First build for 12 years!

Soldato
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First build for 12 years

As a spotty 14 year old I used to spend most of my pre-2002-nuke OcUK life in GH lurking and offering occasional advice but alas that geekiness drifted away and I'm left in need of your help. I know there are a lot of 'New build' threads in here and so I apologise for contributing to that but £600-700 is an awful lot of money to spend so I want to be sure I'm getting it right :)

I'm looking to build a fairly high spec machine even though it may be a little bit overkill for my uses. I expect with the extra horsepower I'll find plenty of new ways to exploit it! I should point out that I do not game at all. The computer will be connected to both my monitor and HDMI TV. I need a case, all components and OS but i do not need a monitor, keyboard, mouse etc. I expect the machine to last a good 5 years with perhaps a couple of upgrades as needed.

After spending some time researching, this is my first pass...


YOUR BASKET
1 x Intel Core i5-3570K 3.40GHz (Ivybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor (77W) - Retail £184.99
1 x Gigabyte Z77X-UD3H Intel Z77 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £129.98
2 x OCZ Agility 3 120GB 2.5" SATA 6Gb/s Solid State Hard Drive (AGT3-25SAT3-120G) £79.99 (£159.98)
1 x BitFenix Ghost Silent Tower Case - Black £72.98
1 x Corsair Builder Series CX 500W V2 '80 Plus Bronze' Power Supply (CP-9020047-UK) £49.99
1 x Kingston HyperX Genesis Grey 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (KHX1600C9D3X2K2/8GX) £25.99
1 x Microsoft Windows 8 64-Bit DVD - OEM (WN7-00403) **FREE SHIPPING** £79.99
1 x OcUK 22x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £13.99
Total : £730.51 (includes shipping : £10.50).




Some comments/questions on the above:
  • Graphics I have no intention of gaming so I really don't need much horsepower here, just to be able to play 1080 videos comfortably. I'm thinking onboard graphics will probably suffice, that said I do require a dual screen setup so maybe I will need a card? (see motherboard)
  • CPU & cooling I've more or less decided to go for the i5-3570K (Retail). I was initially keen to get an i7 chip purely for willy waving reasons but from what I've read the difference is probably not worth the extra. I'm willing to be persuaded otherwise though! Initially I'm unlikely to do any (significant) overclocking, am I right in saying the retail box includes a stock cooling solution?
  • Motherboard From doing a little research and looking at other new build threads the Gigabyte Z77X-UD3H Intel Z77 is where I've landed. Will this be a suitable choice for onboard graphics through 2 screens? Could i get away with a cheaper model?
  • Storage I already have plenty of HDD capacity which i'll move across from my existing machine. I'm very keen to put the OS on a SSD though. I'm also keen, mostly for reasons of experimentation, to run a RAID 0 setup. This is something i've never done before and fancy ticking it off my list of things to do. I understand the risks in terms of drive failure and the performance jump will be nice, though perhaps more in benchmarking than real world experience. So my question is, do you think this really is too much of an unnecessary risk? Shall I just stick with a single drive?
  • Case Being quiet is reasonably important, I like the style of the BitFenix and it has some 2.5" bays for the SSDs which is handy.
  • PSU I have no idea at all about PSUs to be honest, from looking at other build threads this seems to be reasonably popular. I'm willing to spend a little extra if there are gains to be made in terms of being very energy efficient. On the other hand if I can get comparable performance for less money that would be great!
  • Memory Is there any real benefit to going for 16GB? Is it worth spending a tenner more for better quality RAM?
  • OS I want to give Windows 8 a shot so I'm going with that even though I suspect I'll end up with early adopters regret!

My budget is £600-700, ideally towards the lower end if at all possible but probably unlikely given the basket I've posted above!

Thanks
 
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I got two bits of advice,

1) The motherboard will run two screens using the CPU onboard IGP, it has,

1 x D-Sub port
1 x DVI-D port, supporting a maximum resolution of 1920x1200
* The DVI-D port does not support D-Sub connection by adapter.
1 x HDMI port, supporting a maximum resolution of 1920x1200
1 x DisplayPort, supporting a maximum resolution of 2560x1600


2) There are better SSD's on the market, examples,

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=HD-027-IN&groupid=1657&catid=2101&subcat=2103
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=HD-149-SA&groupid=1657&catid=2101&subcat=2103
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=HD-106-OC&groupid=1657&catid=2101&subcat=2103
 
Don't forget your free delivery ;)

As you have free delivery why not get the build up and going on the developers edition of windows 8. If you like it you can order the OS later with no penalty on the P&P. You might want to check driver compatibility, my VX3000 webcam wasn't supported for example. It was not compatible with the metro UI but with some tinkering i got msn messenger on seperately and the cam going in the end......I'm not in a rush to recommend windows 8.

