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Rollergirl
I've never built a system before, and I want to take one on as a project. I would be grateful if you guys could help me out with a spec. I've seen a step by step guide in this section on how to do it, so I'll follow that and only ask build questions here when I am unsure.

I don't want to set a monetary budget. Instead, I want to aim for a particular system. I want a gaming system capable of running Skyrim on full graphics. I would like to leave some scope for future upgrade, ie faster graphics card, more ram etc. But initially a system that will cope with that game will be fine. Obviously, the cheaper the better but I wouldn't want to compromise too much on price if it's a big drain on performance.

There is no requirement for optical drive, although I may fit one in future. I do require wifi adapter and Ethernet port. There is no requirement for a sound card, but again I would like ability to install one in future. I don't need card readers and the like, but I would obviously need some USB ports, preferably USB 3.0.

Is this enough info to go on?

** edit - budget set at £1500 **

Currently Purchased

YOUR BASKET
1 x Corsair Professional Series HX+ 850W '80+ Gold' Modular Power Supply (CP-9020032-UK) £129.95
1 x Cooler Master CM-690 II Advanced USB3.0 Dominator Case - Black £85.99
Total : £230.04 (includes shipping : £11.75).

 
Last edited:
Do you have a budget?

We can spec, but it's much easier if you give a limit to your funds.

YOUR BASKET
1 x Sapphire HD 7950 Vapor-X OC 3072MB PCI-Express Graphics Card (11196-09-40G) £259.99
1 x Intel Core i5-3570K 3.40GHz (Ivybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor (77W) - Retail £179.99
1 x Samsung 128GB SSD 840 PRO SATA 6Gb/s Basic - (MZ-7PD128BW) £107.99
1 x Gigabyte Z77-D3H Intel Z77 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £89.99
1 x Cooler Master CM-690 II Lite Dominator Case - Black £62.99
1 x Corsair Builder Series CX 600W V2 '80 Plus Bronze' Power Supply (CP-9020048-UK) £56.99
1 x Alpenföhn K2 Mount Doom CPU Cooler (Socket 775 / 1155 / 1156 / 1366 / 2011 / AM2 / AM2+ / AM3 / FM1 / FM2) £53.99
1 x Patriot Viper "Black Mamba" Generation 3 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (PV38G160C9K) £39.95
1 x **B Grade** Asus PCE-N15 300Mbps 802.11B/G/N Wireless PCI-E Network Adapter £28.79
Total : £897.16 (includes shipping : £13.75).

 
Last edited:
You thinking of xfire/SLI in the future?

Updated Spec:

YOUR BASKET
1 x Sapphire HD 7950 Vapor-X OC 3072MB PCI-Express Graphics Card (11196-09-40G) £259.99
1 x Intel Core i5-3570K 3.40GHz (Ivybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor (77W) - Retail £179.99
1 x Samsung 128GB SSD 840 PRO SATA 6Gb/s Basic - (MZ-7PD128BW) £107.99
1 x Gigabyte Z77-D3H Intel Z77 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £89.99
1 x Cooler Master CM-690 II Advanced USB3.0 Windowed Dominator Case - Black £84.98
1 x Seagate Barracuda 2TB 7200RPM SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache - OEM (ST2000DM001) £78.98
1 x Corsair Builder Series CX 600W V2 '80 Plus Bronze' Power Supply (CP-9020048-UK) £56.99
1 x Alpenföhn K2 Mount Doom CPU Cooler (Socket 775 / 1155 / 1156 / 1366 / 2011 / AM2 / AM2+ / AM3 / FM1 / FM2) £53.99
1 x Patriot Viper "Black Mamba" Generation 3 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (PV38G160C9K) £39.95
1 x **B Grade** Asus PCE-N15 300Mbps 802.11B/G/N Wireless PCI-E Network Adapter £28.79
Total : £998.14 (includes shipping : £13.75).



Slightly nicer case & added a 2TB HDD to the list.
 
