Check my Spec

Fire_fly

Fire_fly

Fire_fly

Soldato
Joined
18 Jan 2012
Posts
3,917
Location
Derbyshire
I am putting together a new computer to replace my nearly 4 year old Q6600 rig. I will be saving the HDD, TX750 PSU, DVD drive, and the Antec 900 case from my current computer. So I just need

CPU
Motherboard
Ram
Graphics card
CPU cooler

The spec I came up with is below.

YOUR BASKET
1 x Gigabyte GeForce GTX 680 WindForce 3x OC 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £449.99
1 x Intel Core i5-2500K 3.30GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor - Retail £173.99
1 x Gigabyte Z77X-UD3H Intel Z77 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £134.99
1 x Samsung Green 16GB (4x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C11 1600MHz 30nm Dual/Quad Channel Kit (MV-3V4G3D/US) £89.99
1 x Noctua NH-D14 Dual Radiator CPU Cooler (Socket LGA1366/LGA1156/LGA1155/LGA775/AM2/AM2) £72.98
3 x Akasa AK-FN058 Apache Black Super Silent 120mm Fan - 4 Pin PWM £13.99 (£41.97)
Total : £975.91 (includes shipping : £10.00).




I'm not to sure over whether I should hold off with the processor until Ivy is released, although the initial reports about Ivy don't seem to be encouraging. Also I’m not to sure what route to take with the CPU cooler, either a large air cooler like the NH-D14 or a all in one liquid cooler such as a H100.

My budget is around £1000, preferably less, and the computer will be used mainly for gaming. Also I don't mind having to wait for a little while for parts to come back into stock as I will be building it early next month due to Uni work, but the 10% voucher has forced me to move earlier than I would have liked.

Can you guys come up with any improvements to this?
 
The Phantek cooler looks really good, I think I may switch to it.

I was having the discussions about the RAM with my house mate last night, we sort of came to the conclusion that it may be worth having the 16Gb to save me from having to upgrade 2 - 3 years in the future and then have to find a matching set of RAM sticks.

I also forgot to include a fan controller as I would like to be able to conrtol / stop the case fans when just watching films and iplayer ect. Have you got any recommendations?
 
Cool :) as long as it fits in your case, I see you made a thread about it so hopefully they answered as I can't see to find much about it. Easiest way is for you to measure to be sure!

Fair enough on the RAM, if I could afford 16GB of that Samsung stuff I would striaght away. Have you see this thread about it?
http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?t=18379546

Not too hot on fan controllers, though Zalman seem to make some pretty cool stuff :)
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=BB-001-ZA&groupid=701&catid=57&subcat=189

Really depends which one you like the look of and how many fans you need to control.
 
Just got my ruler out, it should just about go in, but it will be a tight fit. If it won't I can always DSR it.

I have been reading about the overclocking potential RAM and while it is really good I’m not sure if it will be worth it in terms of performance gain on a Sandy / Ivy system. So I may just swap it out for some Corsair XMS3 RAM which will save me about £20.
 
Fire_fly said:
Just got my ruler out, it should just about go in, but it will be a tight fit. If it won't I can always DSR it.

I have been reading about the overclocking potential RAM and while it is really good I’m not sure if it will be worth it in terms of performance gain on a Sandy / Ivy system. So I may just swap it out for some Corsair XMS3 RAM which will save me about £20.
Click to expand...

Yes that's a good idea actually. And if you get a retail CPU you'll get a stock cooler to use should there be a problem.

If you're not one to overclock RAM/benchmark, two of these kits would be slightly cheaper. I'd be tempted to get that Samsung RAM anyway though as it performs so well [you'll be able to get the voltage quite low if just running at 1600Mhz] and is a similar price to the other 16GB kits.
 
Fire_fly said:
Just got my ruler out, it should just about go in, but it will be a tight fit. If it won't I can always DSR it.

I have been reading about the overclocking potential RAM and while it is really good I’m not sure if it will be worth it in terms of performance gain on a Sandy / Ivy system. So I may just swap it out for some Corsair XMS3 RAM which will save me about £20.
Click to expand...

The main advantage is that the ram can run at 1.5V more reliably than say XMS3. AFAIK IvyBridge prefers low voltage ram (Sandy also to an extent).
 
Fire_fly said:
Just got my ruler out, it should just about go in, but it will be a tight fit. If it won't I can always DSR it.

I have been reading about the overclocking potential RAM and while it is really good I’m not sure if it will be worth it in terms of performance gain on a Sandy / Ivy system. So I may just swap it out for some Corsair XMS3 RAM which will save me about £20.
Click to expand...

The main advantage is that the ram can run at 1.5V more reliably than say XMS3. AFAIK IvyBridge prefers low voltage ram (Sandy also to an extent).

If you go with Sandy, it's a moot point though :) As long as it's low profile.
 
Ok, think I’ll stick with the Samsung ram, it's only an extra £20, so if I decided to go with an IvyBridge processor it should not cause to many problems.

I'm thinking along the lines of ordering everything except the processor soon and then buying the processor as a separate order when Ivy is released so I can use my 10% voucher code on the bulk of the total order and then wait until after Ivy is released to see if the speculation about it is true.
 
That's not a bad idea as you have a 10% off voucher which is quite significant!
You do have 10 days however I believe, so it might be worth waiting a bit?
 
The Voucher has to be used before the 28th and Ivy is shedualed to launch on the 29th, so if I wait foir it I will have o do a 2 part order. also from what i understand the graphics card is at a speical pre order price so i don't want to be waiting on the processor only for the grahpics card to shoot up in price.
 
Fire_fly said:
The Voucher has to be used before the 28th and Ivy is shedualed to launch on the 29th, so if I wait foir it I will have o do a 2 part order. also from what i understand the graphics card is at a speical pre order price so i don't want to be waiting on the processor only for the grahpics card to shoot up in price.
Click to expand...

That is true, though the GPU is due on the 27th so you should be able to pre-order til then. In which case you could wait til next wednesday for the new offers, as nothing you've selected is on offer [except the pre-order price].

Just an idea. I would not blame you for ordering now and 'playing it safe' with your 10% discount :)
 
Can you please give this one final check, I will be ordering it later today and will add an i5 3570K to the order when they become available.

YOUR BASKET
1 x Gigabyte GeForce GTX 680 WindForce 3x OC 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £479.99
1 x Gigabyte Z77X-UD3H Intel Z77 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £134.99
1 x Samsung Green 16GB (4x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C11 1600MHz 30nm Dual/Quad Channel Kit (MV-3V4G3D/US) £94.00
1 x Phanteks PH-TC14PE CPU Cooler - Blue (Socket LGA 2011/1155/1156/1366/775/AMD AM2/2+/AM3) £66.98
3 x Akasa AK-FN058 Apache Black Super Silent 120mm Fan - 4 Pin PWM £9.95 (£29.85)
1 x DEMCiflex 120mm Black Dust Filter £7.14
Total : £824.94 (includes shipping : £10.00).

 
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