For £730ish quid I would spend it like this on your brief

YOUR BASKET
1 x Intel Core i5-3570K 3.40GHz (Ivybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor (77W) - Retail £184.99
1 x Fractal Design Define R4 Midi Tower Case - Titanium Grey £99.98
2 x Samsung 128GB SSD 830 Notebook/Apple Series SATA 6Gb/s KIT with Norton Ghost - (MZ-7PC128N/EU) £85.99 (£171.98)
1 x Gigabyte Z77-D3H Intel Z77 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £84.98
1 x Seasonic G series 550w '80 Plus Gold' Modular Power Supply £76.99
1 x Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 64-Bit - OEM (GFC-02050) £69.98
1 x GeIL EVO Leggera 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-17000C11 2133MHz Dual Channel Kit (GEL38GB2133C11DC) £35.99
1 x LiteOn IHAS124-04 24x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £15.98
Total : £740.89 (includes shipping : FREE).



I think you could compromise on the mobo for sure, the Z77-D3H is still a great mobo. A modular PSU would be nice, there are cheaper alternatives but mine is gold rated not bronze. If being quiet is key I'd favour the R4 case over the ghost myself.

RAM is very fast and a steal whilst on offer compared to the price of some 1600hmz kits. It would be nice to add an aftermarket heatsink but this can be done later during a spring clean maybe. THe stock heatsink should be good for atleast 4Ghz if you want to overclock.....it's dead easy to do.

Hope this helps, I'll try my best to answer any questions. I'm sure the other members have some thoughts too. I realise you wanted the price lowered we can show cheaper modular PSU alternatives etc if you wish
 
Stulid:

1. Great, I could see the multiple connectors, just wanted to be sure you could output from more than one at a time.
2. Ok, this is excellent. I dont mind spending an extra little bit for better quality here especially if im planning to RAID0. I notice the OCZ you linked has a 5year warrenty so i may well go with that.

Thank you
 
honosuseri:

Oooh you bugger. The one thing i thought i had nailed down was the case but that is gorgeous

I'm laying in bed replying from my phone now so will look in detail tomorrow. Thanks
 
YOUR BASKET
1 x Intel Core i5-3570K 3.40GHz (Ivybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor (77W) - Retail £184.99
1 x Gigabyte Z77N-WIFI Intel Z77 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Mini ITX Motherboard £98.99
2 x OCZ Vertex 4 128GB 2.5" SATA 6Gb/s Solid State Hard Drive (VTX4-25SAT3-128G) £88.99 (£177.98)
1 x Seasonic G series 550w '80 Plus Gold' Modular Power Supply £76.99
1 x BitFenix Prodigy Mini-ITX Cube Case - Arctic White £57.98
1 x Samsung Green (MV-3V4G3D/US) 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C11 1600MHz 30nm Dual Channel Kit £47.99
Total : £658.43 (includes shipping : £11.25).



Left out the Optical Drive as wasn't sure if you've considered putting a Blu-ray Combo Drive in?

Also left out OS because if you already have a previous version of Windows, would probably need to be a retail version, if you have you can upgrade instead for £25.

Case also comes in black.

What connections does your monitor have?

Don't forget you can get free shipping by linking your forum account to the shop site account.
 
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Z77 Chipset

YOUR BASKET
1 x Intel Core i5-3570K 3.40GHz (Ivybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor (77W) - Retail £184.99
2 x OCZ Vertex 4 128GB 2.5" SATA 6Gb/s Solid State Hard Drive (VTX4-25SAT3-128G) £88.99 (£177.98)
1 x MSI Z77A-G45 Intel Z77 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £83.99
1 x Seasonic G series 550w '80 Plus Gold' Modular Power Supply £76.99
1 x BitFenix Shinobi USB3.0 Gaming Case - Black £49.99
1 x Samsung Green (MV-3V4G3D/US) 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C11 1600MHz 30nm Dual Channel Kit £47.99
Total : £636.04 (includes shipping : £11.75).