YOUR BASKET
1 x Sapphire HD 7950 3072MB PCI-Express Graphics Card (11196-00-20G) £239.99
1 x Intel Core i5-3570K 3.40GHz (Ivybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor (77W) - Retail £179.99
1 x Gigabyte Z77X-D3H Intel Z77 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £112.99
1 x Samsung 128GB SSD 840 PRO SATA 6Gb/s Basic - (MZ-7PD128BW) £107.99
1 x Corsair Carbide 300R Mid Tower Windowed Case - Black £69.98
1 x Seagate Barracuda 7200RPM 1TB SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache - OEM (ST1000DM003) £59.99
1 x Corsair Builder Series CX 500w Modular '80 Plus Bronze' Power Supply (CP-9020059-UK) £49.99
1 x TeamGroup Elite 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C11 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (TED38GM1600HC11DC01) £35.99
1 x Arctic Cooling Freezer Xtreme Rev.2 High Performance Quiet CPU Cooler(Socket 775 / 1155 / 1156 / 1366 / AM2 / AM2+ / AM3 / FM1 / FM2) £29.99
1 x TP-Link 300Mbps Wireless N PCI Express Adapter (TL-WN881ND) £16.99
Total : £918.89 (includes shipping : £12.50).



If you want to save some cash then the CPU heatsink could be dropped as that can always be added later.
 
YOUR BASKET
1 x HIS HD 7950 IceQ BOOST 3072MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card (H795QC3G2M) £249.95
1 x Intel Core i5-3570K 3.40GHz (Ivybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor (77W) - Retail £179.99
1 x Plextor M5 Pro 128GB Extreme Series Solid State Drive - (PX-128M5P) £94.99
1 x Gigabyte Z77-D3H Intel Z77 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £89.99
1 x Seagate Barracuda 2TB 7200RPM SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache - OEM (ST2000DM001) £78.98
1 x Seasonic G series 550w '80 Plus Gold' Modular Power Supply £76.99
1 x Corsair Carbide 200R Compact ATX Case - Black £49.99
1 x TeamGroup Elite 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C11 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (TED38GM1600HC11DC01) £35.99
1 x Alpenföhn Matterhorn Pure Edition CPU Cooler (Socket 775 / 1155 / 1156 / 1366 / AM2 / AM2+ / AM3 / FM1 / FM2) £29.99
1 x Samsung SH-224BB/BEBE 24x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £17.99
Total : £917.45 (includes shipping : £10.50).

 
snips86x said:
You thinking of xfire/SLI in the future?

Updated Spec:

YOUR BASKET
1 x Sapphire HD 7950 Vapor-X OC 3072MB PCI-Express Graphics Card (11196-09-40G) £259.99
1 x Intel Core i5-3570K 3.40GHz (Ivybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor (77W) - Retail £179.99
1 x Samsung 128GB SSD 840 PRO SATA 6Gb/s Basic - (MZ-7PD128BW) £107.99
1 x Gigabyte Z77-D3H Intel Z77 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £89.99
1 x Cooler Master CM-690 II Advanced USB3.0 Windowed Dominator Case - Black £84.98
1 x Seagate Barracuda 2TB 7200RPM SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache - OEM (ST2000DM001) £78.98
1 x Corsair Builder Series CX 600W V2 '80 Plus Bronze' Power Supply (CP-9020048-UK) £56.99
1 x Alpenföhn K2 Mount Doom CPU Cooler (Socket 775 / 1155 / 1156 / 1366 / 2011 / AM2 / AM2+ / AM3 / FM1 / FM2) £53.99
1 x Patriot Viper "Black Mamba" Generation 3 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (PV38G160C9K) £39.95
1 x **B Grade** Asus PCE-N15 300Mbps 802.11B/G/N Wireless PCI-E Network Adapter £28.79
Total : £998.14 (includes shipping : £13.75).



Slightly nicer case & added a 2TB HDD to the list.
Click to expand...

Being new to this I have to ask, what do you mean by xfire/sli? Also, three slightly different specs here, does one have a particular advantage over the other?
 
SLI / Crossfire allows you to run dual graphics cards for that extra performance in games.

SLI is dual Nvidia cards and Crossfire is for AMD (ATI) cards.
 
xfire/sli is using two graphic cards together. So as your current one gets old, you buy the same model and stick it in, tag team.

sli = nvidia cards
xfire = amd cards
 
String said:
Being new to this I have to ask, what do you mean by xfire/sli? Also, three slightly different specs here, does one have a particular advantage over the other?
Click to expand...

You can add a second graphics card to the system, so for example if you bought a 7950 card you could buy a 2nd one to boost performance.
 
First of all, thanks for being patient with the tedious newbie questions... got to get started somehow!

I don't want to xfire straight off as I need to keep the cost down, however I would like to have the option in the future. Does that change anything?
 
If you want x-fire your looking at around an extra £60-70 for the motherboard and PSU change.

For a single GPU setup +1 for RJC's spec, never fond of Saphire because of the customer support and warrantiy side.
 
String said:
First of all, thanks for being patient with the tedious newbie questions... got to get started somehow!

I don't want to xfire straight off as I need to keep the cost down, however I would like to have the option in the future. Does that change anything?
Click to expand...

You will need to increase PSU and change the motherboard to one which can do dual 8x ports.
 
Done a spec, but all the items are in stock, Ocuk range of PSU in stock is pretty low!


YOUR BASKET
1 x HIS HD 7950 IceQ BOOST 3072MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card (H795QC3G2M) £249.95
1 x Intel Core i5-3570K 3.40GHz (Ivybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor (77W) - Retail £179.99
1 x Seasonic M12II 850W '80 Plus Bronze' Modular Power Supply £114.98
1 x Gigabyte Z77X-D3H Intel Z77 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £112.99
1 x Plextor M5 Pro 128GB Extreme Series Solid State Drive - (PX-128M5P) £94.99
1 x Seagate Barracuda 2TB 7200RPM SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache - OEM (ST2000DM001) £78.98
1 x Corsair Carbide 200R Compact ATX Case - Black £49.99
1 x TeamGroup Elite 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C11 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (TED38GM1600HC11DC01) £35.99
1 x Alpenföhn Matterhorn Pure Edition CPU Cooler (Socket 775 / 1155 / 1156 / 1366 / AM2 / AM2+ / AM3 / FM1 / FM2) £29.99
1 x Samsung SH-224BB/BEBE 24x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £17.99
1 x TP-Link 300Mbps Wireless N PCI Express Adapter (TL-WN881ND) £16.99
Total : £995.44 (includes shipping : £10.50).

 
Ok, I think I need to allow for future xfire if the additional cost is only £60. It seems a small additional cost as I imagine 2 cards would be a serious boost in future.

You all seem to have allowed for SSD as well as DDR. Again it's a newbie question but I'm thinking the system doesn't need SSD so why do we have it?
 
It might not 'need' an SSD but you will definitely see the performance gain in it. It's worth noting that there is no gain whilst gaming, but boot up times will be amazingly lower and the system will be more responsive. Also, SSD's performance don't deteriorate over time, unlike HDD's.
 
I use the SSD for Windows install and most common used programs, I will not go back to a mechanical hard drive for windows.

You need DDR3 ram for the system to work.
 
SSD's can drastically reduce loading times of anything you have loaded onto it. The primary being the OS then with any programs you want. I know some people who have large SATA 2 SSD's for all their steam games.

I think but don't point and yell if im incorrect ;) That a decent 650W can actually x-fire those cards.

This PSU here:
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CA-017-SS&groupid=701&catid=123&subcat=2383

I have yet to be proved wrong, but also yet to see someone who has done this :)
 
Interesting regarding the SSD. I assume the SSD shows as first drive C: and the mechanical drive shows as a storage drive D:

This takes me to another question, the OS. What are the options with installing Windows. For example could I install on a mechanical drive initially, and then format that drive and install the OS on a later installed SSD? And, would you recommend Windows 7 or 8. I use 8 on another pc just now and I don't mind it, but are there any issues with game compatibility or driver compatibility?
 
The SSD will show up as a normal drive and as drive C and the mechanical as the next drive letter.

I use Win 8 for gaming and not come across any issues, but the choice is yours really :), but I would go with a SSD now and install the Operating System on that. All you need todo is enable ACHI in the BIOS before installing windows.
 
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