Same caveats as my previous post.
Did you need mSata or eSata, if not then the above MSI motherboard saves a bit compared to the Gigabyte Z77X-UD3H?
 
If you're not gaming, then I don't see why it's worth going for the 3570K?

I did partly think that too but it is only source of graphics and would give HD4000 plus OP mentions system life and possible upgrades. Still possible to OC to 4.2GHz though on a stock cooler I would think?
 
I did partly think that too but it is only source of graphics and would give HD4000 plus OP mentions system life and possible upgrades. Still possible to OC to 4.2GHz though on a stock cooler I would think?

Overclocking on the stock cooler is not recommended, especially after 4Ghz.
 
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Wow, lot's of replies. Thank you folks.

Regarding free delivery I'm all set up for that already, i just wasn't logged in when i put the basket together.
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I did a little research into PSUs this morning on the back of honosuseri's post. I didn't even realise "80 Plus Gold/Silver/Bronze" actually meant anything before today! But i am educated now and did a little maths to quantify the energy savings and I've decided I'm prepared to spend the extra for the Seasonic below. I may have to offset this against a slightly cheaper and slightly less sexy case. I will look into the suggestions more closely after work.


Ok good, one component down!

In terms of CPU & Overclocking, triggerthat I chose the 3570K mostly for the reasons thenewoc listed. Future proofing and HD4000 onboard graphics. As I said in my original post overclocking won't be an immediate priority but if 4Ghz possible on the stock cooler then I'll definitely be doing that! In the future I may want to push it further and if i do then I'll upgrade to a better fan/heatsink at the time.

The following 2 SSDs have been recommended. Purely from reading the OcUK pages the OCZ is slightly faster, has a 5 year warranty and good reviews while the Samsung is slightly slower, has only 3 years warranty but is slightly cheaper. Now this is just the marketing spiel and so there may well be some real world differences I'm not aware of. I'm quite happy to pay the extra ~£5 for 2 OCZs unless the Samsung is actually the better drive?



Ok, my lunch break is up. More comments to come this evening. Thanks all
 
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Can't say I'm too keen on newocs specs. H77 mobo? The samsung RAM isn't needed. It overclocks well but the GEIL Evo kit I used is cheaper and rated at 2133mhz.

If I was to use the prodigy case I would do a spec like this

YOUR BASKET
1 x Intel Core i5-3570K 3.40GHz (Ivybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor (77W) - Retail £184.99
1 x Gigabyte Z77N-WIFI Intel Z77 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Mini ITX Motherboard £98.99
2 x Samsung 128GB SSD 830 Notebook/Apple Series SATA 6Gb/s KIT with Norton Ghost - (MZ-7PC128N/EU) £85.99 (£171.98)
1 x Seasonic G series 550w '80 Plus Gold' Modular Power Supply £76.99
1 x Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 64-Bit - OEM (GFC-02050) £69.98
1 x BitFenix Prodigy Mini-ITX Cube Case - Arctic White £57.98
1 x GeIL EVO Leggera 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-17000C11 2133MHz Dual Channel Kit (GEL38GB2133C11DC) £35.99
1 x LiteOn IHAS124-04 24x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £15.98
Total : £712.90 (includes shipping : FREE).



I can understand the "need" for the i5K. To be honest you don't need a quad core for gaming not that it's a desired use for the rig. The i5K really shines when video encoding, especially if you take advantage of Quicksync support. I can rip a 2hr DVD movie on the fly from the disc in 20mins on a i5 2500K @4.4Ghz with quick sync enabled in the software......that's FAST

I noticed my buddy Idleman used the cheaper optical drive @ X22. I have the Liteon drive i'm spec'ing. It's X24 and you can lash its firmware to make it a iHAS-524 to unlock the extra features......if you like tinkering ;)
 
@honosuseri, what's up with the H77 mobo then, what would the OP be loosing with that ASRock H77M-ITX compared to the Gigabyte Z77N-WIFI?

You can't overclock with the H77, as you spec'd a K edition CPU it makes sense to have that option, so use a Z77. The mini-itx mobo I used is a Z77, includes wifi and has a solid 3 year uk based warranty.
 
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